I Will Disappear, Grand Duke

 

—

Cedric’s face darkened momentarily as he looked at Julia, who was murmuring.

“This is the Helios Monastery. You came here yourself, Julia.”

“……”

“Do you not remember?”

Julia slowly got up, trying to recall how she got there. As she did, a pain that felt like her entire body was shattering overcame her.

“…Ah!”

Julia curled up and began to tremble violently. The pain starting from her heart spread throughout her body, making it difficult to breathe. It felt like something hot was spreading from her chest. Clutching her turbulent chest, Julia struggled to catch her breath.

Cedric urgently grabbed her hand and tried to channel his healing power into her. However, the pain did not subside. Watching her tremble, Cedric muttered anxiously.

“What on earth happened to you…”

Cedric’s gaze fell on her body. There were no visible external injuries. If it were an internal injury, his healing powers should have been able to treat it. Given that even his healing was ineffective, something significant must have happened to her on the way here.

Cedric recalled the moments just before they parted.

“If you cross the southern border of the Grand Duchy, you’ll reach the Illumion territory. There’s a place called the Helios Monastery there. If you escape from them, come there. I’ll be waiting.”

With those words, they had parted, and Cedric had spent a day evading knights. After that, he had safely arrived at the monastery and waited for Julia. However, as time passed, she did not appear.

A whole month went by. Cedric suspected that she had been caught and returned to her original place.

However, to his surprise, Julia was found collapsed in front of the monastery the very next day.

“Ah, ugh…”

Erasing his memories, Cedric looked at her as she groaned and bit her lip. Unable to do anything, he just held her trembling hand. Desperately, she grabbed his hand back.

“Hah, hah…”

Julia, who had been suffering, slowly lifted her tear-soaked gaze. The pain seemed to be easing, as a faint light began to return to her hazy eyes.

Cedric waited patiently until her breathing stabilized before he asked worriedly,

“Julia, what happened?”

At his question, Julia finally began to recall her memories with difficulty. The last thing she remembered was throwing herself off a cliff and sinking deeply into the cold river. The icy water had crashed against her body, and she had soon lost consciousness. She had no memories after that.

“I tried to escape by jumping off a cliff. How I got here, I don’t know…”

Explaining haltingly, Julia pressed her forehead. This place was an estate adjacent to the Grand Duchy. However, the cliff from which she had jumped was far from the fortress.

Cedric listened calmly to her disjointed words, his gaze thoughtful. Then he asked abruptly,

“Did you lose the pendant?”

“…Yes.”

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t lost but taken by Fernan. However, Julia didn’t feel the need to add that.

Upon hearing her answer, Cedric seemed to remember something and hesitantly spoke,

“I think… When you fell from the cliff, you might have instinctively used your holy power.”

“……”

“So, you used your holy power directly without the pendant.”

If she had protected herself with healing power and used her mobility power to move to another place at once, it could explain the situation.

The question was how she could use her holy power without a medium, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. Given the amount of holy power used to save her life, her body was undoubtedly severely damaged.

“Julia, did you jump off the cliff thinking you could survive?”

“……”

“Or was it….”

Cedric, looking anxious, couldn’t finish his question. Julia’s pale lips trembled slightly.

“That…”

Julia started to answer but then slowly blinked her eyes. In truth, she had thought she might die. She might have even thought it wouldn’t matter if she did. Returning to Fernan and living as a hollow Grand Duchess was more hellish to her.

Returning to the detested Marquis’s daughter was more terrifying than death.

Reading the answer in her silence, Cedric hurriedly changed the subject.

“Julia, please rest a bit more. Once you’ve recovered, we need to leave the empire.”

According to the messenger bird that arrived yesterday from Mateus, the Grand Duke was currently searching for Julia everywhere. Since this place wasn’t far from the Grand Duchy, leaving the empire as soon as possible was the priority.

* * *

Even after visiting the temple, Fernan did not stop searching for Julia.

Mateus had said he couldn’t be certain of her survival. That meant he was considering the possibility that Julia might be dead.

However, Fernan blocked out all negative thoughts and focused solely on finding traces of Julia.

Spring arrived swiftly during this time.

News of Julia’s disappearance reached the capital around that time.

The first to rush to the Grand Duchy was, of course, her biological father, Marquis Elodie.

“What nonsense is this! How could my daughter just suddenly disappear?”

The marquis, who had come to the Grand Ducal castle, shouted in shock.

The detailed circumstances were not yet known, so Julia’s status was simply marked as missing.

Lloyd, looking exhausted, calmly dealt with the marquis.

“Your Excellency, I understand you are shocked, but please calm down. The Grand Duke’s soldiers are currently searching the entire territory for Her Grace….”

“The Grand Duke! The Grand Duke must be hiding my daughter on purpose! Otherwise, there’s no way that quiet child would just disappear!”

The marquis, his neck reddened with fury, kept shouting. Then he grabbed Lloyd by the collar and yelled threateningly,

“Bring the Grand Duke here immediately! Right now!”

“Your Excellency, His Grace is searching for Her Grace every day. Please calm down and wait….”

“My daughter is missing! How can I calm down!”

The marquis couldn’t contain his anger and panted heavily. His face, red as if about to burst, gradually returned to its original color.

Pushing Lloyd away irritably, the marquis started to storm around the castle like a madman.

In the marquis’s mind, Fernan had deliberately hidden Julia. No, he might have erased her without anyone knowing.

After all, he had been dissatisfied with this marriage from the beginning!

“Damn it!”

The enraged marquis began throwing around the decorative items in the lobby. Terrified servants fled in fear, and Lloyd hastily tried to stop the marquis.

Finally managing to drag the marquis to the drawing room, Lloyd locked the door behind them.

The servants hurriedly began to clean up the mess left in the disheveled lobby.

Fernan returned the next day upon receiving the report.

“Your Grace, please head to the drawing room.”

Lloyd, looking like he had aged ten years overnight, reported weakly. Fernan, without a word, opened the drawing room door.

“You finally show up! My daughter…!”

The marquis, about to leap up and shout, hesitated for a moment.

He was momentarily struck speechless by Fernan’s condition, which looked dire enough to forget his anger.

Fernan sat down and stared at the marquis with empty eyes. The marquis, narrowing his eyes, slowly sat down as well.

“…So, have you found Julia? She’s been missing for two months, and now you’re just pretending to look for her?”

Fernan continued to stare blankly at the marquis, as if not hearing him. The marquis, annoyed by his vacant gaze, raised his voice.

“Answer me! Did you deliberately drive my daughter away? Are you trying to dissolve this marriage and oppose His Majesty?”

“……”

“I will report everything to His Majesty! If you think you’ll be abandoned if this marriage falls apart…!”

Fernan’s dark eyes lifted to quietly observe the marquis.

The marquis’s concern for Julia was nowhere to be found. He was only angry about the situation and fearful of losing his own status.

A murderous intent slowly filled Fernan’s empty face.

Why didn’t I kill that bastard sooner?

When he first discovered Julia was the marquis’s illegitimate child… no, he should have killed him immediately upon learning he had struck Julia.

He had been so distracted by her talk of divorce that he forgot the sequence of events.

Yes, that bastard should have been killed first.