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Chapter 02
LeBlanc’s eyes flew open, wide and blazing, as she sucked in ragged breaths. Breathing felt easy. Her body was light, and the horrific pain of her flesh being torn apart was nowhere to be found.
Lying sprawled on the floor, LeBlanc felt a strange sense of déjà vu. The excessively ornate chandelier, the ceiling painted with lavish patterns—she definitely knew this place. But before she could grasp what was happening, a sharp voice rang in her ears.
“LeBlanc! What are you whining about now? You’re not getting up? What’s wrong with your head?”
Only then did she notice the stinging sensation at her scalp. She must have hit her head somewhere when she fell. At the disgusting, all-too-familiar voice, she slowly pushed herself up and lifted her gaze in a daze. Dull orange, tightly curled hair. A face full of freckles. That plump, sluggish build. It was unmistakably the appearance of Legasian Arnetio.
“Hah… what in the world….”
She pressed her palm firmly over her eyes. Legasian—her half-brother who had died years ago—was standing there perfectly fine on his own two feet, shouting abuse. The words were insults aimed at her and her mother, but she didn’t even have the presence of mind to retort.
“Seeing you alive and well… I really must have gone mad. If not, then….”
‘Chaos must truly have granted my wish.’
She didn’t bother finishing the thought. Had she really returned to the past? Otherwise, none of this made sense. Hadn’t she personally torn Legasian apart and killed him with her own hands?
Legasian twisted his face and hurled barbed words at her, but to LeBlanc—whose mind had already gone blank—they sounded like nothing more than a distant buzzing. Suddenly, memories of a past she had long forgotten flashed rapidly through her mind.
Her father, Duke Gate Arnetio, who had looked at her with indifferent eyes. Her stepmother, Duchess Verti, who had constantly kept LeBlanc in check and tormented her out of fear that she might inherit the position instead of her son. And her half-brother Legasian, who had taken out his frustrations on her with violence at every opportunity. The horrific memories she had buried deep in her mind came flooding back, overwhelming her consciousness.
As those memories surfaced, LeBlanc exhaled sharply and collapsed where she stood. Instantly falling into panic, she clenched her fists tightly and took deep breaths, trying to regain her composure. Her sharp nails dug into her skin, and soon blood welled up in her pale palms.
“Hey! Aren’t you getting up? I didn’t even shove you that hard—what a drama queen!”
Just as LeBlanc was steadying herself, Legasian, apparently fed up, approached and shoved her shoulder again. In that instant, irritation surged through her beyond restraint. Of all people, the first one she had to face after returning to the past was not the Erkis she so desperately longed for, but this half-brother she loathed to the point of grinding her teeth!
Every second felt unbearably precious. Instead of wasting time facing Legasian, she needed to go see Erkis as soon as possible. Remembering Erkis’s final 모습 as he burned away, LeBlanc squeezed her eyes shut and stood up.
“If you’re just going to spout nonsense, move aside. I’ve got nothing to say to you.”
“What? Have you lost your mind?! I’m not done talking—where do you think you’re running off to?!”
“Let go of me.”
At that moment, Legasian roughly grabbed a fistful of LeBlanc’s hair as she tried to leave. Instantly, her heart began pounding wildly as yet another memory from the past surged up. The thunderous beating echoed loudly in her ears.
“This won’t do. Looks like you didn’t get hit enough. You really need to come to your senses.”
Dragging her along, Legasian threw her into a corner. His massive shadow loomed over her. Even as her breathing grew ragged from the fear etched into both her body and mind, LeBlanc struggled to remain calm, biting down hard on her lip to endure his violence.
‘You killed him with your own hands. You know better than anyone that Legasian is nothing. If you can’t overcome this feeling, you’ll only repeat the past. Overcome it. You have to. If only for Erkis.’
Erkis. The moment she thought of him, LeBlanc’s eyes snapped open, gleaming. Just as Legasian was about to kick her again, she shot out her hand and yanked hard on the loose hem of his trousers. Losing his balance, Legasian staggered and fell backward.
“Y-you crazy bitch! What’s with the sudden rebellion?!”
