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Chapter 2
Huh… he looks strangely familiar.
Ariletti blinked sluggishly, digging through her fading memories.
Ah… that man. He’s the right hand of the Margrave of Hezeit. Sir Tombell, wasn’t it?
Norman Tombell.
Captain of the knights of House Hezeit—the very family she had thoroughly destroyed with her own hands in the past.
She didn’t usually remember the names and faces of everyone she had eliminated. But she remembered him clearly.
Because she felt particularly guilty about what she had done to him.
Through her hazy consciousness, Ariletti thought,
If I’m going to die anyway… I’d at least like to go to heaven.
So before she left this world, she might as well do a few good deeds.
“Hey…”
She squeezed out the last of her strength and pointed a trembling finger at the knight.
“The house… you’ve got in the capital… you’re gonna sell it, right?”
“Huh?”
“Dig up the backyard… before you do. You’ll be happy for a hundred years…”
There was a relic of the White Forest buried beneath that yard. Worth… what was it? A million gold, maybe?
In her first life, she had bought that house specifically to claim it. The relic had been discovered right after Tombell sold it, and he had wept in the middle of the capital. It even made the morning papers.
Sorry about that. I was the one who bought it for the relic…
Offering a belated apology in her heart, she shifted her gaze.
And then—oh dear. There stood someone with an even more tragic future.
Isn’t that Dr. Sergio?
Sergio Anus.
A genius physician and potion-maker, famed in the capital as the “Hand of God.” A promising young doctor who would one day rise to become the First Prince’s personal physician.
Why he was here with Sir Tombell, she had no idea. But there was just one thing he absolutely shouldn’t do.
“Don’t… get married…”
“Pardon?”
“Your bride’ll take everything… and kick you out to Algundoni…”
Because in her second life, she had sent a swindler his way.
It had been a scam marriage. The man was buried in debt, and she had swooped in to clear it in exchange for recruiting him to her side.
I was planning to poison the First Prince back then. So I pulled his physician over in advance.
He was a genius among geniuses—but far too trusting.
The memory made her snort weakly.
Looking back, she really had done some terrible things. Well, justice had a way of balancing the scales.
Dr. Sergio’s expression twisted into something strange.
Soon, he and Sir Tombell leaned together, whispering.
“Hmm… Well, her cheeks are flushed. Doesn’t look like she’s about to freeze to death just yet.”
“But if we leave her like this, she soon will.”
Another shadow approached.
Curious who the third would be, Ariletti cracked one eye open.
Ah… him.
Glenn Hezeit.
Guardian of the Bertel Empire’s borders. A Sword Master hailed as the greatest on the continent.
A man who had been her long-standing rival.
The head of the family she had once wiped out entirely.
And the right hand of the Third Prince—the lowest in the line of succession.
He looked far younger than she remembered, but there was no mistaking him.
“…Hic.”
Suddenly, Ariletti burst into tears.
Why were all the people she had wronged gathered here like this?
Was this some kind of deathbed hallucination?
Come to think of it… I owe Glenn Hezeit.
Across both her lives, there had only been one time—just once—when Ariletti had been utterly outmaneuvered.
Sometimes a straightforward blow shattered even the most meticulously woven web.
In an unexpected moment, he had struck without hesitation and caught her completely off guard.
He could have killed her then.
But he hadn’t.
After studying her with unreadable eyes, he had simply smiled faintly and let her go.
“Go find your own life, Ariletti.”
Why had he spared her?
The reason didn’t matter.
What mattered was that he had shown her mercy.
Then before she left this world, couldn’t she at least offer him a word of advice? A small blessing, so he might survive this harsh world a little longer.
“…On July 7th… in the year 1357 of Inabachio… there’ll be an attack…”
The young man raised one eyebrow.
She continued anyway.
“When you’re climbing mountains… always watch the downhill…”
Why was her tongue twisting like this? Her pronunciation felt off.
“If you see a red flag… on the road… avoid it…”
“……”
“For the pretty mad dog’s lung disease… boil mandrake… it’ll clear right up…”
“……”
“Ah… ah-choo!”
Maybe her lips were freezing in the cold.
If she knew exactly when she had regressed to, she could give more precise advice. But this was the best she could manage.
Anyway, Glenn Hezeit… try not to die. Survive. Crush those damn princes and put the Third Prince on the throne.
Her heart felt a little lighter.
It wouldn’t undo everything she’d done in her past lives. But maybe it would help him, even a little.
She mumbled nasally,
“Goodbye… everyone. Wish you… luck.”
“……”
“I’ll stay here… and pay for my sins…”
Don’t stop me.
That was the end of her will.
She staggered onto her side, exposing her small back dusted with clumps of snow.
The group fell silent.
“Cough—achoo!”
Her thunderous sneeze echoed through the quiet mountain valley.
And soon after, her small shoulders began to shake.
She was crying.
“Hic…”
No matter how hard she tried to hold it in, the sorrow rising from deep within wouldn’t stay down. Her quiet whimpers soon turned into full, miserable sobs.
“Waaah… ahhh…”
She couldn’t help it.
If she had known she’d end up this pathetic, she wouldn’t have struggled so desperately.
She’d probably been cursed as an evil villain enough to last five hundred years.
What was so precious about those bastards anyway?
How could she be fooled twice? Was she a goldfish with no memory?
In the end, she accomplished nothing. Used her entire life. Chewed up and spat out. Dying for nothing.
The men surrounding her began whispering again.
“What’s got her so heartbroken, Doctor?”
“Hard to say. Sounds like quite the story.”
“So what do we do, Young Master?”
“Hm. Has anyone here ever held a child this small?”
A child?
The word pierced her ears, and suddenly everything grew noisy.
After glancing around at his subordinates, Glenn shrugged.
“Forget it. I’ll do it.”
“Waaah—ah?!”
Without warning, Ariletti was lifted into the air.
That was when something finally felt wrong.
Huh?
Even so, she was nineteen. An adult. Why did she feel so light?
With icicles hanging from her lashes, nose, and lips, she stared blankly as someone stepped into view.
A handsome young man with sharp, clean lines and eyes as straight and keen as a hawk’s. The contrast between his jet-black hair and blue eyes was striking.
Up close, it was obvious.
Glenn Hezeit was far younger than she remembered.
A young man who had just shed the last traces of boyhood. Perhaps only newly come of age.
He muttered to himself,
“Mandrake for a mad dog’s lung disease… Mandrake’s an antidote, though.”
After a moment’s thought, he brushed the frozen tear tracks from her cheek with the back of his hand.
“Ugh. Gross.”
He didn’t remove the icicle dangling beneath her nose.
“Eh…?”
Lifting her easily with one arm, Glenn wrapped her snugly in his cloak. The sudden warmth made her shiver.
“If you wipe your nose on my clothes, I’m throwing you off. Understood?”
With that warning, he swung up onto his horse.
Startled, Ariletti instinctively clung to his neck.
Feeling her small body latch onto him for dear life, Glenn let out a quiet chuckle.
Turning to his men, he called out loudly,
“We’re moving again! If we want to reach the territory within a week, we ride all day. Hurry!”
“Yes, Young Master!”
Buried in the thick cloak, Ariletti’s eyes went wide.
Wait. Huh? Huh?!
Before she could protest, dozens of hooves pounded against the snow.
Wait—just like that? We’re leaving?
No, you’re supposed to leave me here!
Ariletti, who had only wanted to be buried in the snow and die, was rescued.
By the very man whose family she had slaughtered in her previous life.
And now—
In the body of a child.
A child’s… a child?!
Is this right?
Something had gone very, very wrong..
