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Chapter 2
Roselia gripped the blanket tightly, struggling to steady her breathing as she tried to accept the unbelievable reality before her.
“A-Are you all right? If you’re feeling unwell, should I call the physician?”
Mary’s worried voice snapped Roselia out of her daze.
“No. I’m fine.”
She didn’t know how she had returned to the past, but this was no different from being given a second chance.
A chance to change that terrible future!
After calming herself, Roselia searched through her memories.
What happened around this time?
If today was March 2, Imperial Year 1013, then it had been just over a month since her father, Count Felis Hailen, had adopted his younger brother’s son, Sven, as his heir.
She herself had been born with the blue eyes that marked the Hailen family’s lineage of water spirit summoners. Yet even at the age of fifteen, her spirit powers had never awakened. Coupled with the physician’s prediction that she would live only until twenty, she had convinced herself that her father had abandoned her.
So she had shut herself away in her room, refusing to come out.
And then… that incident happened to the Hailen family.
This was no time to sit around.
“Mary! Where is Father right now?”
“He’s probably in his study.”
“I need to see him immediately. Help me get ready.”
After washing up and changing into a light green everyday dress with Mary’s help, Roselia headed toward her father’s study on the second floor.
In her previous life, she had never once sought him out like this.
She had hidden in her room the entire time, avoiding him.
Soon she arrived outside the study door.
Taking a deep breath, she knocked.
“Father, it’s me. I’d like to speak with you.”
“…Come in.”
After a brief silence, permission came from inside.
Roselia carefully opened the door.
The study had an elegant yet simple atmosphere, lined with wooden bookshelves and dominated by a large wooden desk.
Standing before the window was a man with short silver hair, reviewing a stack of documents.
Her father.
The man who had died in an accident when she was eighteen in her previous life.
Seeing him alive again made her nose sting with emotion.
She slowly approached and stood silently until he finally looked up from his papers.
“So, you’ve finally come out. The child who never leaves her room has come all the way to my study. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“…I’m sorry. I’ve only caused you worry all this time, Father.”
Setting down the document he had been reading, he narrowed his eyes and quietly observed her, as though trying to gauge something.
“…Very well. I understand. Is that all you came to say?”
“No. There’s something else.”
“Make it brief. I have a great deal of work to finish today.”
He casually picked up the documents again.
“In five days, there will be a landslide near the Kiev Mine. Please evacuate the miners and the villagers beforehand.”
His hand froze.
He lowered the papers onto the desk with a sharp thud.
“What kind of absurd nonsense is that? Lying is a serious matter, Roselia Hailen.”
His voice was stern.
But Roselia had expected this reaction.
Even so, she had to tell him.
In her previous life, every miner and villager had died in that disaster.
The tragedy had severely damaged the Hailen family’s reputation.
“I’m not lying. Starting tomorrow night, there will be heavy rain. It will continue for an entire week. I just… wanted you to believe me, Father. I’ll take my leave now. I’m sorry for interrupting your work.”
“…”
Having said everything she needed to, Roselia bowed respectfully before leaving the study.
Perhaps because it was the first time she had ever voiced her opinion to her father, her hand—which had been clutching her dress the entire time—was damp with sweat.
* * *
“Is something troubling you, my lord?”
Count Felis looked up.
His butler, Jayden, stood there carrying tea and refreshments.
Glancing outside, Felis noticed that dusk had already fallen.
“Troubling me? Nothing worth mentioning.”
“Is that so? Forgive me, but ever since Lady Roselia visited your study yesterday, your complexion hasn’t looked quite the same.”
Felis took a sip of the tea Jayden had poured before letting out a quiet sigh.
“Do I really look that troubled?”
“Not to most people, perhaps. But at my age, one learns to notice such things.”
Jayden replied with a smile on his wrinkled face.
“Is Roselia hiding in her room again?”
“No, my lord. After leaving your study yesterday, she visited the library to choose several books. Today, she spent time walking through the gardens.”
