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61.
"That's right. Everything—it's all Julian's fault. She slipped from my grasp because of him. The way she looked at me was because of him. Julian interfered...."
"I... beg your pardon."
The ‌‌‌‌steward had called out to Zeppelin, but when their eyes met again, he flinched and stumbled backward.
A palpable, dangerous killing intent radiated ‌‌from his face.
The steward witnessed what seemed like a fleeting illusion—those eyes, as pale blue ‌as a shallow sea, suddenly drowning in crimson.
"I'll kill him. I'll murder Julian of the Duchy of Johannes."
With only those words left hanging, Zeppelin hastily mounted his horse.
Thunder struck his eardrums, yet Zeppelin heard nothing at all.
* * *
"Hah... hah...."
In the room thick ‌‌with scorching heat, Rebecca and Julian barely managed to separate from each other.
They stared silently at ‌‌‌the floor.
Reason, gradually returning to them, struggled to comprehend what had just transpired.
Julian was the first to realize.
His face ‌‌‌flushed crimson in an instant.
He clutched his face, which was turning nearly violet, and gaped his mouth wide open.
"Just... now...."
At his reaction, Rebecca regained her composure.
So it had finally happened.
She hadn't been unprepared for such a possibility.
Only the timing was sooner than expected.
Once married by contract, they would naturally share a bed ‌in the same room.
It was obvious what a hot-blooded young man might do during that period.
But she hadn't anticipated being swept away herself.
If I had simply refused, Julian would have stopped. But I didn't.
'Why....'
Rebecca attributed the reason ‌‌‌‌to her own weakened mental state.
So consumed with worry over Julian's reaction, she had surrendered herself to his affirmative response.
Once she thought of it that way, her heart felt considerably lighter.
Yes, this was merely a momentary lapse swept up in the atmosphere.
As long as she was careful not to fall into such a trap again, it would be fine.
Rebecca placed her hand on Julian's shoulder and patted it gently.
"Yes. We just kissed."
Julian's ‌‌face was now on the verge of bursting.
He covered his ‌‌face with one ‌‌‌‌hand and pushed Rebecca away with the other. ‌‌‌
"How can you say something like that so casually?"
"Well, it's already happened, and we were both caught up in emotion—there was nothing we could do about it. Surely you're not thinking of breaking the contract over this?"
When Rebecca deliberately frowned, Julian bristled with indignation.
The woman who had taken his first kiss spoke with a boldness that was utterly astounding.
No, I ‌‌was the one who initiated it first, but....
As the scene from moments ‌‌ago flashed through my mind, Julian's face flushed crimson once more, as though igniting from within.
His eyes blazed with a deep golden hue, like a ripened wheat field burnished by the sun.
Amused by his reaction, Rebecca felt a sudden mischievous impulse stir within her.
She also harbored a desire to repay him somewhat for barging in without permission and catching her off guard. ‌‌
"Could it be that you're embarrassed after kissing me first?"
Rebecca deliberately brought her face close to his, nearly touching.
Since she no longer needed to heed his warnings, she could simply evade if a similar mishap occurred.
Emboldened by this newfound confidence, Rebecca advanced toward Julian with audacious intent.
"W-what...!"
He dodged her gaze, turning his eyes away.
Yet Rebecca pursued him with equal ‌‌‌persistence.
The more their eyes met, the hotter Julian's face became.
Their intense exchange ended only when Julian found himself backed against the window frame.
Rebecca's fingers traced teasingly along his waist.
"You started it first, yet ‌‌you're ‌‌‌the one blushing. What will you do about ‌‌‌it, hmm? Duke, how do you plan to ‌‌‌‌take responsibility?"
"Is this who you ‌‌‌really are?"
"What do you ‌‌mean, who I really am?"
Rebecca pressed herself lightly against him.
As her lips drew near again, Julian recoiled and pushed her away.
"Stop!"
"Alright. I'm sorry."
As a sign that she would cease her teasing, Rebecca raised both hands and stepped back slightly.
Julian was beside himself—humiliated at being toyed with, thrilled by what had just transpired, and unable to hate Rebecca for her impish behavior.
"Ha! You really...."
"I said I'm sorry. Right? Julian?"
Rebecca brought her face close to his once more.
His body was burning. No—she was burning too.
The heat radiating between them could not be ‌‌‌‌cooled by the cold rain streaming through the open window.
"Oh no. We're all soaked."
Rebecca straightened Julian, who had been precariously perched against the window frame, and smiled prettily with her eyes narrowed.
Julian gazed at Rebecca's face, dazed.
Just as he began to lower his head toward her again, a loud voice ‌‌‌echoed from below.
"Becky! Bring the Duke down. Dinner is ready!"
Julian startled violently and straightened himself away from Rebecca.
He looked at her with a resentful gaze.
"What have you done to me!"
Rebecca answered with feigned innocence.
"What do you mean, what have I done."
"How else would I be drawn to you like this unless you had done something!"
Unable to voice the rest of his thought, Julian covered his own mouth with his hand.
Rebecca decided to stop teasing him and gently soothed him instead.
"Don't be like that. Come downstairs with me. My father is quite skilled at cooking."
"Tell him something ‌‌‌urgent came up."
"What? ‌‌‌‌‌Wait a ‌‌‌moment... Kyaaah! Julian!"
Rebecca let out a sharp cry ‌‌and peered down beneath the window.
In an ‌‌‌‌instant, Julian leaped from the window.
Had there been glass panes, he would have shattered them with the force of his jump.
Though it was only the second floor, it was a height that would have broken bones for most people.
But Julian was no ordinary person.
He landed safely on the muddy ground like a cat, then shouted back ‌toward the house.
"I'm borrowing a horse for a moment!"
Before anyone could answer, Julian seized the reins of a horse with a coat as dark as his own ‌‌hair and emerged from the stable.
The horse resisted fiercely, but the moment Julian whispered something in its ear, it grew calm.
He mounted the now-docile horse and began crossing the meadow.
He surrendered himself to ‌‌‌the torrential rain that poured down relentlessly, his ears burning red.
Rebecca stood motionless, her lips slightly parted, watching until he vanished from sight.
Once he had receded beyond the reach of her eyes, Rebecca quietly slid down the wall.
Belated shame washed over her.
Rebecca ‌‌‌brought both hands to her flushed cheeks.
It was only today that she realized—when she panicked, she actually teased the other person instead.
Rebecca kicked her feet as she recalled her own shameless behavior. ‌‌‌
'I acted like a flirtatious drunkard!'
Rebecca leaned her head against the wall and sighed. She was utterly bewildered.
It was terrifying to imagine what Julian must think of her now.
'I'll be kicking off the blankets for a year...'
Even as she thought this, Rebecca's fingers lingered on her lips, which still tingled with sensation.
For days she had pushed him away, yet Julian embraced her without hesitation and kissed her.
Rather, he gazed at her as if she were the most beautiful thing in all the world.
His eyes burned with desire for her.
Wondering if the stench had finally faded from her body, Rebecca lifted her forearm to her nose and sniffed.
It hadn't. Nothing had changed.
If anything had changed...
'No. I'm ‌‌‌still Rebecca.'

