Lying in bed, Sharti first took off her hood and pulled the blanket over herself.
‘Ugh, I feel hot and cold…..My body feels heavy.’
Perhaps it was from the emotional rollercoaster, but her fever seemed to have worsened.
She wanted to wear something light, but she had to cover the burn scars. It was a reminder of five years ago that she wanted to hide even more than her voice.
Her attempt to sink into melancholy was interrupted as Sharti rubbed her neck.
‘Would it be okay?’
She swallowed the words, unsure who she was worrying about.
Regret, unease, and fear were all temporarily pushed aside.
‘Right. He’s leaving in three days anyway.’
It was just one day of vocal conversation practice with Ren before he left.
Even if it wasn’t a pleasant memory, it could still help Ren through conversation practice.
‘It’s hard to believe everything Ren says, but he wasn’t disgusted by my voice. It’ll be fine.’
Even if she was hurt again, once Ren left, the pain would be buried under other scars and wouldn’t even be noticeable.
Sharti, who had been building up her self-defense, shook her head from side to side.
‘Let’s stop thinking about it. My wallet is the more urgent issue.’
She could wallow in her self-pity later. For now, productive thoughts came first.
She had winter preparations and log cabin insulation work piling up.
‘…Yeah, this isn’t the time for me to be thinking about other things. I have so much to do.’
Before it snowed, she had to diligently gather medicinal herbs, fill the nearly empty water container, create new medicine recipes, and make medicine to sell. On top of that, she had to make clothes for Ren before he left.
‘Ugh, I’m dizzy….’
Sharti finally peeked her face out from the blanket. She felt lightheaded just trying to make plans.
‘I should postpone house call treatments.’
In her condition, going to Vireta’s house was impossible. House call treatments required a schedule of up to three months.
Plus, with all the luggage she had to carry, it was physically demanding.
‘It’s unlike me to be this physically drained, is it because of the soldiers?’
The cold medicine she made was very effective.
Sharti’s cold medicine was popular that families with children bought in bulk.
So, naturally, she should have felt better after waking up from a nap, but she was still breathing heavily with a fever.
‘I must be too stressed.’
She had been under a lot of mental stress from Ren and the soldiers, and then Dodindt threatened her, so it was no wonder she was physically drained.
‘I’ll get better soon. I can go back to my old life soon.’
The soldiers had left, Dodindt was dealt with, and now that Ren was leaving, her complicated thoughts would be resolved.
‘Back to being alone again….’
Sharti, who had suddenly muttered to herself, bit her lip.
Then, she rubbed her face roughly with both hands, as if washing it.
She was sick, and her body weakened, so her spirits were low.
‘Let’s just sleep.’
Sharti, tossing and turning, pulled her hood back up. She even took a sleeping pill from the drawer, hoping to fall asleep.
Clutching the blanket tightly, Sharti closed her eyes.
‘I wish time would pass quickly….’
Perhaps it was the combination of cold medicine and sleeping pills, but Sharti fell asleep quickly.
However, because she fell asleep at an odd hour, Sharti woke up in the middle of the night.
As soon as she opened her eyes, Sharti touched her forehead to check her temperature.
‘I must have been more surprised than I thought. I still have a slight fever.’
It seemed she was getting sick before winter arrived.
Sharti sighed and got up, feeling sluggish.
It had been a long time since she had taken such a long nap, as she was usually very diligent.
‘I’m a little dizzy, but I should be able to wash up.’
Sharti moved to change out of her sweaty and sticky clothes. She smiled weakly at the makeshift wooden plank door.
‘He definitely wasn’t a slave.’
She had wondered after seeing the scars on Ren’s body, but slaves wouldn’t be unable to sew or hammer.
Sharti, staggering, went out of the bedroom and looked around the quiet house.
Ren was nowhere to be seen.
‘Is he sleeping? Well, he must be tired.’
It was late, and Ren had been busy here and there after she collapsed, so he must have fallen asleep.
