I clung desperately to that voice as if it were a savior.

‘Yes. Please help me.’

If only you would help me, if only you would assist with my revenge.

I didn’t care whether the voice I was hearing now belonged to an angel or a demon. I added, with my heart full of desperation:

‘If you save me, if you give me a chance to take revenge on them, I’ll do anything you ask.’

Then that voice let out a low laugh, as if amused.

‘Very well. I’ll grant your wish.’

With that answer, I closed my eyes. Somehow, an eerie energy enveloped my body. Soon my consciousness was completely cut off.

And when I opened my eyes, I had returned to one year before the day I died.

When I first opened my eyes, I can’t describe how confused I was to see the familiar ceiling of my room before me. Could it be that I had died and come to heaven? As I was thinking this, I turned my head and discovered the pearl necklace around my neck in the mirror.

It was my mother’s keepsake that I had lost a year before I died.

The moment I confirmed it was around my neck, the voice I heard just before dying flashed through my mind. And I was certain that I had returned to the past. I burst into tears with joy at being alive again and anger towards those who had betrayed and deceived me.

After that, I curled up in my bedroom and was lost in thought.

It was to get revenge on Duke Yusten, my cousin Danae, and my fiancé Leonard Klein, who had been my husband in my past life, all of whom had thoroughly deceived me.

‘What should I do?’

Just an ordinary revenge won’t do. That would be meaningless.

I wanted to make them taste the same pain as me – those who killed my father, thoroughly used me, betrayed my trust, and finally killed me. How should I go about it? My thoughts continued to build on each other.

At the end, I came to one conclusion.

‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, they say.’

I decided to pay them back exactly as I had suffered.

I trusted them, and they used that trust as bait to thoroughly use me before throwing me away.

So I too will use them and then discard them. I will show those who firmly believe I am their chess piece what pain it is to be betrayed by someone they trusted. It was the simplest yet most satisfying method of revenge.

‘Uncle, the disgusting Duke Yusten used me in my past life to drive his political opponents into corners one by one. In this life, I will stand on their side and drive the three of them into a corner.’

That was my revenge, and the only way I could atone for the evil deeds I had committed.

I recalled the Duke’s political enemies in my mind.

Among them, the one who had the deepest grudge against Duke Yusten and possessed the most wealth and power. I could easily think of someone who perfectly fit those conditions.

‘…The young head of the Duke Haven family, Elliot Francis Haven.’

He was the current Emperor’s grandson and one of only two dukes in the Mersia Empire, a figure who clashed with Duke Yusten on every issue regarding the succession of Empress Maria.

He knew well that without me, Yusten was incapable of surviving the power struggle. So he was desperate to get rid of me. He was very wary of me as the Duke’s strategist and was desperate to eliminate me. And I had to flee to the Duke’s hideouts several times to survive him.

In other words, I was his nemesis and he was mine.

And our ill-fated relationship ended with him being killed by Duke Yusten’s hands.

I recalled that man’s coldly handsome face.

‘In this life too, you will be swayed by me, Duke.’

But unlike my past life, this time my actions will surely benefit him.

No trouble will come to him because of me. This was my revenge and at the same time my atonement towards him.

Having made my decision, I got up from the chair and picked up my coat that I had hung on the backrest.

Then I called out towards the door.

“Annie, are you there?”

“Yes, miss! What is it?”

Then I heard a woman’s voice along with footsteps from outside the door. She was Annie, the maid who had served me since my father, the late Duke Yusten, was alive.

I said to Annie as she entered through the open door:

“Please call a carriage for me.”

“Are you going out?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. Then I’ll call for Mr. Carter, miss.”

Annie nodded and turned towards the door. I hurriedly stopped her and said:

“No. Not Carter. I’ll give you some silver coins, use them to call a carriage from the coachmen’s guild.”

“What? Oh, alright, miss.”

Until everything was certain, my movements must not be discovered by the Duke. In that sense, using a coachman and his carriage employed by the Yusten duchy was dangerous.

Annie was taken aback for a moment but soon agreed without further comment. Soon after receiving the silver coins from me, she left, and I let out a sigh.

A little while later, Annie came to inform me that she had called a carriage. I put on my coat and left the bedroom.

After sneaking out of the mansion, I headed towards Duke Haven’s townhouse in the carriage Annie had called.

