Chapter 108

As soon as Adeline’s fingertips touched the line, numerous memories unfolded in her head.
Starting from the moment she was born, all the scenes that Adeline had seen while crawling as a toddler still remained.
Her parents smiling brightly at her as she took her first steps, and Enoch and Leo clapping their hands happily… Even the three siblings standing in front of the cradle when Simeon, the youngest, was born.
The seemingly happy memories of her childhood were overflowing.

Time passed peacefully, and she reached the age of fifteen. When she reached that age, Adeline held her breath without even realizing it.
She was fifteen when she got on the carriage to travel with her parents. She could now see the moment she was brainwashed, which was what she wanted to know.

[It’s your first time going to the North, isn’t it?]
[Yes. Have you been there before, Father?]
[Of course, I have. The winters there are really fierce. I don’t know how they live there.]
[Then is it also cold in the summer?]
[Compared to our summer, it’s much colder. You’ll be surprised when you go.]

In the memories Adeline was watching, the carriage was heading north.

‘Where were we going the day we were attacked? Was it also the North? No, I don’t think so…’

Adeline didn’t know where she was headed the day she lost her memory. However, she felt that the memory she was seeing now was not of the day she was attacked.

[It may be unexpected, but the more I think about His Grace’s situation, the sadder it is. The grand duchess passed away early, and even the grand duke and the prince left this world too soon.]
[It’s sad that he was left alone in a single day. Was he only fourteen when he received the title of grand duke?]

Marquis and Marchioness Tien sighed, saying how sad it was.

‘They’re talking about Kael. Did I go with my parents to meet Kael?’

They were without a doubt talking about Kael. She felt even more confused thinking that she had visited him with her parents. She had no idea what was going on.

[He doesn’t seem to be very lenient. Though he’s your age, he’s in a higher position, Adeline, so please be polite. I’m not at all worried about how well you’ll behave, but I should still tell you.]
[Of course, Father. Don’t worry.]

Adeline smiled brightly and looked at her father. The young Adeline approached her father and mother in such a friendly manner and acted cute, and love overflowed from the eyes of Marquis and Marchioness Tien as they looked at their daughter.
It was a beautiful moment that Adeline could not remember at all.

The carriage quickly reached the northern castle. There was no attack. It wasn’t even raining. It wasn’t ‘that day’.
A much younger-looking Zion came running out in a hurry and said that the grand duke’s patrolling of the territory was being delayed. He apologized and asked for forgiveness for the discourtesy of not being able to greet them in person.
Marquis Tien reassured Zion that it was okay, and young Adeline was busy looking around the unfamiliar place.

After looking around the room where she would be staying for a while, Adeline headed straight to the garden. Wondering what a garden in the coldest place of the empire would look like, she quickly wanted to take a look at it.
The young Adeline walked around the garden of the castle that the present-time Adeline was familiar with. Like butterflies arriving at a flower garden, she went back and forth to see the many flowers that she couldn’t see in the east.
Then, she got lost. She couldn’t figure out how deep inside she had walked, or if it was beyond the limits allowed to outsiders.

[Ah…]

As she was struggling to figure out how to resolve the situation, Adeline met Kael.
The young Adeline looked at Kael with awe. He looked much younger than he was now, but even then, he was so beautiful that she had no choice but to gaze at him in admiration.
And Kael was the same. His blue-grey eyes were trembling. The tips of his ears were also red. As soon as she saw the young Adeline, there was a glimpse of love at first sight.

[Greetings, Your Grace. I am Adeline, daughter of Marquis Tien.]

When Adeline first came to her senses and politely introduced herself, Kael received her greeting with a gentle nod.

[Ah, did I perhaps come to a place I shouldn’t have? The garden was so beautiful that I wandered around and came all the way here, but I got lost. I apologize if that’s the case. I never intended to…]

Adeline didn’t even stop to breathe as she explained the situation, the words constantly flowing out of her mouth. If she had made a mistake, she thought she had to urgently explain it somehow.
And as she did, Kael smirked. In a daze, Adeline looked at him, who was smiling as if her behavior was cute.
Kael had previously been rumored to be cold-blooded, and even as a young grand duke, many were afraid of him. Seeing such a person smile without resistance, it was natural for her face to turn red.

[It’s alright. You can come to this place.]
[I’m glad to hear that.]

Adeline’s face was completely flushed as she said that. Seeing that, Kael cautiously approached her.

[If you don’t mind, I’ll take you to where you’re staying. It’s a large and complicated garden.]

Her light green eyes shook greatly. Adeline thanked Kael in a low, barely audible voice and was escorted by him.
This was their first meeting.
Even after Adeline returned to the east, their relationship continued developing.

[Who did you say sent a letter?]
[His Grace! Grand Duke Inver! Oh my! What’s going on, Young Lady? My heart is pounding!]

Martha, a maid, made a huge fuss. She was running around saying that Grand Duke Inver had sent a letter, and even though Adeline acted like it wasn’t a big deal, a strange expectation also started spreading over her face.
Kael and Adeline kept exchanging letters, and the news shook the social circle of the capital.
Kael was also present in Adeline’s magnificent debutante, held with the overeagerness and sincerity of her parents and siblings when she was sixteen.
Even when he was young, Kael rarely took part in social events. When Kael, who never showed his face unless the emperor called him, appeared in Adeline’s debutante, everyone gathered in the mansion was surprised.

[Will you grant me the honor of your first dance?]
[Of course, Your Grace.]

Adeline shyly held out her hand and performed the first dance with Kael. The sight of the two dancing to the rhythm together was so beautiful that everyone in the hall stared at them in a daze.

As time went on, Kael and Adeline continued to keep in touch while Kael continued to navigate the battlefield and guard the northern border.
In fact, everyone implicitly acknowledged them as a couple. Kael and Adeline also knew that the feelings they shared were more than friendship.

[Will you marry…]
[Wait a minute, Kael. You can’t. I’ll speak first.]
[What?]
[Will you marry me, Kael?]
[Are you stealing my proposal like this?]
[I just wanted to say it first.]
[What on earth are you…]

It was a natural order. Kael, who knew his overflowing feelings, proposed to Adeline, and they prepared for their wedding.
There was an overflowing happiness in every recorded memory.
Their first kiss, the moment they chose the wedding dress together, the moment she walked down the aisle crossing arms with her father, and their first night together.
There was no hint of darkness anywhere. Kael and Adeline in the recorded time were just happy and in love.

‘… Count Felix?’

And surprisingly, there was Jeffrey during that time of happiness.

[Jeffrey. Please. Be sure to tell Kael that you will collapse if you keep working like this.]
[How can I listen to you if you don’t listen to me, Adeline? It’s impossible.]

Adeline and Jeffrey were friendly enough to call each other by their first name, and Kael and Jeffrey were friends like no other. It was said that when he was just given the grand duke’s title, Jeffrey saved Kael’s life by chance. This completely opened Kael’s heart to Jeffrey, and they became very close. Jeffrey was also the witness of their wedding.
Adeline, who continued to be astonished by the unbelievable scene, realized something after seeing Jeffrey.

‘It was all my life in the first place. Everything Vanessa went through was the life I experienced.’

The most glamorous debutante in the empire, the one who fell in love with Kael at first sight, and all the love they shared afterward—it was all Adeline’s in the first place.

‘I was trying to turn everything that happened to me into something that belonged to Vanessa. I was able to be brainwashed like that because it was something I had seen myself.’

When she wasn’t aware of her brainwashing, she used to blame herself so much for taking over Vanessa’s life, but…
It was Adeline who had her life stolen.

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