Ricardo’s eyes narrowed as he briefly recalled his memories. There was already a guest on the balcony where Lienne was supposed to appear. He closed his eyes for a moment, not knowing why his heart was beating unpleasantly.

“It was hard to believe. But you were certain.”

“What… do you mean?”

“That even if we turned back time, the one to help with your manifestation would be Pennel’s daughter.”

Stuart, who alone held the memories at fifteen, said the situation was quite daunting. Nevertheless, he moved according to his promise with Ricardo.

This too was something not in Ricardo’s memories. Yet even now, he felt the same conviction.

That even if life were to repeat, the one to assist with his manifestation would be Lienne, her.

“There’s something I’ve wanted to ask for a while. I’ve been curious but couldn’t ask.”

“Please speak.”

“When Pennel’s daughter was… burned at the stake.”

Stuart glanced furtively at Ricardo, but there was no emotion on his face. It was hard to believe this was the same person who had come to him with anguished cries.

“If you had awakened your power then, what do you think would have happened? Do you think you would have made the same choice?”

At that time, Ricardo went to the battlefield, which was like a trap set by the emperor and the great temple joining forces. He had manifested, but had not yet awakened.

Meanwhile, the emperor branded Lienne, his lover and manifestation assistant, a witch, and lit up the night like day in the great square before the imperial palace without a moment’s respite.

The great temple also aided the emperor. They claimed that if the witch of the eastern country was not killed, God’s wrath would befall this land.

They asserted that Ricardo, who had defied God’s will, would never return alive from that war.

That the thousand-year history of the Rochester family line would thus be cut off.

Even the balance of power between the ducal houses that Chaplin and Paquin had maintained was useless in the face of the power wielded by the imperial family and the great temple joining forces.

Even Chaplin and Paquin turned their backs, and Rochester was literally isolated.

However, defying everyone’s expectations, Ricardo managed to return alive. By then, Lienne was already tied to the stake.

Ricardo immediately came to the crown prince with a blood-stained sword.

Ricardo’s eyes were bloodshot red after riding for countless sleepless nights.

Seeing Ricardo pointing the blood-stained sword at him with gleaming black eyes, Stuart felt not fear, but rather elation.

At the time, although Ricardo had not awakened, he could have used his army to rescue his lover. If only the Duke and Duchess of Rochester had not been in the hands of the imperial family.

Stuart had always wondered.

If Ricardo had awakened his power then…?

The imperial family would not have dared to tie his woman to the stake.

Even if by some chance the emperor had gone mad and insisted on branding Pennel’s daughter a witch, this cursed Schneider hereditary disease might have completely disappeared from this world.

Either way, it wouldn’t have been a loss for Stuart.

As Stuart was reminiscing about that time, he heard a low chuckle beside him. Ricardo’s eyes were fixed somewhere as he raised only his lips in a smile, both unfamiliar and familiar.

“Well, how could I not know? What decision I would have made.”

“……”

“Whether I would have swept away all living things there, or turned back time as is.”

Stuart naturally turned his face to where Ricardo was looking. A woman in a water-colored dress appeared on the balcony he was gazing at. Wearing a beautiful dress that seemed to capture the light sparkling on the sea in its flowing fabric.

“Whether I would have crumbled away, pouring out my wrath towards the gods in the ruins of nothingness, or whether I would have just turned around and gone home to take a bath… How could I not know? Why I made that choice then.”

The woman standing in a place that seemed as distant as the horizon shone brilliantly like the sun hidden by the sea. It was close enough to clearly see her lean over the railing and take a deep breath.

However, she was not alone. Though even she seemed unaware of this fact yet.

“All I know is this. The me then loved that woman, and so made a contract with Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

Around that time, Stuart learned that the emperor had abandoned him.

As soon as he revealed that he had started to fall ill, he lost the crown prince’s position he had thought his since birth to his younger brother. He wasn’t afraid of being abandoned, but he had a young son and a wife.

