Delis slowly opened her eyes.
“Uh… mm…”
The sensation was soft and comforting. She saw an ornate ceiling with an intricate design and bright light streaming through the window.
Upon hearing the long-awaited sound that had been missing during those cold, endless days, Mary, who had been hanging freshly cleaned curtains nearby, dropped what she was doing and rushed to the bed. She quickly pulled on the cord hanging beside it.
“Your Grace?! Are you awake?”
Delis squinted at the sunlight that she hadn’t seen in so long. Her eyelids felt heavy as she blinked, her vision blurry at first but gradually sharpening.
Mary hurried to help her sit up as she struggled to rise on her own.
“Your Grace, are you alright? I’m so relieved you’re awake! The Duke was here just moments ago…”
Her hand, still warm, felt as if someone had been holding it just moments before. Delis instinctively clenched and unclenched her fist.
“No, no… I must inform the Duke at once…”
Veteran maid Mary, usually so composed, was now flustered. But before she could rush off, she heard a raspy voice from the bed.
“…Where… am I?”
Mary froze in place. A sense of déjà vu overwhelmed her. It felt like a long time ago, yet not too distant in the past, when her lady had lost her memory once before. But this time, Mary was even more shocked.
It was understandable—this situation was entirely different from the last.
“Your Grace, do you not remember anything?”
“…”
Delis thought for a moment, then slowly shook her head. It was as if her mind was a blank slate—she remembered nothing, not even who she was.
Mary tried her best not to let her shock show on her face.
“Your Grace, this is… No, I must fetch the doctor…”
Just then, a loud thud accompanied the opening of the heavy, ornate door, revealing someone’s presence.
“The Duke…”
Mary was even more distressed. Her lady didn’t seem well at all; what should she do? Mary hesitated, unsure whether to immediately inform him of what had transpired.
In the past, when the lady had lost her memory, the Duke had merely scoffed, but things were different now. The Duke had been utterly devastated when he first saw his unconscious wife brought out of the flames; he had lost all composure.
“…”
Delis watched the man who entered the room. As time passed, she noticed his otherwise stoic expression beginning to waver.
“…Duchess.”
She couldn’t hear him well, but she thought he called her “Duchess.” The man quickly approached, and the intensity of his movement made her flinch.
“…!”
Her body was immediately pulled into a tight embrace. It didn’t hurt, but she could feel the overwhelming emotion in the way he held her. Delis noticed that the arms wrapped around her back were trembling slightly.
Who is he? Even in her confused state, freshly awakened, she realized that this stranger felt oddly familiar.
Mary was at a loss, wringing her hands. It seemed her lady truly didn’t remember anything. The difference in how the reunited couple regarded each other was stark.
“Are you alright? Are you in any pain?”
“…”
“Duchess?”
Roan finally noticed that the look in his wife’s eyes was different from usual.
With a mix of concern and confusion, Mary spoke up.
“Your Grace, the Duchess…”
“…Who are you?”
The voices of Mary and Delis overlapped, filling the room. Roan froze. She doesn’t remember? Roan met Delis’s gaze, seeing only curiosity in her eyes.
She’s forgotten me. Roan struggled to keep his voice steady as he asked, almost desperately.
“Duchess, do you not remember me?”
“…No. I’m sorry.”
Delis didn’t know why, but she felt a wave of guilt. His expression was filled with a despair that he couldn’t hide. He clearly knew her, but she didn’t know him.
“…”
Roan remained silent. He could tell that this wasn’t an act like before; she truly didn’t remember him.
For the first time, during those days when she didn’t wake, he had felt the full weight of his helplessness.
It was his fault. Delis had no reason to endure the agony of death in the flames, no reason to lose her memory—except for him. The fact that the bracelet he had once given her to protect her had barely saved her from the flames was neither a comfort nor an excuse.
“Um…”
Delis called out to the man who, although familiar, seemed to be a stranger, awkwardly aware that he was staring at her intensely.
“My name is Roan.”
With nothing else to say, he introduced himself.
“Roan…?”
The name felt familiar on her tongue. At that moment, an echoing voice resounded in her mind.
