Chapter 1

When I opened my eyes again, I was beneath a ceiling covered in cobwebs.

With a dazed expression, I slowly lowered my gaze.

Walls and floors covered in scribbles.

Toys scattered everywhere.

Several chipped bowls sitting on the table.

“Now then, children. Let us pray.”

A familiar voice rang above my head.

When I looked up, a woman was smiling gently at me.

“We give thanks once again for the food that fills the stomachs of our Evehill family today…”

Only then did I properly notice my surroundings.

I was seated before a large round table.

Together with a group of children sitting with their eyes tightly shut and hands clasped in prayer.

‘…Wait.’

Children?

My widened eyes caught sight of a wooden plaque hanging on the wall.

Old and worn, black grime lodged in every grain, the edges chipped and broken.

〈Evehill Orphanage〉

“…Ah.”

A gasp escaped me.

“Anelia, what’s wrong?”

The woman sitting across from me asked, but I couldn’t answer.

I knew this woman.

“Ria?”

Regardless of my will, my head slowly drooped lower.

Then drip, drip.

Wet spots spread one by one across my pants.

“Hic… ugh…”

This wasn’t a dream.

Nor some hallucination.

My name is Anelia.

And somehow, I think I’ve returned to the past.

When I burst into tears, the woman carried me into a room.

The moment my gaze unconsciously dropped, my body stiffened reflexively.

‘…I expected it, but still.’

The hand in my field of vision felt unbelievably unfamiliar.

A body that had become impossibly small.

Stubby fingers, and fingernails so tiny they looked like thin pieces of clipped paper pasted on.

‘Just how young did I return as…?’

Since I was still living in the orphanage, I had to be younger than five—the age when I’d been adopted into House Longton.

‘But this really is the past, right?’

I cautiously looked back up at the woman.

The confusion settled immediately.

Right. There’s no way I could ever mistake this face.

‘It’s definitely Teacher Anne.’

Teacher Anne was the woman who had taken me in when I was an orphan in my previous life.

She was also the one who raised me here, in this tiny orphanage on the outskirts of the capital.

Until the day I turned five and was adopted into a prestigious noble family.

‘Anelia, be happy. You’ll be able to be.’

I still remembered the words she spoke as I left this place.

Back then, I believed them completely.

Because I knew nothing of the future awaiting me.

I took a slow breath and organized my thoughts.

The man who adopted me in my previous life was Duke Lambert Longton, a powerful noble counted among the pillars of the Taranta Empire.

He had three sons.

And every single one of them cherished me more dearly than real family.

At least until the year I turned twelve, when the duke’s true daughter, Hiana, returned.

I forced my expression under control and looked up.

Clutching the front of Teacher Anne’s clothes tightly, I spoke in a voice rough from crying.

“Teacher…”

“Yes, teacher’s right here.”

“Ria… wanna see the calendar.”

“Hm?”

Teacher Anne blinked in confusion.

But I had no other choice.

‘First, I need to confirm exactly when this is.’

“Can’t you show me the calendar? Ria wants to see it.”

After hesitating for a moment, Teacher Anne took something down from a shelf.

A calendar made of thick sheets of paper bound together with string.

Exactly what I wanted.

But the instant I accepted it—

“Oh dear, our Ria. Were you really that eager to meet him?”

Teacher Anne laughed as though she found it adorable.

“I mean Duke Longton. Since he’ll be your father, you wanted to meet him quickly, right?”

My lips parted slightly before I hurriedly lowered my head.

To hide how pale my face had become.

“Y-Yes…”

As I thought.

I hadn’t returned to a particularly fortunate point in time.

〈Imperial Year 1287, February〉

Late that night, after everyone had fallen asleep,

I stared intently at the calendar in my hands by the flickering candlelight.

But no matter how long I looked, the numbers written there didn’t change.

The dates were crossed out up to the 12th exactly.

Which meant tomorrow was the 13th.

“Haaah…”

A groan escaped me naturally.

‘You’re telling me I only have about two weeks left?’

Duke Longton was scheduled to visit the orphanage fifteen days from tonight.

To adopt me.

“…Absolutely not.”

Clutching the calendar tightly, I crawled beneath the blanket.

My ears rang with the pounding of my heartbeat.

‘I’m not going back to that house a second time. No—I can’t.’

But how?

Maybe because my body had become so young again, my thoughts refused to work properly.

‘Should I just run away from the orphanage?’

But I immediately shook my head.

Running away in this body was practically impossible.

It was still winter, after all. Even if I escaped, what could I possibly do?

‘And it’s not like I can stop Duke Longton from coming.’

The adoption had already been arranged.

Even if I insisted I didn’t want to go now, who would seriously listen to the opinion of a four-year-old?

But if I entered that household again, I already knew exactly what fate awaited me.

Because I had lived through it once before.

‘Being adopted… becoming family with those people… that part was fine.’

My eyes trembled faintly in the darkness.

In my previous life, I had been acknowledged by everyone as a genius.

So I truly believed I could become something extraordinary.

Back then, I was full of dreams, unaware of the future rushing toward me.

I created countless magic formulas and medicinal formulas for House Longton.

Whenever the duke and my three older brothers acknowledged my talent, I was happy.

But after Hiana returned, all of it became meaningless.

‘…In the end, everything became hers.’

Strictly speaking, Hiana had reunited with her family late because of me.

I had occupied her place.

Because of that, the family reunion that should have happened long ago had been delayed.

After Hiana returned, I was tormented by guilt over that fact every single day.

That was why I always did her homework for her.

Why I willingly handed over newly developed magic formula designs.

At some point, Hiana began sweeping academic competitions across the continent using the formulas I had created for her.

Of course, nobody knew those magic formulas had come from my mind.

‘Why do you live like that, my lady? Doesn’t it feel wasteful, throwing away your talent?’

Come to think of it…

There had been exactly one exception.

‘If you ever need help, send me a letter. For someone like you, I’d gladly help without asking for anything in return.’

My eyes widened.

Right. That person.

The seal he had pressed into my hand before leaving.

‘A talent like yours would always be welcome.’

A lion crest symbolizing strength and courage, with two crossed swords beneath it.

And the ancient words engraved along the blades.

Even now, the shape of that seal remained burned into my memory.

“Don’t worry, Ria. He said he’ll come after just sixteen more nights. Our Ria is smart, so you understand, right?”

Teacher Anne’s words from earlier echoed in my ears.

“Sixteen nights go by really fast. Fast like a bunny.”

And just as Teacher Anne said, sixteen nights would pass far too quickly.

That was the problem.

‘If I only have two weeks to change the future…’

‘If you ever need help, send me a letter.’

The seal’s crest overlapped with the flickering shadows.

Whenever things became difficult.

Whenever I wanted to run away.

Whenever I felt utterly alone in the ducal estate.

I would take it out and stare at it over and over again.

That was how deeply the seal had engraved itself into my memory.

‘In my last life, I never ended up using it before the day I died…’

“Not this time.”

I crawled out from beneath the blanket and hurried out of the room.

…If you promise not to ask any questions, I’ll become a great asset to House Abner.

For reference, I also possess several pieces of extremely, extremely high-level information.

And I’m very good at catching mice too.

If you want to know whether what I’m saying is true, investigate the part-time worker at the Young Researchers’ Office in downtown Evehill,

the fabric shop at the end of Alley Number 2,

and Hans’s fruit store.

Then you’ll understand.

I’ll be waiting for you to come pick me up.

(I know it’s improper not to visit you personally and say this face-to-face. But I’m four years old.)

P.S. If you come too late, Lambert Longton might take me first!

Farewell.