However, that was nothing more than a social mask that Joseph had intentionally created.

The real Joseph was just a madman suffering from the monster coiled up in his head.

Bang!

No matter how much he thought about it, his anger wouldn’t subside. As soon as Joseph entered the room, he kicked the wall roughly.

That alone wasn’t enough to calm him down.

His fist, clenched so tightly that his bones protruded, pounded the thick stone wall several times.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Again and again, over and over…

Before he knew it, his white gloves were stained bright red.

The liquid that had finally pooled on the floor emitted a pungent metallic odor.

“Hah.”

Only after such an act of self-harm did his sanity finally return.

Joseph felt the terrible pain starting from his twisted and crushed fingers and smiled a strange smile.

And right after that.

Strange things began to happen around him.

The red liquid that had wet the floor flowed backwards against gravity, and his mangled fingers began to curl back into their original shape.

The red stains that had soaked his gloves gradually receded.

Time had been rewound.

What had just happened was erased from the world.

However, rewinding time doesn’t mean everything returns to its initial state.

The monster in his head thoroughly punished Joseph for rewinding time without permission.

“Kuh…!”

This time, instead of his hand, a vivid pain dug into his head. Joseph leaned his head against the cold stone wall.

It was a familiar pain. It always happened whenever he rewound time.

‘Still, I can’t get used to it.’

Immediately after rewinding time, a momentary pain like this would overwhelm Joseph.

This pain was separate from the excruciating pain that worsened as the monster ate away at his brain as he approached thirty years of age.

If the pain that prevented him from living past thirty was a curse, this current pain was literally a punishment.

Should it be called the price for using great power, or an aftereffect?

There’s a difference depending on how much time is rewound.

Just rewinding a few minutes like just now, the pain subsides after a few seconds.

Rewinding three years of time requires lying down for about a week. And…

‘For rewinding several hours like this evening, about an hour.’

Joseph, who had slid down to sit on the floor, let out a sneer. Haha.

“I was feeling quite good lately.”

More precisely, this round had been quite satisfactory for him.

As Joseph had discovered, the existence of Lieselotte Karin Daiern, the Duchess of Daiern, had the ability to eliminate his hellish pain.

Just touching her was enough. That alone allowed him to be free from the pain that filled his head, if only for a moment.

So this time, he put his heart and soul into getting close to her.

Although he had to endure a month-long period when she couldn’t leave the mansion to steadily gain her trust, that wasn’t too difficult.

‘If I endure, I can live.’

The reason he decided to become the children’s tutor was, in fact, to narrow the physical distance between him and her.

Just kissing her fingertips every morning was enough to erase a day’s worth of headaches.

So he had been counting down the days until he could move into the Daiern mansion…

A few hours ago.

Someone visited Joseph, who was spending the late evening hours in leisurely relaxation. It was a messenger sent from Daiern.

“Count Alperon, I have something to tell you.”

It was an inexplicable situation.

When asked what was the matter, the familiar-faced Daiern messenger, with tightly closed and red-swollen eyes, said this:

“This evening at 7:30 PM, our master… The Duchess of Daiern has passed away.”

“What did you say?”

How could this have happened?

It had been precisely 4,285 years, 205 days, 18 hours, and 34 minutes.

The years Joseph had accumulated by rewinding time countless times until now. The time he had spent cramming knowledge into his head and yearning for life…

There was a time when Joseph had become a sage of the Tower of Honor. He had some pride in his own intelligence, in his own wisdom to that extent.

But at this moment, it felt like everything had become invalid. The accumulated knowledge, the wisdom that always maintained composure.

…It seemed to have turned blank.

“Therefore, I’ve come to inform you about the funeral. The departure…”

“What’s the cause of death? Why did she die? Who did it?”

Joseph grabbed the messenger by the collar and fired off urgent questions.

His aura was terribly chilling. His red-glowing eyes were so frightening, as if he might kill someone right away.

