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Chapter 2
1.
Someone shook her.
“Your Highness, are you conscious?”
Medeia blinked.
Her face was blank, as if someone had drained every expression from it.
At her lifeless, doll-like appearance, the maid flinched and trembled.
“Your Highness? Can you hear me?”
A reflection appeared in the mirror on the table.
Bright green eyes.
A softly raised forehead, a smooth, elegant nose bridge, and small, rosy lips.
There stood a girl—somewhere between a child and a young woman.
Medeia mechanically lowered her gaze to her arms.
There should be scars here… the ones left by the beasts…
But the countless wounds she had suffered during the expedition were gone without a trace.
Instead, her skin was pale, smooth, and unblemished.
Is hell this vivid? It can’t be that I’ve become younger again…
The thought of the past suddenly struck her.
“Where is Peleus?”
“…Pardon?”
“Is he alive?”
Peleus—her older brother and the king of Valdina—had died because of her.
Because she stole the Philosopher’s Stone, Valdina’s barrier collapsed.
A swarm of beasts flooded the land.
Her brother died fighting them back.
At the time, Medeia had been in the empire, fighting to secure the throne for her husband.
Only then had she realized what the Philosopher’s Stone truly did—
why the beasts that ravaged the continent had never crossed Valdina’s borders.
“What are you saying? Of course he’s alive.”
At the maid’s answer, Medeia sprang to her feet.
“Where is he?”
She had to see him.
Not the half-devoured corpse torn apart by beasts—
but him, alive and whole.
“Dea, don’t think of coming back. Valdina is no longer a protected land.”
“I don’t blame you. Live. That’s enough.”
The only family she had—
who had worried about his foolish little sister until the very end.
“Where are you going? He’s on the battlefield—how could you possibly see him?”
The maid grabbed Medeia as she staggered from standing up too quickly.
“The battlefield?”
“You don’t remember that either? They said you hit your head when you fell from your horse…”
“So the war is still ongoing… the campaign hasn’t ended. He’s still alive.”
Her disjointed questions sounded more like muttering to herself.
The maid shook her head.
“This won’t do. I’ll call the royal physician.”
Just as the maid sighed—
“No. I have to see it with my own eyes.”
Medeia bolted out of the room.
“Your Highness! Where are you going?!”
The maid hurried after her, but only an empty corridor greeted her.
“This is bad!”
Her face pale, the maid ran off in panic.
* * *
Deep beneath the royal palace of Valdina—
Lights illuminated a secret place permitted only to a select bloodline.
Medeia descended to the very bottom of a spiraling staircase and pushed hard against the stone wall.
The door opened with a cold gust brushing her face.
At the center, an altar shone brightly—
No, the light came from the national treasure placed upon it.
“It’s still… here.”
The treasure that protected Valdina’s land—the Philosopher’s Stone.
Its icy chill seeped into her trembling hands as she touched it.
Medeia buried her face against it.
Clear tears poured down endlessly over its smooth surface.
“We need the Sage’s Eye. My uncle said he’ll keep his promise if we bring it. He’ll hand over the throne.”
Iason had asked King Peleus of Valdina for the Sage’s Eye—but was flatly refused.
Yet in the end, he obtained it.
Because Medeia, the king’s sister, loved him.
“Help me, Medeia. I am the rightful heir to the Kazen Empire.”
“If I become emperor, you will stand beside me. Our child will rule the empire. Surely you don’t want our child to grow up without parents, like you did?”
“I love you, Medeia.”
Blind love—
“Sister Medeia, the Grand Duke is suffering so much. If only he had the Philosopher’s Stone, he would be complete.”
“It’s just a symbolic treasure. You can return it later. You’re only borrowing it for now. Once relations improve, Peleus will understand.”
“We’re all saying this for your sake.”
And sweet persuasion.
Looking back, that had been the beginning of the tragedy.
In her previous life, the naive Medeia stole the stone.
It was shattered into pieces and buried along the empire’s borders to strengthen its defenses.
The emperor must have destroyed it in a hurry so I couldn’t take it back…
Medeia clenched her teeth.
“I’ve… come back.”
With the treasure intact before her eyes, how could she doubt it?
God had granted her final wish.
