ELND Chapter 48

Chapter 48

The Duchess Has Disappeared

November 17, 2023

It was still close to dawn.

The Dark Manor remained quiet.

I stepped out through the front gate of the manor, trying to keep my footsteps soft.

After walking a few paces toward the garden, Mina — who had been walking with me — leaned in and whispered cautiously.

“Your Grace, the carriage we asked for is waiting over there.”

As requested, the carriage bore no Twins family crest.

Moreover, we’d deliberately ordered a carriage suited to middle-class travelers, so nobody would suspect the Duchess herself was inside.

“Did you pack everything?” I asked.

“Of course, Your Grace.” Mina smiled calmly and shook the large bundle she held in both hands.

Other maids also carried large bundles in the same way.

Mina watched carefully while the other maids loaded the bundles into the carriage’s luggage compartment, then came back over to stand beside me.

“I think it’s time to go now.”

At those words I turned my head toward the distant, illuminated manor.

“Yeah… seems like it.”

A voice that had replayed in my head hundreds of times drifted back again.

‘Rebecca, I want to win back your heart.’

For days after that, Cedric’s words would surface in my mind without warning.

When I first heard him say it I’d felt only surprise.

‘Cedric’s feelings have shifted from the heroine, Lobelia, to some other woman — and of all people, Rebecca, his ex-wife whom he once despised?’

Maybe the original plot had begun to change.

If that were the case, it could be a good thing.

It would mean that the fate that had possessed Rebecca — me — might change too.

But I was not the old Rebecca who had poured love onto Cedric.

There was no heart for him to reclaim in the first place.

So naturally I had to reject his confession of wanting to win me back.

‘If I’d been head-over-heels for him, maybe I wouldn’t have cared about any of that.’

But I couldn’t do that.

I still bore wounds from past lies my husband told; they were too deep to let me trust him and surrender my heart fully.

‘I won’t give my heart to light, trivial love again. So don’t try to shake me, Cedric.’

I stared at the illuminated manor and thought of Cedric for a moment, then hurriedly shook my head as if to clear lingering feelings and climbed into the carriage.

What used to matter most to the old Rebecca was none other than Cedric Twins, the man.

But to the Rebecca I’d become, only one thing mattered:

Keeping myself alive.

A short while later, in the Duke’s bedchamber.

Bang—!

The door suddenly opened wide, and noise and light spilled in all at once.

Cedric frowned, rising from his seat — and at that precise moment Bianca’s urgent voice called out.

“Your Grace! Please wake up!”

The child’s face was flushed with anxiety.

“Bianca, what on earth is it…?” Cedric asked.

He glanced at the clock. It was 4:30 a.m.

Bianca wouldn’t disturb his sleep at such an hour for just anything. Cedric threw off his blankets and scooped his sister into his arms.

A pleasant low tone escaped his lips.

“Bianca, what happened at this hour? Did you have a bad dream?”

He smiled gently, but Bianca clung to him with the look of someone who might burst into tears at any moment.

“Your Grace!”

Bianca had never behaved this way before.

Flustered, Cedric could only pat the little girl’s back gently.

“Bianca, tell me what’s wrong…”

Bianca freed herself from his arms and grabbed his sleeve.

“Your Grace, this isn’t the time! You have to look out the window! Right now!”

She pulled him toward the window, still holding his arm.

“Is something wrong? Did an intruder get in?” Cedric asked with a bored-sounding tone.

It was a natural reaction — unless you were a fool, no one would come into his castle with the half-blood demons stationed there.

But Bianca’s voice grew even more urgent as she pointed outside.

“Look at that carriage in front of the Dark Manor!”

Cedric glanced out the window, and his brow tightened as he saw it.

‘That’s… Rebecca? Where on earth is she going at this hour?’

Not only was the timing strange, but Rebecca’s appearance was odd.

She wore a plain gray dress and a black hat concealing her red hair — an outfit far from what a Duchess would wear, more like clothing meant to hide that she was the Duchess.

That wasn’t the only suspicious thing.

The Duchess’s maids were loading numerous bundles into the carriage in a long row.

‘And that carriage… it isn’t even one of our family carriages.’

A dark line of worry creased Cedric’s brow.

Bianca clung to his arm again, voice trembling.

“Where could the Duchess possibly be going at this hour? With all that luggage….”

“……”

“Surely she’s not planning to leave us…? Is she?”

In an instant, the color drained from Cedric’s face.

‘Rebecca? Her contract isn’t over yet — why would she…?’

Memories of Rebecca coldly rejecting him a few days earlier surfaced in his mind.

