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Chapter 1
The cold edge of a sword pressed against her throat.
“Royden……”
Vanessa stared at the blade with trembling eyes. A stinging pain spread across her neck, followed by the chilling sensation of blood trickling down her skin.
“What… what are you doing?”
The suffocating tension felt like walking on thin ice. Why was he pointing a sword at her?
Especially today of all days…
“Our child was born today.”
She had just given birth and her body had not even begun to recover. She could still feel the thick blood flowing from her lower body.
Her confusion lasted only a moment before the sword moved closer, stealing the breath from her lungs.
“Vanessa.”
Royden whispered softly.
“I know a future you do not.”
“……What?”
“This is not my first life.”
Thud.
Her heart dropped, goosebumps crawling down her back.
‘Cold.’
It was the first time she had ever seen him like this.
She never imagined he could become so cold.
As if he had never loved her from the start.
“I-I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
Vanessa squeezed her eyes shut before opening them again.
“What does it mean that this isn’t your first life? And why does that justify threatening me?”
Royden let out a mocking laugh.
“I know.”
He stepped closer toward her.
“I know the terrible things you will do to my daughter.”
Terrible things?
That was absurd.
“D-Don’t lie! What could I possibly do to our child—!”
“Neglect and abuse.”
Vanessa opened her mouth to argue, but the faint fury hidden within his voice overwhelmed her first.
“If I want to protect my daughter, you cannot remain here.”
Ah… his daughter.
“Ruby……”
The moment Vanessa whispered the newborn child’s name, Royden pressed the sword against her throat once more.
“There’s no point calling her so affectionately. Haven’t you acted enough already?”
Clang!
Royden suddenly threw the sword aside. The blade skidded noisily across the floor until it stopped near the door.
Cough.
As the tension loosened, Vanessa finally released the breath trapped inside her chest.
But Royden only continued to stare at her coldly.
“Out of consideration for what we once had, I’ll give you a choice.”
“……What?”
“Tomorrow, the Defnit Count’s estate will catch fire.”
Royden lowered his voice.
“Unfortunately, Count Defnit won’t escape.”
Her older sister—the Countess Defnit—would die.
After that, all the business investors would cut ties in a panic.
Debts would pile up.
“The Defnit family will collapse under the pressure and eventually be absorbed into the imperial authority.”
“……Are you mocking me?”
“Believe it or not. That’s your choice.”
His voice turned icy.
“But if the future I spoke of comes true…”
“……”
“Then disappear from my sight without resistance.”
At first, Vanessa thought it was some horrible joke.
That he had regressed from the future.
That she would harm the child she loved.
That the powerful Defnit family would collapse.
It sounded less believable than the end of the world itself.
But her worries only deepened with time, and so did her hesitation.
“M-Milady! Count Defnit has……!”
Soon, the news arrived and proved Royden’s words true.
One of the territory’s residents, enraged by the ever-rising taxes, had set fire to the estate in a fit of anger.
Her sister had died in the flames.
The moment her sister passed away, the family’s investors immediately abandoned them. The family fortune vanished while paying compensation for the fire and covering business losses.
Relatives who had never once shown concern appeared only to steal what remained. The servants demanded their unpaid wages.
The mountain of debt could never be handled with Vanessa’s personal wealth alone. Selling her dresses and jewelry changed nothing.
The Defnit family no longer possessed enough wealth to govern its lands.
As if they had been waiting for this moment, the family soon drowned beneath crushing debt.
And before long…
Everything was confiscated by imperial decree.
Her world was unfolding exactly as Royden had foretold.
Did that mean the future he spoke of was truly real?
“N-No way… then does that mean my sister died because…”
Because Vanessa had refused to believe him?
Was that why her sister died?
‘Is everything my fault?’
Her shoulders shrank as sharp pain prickled across her back.
‘This can’t be real. How can the rest of my life unfold exactly as he said?’
Thud.
Her heart turned cold and her fingertips trembled.
‘How is this even possible?’
—I know.
“Ah……”
—What terrible things you will do to my daughter.
No.
—If I want to protect my daughter.
That couldn’t be true.
—You cannot remain here.
“No!”
Vanessa desperately tried to suppress the thoughts overwhelming her mind.
‘That can’t happen. Why would I ever do that?’
This was the child she loved more than anyone.
The child she had waited so long to have.
