“Why…!”
Crimson blood dripped down to the floor from the blade that’d pierced my stomach.
It hurts.
It was a question so painful and terrible that it came out in a scream.
“Why, just why…?”
The man who’d just stabbed me- I knew him very well.
Emilian Laclan Calliste.
My beloved friend.
My only childhood friend, and also a pitiful child who’d been shunned for being the son of the “villainess.”
The same child who I trusted as much as my family was now sending me into the arms of death.
Thump. He collapsed to the floor like a weakened bridge that’d come loose.
TL/N: Referring to a rope bridge, in which the ropes have been untied/come loose.
It hurts so much…
I hugged my stomach with trembling hands, my arms quickly becoming soaked in red.
“Answer me, Emil. Why in the world-?!”
“I’m sorry…”
I’m so sorry, Vel.
Emil, who was on his knees like a knight making a vow, reached out and touched my cheek.
Unlike the person who’d stabbed me, this person was crying. He’d never shed a tear before, not even when he suffered from torture and ostracization.
The person who’d been looking down at me so proudly had now fallen.
“It would be better to do this than live as a puppet like me.”
Murmuring this, the eyes that’d lost all reason came closer.
I couldn’t help but realize when I saw those eyes.
The villainess’ madness.
It had been passed on to Emil.
I started to fall backwards, and Emil grabbed me affectionately, holding me in his lap.
Tears fell down and soaked my cheek.
Oh, I had been truly happy in this life…
The spot where the sword had pierced through my stomach hurt so much.
I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die…
But, against my wishes, I felt my eyelids begin to grow heavier and heavier.
“I’m sorry.”
And then…
I couldn’t hear anything Emil said anymore.
So just like that, my second life ended.
***
My mother was the heroine, Ismeralda Elfersi.
The heroine, who was murdered by Rovelina Castone, the only princess of the Castonian Empire, and a villainess who suffered from madness.
It would be an incredibly boring novel, had Mother just died an ordinary death like that, but she wasn’t the protagonist of the story for no reason.
My mother was a regressor who came back to life and turned back time after her death.
“All I wanted was to get closer to you.”
“Your Highness Rovelin-“
“But now I’ll have to pay for it.”
I recalled a scene from the novel I was reading.
The novel, <No One Saved Her>.
That was the title of the book I’d saved up for after starving for a whole day. Despite the tight life I’d lived previously, I still bought it.
It’s the story of Ismeralda, the heroine, who repeatedly died and turned back time twelve times because of the villainess.
Even while others would’ve been driven into madness because of that, she never gave up and still persisted in trying to confront Rovelin.
That very same Ismeralda, was my mother in this new life of mine.
I can see what happened in the past…is it because I’m dead?
TL/N: These are Velsia’s thoughts.
I watched my mother, the young heroine who turned back time over and over again.
The two women faced each other with bars between them, their conversation ringing softly throughout the prison.
“At first, I couldn’t understand you. But now that I’ve returned so many times, I think I’m finally beginning to understand.”
TL/N: Ismeralda is speaking here.
“But the sins I’ve committed won’t ever disappear. There’s no way I can deceive those I’ve killed, turn back time and pretend that it never happened.”
TL/N: Rovelin is speaking here.
I remembered reading this part.
“This is the third time I’ve lost.”
TL/N: This is still Rovelin speaking.
The villainess Rovelina.
The evil woman who’d suffered from mental illness and killed countless innocent people.
The discovery of her illness didn’t reduce her sentence.
But it did, however, invoke the sympathy of the heroine, Ismeralda.
“If all this never happened, would it have been possible for us to become close?”
“Of course.”
“I really wanted to get to know you.”
“Your Highness already knows me well. Others don’t.”
The visit was short. At the end of their conversation, the villainess, Rovelina, gave Mother one last smile.
And Mother also gave a faint smile in return.
Even though I’d read the novel and knew the story, I’d never really understood that smile.
Rovelin fell back from the iron bars.
“You should head back now.”
“Yes. Your Highness, may God lead your way.”
I followed my mother out of the prison. As soon as we stepped out, the scene began to fade, like a page being turned over.
As expected, Mother then had a wedding with Father.
And, just a week after the perfect couple swore eternal love to each other amid the blessings of the people, Rovelina Castone, the princess who’d killed 21 people and tortured countless more, was sentenced to death.
Did you know? Your son killed the daughter of Ismeralda, the person who’d sympathized and understood you.
Of course she wouldn’t know.
Like a ghost, I watched Rovelin’s execution from beginning to end.
And that, was the ending of the novel.