‘Did she refuse me because she planned to leave the castle in advance? Or was she unnerved by my proposal that day?’

His head spun with countless possibilities.

He swept his hair aside anxiously and bolted out of the bedroom.

He ran without stopping to the Dark Manor’s garden, but the carriage that carried Rebecca had already left the castle.

Cedric panted heavily but could not take his eyes off the path the carriage had taken.

‘Whatever her reasons, I can’t just let her go like this.’

Muscles on his square jaw tensed.

He looked sharply back toward the Dark Manor and ran straight inside, ringing the guest bell in the foyer.

Soon the butler, sleep-heavy, shuffled out.

“Haa— who could be here at this hour… M-My Lord Duke!”

The butler hurried down the stairs, bowing in front of Cedric.

“What brings you here, Your Grace? Is there something you need…?”

Cedric rarely visited the Dark Manor. For him to show up at dawn like this, it had to be urgent.

The butler’s face flushed with expectation as if thinking, “What an opportunity, with the steward away today!” — but his words were cut off by Cedric.

“Where is Adrian?” Cedric asked.

“Ah — If you tell me, Your Grace….”

The butler’s eager sentence fell silent.

“Adrian,” Cedric repeated.

His deep voice grew colder.

“Where is he?”

The chill laced with anger made the butler tremble.

He looked up and saw the Duke’s face more agitated than usual.

The butler, eyes darting, finally managed to answer.

“Ah… Master Adrian is off duty today, so I’m not sure. I heard his father’s condition has worsened recently; maybe it’s because of that….”

“So you mean Adrian is not inside the castle right now?”

Cedric didn’t seem to have the patience to wait for the butler to finish. The butler only nodded, eyeing him.

“…Yes, Your Grace.”

Cedric’s face hardened further — not the answer he’d wanted.

He stood like a statue for a long moment.

A faint, murderous glint began to creep into his eyes.

‘Could it be… Did something happen to Butler Adrian? He’s not the sort to cause trouble.’

While the butler blinked dumbly, Cedric’s mouth opened slowly.

“The Duchess has disappeared.”

There was a hint of anxiety crossing his face as he spoke.

But he gritted his teeth and continued.

“Wake all the knights and have them stand ready. Especially those with tracking magic — have them prepared.”

“R-Right now…?”

“I’ll follow the Duchess’s trail first. The rest of you search every part of the Duke’s estate.”

“……”

“And if anyone lets the Duchess slip away….”

His gaze sharpened toward the butler.

“Tell them no one in this castle will be spared.”

Only then did the butler realize the gravity of the situation; his cheeks paled.

“Your Grace…! Yes, I’ll go find the commander of the knights right away!”

He scurried off and rushed through the manor gates.

Cedric watched his retreating figure, then scowled.

‘Rebecca left. And with another man.’

At the thought, his heart pounded with a mixture of anger and anxiety.

Adrian was not in the manor.

Rebecca, in suspicious attire, had secretly left the castle.

The image of the two of them meeting somewhere as planned and embracing kept spinning in his head.

He clenched his fist until the veins stood out.

‘Rebecca, you can’t leave me yet.’

Even if she was going to leave eventually, not like this.

At least give him the chance to hold onto her for the time she had promised to remain in the castle.

. . .

Meanwhile, Bianca, who had arrived at the Dark Manor late with her nanny, could only stare at her brother’s pale face in shock.

‘I thought His Grace would be surprised — but not like this…’

She squeezed the nanny’s hand tighter.

Bianca lifted her head slowly, guilty.

‘Nanny, are we really allowed to do this?’

She shot worried, round-eyed looks at the nanny, who merely winked as if to say, “Trust me.”

Bianca, trying to wash away even that small twinge of guilt, closed her eyes and shook her head firmly.

She felt sorry for her startled older brother, but this was an unavoidable choice for the happy future of the Twins Duke and Duchess.

Besides, it was true that the Duchess had “gone somewhere” for a while — so her words weren’t exactly lies.

Just then, Cedric hurried out through the front gate — he was clearly going to find Rebecca himself.

“Your Grace! I want to go with you!”

Bianca cried, but Cedric, as if wrapped up in something else, dashed out of the Dark Manor.

For a moment she stood watching his departing figure. Then her small hand holding the nanny’s tightened.

“Nanny, I’ll really steel my heart this time.”

Her voice, small but resolute, made the nanny turn her head in surprise.

“Huh…?”

The nanny tilted her head in mild confusion, and Bianca raised her tiny, determined fist and shouted.

“Just you wait — this time I’ll make sure the two of them get along!”