The moment he saw Marvin holding Dana’s hand, his blood seemed to steam out of control. He thought hundreds of times at that short moment whether to pull out a knife and cut his wrist or not.
He breathed heavily, exhaled, and slowly looked back. He didn’t want her to be afraid of seeing him angry because it wasn’t Dana’s fault.
“…”
However, contrary to his concerns, Dana had already disappeared.
“Ha…!”
Despite his anger, he burst into laughter. He tried to call for her, but come to think of it, he realized that there was no proper title to call her.
“So, where did you go?”
Leon began to walk in search of her with a calmer mind, and soon, he found Dana in the study.
She was writing something on a note, digging around a thick book.
Dana seemed to be glancing at Leon, but she focused on the book pretending not to see him. They definitely made eye contact.
Leon approached from behind and peeked at what she was reading. Surprisingly, what she was looking at was a long and boring book called ‘The History of the Empire’.
Leon’s gaze naturally directed at the back of her neck that was revealed. Her white neckline shone strangely through her thin blonde hair.
Leon gulped. Again, he looked at what she was doing.
Dana was writing down some words after dividing the memo paper in half. In the end, he couldn’t hold back his curiosity and asked.
“…What are you doing?”
“Oh, what a surprise!”
Although he already knew everything, Leon feigned ignorance because her slightly contrived reaction was cute. Instead, Leon leaned next to the desk, crossed his arms, and looked down at her, and at the book.
“I was organizing what I know and what I don’t know.”
Leon didn’t immediately understand, so he waited for her to say more.
“I definitely remember reading this book a long time ago. And I know some of the lines, but some are really unfamiliar.”
“I usually don’t remember everything when I read a book.”
“But… this is not necessarily the case.”
“I think that’s the part where you lost your memory, isn’t it?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Leon picked up the memo she wrote down and looked at it.
“Which one do you not remember?”
“Right.”
At first, the words on both sides were so diverse and there seemed to be no similarity.
Leon was just about to put it down again when he suddenly realized something and looked again. He looked closer, and as he looked to the right, the time was closer to the present. Obviously, the right side was what she didn’t remember.
Things about the Haschel Empire were on the left. For example, the first Emperor and the year in which the Empire was built. The right side was more peripheral. So, these were words that were directly related to historical events, people, and the current political situation that took place in this area.
Of course, there was a possibility that when she read the old book, she roughly skimmed through it. However, she didn’t know that things close to the present time and space were mainly written on the right.
He could guess something, but Leon deliberately folded the paper in half and threw it on the desk.
“Why don’t you think about what you need right now rather than this?”
“What do I need right now?”
“Yeah, like a name to call you.”
“Name…?”
Dana, who had been wide-eyed up until now, looked up at him with a little dumb expression.
“There’s a name for dogs and cats, too. I don’t know your real name, but I need something to call you.”
“…”
Dana thought about it for a while, but nothing came to mind.
“You decide.”
“Me?”
“You saved me anyway and you’re still taking care of me, so wouldn’t it be better if you named me?”
When she returned to what she was doing, Leon stopped for a while, tapped his toes on the floor a few times and opened his mouth.
“…Sarah?”
His tone was not confident. In fact, it was the name of a cat that was raised in the castle in the past.
“Sarah… Well, I like it.”
Dana seemed to tilt her head slightly and readily agreed.
“Is this really okay?”
“Yes, I don’t know my real name anyway, so what does it matter what I’m called?”
Dana got up from her seat to organize the books she was reading. Since they were shelved well above her height, she had to climb up the ladder.
Leon, who was watching, slightly raised himself.
“I’ll do it.”
“It’s okay. I took it out myself earlier.”
Dana acted casually, but it was a little awkward. She went around the ladder as if she was intentionally trying to widen the distance from him. Then, she bravely climbed up the ladder and stretched out one arm. Although she barely reached the vacant space, she looked unsteady.
Leon approached to hold the ladder. Dana tried to insert the book safely and move one foot to the lower compartment, but when she saw him approaching, she got embarrassed and tripped.
“Ah!”
She stepped on the wrong foot without looking down, so she slipped and fell off the ladder.
Boom!
Dana subconsciously grabbed the bookshelf and tilted under its weight, and several books that had been on the shelf poured over her.
“Ha, uh….”
She could feel the heat surrounding her body as he protected her head with his hands and blocked all the books from falling on her back. She was unhurt.
“Leon… are you okay?”
“Whoa, what are you doing?”
Leon raised his upper body with his elbow and looked at Dana lying under him.
“Where did you get hurt?”
When his red eyes looked at her, Dana felt strangely warm and comfortable rather than bad.
“I’m okay. Did you get hurt?”
Somehow Leon’s breath seemed to have gotten a little rough, so Dana asked anxiously.
“…”
Leon looked down, leaving her without an answer.
Dana observed and noticed that this posture was quite familiar. At the same time, something hard was pressing against her lower body as she lay underneath him.
‘Ah…’
The moment she recognized it, her body temperature heated up.