Chapter 91
That night, they sat on a small sofa in one corner of the bedroom and talked for hours.
Although they were merely sitting side by side, conversing, neither of them seemed to want to sleep, as if they both treasured the time spent together.
“Your Majesty… actually, I’ve known you for a long time.”
Yulia hesitated before speaking. She looked at him with a nervous gaze, but he showed no signs of surprise. Instead, he smiled softly and responded calmly.
“I know. You’re the child who was crying that day.”
“…Oh, you knew?”
Yulia’s eyes widened in surprise. Seeing her look so surprised, Fernan slowly closed his eyes and then opened them again.
Yulia probably didn’t remember. They had already talked about their first meeting before.
“But… you said you didn’t remember at first,” Yulia murmured, her face showing confusion.
There had been a time when they were discussing their marriage preparations, and Yulia had asked him if he remembered her.
But his response had been ice-cold.
“You must have mistaken me for someone else.”
At that time, seeing that cold man, Yulia realized that the memory was precious only to her.
Now, Yulia thought that the man before her now, so warm and affectionate, was completely different from the man she had met back then.
“How did you remember me?” Yulia asked again, genuinely curious.
Fernan paused for a moment, then slowly answered.
“I remembered when I visited the palace. I remembered the child who had been crying alone in the small room.”
In truth, even now, Fernan occasionally dreamed of that child who had cried so sorrowfully.
And sometimes, he saw the image of that child overlapping with the woman before him, the one who had cried because of him.
When he woke from those dreams, feelings of regret would rush over him once more.
“Did you cry alone all the time?” Fernan asked in a quiet voice. He already knew her past had been difficult.
However, he had never heard the details from her own lips.
Yulia blinked slowly and then shook her head gently.
“No. I wasn’t the kind of child who cried often, like back then.”
Of course, she had been lonely, with no one to turn to, shrinking away from harsh stares and words that came without reason.
But at some point, she stopped crying so much.
The pain and loneliness remained, but each time, she would remember the kind voice that whispered to her.
“Don’t cry. I’ll be here for you.”
Strangely, whenever she thought of that voice, her tears would almost stop before they even started.
Yulia gazed at Fernan before her. She was glad to have met him again.
“The first person who ever told me not to cry and that they’d stay with me was you, Your Majesty.”
After parting with her birth mother and being left all alone in the world, the day she met him became the only warm memory of her past.
“That’s probably why,” she continued softly, “I stopped crying so often after that.”
Fernan fell into a long silence as he looked at her smiling face.
It was because of him that Yulia, who had stopped crying so often with just that memory, now found herself crying once again.
He couldn’t express how much he cherished this time spent with her, yet the emotions pressing down on him were overwhelming.
Yulia, with her memory lost, smiled often and said that just being with him made her happy.
That fact filled him with mixed emotions.
The original her would never have smiled so freely.
Yulia watched him in silence for a while before slowly reaching out her hand.
She gently took his hand that was resting on his lap.
“I’m glad you remember me. It’s not just a memory I have to myself…”
With a soft voice, Yulia leaned her head on his shoulder.
Then, with an undeniably peaceful expression, she slowly closed her eyes.
She must have been trying to stay awake, as her eyelids soon closed completely.
Fernan watched her long eyelashes flutter before gently stroking her hand.
Before long, the time had become late into the night. The room, only lit by moonlight, slowly darkened further.
Fernan waited a little longer before gently lifting her in his arms and carrying her to the bed.
He gently laid her down on the bed, covering her with a blanket, and her delicate body curled up slightly.
As he heard her soft breathing beside him, Fernan lightly caressed her cheek.
For the next few days, nothing unusual happened, and peaceful days continued.
However, recently, strange letters began arriving at the castle.
The sender was unknown. The content of the letters was unclear as well.
“Please bring my daughter, who is staying in the castle. This is Banosa Province.”
In the span of a week, two letters arrived, both requesting the same thing: to bring the sender’s daughter.
However, there was no mention of the daughter’s name or any identifying details, so the letters were passed around among the servants’ quarters.
The envelopes were shabby, the sender’s address unclear, and the content vague.
It was clear that these letters were not addressed to the master couple but were instead collected by the servants.
Yet, among the many servants in the castle, none could be identified as the person mentioned in the letter.
“Hmm…”
One of the letters eventually reached Judy, who had recently become Yulia’s personal maid.
