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78.
"I'm not sure what you're talking about. And frankly, you're being quite rude. Does being a Duke give you the right to look ‌‌‌down on others like that?"
Rebecca stared at Alicia with wide eyes. Beneath her mask, a faint smile played at the corners of her lips.
Julian let out a bitter laugh as if he found the situation absurd.
"Ha. Fine then, let's settle who's actually being rude here."
Zeppelin, finally grasping the situation, spoke with a deliberately menacing expression.
"Duke of Johannes. If you intend to continue insulting my wife, I can have you thrown ‌‌‌out of here."
Julian stared down at Zeppelin without blinking.
A flash of anger flickered across Julian's eyes.
"You've lost your memory, yet you've become quite the devoted husband. You're very different from the man I knew. You should have been like this from the start."
"I ‌‌‌‌don't understand what you mean."
"What does the Earl even know? Though, if someone is deliberately deceiving you while exploiting your memory loss, I suppose you can't help it."
Julian's gaze turned meaningfully toward Alicia. Her pupils trembled violently.
Zeppelin followed Julian's line of sight and looked at Alicia.
Alicia stammered as she opened her mouth.
"N-no, surely ‌‌‌you're joking. Earl, a lie? You know well what kind of humiliation I've suffered at the hands of that wicked woman."
"Wicked?"
Julian let out a hollow laugh.
Rebecca's face, which had been wearing a slight smile toward Alicia, instantly turned cold.
Without hearing the details, I could already imagine what crude story she'd used to deceive Zeppelin.
My grip tightened as I held Julian's hand.
Julian clenched his teeth quietly.
"This is absurd."
Julian lowered his gaze for a moment, then spoke quietly with a scoff. A sharp light flickered briefly in his ‌‌eyes.
But Zeppelin opened his eyes just as wide and looked up at him.
"Say it again. I'll have you ‌‌‌thrown out of here ‌‌‌‌this instant."
Julian looked down at him with a piercing gaze and spoke.
"Isn't it absurd? When you treated your first wife like a saint—where was that? And now you call her wicked. Earl ‌‍of Devonshire, your ‌‌convictions seem remarkably flimsy."