After about 20 minutes of driving, the carriage slowly came to a stop. I briefly looked up at Duke Haven’s mansion, the most splendid and magnificent even among the many luxurious mansions concentrated in the capital’s Royal Street.

Meanwhile, a servant who had been leaning against the guardhouse next to the main gate keeping watch spotted me and approached. He looked me up and down with a very suspicious gaze and said:

“Who are you? What business…”

“I’m here to see Duke Haven. Is he in the mansion now?”

“I asked who you are?”

I answered the servant blocking my way:

“Christine Sapiel Yusten. …Tell him the daughter of Duke Yusten is here to see him, you’ll understand.”

“…What? Yusten? Why would someone from there…! A-Alright, I understand.”

The servant stammered, seemingly flustered, then quickly ran across the garden into the mansion.

A little while later, he returned walking towards me with an elderly gentleman dressed in black. The elderly gentleman frowned briefly upon seeing me standing in front of the door, then bowed and said:

“It is an honor to meet you, Lady Yusten. If you had contacted us in advance, we could have prepared some fine tea for you.”

“That’s alright. I didn’t particularly come to drink tea. Is the Duke in his office?”

“…”

“Please guide me to where the Duke is.”

I said with a nonchalant smile.

The elderly gentleman, probably the butler of this mansion, frowned once again at my brazen attitude, then soon sighed and stepped forward.

It meant for me to follow him inside. After telling the coachman who had driven me to wait, I followed him into the mansion.

Past long corridors and up tall stairs, where the butler stopped was in front of a massive door on the second floor. I lightly knocked and then opened the door.

“…”

The young man inside the office, Elliot Francis Haven, slowly raised his head.

The man with short hair slightly swept back to reveal a clean forehead was so handsome it was almost difficult to even look at him. His black hair and black eyes, high nose bridge and well-shaped lips that closely resembled Princess Liz, once praised as the greatest beauty of the Mersia Empire, were unchanged from how I occasionally encountered him in my past life.

He looked up at me with his brow slightly furrowed, as if my sudden visit was quite unpleasant, and I smiled at him.

“The weather is quite nice, Duke Haven. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“…Did you come to see me just to say such trivial things?”

He put down the pen he had been holding, as if he had been in the middle of work, and spoke to me in a cold voice.

Judging by how he didn’t even stand up from his seat upon seeing me enter his office, it seemed he didn’t want to exchange even a single word with me. Pretending not to notice his inner thoughts, I sat down on the sofa placed in front of his office desk.

“I’m a bit thirsty. Could you offer me a cup of tea?”

“Ha… Tea?”

“Yes. If you just give me one cup of tea, I’ll drink it and quietly return to the mansion.”

I smiled shamelessly as I answered him, who was asking back as if in disbelief.

Duke Haven, Elliot, let out a hollow laugh at that sight. Then, as if he had no choice, he gestured to the butler. Soon the butler closed the office door and went outside, and Elliot stood up from his seat and approached me.

Then he looked down at me directly and said:

“What exactly are you plotting?”

“Plotting?”

I pretended not to know and asked him back. He looked at me with a gaze full of contempt and answered:

“There’s no way a woman like you would personally come all the way to my office just to drink a cup of tea. Did you perhaps find some great way to make a fool of me and come to boast about it?”

“…Hah.”

“Right. What is it this time? Perhaps you’ve come to assassinate me?”

Every word he uttered was full of hostility towards me.

I gave a bitter smile. It was natural for him to show such an attitude. My uncle had put me at the forefront to endanger his subordinates and the nobles who sided with him.

Even if that had not been my intention, there was no way he would believe my words.

I let out a long sigh and then said to him:

“No. I simply came to make a proposal to you, Duke.”

“A proposal? To me?”

“Yes.”

“I’m truly curious what this great proposal of yours could be.”

He tilted his head at me while standing crookedly.

I swallowed dryly for a moment, then looked up at him and said clearly:

“Please have an affair with me.”

“…Ha! What?”

“Of course, I don’t mean for you to actually do so. It’s enough if it just appears to others that I’m having an affair with you, Duke.”

At that, his eyes widened slightly with surprise beyond astonishment as he looked down at me.

Letting out a short, hollow laugh, he shook his head and said:

“You’re insane. Are you in your right mind?”