It was time for Yulia’s bath, so Judy didn’t even bother reading the letter before shoving it into her pocket.
Hastily, Judy went up to the second floor, where her mistress’s bedroom was.
“Good morning, Your Majesty.”
Yulia greeted Judy with a small smile, as always.
She was a kind mistress, treating even the lowest servant like Judy without any airs.
Because of this, Judy did her best to serve her.
“Is the water temperature okay?”
“Yes, it’s fine.”
Judy gently wiped her mistress’s body with a clean cloth, and the sound of water splashing softly echoed in the bathroom.
Judy had not been a maid for long.
She had learned from the other servants that Yulia had been missing for a long time but had recently returned.
Moreover, Yulia had lost her memory, and she had been instructed to act accordingly.
At first, Judy had worried that Yulia might ask many questions or interrogate her about her past, but fortunately, that had not happened.
Yulia was fundamentally warm-hearted, but not particularly talkative.
“I’ll put on your gown now.”
After attending to her mistress’s bath, Judy hurriedly brought the gown and dressed her.
At that moment, something fell from Judy’s arms as she tied the gown’s strings behind Yulia.
The small piece of paper landed silently on the floor, and Judy’s feet kicked it aside as she moved.
“Well, then, I’ll go now. If you need anything, please call me anytime.”
“Yes, thank you.”
After bowing deeply, Judy quickly left the bedroom.
As Yulia crossed the room to open the window, she noticed something lying in front of the mirror.
She approached it and picked it up.
“It looks like a letter…”
Without an envelope, the piece of paper only had writing on it.
Thinking it might be something Judy had dropped, Yulia considered returning it but was suddenly drawn to the writing on the paper.
The word “Banosa” caught her attention.
Yulia’s eyes widened slightly, and though she knew it was a breach of privacy, she opened the letter.
“Please bring my daughter, who is staying in the castle. This is…”
Reading the brief contents of the letter, Yulia turned it over and examined it, but there was still no sender’s name.
Yulia slowly lowered the letter in her hands.
Banosa. That was a place she knew well.
She had lived in a small village called Banosa with her birth mother when she was young.
Until she was about seven, she had lived there with her mother, who ran a flower shop in the busy area of the village.
“…Could it be?”
Yulia’s hand trembled slightly. She stood still for a moment, then hurriedly ran out of the bedroom to call Judy back.
That night, they sat on a small sofa at the side of the bedroom and talked for hours.
Though they were only sitting side by side, talking, neither of them easily fell asleep, as if even that time together was precious.
“Your Highness, actually, I’ve known you for a long time.”
Yulia spoke carefully. Her gaze was anxious as she looked at him, but there was no sign of surprise from him.
Instead, he just smiled softly and responded in a casual tone.
“I know. You were the child crying that day.”
“…Ah, you knew?”
Yulia asked with wide eyes, clearly surprised. Watching her, Fernan slowly closed his eyes before opening them again.
Yulia wouldn’t remember that they had already talked about their first meeting.
“But… you said you didn’t remember at first,” Yulia mumbled with a puzzled expression.
Once, when they had met to discuss their marriage, Yulia had asked him if he remembered her.
But his reply had been cold.
“You must have mistaken me for someone else.”
Looking at that cold man back then, Yulia realized that she had been the only one who cherished that memory.
Now, it seemed to her that the man before her was completely different from the one back then.
“How did you remember?” Yulia asked again, genuinely curious.
Fernan paused, as though thinking over his answer, before he slowly raised his eyelids and spoke calmly.
“I remembered after going to the palace. The child who was crying alone in a corner.”
In fact, Fernan still occasionally dreamt of that child crying bitterly.
And sometimes, in those dreams, he saw the girl who had cried because of him, overlapping with that child.
When he woke up, those lingering regrets from the past would overwhelm him again.
“Did you cry alone like that all the time?” Fernan asked in a soft voice. He already knew that her past had been difficult.
But he had never heard the story directly from her.
Yulia blinked slowly before shaking her head slightly.
“No. I wasn’t the kind of child who cried that often.”
Of course, she had felt lonely, with no one to turn to, shrinking under harsh gazes and words that fell on her without reason.
But at some point, she stopped crying as often.
The pain and loneliness remained, but every time, she would recall the gentle voice that whispered to her.
“Don’t cry. I’ll stay with you.”
