After saying those words, Idren thought. Is this statement appropriate?

Ophelia’s death was still a complex matter for him, so Idren couldn’t easily make a definitive judgment.

In other words, it meant he didn’t know whether Ophelia had truly abandoned him or if the incident had occurred regardless of her will.

Nevertheless, at some point, he began to believe that Ophelia had taken her own life.

Having been disappointed after holding hope quite a few times, he naturally started assuming the worst.

It would be better to wait on the ground than to fall from a high place.

However, a living Ophelia was no different from hope to him, so he kept expecting.

And just now, Ophelia had added fuel to that spark.

When she told him she loved him in an unbelievably sweet voice, Idren found himself helplessly listening to it.

That’s what it was like to directly hear the words he had always longed for.

Idren asked the woman who was leaning against his back without saying anything.

“Was there a reason?”

If Ophelia said there was, Idren was confident he could believe and accept it.

As long as it wasn’t an absurdly unbelievable excuse, he didn’t care what it was.

But Ophelia didn’t answer him.

Their flesh was in contact, so he should have felt her body heat, but a chilling coldness crept up his spine.

Idren consciously suppressed his anxiety.

“Please tell me the truth.”

No, in fact, he wished she would just lie if it was going to be hurtful.

His hands, curled up on his knees, involuntarily tensed. Even as he realized his own cowardice, Idren didn’t change his mind.

The thought that he was tired of being hurt wasn’t a lie. He now wanted to be deceived rather than know an unbearable truth.

Ophelia silently detached herself from him.

As the skin that had been overlapping until just now was exposed to the air, it naturally became a little cold.

That coolness seemed to foretell a negative future. Idren thought he had truly become pathetic. Had he always been this afraid of everything?

It was then that he felt a light weight beside him.

On his hands, which had been tense, a small and soft warmth was placed.

Realizing that she had taken his hand, Idren’s eyes widened.

Sitting next to him and facing the same direction, Ophelia spoke softly.

“Shall we have a talk?”

And Ophelia thought how unfamiliar those words felt.

It had always been Idren who asked for conversations in their relationship.

She had only responded to his questions or poured out what she wanted to say according to her mood. It must have seemed quite harsh to him.

I should have treated him better. As she caressed the man’s hand covered with small scars, wondering how those injuries on the back of his hand had occurred, Ophelia felt something like regret.

It seemed like she had done unnecessary things, knowing she would end up cherishing him like this anyway.

She carefully began to speak.

“I understand what misconception you might have. But I didn’t intentionally take my own life.”

She was just as perplexed. Ophelia added.

“I don’t know why I’ve come back to the past either.”

After saying this, Ophelia thought. There must be better words to explain the situation than these.

She wasn’t particularly good with words to begin with, and since Idren had always interpreted her words positively on his own, no suitable expressions came to mind.

But it didn’t matter. If he didn’t understand, she could explain again. After all, they would be together for a long time to come.

So what was the big deal about saying and hearing a few more words?

Ophelia gently rubbed the back of the hand she was holding.

It had always been Idren who listened to her stories, so now it was her turn.

“Will you tell me what happened while I was gone?”

Ophelia was already lifeless when he entered the room.

The woman, beautifully adorned with her eyes closed, looked as lovely as a living person. Because of this, Idren once again made the same mistake he had made before.

“Stop joking around.”

But Ophelia was in no state to hear his words.

Realizing that his situation was no different from the past, Idren began to investigate the cause of her death.

“She was murdered.”

Circumstantially, it was suicide. The cause of death was poisoning, and Ophelia had voluntarily drunk that poison.

The glass bottle containing the remaining poison was reportedly one of those Ophelia had been managing privately.

“Actually, Her Majesty the Queen had been secretly calling for a doctor.”

One of those who had been attending to Ophelia testified as such.

They had clearly agreed to stop the medication together, but it seemed Ophelia had silently changed her mind.

He wasn’t angry. He couldn’t have stopped Ophelia’s decision anyway.

Still, it would have been better if she had given him some indication beforehand.

In any case, at first, Idren believed that Ophelia had been murdered.

If not, it meant she had deliberately chosen his birthday to commit suicide, which didn’t make sense.

Ophelia didn’t harbor that much malice towards him. The woman might not have loved him, but she didn’t hate him either.

Hadn’t Ophelia even said she had something to tell him?

And if someone had poisoned Ophelia, the most suspicious person would be the doctor who had been prescribing her medication.

The doctor of the Luntalis Imperial Family, obtained through the second princess of Egelvamot.

Idren ordered him to be brought in, but the soldier returned with unexpected news.

“The doctor was already dead.”

He had hanged himself, they said.

There was a suicide note beside him. The handwritten note was long, but to summarize, it said this:

He had secretly made poison at the request of the Queen, who had been suffering from depression, and unable to bear the guilt, he was escaping through death.

The paper, which elaborately described the guilt of abetting the suicide of a noble woman, ultimately meant one thing.

Ophelia had taken her own life.

It was a difficult fact to accept, so Idren couldn’t believe it right away.

It seemed more plausible that there was some other conspiracy hidden.

So he didn’t stop the investigation, but that didn’t bring the dead back to life.

In the end, Idren had no choice but to pin his hopes on one thing.

“Still, time will soon go back…”

After placing Ophelia’s body in a coffin and interring it in the royal family’s underground tomb, Idren waited beside it.

One day, two days, three days, four days… Time continued to pass.

During this time, he did nothing except conduct investigations to find evidence that Ophelia had been murdered.

Even the funeral was halted midway. To finish the funeral, they would have to close the tomb door, which meant he would have to leave the tomb.

There was also the thought that it would all be undone anyway when time reversed, so there was no need to make unnecessary efforts.

As he kept vigil by the body, he drew concern from those around him.

“Your Majesty, I understand your grief. However…”

Was it Salode? Or perhaps Penrel? In any case, he had heard someone’s consolation.

But Idren didn’t listen to their words. He didn’t care if those around him thought he was crazy.

After all.

“Your Majesty! Please stop! Doing this won’t…”

It all had to become.

“The remaining elder families have started to question the reason for Your Majesty’s absence. Your Majesty, please…”

As if it never happened.

“…Why isn’t it going back?”

Something had gone wrong.

A week had passed since Ophelia’s death, yet he was still in the same place.

“Maybe Ophelia isn’t really dead.”

So Idren tried to open the lid of the coffin.

It was a bit strange behavior, but it was the only way to check Ophelia’s condition.

Those around him tried to stop him as soon as they heard what he was trying to do.

“I understand your grief, but you must not touch the body.”

When Penrel clung to him crying, Idren explained why he was doing this.

He usually didn’t tell others about what had happened with Ophelia, but Penrel was so anxious that he had no choice.

“Ophelia might be alive. I haven’t told you before, but actually, when she dies, time goes back. But not now.”

It was a bit incoherent.

Since Ophelia’s death, Idren hadn’t slept, not knowing when time would reverse.

When sleep-deprived, speech becomes slurred, and when speech becomes slurred, persuasiveness also decreases.

Still, he had said all the main points, but after hearing the explanation, Penrel became even more anxious.

“Your Majesty, please… please come to your senses.”

Seeing the man holding onto him with a pale face and pleading, Idren realized he had made a mistake in speaking.

Far from believing his words, Penrel thought he had gone mad.

Idren didn’t try to persuade him a second time. After all, someone else’s consent wasn’t that important.

Until Penrel said those words.

“The late Queen wouldn’t have wanted you to live like this, Your Majesty.”