Pfft.

Simon, standing in front of Kasha, made a sound as if forcibly suppressing laughter.

“You, did you really believe that? That we were married? You idiot. Did we make vows before a priest, did we fill out a marriage certificate?”

“……”

“Sigh. This is why you’re such a problem. You may know how to make magical tools, but you don’t know anything about the ways of the world, nor can you communicate properly.”

He raised his voice as if genuinely frustrated. Kasha’s face slowly contorted.

I’m an idiot?

You said it yourself. That Kasha was too shy, so you’d go to the temple alone to register the marriage. That I should just focus on my work. That we’d go greet Father and Brother soon.

And you even put a ring on my finger. That ring the guards took off and threw away, saying it would get in the way when they pulled out my nails. That ring even the guards said was too cheap to keep.

But she couldn’t say a word, trembling so much her teeth chattered. Her throat closed up in shock.

It was always like this when she was tense or angry. She would stutter like an idiot or close her mouth like a mute. It probably started with those words Simon had thrown at her in anger.

‘You know, when you get excited and ramble like that… it’s kind of annoying. It’d be better if you just kept your mouth shut.’

She already knew everyone looked down on her. But it was a huge shock when Simon said such things. So after that, she reduced her already sparse words even more.

She only did what she could do. The only things he acknowledged her for. Holed up alone in a lab in a remote tower, researching and creating the magical tools Simon instructed.

‘You’re really amazing, Kasha. You’re a genius. I love you!’

She believed the sparkle in his eyes at that moment was love.

That’s why, even when she was suddenly branded a villainess and chased by the imperial army, she ran away as he pushed her to, rather than blaming Simon.

“Kasha. Today’s the day. Your execution day.”

Simon said with a tone of relief. Kasha tried to lift her dim eyes to look directly at his face. It was a futile effort.

In fact, she had already grasped the situation long ago. From when he hadn’t sent her a single message for months while she was imprisoned and tortured.

The realization that she had been thoroughly used by him, and finally betrayed. It came slowly, but painfully.

But, die? Now she should just die?

Believing there must have been some misunderstanding, some circumstances, I became like this trying to keep faith with you. Yet you so casually speak of my death.

She gritted her teeth, when suddenly a harsh winter wind blew through the bars of the opposite window. At the same time, an unfamiliar scent carried on that breeze irritated her nose.

‘Flowers?’

A languid yet potent fragrance. As if emanating from a poisonous flower.

Whoosh.

The sound of a fan being opened was heard from somewhere. Simon wouldn’t be carrying around a folding fan used by women.

‘What is it? Is someone else in this cell right now?’

“Ah. The smell is terrible, isn’t it? Why did you bother coming all the way down here? Such an esteemed person. I’ll take care of everything until the end and confirm it all.”

At Simon’s words that suddenly rang out, Kasha reacted with a start.

“Who…?”

But no one answered her question. Simon was fawning over someone in a servile tone Kasha had never heard before.

“Once this woman is executed, there will be no more evidence. The secret of the magic stones will be buried forever along with this wench’s death.”

Before she could grasp the horrific truth Simon’s words implied, the prison door opened again and the guards called Kasha’s name.

“Katiana Lyuschino. Come out.”

“Where to…?”

“Where else? To the scaffold.”

The guard who had toyed with her body for the past few months sneered in response.

“Farewell, Kasha. You’ve suffered a lot. In consideration of what you’ve done for me, I’ll make your grave.”

Simon’s farewell, as if he were doing her a great favor, finally unblocked her choked throat.

“No! All of that, I didn’t do it! This person ordered it all! I really didn’t know anything. Simon Blanche, that man ordered everything!!”

Thwack.

In an instant, with tremendous pain, her desperate attempt at exposure was thwarted. Simon had kicked her in the face.

Hot blood from her nose immediately covered her face. Merciless violence continued on her already devastated body.

“You’re going to die anyway, can’t you just go quietly? After all the effort I put into pretending to care about you and your gloomy nature! Do you have any idea how much of an ordeal that was for me?”

And finally, when Simon’s kick struck the back of her head, the world went completely black.

When she opened her eyes again, she was already on the scaffold with her neck on the block.

Rotten eggs, fish, and excrement flew from here and there, leaving mottled stains on her body.

Thousands of people gathered in the square chanted in unison.

“Die! Die! Die!”

She was almost grateful for her ruined eyesight. She lifted her head from the blurry crowd filling her vision to look at the sky. A sky without a single cloud. The outside world she had longed for so much.

Was that white object flying across the sky a bird? Strangely, only the shape of that white bird was clear.

