The cold sunlight lingered softly in the bedroom. When it gently settled on the woman’s eyelids, Natasha naturally opened her eyes.

Her vision was blurred due to the chill. With each blink, the cold touch of her eyelashes brushed against her skin.

Fatigue not yet dissipated, she stared blankly at the ceiling for a long time before turning her gaze. Beyond the window lay a snow-covered field, blanketed in white.

Sieghart had left at dawn for knight training. As it was a harsh season when various disasters began, they needed to be strictly prepared for all kinds of emergencies.

She sat perched on the bed, idly killing time. Not that she was thinking of anything in particular, but rather because she wasn’t thinking at all.

It felt as if time had stopped, and so she remained foolishly still.

‘Snow…’

Looking out the window again, she saw it was snowing. Snow is very cold and wet.

Yet from afar, it couldn’t be more beautiful. Like Natasha Asthart’s life, which seemed like a comedy from a distance, its appearance was truly splendid.

As if entranced, she stood up and reached out toward the window. The cold enveloping her fingers pierced her heart.

‘I… I died today.’

She could instinctively tell.

Though she hadn’t checked the calendar before dying and couldn’t know what day or time she had died, she instinctively realized.

Long ago, she had died on this day.

On that day, she had held the dagger the man had once gifted her.

In contrast, today’s Natasha Asthart wrapped the scarf the man had given her around her neck. After draping the blanket hanging on the chair over herself, she went out of the room.

“Good morning! My lady, shall we prepare… Huh?”

The servants wandering the hallway spotted Natasha in her nightgown and called out to her. They were puzzled as to why she, who would normally summon the maids, had come out of her room first.

However, what they received in return was not an answer, but disregard.

The duchess rushed out as if being chased by something. She didn’t stop until she went down the stairs, reached the entrance, and opened the door to go out.

Ignoring the knights who followed, asking what was wrong, she ran towards her destination.

A strange intruder entered the quiet snow field.

Even though the depth of the snow that had accumulated overnight was unfathomable, the woman walked out, sinking her feet deep into it, as if she had no fear. She acted as if she didn’t care that the snow was piling up to her slender ankles.

Finally, she arrived at the Douglass Forest, going against the lord of the duchy’s orders.

‘This is…’

It was a place she had only been to once in her life. If she had to distinguish between unfamiliarity and familiarity, unfamiliarity would naturally win out.

Perhaps the Douglass Forest felt so familiar because it was the woman’s sanctuary.

“Ah…”

Suddenly, a familiar figure appeared before her eyes.

A woman pointing a sword at her heart, and a cruel man looking down at her indifferently – they began to move vividly before her eyes.

Muttering something with a face full of despair, she raised the sword high. Hiding the snowflakes that had softly settled within the blade, she plunged it into her heart.

The woman smiled as she watched the blood flow into her chest, and finally collapsed. The man’s figure, which had been faintly moving without reacting to the stimulus, also faded away.

And after a while, the real man, not an illusion, entered the Douglass Forest with the Asthart Knights. A search that tore up the ground began.

And then…

“My lady, how could you come in here!”

“…”

“Goodness, your body is too cold! Let’s quickly take her inside. They say the common cold is so severe this year, it would be terrible if you fell ill.”

The knight and Meliana, who had been chasing the duchess from the mansion, helped her up. Having come out with just a blanket on such a cold day, her body was, of course, as cold as ice.

Natasha didn’t see the end of the vision. In fact, she couldn’t even tell if it was a vision or a delusion.

It was a ridiculous thought. Whether it was a vision or a delusion, wasn’t it an image that appeared based on the woman’s thoughts?

Then it was clear that she was having foolish thoughts.

Because that man wouldn’t even bat an eye if his wife died. Because he was a man who would rejoice that an impurity had disappeared rather than grieve at the news of her death.

Unlike the current Sieghart Asthart…

It was accompanied by a pain that felt like it would split her head.

As she rose from the bed, she clutched her head, unable to bear the agony. Gratefully acknowledging someone’s thoughtfulness in bringing tea, she gulped down the cup.

After exhaling deeply a few times, the headache that had been shaking her mind gradually subsided.

Next to the teacup was a note. The handwriting conveyed a sense of urgency, as if it had been written in haste.

「It seemed you needed rest, so I left first.

I’ll keep waiting outside the door, so please call for me whenever you wake up.

From Meliana」

I should call her after calming down a bit more.

