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Episode 1
“I’ll be coming back late tonight.”
Baron Brian said that while fixing his clothes in front of the mirror.
Eldin, standing behind him, stared at him silently.
“I’ll be coming back with Sara, so don’t come out of the room.”
Eldin, sitting in her wheelchair and quietly listening to him, weakly nodded.
Her reflection in the mirror looked pitiful beyond words.
The baron clicked his tongue and strode toward her.
“What could our wife possibly be unhappy about, hmm?”
Seeing her tightly shut lips, the baron curled his mouth into a mocking smile and bent down.
Eldin turned her head away to avoid his gaze.
Anticipating what was about to happen, she tightly gripped the armrest of her wheelchair.
The baron stiffened his expression and looked down at her coldly.
“…So now you won’t even answer?”
Eldin’s pale fingertips trembled.
“You useless thing. You can’t even smile at the husband who feeds you, yet you dare show dissatisfaction?”
The baron kicked her wheelchair hard. It toppled over, and Eldin fell to the floor, quickly curling her body up.
The baron shouted with a twisted face.
“Trash like you isn’t even worth treating as a human! If I’d known you were this broken, I wouldn’t have bought you. What can you even do?”
He glared at her, breathing heavily.
Eldin’s clothes were torn in several places. It was humiliating and unbearably painful, but she endured it.
Seeing that, the baron clicked his tongue and pointed at the servant waiting by the door.
“Don’t give this pathetic garbage any food today. Lock her in her room.”
“Yes. Understood.”
The servant hesitated as he approached Eldin.
Despite being a baroness, she was someone even the servants didn’t want to touch.
When the servant moved too slowly, the baron stopped him.
“Wait. Come to think of it, there’s no need for us to take her there, right personally?”
The baron crouched down beside Eldin, who was still curled up on the floor.
He gently stroked the back of her head.
His fingers running through her hair made her skin crawl.
Noticing her shoulders trembling, the baron smiled and asked,
“Maybe she’s become spoiled because we always help her up. Don’t you think it’s about time my beloved wife started walking on her own?”
“If you stand up right now, I might give you one meal.”
At the baron’s kind-sounding words, the servants standing around began clapping, praising how kind their master was.
‘I have to stand… I have to… so I can get out of here even a little faster.’
But her body, already completely broken, didn’t listen to her.
Only after the clapping died down did she barely manage to lift her upper body.
Seeing her stagger as she stood, the baron chuckled and kicked her bony shoulder.
“Getting up just because of food. Since my wife is so greedy, I have no choice but to control her. Today, think of it as exercise and crawl to your room on your own.”
At the familiar mockery, Eldin let out a faint, bitter laugh without realizing it.
Her empty eyes swept around the room.
Everyone there was staring at her and laughing.
Their laughter echoed in her dizzy mind like hallucinations.
With her vision shaking, Eldin slowly stretched out her arms and began crawling along the floor.
“Yes, this is the kind of entertainment that makes it worth keeping you around.”
The baron laughed as he watched her.
Born a count’s daughter, Eldin had been sold to Baron Brian, the owner of a casino, because of her father’s gambling debts. Now, Baroness Eldin was nothing but a laughingstock to everyone.
Her legs had originally been perfectly fine, but after being sold to the baron, he ruined her ankles because he disliked her tall height, leaving her unable to walk.
When Eldin finally reached her room, she staggered and grabbed onto a chair.
After pouring all her strength into it, she finally managed to sit down, breathing heavily.
But she didn’t have time to rest. If she didn’t finish the paperwork before the baron returned, she would definitely be beaten again.
At home, she was treated worse than a maid, yet the baron still tried to use her intelligence however he could.
While signing documents, Eldin pressed her fingers to her brow as dizziness washed over her.
‘There’s so much paperwork…’
Her body was already at its limit.
As her consciousness slowly flickered, Eldin prayed that he would come back late.
“Damn it!”
With someone’s shout, Eldin woke up to a dull pain.
She didn’t know how long she’d been unconscious, but it was already dark outside, and the furious baron was standing in front of her.
In an instant, she was knocked to the floor. Eldin slowly blinked.
Feeling like she was floating, she stared at him blankly.
“You’re completely out of your mind! You didn’t do what I told you to!”
Her head snapped to the side, and blood flowed from her split lip. Still unsatisfied, he started smashing nearby objects.
‘Ah… maybe today I’ll actually die.’
As her consciousness flickered again, Eldin smiled faintly.
But against her wishes, when she opened her eyes again, she saw the familiar room.
It seemed the baron had simply left her after knocking her out. Broken objects were scattered everywhere, and blood was smeared messily on the floor.
A splitting headache surged through her, as if her skull would crack.
She slowly lifted her aching body and leaned against the wall.
Her vision was blurry as she checked the time. The clock showed 11:59.
In one minute, it would be the anniversary of her mother’s death.
“Mm……”
A woman’s moan came from the next room.
‘Right… he said he’d come with Sara.’
Sara, the baron’s mistress, often came to the house to spend time with him.
Despite having many rooms, the baron always stayed with her in the room next to Eldin’s.