“Hahaha…! Hahahaha!”
Mad laughter burst from her.
“Ancestors of Valdina, guardians of this land—gods and spirits—”
She bowed deeply and pressed her lips to the foot of the altar.
The soft light of the stone enveloped her.
“I won’t… be foolish again.”
I will not waste this chance you’ve given me.
Medeia lifted her head.
Her pale face was now filled with sharp, blazing determination.
“Claudio.”
All the glory granted to her uncle’s family would be stripped away.
“Iason.”
The brilliant crown he desired would be taken from him.
“I have returned.”
A prophecy reborn through one lifetime shone ominously.
* * *
Medeia emerged from the dark underground passage.
Her tears had long since dried.
The maid said I fell from a horse…
Even in distant memories, some moments remained painfully vivid—
especially those filled with wounds.
Cursed princess. Half-blood. Child of misfortune.
Those were the titles that followed Medeia.
The former king of Valdina had fallen in love with a wandering dancer during war and made her queen.
Though people whispered about her origins, none dared openly criticize her.
He loved her enough to take her even to the battlefield.
Their son Peleus followed them to war,
but Medeia, being young and vulnerable, was left behind in the palace.
“I miss you so much. Please come see me.”
On her seventh birthday, she could not bear the loneliness and wrote that letter.
Her parents immediately agreed to come.
But enemies, driven by vengeance after repeated defeats, ambushed them on their way back.
Only their cold coffins returned to Valdina.
The kingdom fell into chaos.
When it became known that the king died while coming to see his daughter,
people blamed Medeia as the origin of the tragedy.
“You! It’s because of you! If you hadn’t called them—my son wouldn’t have died!”
At the funeral, the Queen Mother collapsed while screaming—not at her son’s coffin, but while clutching her young granddaughter.
Peleus, having just ascended the throne, returned immediately to the battlefield.
A boy not yet an adult had to stabilize a collapsing army.
In the chaos, young Medeia was left alone.
The Queen Mother hated her.
Her brother was always at war.
She had no maternal family to protect her.
The one who reached out to her was her uncle—the regent—and his family.
To the neglected princess, they were sweet and kind.
Medeia became their puppet, moving as they wished.
Unaware that their growing power was aimed at her brother.
How foolish I was.
Kind lies and cunning schemes.
She saw neither truth nor sincerity.
“Mom… Dad… you left because of me, didn’t you?”
Her younger self crying alone in guilt and loneliness seemed to overlap with the empty palace corridor.
But now, things were different.
Medeia was no longer that child.
She was a strategist who had survived brutal campaigns and imperial power struggles—
the one who had made Iason emperor.
Now she could clearly see the full scheme her uncle’s family had woven.
When I was seventeen… I fell from a horse at a tea party.
Tea party. Horse fall.
Two completely mismatched events.
If the maid Neril hadn’t thrown herself to save her, Medeia would have died.
But afterward… Neril left the palace.
By the time Medeia woke, she was already gone.
“I thought I’d die first serving a powerless royal, so I left.”
“They said Neril would never come back. Anywhere would be better than here.”
Feeling betrayed, Medeia forgot about her.
But now, her reason told her otherwise.
She wasn’t the type to leave without a word.
Having returned to the past, the first thing Medeia needed to do was secure a safe foundation.
She couldn’t fight alone in a palace surrounded by enemies.
If Neril were still by my side…
If she had even one person she could trust completely, her past life wouldn’t have been so miserable.
“Did you hear? Jena is beating one of the princess’s maids right now.”
At that moment, a group of servants passed through the corridor. Medeia quickly hid.
“Do you know who it is? That one! The odd one who gave up a knighthood to serve in the princess’s palace.”
“What? Her? What did she do? She was the only one doing proper work there.”
“She’s always been too upright, so the head maid had it out for her. Looks like they’re using the princess’s fall as an excuse to get rid of her. Jena’s punishing her.”
“What? That’s ridiculous. She saved the princess! Everyone saw it!”
“When the head maid says something, that’s how it is. Who here can go against her?—Ah! Your Highness?!”
They froze as a figure blocked their path.
“Where is it?”
Medeia’s cold voice echoed through the corridor.
