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Chapter 3
In the past, after learning the truth behind her mother’s death, Evelyn struggled desperately to escape their clutches.
But the Lawrence Estate was far larger than she had ever imagined.
Breaking through the heavily guarded grounds and the dense forest of ancient trees all by herself was no easy feat.
One day, after being caught while trying to flee, dragged back, and subjected to endless abuse and beatings once again, a guest arrived at the count’s mansion.
It was the very man who had appeared in her dreams, coveting her body.
“Your Grace, please… become my guardian.”
Evelyn sought him out in the garden of the guest residence where he was staying and desperately begged him for help.
“I possess healing powers capable of purifying demonic energy. I can stop your berserk episodes. So please…!”
The cursed Grand Duke, Kallian van Orpheus.
He was a descendant of the First Empress, who thousands of years ago had summoned the Demon King Babel and helped unite the continent.
Just before Babel was sealed within a dungeon after being betrayed by the Empress, he placed a curse upon her bloodline.
“When the Guardian’s Mark appears, the boundary between this world and the next shall collapse, and the gate to another realm shall open.”
“Only he shall grant me eternal rest.”
Bound by a fate he had never desired, Kallian spent his life surrounded by the corpses of monsters. He was the continent’s only Sword Master capable of wielding a black aura through his sword.
“I hear the strangest nonsense.”
The moment he replied in that cold voice without even looking directly at her, Evelyn believed everything was over.
After all, she had thought it a miracle that such an extraordinary man had listened to her at all.
Of course, Kallian had a weakness.
To obtain the black aura, he had made a contract with an evil god. Whenever he overused his power or saw too much blood, the evil deity sleeping within him would awaken, driving him into madness.
The only one capable of completely suppressing it was a transcendent purifier—a Saintess.
Even so, someone possessing such overwhelming power had no reason to show mercy to an illegitimate daughter.
Yet the words that followed left Evelyn frozen in astonishment.
“If you are to control my berserk state, you must accompany me across the battlefield. In that case, shouldn’t you ask me to become your husband rather than your guardian?”
She was stunned.
Though his soul had been stained by the blood of countless monsters, Kallian still stood at the pinnacle of power.
Not only had he accepted her proposal without hesitation, he had even offered to become her husband.
Could it be… that he had fallen in love with her at first sight?
As if mocking even that ridiculous thought, Kallian curled one corner of his lips into a faint smirk.
“It seems you have never heard of the Veil of Darkness. The North is closed to outsiders. Unless someone is of our bloodline or bound to us through marriage, they cannot cross its borders.”
The territory of Johansen, which he ruled, had been sealed off to prevent monsters from advancing south.
Just as he said, entering or leaving without any connection was practically impossible.
In her previous life, after marrying Kallian, Evelyn traveled through dungeons with him, pouring every ounce of her healing power into him.
Though her healing had little effect on anyone else, it produced a faint but undeniable light when used on her husband.
“I just want you to stop hurting. That’s all I wish for.”
She loved him.
So deeply that merely remembering him brought tears to her eyes and an ache to her heart.
“For his sake… it’s better that we never become involved in this life.”
She remembered how he had suffered because of her, enduring criticism from the imperial family and his own retainers. Everyone had opposed their marriage and openly expressed their hostility.
The Lawrence family had demanded an absurd dowry and countless tributes in exchange for her healing abilities.
“The Lord of Johansen suffering such humiliation because of a completely useless illegitimate daughter! If the late Grand Duke saw this, he’d burst out of his coffin!”
No matter how extraordinary her powers were, no one would ever wholeheartedly accept a woman who placed their lord in such a difficult position as their Grand Duchess.
“But… if I’m going to uncover the truth behind the Grudge Stone and the temple, I absolutely need Kallian’s help.”
Moreover, now that she knew the curse had been responsible for her death, meeting the Archmage Ines in the North had become unavoidable.
“Can I rely on him just one more time…?”
Evelyn feared that her selfishness might once again drag him into danger.
But how many people could truly remain calm in the face of death? Using that thought to justify her weakness, she quietly steadied her heart.
At that moment, a light stronger than ordinary moonlight streamed through the prison window, illuminating the damp cell.
“…!”
Startled, Evelyn shielded her eyes and slowly pushed herself upright.
Clank!
As she moved, the shackles around her ankles rattled loudly.
Approaching the light, she grasped the bars of the tiny window.
“Was I mistaken?”
The mysterious light had vanished, leaving only a sliver of moon no larger than a fingernail. Looking up at the sky, she estimated the passing of time.
“When the full moon rises… Kallian will come to this estate.”
