It was still close to dawn.

The dark mansion remained quiet.

I stepped out of the mansion’s main entrance, muffling my footsteps.

As I walked a few steps towards the garden.

Mina, who was walking with me, whispered cautiously.

“Your Highness, the carriage we called for in advance is waiting over there.”

As requested, the carriage bore no crest of the Twins family.

Moreover, since we deliberately asked for a carriage befitting the middle class, no one would know that the Grand Duchess Twins was riding inside.

“Did you pack all the luggage without missing anything?”

“Of course, Your Highness.”

Mina smiled leisurely, shaking the large bundles in her hands.

The other maids also carried bundles.

Mina meticulously confirmed that the other maids loaded the luggage into the carriage’s compartment before approaching me again.

“I think it’s time to leave now.”

At those words, I turned my head towards the mansion of light in the distance.

“Yes, it seems so……”

Then, the voice that had been rewound hundreds of times in my head lingered in my ears once more.

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

In the days following that day, Cedric’s face as he spoke those words came to mind from time to time.

When I first heard those words, I was simply surprised.

‘Cedric’s heart is swayed by a woman other than the protagonist Robelia. And to the trembling former wife Rebecca?’

Perhaps the original story had begun to twist.

If so, it would certainly be a welcome development.

It would mean that the fate of me, possessed by Rebecca, could also change.

However, I was no longer the Rebecca of the past who lavished love on Cedric.

I didn’t have the heart he could win back in the first place.

So naturally, I had no choice but to reject his confession of wanting to win back Rebecca’s heart.

‘Of course, if I had fallen head over heels for Cedric, I might not have cared about such things.’

But that was not possible.

To trust him and give my heart completely when he still wouldn’t tell me the truth……

The wounds from my husband’s lies in the past were still deep.

‘I don’t want to give my heart to such a frivolous love anymore. So please don’t sway me, Cedric.’

I gazed at the mansion of light and thought of Cedric for a moment.

Then, as if erasing my lingering feelings, I hurriedly shook my head and boarded the carriage.

To the Rebecca of the past, the only thing that mattered was Cedric Twins, that man.

But to me, the current Rebecca, the only thing that mattered was……

Preserving my life.

* * *

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

Clang-!

Suddenly the door swung wide open, and at the same time, noise and light poured into the bedroom abruptly.

Cedric was just getting up from his seat, furrowing his brow.

“Your Grace! Please wake up and see!”

That urgent voice belonged to Bianca.

As expected, the child’s face was flushed with anxiety.

“Bianca, what on earth……”

Cedric hurriedly turned his head to check the clock.

It was 4:30 in the morning.

Bianca would not disturb his sleep at this hour for a trivial matter.

Cedric swiftly threw back the blanket and rose, lifting his little sister in his arms.

Then, his pleasantly husky low voice flowed from his lips.

“Bianca, what’s the matter at this hour? Did you have a scary dream?”

Cedric asked with a gentle smile.

However, Bianca clung to his embrace with a face on the verge of bursting into tears.

“Your Grace!”

Bianca had never been like this before.

The flustered Cedric could only gently pat the child’s small back.

“Bianca, what on earth……”

At that moment, Bianca broke free from Cedric’s embrace and tugged at his arm.

“Your Grace, this is no time for that! You must look out the window! Right now!”

Bianca grabbed Cedric’s arm and led him to the window.

“What could it be that…… Did an intruder appear?”

Cedric asked in a nonchalant voice.

Unless they were quite foolish, no one would dare enter his castle where half-blood demons were stationed, so it was a natural reaction for him.

However, Bianca’s voice pointing at the window became even more urgent.

“Look at that carriage in front of the dark mansion!”

The moment Cedric casually glanced out the window.

His brow gradually narrowed upon discovering something.

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

The hour was odd, and Rebecca’s appearance was also somewhat strange.

A simple gray dress and a black hat covering her red hair.

It was far from the attire of a Grand Duchess…… No, it was closer to an outfit meant to conceal her identity as the Grand Duchess.

That wasn’t the only suspicious thing.

The maids from the Grand Duchess’s palace were loading numerous bundles into the carriage one after another.

‘Moreover, that’s…… not even our family’s carriage.’

Just as a deep crease formed between Cedric’s brows.

Bianca grabbed Cedric’s arm again and sobbed.

“Where could Her Highness be going at this hour? And with all that luggage……”

“……”

“Her Highness couldn’t possibly be leaving us…… r-right?”

In a brief moment, the flush on Cedric’s face disappeared instantly.

‘……Rebecca? Even though there’s still time left on the contract, why on earth?’

Then, the face of Rebecca coldly rejecting him a few days ago came to his mind.

‘Was she planning to leave this castle in advance, so she rejected me? Or…… did she become uncomfortable because of my proposal that day?’

His mind was dizzily tangled with numerous speculations.

Cedric, who was anxiously running his fingers through his hair, hurriedly dashed out of the bedroom.

He ran straight to the dark garden without stopping once, but the carriage carrying Rebecca had already abruptly left the castle.

