Walter Asner accidentally discovered that Sidney Warden was a woman. After piecing together torn papers found in the trash can……

Sidney Warden, I don’t want to lose you too.

Don’t go to the battlefield for the sake of our family and my illness. You know best how much I despise that. So now, live as a woman too. – Emilia Warden.

A weight of life and sense of debt too difficult to even imagine.

After that, every time Walter Asner saw Sidney sobbing bitterly while having nightmares, he swore.

That he would protect her no matter what…..

[This is the timeline separator]

Sidney left the conference room and walked down the corridor with a blank look, mulling over what Logan Redford had just said.

Leaving in 3 months? Who cares whether you do or not?

Used? Like an object, not a person or subordinate…..

Yes, Logan Redford would think of her that way. It’s not that surprising.

But she had served Logan as her superior for 4 whole years. To try to wrap that up in just 3 months……

“……That’s a bit spiteful.”

Sidney gritted her teeth and threw off her white gloves as if tearing them apart. As if they were Logan himself, with anger.

“Why are you throwing your gloves?”

Only then did she notice Walter Asner standing in the corridor with a dumb look on his face.

Thump thump, Sidney walked past him and said coldly.

“I’m throwing them away.”

Yes, just throw it away. A superior who spouts nonsense without feeling even the slightest bit of regret or lingering attachment.

Toss everything into the trash – all the time and effort spent trying to meet those standards.

Footsteps quickly followed, then Walter Asner’s voice continued.

“Hey, are you okay?”

What’s not okay about it.

When Logan disappears in 3 months, the fact that she was Marien will be erased too.

It couldn’t be better. Sidney snorted and quickened her pace. Walter put his arm around her shoulder and asked.

“Did the captain threaten you? Say you absolutely can’t go to the Security Force?”

Sidney, tired of everything, glanced at Walter’s arm on her shoulder. And she silently walked on, hoping to escape this foul mood.

Walter Asner leaned on her shoulder and rambled on.

“It’s no use even if the captain stops you. If you just say you want to transfer…… Sir Deniro and Duke Yant will abolish this investigation team altogether.”

The echoing footsteps in the corridor suddenly stopped. Two long shadows stretched out on the floor. At Walter’s call.

“Sidney?”

“You, what have you done?”

Sidney took another step back with her hand raised.

Walter’s eyes and tightly closed lips were saying it was all for Sidney’s own good.

What on earth happened….. Sidney quickly sorted out the situation in her head.

In the Asnel Empire, Crown Prince Edward and Second Prince Philip were competing for the throne.

Marquis Redford supported the Crown Prince, while Duke Yant supported Second Prince Philip.

The Royal Guard’s special investigation team was created to counter Duke Yant’s Security Force.

Four pillars supporting that investigation team.

If two of them, Sidney Warden and Walter Asner, were removed…… the investigation team would collapse.

That’s what Security Chief Steve Deniro and Duke Yant wanted.

Even for someone so thoughtless. Sidney glared at Walter with reproachful eyes.

“Don’t tell me you told Sir Deniro about the investigation team……”

“You’ll be used either way, here or there. If that’s the case, it’s better to go to Sir Deniro……”

“Now.”

Sidney cut Walter’s words off sharply. She couldn’t listen anymore.

The same? How can you say it’s the same? Collapsing the investigation team like this…..

Just imagining it made her feel so ashamed and sorry.

Sidney’s face turned bright red with shame.

“Walter, did you think the captain used me? For what, how, why?”

“……”

“Tell me honestly, Walter Asner. Before I really start to hate you.”

Walter’s face changed in various ways. At first bewildered, then with an expression asking how she could do this to him.

“Sidney, calm down for a moment.”

“Speak, Walter Asner.”

When Sidney still didn’t back down, Walter Asner raised both hands to his chest and took a deep breath in and out as if exasperated.

Only after composing himself that way did Walter open his mouth.

“He created the investigation team using you and the Warden family as a front. To put the Crown Prince on the throne.”

“That was my suggestion.”

“What?”

He didn’t know, so it’s understandable. It was clearly my oversight for not telling Walter.

Sidney grabbed Walter’s arm and calmly continued.

“The investigation team the captain created was just me and the Royal Guard. But that alone wouldn’t have kept Duke Yant or the nobles quiet.”

“……”

At that time, she thought something had to be done.

Even if it meant mobilizing her connections and family, to ensure no one could oppose the investigation team…..

“I went to the Dean and the Spencer family to persuade them.”

She persuaded and persuaded Walter’s grandfather, Lord Asner.

She even dragged in the Spencer family, who had been quietly living as the shield protecting the Asnel Empire.

While putting forward the Warden family she so despised.

“You? Why?”

Why? Because a few measly coins, the salary the Royal Guard received, was desperately needed.

She should have explained then.

At least to Walter Asner, who had helped persuade the stubborn Lord Asner together…..

She believed he would understand.

Making excuses that Walter knew her poverty better than anyone, when in fact she was just embarrassed, she just let it go.