Sharti thought she should gather some energy-boosting herbs and give them to Ren as well, and then went into the bathroom.
Sharti shivered at the chilly temperature of the bathroom.
‘This won’t do.’
Her decision was quick.
Sharti gave up on the bathroom light, closed the door, filled the tub with water, and inserted the magic stone.
The water, filled to about knee-height, slowly began to warm up.
As the bathroom warmed up, Sharti slowly took off her clothes and got into the tub.
‘Ahhh… This is so nice.’
Sharti’s expression instantly relaxed as she took a deep breath in and out.
Soaking in the warm water made her feel refreshed.
As her body, which had been chilled by sweat, warmed up again, her mind became clear.
‘I shouldn’t go to the village until my fever is completely gone.’
It would be terrible if she passed her cold to the injured soldiers.
Vireta must have given Patricia a heads-up. In fact, the important treatments for the injured soldiers were finished, so Tein alone was reliable enough.
‘To think I would get sick right when Grandma found out. I guess it’s fortunate in a way.’
Perhaps it was because her tension eased as her fatigue melted away, but Sharti chuckled.
Then, she suddenly remembered what she had said to Ren during the day.
[Let’s talk tomorrow. I’m going to bed early today.]
Sharti’s laughter stopped abruptly, and she hugged her knees.
She wiggled her toes in the water.
‘…Surely he didn’t take that to mean we’re going to talk all day tomorrow, did he?’
Of course, Sharti meant sometime in the morning, no, noon, no, evening.
Sharti rested her chin on her knees, reflecting on her words.
‘Realistically, that tomorrow will be today soon.’
She wanted to think she wasn’t ready yet, but that was just an excuse.
The reason she was hesitating about something she had already decided to do was because she was nervous.
The unfamiliar trembling that came with familiar tension. She couldn’t possibly be unaware of what that meant.
It was anticipation.
‘Let’s get a grip and get out of here.’
Sharti got up in the dark.
She finished her satisfying bath and was groping for the magic stone on the edge of the tub.
“-Sha?”
Ren’s voice echoed softly from beyond the bathroom door.
Soon, Ren’s footsteps followed. He must have noticed the bedroom door was open and was looking for her.
‘Oh, oh….’
Flustered, Sharti sat back down in the tub and curled up. Sharti, with only her eyes above the edge of the tub, stared at the bathroom door.
“Just where did you go with that body of yours….”
A stiff voice rang out from the crack of the bathroom door. Sharti’s face, watching the bathroom door anxiously, gradually turned pale.
The doorknob wasn’t locked.
‘Why, why isn’t it, did I really not lock it?’
She must have been distracted by her feverish state.
As the footsteps got closer to the bathroom, Sharti clenched her fist.
She had to knock on the edge of the tub or something to make a noise before Ren opened the bathroom door.
Tap tap! Tap!
“…Sha?”
Fortunately, Ren recognized Sharti’s signal.
Sharti was about to breathe a sigh of relief when his muttering came from right in front of the door.
“That’s strange. I don’t see any light at all….”
“…!”
Sharti gasped and bit her lip.
It was the middle of the night, and since she was trying to wash up alone, she had skipped the bathroom light and used the magic stone in the tub.
It wasn’t ideal to bathe in the dark bathroom, but it was a choice to conserve the use of the magic stone.
First, Sharti urgently tapped on the edge of the tub!
It was a desperate signal that she was okay and he shouldn’t open the door.
“……”
After the signal, it was quiet outside the door.
That made Sharti even more anxious.
‘Why, why isn’t he leaving?’
Sharti swallowed hard.
Meanwhile, the water in the tub was gradually cooling down. Sharti decided it would be better to get dressed quickly and reached for her clothes near the tub.
She glanced at the door and slowly got up. It was when her fingertips were about to touch the edge of her robe.
“Sha… Are you really okay?”
Ren called out to her with a worried voice. Sharti got up completely at the sound of his voice, which seemed to be trembling slightly.