Cedric kept exhaling rough breaths but couldn’t take his eyes off the path where the carriage had departed.

‘Whatever the reason, I can’t let her leave like this.’

The muscles on Cedric’s angular jaw tensed fiercely.

Soon his sharpened gaze turned towards the dark mansion.

Cedric immediately ran into the dark mansion and began ringing the guest bell in the lobby.

Before long, the head butler walked out slowly with a sleepy face.

“Yawn, who could it be at this hour…… Y-Your Grace!”

The head butler, who had hurriedly run down the stairs, bowed at the waist in front of Cedric.

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

It was rare for Cedric to visit the dark mansion.

For him to come here this early in the morning.

It was as clear as day that it must be an urgent matter.

‘For an opportunity like this to come to me today when the butler is away!’

The head butler’s complexion gradually flushed with excitement.

That’s when it happened.

“Where is Adrian now?”

“Ah. Your Grace, if you tell me……”

However, the head butler’s words, filled with anticipation, were cut off at once.

“……Adrian.”

Cedric’s characteristic low voice became even chillier.

“I asked where he is.”

At that cold voice heavily laced with anger, a shiver ran down the head butler’s spine.

Glancing up, the Duke’s expression was uncharacteristically agitated.

The head butler, who had been rolling his eyes helplessly, barely collected his flustered appearance and continued.

“Ah, as it is Butler Adrian’s day off, I don’t know the details. I heard his father’s condition has recently worsened, so perhaps it’s related to that……”

“In other words, Adrian is not in this castle right now?”

Cedric seemed to have no patience to wait until the head butler finished speaking.

The head butler simply nodded while gauging his reaction.

“……Yes, Your Grace.”

It must not have been the answer he wanted, as Cedric’s face gradually hardened.

He stood there like a statue for a long time.

A faint murderous aura began to flicker in Cedric’s eyes.

‘Could it be…… that Butler Adrian has caused some trouble? But he’s not the type to do that?’

As the head butler blinked his eyes in confusion, at that moment.

Cedric’s lips parted slowly once again.

“The Grand Duchess has disappeared.”

As Cedric said that, a flash of anxiety crossed his face.

However, he gritted his teeth again and continued.

“Immediately wake up all the knights and have them on standby. Especially those with tracking magic, have them all prepared.”

“N-Now……?”

“I will go ahead and pursue the Grand Duchess, so have the rest thoroughly search the Grand Duchy.”

“……”

“And if by chance we lose the Grand Duchess……”

The sharp gaze turned towards the head butler once more.

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

Only then did the head butler realize the gravity of the situation and tremble.

“Her Highness has……! Ah, I understand, I will go find the head knight immediately!”

With those words, the head butler hurriedly left the mansion’s main entrance.

Cedric glared at his retreating figure for a while before anxiously running his hand over his face.

‘Rebecca has left. And with another man at that.’

Thinking that, his heart boiled with what might be anger or anxiety.

Adrian, who was not in the mansion.

Rebecca, who had secretly left his castle in a suspicious appearance.

The scene of those two meeting somewhere as planned and embracing each other kept clouding his mind.

Soon, thick veins bulged on the back of his clenched fist as if they would burst.

‘Rebecca, you can’t leave me yet.’

Even if she were to leave, now was not the time, not like this.

At least for the time she had promised to stay in this castle…..

She should have given him the slightest chance to hold onto her.

.

.

.

Meanwhile, Bianca, who had belatedly entered the dark mansion with her nanny, couldn’t help but be surprised by her brother’s pale complexion.

‘I knew Your Grace would be shocked, but to this extent…….’

Strength gradually entered the small hand tightly holding the nanny’s hand.

Bianca slowly raised her head and looked at her nanny with a sense of inexplicable guilt.

‘Nanny, should we really…… be doing this?’

She shot an anxious gaze with her round eyes, but her accomplice, the nanny, merely winked slightly as if to say just trust me.

At that, Bianca closed her eyes tightly and shook her head, trying to erase even the small guilt.

It was unfortunate for her surprised brother, but for the happy future of the Grand Duke and Duchess Twins, this was an inevitable choice.

Moreover, it was true that the Grand Duchess had left for ‘somewhere’ briefly, so her words weren’t a complete lie, right?

As she rationalized it, Cedric began to walk out of the main entrance in a hurry.

It seemed he was going to personally search for Rebecca.

“Your Grace! I want to go with you!”

Despite Bianca’s urgent cry, Cedric hurriedly left the dark mansion like someone whose mind was elsewhere.

It was only for a moment that she stood still, watching Cedric leave first while holding the nanny’s hand.

Gradually, strength entered Bianca’s small hand holding the nanny’s.

“……Nanny, I’m really going to steel my resolve.”

At the youthful voice tinged with determination, the nanny inadvertently turned her head.

“Yes……?”

As the nanny tilted her head with a puzzled expression.

Bianca raised her adorable fist with force and exclaimed.

“Just watch, this time I will definitely make the relationship between the two of them better!”