"Thanks for the meal, Lizzy," Kael said warmly as he got up to clean up the remaining embers of the campfire.
"Let me take care of that," Lizzy quickly stopped him. "Just eat those berries for dessert."
"It’s fine. Let’s do it together so we can finish faster," Kael gently declined.
Once the campfire was completely extinguished and the surrounding area was clean, they walked side by side back toward the cabin site. Along the way, Lizzy suddenly furrowed her brows.
"Oh, right, Kael... Earlier, while I was picking berries, I happened to notice some rather strange footprints and claw marks on the ground. It looks like there’s a large wild beast somewhere nearby," Lizzy reported seriously.
Kael continued walking at a leisurely pace. "Really? Maybe they’re just tracks left by a wolf, tiger, or bear."
"But the shape of the claws and the pattern of the footprints seemed different. It’s a little strange, though they do resemble the tracks of ordinary wild animals to some extent."
Kael glanced at her and draped an arm around his wife’s shoulders. "Just leave it alone. As long as the creature doesn’t bother or attack us, let it live in its own world. Besides, it’s perfectly normal to find wild beasts in a forest like this, isn’t it?"
Before them, the small cabin now stood tall and sturdy.
Lizzy fell silent and gave a slight nod. Even so, her assassin’s instincts told her there was something odd about those mysterious tracks.
Over the next few days, Kael devoted all his time to finishing the final parts of the cabin, while his relationship with Lizzy grew closer with each passing day, like two peas in a pod.
Nevertheless, they continued to come across the strange footprints Lizzy had spotted earlier in the surrounding forest. Since the creature never showed itself, never attacked them, and seemed to deliberately avoid them, Kael and Lizzy agreed to leave it alone while remaining vigilant in case the worst happened.
That morning, Kael stood tall with his hands on his hips. His eyes sparkled as he admired the results of his hard work over the past several days. The wooden cabin was finally complete.
"It’s been a long time since I last built a cabin from scratch like this," Kael murmured with satisfaction. "That sense of relief after finally finishing it never gets old."
Lizzy stepped closer and stood beside her husband, tilting her head up to admire the sturdy wooden roof.
"I knew it. You must have built a cabin before. There’s no way Kael could build one this perfectly and skillfully all by himself otherwise."
Kael glanced at his wife. "Of course. But... are you curious whether I built that cabin alone back then?"
"Hmm? Who was with you?" Lizzy narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "I’m sure you weren’t alone back then, were you?"
"I was with an acquaintance. At the time, we decided to build a place to live together to save money after months of working ourselves to the bone on the battlefield. We weren’t particularly close emotionally, but he was a good person."
"Was he handsome?" Lizzy asked, her tone suddenly turning cold as jealousy began to creep into her heart. "I’m sure he must have been much more handsome than you!"
"What do you mean, handsome? He was a—"
When he turned to look at her, Lizzy’s expression had grown utterly dark, her pupils widening with a threatening intensity. Her aura had become terrifying.
"So... that person was a woman, wasn’t she?!" Lizzy exclaimed emphatically. "And the two of you lived together under the same roof?!"
"N-not exactly! We lived with her pet, too!" Kael stammered.
Seeing Lizzy grow increasingly furious, her murderous intent becoming unmistakable, Kael forced an awkward smile as cold sweat trickled down his face.
"H-hey, hear me out first! I’ve been trying to be honest with you without hiding anything. Luis and two of my other friends were originally supposed to live with us, too, but they suddenly had some important business to attend to and left the two of us behind."
"Luis? Who’s Luis?! Is he a woman, too?!" Lizzy swiftly snatched a knife lying near the cabin wall. "Explain yourself properly, darling!"
"N-no! He’s a man!" Kael quickly interrupted. "Luis was one of my three closest friends. We fought together from the very beginning of my career as a mercenary."
Kael then began telling her about Luis and his two other loyal friends. He also explained the circumstances surrounding the woman who had lived with him back then to clear up the misunderstanding.
"So her name is Cherry?!" Lizzy’s face twisted with even greater disgust. "I don’t know why, but now I absolutely hate cherries! And what about Tessia? Was she just his friend, or was there something more between them?!"
Kael winced, feeling as though he were standing on the edge of a cliff.
"But... my friend Luis actually loved another woman named Tessia..."
