Episode 1
Chloe Langsher was a convict sentenced to death.
Despite her aunt being an empress and her father being a duke with the widest estate in the empire, or perhaps because of it, she met her end as a condemned criminal.
Until the very last moment, she struggled desperately to survive, but deep down, she knew. This was the price for her family’s choices.
If you wielded a sword for power, you should have been prepared to die by your opponent’s sword as well.
“Chloe Langsher, any last words?”
The man who emerged as the final victor in the bloody struggle for the throne, the son of the deceased prince.
Chloe looked up at the man, who bore no resemblance to the boy she once knew, and pursed her lips.
“Your vengeance is justified. Luke Olfenster.”
Once true friends, or perhaps fake lovers, they were. In her final moments, the naive daughter of the Langshers stopped resenting and cursing the gods and instead pitied the man who took everything from her.
Only after losing everything did she understand what he lost because of her father.
Twenty-year-old Chloe Langsher ended her life in that prison cell that day.
And a year ago, she returned to the day she reunited with Luke Olfenster. Luke, who had pretended to be a charming knight when he first came up from the countryside, now laughed heartily as he helped lift her carriage out of a ditch.
“Lady Chloe, are you alright?”
He was a far cry from the skinny boy with dirty blond hair and freckles that lingered in her memories. With his jet-black dyed hair and tall, sturdy physique, he now confidently met her gaze with his gray eyes shining between his slightly arched eyebrows.
How many trials had he endured to change this much? Chloe stared blankly at him, pondering why she had returned to the past. Was it to help him this time?
The Chloe of the past, naive and indulgent, couldn’t provide Luke, who approached her intentionally, with much useful information. If only there had been slightly better information and opportunities, perhaps he wouldn’t have been so hurt and could have become the emperor.
Even if it meant betraying her family. Chloe extended her hand to him, just like before her regression, and shyly smiled.
“Yes, I’m fine. And you, sir?”
His eyes briefly flickered with intense emotions that she pretended not to notice, as she laughed lightly, pressing her gloved hand against her lips.
But father. This is your sin. That little one really followed you like a father. We grew up like siblings. But you were the one who betrayed first, who stabbed him in the back. He was a good child, who could have died for you.
He really liked us…
***
In the Empire of Tevia, the old emperor had four empresses and seven sons, as well as countless concubines.
As the nobles lost faith in the debauched and incompetent emperor, they pinned their hopes on the crown prince. Yet, even the emperor, aware of his own limitations, did not bestow much affection upon his youngest son.
The Langsher Duke was the closest friend of such a crown prince.
Chloe remembered the crown prince who used to pat her head in her childhood.
With honey-like blond hair and blue eyes, he was a striking beauty even in young Chloe’s eyes. Often, he would drink and sing loudly in the reception rooms or studies of the mansion with her father.
The Langsher Duke would drag the singing crown prince with a troubled face and throw him into his bedroom, but seeing how the cold father softened slightly when the prince strutted into the mansion, Chloe awaited the prince’s visits.
Sometimes, the crown prince would bring his son with him.
Though the boy, who didn’t resemble the handsome crown prince enough to turn Chloe’s head, was liked by her nonetheless.
To be precise, Chloe liked the gifts Luke brought.
Though he blushed at every topic older than her and fidgeted in front of her, if Chloe, who had a sharp tongue, said anything, he would nod along obediently, so she preferred to hang out with Luke instead of other arrogant kids.
Then, one peaceful day without warning, the crown prince died.
No, there was a warning, actually. The day the crown prince stopped visiting the Langsher mansion, the father’s study light never went out. Arguments between the aunt and father. The sound of the mother withering away…
And not long after, the aunt, under the pretext of taking care of the crown prince’s son, Luke, fluttered around the palace and became the fifth empress in the old emperor’s eyes.
And Luke…
Luke changed.
“- I don’t want to eat. Stop it. It’s strange. I don’t want to eat!”
After several months, Luke, seen in the palace for the first time, slammed his head under the bed and screamed. A messy room, scattered piles of food, and dry ankles visible under the flipped bedspread.
Her newly appointed aunt, the empress, stroked her swelling belly and whispered affectionately to Chloe.