Strangely, when she remembered that voice, her tears would almost stop, as though they had been held back by that comforting memory.
Yulia gazed at Fernan in front of her. She felt grateful to meet this man again.
“You were the first person to tell me not to cry and that you’d stay with me.”
After parting with her mother and being left all alone in the world, meeting him was the one memory that shone warmly in Yulia’s past.
“That’s probably why,” she added with a slight smile. “I stopped crying as much after that.”
Fernan fell silent for a long moment as he looked at her smiling face.
It was because it was he who had made Yulia, who had stopped crying, cry again.
He found it difficult to express just how much he cherished this time with her.
But the emotions that weighed him down were so overwhelming that he couldn’t fully accept them.
Yulia, who had lost her memory, smiled often beside him and even said that she was happy just being with him.
That fact gave him mixed feelings, as he knew that the real her would never have smiled so freely.
Yulia quietly observed his long silence and then slowly reached out her hand.
She took his hand that was resting on his knee.
“I’m glad you remember. It’s not just a memory I hold by myself…”
With a soft voice, Yulia leaned gently on his shoulder.
She then slowly closed her eyelids with an expression of pure comfort.
It seemed she had been holding back sleep, as her eyes soon closed entirely.
Fernan stared at her long lashes before softly caressing the hand she was holding.
Before long, it was late in the night. The room, lit only by the faint moonlight, gradually darkened further.
Only after some time did Fernan finally embrace her and approach the bed.
He gently laid her down on the bed, covered her with the blanket, and her fragile body curled up slightly.
He could hear the faint sound of her breathing in her sleep, and he gently stroked her cheek.
The days passed quietly without incident.
However, recently, strange letters began arriving at the castle.
The sender was unknown. The contents of the letters were also unclear.
[Please bring my daughter, who is staying at your castle. This is the Vanosa region.]
In the span of one week, two letters arrived, both urgently seeking the sender’s daughter.
But with no name or any other information about the daughter, the letters circulated through the servants’ quarters.
The shabby envelope, the unclear sender, and the content of the letter all seemed suspicious.
It was clear the letters weren’t intended for the master and mistress of the castle, so they were collected by the servants.
But among the many servants, no one could confirm any child matching the description in the letters.
“Hmm…”
The letters were eventually passed to Judy, who had recently become Yulia’s personal maid.
It was time for her to assist Yulia with her bath, so Judy did not bother reading the letter but stuffed it into her pocket.
She quickly made her way up to the second floor, where Yulia’s bedroom was located.
“Good morning, Your Highness.”
With a bright greeting, Yulia smiled gently, as she always did, and greeted Judy.
She was a kind mistress. Even though Judy was only a maid, she always treated her without reserve.
And so, Judy did her best to serve her.
“Is the water temperature okay?”
“Yes, it’s fine.”
Judy gently wiped Yulia’s body with a clean cloth, and the sound of water splashing softly echoed in the bathroom.
Judy had not been in the castle for long, so she had heard from other servants that Yulia had been missing for a long time and had only recently returned.
And because Yulia had lost her memory, she had been instructed to behave accordingly.
At first, Judy had worried about being asked questions or being probed, but fortunately, that hadn’t happened.
Yulia, though warm-hearted, wasn’t particularly talkative.
“I’ll put your gown on now.”
After carefully assisting with her bath, Judy quickly fetched a gown and helped Yulia into it.
At that moment, as she was tying the gown’s strings behind Yulia’s back, something fell from Judy’s pocket.
The paper fell quietly to the floor, only to be kicked aside by Judy’s busy feet.
“Then I’ll be leaving now. If you need anything, just call for me.”
“Yes, thank you.”
After bowing deeply, Judy quickly exited the room.
Yulia, crossing the room to open the window, suddenly noticed something on the floor near the mirror.
She walked over and picked it up.
“It looks like a letter…”
Without the envelope, there was only a piece of paper with something written on it.
Thinking it might be something Judy had dropped, Yulia considered returning it, but then she noticed the words on the paper.
Vanosa.
The name of the place caught her attention, and she felt a shiver at the thought.
She knew that place well.
When she was young, she had lived in a small village called Vanosa with her biological mother.
Until she was about seven, she had lived with her mother, who owned a flower shop in the bustling town of Vanosa.
“…Could it be?”
Yulia’s hand trembled slightly. For a moment, she stood frozen before quickly rushing out of the room, calling for Judy again.
