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97.
Julian forced himself to steady his breathing.
"Were you ‌‌‌truly prepared to throw away your life for someone like Zahidra? Is your existence worth so little to you?"
"It's my life. I do as I please with what's mine—what business is it of yours? Besides, if that one gesture wins ‌‌the Emperor's favor, ‌‌‌then it's done. And it's ‌‌‌‌‌‌not as though the Emperor will kill me on the spot, so why are you being so sensitive ‌‌about it?"
"That's enough? Have you always been this selfish? Your life is no longer yours alone. Don't you ever think of those who would grieve if you were gone?"
As though imagining that very scene, Julian dragged a hand across his face, twisted in despair.
Rebecca's heart trembled at the sorrow glistening in his eyes.
Yet Rebecca stubbornly raised her voice.
"I've always been selfish. This is who I am! Don't confine me to the mold you've created. And I told you before—for the sake of vengeance, I'll do anything. This is no different."
"If you're dead, revenge means nothing."
"No. At least to me, it means everything!"
Rebecca's cry pierced the air, and then she cast her gaze downward. Her lips pressed shut with stubborn resolve.
Once again, she retreated into a world Julian could not reach.
I was ready to be honest, yet she clung to her secrets.
It was like an endless game of breath-holding, and Julian felt maddened by the futility of it all.
"Damn it!"
As Rebecca's silence stretched on, Julian spat out a curse and kicked at a stone.
His violent kick sent dust spiraling into the air.
Suddenly, the wind sweeping across the meadow erased all trace of it. ‌‌
The wind swept through the vast Reed Field, bending the mature stalks in its wake.
As the reeds swayed gracefully, Rebecca's heart too was tossed about like a small boat caught in a tempest.
'Those who would grieve ‌‌‌‌if ‌‌‌I were gone...'
Julian's words had cast a stone into the still waters ‌‌of her heart.
The small ripples he created spread outward in concentric circles, growing ever ‌‌larger.
She had believed she possessed nothing.
Surely there was nothing to lose. That was why Rebecca had recklessly charged forward, eyes fixed only ahead.
Her family, Kanna, Croa, the people of the Lavonne Salon, and Julian—tearing at the reeds with barely suppressed fury—all flickered before her eyes.
Somewhere along the way, she had gained so much.
"Rebecca...?"
Julian, his face drained of all color, entered her blurred vision.
"Don't tell me you're crying?"
Julian dropped the bundle of reeds he'd been clutching and urgently grasped Rebecca's shoulders with both hands.
Tears streamed down Rebecca's cheeks.
Rebecca flinched and rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand.
"What? Why am I crying? I'm ‌‌‌not crying. I, I must have gotten dust in my eyes."
Yet contrary to her words, Rebecca's tears would not stop.
Deep regret bloomed in Julian's eyes.
The fact that he ‌‌had made Rebecca sad caused his jaw to tremble uncontrollably.
"Did, did I upset you by raising my voice? I'm sorry. ‌‌Rebecca. I didn't realize you were risking your life like that... No. I'm just sorry. I was wrong. So please, don't ‌‌cry. Please."
Fearing Rebecca would suffocate on her own tears, Julian pulled her into his embrace.
Her tears resembled those that had burst forth from his mother in the moments before her death.
His mother had endured a terrible existence without ever shedding a single tear.
Then came the day when that mother embraced Julian for ‌‌‌the first time and wept.
Had she sensed her own end approaching? Her ‌‌‌tears were saturated with regret ‌and ‌‌longing.
'Leaving you... leaving you behind, and I...'
After ‌‌‌‌weeping for what seemed ‌‌an eternity, his mother whispered into his ear with a voice as faint as a dying flame.
'Julian. Never fall in love.' ‌‌‌
With those words, she died before his eyes.
Young Julian watched in silence as his mother's spirit departed.
The unreality of it all left him incapable of even feeling sorrow. ‌‌
They had never shared many memories together—theirs was not a deeply bonded relationship.
Her absence changed nothing in his daily life.
Yet the sensation of her body growing cold in his arms remained vivid even now.
For hours, Julian sat alone in the darkened room, cradling his mother's skeletal corpse as it stiffened.
Julian held Rebecca with a grip that seemed to crumble with desperation.
His mother's tears had contained a reluctance to ‌‌‌leave ‌‌‌life behind.
Rebecca's tears now ‌‌held the same weight.
Julian understood instinctively: one day, she too would die like his mother.
"Don't die... ‌don't die. Rebecca..."
Rebecca, watching Julian's shoulders tremble violently, simply shut her eyes tight.
'But Julian, I must die. I must die for ‌‌‌‌you.'
There was only ‌‌one way to break the curse of the Duke of Johannes.
A complete sacrifice from one whose veins carried no blood of ‌Johannes.
Croa's body, it was said, carried even the faintest trace of House of Johannes blood.
That was why, in his previous life, he had been unable to break Julian's curse.
There would ‌‌‌be no shortage of people willing to throw away their lives for money, but the word 'complete' ‌‌was the obstacle.
According to Croa's explanation, one had to surrender their life with a pure heart, solely for the Duke of Johannes.