“…I see.”
Whoosh…
At that moment, rain suddenly began pouring down outside the window.
“My, how strange,” Jayden muttered.
“The weather forecast said today would be perfectly clear…”
The hand holding Felis’s teacup froze.
*
“I’ve brought the newspaper you requested.”
Ignoring the cookies placed before her, Roselia immediately unfolded the newspaper Mary had brought.
The front page was dominated by an enormous headline.
“The Kiev Mine owned by the Hailen Count’s family and the neighboring village have been buried by a landslide.”
Father… didn’t believe me after all.
Then again…
If his fifteen-year-old daughter suddenly warned him that a landslide was coming and insisted everyone be evacuated, even she wouldn’t have believed it.
I thought I could prevent it…
Biting her lip, Roselia lowered her head.
Knock. Knock.
A knock sounded on her bedroom door.
Mary hurried over and opened it.
Standing outside was the butler, Jayden.
“My lady, the Count requests that you join him for lunch.”
As far as Roselia remembered, her father usually ate breakfast alone early in the morning, while lunch and dinner were simple meals taken in his study.
But now he wants to eat together?
Although the newspaper had left her in a gloomy mood, she prepared herself and headed to the dining room.
Upon entering, she found that her father was not alone.
Someone else was seated beside him.
Gray hair.
Blue eyes.
A youthful but otherwise ordinary face.
Sven.
Roselia quietly took the seat opposite him.
Sven tilted his head slightly, looking at her with poorly concealed displeasure.
“You’re here. Let us begin.”
Once she was seated, servants quickly brought out the dishes.
Most of them were light meals that were easy to digest—her favorites.
Silence filled the room except for the clinking of cutlery.
After everyone had eaten for a while, her father finally spoke.
“You’ve heard about the landslide that buried the Kiev Mine and the neighboring village.”
As expected…
Roselia instantly lost her appetite.
She quietly set down her spoon and lowered her gaze.
Even though she had known the future, she felt responsible for failing to stop it.
“Yes. I heard this morning. Since both the mine and the village were buried, the financial losses must be enormous.”
Financial losses?
Even now, that’s all he can think about…
As expected, the man who would one day destroy the Hailen family thought differently from everyone else.
“At times like this, you should be concerned about human lives before the family’s losses, Sven.”
Her father’s voice became slightly sterner.
“…My apologies. I wasn’t thinking.”
After looking at Sven, Felis turned toward Roselia.
“However, not a single person was injured or killed.”
Roselia blinked.
She thought she had misheard him.
“They were evacuated beforehand.”
He smiled faintly.
“It is all thanks to you, Roselia. Because you warned me in advance.”
Thank goodness…
The weight crushing her heart instantly disappeared.
Smiling in relief, she picked up her spoon and resumed eating.
Across the table, Sven tightened his grip on his knife and fork as he watched the exchange between father and daughter.
* * *
After lunch, Roselia wandered through the estate gardens.
It was early March, the beginning of spring, and flower buds were beginning to bloom everywhere.
Back before I returned, I stayed locked inside my room so much that I never realized the gardens were this beautiful.
As she admired the spring flowers, she came upon a marble fountain.
It was a three-tiered fountain crowned by a sculpture of a cherubic child tipping a large water jar.
Crystal-clear water poured endlessly from the jar into the basins below.
Simply looking at it felt refreshing.
“From now on, let’s have meals together as a family more often.”
That had never happened in her previous life.
Just thinking about it made her heart feel warm.
Splash!
“Ah!”
Without warning, an icy torrent of water crashed down over Roselia’s head.
In an instant, she was drenched from head to toe.
Startled, she immediately spun around.
“Oh dear. I was training with a water spirit and accidentally lost control. Hahaha. Really though, why would someone with absolutely no talent stand so close to the water? How foolish.”
Standing there with his arms crossed and a crooked grin on his face…
Was Sven.
