TLDWAE 01

Chapter 1

0. If I Had Known Reincarnation Existed

‘If only I could live in this moment forever.’

Immense wealth and honor, kind friends, a loving husband and child—Archmage Asmoff Luwaltberhi was so happy that she wished she could freeze time forever.

But no matter how great a magician she was, such a thing was impossible.
So she came up with another way.

‘If I can create a potion that stops aging and sickness, I can live forever.’

From then on, she shut herself away in her home and devoted herself to creating the elixir of immortality, Elixir.

A long time if long, short if short—six years passed.
And despite the opposition of others, she finally succeeded in creating the Elixir.

But her grand dream of living forever with her loved ones turned to dust.

‘Why? Why?! Why did you kill Gilford and Eddie?! Why?!’

It was the betrayal of the friend she trusted most.
Rudvalt, the first emperor of the Castaros Empire—her comrade who had conquered the continent alongside her—killed her husband and child.
And he offered no explanation.

‘I will never forgive you. Not even in death! You, and all those who carry your blood!’

She killed Rudvalt, laid a terrible curse upon his descendants, and then took her own life—ready even to fall into hell.

‘If I had known reincarnation existed, I wouldn’t have done it.’

And if she had known she herself would be reborn as Rudvalt’s descendant, she would never have cast such a curse.

1. The Terminally Ill Duchess Will Do Anything for Immortality

“Karia, are you listening to what I’m saying?”

“—Ah, yes.”

“So divorce is absolutely out of the question. No divorce!”

Her current name was Karia Pandeon.
She was the illegitimate daughter of a Grand Duke—the emperor’s only younger brother.
After marrying the Duke of Pandeon, she had endured years of abuse and humiliation in his household, pitied by all as the “poor woman.”

“Wife, I was wrong. I promise to show you a different side from now on. Please, just give me one more chance.”

“Come now, the Duke himself is saying this. Show him a generous heart and watch over him.”

But when Karia brought up divorce, everyone stopped her.
To the woman who had barely survived—body and mind wounded—they demanded forgiveness and understanding, insisting it was all “for her own good.”

‘No wonder the original Karia couldn’t even mention divorce and chose suicide instead.’

Karia felt a wild urge to rip out the sly tongues of these people.

When she miraculously survived and regained her memories from her previous life, she was no longer the old Karia.
She now knew she didn’t have to cower under her family’s rebukes, nodding silently.

Not a month, not a year, but six full years—
Six years was enough to start from nothing and create the Elixir.
Yet during all that time, they had left her abandoned in indifference.

Now she had something far more important than begging for their pitiful scraps of love.

‘There’s no time. I don’t know where or in what form Gilford and Eddie have been reincarnated, but if I can create the Elixir again quickly, I can reclaim my lost happiness!’

She burned the faces of her so-called relatives into her mind, one by one—those who dared to spout nonsense and try to toy with her.

Her father, a Grand Duke, who never reached out when she needed help.
Her eldest brother, who stabbed her in the heart yet pretended to be a gentleman before others.
Her second brother, who smiled kindly but always took the others’ side.
The emperor and her cousins, who constantly disapproved of her for “tarnishing the Grand Duke’s honor.”

Not one of them understood her heart, torn to shreds.

So Karia no longer had any intention of caring for their feelings, reputation, or honor.

“—Then let’s say it’s my fault.”

“What?”

“I said I’ll take the blame.”

She had to make this divorce happen, no matter what.
And she had a decisive card prepared for it.

“The truth is… I have a hidden child.”

At her confession—something no one could have imagined—everyone in the room froze.

“I no longer wish to be a duchess in name only. I want to live as the mother of those children.”

The terminally ill duchess would do anything for immortality—even if it meant throwing filth in the face of the entire imperial family.

[If you borrow money from an alchemist, repay it within the deadline. Otherwise, no one knows how you’ll pay the interest.]

