Chapter 66
The next day, Julian caught a severe cold and became so ill that he lost consciousness.
Since he rarely got sick at all, this triggered a state of emergency in the ducal household.
Fearing that he might suddenly die like the previous Dukes Johannes, Kroa summoned all the top physicians in the empire to treat him.
“Don’t worry. It’s just a simple cold.”
Kroa felt a brief sense of relief at that, but his mind was still not entirely at ease.
He nursed Julian day and night, losing a noticeable amount of weight in the process.
The doctors even remarked that Kroa himself seemed more worrisome than the patient.
After caring for him so meticulously, Julian recovered without so much as a word of thanks and immediately insisted he needed to go shooting.
Well, if he had actually thanked Kroa, he’d probably have had a psychiatrist called in.
“Anyway, raising kids… it’s just…”
“Kroa.”
Kroa, who had been grumbling to himself, flinched at Julian calling his name and raised his head.
Worried he might have muttered something aloud, Kroa covered his mouth with his hand.
Julian asked him,
“The letter? It wasn’t on the desk.”
Kroa nearly hiccuped in surprise.
Although he had instructed a few servants to fetch it quickly, there had been no news yet.
When Kroa hesitated and didn’t answer immediately, Julian’s eyes instantly glowed golden.
“You’re not going to tell me you’ve lost the letter, are you?”
“W-Well…”
“I’ve found it!”
A servant came running with a pink envelope.
Kroa quickly snatched the letter from the servant’s hands with a bright smile and handed it to Julian.
“You said it was lost? Here it is.”
Julian opened his mouth to scold, but paused at the subtle fragrance emanating from the pink envelope.
He glared at Kroa for a moment, then hurriedly tore open the letter.
Despite several days having passed since its dispatch, the envelope still carried the faint scent of flowers.
As Julian read the letter, he unconsciously raised his eyebrows.
Pressed clovers had been attached to the stationery.
They weren’t extravagant or expensive flowers, but that simplicity kept Julian’s eyes fixed on the pressed clovers for some time.
<To Julian,
Right now, our garden is full of clover. Livia and Helena are always busy making bracelets, necklaces, and even flower crowns.
The kids keep asking when Duke Johannes will come. It seems they’ve grown fond of you already. I’m always thankful that you play with my mischievous little sisters…>
Thinking of Rebecca playing in the garden with her sisters, Julian let out a quiet chuckle.
Kroa noticed Julian smiling and craned his head forward.
Curious about the letter’s contents, he tiptoed to get a closer look.
Julian shot Kroa a glare.
Then, taking swift steps, he disappeared into the forest, out of Kroa’s sight.
Kroa’s sharp gaze seemed to pierce the back of his head relentlessly.
Julian went deeper into the forest.
Cats, sensing him, clustered around his feet.
Probably because of Leo, cats had always been unusually attached to him since childhood.
Julian didn’t mind their presence.
Under normal circumstances, he might have spent hours playing with the cute cats, but now he was more concerned with reading the letter.
He gently moved the cats aside and plopped down on a tree stump.
Listening to their dissatisfied meows, he resumed reading the letter.
<Ever since that day when you kissed me and ran away…>
But the next line made him stop reading again.
His face flushed crimson.
He had hoped shooting would calm him, but instead, every time he saw the red target, he remembered Rebecca’s deep red lips, like wild cherries.
Overwhelmed by embarrassment, he buried his face in his hands.
He considered stopping, but the delicate clover continued to tempt him.
Imagining Rebecca picking the clover and carefully attaching it to the letter made him smile despite himself.
Ultimately, he succumbed to temptation and picked up the letter again.
<Since that day, I haven’t felt at ease. I think I was too mischievous that day. I will apologize properly.
And I hope you don’t read too much into that kiss. There are many kinds of kisses in this world, right? Let’s call the one we shared that day a kiss of friendship.
We were impulsive, but given the circumstances, it was inevitable.
I may have acted a little foolishly, but your kiss of friendship was a great comfort to me.
I wanted to tell you thank you, even if just through a letter.
I am now free. Not everything is over, but I am glad we no longer have to meet in hiding.
I think it’s about time to talk about the wedding. Give me a convenient date, and I’ll come see you. Take care of yourself.
-Rebecca>
“It was comforting…”
Julian read the letter carefully once more.