Rebecca slowly rose from ‌‌her seat and settled before the Vanity.
In the mirror, she glimpsed a woman whose cheeks flushed with a rosy hue.
Strangely, she no longer found that woman as repugnant as before.
A chill of foreboding took root in one corner of ‌‌my heart.
"This cannot be...."
Rebecca gripped the lace at her left breast tightly in her hand.
Despite the trembling of her anxious fingers, her eyes blazed with hope.
Thunder rumbled overhead, as if fireworks were bursting across the sky.
* * *
"It's pouring down relentlessly."
Ferguson, the sentry who had been watching the unrelenting sky, grumbled and leaned his head against the stone wall.
He despised standing guard on rainy days like this.
The dampness seeped into his armor, making it uncomfortably wet, and on rainy nights, madmen inevitably emerged from the woodwork.
As if the rain itself carried some potion to amplify madness, not a single shift passed without incident.
Last time, he ‌‌‌‌had ‌‌broken into a cold sweat stopping a naked man from passing through the City Wall gate.
Ferguson shuddered at the memory of that man's nakedness.
His mood soured. ‌
Still, he was grateful that nothing had occurred yet.
Moreover, at this hour, foot traffic was sparse, so only he and Charles, the new recruit, stood watch atop the City Wall.
The rest of the guards were sleeping ‌‌‌in quarters some distance away until the shift change.
Ferguson's only wish was for time to pass peacefully so he could soon sink into his soft bed.
Charles yawned languidly and spoke.
"Haaah. Fortunately, it's ‌‌‌quiet today. I was worried ‌‌since they said to stay sharp on rainy nights."
At his words, Ferguson started in alarm and covered Charles's mouth.
"Fool! Don't you know that word is ‌‌‌‌‌‌taboo? Speak like that and it's bound to——"
Before his concern could fully form, Charles raised his hand.
"Wait, wait.... Someone's coming over there!"
"What? Damn it."
Ferguson raised his spyglass and looked in the ‌‌‌‌direction Charles indicated.
A man, drenched to the bone by the rain, came galloping toward them on a white horse.
"Given the speed he's riding through this downpour, he must be completely mad. You, stay at your post!"
Charles grumbled and returned to his position.
Before the madman reached the City Wall, Ferguson shouted into the amplifying stone, ‌‌‌his voice magnified.
"Identify ‌‌‌yourself! This is the Duchy of ‌Johannes!"
Fortunately, the man seemed to understand well enough.
The man, barely keeping his eyes open against the torrential rain, brought his horse to a halt and bellowed loudly.
"I am Zeppelin, Earl of Devonshire! I must see Julian of Johannes at once—open the gate!"
"What?"
Ferguson's eyebrows twitched at the man's audacious tone, daring to invoke the Duke's name so carelessly.
He spoke with a slightly sharper edge to his voice.
"Then present your identification papers!"
"I don't have any!"
"Look at this bastard."
I ‌‌‌‌had thought today ‌‌‌would pass without incident.
Ferguson clutched his head at the man's audacious declaration that he possessed no identification papers whatsoever. ‌‌‌‌‌
"Then go back and fetch your papers, and return!"
"I don't have time for that! I told you to open the gate! Open it now!"
"Wow. He really is as crazy as the senior said, isn't he?"
"You fool. Is this the time to be impressed?"
It was a troublesome situation.
The gleam in that man's eyes suggested he would not retreat willingly.
Sensing that tonight would be arduous as well, Ferguson released a short sigh.
At that moment, Charles tapped his arm lightly.
The Countess Who Fled Has Returned
E-book Publication

January 12, 2022
Author

Long night sky
Publisher

Desert fox
Published ‌‌‌by

Woongjin ThinkBig Co., Ltd.
Submission Portal

naver.me/54VzzLSn
Blog

blog.naver.com/wj_fennecfox
Twitter

@wjt_fennecfox

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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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