After that, everything would become clear.
Whether the past would repeat itself—or whether this life would take a different path.
“Haa…”
The silence pressing down around her constricted her chest like a curse. She exhaled deeply and clenched her teeth.
“Just wait. This time, no matter what it takes… I’ll survive.”
The wind slipping through the window tousled her hair violently. Shivering, she wiped away the tears soaking her face and once more engraved in her heart the face of the husband she had met only in her dreams.
After being released from prison, Evelyn spent several days going in and out of the estate library without even taking time to recover.
With genealogy books and newspapers spread before her, she began recording every piece of future knowledge she could remember.
Which noble houses would suffer disasters.
What crises would strike the Empire and Johansen.
Where the next Gate would appear.
“Found it…!”
Throwing down her quill, she spread a newspaper across the desk.
It contained an article about a Gate that had opened only a few days earlier.
“Another Whirlpool Appears in the Kairos Desert! Is It True That No Villages Were Damaged? Public Doubts Continue to Grow.”
Until now, monsters had appeared only within the Bellatra Dungeon, where Babel was sealed, and in parts of the North.
But for some unknown reason, Gates had begun opening sporadically, shaking the once-peaceful Empire.
The disaster of monsters pouring from those Gates could only be erased by a power that surpassed such chaos—the darkness wielded by Kallian.
The higher the expectations, the louder the complaints.
If civilian casualties continued to increase, even the people who relied upon him would begin to lose faith.
As Evelyn pondered, memories of her previous life flashed through her mind.
“I heard the village of Richev was completely destroyed after a mutant monster appeared. How horrifying.”
“Exactly. None of this would have happened if the Guardian had never been born.”
“You’ve heard the rumors, haven’t you? Some people say the Grand Duke caused these disasters himself to seize control of the Empire.”
If no one bearing the Guardian’s Mark was born, the dungeon itself would enter a dormant period.
Babel, having opened dimensional rifts out of hatred for the Orpheus family, would realize there was no one capable of opposing him and withdraw his power.
In other words, if she informed Kallian of the order in which the Gates would appear, it would reduce the accusations that he had deliberately thrown the Empire into chaos.
“If my memory is correct, the next Gate will be…”
She had just begun speaking with confidence when—
“Well, well. I was wondering who was making this disgusting mongrel smell.”
Startled by the mocking voice, Evelyn looked up and frowned as she spotted the one person she least wanted to meet.
“Erze?”
Upturned eyes, thin lips, a pointed chin, and icy blue eyes gleaming with malice.
The twenty-one-year-old woman looked almost identical to Louise. She was Evelyn’s half-sister, only a year older than her.
“Erze… what?”
She was briefly taken aback by Evelyn’s unusually confident tone.
Then, after glancing at the frayed hem of Evelyn’s dress, she clicked her tongue in disgust.
“Even if you’re lowborn, couldn’t you at least try to maintain a little dignity? Just look at yourself. You look worse than a brothel slave.”
When Evelyn remained silent, Erze stepped closer and looked her up and down with open contempt.
“Sneaking into the library like a filthy little rat… You still haven’t gotten rid of those vulgar habits. I guess your mother’s blood really does run thick.”
Confronted with that twisted smile, as though she were nothing more than a worthless insect, the anger Evelyn had buried for years surged to the surface.
“Your mother was a prostitute, wasn’t she? That’s why she seduced an honorable man and got herself pregnant. Filthy. Absolutely disgusting!”
Evelyn didn’t bother denying it.
Erze was never someone who would listen, and the more she protested, the more her mother would be insulted.
Endure it. My chance for revenge will come.
Maintaining a blank expression with all her strength, Evelyn silently endured as Erze continued.
“The Viscount is coming to take you away in ten days. You should pay more attention to your appearance. A woman of low status who’s also clever only exhausts men. Just stay quiet and be a good broodmare…”
“What?”
Evelyn stared at Erze in disbelief.
“Ten days? What… do you mean?”
The Viscount was arriving earlier than he had in her previous life.
“You know the Viscount lost his son in an accident, don’t you? In exchange for wiping out our family’s debts, he demanded a woman to bear him children. Well… to be precise, he specifically chose you.”
The first time Louise had told her this in her previous life, Evelyn had cried and begged for another way to earn money for her mother’s treatment.
But now, she knew better.
After calmly biting her lip, she looked at the gleeful Erze and asked,
“So?”
“What do you mean, ‘So?’ The blood oath between our two families has already been completed.”
“I see.”
For the first time, the lips Evelyn had kept pressed tightly together slowly curved into a smile.