In the days when legendary heroes still walked the land, this was a joke even little children knew.
Back then, alchemists existed everywhere, a natural part of the world.

Alchemists were those who, based on truth, wrought change—
Turning a cup of water into a cup of earth, a handful of wind into a handful of fire.

They gathered the mana in the air and transformed it into new phenomena.

Some called this mysterious harmony “magic,” and alchemists were often known by another name—“mages.”

The reason they became synonymous with stinginess lay in the fundamental truth they served:

[Equivalent exchange—the trade of two items of equal value.]

No matter how skilled the alchemist, they could not turn one cup of water into two.
The same applied to the magic they performed.

To the untrained eye, it might seem as if magic appeared from nothing, but behind it lay strict calculations and secret transactions.

Thus, alchemists were unfailingly precise in contracts—coldly so.
Even if the other party was a close friend, even family, there were no exceptions.

Which also meant they were more sincere than anyone else when it came to revenge.

Once, the alchemist who stood at the very pinnacle of the continent looked down with emotionless eyes at Akali, the first empress of Castaros, and repeated that truth to herself.

‘Please, don’t do this! Show mercy, As! No—Archmage Asmoff! The children have done nothing wrong, please!’

‘—So did my child. But what did Ruval do to my only child?’

Archmage Asmoff Luwaltberhi—friend, vassal, and steadfast advisor to Rudvalt, the first emperor who founded the Castaros Empire.
From their youth, they had fought side by side on the battlefield, claiming victory through unmatched bravery.

But power erased the 20 years of trust they had built.

After donning the emperor’s crown, Rudvalt began to distance himself from Asmoff, who had become a powerful and influential vassal.

If it had merely been that they were no longer friends, she could have laughed it off bitterly—such was the nature of kings and vassals.

But Rudvalt crossed a line that should never be crossed.

‘He knew better than anyone how hard I’d worked to make a family. And yet… while I wandered the battlefields day after day, never knowing if I’d live or die… he stole away the one and only haven I had built in my life.’

‘There must be some misunderstanding, As! You know Ruval. No matter how far apart you’d grown, he regarded you as his other half. He would never harm Gilford and Eddie without reason!’

At the mention of those names from the empress’s lips, Asmoff closed her eyes and bit her lip until blood darker than fire welled forth.

Gilford had been her husband—a gentle, loving man who made her heart race just thinking of him. Her first love, and the man who was supposed to be her last.

And Eddie—a small, soft, sweet child whose head barely reached her waist.
Though she could never have children again after giving birth to him, she had never once blamed Eddie.

For them, Asmoff would do anything.
Compared to the happiness they gave her every moment, no gift she could offer felt enough—her life’s joy was in thinking of ways to repay that debt.

That was why she had created the Elixir, so they could live together—forever young, forever healthy.

But all of it was shattered by Rudvalt’s hand.

‘A misunderstanding? I thought so too. I swallowed my blood and went to him. But he offered no excuse. Even when I fell to my knees and begged him to say something, he only looked down at me in silence.’

‘That’s impossible!’

‘Now I’m certain. The greatest mistake of my life was making him emperor. So I corrected it, Akali—with my own hands.’

Asmoff’s clothes were stained with blood, so much that its source was obvious at a glance.
Her face held neither anger nor passion now—only a dryness like a white, empty beach where everything had evaporated.

When she reached out her hand, the two young princes shrank back in terror.
Empress Akali quickly pulled them behind her slender body.

‘Don’t do this, please! You said you avenged yourself on Ruval—hic! If he did wrong, his death should be enough!’

‘—Not yet. I haven’t received the price for Eddie’s life.’

‘Stop! Please, stop! Have you already forgotten that I… that I once saved your life?!’

Akali’s mind was clouded with the shock of losing her only partner, and she felt she might collapse at any moment.
But she couldn’t give up.
Even if her tear-streaked, despair-filled face was filthy, she still had something left to protect.