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56.
Julian had never forgotten the shock of his first visit to House of Obelia.
In a ‌modest reception room, a family huddled ‌together greeted him with radiant warmth.
Faces that differed slightly yet bore unmistakable resemblance smiled at him in unison, each expression gentle and welcoming.
The house perpetually exhaled the aroma of delectable cuisine.
Laughter never ceased. They quarreled and grew angry over the most trivial matters.
It was at House of Obelia that Julian first discovered chess could be a dangerous game—one where sisters exchanged harsh words with genuine venom.
Yet even the most fiercely blazing arguments would subside the moment they gathered around ‌‌‌‌the abundant table.
As if nothing had transpired, they would gaze upon each other's faces and burst into laughter anew.
House of Obelia embodied the ideal family Julian had glimpsed only in books, imagined only in vague reverie.
No family ‌‌‌could wear the word "family" more perfectly than House of Obelia.
It was here that Julian witnessed the source of Rebecca's ‌‌strength.
The seeds of her passion—that ‌‌‌endless torrent flowing through every trial—lay hidden within her family.
And so Julian felt sorrow.
The realization that I could never grow strong in such a way.
Rebecca's strength was fundamentally different from my own, which bore only a ‌‌‌‌deceptively solid exterior.
It was a fortitude I could never possess—one that would not crumble into fragile emptiness the moment the shell fractured.
Before ‌‌knocking on the front door, Julian exhaled a deep breath.
Tension had stiffened his neck. He rolled it from side to side, attempting to ‌‌‌ease the rigidity.
He had no wish to appear as a boy who ‌‌had never known a warm family.
He armed himself in fine garments and wielded expensive gifts like weapons in both hands.
"Welcome, Your Grace!"
The door swung open before he could even knock.
Danae greeted him with a luminous smile.
Julian offered an awkward laugh and waved the paper bag containing the gift boxes.
"We offer our respects, Your Grace."
Helena and Livia lifted their skirts slightly and bowed with impeccable courtesy.
Julian stood momentarily dazed, uncertain how to respond.
Ordinarily, the twins would have rushed out without hesitation, vying to ‌‌snatch the gifts from his hands. ‌‌
But today they treated him with formal deference, as though greeting a stranger for the first time.
Julian's face drained of color instantly.
Had they decided to treat me coldly?
Had I made some mistake during my last visit?
Ten thousand thoughts raced through his mind.
But soon he detected the twins suppressing playful laughter, and relief ‌washed over him.
Julian returned an exaggerated display of courtesy.
"It is a great honor to make the acquaintance of two ladies more beautiful than the brightest stars in the night sky."
Rebecca's two younger sisters burst into delighted laughter.
At their response, the tension in Julian's expression eased considerably.
Nothing felt amiss. He did not appear a stranger.
He seemed to have melted into this place.
For a moment, he felt grateful that Rebecca wasn't here.
If the clever Rebecca were present, she would have noticed how desperately I was ‌straining to fit in with them.
"Your Grace! It sounds so strange when you speak so formally."
"That's right. The Duke is only charming when he has bad manners."
"Exactly. His crude way of speaking is so popular among friends that...."
"Livia! ‌‌‌‌Helena!"
Danae placed her hands on her hips and cried out in alarm.
"Didn't you promise to behave with courtesy today?"
"But Mother! It's ‌‌‌‌just so uncomfortable. We'll do well outside, won't we?"
Julian stopped Danae from continuing.
"It's quite alright. I find it more comfortable when treated so naturally."
Danae covered her flushed cheeks ‌‌with one hand, looking embarrassed.
"Still, by next year she'll be of age to ‌‌debut in society, and my worries are endless."
"When the time comes, she'll manage ‌‌beautifully on her own. Shouldn't one at least find peace of ‌‌mind at home?"
"That does make sense."
As Julian handed a gift to Danae, Helena came scurrying over and tugged at ‌‌‌his arm.
She seated him on the sofa.
"Your Grace, this is the piece that Livia and I practiced to perform for you. It should be better than last time!"
Livia sat before the piano with a solemn expression.
Soon, a clear piano melody filled the air, and Helena began to sing.
Their skill was embarrassingly modest to call a talent, yet Julian found the sound pleasant to his ears.
In the gleam of Danae's eyes as she watched her two daughters, in the face of Theo humming the tune while standing askew at the kitchen door with flour dusting his hands, an unexpectedly exquisite harmony flowed forth.
The fact that I was sitting in the midst of all this felt uncomfortable and strange to Julian.
Yet I desperately wanted to cling ‌‌‌to it.
Julian imagined Rebecca ‌‌hearing the beautiful song and descending the second-floor staircase to sit beside him.
He hoped she would lean against his shoulder, exchange smiles with him, and finally help him fully dissolve into this family.
As the performance ended, applause poured forth.
Helena bowed respectfully to the audience.
Livia suddenly let out a sigh.
"I wish Sister Becky were here ‌‌‌too."
At ‌‌those ‌‌words, Danae glanced briefly ‌‌‌at Julian's expression.
A shadow crossed Julian's face, then ‌‌‌‌vanished just as quickly.
"How is Rebecca today?"
"Much improved. Her fever hasn't returned. But the pustules still haven't healed."
"That's a relief nonetheless."
"I... Your Grace. Would you like to at least hear her voice?"