So he was afraid. Of all the things they would have to endure in a world without him.

Ricardo appeared, cutting through that fear.

Like a divine revelation. Like a certain response that God especially loved Stuart.

“So I am living solely to become emperor. And the next owner of the imperial crown…”

Stuart had no hesitation. He had never thought he needed the ability to turn back time, but he believed without doubt that he had the Schneider power for that day, that moment.

“Will be Your Highness’s son.”

Ricardo turned his head slightly and smiled. As lightly as if guessing who would win the next hunting competition.

Then what? When everything is over, what will become of you then?

Stuart wanted to ask, but the words just swirled in his mouth, nothing coming out.

Meanwhile, a bouquet of women burst onto the balcony where Lienne was. They were such dazzling women that it was hard to tell if there were three, four, or five.

With that, the man and woman who had been briefly conversing with the moonlight as backdrop scattered to both sides. Like people hurriedly hiding something they had been caught doing.

“When you think about it… it really is true that God especially loves the Schneiders.”

“……”

“It’s disgustingly so. If He caused all this just to give Dermeyer to the Schneiders again.”

At that time, Ricardo promised to become emperor himself in exchange for turning back time, to protect Stuart’s wife and son. And he presented Stuart with several conditions.

The first of these was to create a connection with Count Pennel so that Ricardo could go to the Pennel family earlier than originally.

In the past life, the Duke of Rochester had sent Ricardo, who would lead the family more powerfully than ever, to a safe place in Lesotia. This was because the emperor was strangely obsessed with and feared Ricardo.

In the reversed life, the Duke of Rochester evacuated Ricardo to Lesotia just as before.

Ricardo escaped on his own during that journey, and thoroughly erased his traces so that Rochester could not find him. After that, he was kidnapped by Count Pennel earlier than originally, following the plan the crown prince had prepared in advance.

All to meet Lienne earlier.

“Haven’t I always said? How God loves the Schneiders, especially me, Stuart Reid Schneider.”

Ricardo’s second condition was to spread false rumors about a prophecy to Count Pennel and those around him.

‘A saint born from a silver-haired, blue-eyed family in the principality will become the empress of Dermeyer.’

The only family in the principality represented by silver hair and blue eyes was Pennel. Ricardo predicted that if Count Pennel learned this fact, it would be much easier for Lienne and him to meet.

Moreover, that prophecy was not a complete lie. It was based somewhat on fact, though it was a prophecy that had not yet come down. It just omitted the name of the saint.

Ricardo made no plans other than to meet Pennel’s daughter quickly. As if gaining power was a foregone conclusion just by meeting her.

This was all Stuart knew. He had no way of knowing how Ricardo’s life had unfolded afterwards. It was also uncertain whether he, having lost his memories, really moved according to plan.

Then 7 years ago, one day.

The sky turned completely dark and then shone as bright as heaven. It was a pure white light covering the whole world, unmistakable to anyone with eyes.

The manifestation of the Rochester ducal family.

As Ricardo had been certain, he achieved manifestation faster than originally.

At that time, the crown prince threw back his head towards the sky and laughed with heaving chest.

It was certain that God loved him especially. Shouting like a madman.

Stuart immediately sent a proposal to Mariette, his only love and lover, and the woman who would become the mother of his son. There was no reason to delay any longer.

It was a story of late spring, an unusually rainless cruel season.

“Ricardo.”

Stuart called his name softly, but he just moistened his lips with his wine glass without answering. His gaze fixed solely on Lienne.

“There are things that don’t change no matter how many times you turn back time.”

“You mean, like how my companion and saint will soon write her name in the prophecy and appear?”

And is that all? The prophecy that will come down will be so clear that saying she wrote her name and appeared won’t seem like a joke. Without metaphor or allegory, without even the usual controversy of interpretation.

‘Saint of Lesotia, silver-haired and blue-eyed. Empress of the Dermeyer Empire. Judith Pan Monzania.’