Completely unprepared for LeBlanc’s counterattack, Legasian couldn’t get up right away and stumbled backward. Staring straight at him, a bloody, feral smile slowly crept across LeBlanc’s lips.
“Erkis wouldn’t like it if he knew… but so what.”
“What?”
Everything happened in an instant. Before he could even react to her muttering, she charged at him.
“Aaaaargh!!!!!!!!”
A scream of agony echoed through the corridor. Without a shred of hesitation, LeBlanc bit down and tore at his ear. Her vicious glare made it clear she wouldn’t stop until she achieved her goal.
“It hurts! I said it hurts!!!!!!!!”
“Y-young master, what—kyaaah!”
The maids, who rushed into the room after hearing his screams, recoiled in shock. Only after Legasian shoved her away with all his strength did he manage to escape the pain.
“Aaaaaaah! M-my ear!!!!!!!!”
But only for a moment. He shrieked again when he felt something sticky running down his face. Where something should have been, there was only a hollow emptiness.
LeBlanc stood upright, staring coldly down at the terrified, thrashing Legasian. He looked up at her as if he had seen a ghost. It felt exactly like the day she had killed him for the first time. Back then too, Legasian had been utterly terrified, bawling with snot and tears as he grovelled at her feet, begging for his life.
At last, a faint smile spread across LeBlanc’s lips as she regained her composure.
Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she looked down at the carpet stained in filth and spoke with a scowl.
“Disgusting….”
As if truly repulsed, LeBlanc quietly furrowed her brow.
In LeBlanc’s room, her maid Lily disinfected her wounds, her face full of concern.
“Oh my, young lady, just look at these injuries… Your lips are completely torn, and the old wounds haven’t even healed yet. At this rate, they’ll reopen. What if they scar? That would be awful. Honestly, you should’ve just torn out the young master’s throat entirely.”
“This is enough. Legasian won’t even dare hover around me for a while.”
Lowering her gaze, LeBlanc smiled faintly and glanced at the chattering Lily. How had she ever managed to forget this girl? A small sense of guilt pricked at her.
From childhood, Lily had attended to LeBlanc and remained by her side despite the abuse from Duchess Verti. She was the only one who had done so. In her previous life, after LeBlanc killed Verti and Legasian and fled toward a monastery, Lily had been dismissed from the estate without even a letter of recommendation, and all contact had been lost.
“I think so too. I heard it from the other girls—apparently the young master screamed so badly that the physician had a hard time stitching the wound!”
“Legasian always did overreact.”
Lily seemed quite pleased that LeBlanc had finally struck back at Legasian.
Smiling softly at her reaction, LeBlanc soon let the smile fade and slowly surveyed her room. It was a place so familiar it made her nauseous. Dark wallpaper and antique furniture filled the space, not a single thing reflecting her taste. It was worlds apart from the room in the Trisvan estate, which had been tailored to her preferences in every detail.
‘So I really have returned to the past.’
Closing her eyes gently, LeBlanc organized her tangled thoughts. Charging off to find Erkis earlier had clearly been impulsive and pointless. As much as she wanted to run to him immediately and pull him into her arms, she had neither a reason nor a justification to do so right now.
As she recalled Legasian’s face contorted with rage, LeBlanc remembered a scar on the bridge of his flattened nose, one that looked as though it had healed not long ago.
‘Legasian broke his nose falling down the stairs when he was about sixteen, didn’t he? Then I must be around nineteen right now. Judging by the atmosphere, it seems I haven’t had my coming-of-age ceremony yet….’
Roughly calculating, it seemed she had returned to about ten years in the past. Just then, after finishing the treatment, Lily suddenly remembered something and brought over a letter.
“Oh, right. A letter arrived for you this morning, young lady. It looked like it was from Rosimona Academy.”
“From the academy?”
Frowning slightly, LeBlanc silently looked down at the letter Lily handed her. The blue envelope and gold-tinged seal were unmistakably Rosimona’s, just as Lily had said.
Only then did she begin to vaguely understand why she had returned ten years into the past.