Natasha put the letter back in its place and got out of bed. As she tried to walk a little, her feet that touched the floor felt like they were in a fire pit. Startled, she checked and found both feet tightly wrapped in bandages.

Wondering about the bandages, she arbitrarily touched them and unwrapped them. The feet she encountered were swollen and red as if scorched.

They were in such a grotesque state that at first glance, one couldn’t tell if they were the feet of a beast or a human.

Come to think of it, I went out barefoot.

The reaction that started with a sigh spread into a hollow laugh. She must be crazy. Not only did she walk barefoot in this snow, but she even entered the Douglass Forest where entry was prohibited…

Well, this renders all her past struggles to avoid being treated as a madwoman meaningless. How else could one view a woman who shook off others’ hands and ran recklessly, if not as a lunatic?

She hopped on her heels where the bandages hadn’t come undone and headed towards the window. She lifted the tightly drawn curtains and took in the outside scenery.

It was a beautiful scene no matter when one looked at it.

Throughout the winter, snow was nature’s predator, covering life forms that couldn’t withstand the harsh season.

The apex predator of the food chain that even strong and noble humans and the leaders of beasts couldn’t dare to overcome and had to kneel before.

Even the dazzling light of the sun was eventually forced to succumb, entwined with it. Due to the blowing snowstorm, not only sunlight but other things were also barely visible.

Natasha, who had unconsciously turned her head towards the Douglass Forest, changed direction without even properly finding her destination.

In weather so severe that even the majestic and vast Douglass Forest was hidden by the snowstorm, I died. Gloriously, as if very happily…

Natasha, who had been staring outside absent-mindedly as if she had lost her mind, suddenly noticed her own reflection in the window and let out a bitter laugh. Her large eyes were moist with tears.

Foolish woman.

Natasha whispered to herself.

‘…I decided to forget my past life, didn’t I?’

It’s already been two years.

It had already been two years since Natasha of this life, who had repeated death ten times and finally resolved to exist, had continued living.

Wasn’t it time to become indifferent to the past? Rather than being indifferent at first, it felt like she was becoming more attached to the past as time passed. There was no one more foolish.

Moving away from the window, she again relied on her heels to move forward. It was when she approached the door to call Meliana, who was said to be waiting outside.

Familiar footsteps echoed beyond the wall.

The strength of the steps was strong like a knight’s, but not crude. It rather elegantly constructed the man’s fierce impression and atmosphere.

The speed was always the same. For every breath Natasha took in and out, the man’s feet moved exactly four times. The stride was always the same, as if measured with a ruler.

The distance the man traveled was about twice the distance Natasha moved every four steps.

These were elements that felt newly familiar every time she pondered them.

‘Sieghart…’

However, today these things felt somewhat different. Although they were clearly Sieghart’s, they gave the illusion of belonging to someone else.

They were recognized as not being Sieghart’s even though they were Sieghart’s.

At that moment, the memoir describing the story of the two people replayed in her mind. The moments that Natasha and Sieghart of this life had encountered flashed by from the beginning, step by step.

‘I was planning to visit you soon anyway. It’s an honor that you came to me first.’

The two people who first met as Tisha Winter and a new resident in the Bayl region.

‘I know what the princess is worried about. I also know what makes you vulnerable. I came to protect the princess from those things.’

‘Let’s get married.’

And the two people who met again as Natasha Charliee and Sieghart Asthart.

Whether as Tisha Winter or Natasha Charliee, the man treated her like a familiar person. At the time, it seemed like excessive kindness to act friendly, but thinking about it again, the feeling seems different.

Sieghart’s strange behavior was repeatedly caught afterwards. The man naturally knew Natasha’s preferences that she had never mentioned.

Flowers, books, food, dresses, accessories, everything.

That wasn’t all.

Above all, the man now―.

“…Na.”

“…”

“Natasha…”

Fear rippled across Sieghart’s face. It was an unfamiliar emotion far from the arrogance that the man usually commanded.

Sieghart’s hair and clothes were in complete disarray. The cold-blooded man who was said to never forget his dignity even in battle was nowhere to be seen. It seemed he had rushed here in quite a hurry.

It must be to check on Natasha’s well-being. After she had run into the Douglass Forest, disobeying the man’s orders, only to collapse as soon as she returned to the ducal residence – such an absurd story.

However, the reaction that could be glimpsed was different from usual.

As the spiteful man had said, Natasha sensed something strange.