“I want to live.”
“I want to survive.”
Riv didn’t wish to take revenge on Marianne. It was a waste of time to take revenge. She wished to break free from the evil princess and live a new and peaceful life as Riv Katana…
If only she were given such an opportunity to change her life, she would have said, ‘I want to live’, ‘I want to be happy’, and ‘I want to escape from Princess Marianne’s sight and live a happy life.’
But Riv had died.
She wailed in tears.
“I don’t want to die like this. I didn’t want to be killed! I wanted to be alive and happy!”
Reeve had never been happy throughout her life.
“I didn’t want to live like this! I wanted to be happy!”
At that moment, red light poured out of the ruby ring in Riv’s hand.
The red color engulfed her completely.
“What is this? What is happening?”
The reaper standing in front of Riv started laughing, “Witch, you can make your wish come true through that ring.”
Witch?
Ring?
Riv couldn’t understand anything, but the reaper’s skulled face seemed to look satisfied.
“You can have another chance, but it is temporary.”
“What do you mean?”
“You will survive. But you are destined to die again on this day and at this time.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Riv’s soul was sucked into her own body, which was lying dead at that moment. At that moment, time rushed backward. Flames lit up around her dead body. Riv struggled fiercely in her flames.
Suddenly, the dungeon was empty. The clock hands in the castle were all turned upside down. The sky started turning from night to day and back to night without rest. When the time went back to half a year ago, the clock stopped turning backward.
She heard a bird chirping outside.
Riv opened her eyes. A bird came in through the window. The cold morning air swept into the bedroom. Riv found herself lying like a corpse on a hard bed.
“Huh?” She was confused.
“Why am I here?” She doubted whether what she witnessed was just a terrible dream or was this the world after death.
She tried to remember what all happened in her dream.
She was burned to death by Marianne’s maid, Elle. After that, the reaper appeared and gave her a second chance. Riv also seemed to have screamed that she wanted to live and not die such a horrible death.
“Was it really a dream?”
It was a horrible nightmare that felt so real. Even if it was all a dream where she had died and was revived, everything was too clear and felt too real for a dream.
She had seen Princess Marianne’s pregnant belly. She was trapped in the prison cell, there was no light for several days, and her hands and feet were freezing to death.
She remembered the terrible pain of getting burned to death in the dungeon.
Those moments cannot be forgotten.
“Ugh!!”
It was terrible to just remember those painful memories. At one point, Riv realized that the back of her left hand was stinging. Her hand was holding something very tightly.
…?
Riv found a clear burn mark on the back of her left hand. Red blood trickled down her fist. When she opened her fist, she saw a ring emitting a mysterious red light.
“This?”
The rugged shape and design of the ring were the same as what she saw in her dream. The only difference from the memory was that the stone of the ring was emitting a blood-red light.
Is this the heirloom of the Duke that Marianne hated the most? The ring of the Duchess of Sentoren?
“What is this light?”
Riv felt troubled by the leaking blood-red light. She grew impatient while thinking about it. It would be a big deal if anyone saw this ring. With the hem of her sleeves, Riv wiped the blood from her palm and the ring.
“Huh?” At that moment, just like a lie, the red glow of the ring disappeared. The stone on the ring turned black. Her bloody palms were also clean, leaving no scar on them.
Riv questioned her eyes again and again.
“How did this happen?”
She felt so uneasy and confused that she couldn’t think of anything rationally. The only thing she could think of at the moment was where to hide this ring.
“If Marianne sees this ring here, she might kill me.”
Reeve wandered desperately to find a place to hide the ring. In the room, there was a closet, a bed, a chair, and a table. They were so old, you never know when they might break. Even on the wooden floor under the bed, there seemed to be no room to hide this ring.
Riv was so nervous and scared that she didn’t even notice that this wasn’t the room in the Northern Star Palace where she had last stayed in.
People in the royal family searched the rooms of the maids several times a week. It was because they were concerned that the maids would take away things from the royal family.
“What do I do with this?”
Riv was worried and found a necklace hanging around her neck.
“Ah…”
No one had touched Riv’s body, because they thought it brought misfortune. Although there were some who criticized her for wearing her mother’s old necklace which had a pendant.
“They won’t touch my necklace.” Riv hung the ring on the necklace. But it wasn’t enough.
