A soldier following stomped on her back. Soon, a young Kramnel Laheart stepped forward. His sword pierced the saintess, my mother.
My mother quietly reached out and caressed my cheek. Pure white cheeks, sky-blue eyes. My face was unmarred then.
“My baby, Estelle. Mother will always be with you……”
Her hand touching my cheek fell lifelessly. The memory shown by the sword ended.
I quietly removed the mask covering half of my face. The unmarred half I had to hide since I was five. This was my real face.
Tears flowed ceaselessly.
Ah, this wasn’t a dream. Nor was it a dead person’s lingering resentment.
I had returned to the time right after Sion Belpast, the Northern Duke, defeated the southern barbarians. I had regressed to the winter of my 19th year.
“This was reality. The real reality.”
This was reality.
The second life my mother sacrificed her life for.
I collapsed on the spot.
It didn’t take long to accept the truth.
Dully chewing over my breaths, I carefully retraced everything that had happened from the day of my death to now.
Then, a thought crossed my mind.
Why now?
Why did the god my mother called upon regress me to this time?
What is your intention?
I put my mother’s dagger back into its original jewel box. Until I realize why I’ve returned to this time, there’s no need to deliberately create something different from my previous life.
Leaving Medea’s bedroom, I walked through the desolate Rahel Forest.
What can I do in this life?
Revenge against Medea and the Southern Duke’s family. Revealing my identity as the Emperor’s true granddaughter, thereby returning to my rightful status as a princess.
To separate Rahel from the Emperor and prevent him from plunging the Empire into ruin?
Thoughts trailed one after another, but they were constantly interrupted by thoughts of someone.
In this life, my task: to save Duke Sion Belpast of the North.
My stride halted.
Why? Why must I save Sion Belpast?
There was one answer.
He was right.
Despite the Southern Duke’s misdeeds and the Emperor’s misguided judgments, Belpast always did what he believed was right, not what was beneficial for him.
His judgments were correct.
Compared to Duke Sion Belpast, I…
As an assassin, I killed innocent lives just because they were my master’s enemies.
A nineteen-year-old prospective assassin of the Duke’s family, a monster with a distorted half-face.
Could I reach the Emperor? Would anyone listen to me? Could I even escape Medea’s surveillance?
It won’t be easy. Perhaps even impossible.
But if I could save Duke Sion Belpast… if our first meeting could be a true connection, not a hostile one.
Couldn’t the future change?
Why have I returned to ‘now’?
The day after tomorrow, the Northern Duke will come to the Southern Duke’s residence.
I finally realized why I returned to this time.
To prevent the assassination of Arkadia Nugent, Belpast’s right-hand man, and thus avert all the tragedies of my previous life.
Maybe it’s not an epiphany but my choice.
‘I choose this as my first destiny in this life.’
Looking up at the sky, I spoke to the god who revived me, to my mother.
I want to live a different life than before.
Not as the dirty assassin, the White Butterfly, but as my true self before meeting Rahel.
‘But what is my true self?’
The next day, I went to the training ground. There, two assassin trainees were fighting.
One was the freckled boy with straw-colored hair who had come to fetch me from the mansion’s basement yesterday. The other was the eternal second-place boy, the Red Caterpillar, whom I had defeated until the end in my previous life.
They didn’t know that among us ten or so, only I would survive.
“North Duke is so shameless. Asking for a victory ceremony after such losses in the south? As if the blood of the commoners means nothing.”
The eternal second-place spoke. The freckled boy, probably from the North, retorted.
“If you don’t know, shut up! You don’t even know how far it is from the North to the Southern border!”
They fiercely clashed even in the real duel. Excluded from the duel due to yesterday’s punishment, I watched them fight.
Surprisingly, the freckled boy, once always third, defeated the second-place.
As soon as the victor was decided, the Black Caterpillar, or the freckled boy, was taken away by the Black Beetle.
I sensed why. He would be ordered to assassinate Arkadia. In my previous life, I was the duel’s winner, and hence, Black Beetle had given me that order.
I waited for the freckled caterpillar who must have received his mission. Seeing me standing at the deserted forest path, he flinched.
“Why are you so startled?”
“Startled? I thought no one was here, but then I heard something.”
“Huh, it was just me moving.”
His face was slightly red. Perhaps because the orders he received were meant to be kept secret.
Regardless, Duke Sion Belpast of the North, victorious at the Southern border, will visit here tomorrow.
Turns Out He’s Been Secretly in Love with Me
One-line summary: He acts like he doesn’t like her but is actually playing hard to get.
Synopsis:
Xu Muzhou like her. He has liked her for a very long time, and through repeated schemes, he finally closed the distance with her.
But this is still far from enough.
He wants to be the one who stands out among her many suitors, to fight for her attention, and to make her take the initiative to pursue him.
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