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Chapter 2
“No… That’s not true!”
I tried to deny it, to defend myself, but it was obvious they had already reached their verdict. Nothing I said would ever change their minds.
“What criminal would ever confess to their own crime, Lady? No… I suppose I should call you simply Inerea now.”
The Imperial Magistrate’s voice remained calm and indifferent.
“Your blood was found at the site where the Duchess’s body was buried.”
“……”
“The investigation was verified by fourteen mages and two priests. Now tell me… what evidence could possibly be more conclusive than that?”
It felt as though my blood ran backward.
The night Mother died, Father had ordered me to follow him up the mountain.
On the way, I had stumbled over loose stones.
Sharp branches had scraped against my skin.
A memory flashed through my mind.
Was that when I bled?
Just that…
Just that was enough to make me the murderer?
“What other evidence do you have?” I shouted. “If you’ve examined the body, then you should know I wasn’t the one who killed her!”
It was a meaningless struggle.
As I slowly backed away, the armed knights drew their swords and advanced.
I swallowed dryly as I stared at the polished blades.
My throat bobbed.
The instant they took another step—
I spun around and sprinted toward the terrace.
Chaos erupted behind me, but I had no choice.
There was nowhere else to run.
Without hesitating, I threw myself over the terrace railing.
It wasn’t too high.
Not too low.
If I was going to die anyway…
There was nothing left to fear.
Thud!
I hit the ground and rolled across the earth.
Pain shot through my body, but there was no time to stop.
I ran.
As fast as I could.
I only wanted to reach somewhere no one would ever find me.
I had grown sick of everything.
I didn’t know how long I ran.
Without a single drop of water…
Until the soles of my feet split open…
I simply kept running.
When I finally regained my senses—
I was deep inside the mountains.
From that day onward…
I survived by borrowing clothes from beggars.
By filling my empty stomach with rotten bread I happened to scavenge.
By now, I was undoubtedly the Empire’s most wanted fugitive.
Whenever I caught sight of knights tightening the net around me…
I did nothing but run.
“It’s a life worse than death.”
The fact that I survived three whole years was nothing short of a miracle.
I stole what I needed.
I hid in the mountains.
I lived without making a sound.
But every human has their limit.
I was dying.
As though my life had reached its end.
I no longer had the strength…
Or even the will…
To keep running.
Leaning against a tree, I slowly looked up at the blurry silhouette of a man approaching me.
“Are you the reaper… here to escort me?”
I muttered toward the knight I assumed had come to arrest me.
Watching him approach…
Father’s face surfaced in my mind.
No.
He wasn’t someone I even wanted to call Father anymore.
There wasn’t a shred of life left inside my broken body.
I had struggled.
Fought.
Endured.
Suffered.
Cried.
Yet this…
This was how it all ended.
“Congratulations.”
My hoarse, ruined voice scraped painfully from my throat.
“You’ve finally caught the Empire’s greatest criminal.”
The wounds burned.
I couldn’t move another step.
The knight holding the sword before me radiated cold menace.
Today…
I was going to die.
“At least the Duke…”
My resentment had nowhere left to go.
“At least that man…”
“I wanted to drag him into hell with my own hands.”
My fading voice dissolved into the wind, as weak as the life slipping away from me.
“If only I’d had power…”
Would anything…
Have been different?
The pain disappeared.
The suffering disappeared.
Only my heart remained—
Beating as though engulfed in flames.
The knight raised his sword directly before me.
Clutching my chest, my consciousness began to fade.
With my last breath…
I whispered,
“I want power…”
“The kind of power that no one could ever use to trample over me again.”
Power great enough…
To change this miserable life that could never be contained within anyone’s hands.
I never knew which came first.
Whether I breathed my last…
Or whether the knight’s blade stopped my heart.
I simply closed my eyes.
Certain…
They would never open again.
That was how I met death.
Or…
At least…
That was what I believed.
When I opened my eyes again—
Awakening from what should have been an eternal sleep—
I was nineteen years old once more.
Back to the very day Mother died.
And…
Just like before…
My father held out his hand.
“Follow me.”
Mother was buried once again in that lonely mountain with no one to mourn her.
Father slipped from the cliff once again.
And just like before…
He stretched out his hand toward me.
Begging for help.
This time…
His hand never reached mine.
“Goodbye.”
That was all I said.
✦ ✦ ✦
Impossible.
