Chapter 764: Chapter 764: The Secret Garden (5)

Before diving fully into the Marquis’s diary, I asked Hyeonbyeol a question.

“Where’d you get this?”

This wasn’t my first time seeing something like the Marquis’s diary.

Well, to be precise, it was likely a book of undecipherable codes assumed to be his diary, but still.

“Why? You think I slipped you a fake book or something?”

“No. That’s the problem. If this is real, it doesn’t make sense. How the hell did you get your hands on the Marquis’s diary?”

“Are you mocking me for being incompetent now?”

“Uh...? No, that’s not what I meant...”

“I’m joking. It’s not something I got because I’m capable anyway.”

She laughed while watching me squirm, clearly enjoying herself, and then barreled forward before I could even react.

“He gave it to me.”

“...What?”

“He gave it to me. After locking Countess Peproc up and putting her into forced sleep, he just handed it over.”

She said it as casually as tossing a stone, but that didn’t make it any easier to understand.

“Wait... he just gave you his personal diary?”

“Well, not just like that. Marquis Tertherion sensed his end approaching and was instinctively searching for someone who might understand at least fragments of his life.”

“And... that person was you?”

“Technically, it was Countess Peproc. No matter how things turned out, he wanted her to have the diary when she woke up. If he couldn’t give it to her himself, he said I should burn it.”

“But he let you read it too? That’s suspicious...”

“That’s why I said he was a lonely man. I asked him if it was okay if I read it, and he said if I wanted to, go ahead.”

“......”

“The kingdom’s second-in-command. The Iron-Blooded Chancellor. Lord of the Tertherion house... Whatever people say about him outside, and no matter how he looked to you, to me he was just a man who loved his daughter. Even the parts he normally couldn’t express.”

The more she spoke, the more it felt like the Marquis Hyeonbyeol knew was a completely different person from the one I knew.

But...

'Guess that’s only natural.'

After all, the way he treated me and the way he treated Hyeonbyeol weren’t the same.

Everyone has unexpected sides. It’s just that which side you get to see depends on your relationship.

“So... you’re not gonna read it?”

“I will. When else will I get to peek into the secret diary of the Marquis? Even if it’s not the first time.”

“It’s probably not the second time either.”

“...What?”

“Elthora Tertherion. He came by a few days ago, poking around. I tossed the book somewhere it’d be easy for him to find.”

“...What?”

“Oh, this is the original. I used a magical transcription tool we use for paperwork to copy just a few parts and made a duplicate.”

Ugh...

My twitch wasn’t from wondering which was the original—it was from something else entirely.

“You showed it to him? Why?”

I tilted my head, and she answered as if it were obvious.

“Because once Elthora Tertherion learned what the Marquis was really thinking, I knew he’d turn on him. And that helps you, right?”

“...Uh...”

I was momentarily speechless.

She was right. And that’s exactly what happened.

But still...

“Didn’t you just say the Marquis was a lonely man?”

With a tone of disbelief, I shot back. Hyeonbyeol, in turn, looked at me like I didn’t make sense.

“Yeah. And I’m lonely too.”

Huh... seriously, how do you win a debate with someone like this?

As I gave a small, helpless chuckle, she asked slyly:

“I did good, right?”

I answered.

“You did.”

Alright. Time to read that diary.

***

It didn’t take long into reading the Marquis’s diary before one thing stood out:

The dates were all over the place.

July 16, August 27, September 22...

Gaps between entries.

It wasn’t that he only wrote during school breaks, or that he was too lazy to keep a regular diary.

This diary was simply—

“A collage.”

A compilation of fragments clipped from daily entries, gathered together like selected newspaper clippings.

“Can we stop questioning the format and just finish reading it already?”

“Alright.”

Chastened by Hyeonbyeol’s gentle scolding, I kept reading.

Its genre was clearly an essay. But if you looked past the format and just followed the story, the genre of the diary was... romance.

With a dash of paranormal thriller.

[At the royal ball I attended with Father, I met the nameless girl.]

The story begins with the Marquis seeing the girl from the palace ghost story with his own eyes.

He ran straight to her and asked if she was the girl from the tale. The girl, perhaps startled, vanished like mist.

Back home, unsure whether he’d imagined her, he decided to search for her again.

[August 27. The end of summer, when night’s chill began to seep in.]

[In a maze garden filled with slumbering flowers, I found the nameless girl.]

[At last, again.]

He saw her once more.

This time, instead of running up, he approached cautiously from a distance.

