Chapter 97

Julia walked along the hallway with her head tilted.

Feeling strange, she kept looking back, and slowly returned to her bedroom.

When her plan to spend time in the study vanished, she didn't know what to do right now.

Julia sat quietly on the bed, and as she was alone in the quiet room, the letter that had made her feel uncomfortable for a while came to her mind.

The letter from Vanosa, probably from her biological mother.

Julia was secretly paying keen attention to when the letter would arrive again.

Julia, who had been immersed in her thoughts while fiddling with the bedding, finally got up.

While she was approaching the doorway to go outside to organize her thoughts, someone knocked on the door.

“Grand Duchess, this is Judy.  May I come in?"

Julia quickly gave an answer to the familiar voice coming from outside the door.

"Yes, come in."

Judy came in and bowed. In Judy's hand, there was a letter.  It was the letter that Julia had been paying attention to the whole time.

“I got another letter from Vanosa. Two of them came this time.”

Judy said as she handed Julia the letter. Julia accepted the letter immediately with a tense face.

She expected the letter would come soon, but now seeing it, she became anxious. She tore off the envelope of one of the letters in a hurry and read the contents.

The gaze passing through the letter for such a long time began to shake significantly at some point.

‘…  mother.'

Because the letter said that her mother was ill.

She said that she was ill and would not last long, and that she wrote her daughter a letter for the last time as she wanted to see her daughter's face.

Julia turned pale as if she was shocked by the unexpected content.

With her trembling hands, the other letter was also torn off, and Julia lost her composure as she read the contents.

[Olin Street in Vanosa, Building #3.]

The rest of the letter had only the address written on it. Julia bit her soft lips and looked away from the letter.

It wouldn’t have been so heartbreaking if the letter was just about her mother wanting to see her long lost daughter.

But, her mother was in critical condition……

This news came as a shock to Julia because she had only thought that her mother was doing well somewhere.

Her heart could not help but be shaken.  Because she was her mother, whom she always buried deep in her heart and secretly missed.

She couldn't ignore the news that her mother was ill.  Somehow, she had to go find her.

However…

“Can you promise me you won’t go anywhere while I’m away?”

Julia remembered the promise she had made with Fernan just yesterday.  She would not leave the castle, she had made a firm promise to him.

Somehow he seemed very anxious about her leaving the castle.

So she originally tried to wait patiently for him as he wanted.

Julia lowered her gaze worriedly. One day has passed, and he will come back three days later. She could wait for him to come back, ask permission and then leave, but then she had to tell him where she was going.

Then, there was a possibility that he would find out that she was an illegitimate child.

‘What should I do…’

While holding the letter with the address on it, Julia fell into anguish.

Of course, she believed in the sincerity Fernan had shown. Her husband, who smiled, hugged her, and whispered to her. He might already know she was illegitimate but pretended not to know.

However, that was just her guess, and it was an assumption that she couldn't be sure of completely.

Even if it was a very small possibility, if he abandoned her, Julia was not confident of enduring the future.

If his warm gaze turned cold….

Biting her lip, Julia circled around the same spot. After agonizing for a long time, she stopped in place with a heavy sigh.

She then entered the dressing room with a determined face.

She could only feel relieved if she saw her mother even for a short moment before Fernan returned.

***

Vanosa was a village in a small estate located in the middle of the imperial land.

At the end of a small busy street in town, her mother ran a flower shop.

She remembered hearing a glimpse of the store run by her maternal grandfather, that her mother took over after he passed away.  After that, her mother took her young daughter and made a living on her own.

There wasn't much that came to mind because she was so young, but at least she vividly remembered the smell of flowers from her mother.

So when Julia saw flowers, she always thought of her mother.

She recalled her old memories for a moment, and then waited to arrive at her destination.

She was in the carriage leaving for Vanosa.  Leaving the castle went smoother than expected.

When she said she would go out, several of her knights said they would follow her, but when she declined saying it was okay, they turned around obediently.

However, Julia did not notice that they were actually following me secretly.

In the carriage, which was quiet because she did not even bring her maid, Julia felt anxious and she could not keep her hand still.

At the end of such an anxious time, the wagon rattled and entered the entrance of the territory.

Julia slightly tilted the shield hanging on the window.

It must have been three hours since she left the Grand castle.

After looking out for a while, the carriage soon entered a familiar street.

A faded statue placed in a vacant lot passing through old and worn out buildings.

The memory of seeing that half-body statue of a wolf was frightening when she was a child suddenly flashed through her mind.

Finally, she arrived in her old hometown of Vanosa.

‘Building number 3 on Olin Street.'

Recalling the address, Julia saw a sign that read ‘Olin' at the entrance of the street.

Shortly thereafter, the carriage stopped.

The coachman, who had parked the carriage at the correct location, ran diligently and opened the door.

As she got off the carriage, Julia briefly looked around the sparsely populated street. Then without delay, she quickly entered building three.

The gate was open, and there seemed to be no one guarding the building.

Standing in front of the door after passing through the small yard, Julia immediately knocked on the door.

Suddenly, the door swung open from inside.  The person who opened the door was a young woman who appeared to be a servant.

The woman opened her eyes wide and soon asked in a strange voice.

“Are you the one who received the letters?  Are you Mrs. Renee's daughter?"

"Ah yes. That's right."

Julia took the letter out of her pocket and showed it to her.

The woman checked it, then gave a subtle smile as she opened the door.

"Come in. Mrs. Renee is waiting for you."

‘Renee' was Julia’s mother's name.  After hearing her mother's name from others, she realized that she was now reunited with her mother.

At the same time, she was worried about how bad her mother's health would be.

As she followed the woman up to the second floor, she heard the creaking of the old floor following her steps.

“Mrs. Renee is in there. She’s waiting for her daughter to come, so please come in.”

The woman said as she stopped in front of a room.

Julia looked at the tightly closed door, and then slowly reached out her hand.

When she grabbed the doorknob and turned it, the inside was revealed with a squeaking and rubbing sound.

On the bed at the end of the room, someone was seen lying covered in a blanket.

Julia cautiously entered the room, and at that moment, the sound of a tightly closed door slamming from behind was heard.

“….?”

While Julia reflexively turned her back, some men suddenly popped out of the large partition on both sides of her.

They grabbed and held Julia's arm tightly to stop her movements.

"Ah!"

Before she could scream in surprise, someone covered her face with a rough cloth.

While Julia, who was held on as she was, struggled helplessly, the woman lying in bed pulled down her blanket.

‘What’s this….!’

Julia looked at the woman whose face finally exposed, and Julia's eyes began to tremble violently.  It was not her mother who was lying in bed, but her stepmother, the Marchioness Elody.

“It’s been a while, Julia.”

The Marchioness spoke with a chilling voice as she slowly approached Julia, who was forced to kneel on the floor. The Marchioness then grabbed Julia’s hair with strong hands and mumbled furiously.

“You still look pretty, no wonder the Grand Duke likes you a lot.”

Suddenly the Marchioness held Julia’s hair with a stronger force and Julia frowned painfully, twisting her body.

But Julia’s struggle was gradually weakened by the men who held her shoulders and covered her mouth.

Whether there was some medicine in the cloth covering her mouth, her vision gradually began to blur.  Meanwhile, the Marchioness kept whispering and turning her chin to and fro. As Julia looked at her for the last time, her body slumped to the side helplessly.