Ch0. Prologue

“What is this?”

I calmly faced him.

His hand holding the document trembled. It was the most disheveled I had ever seen him.

At this moment, he was not the noble ‘Count’, but ‘a man betrayed by his wife’.

Watching him, I suddenly wondered. When I first learned of his betrayal, did I look exactly like that?

“You… How could you do this to me?”

Soon he began to scream wildly.

“I… I trusted you so much all this time… How could you do this!”

I replied indifferently.

“I trusted you very much too.”

Yes, once I tried hard to believe in him. Desperately trying to maintain trust in him while deliberately ignoring the reality that was clearly visible.

Looking back now, it was such a foolish thing to do.

“But that trust isn’t always rewarded. It doesn’t have to be rewarded either. You know that better, so why are you acting like this?”

His eyes glaring at me burned fiercely. It was an expression full of murderous intent, but I wasn’t scared at all. Rather, it was even pathetic.

“If you were going to do this, you should have just abandoned me.”

He ground his teeth.

“You should have just asked for a divorce from the beginning. Then I would have given you alimony as much as you wanted. That would have been much better for you than doing this. So why on earth…!”

“Divorce?”

I retorted with a cold smile.

“Why should I? For whose benefit?”

Divorce, of course I used to think that was the answer. I thought leaving everything behind was the only solution. But that would have meant throwing away all the cards I held.

The reason I suffered such terrible despair was because he was my husband.

But ironically, the reason I could destroy him like this was also because he was still my husband.

Moreover, though he doesn’t remember, we had already divorced once. Yet I still couldn’t escape from him in the end.

So I had no choice but to do this. To end this sickening ill-fated relationship that repeated three times.

“Remember. You will die as my husband until the very last moment.”

I said with a cold smile.

Ch1. No One Knows

Foreign-born ladies like me were rare in Elendril.

While royal family members often married foreign royalty, it was common sense among nobles to choose marriage partners from among their own country’s nobility.

Thus, as a bride from Araz, I was always a ‘foreigner’ in Elendril’s noble society.

In such a situation, it would have been better if I had at least received my husband’s love. Sadly, my husband, Count Felix de Tolomiès, was not one to cherish me much.

He respected me as his wife and countess, but that was it. He always sought me out only when he needed me.

When we had to attend official events together. When he wanted to show off his young wife to people. When the mansion needed the touch of a mistress.

And when he didn’t want to satisfy his desires in unrefined places like brothels.

Still, I thought it wasn’t bad.

After all, thanks to marrying him, I was able to live as ‘Countess de Tolomiès’.

Since marriage between nobles was based more on family and conditions than love anyway, I thought there was no need to feel particularly regretful.

Although there was no passionate love between us, there was mutual respect. If I fulfilled my role as his wife, he would fulfill his duty to me as a husband.

I foolishly believed that.

That’s why when I first learned of his betrayal, it felt like the world was mocking me.

“Felix, this woman… who is she?”

When the first small piece of evidence emerged, I didn’t believe it.

It must be a misunderstanding. My husband couldn’t do such a thing. They’re just friends, and I’m just overreacting. I rationalized like that, deliberately ignoring the evidence before my eyes.

But as Felix and ‘that woman’s’ relationship became increasingly blatant, and eventually even the mansion’s servants and animals came to know of their affair, I finally had to ask him.

“It’s not true, right? There must be some misunderstanding, right? Tell me. Please?”

Even as I asked, I kept pleading inwardly.

Please say it’s not true. Even if it’s a lie, make excuses while feeling ashamed.

But contrary to my hopes, Felix admitted his ‘mistake’ quite shamelessly.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to find out like this…”

He spoke without hesitation, though somewhat awkwardly.

“We’ve been in contact since meeting at the last ball. I meant to end it after meeting a few times for fun, but she kept clinging to me, so out of pity I kept her by my side, and it ended up like this.”

There was no trace of shame in his attitude.

He seemed a little sorry, but that was all. He seemed to regret being careless enough to let me discover his affair more than committing adultery itself.

“I know you’re upset. But while you have status, wealth, and maids, she only has me. So… I’m sorry, but I’d like you to understand a little.”

A terrible shock turned my mind blank.

Understand? Me?

He was shameless to the end, and I realized painfully that my husband didn’t love me even a speck.

Yet despite being so miserably betrayed, in my first life, I couldn’t hate him. Frustratingly, I still loved him.

Instead, I turned my arrows towards his mistress.

I threw tea in her face, scattered money telling her to get lost immediately, hurled all kinds of insults and even slapped her, and had the maids whip her.

In the end, unable to overcome my hatred, I even instigated her assassination.

It was a foolish choice.

The world’s laws were lenient towards a husband who committed a ‘small mistake’, but not towards a wife who committed ‘violence’ and ‘attempted murder’ out of hatred for her husband’s mistress.

In the end, I died lonely in prison, branded as a villainess.

And when a miraculous second chance came, I vowed. This time, I would never cling to him like a fool.

“If that’s how you feel, let’s divorce.”

In my second life, I was the one who proposed an end to him first.