He kept space, lowered her guard, and used conversation techniques he’d studied from basic negotiation texts, gradually deepening the interaction.

[The more we spoke, the more the nameless girl seemed... off. She lacked common sense, and our conversations often went nowhere. But her pure, curious gaze told me everything.]

[She wasn’t a ghost.]

[The question that haunted me for a month was answered. But a new question took its place. Who was this girl? What strange story lay behind her odd behavior?]

[At dawn, she vanished again without a word. I returned home, dazed like a man under a spell, and only when I stood in front of a mirror did I realize—]

[My eyes were just like hers.]

Growing more curious than ever, the Marquis kept making excuses to visit the palace.

Eventually...

[September 22. Our third meeting.]

He finally met her again.

The conversation wasn’t deep.

Mostly, she asked questions and he answered. He never asked her anything.

He didn’t dare. He was afraid she'd vanish again like smoke.

He didn’t ask—not once.

And only when it was nearly dawn and time to part did he ask his very first question.

[At the time, there was one question more important than her name.]

[Can I see you again?]

[I asked. She looked surprised, thought about it for a while, then stammered—]

[Maybe.]

That’s when Hyeonbyeol spoke up.

“Sweet, right?”

“Eh? All I can picture is the Marquis’s creepy old face, so not really.”

“Then look at the table. That young man in the portrait—that’s the Marquis in his youth.”

“...You’re kidding.”

He was absurdly handsome.

No wonder the ghost girl blushed at the thought of meeting again.

“Anyway, I’ll stop interrupting. Keep reading. The real story starts soon.”

Her tone carried a strange sense of unease.

Almost like: Now it’s your turn to suffer.

I couldn’t quite place it, but I didn’t press. I just resumed reading.

Summer passed into fall, winter, spring...

Seasons changed, and their meetings continued. Their relationship deepened.

[She sat at the fountain’s edge and spoke. I could barely hear her over the water...]

From opposite ends of the garden to the fountain’s edge.

From the fountain’s edge, a little closer.

The distance between them gradually closed.

[See you next time.]

Eventually, meeting again became a given.

[During General Arkan’s inauguration, I’ll probably only be able to come out at dawn...]

They even began scheduling their meetings.

The gaps between entries grew shorter.

Still, the Marquis knew nothing.

Not her name. Not her age. Not her story...

He didn’t care.

Those moments were so peaceful and precious, he never dared ask first.

He figured she’d tell him when she was ready.

That was the plan.

But then—

[July 19.]

A full year later, in the heart of summer—

[She disappeared.]

He arrived early in the royal garden where they always met and waited until sunrise.

Maybe something came up, he thought.

After that, he visited whenever there were official palace events, hoping to catch her again.

She never appeared.

[I once read that all emotions stem from loss. That true awareness of one’s feelings comes only in the face of absence. I didn’t understand it back then. Why not just appreciate things while they’re still around? I figured people were just stupid.]

[Yeah. That was me back then.]

Only after she vanished did the Marquis realize his own feelings.

He asked around to see if anyone knew who she was, kept making excuses to visit the palace—but she was nowhere to be found.

And then—

“Do they meet again?”

“Wouldn’t be a story if they didn’t, right?”

Makes sense. The book still had a good number of pages left.

It ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ reminded me of that old balance game I once saw online:

What’s scarier—when the story isn’t finished but only a few pages remain, or when the story seems over but a ton of pages are left?

Personally, I think the latter is more terrifying.

If there are too many pages left, it means a whole new genre is about to begin.

Just like now.

[When I finally saw her again, she was no longer a girl, nor even a maiden. She had grown into a woman—just as I had imagined in my dreams.]

[But more than joy, the weight of those years crushed my chest.]

[Six years... It had been six years since we last met.]

Six years had passed.

And finally, the Marquis was reunited with the girl—now a woman.

[I had imagined this moment countless times. I would tell her how I felt, ask her name. In my dreams, she would cry and embrace me.]

[Then, she’d confess some unimaginably tragic story. When she asked if I could handle it, I’d say it was nothing—that I could endure anything...]

[I imagined that scene a thousand times. But when we met again that day, I didn’t ask her a single thing.]

[Because I had a pregnant wife.]

The moment I read the last line of that page, I muttered aloud without thinking.

“...You son of a bitch.”

Looks like we need to add one more genre to this tale.

“...So it’s a goddamn affair drama.”

At my muttered complaint, Hyeonbyeol shook her head.

“Nope. It’s a tragedy.”

...Somehow, I suddenly became afraid to turn the page.