The overwhelming sense of reality made me clutch my head.
Avoiding everyone’s gaze, I stumbled back into my room and wiped away my tears.
“To think I’d end up crying again in the room that was nothing but a prison my entire life…”
I collapsed onto the floor of the cold room.
Every fire had gone out.
There wasn’t a trace of warmth.
No scent.
No sign that anyone had ever truly lived here.
And yet…
This was the room where I had spent my entire life.
The frantic pounding of my heart slowly began to settle.
Sitting motionless, I lowered my gaze to my hands.
Soft moonlight filtered through the window.
My body was covered in scratches from all the times I’d fallen earlier that night.
Those wounds reminded me—
Everything that had just happened…
Was real.
I clenched my fists.
It hurt.
It really hurt.
“This can’t be real…”
It wasn’t a dream.
Nor some dying hallucination flashing before my eyes.
It was reality.
My entire body trembled like a leaf.
I didn’t even know why I was shaking anymore.
But I couldn’t stop laughing.
“What in the world… Ha… What is this?”
I tore off my white linen nightgown.
The wounds stung as the fabric brushed against them.
Unable to suppress the weak laughter spilling from my lips, I murmured,
“I really went back.”
“To the past.”
“To the day Mother died.”
Three years.
I’d returned three whole years into the past.
“Father…”
“I sincerely hope we meet again in hell.”
I threw the bloodstained clothes into the fire.
The musty smell was strong enough to make me cover my nose.
Yet as I hurried into the bathroom…
My steps felt unbelievably light.
“If life means crawling on the ground…”
“I refuse to live that way ever again.”
When Father slipped from the cliff in my previous life…
I had saved him.
Believing he was my last hope.
Clinging to that hand with every ounce of strength I had.
Dragging him back to safety.
I had been so thoroughly trained to obey.
But this time…
When I didn’t take his hand…
What had he been thinking?
A satisfied smile spread across my lips.
Then—
A forgotten problem suddenly came back to me.
“The knights…”
The men who had witnessed the one scene that could never be exposed.
The man’s voice echoed faintly in my mind.
Then…
Should I just let you go?
I quickly shook my head.
“It’s fine.”
“There isn’t any evidence.”
Besides…
Whoever dared camp inside the Duke’s mountains…
Wouldn’t be difficult to identify if someone investigated.
For now…
I decided to simply enjoy the happiness of having been given another chance.
Like raising a toast to victory.
The bathroom was enormous.
Luxurious.
And utterly devoid of warmth.
Every step across the marble floor felt as though ice were pouring over my body.
“I never thought I’d miss this place.”
I dipped my hand into the cold water.
My body shivered.
Even water this freezing…
Was comforting.
After all…
Even while I had lived in the Duke’s mansion…
No one had ever bothered to heat the bathwater in my room.
I was already used to it.
And while living as a fugitive…
Bathing itself had been a luxury.
The freezing water bit into my skin.
My shoulders trembled.
It felt as though countless needles of ice were piercing my feet.
Tilting my head back, I let out a quiet laugh.
“It wasn’t the cold that I missed.”
The spacious bathroom.
Purified water.
Expensive marble.
Lavish decorations.
After spending years crawling through the mud…
Those were the things I’d truly longed for.
My reflection appeared in the large mirror.
I narrowed my eyes and slowly stood.
I nearly slipped on the wet floor.
Steadying myself, I carefully approached the mirror.
“This…”
“What is this?”
The woman staring back at me felt like a stranger.
Glossy black hair cascading in soft waves.
Ash-gray eyes.
Delicate fingers without a single rough callus.
Healthy skin with flesh properly covering my bones.
I remembered the body I’d had before.
Scarred.
Broken.
Covered in wounds from years of abuse and hardship.
A woman who had never even been treated like a human in the Duke’s household…
Who had spent years on the run…
Of course her body had been ruined.
But…
As I looked at this healthy body…
Something felt terribly wrong.
I slowly brushed my hand over the left side of my chest.
A large crimson scar stretched across my pale skin.
Its rough surface sent chills racing all the way to the top of my head.
“What… is this?”
The scar spread over my heart like a crimson web.
It had never existed before.
My trembling fingers traced its uneven surface.
A memory flashed through my mind.
The sound of my heart…
Burning violently…
Just before I died.
“……”
No way…
“Is this…”
“The mark my death left behind?”