And thus invited this unsavory situation.

Sidney raised her head and met her friend’s eyes.

“Because I desperately wanted the investigation team to be properly established. And the reason I went that far was……”

“……Don’t say it. No one knows you better than I do.”

Sidney stared at the confident Walter and slowly shook her head.

“No. Walter Asner, you didn’t know. Yes, because you didn’t know…… you could do that.”

“You’re the one who doesn’t know anything, Sidney Warden! So! What did you get for offering up Asner and Spencer for Logan Redford, that cunning bastard? Just to receive this kind of treatment……”

Walter poured out his resentment with veins popping on his neck.

He was so furious that he finally choked up, unable to continue speaking.

Meanwhile, Sidney’s face and eyes hardened coldly. Like frost settling in the dead of winter.

“Is that trivial?”

“What?”

“Those insignificant things….. At that time, they were crucial to me.”

Sidney firmly gripped Walter’s stunned shoulder. And she continued speaking while glaring at him as if to make sure he understood properly.

“The captain paid a price greater than using me. If I accept that and then stab him in the back like this…… I wouldn’t be able to hold my head up.”

And she added in a small voice, “Because it’s so shameful.”

The sound of footsteps echoed again in the corridor where a heavy silence had fallen.

Sidney stopped in front of the conference room and looked back.

Walter Asner, who had been standing there like a wooden block, scratched the back of his head and said.

“I’ll wait.”

Sidney nodded lightly and turned the doorknob.

[This is the timeline separator]

As soon as she entered the conference room, a sharp wind struck Sidney’s face.

Sleet entering through the open window was swirling around Logan Redford.

With a snap, the match struck, and the lit cigarette glowed red.

Through his disheveled bangs blown by the wind from behind, blue eyes met the red glow of the match.

He tilted his chin up and stared intently at her. Unlike his relaxed posture, his intense gaze licked at her like a hungry beast.

Thump, as she took a step, Logan Redford’s eyes wavered. Another step.

Logan exhaled cigarette smoke and sneered.

“Why did you come back?”

“I have something I want to ask.”

One more step and Logan frowned.

“Speak from there.”

“I don’t want to.”

For some reason, she didn’t know why.

She just felt that Logan Redford shouldn’t be left like that. Or maybe it was defiance making her want to go closer.

Five steps remained.

Though her mind warned her to stop, Sidney took two more steps. He exhaled cigarette smoke and warned in a low voice.

“Leave before you regret it.”

“What would I regret?”

“……”

Cigarette smoke hazily spread around Logan Redford’s mouth.

Tap tap, her heart pounded in time with the sound of his long fingers tapping on the windowsill.

It’s the same look as that night. With that gaze of intense possessiveness and desire intertwined, yearning for something, he had whispered.

With such sweet words, he had devoured her, Marien.

As the pleasure Logan Redford had carved into her revived one by one, her body grew hot.

Each time his face contorted in the darkness, her vision went white and her whole body trembled. They had raced to the limit, craving each other like that.

Following the afterimage of that memory, she found herself in front of Logan.

Startled by his hand reaching for her eyes, she squeezed her eyes shut with an “Ah.”

His touch brushing her eyes and the coldness of sleet falling on her face. The sound of Logan grumbling something and the strong scent of cigarettes.

When she opened her eyes again, Logan Redford was looking out the window.

Seeming somewhat anxious, yet with his face all scrunched up as if suppressing something.

Now I’m seeing things. Sidney cleared her throat with a “Ahem,” covering her mouth with her fist at Logan’s familiar expression.

“Captain, why 3 months?”

“……Is it too long for your liking?”

Her fist clenched at the sarcastic response, as petulant as Walter in the height of his rebellious phase.

But unlike with Walter, she couldn’t hit her superior Logan, so she hid her hand behind her back.

“What will happen to the investigation team after those 3 months?”

“Ah, that….. Yes, what’s important to Sidney Warden is…… the investigation team.”

How long is he going to keep being sarcastic. Sidney opened and closed her fist behind her back, trying to suppress her anger.

Even so, the undiminished fury was clearly evident in her voice.

“Yes, it’s important. If I go to the Security Force, the investigation team could lose its justification and be disbanded……”

“Damn it! Then don’t go.”

With a snap, the cigarette flicked by Logan Redford’s fingers flew out the window.

At that moment, Sidney rushed over and looked down out the window, shouting.

“Are you crazy? What if a fire starts from throwing away a cigarette butt like that!”

Fortunately, below was a pile of snow gathered by the cleaners.

Still anxious, Sidney’s eyes darted wildly between the snow pile and the surroundings.

A low laugh was heard. Her eyes rolled to the side, following the touch brushing her hair behind her ear.

Sidney’s lips moved to say ‘Why’ as she startled at his face suddenly so close.

He gazed intently at her lips and whispered.

“Stay on the investigation team…… that’s so important to you.”

While tapping her cheek with his fingertip as if to make sure she understood properly.