‘Royden must be mistaken.’
She prayed that he was.
“Ahh, oooh!”
The baby smiled brightly in her arms—
Yet for a moment, Vanessa imagined the child’s face twisting in pain.
The infant suddenly felt unbearably heavy in her embrace.
She was terrified.
Terrified that she really might hurt her child someday, just as Royden claimed.
In her shattered world, this child was the only thing she had left.
If anything happened to Ruby, Vanessa felt she would truly break apart.
Dong—
The midnight bell rang.
Her thoughts swayed violently.
No—more precisely, the moment the bell echoed through the air, all sensation throughout her body began to dull.
“Milady.”
At that moment, the door opened and an unfamiliar maid stepped inside.
“His Grace the Duke sent this.”
The maid pulled out a box and revealed its contents.
Dried tea leaves.
Yet strangely, the box holding them had been sealed in multiple layers. The maid herself wore gloves, as if the contents must never touch anything else.
‘No way.’
Still clutching her child tightly, Vanessa slowly collapsed to the floor.
Instinctively, she understood.
‘This is poison.’
—Disappear from my sight without resistance.
‘Was this what he meant?’
Instead of replying, Vanessa slowly looked around.
At some point, everyone except the maid had disappeared.
Come to think of it, it had felt strange all along. Normally she would have questioned it.
But it was as though she had been bewitched by something.
“Yes… I need to see Royden.”
If this was truly what he wanted, then she needed to confirm it herself.
The pale white moon hung in the sky, and silence filled the room.
Vanessa sat alone on the sofa, staring out the window with only moonlight illuminating the darkness.
Creak.
After some time, the door opened and Royden appeared.
“Have you decided?”
Deep exhaustion was written across his tightly furrowed brow.
Vanessa said nothing.
She merely gestured quietly to the seat in front of her, sensing that he had no desire to remain in this room for long.
Royden hesitated before sitting down.
A small table stood between them.
On it rested two cups of steaming tea.
“……”
Royden tilted his head slightly at the different colors of tea inside the cups, but quickly lifted his gaze when Vanessa spoke.
“Royden… will I really hurt our child?”
Her voice sounded hollow.
For a brief moment, Royden flinched at the sound, but he soon regained his composure.
“If nothing changes.”
“I see.”
Vanessa’s calm voice continued.
“So I truly was a danger to our child.”
One of Royden’s brows lifted slightly.
Was that agreement?
He said nothing.
“I’ll do as you wish.”
Weakly, Vanessa lifted the teacup before her.
Soon, a mouthful of warm tea slid down her throat, and a faint breath escaped her lips.
“I want our child to be happier than anyone.”
“……What?”
Royden’s eyes widened instantly.
“I’m sorry.”
Vanessa’s voice trembled more and more.
“To you… and to our child.”
Everything—
“I’ll take all the burden with me—”
Crash!
At that moment, the teacup slipped from Vanessa’s grasp.
She suddenly coughed violently.
Red liquid splattered across the table.
Blood.
‘It hurts.’
Her throat felt as though it were burning away.
Flames raged inside her body, every inch of her aching in agony.
But when she thought of the child who would supposedly suffer abuse from her future self…
When she thought of Anemone, who had died unjustly because Vanessa failed to believe Royden…
‘I don’t deserve to complain about pain.’
This was the only way she could atone.
Exactly as he wanted.
‘I’ll disappear now.’
May her death bring peace to everyone.
May the peace born from her death bring happiness.
“Vanessa!”
Royden caught her collapsing body and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
“Damn it…!”
His purple eyes looked utterly lost.
His hands trembled faintly.
“W-Why……?”
Royden looked genuinely shocked.
She had done exactly as he wanted.
So why was he making such a devastated expression?
Vanessa let out a weak breath and smiled faintly.
‘This isn’t so bad.’
At least he was not looking at her with hatred like before.
“I have… one request.”
Summoning the last of her strength, Vanessa reached up and caressed his cheek.
“Please tell our child…”
That her mother loved her very much.
“That I…”
Please don’t hate me too much.
But sadly, her end came too quickly.
Her powerless hand slipped down onto the floor.
Not long after giving birth, Vanessa accepted death.
All because of a single reason—
That she might one day abuse the child she had not even properly held in her arms.
Because of a future she knew nothing about, her life ended far too soon.
