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Chapter – 01
A pure white carriage entered the snow-dusted mountains. The rough, uneven road rattled the carriage violently, and even that small discomfort only added to my already foul mood.
My reflection in the carriage window was a spectacle. I was wearing a tight white dress, my red hair styled high, and in my gloved hands I held a bouquet—unmistakably the image of a bride.
I impatiently pulled off my silk gloves.
“Amy. Be honest. You knew my wedding was today, didn’t you?”
“No, not at all,” said my personal maid, Amy, frowning and shaking her head. She looked as if to say, why are you taking this out on me?
“Really didn’t know?”
“If I had known, I would have told you, my lady. Don’t you trust me yet?”
Judging by her genuinely aggrieved expression, it seemed she was telling the truth.
I had only learned of my own wedding that morning—ten minutes before the maids sent by the count to dress me had me in my gown.
“Do you think it makes sense that I wouldn’t know about my own wedding?”
“You’re being a bit harsh, my lady,” Amy replied.
The one who had orchestrated this, deceiving both the bride and her maid, was my father—the Count Vistor.
Since I had been reincarnated, I had thought our relationship was stable. I wasn’t affectionate with a man who despised his daughter, but I had believed it wasn’t so terrible that he would betray me like this.
Apparently, that was just my illusion.
“So you’ve decided to sell me off.”
I was the heir and only daughter of the Vistor household. Since there were no other children, I was naturally the only one who could inherit the family. I had never doubted it.
‘I judged you unfit to inherit the family.’
But recently, cracks had begun to appear in that firm belief—due to a judgment my father had made arbitrarily. He intended to bring in a son-in-law to take over the Vistor household.
‘What am I lacking?’
‘Don’t you realize your own shortcomings? Even forgetting everything you’ve done, just that one reckless action alone… proves you are unfit to inherit this family.’
‘Is it because I sent him away?’
In hindsight, it could be said that I had triggered my father’s impatience. It had already been six years, yet he still mentioned it, suggesting that the shock back then had left a deep impression.
Perhaps understandably—the Count had feared that man’s sword might turn against us. So he tried to prevent him from holding a weapon, from leaving this mansion.
Clunk. The carriage jolted, a stone having struck a wheel.
‘Your hair reminds me of camellias.’
A voice I had long forgotten brushed through my mind. Though six years had passed, and surely that voice had changed, it lingered.
He had once been my “brother” in name, a brother who despised me. His face was hazy now, even as I tried to draw him in my memory to keep it vivid, it slipped away in an instant.
All I could recall was his jet-black hair, darker green eyes than mine, and a picture-perfect smile.
Lazette Wiglion.
I had a younger brother who shared no blood with me—a fake brother, created to mimic a son who had died unregistered in the family.
He had hated me. Probably hated my entire family as well.
It was I who had sent Lazette out, the one who might one day come to kill us.
That was when my father’s anxiety began. He wanted a reliable husband to protect me.
Perhaps his anxiety had spread to me, because I was uneasy as well, though I believed Lazette would have forgotten me as I had planned.
But apparently, my father could no longer stand by. He had even forced through a wedding of his own design.
“What should I do now…”
I was heading toward my wedding—against my own will. The carriage had taken a shortcut through the forest to the Vistor estate chapel.
‘I guess running away is my only option.’
I had no intention of complying with my father’s plan. I drew back the gaze I had thrown outside and yanked the velvet curtain closed. I was about to tell Amy to stop the carriage when a scream pierced the air.
“Ahhhh!”
The first scream was soon followed by many more, shrill and panicked. The carriage jolted as it came to a halt. I heard the clatter of horse hooves, but it quickly quieted.
Soon, the sound of dozens of hooves approaching became audible, crunching over the snow. There were screams, and slicing sounds cutting through the wind.
People were being attacked.
“What… is happening?”
I froze, experiencing something for the first time since my reincarnation. A cold fear crept from my toes to my head. Even without looking, I could guess the situation.
It was an ambush.
Not a sound came from the knights who had accompanied me. Judging by the absence of protection, they had likely already been dealt with.
What could I do?
The only thing I had that could be called a weapon was the bouquet in my hand.
A shadow fell over the velvet curtain. Before I could even think, the door opened. My body moved on instinct. I swung the bouquet upward, hitting a stranger’s face.
“Ah.”
The bouquet of white and pink flowers was ruined, petals floating down to the ground as if time had slowed. Only then did I see the stranger’s face.
My eyes widened.
“Looks like you’ve gotten a bit rough in the time we’ve been apart.”
It was a familiar face.
Black hair dusted with snow, deep green eyes staring at me, and slightly upturned lips.
He raised a hand to the carriage wall, leaning forward as if the bouquet had stung.
“Long time, sister.”
“You…”
Though his boyish features had faded, replaced by a mature man, I recognized him immediately. I had seen him more than anyone else, clashed with him more than anyone else.
“Why are you… here?”
If I wasn’t seeing a hallucination, this ambusher was Lazette. Noticing my shock, he removed his gloves, the smooth black leather slipping off his hands.
“I can’t live with being wronged.”
I tried to lean back to avoid his reaching hand, but the cold winter chill on his fingers brushed my cheek, guiding me to look at him.
Six years had passed, and Lazette had changed. The boy I knew was gone; in his place stood a grown man, lips forming a perfect curve.
“I’ve come to take you back.”
Snowflakes landed lightly on Lazette’s shoulders. Seasons had passed since I had sent him away, winter had returned, and the man who had once hated me was finally back.