She found it a cruel whim, but there was no helping it. Everything the gods did was like this.
A mere human could only obey the will of the divine.
In Julian's trembling ‌‌‌‌embrace, Rebecca squeezed her eyes shut.
Rebecca believed that once her revenge was complete, she would have no attachment to life.
And so she thought she could gladly offer the remainder of her ‌‌‌existence for Julian, who had helped her.
Therefore, Rebecca was confident that no one was more suited than herself to break his ‌‌curse.
"Julian..."
Yet the warmth of his body, transmitted through their pressed chests, anchored her in place.
Rebecca cradled Julian's face in both hands. As she looked at him, her heart seemed to plummet.
Julian's eyes were wet. His golden irises gleamed like a ‌wheat field after rain.
Rebecca's own eyes trembled violently as she beheld the droplets clinging to his long lashes.
He was weeping. For her alone.
The man who had been as unyielding as stone was shedding tears.
There was no reason for him to ‌‌‌be so shaken by her tears.
Yet his inexplicable ‌sorrow moved Rebecca.
'How dare I... love you?'
Rebecca gently wiped Julian's face.
Julian kept his eyes closed, ‌‌‌‌pressing his face against her hand.
Her palm grew damp with his tears.
If she was going to die anyway, why not love him freely until the end?
Perhaps by pushing him away, she had ‌‌only made him more desperate for her.
Perhaps burning with love and then leaving when he tired of her would be easier.
The fortress Rebecca had built around her heart began to crumble with just a few tears.
"Rebecca, your life is not worthless."
Julian spoke softly, as if to accept her resolve.
With those words, Rebecca realized she could no longer refuse him.
As day gives way to night, as heavy clouds bring rain, as ebb and flow exist together, loving him had already become unstoppable.
Loving him was no longer something she could abandon simply by denying it.
The emotion that had been seeping in gradually transformed into a deep, fathomless sea that swallowed her whole.
She knew she would drown, ‌‌unable even to breathe, yet she did not swim away.
No—she could not.
Because his beautiful eyes shone in the palm of her hand,
because she no longer had it in her to torment the heart that beat only for her.
Rebecca reached out.
Julian eagerly fell into her embrace. And Rebecca pressed ‌‌‌‌her lips to his.
Instead of words she could never speak aloud—that she loved him—she traced his beautiful lips.
Like that day when he had comforted her, when rain fell in torrents, ‌Rebecca poured a burning kiss upon him.
Knowing it would be her ruin, Rebecca surrendered to Julian.
Like ‌‌‌some foolish woman who coveted the forbidden fruit, Rebecca consumed him.
Julian cradled Rebecca's head in his hands.
He surrendered his body to ‌‌‌‌her rhythm.
Following her lead, ‌‌‌his body ‌‌‌soon collapsed into the Reed Field.
Lying upon the rigid reeds, Rebecca gazed up at the sky suspended between day and night. ‌‌‌‌
Beneath that ‌‌‌vast expanse, Julian looked down at her.
Rebecca quietly took in his flushed face.
Beneath the brilliantly beautiful sky, what she had dreamed of, what she imagined every night, was happening.
Rebecca whispered into Julian's ‌‌ear.
Her words ‌‌were sweet as a fleeting dream.
"Kiss me... kiss me, Julian."

Julian's eyes widened momentarily at Rebecca's words before he brought his passion-filled lips to hers.
He kissed her rounded forehead and the delicate tip of her nose, small as an acorn.
Then he traced along her ‌‌‌‌jawline to her neck, and pressed his lips against the white valley of her collarbone that was beginning to peek through.
"Ah...."
Rebecca released a shallow moan.
She had heard much about ‌‌such exquisite pleasure existing in this world.
Yet she had believed it was something ‌‌‌she would never experience in her lifetime.
But now she felt it unmistakably. Her own face, radiant with joy, was reflected in his brilliant golden eyes.
They had not yet ‌‌‌ventured near the line they must not cross.
Yet Rebecca's waist bent beneath the intoxicating foreplay, so rapturous that she thought it would be acceptable to die in this very moment.
* * *
"One million twenty-one... one million twenty-two...."
Croa watched with displeasure as Julian performed push-ups in the dead of night, stifling a yawn.
"One million? You've only done a hundred, my lord."
At Croa's words, Julian sprang to his feet.
Seeing him brush the dirt from his hands, Croa reflexively flinched.
She wondered what harsh command he might issue over her complaint, but Julian was smiling broadly.
"Is that so? I must have been mistaken for a moment. The warm-up is complete, so shall we practice swordplay now?"
Julian picked up the wooden sword lying on the Training Ground floor and gazed up at the sky for a moment.
"The moon is quite bright tonight."
At Julian's words, Croa narrowed her eyes and looked up at the sky.
It was a cloudy ‌night where not even starlight was visible, let alone a bright moon.
Because of this, three mana stones had to be used to illuminate the Training Ground. ‌
Julian went even further, speaking with the most blissful smile in the world.
"Isn't the world beautiful? This cool night air, the sound of insects chirping. It's still a world worth living in."
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
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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