Splash-.
At the sound of the water as she came out of the tub, Ren took a step back.
Sharti roughly dried herself with a towel and quickly put on her clothes.
Only after covering her face with the hood did Sharti come out of the bathroom.
“……”
As soon as the door opened, Ren looked at Sharti and then inside the bathroom before relaxing his stiff expression.
Dodindt’s intrusion seemed to have traumatized not only Sharti but also Ren.
As Sharti fidgeted with her fingers, Ren’s gaze naturally turned to her palm.
Seeing Ren waiting for her to write, Sharti took a deep breath.
“Did, did you not sleep?”
“……”
“I thought Ren was sleeping.”
Ren stared blankly at Sharti, who was speaking with difficulty while keeping her head down. Then, Ren suddenly came to his senses.
“I went outside. I had to clear away the weeds and pick up some things.”
Sharti breathed a sigh of relief at Ren’s calm reply.
Watching her, Ren inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.
If he had been any slower to respond, the conversation with Sharti would have ended.
“It still seems windy; don’t overdo it.”
“…I should be the one saying that. Has your fever gone down? Are you still dizzy?”
“I should be the one asking, but how are you? Is your face still itchy?”
“I’m fine too.”
Ren listened to Sharti’s voice with a strange feeling.
Perhaps because she was nervous, Sharti’s voice sounded stiffer than before.
As the conversation continued, her shoulders became more rigid, but she didn’t stop, even clenching her fists.
Despite the difficulty, she was doing her best to converse with him.
Watching her, Ren rubbed near his solar plexus again.
“I was worried because the light was off.”
“When I’m alone, I often wash up without lighting.”
As Sharti continued to respond, Ren, feeling pleased, joked.
“I see. But why didn’t you speak up earlier? I was wondering if I should break down the door again.”
“Because all sounds echo in the bathroom.”
The bathroom was a place where her terrible voice echoed louder and worse.
Ren closed his mouth with a look of dismay. Cursing his insensitivity, Ren swallowed his words.
Silence lingered between the two of them. At that moment, Ren, who was glancing at Sharti, noticed her damp hair.
“First, go in and dry your hair.”
Only then did Sharti realize her condition and head to the bedroom. Her body, which had been relaxed by the bath, was cold again.
The bedroom door was broken and had no lock, but Sharti felt relieved because Ren had gone into the bathroom, and she could dry her hair without worry.
However, even that was futile because of the wind coming in through the window, so she gave up and crawled into bed.
‘Ah, cozy.’
Her heart, which had been pounding a moment ago, was now calmly beating. Sharti bit her lip.
‘We really… had a normal conversation.’
In fact, Sharti wanted to cover her ears the entire time she was talking. Whether she strained her voice or relaxed it, her terrible voice didn’t change.
But even after hearing that voice, Ren showed no reaction. To him, it was truly just a conversation.
‘This should be enough.’
Sharti smiled bitterly.
This was enough conversation. As Sharti comforted herself that it was an adequate conversation, there was a knock.
“Sha, can I come in?”
Sharti hurriedly pulled her hood back up. After composing herself, Sharti lay down properly and waited for him.
“……”
But Ren still wasn’t coming in. Sharti parted her lips to signal him to come in.
“You can come in.”
“Okay.”
As soon as permission was given, Ren quickly opened the door and came in.
With a nonchalant expression, Ren approached with a bowl full of tiny green fruits the size of fingernails.
“I picked them from a nearby tree.”
“……”
“I tried them myself, and I checked that birds eat them before picking them, so they shouldn’t be poisonous.”
Sharti, looking up at Ren who spoke with certainty, wore an ambiguous expression.
‘He picked these?’
Sharti recalled the height of the trees that bore fruit around this time.
They were so tall that you had to hit them several times with a long pole to get one or two fruits to fall.
Yet, Ren had picked a whole bowl of those fruits.
Sharti’s gaze quietly turned to his hands.