A saint?
Zeppelin fell silent for a moment.
It was my turn to dismiss Julian's words as nonsense, yet for some reason, the words wouldn't come easily to my lips.
The headache returned once more.
'The Countess is a vessel of God more exceptional than anyone.'
An inexplicable memory surfaced.
I furrowed my brow as my head throbbed.
Julian spoke with a sneer.
"Well? Are you beginning to remember now?"
Alicia hurriedly glanced at Octavio, who was observing the entire scene from the upper level.
She signaled with her lips for him to help quickly.
Octavio made an annoyed ‌‌expression before clapping his hands a couple of times.
At that, the musicians who ‌‌‌‌had been waiting began to play the prelude.
The lively melody eased the tension that had hung over the Ballroom.
Alicia seized the moment, raising her wine glass and shouting loudly.
"Let us begin the festivities."
Two servants hastily supported the unsteady Zeppelin.
Alicia turned toward Julian and spoke.
"The Count has not yet fully ‌‌‌recovered, so we must excuse ourselves."
As Zeppelin turned to leave, Julian tried to add a few more words, but ‌Karim stepped in front of him.
"Julian. What in the world is all this? Explain yourself."
Karim stood glaring at Julian with his arms crossed.
He clearly resented not being given even a hint beforehand.
Karim appreciated Julian's lack of pretense.
Accustomed to the harsh life of The North, Karim felt his stomach turn every time he came to the ‌‌‌Capital.
He ‌‌‌despised the terrible scent of cosmetics, and he found it difficult to adapt to the nobles' manner of speaking—roundabout and concealing their true intentions.
Most of all, he was disgusted by parents trying to ‌sell him their daughters, girls so frail they looked ‌‌‌as though they'd freeze in The North's spring breeze.
Though he had no choice but to ‌come to the Capital at the Emperor's invitation, the social season was unbearable to him because of the people who clung to him ‌‌‌‌like flies every time.
As I was drinking in my usual bored manner, I heard Julian's voice.
'I told you not ‌to speak to me. ‌‌Your face makes ‌‌‌‌me nauseous. I'm in a foul mood today, so please, all of you, disappear.'
Julian spat out harsh words tinged with killing intent. He was a man with striking dark shadows beneath his eyes.
His tone was saturated with ennui.
Julian paid no mind to whatever the Earl of Devonshire, who was considerably older than him, was babbling about—as if asking where a dog was barking—and picked at his ear. ‌‌
Then, with the face of an apex predator, he let out a long yawn and sprawled across his chair.
At his attitude, which feared no one, Karim's eyes gleamed.
He was undoubtedly of the same breed as myself.
The kind of person ‌‌‌who found the world so monotonous and dull that they felt they might die.
In the past, wars broke out frequently in The North, but after Zahidra became Emperor, the Empire had visibly stabilized.
By the time Karim inherited the title of Duke of Latrans, there ‌‌‌was little for him to do besides the occasional bandits and ruffians who crossed the border.
With the advancement of alchemy, monsters crumbled before they could even approach the border.
As tedious days stretched endlessly before him, Karim found ‌‌himself contemplating whether he should shatter the barrier stones erected along the ‌‌‌border.
Into his monotonous existence—where his only amusement was needlessly ‌‌provoking the surrounding territories—Julian brought upheaval.
Unlike the ‌‌people who always rejoiced at his approach, Julian would
"Get lost."
...dismiss him with those words. Such rejection only ignited Karim's competitive spirit.
Julian would curse at Karim or throw ‌‌‌punches whenever Karim approached him with familiarity.
Yet despite this, Julian seemed not to dislike him and allowed him to remain at his side.
Years passed, and ‌‌‌the two became close ‌‌enough to call themselves friends.
Julian rarely opened his heart to Karim, but there were those rare occasions when he did.
Karim took quiet pride in being ‌‌‌the person to whom Julian revealed his true self.
"My lord, have you heard the rumors that the Duke of Johannes is the greatest philanderer ‌‌of our age?"
"What? That brat? You don't know Julian at all."
When rumors spread that this man—barely more than a simpleton—was the Empire's greatest womanizer, Karim had laughed until his sides ‌‌‌ached.
Though the rumors' subject was ‌‌himself, Julian was hardly the sort of man to warrant such a reputation.
When Karim pressed Julian for answers, he discovered the rumors were deliberately fabricated to escape marriage proposals—a secret known only to his loyal retainer Croa and Julian himself.
Karim smiled in triumph.
Of course.
There was nothing about Julian he could possibly not know.
But who was this woman before him now?
He had only learned that Julian had taken a lover after arriving in the Capital, and now the words pouring from Julian's mouth were news infuriating enough to provoke Karim's wrath.
"Ah. She's my fiancée."
Karim felt as though he'd been struck across the head.
But he quickly began to reason it through.
Surely this was another scheme to escape the Church's pressure.
Karim concluded that the mysterious woman must be a false fiancée.
"Your fiancée? I can hardly believe you even have a woman, and you held an engagement ceremony without inviting me?"
"I apologize for that. There were circumstances, so we kept the engagement ceremony intimate. I promise to invite you to ‌‌‌‌the wedding—so wipe that ‌‌‌scowl off your face. My fiancée will be frightened by your menacing expression."
'Look at this guy.'
Karim let out a hollow laugh.
Julian occasionally played ‌‌‌such pranks on him. He assumed today would be no different.
Karim whispered to Julian.
"You're going to lie even to me? Listen, Julian. My eyes don't deceive. Tell me. What scheme is ‌it this time? I'll gladly help...."
"No, Karim. You've ‌‌‌‌got it wrong this time. We ‌‌truly love each other."
Julian smiled brightly and took his fiancée's hand.
Karim knew that Julian's left cheekbone twitched whenever he lied.
It had to be a lie.
Julian of House Johannes could ‌‌‌‌never fall in love.
With suspicious eyes, Karim stared intently at the area around Julian's cheekbone.
But as he recalled Julian's expression, Karim's face gradually hardened.
Julian's cheek did not twitch as he gazed at the woman. ‌‌‌‌‌
Julian's cheeks, flushed with an emotion that soared as high as the heavens themselves, had taken on a delicate pink ‌‌‌hue.
Even if one were to perform three somersaults and look ‌‌‌‌again, it was unmistakably clear that affection gleamed in Julian's eyes.
'This is absurd.'
That Julian—the Julian who despised every soul in the world—wore the expression of a fool utterly besotted with love.
Karim turned his gaze toward Julian's fiancée, his face still registering shock.
The woman, sensing his stare, met it ‌‌‌with equal intensity.
Her arrogant gaze pierced through him like a blade. Those unwavering blue eyes swept across the deep furrow of his brow.
Karim flinched in surprise.
An unusual aura emanated from her.
Having traversed countless battlefields since childhood, Karim had learned to discern the particular essence each person radiated.
It was a kind of instinctive sense.
He could immediately perceive the timid, the base, those destined to betray.
Karim's eyes narrowed.
From the woman holding Julian's hand now emanated an aura like that of ‌‌‌‌a seasoned veteran who had grasped the very principles of the world.
'How could this possibly be....'
Her appearance differed little from that of any other delicate woman.
Objectively speaking, she possessed a fragile bearing that would awaken protective instincts.
Yet when he beheld her gaze, a chill raced down his spine as if he had encountered a worthy opponent in the midst of a devastating battlefield.
The subtle floral fragrance emanating from her body felt to ‌‌‌him like the stench of blood.
Though he told himself his senses had dulled from having little occasion to wield a sword recently, Karim could not ease his vigilance.
Karim watched as Julian lavished kisses upon his fiancée's hand.
Whatever ‌‌‌‌the reason, being at this woman's side seemed to place Julian in grave danger.
Karim's fists clenched.
Rebecca met the crimson eyes scrutinizing her, then lowered her gaze to observe his trembling fists.
According to Julian, the Duke of Latrans was the most ‌‌‌‌promising ‌‌‌man to become their ally.
She disliked the way his eyes swept over her with disapproval, but there was no need to deliberately invite his disdain.
The Runaway Countess Returns
E-book Publication

January 12, 2022
Author ‌‌‌

Ginbamhaneul
Publisher

Desert Fox
Published by

Woongjin ThinkBig
Submission Intake

naver.me/54VzzLSn
Blog

blog.naver.com/wj_fennecfox
Twitter

@wjt_fennecfox

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