Chapter 51

“Right now, she is most likely to have internal injuries, so it would be best to take the medicine and wait for consciousness to return…”

Fernan, who put his hand on his forehead, nodded his head to signify to get out.

The doctor bowed his head and left the room, and then a deep silence fell into the room.

Julia lay neatly without a single color. Quietly, barely making a sound of breathing.

Fernan, who was sitting on the side of the bed next to her, looked at her unmoving eyelids. They had been staying here for three days, and Julia showed no sign of waking up.

Julia had a heart disease. If that was the case, there'd be no reason why the doctor couldn't get a hold of her pulse. Fernan involuntarily grabbed her slender hand.

But he couldn't feel any warmth in her icy hands.

“Julia.”

Meaninglessly, he uttered her name several times. There was a mixed feeling in the falling voice.

Julia, who was lying within his reach, did not look at him with her bright eyes as before. It was so close he couldn't even make eye contact.

Fernan reached out slowly to her face. His large hand gently stroked her cold cheek.

At that time, Julia suddenly started coughing.

The first time he saw her fine movements after coming here, Fernan's eyes saw a difference in her eyes for the first time. The dry cough followed several more times.

Fernan, looking at her chapped lips, took a cup of water on the side table in his hand.

Then he supported her shoulder with one hand, lifted her up, and tilted the glass of water to the corner of her dry mouth.

But a stream of water she couldn't swallow ran down her chin and wet the sheet.

Fernan, who was watching the scene, without hesitation, raised the glass of water to his lips.

After taking the water in his mouth, he lowered his head to Julia, and the lips of the two touched softly.

He opened a gap in her tightly closed lips to let the water through, and her white neck moved slightly. Fernan repeated it a few more times and then raised her head.

He gently wiped her wet lips with his thumb. The hand that had been wandering around the corner of her lips for a while soon returned to its place.

As soon as Julia's droopy body was laid down, the sound of coughing stopped.

The sound of her breathing began to come out clearly for the first time.

Then, slightly relieved, he looked around her eyes. Then he raised his hand and touched Julia's cheek again.

At the end of his careful touch stood a feeble tenacity that had been gone for a while.

“…  I may not be able to let you go anymore."

“… ”

"It's not too late now… Wake up, Julia.”

He muttered as if to notify an unconscious woman, and he kept muttering helplessly.

Acting like an inappropriately nice person was enough once.

Even if Julia pushed him away and resented him, he couldn't help it.

It'd be better than having her out of his sight and being in danger.

No, even that was just an excuse.

He just didn’t want to let Julia go anymore.

Even though he didn’t even deserve to have her by his side, he just wanted to hold her in his eyes like this and put her within his reach.

“… Julia.”

Fernan continued to repeat her name meaninglessly and endlessly.

He hoped that her clear and transparent eyes would open and look at him just once like before.

***

After that, Julia's condition gradually improved. Her breathing and body temperature all returned to normal.

But she still hadn't come back to her consciousness.

Only then did Fernan leave for the Empire with Julia.

She was moved to his villa, not his castle, so that the news of her return alive would not leak to the outside.

It was an old villa at the southern end of the Grand Duchy, which had hardly been visited.

“Why did His Highness bring her here?”

Adrian, one of Fernan's lieutenants, murmured, staring blankly over the villa.

Lloyd, who was standing next to him, answered with a gentle tone.

"He must have considered it after the waking of Her Highness."

The villa was located in a quiet mountain village away from the city center.

A clear and transparent landscape suitable for a winter cottage with a vast field and blue lake beyond the villa.

Perhaps, the atmosphere was very similar to the small town in the Holy Land where Julia lived.

“Adrian, how has Her Highness been in the Holy Land?”

Lloyd, who had his elbow on the railing, suddenly asked a question.

Adrian was one of Fernan's pawns planted in the Holy Kingdom.

