“……Are you awake now?”

“Ah.”

As the pain subsided, he became aware of his surroundings. His body drenched in cold sweat…

He was lying inside a carriage. A faint light from an oil lamp illuminated the narrow interior. Somehow, a sigh escaped him.

It felt like he had just gone through a horrific event.

At the same time, it seemed like he had lost a precious moment. Had it been a dream?

Of course, that couldn’t be the case.

Joseph’s perfect memory ability allowed him to clearly remember even dreams.

It must be just a feeling. Joseph lightly thought as he raised his upper body. But somehow…

“My lady?”

Lieselotte’s appearance was unusual.

Even under the flickering yellow light of the oil lamp, her face was visibly pale.

Moreover, she was trembling so much that it seemed she could barely maintain her delicate body on her own.

The moment he confirmed this, it felt like his heart sank.

Something must have happened. While he was suffering from that damned flu…

“Why…”

However, the words that came out of her mouth were enough to bewilder Joseph.

“…do I remember?”

I have regressed.

Surprisingly, with my memories intact.

I’m not sure what variable caused this. However, unlike me, Joseph didn’t remember the fact of regression.

‘The loss of the most precious memory…’

It was clearly the price of using Chronomancy.

I’m not sure why that hellish future became Joseph’s precious memory.

But since I can’t ask him about the reason for his memory loss, let’s put that issue aside for now.

Anyway, once I came to my senses, I quickly started dealing with the things that would happen in the future.

First, I had to find Sergei, who would have had the falling accident.

But unfortunately, perhaps because it was related to when Joseph regained consciousness, I couldn’t prevent Sergei’s accident.

Still, it was fine. Fortunately, Sergei was rescued faster than before,

And…

“You really rejected Sir Sergei’s proposal, you say.”

I also had to explain our relationship again to Joseph, who had no memory.

In fact, from my perspective, it was quite an inefficient process, but.

“Yes. Because the one I love is you, Joseph.”

“Ha……”

As I watched Joseph’s face, which had turned as red as an apple, rolling his eyes around and rubbing his face dry.

‘Sometimes inefficiency isn’t so bad.’

……That’s what I thought.

“I… I’ll really do well.”

“What exactly are you going to do well, Joseph?”

“Just anything. I’ll try not to disappoint you or the children.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard. When we become family, we should try together, not just one person trying alone, right?”

“Ah……”

“Rather than that, how about calling each other by name when we’re alone? It feels a bit awkward, like suddenly drawing a line.”

“Ahaha. If it’s that, it’s not difficult, Lieselotte.”

Is this really someone who lost his memory? He corrected my form of address so brazenly quick.

That day, Joseph held me for a long time.

I couldn’t bring myself to push him away saying ‘let go now’, seeing his desperate appearance as if he would die if he didn’t hold on to me.

A few more days passed like that.

“Welcome back, stepmother.”

“Mother! I missed you.”

“Mom!”

I arrived at Daiern Castle, where hell would soon unfold.

“Kar, Euphi, Chelsie. Come here.”

It was overwhelming to see the children alive and breathing, looking perfectly fine.

Their warm body temperature, their voices…

Tears welled up for no reason as soon as I saw them.

“Stepmother, did something happen in Landgritz?”

“Mother, don’t cry.”

“Did Joseph do something bad to you again, Mom?”

I hugged the children even tighter.

It’s not that I don’t know what I need to do right away. But for this moment at least…

“Stepmother. Are you alright?”

“Mother…”

“Mom!”

I wanted to fully feel that the happiness I had lost had returned to me.

I couldn’t repeat that nightmarish future.

No, strictly speaking, it wasn’t even a nightmare. It was certainly reality. I had been given a chance.

Then there was only one thing for me to do. Make sure such things don’t happen this time.

I started implementing the plans I had made one by one in the carriage returning to Daiern.

The first one.

“Euphi, would you like to learn hunting?”

“Huh?”

“I heard His Highness the Imperial Prince made such a proposal to you? Of course, hunting is a dangerous game, but don’t worry. His Highness will protect you safely.”

I started educating Euphemina to suppress her violent tendencies.

Yes, no matter how I thought about it, it was strange.

Of course, even though the situation was serious, Euphemina had too little hesitation when she killed Imperial Prince Raphael.

If it were me, even if I had made up my mind, I would have trembled with my hands and feet, unable to easily put it into action.

Naturally, my curiosity turned to Joseph.

And he told me the surprising truth about Euphemina that I might have vaguely noticed.

‘Aggressiveness and impulsiveness…’

It was a fact that made me dizzy.

Still, perhaps because I had already heard Chersion’s memory disorder diagnosis once, the shock was a little less.

Of course, even so, I had no intention of giving up on Euphemina.

Above all, unlike Chersion’s case, Euphemina’s problematic behavior was something that could be sufficiently corrected.

‘Let’s somehow teach her socialization.’

If we couldn’t eliminate the aggressiveness, it was better to educate her to channel it in the right direction.

Dorothea had also provided a hint about this issue.

Euphemina tilted her head and then smiled brightly.

“Hehe, that’s great. I was curious about it anyway… It sounds like so much fun!”

Second.

I decided to deal with Dorothea, who would cause trouble.

Originally, I had planned to put her in Daiern’s underground prison and never let her out until she died.

After all, no matter what, I wasn’t keen on executing her since she was Joseph’s blood relative.

‘Who knew my mercy would end up stepping on my own foot.’

Of course, now that it has come to this, I had no intention of dealing with just Dorothea alone.

‘If they dared to touch me and the children, they must pay the price.’

I secretly dispatched an investigation team to the place where I had been dragged while injected with muscle relaxants.

That place was none other than the Daiern branch of the underworld.

I intended to completely annihilate the power of the underworld in Daiern, starting from there.

I couldn’t allow such cancer-like bastards to parasitize the city where the children and I would live, and the land that Kardiel would inherit in the future.

It was what my grandfather did 20 years ago.

Of course, I knew the underworld wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice, so my plan was to proceed more meticulously and strictly than back then.

Nevertheless, it would be a messy and dirty fight. That’s why the following process was absolutely necessary for me.

The most important third step.

“You’re telling us to leave for the Imperial Capital now? All three of us?”

“Yes.”

Kardiel frowned fiercely.

“Then you mean you’ll remain in Daiern, stepmother?”

“That’s right.”

It was about ten days after Kardiel’s sixteenth birthday.

Early May.

Originally, it would have been a few days before the ‘incident’ occurred.

Yes. I decided to temporarily evacuate the children from Daiern to prevent any possible accidents while I dealt with the underworld.

The place was, of course, the Imperial Capital. Specifically, the Imperial Palace, the safest place in the empire.

I had already sent a letter to Adelaine and received permission.

“…Please tell us the reason.”

As expected, Kardiel strongly objected.

Chersion wasn’t saying anything in particular, but he looked quite disappointed, and Euphemina was pouting with her lips protruding.

I took Euphemina’s hand and pulled her towards me.

“I’ll tell you…”

I said, wrapping my arms around the child who came to me obediently.

“Do you all want to sleep with mom tonight?”

I intended to tell the children all the truths up until now.

Whether they believe it or not.

Of course, this truth included content related to my remarriage with Joseph.