She didn’t cry, but her heart felt empty. Thinking back, she couldn’t remember a single happy moment in her life.
At first, she wanted to be loved. She wanted to avoid disappointing them.
But after endless despair and abuse, she was utterly exhausted at just twenty-four years old.
There was only one reason Eldin continued living.
Atonement.
She looked at the clock again. The hour and second hands pointed to exactly midnight.
Eldin opened a drawer and took out the knife she had hidden.
After handling it dozens of times a day, the handle had become smooth and shiny.
“It’s already been fourteen years since Mom died. She suffered for so long because of me, I thought I should live a hellish life forever too… but I can’t take it anymore. I’ve endured this much. It’s okay if I die a little early, right?”
She muttered bitterly, smiling sadly.
Listening to the ticking seconds, Eldin brought the knife to her neck without hesitation.
She was sure she aimed correctly.
But the blade slipped, only grazing her neck.
The knife fell to the floor with a clatter.
“Haha……”
Eldin collapsed to the ground and laughed emptily.
‘Why am I scared now, when I’m trying to die?’
She had no will to live, yet not even the courage to die.
She was the worst kind of person.
Eldin tightly closed her eyes once, then opened them.
Her vision was still blurry.
‘…I should work.’
Sitting around wouldn’t solve anything.
As she tried to stand, her strength gave out, and she collapsed to the floor.
‘Huh…?’
Eldin blinked in confusion.
A chill ran down her spine. She felt her body stiffening.
‘Why…?’
Was it because the knife grazed her earlier?
She fumbled and touched the torn skin. There was barely any blood on her hand.
Then she felt something warm on the left side of her head.
Blood was flowing again from the wound where the baron had hit her earlier.
Eldin’s lips parted slightly.
‘My consciousness is…’
She felt death closing in.
With empty eyes, Eldin stared into the void.
‘If I had escaped from them… would my life have been better than this?’
Feeling her consciousness fade, she slowly closed her eyes.
Eldin frowned as she felt a shivering cold.
‘Cold…’
The chill pierced her skin, and her body curled up on its own, her toes drawing inward.
Wrapped in a thin blanket, Eldin sensed something strange and snapped her eyes open.
She hurriedly threw off the blanket and looked at her legs.
‘…I can feel my legs.
With a trembling expression, she cautiously moved her toes. Feeling them clearly, Eldin gasped.
“What… is this…?”
Just then, someone knocked on the door.
Eldin flinched and looked up.
A maid entered, carrying soup.
“Oh, you’re awake. The count stepped out for a bit.”
It was a familiar face, but not the maid she’d seen yesterday.
‘This girl worked at my family’s estate before I was sold to the baron… what’s going on?’
Eldin stared at her with shaking eyes.
The maid casually placed the soup on the table.
‘…And this looks like the room I lived in back then… Ah.’
After looking around, Eldin concluded and let out a sigh.
“So this is the afterlife?”
“What?”
The maid frowned and looked at her.
“Even for the afterlife, this is a bit much. To see this place even after dying.”
“…Miss, please come to your senses. If you say things like that in front of the count, you’ll definitely get scolded.”
The maid shook her head and left the room.
Alone again, Eldin looked around.
Outside the window, it was clearly summer, but seeing her breath meant this room—always filled with cold—was definitely hers.
‘But… if I’m dead, everything feels too real.’
She wanted to check something else.
But could she walk?
With a trembling heart, Eldin stepped forward.
She felt the floor under her feet, and her body stood upright. Standing on her own, without a wheelchair, emotions surged up uncontrollably.
Eldin stood and grabbed the doorknob.
From outside the thin door, she heard maids chatting.
“So she’s coming tomorrow, right?”
“Whoever it is, they must be impressive to want to take the young lady.”
“Still, it’s a relief she’s getting married. The count can’t keep her forever.”
In the familiar conversation, a chill ran through Eldin.
This is exactly what I heard the day before Baron Brian came to take me. Don’t tell me I didn’t die, but went back in time? Is that… even possible?’
Her expression hardened.
It is too soon to conclude anything. Going back to the past… it made no sense.
Just then, more voices came from outside.
“Oh, I almost forgot. Can you wait a moment? I’ll just put this down and come back.”
“Why? What is it?”
“It’s nothing. I forgot to give the young lady a rag. Her room looked a bit dirty yesterday.”
Footsteps approached the door. Startled, Eldin hurried onto the bed.
She sat in the same position as when she first woke up, just as the maid burst in.
The maid didn’t even glance at Eldin as she walked in confidently.
“Um…”
“Yes? What is it?”
The maid replied curtly.
“Do you know what year it is in the imperial calendar today?”
“…What? Honestly… Today is Imperial Year 376, October 20. Please, try to remember the date.”
The maid sighed tiredly.
She tossed the rag onto the table beside the porridge.
After the maid left, Eldin blinked in shock.
‘Year 376…? The last year I remember was definitely 380… Did I really return to the past?’
If she truly had gone back.
If that were really the case.
She had been given a new life.
Her blood surged with excitement.
‘No—what matters isn’t that. If I’ve really returned, I need to run away right now. I will never go back to that place.’
