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Chapter 37
“Please… I’m counting on you, Doctor.”
After barely finishing his greeting to Dr. Sergio, Glen rushed to the study.
Ariletti’s power is the ability to turn back time.
That means she turned back time one month ago.
However, no one except the child herself can ever know from what point in time she turned it back, or how far she rewound it.
She must know that using her power hurts. So why did she use it?
Why did she come back?
She wouldn’t have done it without a reason.
The master of the study was already there. Russo Hezate, who had been staring out the window with a troubled expression, turned his head at the sound.
“What did he say?”
“It’s not good. This isn’t good, Father.”
Ignoring his father for the moment, Glen walked straight to the desk piled with documents. He opened the safe beneath the drawer and took out two plain envelopes.
“Did he say there’s no hope? Is that it?”
“Of course not. Even if we have to harvest every last mandrake from the Ice Cliffs and feed them to her, we’ll save her.”
“I already harvested them all and stored them.”
As before, if her wild aura and mana simply settle down, she will eventually wake up, even if it takes time.
But the problem is that simply waking up is not what matters for that young sage.
Glen laid the two letters on the desk.
One had been received last autumn during his visit to the Imperial Palace. The other had arrived in their territory just ten days ago.
He flipped over the first letter.
**[Sergio Anus.
Graduate of the Bertel Imperial Medical Academy. Age twenty-four. A person who must be secured early to avoid future trouble. I recommend bringing him to Hezate.
Weakness: Trusting and naïve. While trying to cover tuition fees, he was tricked by a loan shark. If his debt is paid, recruiting him will not be difficult.]*
The second letter was written more messily than the first. It looked rushed, but the handwriting was clearly the same.
**[Girl with deep pink hair.
Presumed to have used her power on March 31, Year 1347 of the Inabachio Calendar.
The dream is fragmented, so causality cannot be determined, but it is suspected to be related to the Monster Wave. Close observation required.]**
Monster Wave.
A word that once meant nothing to him now sent chills down his spine.
‘She turned back time on March 31, the day our territory was swallowed by the Monster Wave. And she suddenly collapsed during the last week of February…’
She rewound a little over a month.
Glen let out a low sigh.
“It seems… I picked up something more broken in the snow than I realized, Father.”
“Broken?”
The count strode to the desk and stood across from Glen.
Glen turned the letters toward him.
“…This… was it sent by the Third Prince?”
“Yes. This one arrived ten days ago. At the time, I had no idea what it meant. But now I do.”
“What do you understand?”
“She turned back time. We have no way of knowing how far she turned it, or how many times she has done it. This might not even be her first life.”
There was no longer any doubt.
On March 31, the territory was trampled by a monster army. The young sage turned back time.
Perhaps risking her life.
Or perhaps she had planned to do so from the beginning.
Then she returned and calmly made a contract with Ismail, persuaded Father, and even negotiated with the dragon of the snowy mountains.
That was not the skill of someone who had turned back time only once or twice. She had been living like that all along—out of habit.
Repeating the past over and over, staking her life each time.
Her turquoise eyes—detached and empty, far too calm for a child—filled his mind.
‘This is wrong.’
Repeating the same time endlessly like that would surely wear down her mind.
“…It’s certainly a dangerous ability.”
The count’s expression hardened as he understood.
“If no one can perceive the altered time, doesn’t that mean she could shape the world however she wants? There must be many who would covet such power.”
“Perhaps she has already been targeted many times, Father. …But I don’t think no one can sense the missing time.”
There are those who can recognize when the power of the forest is used.
Those who hold the same power of the forest.
Glen gripped the letter from the capital tightly.
There was only one way to stop Ariletti from abusing her power.
Foresight.
The ability to see fragments of the future in advance. If she had that, she would not need to see the future and then “return” to change it.
“…I know you have no interest in politics, Father.”
Suddenly, Russo felt uneasy about what his son was about to say.
“You wanted to keep this territory and its people from being trampled under the Imperial family’s feet. Until now, I believed your choices were right.”
“…And?”
“I’ve recently realized something. Simply curling up in one place is not enough to effectively protect our people.”
Despite guarding the frontier faithfully for decades, the Empress had sent assassins to target Hezate’s knights.
The commoners of the neighboring Nemar Viscount family—whom they once thought of as good neighbors—openly looked down on those from Hezate.
It was a world where devotion was met with contempt.
Where those who held onto trust and loyalty to the end were the ones who lost.
Hezate had already been a weak piece on a ruthless board.
Until now.
“If we cannot avoid the Imperial family’s scrutiny anyway, it may be better to decide our position in advance.”
“…”
“And if that ‘choice’ happens to be the person our little, barely breathing teacher needs most right now, there’s no reason to hesitate.”
Russo understood his son’s intention.
He was about to argue that Hezate was still too small and poor to withstand the Imperial family’s pressure. But the sight outside the window stopped him.
The town was filled with energy that had not existed even last winter.
Dozens of outsiders arrived daily to buy potion ingredients. Workers loaded orders from Kaspel one by one. Knights distributed warm stones to citizens waiting in line.
Laughter and hope bloomed brighter than ever.
And more than that—
Russo’s gaze traveled up the rugged mountain ridge.
With the snowstorm cleared, the peak of Mount Colden stood sharply against the clear sky.
A massive dragon coiled around the summit, watching over the territory.
Once called a snow monster, now known as the Dragon of the Snowy Mountains, it lazily groomed its tail scales.
‘To join the power struggle in the capital…’
It was something he himself had never dared to do.
Even when he was the heir and had gone to the Imperial Palace to receive his stipend, he had turned away in disgust from the suffocating stench of power.
But his successor now wished to step into the battle over the Imperial throne.
Glen’s ambition was not wrong.
They could not remain crouched forever.
The young sage had boldly set the stage. Now it was time for Hezate to step into the world.
“I’ll confirm one thing, Glen. Your choice now—it is truly the path to save this territory and that child, isn’t it?”
Hezate’s goal was not the throne or power, but the safety of those curled up in their nest.
Glen smiled confidently.
“Of course. Our goal is repayment, Father.”
No matter the method, Hezate had been saved by the sage.
And he would follow Ariletti’s own principle: what is received must be returned.
Glen took out fresh letter paper, dipped his quill deeply into ink, and wrote in one swift motion.
