It was like that time when his eyes saw through me. He looked carefully at my face as if analyzing something, the gaze stinging.

“What’s wrong?”

Takan tilted his head. “It seems similar, but when I look at you like this, it doesn’t seem to be the case.”

“What do you mean?”

After stubbornly shutting his mouth for a while, he closed his eyes with a light sigh. He looked as if he had escaped from something and returned to reality.

“It’s nothing.” Takan briefly eyed the earring on my outstretched hand and turned away, scratching the back of his head. “Don’t worry about it. I’m using you, too.”

“You’re using me?”

Takan simply shrugged and walked ahead, but perhaps he felt uneasy about the unresolved problem, he stopped. I could feel him waver.

Takan turned back to me, biting his lip as if hesitant to speak. I waited patiently; whatever he wanted to say was probably difficult to put into words.

Takan’s eyes roamed in the air before falling at his feet. He only broke the silence after letting out a long, indescribable sigh.

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“My sister.”

“..”

“You look like my little sister.” His voice broke.

Little sister? Maybe the ‘Izenne’ Rin was talking about a while ago was his little sister?

When I thought about Takan and Rin’s reaction when they heard the name ‘Izenne,’ I could guess to some extent why Takan was helping me.

I was curious and wanted to ask, but I held my tongue. Judging by the fact that Takan didn’t say anything to Rin, the man he regarded as his father, it was probably not my place to ask.

Takan smiled bitterly before erasing his expression. When he raised his head, his usual easygoing and obnoxious look was back.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s for me.” Takan shrugged his shoulders once, then turned around and whistled.

It made me uncomfortable to hear how lonely it sounded when Takan whistled along with the birds’ chirps.

I looked at the jewel in my hand, and a sudden thought came to me. “Can you teach me? How to shoot a bow.”

Takan paused and looked back at me, his face bewildered.

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“You can take the earrings as payment for teaching me.”

“Payment?”

“Yes, payment. As you know, there are monsters living in the forest. No matter how strong you are, you won’t be able to handle it alone.”

It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while now. Monsters lived in the forest, and relying on guides and Takan to find the hourglass would have its limits. Above all else, if I depended on someone else, I wouldn’t be able to stand alone after losing my memories.

Hesitating, Takan scratched his forehead and then waved his hand, dismissing my offer.

“No matter how hard I think about it, I can’t. Furthermore, you can’t develop archery skills in a day.”

“You won’t know until you try.”

With a huff, Takan raised his eyebrows and burst out laughing. “Seriously?”

His subtly dismissive attitude provoked in me a strange desire to win. I stubbornly shut my mouth and looked at him resolutely.

Takan must have seen my sincerity because he touched his nape as if embarrassed. Then he turned his head and whispered to himself, “If I look closely, there’s no resemblance.”

Slightly trembling, he shook his head.

“Okay, then let’s do it.”

“Do you understand?”

After explaining and demonstrating, Takan handed over the bow.

I took a deep breath and stared alternately at the sloppy wooden target tied to the wooden post and the bow.

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I said I’d do it, but to be honest, I didn’t get the hang of it. I’ve only sewed all my life because I wasn’t familiar with anything or tried anything else.

Previously, I tried to pull the bow with Takan’s help, but even that wasn’t easy. As I moistened my lips and took the bow, Takan looked at me incredulously, handing over the arrow to me.

“Try to get into position first.”

Just as he taught me, I put the arrow on the bow and placed the tip of the feathered arrow on the string.

“Pull it.”

I pulled the bowstring as hard as I could, but my hands trembled at how taut it was. I clenched my teeth and pulled.

When I glanced down, the area between the fingers holding the hard bow was red. I’d probably get blisters soon.

But if I couldn’t even do this, I couldn’t go to the forest. I looked at the red dot that Takan had drawn on the target.

Gradually, the bowstring rubbed my face and stung. I narrowed my eyes and aimed at the red dot.

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‘I can do it,’?I repeated to myself.

“Now try to shoot.”

My posture shook as I aimed at the target again. Takan, watching the scene, shook his head and smirked, a little too smug.

“Well, if you can’t get it right–”

Tak–.

At that moment, a dull sound cut through Takan’s words. The arrow landed in the middle of the red spot.

“R-ridiculous.”

Even though I had shot the arrow, my jaw dropped, and I turned to Takan.

“Takan. Did you see that?” I was flustered yet proud of myself, and a smile spread across my lips.

Takan stood frozen beside me, opening and closing his mouth like a broken wooden doll. He was at a loss for words.

“Takan?”

“Keuheum[1]!”

Soon after, Takan came to his senses and started coughing. He seemed just as flustered as I was. He stuttered and opened his mouth as he struggled to find the words.

“..but, well, I’ve heard that some people are exceptionally natural.”

Takan put his hand on his waist, still bewildered, and looked around in the air. I raised my chin slightly as I smiled. For the first time in my life, I was smug.

“Can I develop archery skills in a day?”

At my slight provocation, Takan narrowed his eyes and looked back at me before bursting out in laughter. Then he shook his head and smiled faintly.

“Yeah, you’re amazing,” he replied playfully.

Kyle couldn’t hide his heavy heart while visiting the Harden residence. He entered the house morosely and looked around.

The remaining employees left due to Hari’s atrocious behavior, and the handful of employees who remained were the ones he had hired.

The person in charge approached him, silently greeted him, and reported, “Your Grace, Madam–”

He made eye contact with Kyle, and his expression hardened at the cold stare. The person bowed and left.

“If you’ll excuse me.”

Even if Kyle didn’t listen to the report, he already knew through correspondence that Hari would be asleep from the medicine by now.

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As he entered the mansion devoid of warmth and filled with silence, his eyes unconsciously shifted to a dark, shady space behind a decorative table in the corner of the hall. Suddenly, the memory of his childhood in Louis’s mansion immediately after his parents passed away came to mind, and he went there naturally.

The more he walked, the more his faint memories became vivid.

There, he saw a boy crouching in a corner and weeping endlessly, and Louis and Hari around him. They hugged the boy and comforted him as they held back tears. Dew-like tears fell from the boy’s eyes, his chin on Louis’s shoulder.

Then the boy looked up and their eyes met. His gray eyes were as deep and dark as an abyss, causing the viewer to frown.

When Kyle closed his eyes for a moment and opened it again, the children disappeared. He stared intently at the empty spot.

“Louis!”

At that moment, a shaky voice suddenly echoed inside the mansion. Kyle looked up to see Hari, a bright smile on her face, leaning against the stair railing and looking down at him.

Hari had dark circles under her eyes and, with a body as frail as a branch swaying in the wind, looked like she was about to collapse. As he watched her, he frowned and swallowed the guilt stuck in his throat.

He ruffled his hair and gritted his teeth to the point that his jaw muscles tensed. After all, he should have stopped Hari when she went to the forest.

No, not that. Things went wrong the moment Louis pushed him away, and the enemy’s knife slashed his throat instead. Louis’s neck sprayed blood, staining Kyle’s gray eyes. From the moment his close friend’s neck fell and rolled in front of him, everything went wrong.

Kyle covered his eyes with his hands as if he had witnessed a grim tragedy. If he could, he wanted to turn back time, give his head to the enemy, and ask them to cut it.

As he groaned in pain, Hari leaned on the railing and stretched out her hand. “Louis, what’s wrong?”

Kyle took a deep breath and looked up. Hari looked like she would fall down the railing.

“That’s dangerous, Hari.”

Kyle walked over to her, grabbed her waist, and lowered her to the floor.

[1] ?? (keuheum) is just a coughing sound.