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Chapter : 29
Aria’s Return
“What…?”
Aria Heinstein stared into the mirror, unable to believe what she was seeing.
Lively golden hair, unblemished skin without a scratch, shining green eyes.
Everything felt unfamiliar.
“I definitely collapsed after taking the medicine Andy gave me…”
She muttered as she touched her neck. The pain that had once burned inside her throat was gone; instead, cool air flowed effortlessly with her breath.
“Young Lady, you’re awake?”
Just then, the door opened, and a familiar face appeared.
“Mary?”
Aria’s eyes widened as she turned to the head maid.
“Oh my, I’m so sorry, Young Lady. That rascal Lowell’s been babbling nonsense since morning and suddenly ran off outside. I’ll scold him properly when he comes back.”
“Uh… right.”
Aria answered vaguely. She stood motionless for a long moment before suddenly raising her voice.
“Mary! What year is it right now?”
“…What? Why the sudden—”
“Just tell me. What year is it now?”
“Well, Young Lady, the new year came and went ages ago… It’s Imperial Year 478.”
The maid glanced toward the bare winter branches outside the window as she spoke.
“478? Really?”
Aria’s eyebrows rose high.
“…Did I come back?”
Her shock couldn’t be hidden. Her gaze returned to the mirror.
The maid stared at her master with a look that clearly asked, What is wrong with everyone today? But Aria ignored her and continued to examine herself.
Did the gods give me another chance?
After a long daze, Aria finally arrived at that possibility. Her youthful reflection and the familiar number—478.
She had returned to the winter before her marriage.
While Aria muttered incomprehensible things, the maid sighed and dressed her. In that time, Aria’s final memories resurfaced.
“Aria. You understand, don’t you? If you give us your magic, Moroto will prosper.”
“Don’t look at me that way. You love me, right? When you love someone, this much is nothing.”
Andy’s voice—now a blurred memory—passed through her mind.
Their wedding was loud and enviable—a celebration anyone would admire.
And so Aria never suspected a thing, not until she arrived at Viscount Davis’s lands.
Perhaps it was her naivety.
The happy honeymoon she dreamed of turned into horror in an instant.
The moment she arrived, she was drugged into unconsciousness.
When she next awoke, she was already imprisoned beneath the manor.
Every night after that, her husband extracted her magic. In pain so severe it felt like her blood boiled, Andy insisted it was love.
By the time she realized it was wrong, her frail body could no longer endure. She collapsed and died.
“This time, I won’t let it happen. I have to ask my brother for help.”
Shaking off the memory, Aria shouted.
I’ll tell Brother everything—about what Andy is doing in Moroto, and what he plans to do.
“Yes, Brother.
Viscount Davis is distributing magic on the black market.”
“Hm… But how could you know that? You haven’t visited Moroto since you were fourteen.”
Shion’s gaze lifted from the documents and softened with a gentle smile.
“Well…”
“No, never mind. If it’s difficult to explain, you don’t have to. You’re engaged to him—there could be many ways you learned of it. It must’ve been hard to tell me. Thank you, my dear sister.”
Warm words. Warm eyes.
Thank goodness. Brother will handle everything.
Aria imagined Shion exposing Andy’s crimes.
Avenging her on her behalf.
But it was only a fantasy.
Days into her peaceful relief, she was abducted—dragged back to Moroto.
There she learned that because of her “poor health,” her marriage to Andy had proceeded without her—and that Shion himself ordered it.
“So you tattled to the Young Lord, huh?”
Andy’s mocking voice echoed through the underground cell where she lay on the floor.
“How did you find out? Well… doesn’t matter. Shion handed you over anyway.”
After that, her memory blurred.
She only remembered waking again—after unbearable torture—back in her room, her life rewound.
“…Lowell, what year is it?”
Everything was the same—except the maid before her was her closest friend and personal attendant, Lowell.
A second regression.
Aria recalled Andy’s words—‘Shion made a deal with me.’
Brother would never betray me without reason… He’s so kind… It must be a misunderstanding.
Believing that, she called Shion to a retreat in the northern mountains.
“Thank you for coming with me.”
“No, it’s nice to get out for a change. Do you feel any better?”
As fallen leaves scattered over the early winter slopes, Shion faced her.
“What?”
“You said you wouldn’t marry him. I know how thoughtful you are, so I’m fine with your choice.
But I worry rumors will hurt you.”
“Actually… I asked you here because I have something to ask.”
“Oh? What would my sister want to ask me?”
Smiling, he stepped closer.
“…Brother, are you hiding something from me?”
“Hm?”
“Or… did I do something wrong?”
“Why would you ask that?”
The warmth in his voice vanished.
“If I’ve wronged you, tell me.
If it’s because I’m the only one with magic—”
“What?”
A sharp voice.
Aria looked up, and she saw it—eyes frozen with fury, cheeks trembling.
“You must never say that aloud.
How dare you.”
Those were the last words she heard before she plunged off the cliff.
Only then did she understand—physical pain meant little compared to betrayal by family.
A third regression. Aria finally understood.
Shion’s hatred wasn’t born of a reason.
Her existence itself provoked it.
Fine, then I’ll disappear.
She decided to leave—too hurt and too exhausted to stay.
“Lowell, when I get married and leave here… will you come with me?”
She just wanted peace with someone she cherished.
But even that hope was crushed.
She met a kind man and agreed to marry him—but on the journey to his estate, they were attacked.
Returning from a short walk, Aria found her fiancé already dead, and Lowell bleeding out from a stab wound.
“Shion told me. You’d be passing through today. Aria.
Did you really think you could leave me and be happy?”
Andy said flatly, drenched in blood.
Aria lunged at him—and died by his blade.
A fourth regression.
“This won’t work. I need strength to protect myself.”
She went to the academy to learn to control her magic.
Ironically, it was her greatest mistake.
A sister who existed was irritating enough—one who gained power was intolerable.
Shion imprisoned her, carved “impurity” onto her body, and extracted her magic solely to inflict agony.
He didn’t stop until she died.
A fifth regression.
Pain haunted her nights even though nothing harmed her this time.
She couldn’t step outside her room—terrified death would pounce the moment she did.
“Young Lady, please. Just a bit of fresh air. I’ll stay by your side.”
Lowell coaxed her gently.
Aria refused—until one rare day without phantom pain, under an impossibly clear sky, she let herself be led.
That was when the monster appeared.
She felt nothing—not fear, not surprise.
Death really will come in every form.
Lowell pushed her aside, taking the blow.
Her closest friend died.
Again.
Because of her.
A sixth regression.
Seeing life restart meant the monster must’ve struck Aria too as she held Lowell’s corpse.
She was done. Truly done.
She went straight to the southern swamp temple and begged.
“Please… let me go.”
She knelt for days until she collapsed—still pleading.
A seventh regression.
“…Lowell, what year is it now?”
There are no gods.
The thought hit her as soon as she asked that awful question again.
Believing in gods at all was the joke. How absurd she’d only realized it after seven cycles.
This has to stop.
That conclusion filled her mind.