“How do I find a safer place to hide this ring?”
The moment Riv said that the Duke’s ring got tangled with the ring of the pendant and became one.
“Huh?”
Riv fiddled with the thick pendant ring. In the pendant, the ring part was unusually hot.
“How did this happen?”
She finally heard a knock on the door.
“Riv, are you awake? Riv?”
Riv hurriedly hid the pendant around the collar of her dress. Good thing that Riv was dressed in her usual black dress. The clothes crumbled, but it didn’t show the pendant.
“Coming, just a minute!”
Riv took a deep breath and opened the door. Anna, the maid, was standing by the door. She opened the door completely and tilted her head at Riv. Anna worked with Riv for Marianne.
“Riv, are you sick?”
“Me? No, why?” Riv pretended to be as fine as she could be.
“I think you are sweating a lot. Did you see a ghost?”
Riv shook her head, saying, “It’s nothing like that.”
Anna didn’t look like she believed her words, but she moved on.
“If you are feeling well, come on. It’s urgent. Princess Marianne is looking for you.”
Riv became more absent-minded.
Marianne.
Marianne is looking for her?
Suddenly the dream of Marianne burning her to death, flooded her mind. Riv was confused about whether it was a dream or did it really happen to her.
“Anna, isn’t this a dream? Didn’t I die?”
“What are you talking about, Riv?”
Riv was puzzled. Anna kept pushing her out of her room.
“Let’s go before Princess Marianne gets angry.”
“Wait, wait!”
Riv tried to smooth out the little wrinkles by shaking off the dress with her hands. Looking at the mirror by the door, Riv stared at her poor face. She looked as if she had died and survived.
‘Wake up, Riv Katana.’ Riv roughly tied her disheveled hair.
Taking a deep breath, she looked back and belatedly noticed the change in the room.
“Huh?”
The room was much bigger than she remembered, and there was a window on the head of the bed. This isn’t the North Star Palace!
Marianne moved to the North Star Palace after marrying the Duke of Sentoren. There was no window in the room where she lived. This room was used before going to the North Star Palace.
Riv looked down at the dark green landscape through the window just right above the head of the bed.
“Huh?”
Riv was burned to death in a dungeon in the middle of winter. But why is she seeing green trees now? The temperature felt different from the cold winter air.
‘The seasons have changed. It is different.’
Riv recalled the conversation she had with the reaper.
“You can have another chance, but it is temporary.”
“What do you mean?”
“You will survive. But you are destined to die again on this day and at this time.”
“What do you mean by that?”
The reaper seemed to give Riv a second chance but said her death would be repeated on the day she had died.
Then, when did she come back?
Riv went outside and asked Anna, “When was Princess Marianne’s wedding?”
“Riv? Are you still half asleep? Princess Marianne has not reached the age of marriage yet. What are you talking about?”
While Anna was being serious, Riv was going crazy.
“Well, will she be the right age to marry next year?”
“There are not many days left for it. What’s wrong, Riv?”
Marianne’s marriage ceremony was supposed to happen on her 18th birthday. Her wedding to the Duke of Sentoren took place right after a month after she turned 18.
But did Princess Marianne marry before her birthday?
Riv recalled that she had died in December, the end of the year. It was probably spring now, maybe April.
Riv travelled back eight months in time. Which meant that her death was also eight months away from now.
“Riv, wake up!”
“Don’t be blank, Riv. Princess Marianne’s marriage doesn’t make any difference in our lives.”
Riv was struck by Anna’s words. It was like seeing the future without going there.
“Anna, do you think I want to leave this palace?”
Anna replied as if it were natural, “Not only you, Riv. There are many people who want to leave the palace. Why do you ask something so obvious?”
Anna checked the time and grabbed Riv by her sleeve.
“If you are stupid, you’ll hear Princess Marianne’s nagging. Hurry up!”
They walked quickly towards Marianne’s powder room. They arrived a few minutes later and took deep breaths.
“Thanks for taking care of me, Anna.”
“It’s just that I will be scolded if I don’t bring Miss Katana.”
Riv didn’t feel bad listening to Anna’s blunt and honest answer.
“Thank you.”
Anna tilted her head in confusion.
“You are behaving a little weird today, Riv.”
“Because she died and came back to life,” Riv replied, her face was void of any emotions.