The room I woke up in was sparse, containing only a few expensive-looking pieces of furniture.
The sorcerer was nowhere to be seen.
It wasn’t my room, but I knew where I was.
Everything in the room was familiar to me.
Even though I had only been here once before, I could never forget this place.
Because it was here that something unforgettable had happened.
At that moment, a faint dawn light was creeping in from the window.
As I listened quietly, I heard someone else’s breathing.
I looked at the man sharing the bed with me.
On the bed, the bluish light streaming in through the window illuminated his face.
The contrast between the light and the shadows it cast was stark.
Under his nose, his long eyelashes cast a deep shadow beneath them like an awning.
He was a beautiful man. He didn’t seem like the kind of person who would ever do anything terrible or wicked.
But I knew the wrongs this man had committed.
As soon as those wrongs came to mind, I felt a wave of nausea rise.
The face that had seemed beautiful just moments ago now appeared hideous.
I averted my gaze from the man and looked at the calendar on the wall.
The calendar pointed to exactly seven years ago.
A dry breath escaped my lips.
‘I did it.’
“I really… came back.”
I ran my hand over my face, as if washing it dry.
Though the nameless sorcerer had been uncertain, he had sent me back precisely to the day I had wished for.
I silently thanked him.
The past—no, the present reality I was now in—was the day after Henderson and I had spent our first night together.
In other words, this was the day after I had conceived Eddie.
The man sleeping beside me with an angelic face was Henderson.
I quietly gathered the clothes I had left behind in the past and put them on.
Henderson didn’t wake up, even as I opened the door.
Just before I closed the door behind me, I looked back at him one last time.
“Henderson, forget about last night. You and I will never meet again.”
This time, I had no intention of marrying him, despite having spent that night together.
I hurried down the seemingly endless hallway, almost running as if fleeing.
The hallway was familiar.
It was the one in the duke’s mansion, which had felt like home to me for the past several years.
I made my way to the back door, using only the hallways that servants rarely passed through.
Perhaps it was because it was so early in the morning, but I didn’t encounter anyone.
Maybe the grand masquerade ball held last night had left everyone in the mansion drunk and exhausted.
That was a blessing for me.
The masquerade ball—the event that marked the beginning of Eddie’s conception.
Henderson and I had first met at that ball, which was held one year after he became a duke, and we had been immediately drawn to each other.
We dated briefly, and when we found out I was pregnant with Eddie, we both wanted to marry.
As memories of the distant past surfaced, I shook my head.
‘I don’t have time to dwell on the past right now.’
I wanted to leave the duke’s mansion as quickly as possible, a place where so many unpleasant things had happened.
There were a couple of guards standing by the back gate of the mansion.
With a slight nod, I passed them naturally.
I was confident they wouldn’t stop me.
And I was right.
They merely glanced at me without checking my identity.
It made sense, as countless nobles had attended the masquerade ball last night, and many were leaving at dawn, just like I was.
I strolled a bit along the main road before hailing a carriage. It was only after getting into the carriage that I could finally catch my breath.
“Haah…”
Through the window, the sun was beginning to shine.
The day had already fully broken.
Even as I squinted from the harsh sunlight, I faced it head-on.
It felt as if I had been reborn.
Tears, the meaning of which I didn’t fully understand, began to stream down my face.
☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓
I’m not sure how I even made it back to the palace.
Only after entering my old quarters—the palace where I had lived before my marriage—did I manage to regain my breath.
“…Your Highness? Are you alright?”
Turning toward the voice, I saw a familiar face.
“Matilda?”
Matilda had been by my side since I was a princess. She even followed me to the duke’s estate to serve me.
There wasn’t anyone among the servants I trusted more than her.
I didn’t realize how happy I would be to see her again.
“Your Highness, is everything alright? There’s nothing wrong, is there?”
Matilda called me “Your Highness,” not “Madam.”
That small detail sent a chill down my spine.
I stared at her, standing in the doorway.
Though Matilda was ten years older than me, her petite frame and youthful appearance sometimes made her seem like my peer.
Now, she looked even younger than I remembered.
“How old are you this year?”
The Matilda I knew was thirty-seven.
I held my breath, waiting for her answer.
Without hesitation, she responded to my abrupt question.
“I turned thirty this year.”
Her age confirmed what I already knew—that I had indeed returned seven years into the past.
I stumbled toward the vanity and checked my reflection.
Gone was the face with hollow cheeks, gaunt eyes, and pale lips.
Instead, a beautiful woman, exuding a proud and alluring aura, stared back at me.
The woman in the mirror was… me.
I truly was beautiful.
My plump, rosy cheeks, silky pink hair, and sparkling green eyes shone like stars in the night sky.
My lips were so full and red. It was the complete opposite of the exhausted, despair-filled face I had worn when sleeplessly worrying about whether Henderson’s heart had changed.
As I blinked, warm tears suddenly spilled from my eyes.
Yes, I used to have such a vibrant face.
Why had I spent so much time in misery? I could have been happy, even if it was just me and Eddie.
I wiped away the tears roughly and made a vow. This time, I would live happily with my child.
I would never again suffer because of a man whose heart wavered.
“Um… Your Highness, are you really okay?”
Matilda, unaware that I had returned to the past, must have found my unusual behavior strange.
I smiled, forgetting the old saying that crying and laughing back-to-back was a bad omen.
“Of course, I’m fine.”
Sitting at the vanity, I spoke to Matilda again.
“Matilda, you’re thirty, and I’m twenty, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“I haven’t married yet, and I’m living in the royal palace. Right?”
“…Yes, that’s correct.”
Matilda replied slowly.
Her face had turned white as if she had seen a ghost.
I asked the final question to confirm my reality.
“Am I dreaming right now?”
This time, Matilda gave a different answer.
“No, this is not a dream. This is reality.”
I mulled over Matilda’s words, “This is not a dream, but reality,” a few times. The idea of waking up from a dream felt strangely exhilarating.
After repeatedly asking if I was okay, Matilda finally left the room, seemingly worried about how odd I looked.
I wandered around the room, reflecting on the events from seven years ago.
Most of those faded memories were vague, but I clearly recalled the moment I first laid eyes on Henderson at the masquerade ball and shared warmth with him.
The masquerade ball held at the Duke’s mansion featured a man wearing a swan mask who seemed isolated, not speaking to anyone.
Yet, from the moment he appeared, I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
Every time I saw his jet-black hair and pale face, my heart would inexplicably flutter.
It felt as if I had always been attracted to men with that kind of appearance.