As she stared intently at it, trying to forget her fear, an unexpected voice was heard.

“…I’m sorry, Kasha.”

A middle-aged man’s voice tinged with grief. Kasha startled.

‘Count?’

Kasha’s adoptive father. Could he be here?

“Father, get a hold of yourself!”

The voice that followed was clearly.

‘Daril?’

The eldest son of the Lyuschino family. Her half-brother. Who had always disliked Kasha.

To think that father and son would come to see her execution… Her, the shame of the Lyuschino family.

Then Daril’s voice was heard again.

“…I asked the executioner to make it as quick and painless as possible. That is… all we can do for you now, Kasha Lyuschino.”

The gloomy voice of Daril, who had always been so brusque.

“I really don’t understand you until the end. Did we… make you like this?”

“Please step down. The execution will begin shortly.”

The executioner’s gruff voice was heard, and soon the sound of Daril supporting his father as they moved away could be heard.

“Ah, Fath… Broth…”

She couldn’t call them properly even at the very end.

A single tear rolled down her dirty cheek and flowed along the groove of the scaffold.

“No. I didn’t do it. Really, I…”

She muttered in a fading voice. But no one lent an ear to her words anymore. Just as it had been throughout her life.

A life where no one welcomed her. She survived by curling up and hiding herself. To avoid being an unwelcome guest.

But was that really enough?

Was that what life was supposed to be?

She was now paying the price for that naivety and foolishness.

Kasha muttered words that no one would hear.

“Can’t you give me just one more chance?”

Just one more.

I want to live properly, just once.

I didn’t cower and live just for this.

I didn’t endure all that loneliness to die like this.

Give me one more chance.

So that instead of living as a pushover, I can become a real villainess.

As she glanced at the sky, shedding a single tear, she had the strange illusion of making eye contact with the white bird flying through the sky.

And in the very next instant,

Swoosh.

The blade of the scaffold sliced through her neck.

Her eyes lost their light.

Thus, Kasha died on her twenty-first birthday.

That’s how it should have been.

“Kuhek!”

The next moment, Kasha gasped with a strange sound.

‘……?’

With every breath, something filled her nose and mouth.

‘What is this?’

An unfamiliar yet nostalgic smell. The fresh, fragrant scent of soil.

‘…Soil?’

She jerked her head up. And immediately made eye contact with someone.

A familiar maid in a maid’s uniform, looking at her with a shocked expression.

“Ah… Young Miss? Why are you here like this?”

That maid’s name, that is.

“Sena?”

At the name that reflexively came out of Kasha’s mouth, the maid’s brown eyes widened.

“Oh my… Young Miss. You knew my name?”

“……”

Seeing that surprised face, Kasha became even more flustered.

Sena is a maid of the Lyuschino Count’s household. Why on earth is she here? Did she come to watch the execution with the Count?

No, more than that.

‘I can see.’

She could clearly see Sena’s round face tilting her head in front of her, and the freckles dotting her nose.

‘Moreover, this place….’

She looked around.

The place where she was lying face down was not on the scaffold. This place was….

‘The garden of the Lyuschino Count’s mansion?’

The place where she had lived from age twelve to nineteen. The mansion in the capital owned by Count Lyuschino, who had adopted her as his daughter after her mother’s death.

‘What on earth is going on?’

She slowly got up. Then she paused.

The parts of her body that had lost sensation or fallen off due to frostbite. The sensation in each of her fingers and toes had all returned.

She immediately took off her shoes and counted all ten of her toes.

‘They’re fine…!’

As she muttered with a dazed expression, she noticed Sena’s shocked gaze at her strange behavior.

It was actually a familiar look to Kasha.

Displeasure. Disappointment. Pity or disgust.

People always looked at her with expressions mixed with such emotions. And each time, she would repeatedly shrink back.

But now, she rather felt wide awake. Kasha asked Sena.

“How… old am I, now?”

It was an awkward way of speaking, but Sena was used to such a young lady.

After all, Kasha, the troublemaker of the Lyuschino Count’s family, was originally that kind of person. Gloomy, always choosing incomprehensible actions.

‘But, good heavens. Now she can’t even remember her own age?’

Unable to hide her hardened expression, Sena barely managed to answer.

“You turned nineteen just half a year ago, didn’t you?”

Hup. Kasha covered her dirt-covered mouth. The strong scent of soil stung her nose.

Nineteen years old. Early summer of her nineteenth year.

‘I’ve come back to the past.’

A shiver ran down her spine.

She sprang up from the dirt ground.