“Our daughter…!”

The first thing I saw as I opened my eyes was the swollen-eyed Duchess.

“What…?”

I reached out, unable to believe, and poked the tear-stained face of the Duchess.

The damp and soft sensation felt real. It seemed like it wasn’t a dream after all.

“Our daughter, will you recognize me?”

The Duchess continually stroked my face and hair.

I nodded my head slowly.

The Duchess poured out tears again.

“Thank goodness, truly thankful. Thank you for waking up.”

With pale cheeks and reddened eyes, the Duchess looked more like a patient than me.

“Who did this to you?”

Only then did I notice the Duke standing next to the Duchess. He also had dark circles under his eyes, perhaps from staying awake for several nights.

He looked much more haggard than I remembered, indicating how much he must have suffered in the past few days.

I felt my heart become heavy.

Two years ago, I must have lived well, burying memories of my daughter who suddenly disappeared. It would have been a great shock to see my daughter, whom I thought was dead, suddenly appear injured.

It didn’t sit well with me that I had disrupted the peaceful life of the Duke’s household for no reason.

“Who did this to you?”

The Duke asked again, but I couldn’t answer.

There might still be surveillance magic on me. I didn’t know what would happen if I uttered Marquise Magine’s name here.

The image of Madeline Faye, still trapped behind the bars of the security police cell, vividly crossed my mind. I couldn’t easily betray those who trusted and followed me.

If they went astray, it would be entirely my fault.

Yet, I couldn’t accuse Pablo as the culprit, as Marquise Magine did.

“No…”

I eventually smiled ambiguously.

“I don’t really know.”

“Whoever it is.”

The Duke couldn’t continue his sentence and harshly cut off the end of the sentence. Then he wiped his face.

“No, you must have been very surprised too. First, it’s essential to stabilize.”

“Yes. Let’s talk in detail later. It’s important that our Reyna has returned.”

When the Duchess smiled brightly, her eyes were completely buried in swollen eyelids. It was a kind of laughter that made me forget all the pain.

“I never had a day without missing you, and it seems like God has answered my prayers. To have you come back to us like this…”

The Duchess seemed to want to confirm my existence and continued to caress the back of my hand.

“Sorry for being late, our daughter. I’ve been resentful that we couldn’t find you sooner. We thought you were dead.”

The Duchess burst into tears again.

I didn’t know what to say and could only wriggle my fingers.

But the more I looked, the more things that I hadn’t seen at first came into view. The Duchess’s well-groomed hair, which seemed to have been neatly done for a long time.
Long-neglected nails, broken and stained as if I hadn’t taken care of them properly for a long time. Cracked and dry lips, roughened skin. The dress, so aged and neglected that it was hard to believe it belonged to the Duchess.

I wondered if my eyes were deceiving me, but even the Duchess’s palm, rubbing my hand, felt rough.

My mind went blank.

I thought I had been forgotten and was living well. The Duchess’s current appearance didn’t seem like that of someone who had been living well.

A busy prospective mother-in-law preparing to welcome the talked-about new daughter-in-law in the newspapers.

A proud mother raising an excellent successor. The hostess of the Duke’s estate, who had completed a large-scale suppression and re-emerged as a hero of the imperial people.

None of these aspects seemed to be present in the Duchess before me.

“…I’m sorry.”

The Duchess and Duke seemed puzzled by my sudden apology, but I whispered again.

“I’m sorry.”

I had thought I could quietly continue living, not causing any disturbance to the peaceful life of the Duchy, by secretly sending news. However, every time I tried to convey news, I only ended up confusing the Duchy that was leading a calm daily life. So, during the time I left the Duchy, I had repeatedly pledged to myself that it would be better to hide.

But now I knew for sure. I was actually afraid. Afraid that they might have genuinely forgotten me, afraid that the news of my being alive would disturb their peaceful lives.

So, selfishly, I hid. I didn’t have the courage to check for myself, and even if I did, I didn’t want to release the news recklessly, like a mouse gathering breadcrumbs in a cafe, causing confusion.

“Sorry for coming back late.”

“No, what could you have done wrong…”

The Duchess sighed and stroked my head again.

“During that time, you said you wandered around with all your memories lost, and then your memories returned after getting seriously injured at the Marquis’s estate. If anything, this mother, who couldn’t find our daughter faster, is sorry.”

“…What?”

The Duchess smiled softly.

“I heard everything from Kirian. He said you lost your memory and then regained it after getting injured severely at the Marquis’s estate.”

Kirian said that?