Up until now, the letters exchanged between them had mostly been about schemes to escape the Count’s mansion.
So this was one of the very first letters containing private, personal thoughts.
After reading it several times, Julian was momentarily lost for words.
Calling that day’s event merely a kiss of friendship was absurd.
What kind of friendship involved such a passionate kiss?
But he decided to respect Rebecca’s wishes.
Better to pretend the first kiss never happened than make things awkward between them.
He carefully folded the letter back into its envelope and tucked it into his pocket to prevent it from getting crumpled.
As he strolled through the forest, Julian reflected on Rebecca’s words.
A wedding wasn’t just an ordinary social event. There was a lot to prepare.
He had heard that aristocratic weddings usually took over a year to plan.
But Julian and Rebecca didn’t have that much time.
Julian grew anxious.
He wanted their wedding to be as perfect as possible.
He wanted it to be so memorable that Rebecca would forget the marriage of that other fool, Zephyr.
And that wasn’t the only challenge.
To hold the ceremony properly, they needed the Emperor’s permission—a daunting task in itself.
Emperor Zahidra had already set his sights on marrying Princess Catherine.
The social circles were already anticipating that marriage.
So, to hold a wedding without angering Zahidra, Julian needed to give him some kind of gift.
“Did I give the temple’s ledger too early…”
He thought carefully about a present for the Emperor and wandered aimlessly.
Gradually, the dense forest gave way to a large road paved with white gravel.
It was a road used by carriages.
Two spotted cats were playing in the middle of the road.
Julian watched them happily, then looked up at the sound of hooves.
In the distance, a white carriage for guests was heading toward him.
He quickly grabbed the cats by the scruff and moved them off the road.
The cats immediately meowed in annoyance.
Julian comforted them in his arms, then looked at the approaching carriage with curiosity.
As far as he knew, no one was visiting the ducal estate today.
Soon, the carriage passed right in front of him.
And in that moment, he realized.
“Rebecca?”
She was inside the carriage.
Through the slowly passing window, Julian saw Rebecca clearly, wearing a black veil.
He couldn’t believe she had come to his home and stood there in a daze.
But he quickly snapped out of it in a panic.
“Rebecca came here?”
He checked himself nervously.
He looked like he had just gotten out of bed and hadn’t even chosen his clothes for the day.
“Damn it!”
Cold sweat ran down his back.
He frantically started running toward the castle.
“Welcome.”
As Rebecca stepped down from the carriage, Kroa greeted her.
When the doorman had said a friend of Julian’s was visiting, Kroa had assumed it was some troublemaker again.
Fanatics occasionally tried to sneak into see Julian.
Unless there was a prior appointment, other visitors were usually turned away.
“If by any chance you refuse to let me in, please tell them I come from the place where the fields sing.”
Kroa’s eyes widened at that.
He knew Julian referred to Obelia’s mansion as “the fields that sing.”
Kroa hurriedly instructed the staff to decorate the reception room lavishly and prepare the finest refreshments.
If there was even a slight lapse in hospitality, the guest might disappear from the ducal estate without anyone noticing.
When the staff asked who the guest was, he only said she was very important.
It was better not to reveal the relationship between Rebecca and Julian publicly yet.
There could be spies among the staff, or a careless servant might gossip to another household.
As Kroa had predicted, Rebecca arrived wearing a veil.
Kanna, accompanying her, wore a mask.
Kroa courteously guided the two mysterious women into the ducal estate.
Rebecca glanced around in admiration. The exterior was impressive, but the interior of the ducal estate was far grander than she had expected.
Though smaller than the imperial palace, it seemed no less valuable.
Yet, with every step, a cold and lonely feeling surrounded her.
A chilling wind seemed to blow between the luxurious furnishings, and she hugged herself.
If the Count’s mansion was the lavish expression of bold desires, Duke Johannes’ estate exuded a cold, austere elegance.
“Yes, I can feel death here.”
The meticulously arranged interior reminded her of the coffin of a wealthy emperor.
Her chest tightened. Rebecca imagined Julian growing up alone in this desolate place.
“Are these Julian’s family…?”
Rebecca stopped in front of a massive family portrait as she headed toward the reception room.
Kroa, who was ahead, turned to look at the painting.
“Yes. Both of them passed away when the Duke was young.”
