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Chapter 2
Ever since Evelyn was born, her mother had already been in frail health.
Because she had supposedly brought disgrace upon the family’s name, she had been forced to endure Louise’s relentless abuse.
Louise began each day by slapping her across the face. She burdened her with exhausting labor and, as if mocking their hunger, repeatedly forced them to eat spoiled food.
She even committed acts so cruel that they could not simply be dismissed as bullying.
Three winters ago, after her mother’s lingering illness finally left her completely bedridden, people from the temple arrived and loaded her onto a worn-out cart.
It broke Evelyn’s heart to be separated from her mother, but if things continued like this, her mother wouldn’t survive more than a few days.
As she blankly watched the cart disappear into the distance, Evelyn comforted herself with a single thought.
If Mother can receive the blessings of the gods, then perhaps this will be for the best.
But it had all been a lie.
And the conversation that followed confirmed once more that what she had seen was neither an illusion nor a dream.
“Make sure nothing is left behind that could cause trouble. Marcella has already disappeared, and if that girl dies too, people will become suspicious…”
“Please don’t worry. I already have everything planned. We’ll make it look as though she slowly wasted away because she couldn’t endure that vicious baron’s abuse.”
It was heartbreaking.
Simply reliving those memories was enough to make her suffer.
Evelyn clenched her fists so tightly that her nails dug into her palms before forcing herself to stop thinking about the past.
Just then—
Crash!
The old door was violently thrown open.
Swallowing the sob rising in her throat, Evelyn turned toward the sound.
The head maid, draped in a black robe, leaned against the doorway, clicking her tongue in disdain.
“Did you forget it’s time for the ritual? Honestly, how can you be this slow? Stop dawdling and come with me.”
Evelyn said nothing.
She had finally been given another chance at life…
Only for the first thing awaiting her to be the horrifying Purification Ritual.
It felt absurdly ironic.
* * *
Following the head maid, Evelyn entered the underground chamber beneath the eastern tower.
Prison cells lined both sides of the long corridor, exuding a dangerous, oppressive atmosphere.
“You’re late.”
A woman with glossy brown hair and clear blue eyes sat elegantly upon an extravagant chair, greeting her.
Louise Lawrence.
The Count’s lawful wife and mistress of the Lawrence household.
Though Count William Lawrence was the commander of the Holy Knights, the true authority within the family was Louise.
The count was perpetually occupied with his duties and had never been particularly diligent in fulfilling his responsibilities as head of the household.
“What are you standing there for?”
Her cold, blade-like eyes swept over Evelyn’s ragged appearance before narrowing slightly in displeasure.
“Take them off.”
“Everything.”
“Leave not a single thread.”
Even hearing such degrading words, Evelyn neither flinched nor showed surprise.
She didn’t even reveal the hatred she felt toward Louise.
As though this were nothing unusual, she silently removed her tattered dress and undergarments.
After neatly folding the clothes to one side, she stepped into the prison cell.
Slowly kneeling, she rested both hands neatly upon her thighs.
The icy stone floor was so cold it seeped into her skin and spread throughout her body.
She shivered.
The Blood Purification Ritual.
A short while earlier, she’d checked the calendar hanging outside her bedroom.
She was twenty years old.
It was early spring.
This was the period after I’d already been trapped in the Count’s estate.
Three years had passed since the ritual had begun.
If this truly was reality, then there had never been any chance to save her mother in the first place.
And about a year from now…
She herself would die from the curse accumulating inside her body.
“S-Save me! No… just kill me already! Please… it hurts so much… I… I’m going insane!”
The pain felt as though her heart were being sliced into tiny pieces.
A scorching agony burned through her organs.
Yet even more unbearable than the metallic taste of blood rising through her throat…
…was Louise’s smiling face as she climbed onto Evelyn’s collapsed body and wrapped her hands around her neck.
“Did you know? Marcella wore the exact same expression when she died.”
“W-What…?”
“Her face turning black as it burned away… and that same pathetic ignorance, never even realizing you were slowly being poisoned by the curse. You’re exactly alike.”
The memory of her hearing fading as darkness swallowed her consciousness caused Evelyn’s face to twist in pain.
Everything had gone wrong.
As rage boiled inside her, sweat began to gather in the fists clenched tightly upon her thighs.
Calm down.
I can’t provoke that woman… not yet.
While she bit down hard on the inside of her lip to suppress the fury threatening to burst forth—
“Are you ready?”
Louise’s icy gaze settled upon Evelyn’s fully matured, naked body.
Exhaling slowly, Evelyn lifted her head.
What a grotesque sight.
She stood there stripped bare while maids surrounded her.
Wrapped from head to toe in black cloth, their eerie appearance only heightened the horror.