“- Chloe. My dear niece. Is he scaring you?”
“- Just… it looks painful.”
The empress raised and lowered her eyebrows, perhaps not getting the expected response.
“- Yes, he’s in pain. He needs a lot of treatment because it’s too painful. So, don’t come to disturb him anymore.”
Not yet ten years old, Chloe, who half-thought of Luke as her inadequate older brother, believed her aunt’s words about Luke’s pain. And confidently, she began studying herbal remedies, believing that she could help him someday.
Using the excuse of recuperating in the countryside, Luke left the capital, and although she forgot why she started studying herbs at some point, knowing it was a unique hobby for the Langsher family’s daughter, she continued her herbal studies as a habit.
Now, thinking back, it seemed like a good hobby.
Chloe picked some herbs growing in the greenhouse she made under the pretext of growing flowers.
Only those with analgesic effects.
She painstakingly prepared the medicine, absentmindedly thinking about Luke. It had been a year since her regression. Had she been of any help this past year?
The sky, as clouded as it had been before regression, was dark.
Today, Luke Olfenster was coming to the mansion with his knights to punish the Langsher family.
The man who would judge her family.
***
Luke Olfenster had dreamed of this day for a very long time. The day he would exact revenge on those who took everything from him.
The day he would tear apart his enemies who killed his parents, stole his place, and ultimately tried to take his life had never been a day he hadn’t thought about since his life fell into chaos.
At the end of his fantasies, there was always a crying woman with a shocked face.
With smooth hair and warm brown eyes. Would the foolish daughter of his enemy, who smiled innocently as if she knew nothing of the world’s troubles, remember the boy who disappeared in her childhood?
Would that foolish girl who nodded along with a smile, seemingly bewitched by his smile, remember the secrets of the family she used to spread?
Did she know even a little bit about what her father had done? Did she pretend not to know, or did she really grow up innocently, knowing nothing at all?
“I can’t control the fire!”
As he watched the burning Langsher mansion, he stood still. Strangely, the last words that woman had said came to mind. Cheerfully whispering in his ear…
“- You will achieve everything you want. I’ll pray for you.”
How he had mocked that whisper?
“It’s a trick to buy time for escape. Block all the ways they can leave the capital.”
“If they fled, they could be found. Found and… what to do with you, Chloe?”
The flames subsided as dawn approached.
“They seem to have given up on fleeing and committed suicide as a family.”
Listening to the report from the knight who was left to control the fire, Luke chuckled at the report of the knight who was supposed to catch the fire. The Langsher Duke was not a man who would take his own life even in the worst moments.
“And the bodies?”
“We’ve confirmed it. We found a total of four bodies, including the Langsher Duke, his brothers, and the duke’s daughter.”
He hesitated for a moment, then responded nonchalantly.
“Any possibility of deception?”
“After comparing the appearance of the remaining bodies, it’s certain.”
“I’ll check it myself.”
He stood up. Until he stepped into the completely burned mansion, he had maintained his sanity. This must all be a disguise. It was undoubtedly a trick by the Langsher Duke to flee with his family to another country.
Even as he stood in front of the door where the Langsher bloodline met its end, he believed that.
In an instant, something rolled out from between the partially burned doors. A rocket the size of a palm was so melted that its original shape could not be discerned.
“To confirm her identity with the heirloom she had on her –.”
Ignoring the startled soldier’s words, he picked up the rocket. He seemed to be trying to steal it as loot.
He forcibly tore apart the rocket with its melted joints.
The inside was intact. He held his breath as he saw the small portrait inside. It was his own face. Black hair, gray eyes, the fake lover of Chloe who smiled charmingly.
Yes. They were lovers, so it wasn’t strange.
He ignored his racing heart and tried to close the rocket. Even if the faded portrait had not fallen out of the rocket and onto the ground, he could have done it.
A faded portrait was hidden behind that small portrait.
A boy with dirty blond hair and freckles.
His past self, whom he thought no one would remember properly, was there. No thoughts came to mind. Her mocking words echoed in his empty mind.
“- You will achieve everything you want. I’ll pray for you.”
Did you know?
Did you recognize me from the beginning?
“Why…?”
Then why did you pretend not to know even though you knew?