It was Adrian who had been faithfully reporting the current situation of Julia, and it was also Adrian who escorted her monastery this time.

“It is exactly what it says in the report. She had a very monotonous life.”

The monastery where Julia lived was easy to access, so Adrian didn't have to hide.

Pretending to be a believer and attending Mass, it wasn't difficult for Adrian to get to know her.

"Do you know anything about her personal life?"

Lloyd asked cautiously. He was wondering if there might be a story that could be of some help to his lord.

The biggest issue right now was after Julia woke up.

Will she be able to accept this situation?

Even if it was trivial, it would be better off getting information that would change her mind.

Adrian narrowed his eyes slowly and traced his memory.

“Her personal life… Oh, it’s not a big deal, but Her Highness seemed to be good with her hands.”

"Handcrafts?"

“Yes, there were things like wreaths made of flowers in front of the monastery. She made them all.”

"Really?"

Lloyd listened carefully to Adrian's words.

He thought it would be good to let his lord know to make a separate flower garden for her.

"Um, and there’s something I didn't report to His Highness…"

Adrian tapped his chin, trying to relive his memories, and whispered, muffled his voice.

"In fact, I heard that the relationship between the priest and Her Highness is unusual".

"What?”

As Lloyd shrieked with a startled look, Adrian continued to speak as if he was trying to catch up.

“Hey, I was just picking up what people were saying! It was not reported due to doubts about its credibility.”

Adrian closed his mouth late, perhaps because he thought he shouldn't have said it. However, Lloyd was already struggling with a serious face.

‘Should I tell His Highness about this? It's just a rumor, but they wouldn’t talk if it was nothing…’

But even before his troubles could be over, Lloyd felt an unexpected presence.

When he glanced back with a hardened face, he saw Fernan, who had been silently standing behind them for some time.

Lloyd, who had almost screamed in surprise, but his lip.

"I, Your Highness, since when…"

"What?"

Only then did Adrian realize Fernan's existence and belatedly shouted ‘Ahhh!’

Unlike the two people who were surprised as if they had seen a ghost, Fernan had an expressionless face.

However, as soon as they saw that the bright forehead gradually narrowed, they realized that Fernan had been listening to their conversation from the beginning.

"Keep going."

Soon, Fernan nodded and stared at Adrian.

Although his voice was indifferent, his deep feelings were revealed in his slightly distorted eyes.

“How was the relationship between the priest and Julia?”

“Oh, that’s…”

Frowning, Adrian looked at Lloyd as if asking for help, but Lloyd only shrugged her shoulders, avoiding her gaze.

Adrian had no choice but to calmly answer the lord's questions that followed as if being interrogated while crying.

***

Tock, tock.

The intermittent sound of water drops tickled her ears.

Julia lifted her eyes slowly, feeling the faint sense of finding her place.

Between her half-opened eyelids, her blue eyes gleamed dryly.

Julia's gaze stared blankly at the ceiling, and then she turned to the familiar face sitting next to her.

“…Your Grace?”

The woman who was soaking the towels in water by the bed got up in surprise. Julia's eyes, staring at her blankly, slowly began to widen.

“Melissa..?"

It was Melissa.  Her hair was a little longer than what Julia remembered, but her large features and brown eyes were definitely the Melissa she knew.

Julia thought for a moment and wondered if she was dreaming.

"Your Grace…. Oh my God. I thought you’d never wake up…”

Melissa wept and grabbed Julia’s hand.

However, Julia did not understand her situation, and stared blankly at Melissa.

‘Why is Melissa here?  Where the hell am I ….?’

Trying to catch up with her hazy mind, Julia traced her last memories.

She was obviously on her way to the lord’s mansion for a garden party.

Julia's eyes, which had been immersed in her thoughts for a while, began to tremble greatly.

Because she had no memory of what happened to her after that.

Riding on a carriage to the Lord’s mansion while watching the snowflakes fall through the window was her last memory.