Hearing that, the tension in Lizzy’s face eased slightly. She lowered her knife and looked at Kael with deep curiosity.
"Then? Why couldn’t they be together?"
Kael smiled bitterly as old memories flashed through his mind. He wrapped an arm around Lizzy’s waist, guided his wife into the cabin, and sat cross-legged on the clean wooden floor with Lizzy resting comfortably in his embrace.
"Luis never accepted her confession of love, not even until the end of his life," Kael recalled softly. "The three of them... died just a few months ago when we were trapped on the front lines of a battle under the Black Wolf banner, fighting for the Lionheart Kingdom."
Lizzy could sense the deep sorrow in her husband’s voice.
"Why did he reject her? How did Tessia feel at the end of her life, knowing her love had never been returned?"
Kael gazed distantly through the cabin window. He remembered the battle that day, when they had been forced to face a three-star Knight whose strength was monstrous. Even Luis had struggled against him. Without their desperate teamwork, it would have been impossible for anyone to survive.
"Luis, Tessia, and Yohan... the three of them chose to sacrifice their lives to withstand that Knight’s devastating attacks and create an opening for me to kill him," Kael said, his voice trembling slightly. "But unfortunately... by the time that terrifying battle was over, their injuries were already too severe to save them."
’If I were given another chance at life... I would want to understand your feelings, Tessia, and learn to accept them.’
"Tessia smiled so happily in the final moments of her life after hearing his confession," Kael continued gently. "It was a complicated love story, but a sincere one."
Lizzy remained silent for quite some time. Her heart was moved by their tragic ending. However, her curiosity soon shifted to the remaining member of the group.
"What about Yohan? Your friend who supposedly had all sorts of skills but loved wasting his money on drinking and sleeping with prostitutes?"
At the mention of Yohan, the corners of Kael’s lips lifted into a small, warm smile.
"Yohan, huh...? I learned a lot of things from him, like crafting, making weapons, and plenty of other things." Kael chuckled softly. "He was a crazy pervert. Before he died, he kept rambling about a purple-haired prostitute with a cute beauty mark beneath her lip, the last woman he’d ever slept with. He said he couldn’t get her out of his mind."
"Even on the verge of death," Kael continued, "Yohan still managed to joke that his life was like a single leaf that had encountered a beautiful purple butterfly, and that he was incredibly happy to have been ’devoured’ by that butterfly."
Lizzy listened carefully before murmuring, "But... you never managed to find that purple-haired woman again, did you? It’s as if she never even existed in the real world."
Seeing her husband grow melancholy, Lizzy reached out and gently caressed Kael’s cheek.
"They were wonderful people, Kael. Thank you... for staying by their sides and looking after them while they were alive."
"Yes... They were more than just friends. They were my family," Kael replied sincerely.
Silence settled between them for a moment, filled only by the soothing rustle of the forest breeze. But a few seconds later, Lizzy’s eyes narrowed sharply again, and her tone turned interrogative.
"Hey! So... what exactly did you do with that woman named Cherry when the two of you lived together in the cabin?!"
Kael abruptly swallowed hard. His heart pounded as a dangerous memory surfaced in the back of his mind: the night Cherry had suddenly tried to seduce him, pushing him onto the bed with a flirtatious smile and pleading with him to sleep with her as repayment for saving her life on the battlefield.
Of course, Kael had firmly rejected her at the time. He had absolutely no romantic feelings for her and considered Cherry nothing more than a mischievous woman looking for a temporary escape.
"A-ahem... We didn’t do anything! I swear, nothing special happened!" Kael hurriedly protested, trying to keep his expression as straight as possible. "It was just a little misunderstanding that didn’t matter at all!"
Hearing his answer, Lizzy’s expression darkened again. She folded her arms across her chest and turned her face away, pouting with intense, irrational jealousy. She knew all too well that her feminine instincts were telling her there had to be some secret between the two of them.
"Are you jealous, hmm?" Kael chuckled nervously, trying to wrap his arms around his wife again. "I swear on my sword, my principles, and my friends that I never did anything improper with her!"
"I hate that woman named Cherry!" Lizzy snapped, her eyes gleaming dangerously. "Just you wait! If I ever happen to run into her somewhere... I’ll kill her!"
Kael could only let out a long sigh and smile helplessly as he desperately tried to sweet-talk and appease his now-furious psychopathic wife.