I Will Disappear, Grand Duke

That night, they sat on a small sofa on one side of the bedroom and talked endlessly.

 They just sat next to each other and chatted, but none of them fell asleep as if even that time was precious.

 “YourHighness.  Actually, I have known you for a long time.”

 Julia carefully spoke.  Looking at him with anxious eyes, he showed no sign of surprise.

 Rather, he just smiled and replied plainly.

 "I know. That you were the little girl who was crying that day.”

 “… Oh, did you know?”

 Julia opened her eyes wide, looking at him slightly startled, Fernan slowly closed his eyes and then opened them.

 Julia will never remember her.  That they had already talked about their first meeting.

 "But  … you said you didn't remember at first."

 Julia muttered with a puzzled look on her face.

 A while back, when they met to proceed with the wedding, she asked him if he remembered her. But he only answered coldly.

“You must have seen the wrong person.”

 At that time, looking at the cold-looking man, she recognized that she was the only one who valued the memories.

To her surprise, Julia thought that this friendly man in front of her now and the man at that time were completely different. 

"How did you come to be remembered?"

 Julia opened her mouth again as if she was genuinely curious.  Fernan thought for a moment to answer, and then gently looked at her.

  “I went to the Imperial Palace and it suddenly came to mind. The girl who was sitting in the closet crying.”

 In fact, even these days, Fernan sometimes recalled the child who was crying sadly in his dreams.

And he overlapped the child with her who cried because of him one day. When he woke up like that, the remorse of the past would hit him again.

  "Did you always cry alone like that?"

 Fernan asked in a calm voice. He already knew that her past wasn't glamorous and easy.

 But he had never heard the story directly from her  mouth.  Julia blinked her eyes slowly, and then she shook her head slightly.

 "No. I wasn't the kind of kid who cried as often as I did back then."

 Of course, she was lonely because there was no one on her side, and she used to cringe at the harsh gazes and words that fell for no reason from the Marquis and his wife. But from some point on, she stopped crying so often.

  The hurt and loneliness were the same, but she remembered the friendly voice that whispered to her every time it happened.

 “Don’t cry.  I'll stay with you.”

 Oddly enough, when she remembered that voice, tears would come out, but it would stop right away.  Julia looked at Fernan in front of her.

 She felt glad to see this man again.

 "Your Highness was the first person to tell me not to cry and stay with me."

 To Julia, who was separated from her mother and was left alone with no one on her side in the world.

  The day they met was remembered as the only warmly shining past.

 "I guess that's why. After that, I didn't cry often."

 Fernan was silent for a long time as she smiled slightly.  It was because he was the one who made Julia cry again, who had stopped crying often because of her memories of that day.

 He loved this time with Julia beyond words.  But there were too many emotions that weighed him down to fully accept it.

 Julia, who lost her memory, often smiled next to him, and said that she was happy just to be with him.

 That fact inevitably gave him ambivalence.

 If it were her original self, she would never have smiled so flawlessly.

 Julia looked at him silently for a long time, then slowly reached out her hand.

 And she held his hand on her lap.

 “I’m glad you remembered it, because it’s not just a memory I know.”

 With a calm voice, Julia rested her shoulder on his shoulder.

 Then she slowly lowered her eyelids with an extremely relaxed face.

 As if she was holding back her sleepiness, her eyes soon closed completely.

 Fernan looked at her long, drooping eyelashes and patted her clasped hands.

 After all, it was late dawn.  The inside of the room, where only the moonlight was dimly lit, gradually subsided.

 After a little while, Fernan picked her up and walked over to her bed.

 As he gently laid her on the bed and covered her with a blanket, her delicate body curled up a little.

 Fernan lightly stroked her cheek as he felt her breathing coming from within the distance.

 ****

 After that, a few days went by without incident.

 However, some time ago, strange letters began to arrive at the castle.

 The sender was unknown.  It was also unclear who the letter was referring to.

 [Please bring my daughter who lives in the castle to Vanosa.]

 Two letters had arrived in a week, and they were constantly looking for a daughter.

 However, since the sender did not write down her daughter's name or information, the letter circulated around the annex where the servants were staying.

 A shabby envelope, an unclear sender, and even the content.

 No matter how you look at it, it was not a letter addressed to the owner and his wife, so it was taken from the good of the servants.

 However, among the many servants who lived in the castle, the letters were seldom found.

 “Hmm….”

 The letter was also delivered to Judy, who recently became Julia's exclusive maid.

 It was time for her to attend Julia's bath, so Judy shoved the letter into her pocket without even reading it.

 So Judy headed to the second floor, where Julia’s bedroom was.

 “Hello, Your Grace.”

 As she greeted her brightly, Julia greeted Judy with a small smile as usual.

 She was a friendly owner.  Although she was an exclusive maid, Julia has always treated Judy without fault, even though she was only a subordinate.

 So Judy was also doing her best to serve her.

 “Is the water temperature okay?”

 "Yes, It’s fine."

 Judy wiped Julia’s body gently with a clean cloth.

Judy was a maid who hadn't been here long.

 So she heard that Julia had been missing for a long time and that she had only recently returned.

 Besides, she was ordered to act accordingly because Julia was now lost her memory.

 When Julia didn't know anything about her, Judy was afraid Julia would ask questions, but luckily she didn't.

 Julia was basically friendly, but she wasn't a very talkative owner.

 “Now I’ll bring your gown.”

 After attending her bath with sincerity, Judy brought her robe and put it on Julia.

 Just then, something fell from Judy's pocket, who was tying the laces of her gown behind her back.

 The piece of paper that fell silently on the floor was kicked by Judy's busily moving feet and pushed to one side.

 “Well, then, I’ll leave.  Call me anytime if you need anything.”

 “Yes, thank you.”

 After serving, Judy bowed her head and walked out of the bedroom.

 As Julia was crossing the bedroom to open the window, she suddenly noticed something that had fallen in front of the mirror.

 She got closer and picked it up.

 “It’s like a letter…..”

 There was no envelope, only the contents were laid out on a piece of paper that had something written on it.

 Julia, who thought that Judy had dropped it and had to return it, suddenly caught the writing on the slightly opened paper.

 The words "Vanosa," clearly caught her eye.

Julia, who gently flinched, opened the letter, knowing it was rude.

  [Please bring my daughter who lives in that castle to Vanosa.]

 After reading the brief content at once, she turned the letter back and forth. However, no matter how she looked at it, the sender was not listed.

 Julia soon lowered the letter in her hand slowly.

 Vanosa.  It was a name that she knew well.

 This was because when she was young, she lived with her mother in a small town called Vanosa.

 She had lived with her mother, who worked as a florist in a downtown area there until she was seven years old.

 "…no way."

 Julia's hand trembled slightly.  Julia, who had stood still for a moment, hurriedly ran out of her bedroom and called Judy back.