Evelyn lowered her head, biting her lower lip.
“Yes.”
Louise, who had been elegantly sipping tea without a single flaw in her posture, spoke again.
“Very well.”
“Let’s begin.”
“Yes, Madam.”
As soon as someone answered, the maids approached and roughly seized Evelyn’s arms from both sides.
They gripped so tightly that their fingernails dug into her delicate skin, leaving scratches.
A click echoed through the room as a glass bottle was uncorked.
The crimson liquid they called holy water began pouring over her head.
Its thick, heavy scent flowed from the crown of her head down her entire body before dripping onto the floor.
Evelyn’s eyes suddenly widened.
This scent…!
It was identical to the liquid Louise had poured into her mouth while strangling her in her previous life.
“You truly are stubborn to the bitter end. If only you’d died as quickly as your mother, I wouldn’t have had to go through all this trouble.”
Louise was not the sort of woman who would mercifully pour holy water into the mouth of someone who was dying.
Which meant…
This liquid had to be deeply connected to the curse.
“Mmph!”
Evelyn tightly shut her mouth in resistance.
Watching her struggle, Louise’s lips slowly curled into a chilling smile.
“This is all for the sake of purifying your sins, so don’t resent it too much.”
“Once your body is filled with true devotion, Marcella’s illness will disappear as though it had never existed.”
Evelyn’s brows knit together.
How dare she speak Mother’s name with that filthy tongue…
Unaware of the hatred boiling beneath Evelyn’s calm exterior, Louise set down her teacup and continued.
“You were born from the body of a lowly woman while carrying the noble bloodline’s sacred cord.”
“You inherited the family’s emerald eyes.”
“Those are your sins.”
“So it is only natural that your filthy blood be offered to God.”
“Pray sincerely for forgiveness.”
Ever since childhood, Evelyn had listened to these words over and over.
She had truly believed that if her tainted body were purified, her mother’s illness would be cured.
But not anymore.
Though disgust churned within her, not a trace of emotion showed on her face.
Instead…
She simply looked at Louise with an expression that resembled her mother’s as closely as possible.
“…”
For the briefest moment, bewilderment flickered across Louise’s normally icy eyes.
Seeing that expression filled Evelyn with both contempt…
…and emptiness.
Her murderous intent was this obvious…
Why didn’t I realize it back then?
She was just blaming herself for her own foolishness—
“Hmph! What are you all waiting for? Begin at once!”
At Louise’s sharp command, the head maid stepped forward.
In her hand was a blade so finely sharpened that merely looking at it sent chills down one’s spine.
Despite all her resolve, Evelyn’s tightly clenched jaw trembled uncontrollably.
Please… let this be the last time I endure this pain.
May my repentance at least bring peace to Mother’s soul…
The instant she squeezed her eyes shut—
A horrifying pain exploded from her wrist.
“Urgh…!”
Warm blood streamed from the wound and steadily dripped into a silver basin below.
It felt as though every drop of blood in her body was being drained away.
Her consciousness slowly faded.
At the same time…
A crimson moon appeared within her blurred vision.
It was always the final omen before she lost consciousness.
With that final image…
Her shattered awareness sank into endless blackness.
* * *
“Damn it… You’re burning me alive.”
“Are you planning to melt me like this?”
She stared blankly at the man glaring down at her with blazing golden eyes while both of her wrists were bound.
Jet-black hair.
Golden eyes that shone like those of a wild beast.
And a black serpent emblem branded over the left side of his chest.
His hands tore apart her flowing clothes and caressed her slender body.
Despite his savage appearance, every touch was astonishingly gentle, as though he were handling fragile glass.
“Ah… ah…!”
Each time he drove his hips forward with desperate intensity, Evelyn’s back arched gracefully from the bed.
Overwhelmed by waves of piercing pleasure, she let out breathless moans.
Even so, they were far from enough to express what she was feeling.
“Hah… I… I’m going crazy.”
“Please… stop…”
Their desperate movements grew increasingly passionate.
The sensations were so vivid that it was impossible to believe this wasn’t reality.
They completely consumed her from head to toe.
“I… I can’t hold it anymore…”
At the very peak of overwhelming ecstasy…
The tears she had desperately held back finally slipped from the corners of her eyes.
* * *
“Gasp!”
Evelyn’s eyes flew open.
It always began with the crimson moon.
Then came the feverish embrace of that mysterious man.
Every time she fainted during the purification ritual, she dreamed the exact same dream.
Before, she had never understood what it meant.
But now…
After dying and returning to the past…
Its meaning had completely changed.
It was a prophetic dream.
Because the man in that dream…
…was the very person who had rescued her from hell in her previous life.
