That day, before heading to visit Lisir in the infirmary, Pien returned to her quarters.

She stood before "that item," which she had kept in the corner of her room.

It was the handkerchief she had used to wipe the blood-soaked Lisir during his overload episode.

Pien felt an intense wave of self-loathing.

The fact that she had neither washed nor discarded a handkerchief stained with someone else’s blood, and instead kept it, struck her as the behavior of the pests who constantly tried to woo her.

With an expression laced with disgust, Pien brought the handkerchief close to her …