Chapter 3
“My lady, are you alright?”
“…Sabrina?”
I slumped down the floor without any intention of getting up, but a woman with a familiar face approached me.
“Why are you…?”
Sabrina was my maid in the past, and now, she lived in the Imperial Palace as George’s queen.
(T/L: Queen is an imperial wife/imperial concubine)
‘She’s that human trash’s wife, but she has it better than me.’
While George pretended to love me so he could take advantage of me, I think he genuinely cared for Sabrina.
He had been fooling me for fear that I would hurt her out of jealousy if I found out about his relationship with Sabrina.
‘My relationship with Sabrina? Rita, she’s just a lowly maid, the daughter of your nanny. Whereas you are the noble daughter of a noble count.’
George always gave out a lewd gaze to Sabrina, and when I questioned his true feelings, he brushed it off with laughter and said that it was only my imagination.
‘You’re my only love.’
But as soon as he became the Emperor, he secretly brought Sabrina into the palace.
“The count is too much. He’s still abusing his daughter who will get married soon….. He’s so mean.”
After my father, Sabrina began to say strange things as well.
I glanced down at her shining scalp and smirked as she supported me by the shoulders.
“What a shitty dream.”
The sneer was so dry and pointless that it left a bad taste in my mouth.
I couldn’t believe that I came back to my horrible, Cardinale days.
If I was going to dream about the past, it would have been better if I dreamed about Yvonne’s birth.
Katan was an awful place compared to the fertile Cardinale, but it was a comfortable land because it’s not tainted with greedy humans who fought over fortunes.
“…My Lady?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you alright? Did it hurt a lot?”
I wanted to scoff at Sabrina’s face as she pretended to be worried about me, but my dry mouth no longer moved as I wanted.
“No, not really.”
He just slapped and kicked me several times.
‘There were a lot of times when he hit my legs so bad until it broke, so this is nothing.’
I looked back at Sabrina with a casual nod.
“What are you doing here?”
Sabrina’s pretty face shone with curiosity at my question. She twirled her finely braided hair as she tilted her head.
“Why are you asking? Prince George will be visiting soon, so I’m here to help you prepare.”
I shook my head slowly at Sabrina’s words.
‘I don’t want to see that scumbag even in my dream.’
“I’m fine. Let me rest.”
“Then shall I convey your words to the prince?”
Sabrina’s mouth slightly lifted at my words.
‘You look happy to see George when I’m not around.’
The way she looked reminded me of the days when she and George secretly kissed in the county’s parlor during his visit.
‘Why didn’t I realize sooner when it was so obvious?’
Only after Sabrina became the Queen did I know about their passionate love. George wanted to hide it until the end, but Sabrina went all the way to Katan so she could tell me the truth directly.
“You can leave, Sabrina.”
After I returned to my room with her help, I fell flat on the bed.
‘I’m going to shatter this weird dream of mine.’
The haggard face of my dead daughter appeared in my darkened vision.
“Ugh, eugh.”
I put all my strength into my hands that grabbed the edge of the blanket.
‘Let’s hurry up and sleep.’
Yvonne, I wanted to dream about Yvonne.
***
In my dream, I saw a blue light covering the Katan Castle.
‘Alchemy….?’
Touching the floor with one hand, I stood up after checking the alchemy I made to protect Katan.
The blue light was overflowing on the floor.
A dream in a dream, it was very strange.
“Something seems to have changed.”
The alchemy, which was studded with complicated formulas around the pentagram, was drawn by me, but there seemed to be an unknown formula added to it.
‘Who altered my formation…?’
However, being an alchemist was a very rare job as it required talent and mathematical skills. There were not many alchemists in the Empire, and no alchemist in Katan could decipher my formation.
“And I’ve never seen such a formula.”
In alchemy, a formula was like a language. So I concentrated my ears to hear the words that occupied the wide floor.
It was so refined even though the mark was pierced sharply. This alchemist’s language was so outstanding compared to mine.
“This must be…”
When I was enraptured by the delicate formula, the blue light began to encircle me.
“Ah!”
The moment when the light from the alchemy began to twist around my ankle, I could understand the meaning of this delicately rectified formula.
‘This is the only way for me to protect Katan.’
When the hourglass was flipped over, the clock hands began to move backward. I turned back time using my life as collateral.
‘…Maybe I can save Yvonne.’
I might find a way to revive my dead daughter, as well as Katan, which was crushed by George.
As I held back my throbbing excitement, I began to familiarize myself with the alchemy.
‘I have to understand exactly what kind of alchemy it is.’
To do that, I had to know who messed with my formation first. As soon as I tried to move, the blue light surrounding me slowly faded and soon began to disperse.
“No!”
No, no!
I hadn’t found a way to protect Yvonne yet!
I wailed while trying to reach out for the diminishing formula, but there was no way to prevent the light from scattering.
***
An antique ceiling greeted me when I opened my eyes. The pillar engraved with Cardinale’s emblem, red roses, was the first thing I saw.
Back then, I tried to become someone worthy of that rose.
‘I need to know today’s date.’
If I really turned back in time, there were things that had to be corrected.
When I got up from my bed, I pulled the rope next to my bed, and a maid came in.
“You’ve called, miss?”
This simple-looking brown haired maid who came in was not Sabrina.
‘It was Sabrina who was in charge of me before I went to Katan.’
If my exclusive maid wasn’t present in my bedroom, obviously…
“Where’s Prince George?”
“He’s in the parlor. Sabrina went to tell him that you’re sick.”
“I feel better now.”
“A-Are you going down now?”
“Yes.”
The maid was so flustered by my words. I glanced at her as I bowed my head and put a robe over my body.
“Would you help me?”
“…Yes. My Lady.”
Maybe because I landed on the hard basement floor earlier, my twisted ankle throbbed. I leaned on the maid and began trudging to the parlor.
“M-My lady.”
Fortunately, the drawing room and my bedroom were quite close. The maid stopped me in a hurry when I reached the drawing room.
“Well, I, uh, the Count wanted to tell you something…”
My father couldn’t have said anything else after he beat me up in the basement. So I made eye contact with a maid who tried to stop me with a ridiculous excuse.
‘So you know what’s going on inside.’
“What’s your name?”
“It’s Rona, My Lady.”
“Rona.”
The maid’s eyes widened because she thought I was going to scold her.
‘Rona, so her name is Rona.’
Her freckled face was familiar, but I didn’t know her name.
‘As the only daughter of the Count, I thought I shouldn’t remember the servants’ name.’
Some of the Count’s servants used to feel sorry for me. That is because since I was very young, the Count used to lock me up in the basement, starving me to death. But I dismissed their compassion as cheap sympathy.
When I was officially registered as a Cardinale, I was so prideful that I ignored all the commoners who dared to sympathize with me.
‘…People who gave me a hint about George’s suspicious behavior, and people who tried to help me, there are servants like them.’
Eventually, Yvonne was taken away, but it was all thanks to servants like Rona that I could see my daughter’s face for a little longer.
“Thank you, Rona.”
After smiling at her, I put my hand on the door handle.
Kiik-!
“My Prince!”
Sabrina’s voice was mixed with the door creaking sound.
“My love, I missed you so much.”
Having spent my childhood with Sabrina, I could see that her sweet voice was very artificial.
“I missed you, too. Sabrina.”
George whispered disgustingly as he stroked Sabrina’s hair.
“Ahem.”
George and Sabrina, who noticed my presence only after I made a small sound, turned their heads at the same time.
Committing such an indecency in the parlor of another person’s house. Shamelessly.
When George became perplexed and opened his mouth, I raised my hand carelessly towards him.
“Long time no see.”