“Th-the culprit has been caught. Lord Leopold Jose… has been taken by the Imperial Capital Guard now.”

There was no need to hear more.

Joseph immediately rushed out the door and ran to the Imperial Capital Guard post in one breath.

And then…

He found him and killed him.

No, to say he simply killed him would be too mild an expression.

He tore his limbs apart like a beast, and not content with that, he stomped on his bloody remains several times, bursting them.

“Do you know how much effort I’ve been putting in!”

The guards approached to try and stop Joseph, who was literally butchering a person, but it was useless.

He had gone mad at that moment.

He had no capacity left to show even a shred of mercy to the one who had angered him so, nor the patience to show generosity to interferers.

And so, when Joseph’s movements finally ceased.

There was not a single living thing left around him.

“So…”

On top of the bright red pool of blood, there were only mashed lumps of meat that barely retained their shape.

Joseph looked down at them indifferently with the same red eyes.

“I just want to live, and yet…”

Filthily.

“…They won’t help me. Haha.”

Even the low laughter he spat out was as painful as if he was vomiting from deep within his insides.

“They won’t help, I tell you…”

He knows.

That he’s not in his right mind.

How could a sane person endure 4,285 years of hellish headaches?

If the monster in one’s head gradually eats away at the brain, driving a person to agony, can Joseph, who is rewinding time solely out of the desire to live, truly be considered normal?

A monster in his head?

No.

He himself was the monster.

A monster who had abandoned his humanity in pursuit of the single goal of survival.

“Ahaha…”

A salty liquid seeped into his mouth. Annoyed by it, he wiped it with his sleeve, but the taste of blood became even more distinct.

It was then that the clock caught his eye. A time close to midnight.

Well then, should he just rewind until morning?

Suddenly, he recalled the time of Lieselotte’s death that the Daiern messenger had told him. In that case, he would only need to rewind five hours.

“Ah, truly.”

How fortunate he was to have the ability to turn back time.

No, was all of this happening because of the ability to turn back time?

A sneer escaped him. What did it matter? In any case, he was alive now, breathing.

The Duchess of Daiern should be too.

Once again, time was rewound. Back to before her death, to when she was safe…

“You must live for me to live.”

She was the only one, discovered after 4,285 years…

Joseph’s salvation.

“…”

His head had finally cooled down.

The pain had subsided quite a while ago, but it took longer to cool his emotions.

Joseph slowly lifted his head from where it had been leaning against the stone wall. He had to live day by day again.

Even if those days were hell.

“Duchess of Daiern, you just live your peaceful daily life.”

If it’s within a year or so of a spouse’s death, I must be in mourning attire wherever I go, whoever I meet, whoever I receive.

Naturally, there are no exceptions even when dealing with the royal family.

I sit in the reception room, wearing a black dress with only light makeup. As I welcome the royal family member sitting across from me.

“I am Lieselotte Karin Daiern. Though inadequate, I am serving as the acting Duchess of Daiern.”

The man before me is the Emperor’s most beloved eldest grandson and the Crown Prince’s only son.

He is truly the second in line to the imperial throne, the designated Emperor for the generation after next.

The man with fiery red hair, grown magnificently like a lion’s mane, symbolizing the legitimate bloodline of the thousand-year-old Kalant Imperial Family, was gazing at me with brilliant golden eyes.

He certainly has a handsome face, having strongly inherited the blood of the Kalant Imperial Family, famous for their striking appearances.

Unlike Joseph, who has a beautiful and mysterious fairy-like charm, this man has a more masculine appeal with bolder features.

The problem is…

The purpose of this imperial grandson’s visit to my home is none other than a ‘marriage proposal’.

And to me, no less.

Is this not madness?

‘Even so, 19 and 32 is too much!’

How could someone the same age as Kardiel and Euphemina possibly be seen as a man to me?

I don’t know whether it’s the Emperor or the Crown Prince who planned this proposal, but they must be quite keen on the Daiern duchy.