🔊 TTS Settings
Clunk.
When Grace hit the desk, she heard the sound of a joint coming loose on the drawer side.
“Huh?”
She leaned down to check between the desk drawers.
A book was secretly hidden there.
‘Wow, that’s definitely a diary…’
Grace Felton had clearly hidden her diary very carefully.
She opened the diary.
The entries started from a little after she got married.
‘Hmm, she hasn’t been writing as consistently as I thought.’
Grace wasn’t very diligent. Some days didn’t even have dates. She sometimes wrote in it like a notebook.
‘But it’s better than nothing.’
Reading Grace’s diary, more stories filled her mind than the words on the pages.
For instance, Grace had actually wanted to have children but was struggling with various reasons.
‘I didn’t want to know this.’
She had once mentioned this to Benjamin, read the uncomfortable look in his eyes, and never spoke about children again.
‘I really didn’t want to know…’
Grace wondered why she had to feel hurt over something that wasn’t even her own issue.
“…Ah.”
She suddenly looked up at the ceiling.
The study’s ceiling was teal, adorned with beautiful patterns in gold paint.
It perfectly matched Grace’s taste, yet she didn’t like any of it.
Tears came to her eyes.
The hand holding the diary went limp. The more memories of Benjamin surfaced, the more she realized that his kindness was just kindness, not love.
Grace’s heart ached. She knew this feeling wasn’t truly hers.
This pain was a trace left by the original Grace.
Yet it still hurt.
Of course it did.
Unrequited love isn’t something you can simply end when you want to.
Honestly—very honestly—Grace couldn’t say she hadn’t hoped even a little.
She had hoped, like in other “possession” novels, that the husband might end up loving her transformed self.
But as the original Grace’s memories returned, depression and her unrequited love drove her mad.
The original Grace gradually disappeared.
It was a relief in a way. Her original life hadn’t been particularly happy. So she could adapt to this life and live without recalling her former self.
Grace became depressed from reading the diary, skipped her walks, and locked herself in her room for a week. Emotions were more controlling than she expected.
The staff of the annex panicked upon seeing her return from the study even more dejected than before. Behind the scenes, a “Committee to Save Madam” was formed.
Grace would probably never know.
Sally was the head of that committee.
As the head, Sally approached Grace and subtly spoke.
“Madam, there’s a festival in town soon. How about going to take a look?”
“….”
“Masks, capes… it’s a festival! Lots of pretty things. With knights accompanying you, it’ll be safe…”
Sally knew well how little Grace wanted to show her appearance. Not just Sally, but the whole annex knew.
“I know you’re controlling your diet, but there will be lots of delicious food. How about enjoying it just that day?”
“….”
“Madam, you’ve barely eaten anything recently.”
Sally spoke almost in tears; indeed, tears were welling in her eyes.
The Grace who cared for Sally might have stood up and agreed, but now even organizing her thoughts was exhausting.
‘Why is he so kind to me?’
Was it his nature?
Grace liked Benjamin’s kindness, yet she also hated it.
She knew the marriage was forced. It was emphasized repeatedly by the extras in A Saint’s Wish.
Grace had read it so much she was tired of it.
‘I can’t expect him to fall in love with me.’
But if she did, she would truly end up loving him.
Then she would accept anything he did. Even if suspicious or questionable, she would love him, slowly fading away.
Perhaps the Grace in the novel had felt the same.
Grace imagined her future, frowning under the blankets. She could hear Sally swallowing back tears behind her.
“…Sally?”
Only then did Grace lift the blanket and face her.
“Why… why are you crying?”
Her vision swirled from barely eating, but she clutched it and asked. Sally was upset about all of it.
“I just feel helpless because you seem unwell, Madam.”
“No, not at all. You’ve been so helpful.”
Grace looked at Sally, flustered.
“I just got lost in thought. Sorry. When I think too much, I don’t see what’s around me…”
“….”
Grace rolled her eyes at Sally.
“Shall we eat?”
Sally nodded.
“I’ll prepare soup… Consommé or potage?”
“Wouldn’t consommé take a long time to prepare?”
Sally’s eyes narrowed slightly at the question.
“The chef makes a fresh batch every day and keeps it ready.”
“….”
The chef prepared meals daily in case Grace decided to eat.
Hearing that, Grace felt guilty and bit her lip.
“…Sorry.”
“I’m not asking you to apologize, Madam.”
“Mm.”
Even as a noble, Grace often apologized to her staff—a habit from before she was possessed.
She was particularly kind-hearted, empathetic, and couldn’t ignore others’ suffering.
That was why the entire annex cared deeply for her, though she never knew it.
This applies to both before and after the possession.
Eventually, Grace got out of bed, washed up, and devoured the soup prepared by the chef.
She buried herself in her new bed sheets—painstakingly selected by the maids (though Grace couldn’t tell the difference, she praised them enthusiastically, which made them proud)—and reopened her diary.
‘Let’s read again.’
Her stomach full and body clean.
Grace’s diary had some strange points.
She had already decided to divorce. Seeing Benjamin’s sincerity merely shocked her.
‘It won’t end with a divorce.’
Grace intended to divorce to ensure she would live well afterward.
If she was going to remain Grace, she had to live well.
Her dream was to extract as much alimony as possible from Benjamin and live well. That meant eliminating all risks.
“First, this.”
Grace opened the very first page.
[As suggested, I decided to start keeping a diary.]
The first sentence.
“Suggested?”
Who had suggested Grace write a diary?
‘What genre is this?’
Grace seriously questioned why she, possessed into a romance fantasy novel, was now investigating mysteries.
‘And why is it written as if speaking to someone?’
Last time, she hadn’t noticed the oddity while processing memories. Realizing this might have spared her from needless gloom.
She then checked the pages divided by ribbons.
They had spaces for dates, checked periodically.
‘But nothing’s been checked since I was possessed.’
Naturally. But the regular checks implied the original Grace had a regular habit.
Then Grace should have remembered it after being possessed.
She traced her memories, precisely the original Grace’s.
“…This is strange.”
She had thought her foggy memory was due to being possessed, but it seemed that wasn’t the main reason.
The original Grace’s memories were just too tangled, blurry, and uncertain.
She barely remembered family or events with others.
Even the memories she did recall sometimes mixed with others.
“….”
All the memories she saw related to events but ultimately contained reflections on Grace’s emotions.
‘Why do they feel familiar…’
I feel like I’ve seen this method of organizing somewhere before.
While thinking for a long time, Grace heard a strange sound in her ears.
Tap.
“…Hmm.”
Tap.
“What’s that sound…?”
Tap tap!
“…Huh?”
She realized she wasn’t hallucinating and looked up.
The sky outside was pitch black.
Her bedroom was on a high floor. She wondered if a bird was tapping the window, but no life was in sight.
As she stared, a small pebble tapped the window.
“…?”
