Yes, this is indeed Devarn.
Though Devarn and Stravants were once a single nation and their landscapes aren’t vastly different, this was unmistakably the bustling streets of Devarn.
The moment she stepped out of the carriage, Teresia darted into the nearest shop she could find. It turned out to be a bookstore. As soon as she entered, the sound of a radio, presumably playing from the shopkeeper’s set, caught her ears.
“Today, Princess Elisabeth has returned home from her honeymoon. The countries she visited during her trip were…”
Hearing the broadcast, Teresia remembered.
As the radio had mentioned, around this time, her distant cousin, Princess Elisabeth, had indeed been married.
After her honeymoon, the princess had brought back all kinds of exotic treats from abroad and shared them with Teresia.
That warm-hearted woman… was executed under the new regime ten years and a few years later.
Ah, this truly must be time travel.
At seventeen, she was still a year away from her marriage.
Teresia then caught her reflection in the glass window. It was undeniably her youthful appearance.
The face looking back at her no longer bore the weary expression from years of her mother-in-law’s scorn and abuse. All that remained was the fresh, lively visage of a seventeen-year-old girl.
I was this beautiful?
Even at thirty-four, Teresia Brigelt had maintained a youthful and striking appearance, having never experienced childbirth or the toll of childrearing. But it was nothing compared to her face now.
It wasn’t just about age; over a decade of living in fear had completely reshaped her features.
In the reflection, she saw the epitome of a classic beauty—a radiant young woman with golden blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. It was hard for her to believe that this was her own face.
The shock was overwhelming.
Why? Why had she returned to this time?
Though she didn’t believe in God, could it be that some divine being had granted her a second chance?
For Teresia, a skeptic and averse to superstition, this was a hard reality to accept.
Perhaps it was just a dream… or an incredibly vivid afterlife.
Or maybe she had returned to this moment because it was the one she cherished most.
With that thought, Teresia left the bookstore.
A wave of confusion struck her, and her head began to ache.
Whether this was a dream, the afterlife, or reality, one thing was clear: she wasn’t in the state of mind to buy a birthday present for her friend. She decided to head back to the carriage.
“Ouch…!”
As if the confusion wasn’t enough, now a headache was setting in as well.
Teresia couldn’t understand her body. Why this sudden, unbearable pain?
She clutched her head with both hands and closed her eyes in agony, forgetting entirely that she was standing on a crosswalk with a red light.
Fifteen years ago, a manual signal operator might have told her to step aside, but unfortunately, the traffic lights were now fully automated.
Honk! Honk!
Car horns blared aggressively, urging her to move, but Teresia lacked the strength to react.
And then, it happened.
Someone grabbed the hem of her skirt and pulled her to the sidewalk. Though she landed hard on her bottom, they had saved her from an imminent accident.
“Ow…”
As pain shot through her lower back, her headache began to subside. Perhaps this was some sort of “pain redistribution” at work.
Though the world seemed to spin around her, Teresia tried her best to regain her composure.
She saw a small child standing before her.
“Did you save me?”
The child appeared to be around eight years old.
Boy or girl… she couldn’t quite tell. The child’s pretty face and slightly long hair made it hard to distinguish.
If the child were a girl, Teresia thought, it would be dangerous for her to wander the streets alone. But regardless of gender, she found the child’s appearance strikingly beautiful.
“Y-yes,” the child stammered.
“Thank you. I had a sudden headache…”
Not caring if the lace gloves on her hands got dirty, Teresia placed her hands on the ground and stood up.
Why is this child alone?
Curious, she bent her knees slightly and met the child’s gaze as she asked,
“Where are your parents? Why are you alone?”
“I… don’t have parents.”
The child replied with a slight lisp.
Teresia patted the child, her expression filled with pity.
I want to reward him for helping me… Should I give him money?
But the thought that he had no parents weighed on her mind.
Even with his grimy appearance, his jewel-like green eyes and adorable face could easily become a curse.
“What should I do…? What’s your name?”
“Helmut.”
Ah, Helmut… At least he’s a boy. That’s a relief.
Teresia muttered softly to herself.
After some internal conflict, she made a decision.
As repayment for helping her, she would take care of this boy as his guardian.
The child’s shabby and thin appearance made it clear he was in poor condition.
First, she needed to take him home, feed him something good, and help him find his parents.
“Helmut, would you like to come to my house? I’ll help you look for your parents and give you some delicious food.”
“Is… is that okay?”
“Yes. There’s a lot of good food at my house. You helped me, so I want to help you too.”
When Teresia spoke with a bright smile, the child’s eyes welled up with tears.
Startled, Teresia quickly pulled out a handkerchief and wiped away the child’s tears.
Just as Anna had done for her earlier.
For a while, they stood on the sidewalk as the boy shed a few more tears.
Then, suddenly, a voice called out to her.
“Young Lady!” Anna’s voice sounded anxious as it called for her.
She must be flustered because I disappeared so suddenly.
“Young Lady! How could you run off so recklessly? Who is this child?”
“He saved me from getting hurt. I think he might have lost his parents, so I’m planning to take him to the estate.”
“All of a sudden? I doubt the Duke will approve…”
“My father won’t care, and my brother will probably just scold me a little. But in a few days, they’ll forget all about it.”
Teresia shrugged as she replied.
Once the boy had calmed down and stopped crying on his own, Teresia put the handkerchief back into her pocket and took the child’s hand.
“Shall we go?”
The boy nodded, and with him in tow, Teresia followed Anna toward the car.
When the car door opened, Anna took the front seat with the driver, while Teresia and Helmut settled in the back.
Once inside, the boy seemed fascinated, looking around constantly.
He stared intently out the window and even fiddled with the manual lever to roll it down.
Finding this endearing for some reason, Teresia chuckled softly.
If I had had a child later after getting married, they’d probably be about his age by now.
Teresia suddenly realized that she was projecting onto this boy the idea of the child she could never have with Joseph.
Before Joseph sent her away, he had endlessly reassured her that he would love her even if they couldn’t have children.
Sixteen years of marriage should have been enough for him to stop repeating those words, but he kept saying them. Naturally, this made Teresia obsessed with the idea of having a child.
Whether this was a return to the past or the afterlife, one thing was certain—it wasn’t a dream.
If she let things flow as they did before, the same events from the past would repeat themselves.
To avoid that, she did not want to marry Joseph again.
If she were truly infertile, then even if she married someone else instead of Joseph, she wouldn’t be able to have a child.
In that case, raising this boy as her own might not be so bad…
***
Abandoning her plan to buy a gift for her cousin, Teresia returned home immediately.
This was certainly the capital city of Devarn.
The garden in spring was vibrant with blooming flowers, and a small rainbow shimmered near the fountain.
Butterflies fluttered here and there, and the air was filled with freshness and vitality.
Even though it had been so long since she last visited her family’s home, Teresia felt her feet instinctively lead her to her room without forgetting the mansion’s layout at all.
All the while, she held tightly to the boy’s hand.
Once inside her room, Teresia removed her gloves and placed them on the desk. Then she bent her knees again to meet the boy’s gaze.
***
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