"Absolutely not!"
At Danae's words, Theo came rushing out from the kitchen. The rich ‌‌‌scent of butter trailed behind him.
"Danae, I promised that no one would ‌see Rebecca until she wishes ‌it herself."
"But it's hardly polite to turn you away every time you visit like this."
"I'm afraid not. I apologize, Duke, but I don't object to you visiting the house. However, I cannot force something upon her that she doesn't want. Not even if you are a Duke."
Julian met Theo's cold gaze, then carefully observed her honey-blonde hair—the same rich shade as Rebecca's.
Ah, what a warmly delivered rejection this was.
Julian ‌‌smiled ‌‌quietly and nodded.
"That's fine. I don't want that either."
At his words, Theo's expression brightened slightly.
Embarrassed by the reproachful tone that had escaped her lips, Theo hurried back into the kitchen as if fleeing.
The loud sound ‌‌‌of meat sizzling ‌‌‌‌on the grill soon filled the air.
Danae watched the spot where Theo had disappeared with a vacant expression.
"She can't even speak to Rebecca because she feels so sorry. She blames herself for everything. Well, she's not entirely wrong, but... please don't take it to heart."
"I won't. It's a beautiful thing to witness."
"Pardon?"
"It's beautiful." ‌‌
Beneath ‌‌his calm tone lay a profound sorrow.
Seeing his lips tremble with such pathos, Danae's eyes widened in surprise.
But her observation was soon erased by the quarrel that erupted between her two daughters.
"Hey! That's mine! Give it back right ‌now!"
"Just let me look at it for a ‌‌moment!"
"You have your own hairband! Hand it over, Helena Obelia!"
Helena had snatched the hairpin Livia had received as a gift from Julian and fled ‌‌‌‌to the second ‌‌‌floor. ‌‌‌‌‌
"No! These ‌‌children, I swear!"
Danae rose from her seat with wide eyes.
She looked ready to chase after them and swat their backsides at any moment.
Julian chuckled softly and stopped her.
"It's fine. They're still children, after all. Since I'm ‌‌the one who caused this, allow me to settle it."
"But Duke..."
In response to Danae's ‌protest, Julian reassured her by closing his eyes gently into a smile.
Struck by his beauty, Danae lost her words for a moment, then sighed as if resigned.
Julian carefully climbed the stairs.
Tapestries reflecting Danae's taste hung in a row along the stairwell walls.
The warm-hued quilted tapestries appeared to be her own handiwork.
Theo's face and the playful figures of the twins were embroidered upon ‌‌‌them.
When Julian reached the top of the stairs, he paused for a moment.
A tapestry embroidered with the image of a young girl captured his gaze.
"Rebecca."
He gazed blankly at the tapestry, its surface bearing the marks of time, not daring even to brush it with his hand for fear of wearing it further.
Even in a fleeting glance, the girl in ‌‌the flower-filled garden was unmistakably Rebecca.
At her feet, kittens played, and in one corner, a couple who appeared to be Danae and Theo ‌‌gazed upon her with ‌‌tender eyes.
Julian felt his breath catch as an unexpected anguish suddenly ‌washed over him.
I recalled Rebecca's coldly composed face as she gripped the Demon's Claw.
She had ‌‌been a girl who smiled beautifully, as if nurtured solely by the spring sunlight.
But that girl had grown into a woman who concealed her shattered heart beneath frigid ‌‌‌mockery.
As Julian conjured the image of her past—scattered with razor-sharp ice shards across which she had walked barefoot—he could no longer suppress the surging fury and clenched his teeth with brutal force.
Between the tightly sealed gaps of his teeth, a single wish escaped: the desire to make her happy.
Click.
In that instant, the sound of a door closing reached his ears. ‌‌‌‌‌
When Julian turned his head, he saw a notebook placed before the doorway.
Julian ‌‌‌‌approached slowly and picked up the notebook.
The notebook was filled with meticulous records of symptoms from the moment she first consumed the Demon's Claw until now.
"Eustaf must be waiting with bated breath."
Her crystalline voice drifted from beyond the room. Fortunately, Rebecca's tone carried ‌no hint of pain ‌‌‌or distress.
At the sound of her voice, which he had not heard in so long, Julian nearly burst through the door.
But the memory of Theo's sharp, piercing gaze directed at him made Julian forcibly restrain his own hand from moving.
As Julian examined the journal, which even included detailed sketches of pustule formations, he recalled Eustaf's desperate pleas to witness Rebecca's symptoms just once.
How far ahead did this woman see?
He was suddenly gripped by fear that he could not keep ‌‌pace with her insight and would only become a hindrance.
Julian traced Rebecca's elegant handwriting slowly with his fingers.
Though written with composure, such symptoms must have caused her immense suffering.
The thought of her enduring such pain alone within the Count's Mansion made his brow furrow involuntarily.
Through Leo's perspective, she had appeared utterly exhausted.
Yet Rebecca had not uttered a single complaint of pain, even to Leo.
He was furious.
Why would she not lean on him? She deserved to cry out in pain to him at least once.
Though she had every right to depend on him more than anyone, she stubbornly swallowed all her suffering alone.
The Runaway Countess Returns
E-book Publication

January 12, 2022
Author

Long Night Sky
Publisher

Desert ‌‌‌‌Fox
Published by
‌‌‌‌‌‌‌
Woongjin ThinkBig Co., Ltd.
Submission Received

naver.me/54VzzLSn
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Brought ‌to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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