“Don’t worry. I’ll divorce you without any conditions. I’ll leave as quietly as possible as soon as I can, so you marry that woman and live happily.”

Felix was very flustered by my proposal.

Still, when I didn’t back down, he reluctantly agreed to the divorce.

Perhaps he was secretly rejoicing. Although he lost a capable ‘Countess’, he could now hide his affair from the world.

So I left the Count’s mansion.

It would have been better if I had properly filed for divorce.

But at the time, I was too exhausted to handle such a process. I wanted to get away from my insufferable husband as soon as possible.

I left the Count’s mansion with only a little money, and Felix married that woman and started a new household.

In fact, it wasn’t a very wise choice.

After the divorce, my value was redefined as ‘a woman abandoned by her husband’.

Due to Felix’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering, his crime was not revealed to high society. People pretended to sympathize with me on the surface, but behind my back, they were busy mocking and disparaging me.

Still, I thought it was much better than dying in prison.

Rather than continuing to watch their affair and having my insides eaten away, it’s much better to give up quickly and live freely, even if at a slight disadvantage.

That’s what I believed.

***

For about a year after leaving the Count’s mansion, I lived alone in the countryside of Elendril.

The house was pitifully small, and my income wasn’t much. With no employees, I had to do everything myself. It was an excessively humble life compared to when I was a countess.

But it was far better than living while watching my detestable husband and his hateful mistress, so I was somewhat satisfied with my quiet daily life.

In my second life, I had only one wish.

To never encounter my ex-husband again.

But cruelly, even that small grace was not granted to me.

On a day when I was unusually late returning home, I was seized by thugs while walking alone on a night road.

The thugs grabbed me without warning and dragged me somewhere. At the destination was someone I knew all too well.

“Long time no see, Lizzy.”

“You…!”

Felix looked down at me with a cold smile in the darkness.

In contrast to my shabby appearance, he was wearing a neat suit with his hair neatly groomed.

Despite having abandoned me so cruelly, he still looked like the impeccable ‘Count de Tolomiès’ on the outside.

I shouted, struggling.

“What are you doing? Let me go! It’s already over between us!”

I ran away from you, I left quietly as you wanted, why. Why on earth.

Felix replied as if deeply regretful.

“That’s right, it’s over. But unfortunately, human affairs aren’t that simple.”

His next sentence fell on me like a death sentence.

“Julia is pregnant with my child.”

It felt like the space collapsed with a thud.

I thought I had let go of everything, but apparently not.

That woman, that woman, with your child…

“She’s anxious that I might return to you. As long as you exist alive in this country, she says she can’t sleep from anxiety. No matter how much I try to convince her it won’t happen, she won’t listen. She barely eats, and she cries saying she’ll have nightmares every night.”

His voice buzzed in my ears. A voice so calm it was even more chilling.

“What can I do? The baby will be born soon, and I can’t leave the woman carrying the heir of the Tolomiès family trembling in anxiety like that.”

Felix shrugged.

“It’ll be painful for you to keep living like this too, so this is better.”

With a flick of Felix’s hand, a thug standing a few steps away approached with a raised knife.

“Don’t worry. It won’t hurt much. Despite appearances, I specially brought an expert who will end your life in one go, for your sake.”

Felix disappeared leisurely, despicable to the end.

I watched his retreating figure in a daze. The thug’s blade glinted in the darkness.

I couldn’t understand why this situation had come about.

Soon the blade grazed my neck. Terrible pain followed as blood flowed from my neck. Strength drained from my body. It was a signal that life was fading.

Feeling death approach for the second time, I thought.

Ah, yes. I was foolish.

To believe I could escape this insufferable ill fate with mere divorce.

I closed my eyes and prayed inwardly.

God.

If you gave me a second chance for the sake of justice, please give me one last chance again.

If I’m given life once more, I will surely destroy that hateful man then.

Absolutely…

My body collapsed and my consciousness was cut off.

***

“Mary, take a rest. You’ll collapse too at this rate.”

“How can I leave when we don’t know when the lady will wake up?”

Familiar voices reached my ears.

When I opened my eyes, I saw a familiar ceiling. It was the ceiling of the ornate bedroom used by the countess.

As I let out a groan, a surprised woman’s voice pierced my ears.

“My lady!”

I felt someone approach me as I lay.

“My lady, are you alright? Do you recognize me?”

I blinked. My blurry vision came into focus. The face of my favorite personal maid was right above me.

“Mary…?”

As I called the maid’s name in a dazed state, she burst into tears.

“Oh my. Thank you, Lord!”

Mary ran out of the bedroom, shedding tears of joy.

“Please call the doctor! The lady has woken up!”

I got up staggering. Other than a throbbing headache, I felt no pain. I instinctively touched my neck but couldn’t find even a small scar, let alone a wound.

Looking around, I saw familiar scenery.

It was my room. The room I used alone as ‘Countess de Tolomiès’ until I divorced Felix.

I immediately realized what had happened.

As if by a lie, a third chance was given.

And so I returned again.

To that day in my first life when I collapsed from the shock of realizing my husband’s infidelity.