I Will Disappear, Grand Duke

Julia sat on the opposite side of the table and glanced at the man tilting his glass.

Fernan Caesar, the man who at the age of twenty-six had led the imperial wars to victory and inherited the Grand Dukedom.

He was a man of splendid beauty and solid outward appearance befitting his dignity, and even his light shirt shone.

He was a man that one could not help but had to steal a glance. The fact that this man, who looked so perfect, was her husband, was something unbelievable to Julia.

"Why don't you stop looking and eat?"

The sudden sound of his low voice startled Julia and she dropped her fork.

Fernan looked up and stared at her numbly.

"Yes, yes…"

Julia blushed and picked up a small piece of bread on her plate. She couldn't look up, embarrassed that she had been caught stealing a glance.

While she was squirreling away the bread and stirring the stale soup around, the servant brought our new dishes.

Julia, who was quietly cutting the steak, glanced up to check on him. He was only emptying his champagne glass, as if this time was boring him.

‘Should we continue our conversation? What kind of conversations do normal couples have at mealtime?’

While Julia was thinking, Fernan got up from his seat.

"I’ll leave first."

With a few words he left the dining room. He did not look at her for even a moment.

Julia gazed blankly at his empty seat and put down the tableware. She didn't want to eat more.

Julia stood up, unable to eat half of her food, and walked briskly to her room.

In spite of the fact that they had been married for several months, she had never been able to carry on any kind of dialogue with Fernan.

In fact, with the exception of the occasional mealtime, she rarely even saw him.

He had always been away for as short as three days and as long as a month.

So naturally she hadn’t had time to get to know him.

Somehow, she felt like they were worse off than others.

"Your Highness, are you here? Did you enjoy your meal?"

As Julia entered the bedroom, the maidservant who was tidying the bedding welcomed her with a smile. It was Melissa, who had been assigned as her full-time servant.

"Yes….”

Julia entered the dressing room and Melissa, who had followed her, helped her get dressed. After putting on a thin slip dress and a gown, Julia came out of the bedroom again.

"Oh, I received a letter at noon, but I forgot to tell you about it."

Melissa pulled the letter out of her pocket. Julia's expression darkened slightly. She felt as if she didn't need to see the letter to know who it came from.

After Melissa had left, Julia opened the envelope and checked the contents. Naturally, the sender was her father.

[Julia, to my daughter.

You haven't answered the letter I sent you last time. I'm worried, so I wrote a new letter and sent it to you. I hope you are settled in your new home. I am looking forward to hearing good news from you  every day. I will try to visit you at the castle soon.]

The letter was brief, containing only its purpose. Julia sighed heavily after plunging the letter into the letter storage box.

Her father, Marquis Elody, had gained the most through this marriage.

He had used Fernan’s fame as a war hero to expand his business and maintain close ties with the imperial family, thus increasing the prestige of the family line.

Still, he couldn't get enough, and now he was forcing Julia to have a child with the Grand Duke by sending her letters periodically and putting pressure on her to do so.

The reasoning was that with an heir, this marriage would flow in a more stable direction. Julia had a subtle expression on her face as she pondered. She hadn't even had her wedding night with Fernan yet.

Children and heirs or something like that still seemed a long way away, but there was a need to develop a relationship with him.

‘We won’t stay this way forever.’

‘Don't be too impatient.’

Now that they were husband and wife, they had many days together. Julia lay down on the bed and slowly drew a picture of her husband.

From a long time ago until now, he has always been a beautiful and wonderful man.

It had been nine years since Julia first saw him. Julia, who was reminiscing about the past, fell asleep at some point.

As she slept, a gentle smile was drawn on her lips.

***

Nine years ago, it was the summer when she was 13. It was also the day Julia visited the Imperial Palace for the first time in her life.

"How can a lowlife enter a banquet hall?"

But before she could set foot in the banquet hall, Julia was thrown by a rough hand into a small room deep inside the Imperial Palace.

It was the habitual abuse of the Marquis, who did not recognize Julia as his daughter.

"You stay here and be quiet. I’ll call you when the banquet is over.”

"Oh, father!”

Boom! Julia quickly withdrew her outstretched hand as she looked at the door, which closed with a loud bang. Looking around with trembling eyes, she saw nothing but a dimly lit interior hanging in the air. As she stood there frightened, she heard a loud playing sound announcing the banquet.

Gasp.

Crouching down, Julia began to sob aloud.

The distant noise of the banquet hall made the young Julia even sadder.

‘Was it wrong for me to be excited for the first time in a pretty dress and riding in a fancy carriage?’

Her vision was blurred by tears that trickled from her eyes.

It was then that she saw a long shadow above her.

She looked up and saw a tall man looking down at her with a blank expression on his face. The man slowly bent his knees as he stared at Julia, who shook in surprise.

When their eyes were all at the same level, she could finally see the man's face clearly.

"Why are you crying?”

Black hair covered by the darkness. Golden eyes that shine alone even in a pitch-black room.

For a man, his face was so beautiful that it caught Julia’s gaze.

To the frightened Julia, the man gently held out his hand.

"…"

Julia's eyes widened.

‘Why would he offer his hand to a girl like me…?’

Confused, but Julia couldn't ignore his hand.

Fidgeting and gently grasping his fingertips, he eventually led her to a small door on one wall.

There was a terrace.

Unlike the pitch-black room, the light of the sunset was just emerging over the terrace.

"Don't cry, I'll stay with you."

He was gorgeously dressed, and it looked as if he should be in the banquet hall, not in this secluded little room.

Strangely enough, however, he seemed quite accustomed to sitting here alone.

He didn't ask her anything, nor did he say anything to her.

He just held her hand for a while.

Strangely enough, her sad and sorrowful heart gradually disappeared while she was with the man.

As such, he didn't leave his seat until the sunset had completely faded and the moonlight began to leak out.

Holding his large, linked hands tightly, Julia realized for the first time how warm someone's hands were.

It was the first time. It was the first time someone had held her hand like this without hesitation.

When she finally heard the sound of the music announcing the end of the banquet, Julia hesitated and asked him for the first time.

“Can you tell me your name…?”

At the small question, he silently lowered his eyelids and then slowly lifted them up again.

The golden eyes that appeared at that moment were brighter and more beautiful to the young Julia's eyes than the moon in the sky.

"Fernan."

"…"

"If we meet again someday, I'll tell you my name then.”

That was the last conversation she had with the man.

After that day, Julia saw him again at the ceremony two days later.

The man was at the very front of the imperial army leaving for the war of conquest.

That would be Fernan Seyrev Formene. The emperor's only nephew and the commander of the imperial army in this war.

The man, whom she met in an old small room, was such an incredible man. Julia learned belatedly that the day of the banquet where she met him was actually a ceremony for the safe return of the Imperial troops going to war.

Without even having a chance to meet again, the mysterious man left for the battlefield.

But even after that, Julia could not easily forget that day.

Even after a long time, Fernan returned as a war hero.

And for a long time after he returned, Julia would watch him from afar.

The man who was no longer the boy in her memories, had become the most famous person in the empire.

A year after that.

Surprisingly, it was at the meeting where the matchmaking took place that Julia met him face to face. On that day, her father said to her,

 "Julia, you will be married to the Grand Duke.”

After the war, that man, Fernan, was given the Northern Caesar's territory and inherited the Grand Dukedom.

That gentleman in her memory, who seemed too noble and distant, was the very man she was to marry.

****

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