“Duchess”
There was something left behind, like an afterimage. Was it a memory from the past? As she frowned slightly, trying to grasp it, Roan, startled, grabbed her hand.
“Does your head hurt?”
“No… I’m fine.”
Delis shook her head.
Even earlier, in that faint memory, he had called her ‘Duchess.’ She asked him, her voice tinged with curiosity.
“Were we… married?”
He widened his eyes briefly at her question, then smiled—a smile so bittersweet that it made her heart sink.
“Yes, we were a loving couple.”
Strangely, his words made her heart drop with a heavy thud. Delis guessed that if her past self had indeed loved this man, it made sense.
***
After she woke up, several people came to visit her from outside. First, the Marquis and his son, who was referred to as the Young Marquis, visited. They were supposedly her father and brother.
Her father wept openly upon seeing her, and when he heard she had lost her memory, he cried even more. The Young Marquis, however, didn’t seem particularly concerned. Their relationship must not have been good. Yet, he spent the entire visit checking on her condition, making it hard to tell if he was worried or not.
His words suggested otherwise, but the truth remained unclear. Her father explained that their awkwardness was due to the distant years between them, making it difficult for him to express his feelings easily. Whether that was true or not, she couldn’t be sure.
Then, Princess Sophia and a count’s daughter named Alicia visited her. They, too, seemed shocked by her memory loss but expressed relief that she had woken up. They were probably friends of hers before she lost her memory.
Following the doctor’s orders for absolute rest, Delis stayed mostly within the mansion. As a result, she naturally spent more time with the man who was supposed to be her husband.
He didn’t seem to be someone who smiled often, yet his smile suited him so well that it was almost painful to witness.
The stories he told her about what had happened were all astonishing. Due to her memory loss, it was hard for her to grasp that she had been involved in such events.
Her family had nearly been accused of treason for attempting to assassinate the Crown Prince, which would have resulted in their deaths. But they successfully turned the tables, changing everything overnight.
While she was unconscious, the perpetrators confessed to their crimes—the plot to kill the Crown Prince and a scheme to take over the royal palace. Their families had fallen from grace overnight. The Crown Prince’s arranged fiancée, a princess from the Kingdom of Jallier, was also involved in the assassination plot.
“The Crown Prince survived.”
Roan said as they slowly walked through the garden.
“Thanks to Jude, who visited you earlier.”
“The poison was made from the root of the Eastern Flowroot. When brewed, the leaves act as a hallucinogen, but the roots are so toxic they cause paralysis and death. I vaguely remember Emma mentioning it before. It’s a closely guarded secret, so there’s no way those highborn nobles knew about it. It’s frustrating that they used it against us, though.”
“Oh, you mean your younger brother?”
The boy with striking golden eyes had left a strong impression on her, clearly a younger version of Roan. The moment he saw her, his eyes welled up with tears, which he quickly tried to hide by shaking his head.
“You lost your memory?”
“How could you be so careless as to misplace your memories? But don’t worry too much. They say memories can come back eventually.”
Despite his gruff words, Delis could tell he was genuinely concerned about her. His mother, who had come with him, was the same. Though she didn’t express her worries outwardly like her father, the instincts and lingering memories within Delis told her these people weren’t bad.
But the person who occupied her thoughts the most was the man walking beside her—Roan. He seemed both innately kind and yet strangely cold.
He would always leave in the evening when she fell asleep. Mary, her maid, said he went to the palace to take care of business. Despite what seemed to be a heavy workload, he stayed close to her during the day, hardly leaving her side.
It wasn’t uncomfortable, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that, even though he was so close, she didn’t really know him.
TL NOTE: Visit and bookmark the story at dusk blossoms for more advanced chapters and updates on its latest release.
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PenelopeNybu
And now she lost her memory 🤦🏻♀️
Dear author, it seems like you lack imagination…
The answer was : a recording stone !!!
With that everything will be coming to light, and the MC , will be viewed not like à dumb and foolish women but like a strong and smart person….
All the clues was there ! Her teacher ! Her magic !!! But you fell in the common plot : I lost my memory 🤦🏻♀️