When he opened his eyes again, what Idren saw was a blue sky.

Looking up at the azure sky with warm sunlight shining down, he thought. The weather is nice. It’s clear, just like the southern sky.

And then he got up from his seat in surprise.

Edegrun, the capital of Aglante, was a place where snow fell for a third of the year. Of course, there was no way such a clear blue sky could be seen.

Standing on his two feet, Idren realized he was now on a ship. The blue waves surrounding him and the swaying floor made him aware of the reality.

“…What is this.”

Idren blinked at the impossible surroundings.

Edegrun was inland. The location of Castle Sigrasil was right in front of steep, towering mountains.

Moreover, if he remembered correctly, he should have been stuck down a well.

Not on such a calm river like this.

Idren looked around. He saw small boats decorated with colorful flags and riverbanks with vibrant flowers blooming. It was a somewhat familiar scene.

Just like the small canal between southern Aglante and Leden.

As he stood dazed at the unbelievable scenery, someone spoke to him.

“Your Majesty, are you alright?”

Idren’s eyes widened as he turned around to the somehow familiar voice.

“…Pennel?”

Then the young knight with black hair furrowed his brow slightly and replied.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Staring at the other person who looked as vivid as a living person with a dumbfounded expression, Idren muttered.

“Pennel Soar, how are you…”

The knight with similarly black hair and a similar build had certainly died last year.

Idren clearly remembered Pennel’s death. Because in the war against Brinwell, he had died in place of none other than himself.

Less than three years after his accession, Brinwell, the birth family of the previous queen consort, had invaded with an army. It was under the pretext of avenging the dead princes born to the former queen.

The war that started in early spring consumed the entire year.

Idren did his best, but couldn’t achieve good results. He was too inexperienced then to face the old king of Brinwell.

When the war was nearing its end, he was eventually surrounded by the Brinwell army. It was with a few knights he kept close by.

Pennel, who was one of them, had impersonated him to lure the soldiers at that time, and eventually died.

Although the tide turned afterwards and the Brinwell army retreated, the death of the knight who had been with him for a long time remained a great loss to him.

How could such a Pennel be here?

Idren rubbed his face with trembling hands.

“Could it be that I died… Pennel, is this the afterlife?”

But the land visible over there looked too much like Leden to be what is commonly called paradise.

The knight who had been watching him scan his surroundings with confused eyes spoke up.

“What do you mean by that?”

After some awkward conversation, Pennel, realizing that his master didn’t know where he was, explained the situation.

“It’s now the fourth month of the year, and Your Majesty is on your way to the royal palace of Leden. You were scheduled to meet King Dares and Prince Mahanas there.”

The knight looked worried about his master’s mental state throughout his explanation.

“You also said it would be nice if you could meet your future wife while you’re at it.”

And Pennel finally asked again.

“Are you really alright?”

Idren made an excuse to the knight that he had just been momentarily confused. Pennel’s expression showed he didn’t believe the half-hearted explanation at all, but he didn’t probe further.

After sending him to the back of the ship saying he wanted to be alone, Idren sat down and looked at the water surface. The waves gently splitting apart came into view.

It was unbelievable, but he seemed to be in the past right now.

Of course, since it’s nonsense for a person to go back in time, all of this was clearly a hallucination seen before death.

That’s why Idren didn’t ask Pennel anything more. He didn’t want to cause cracks in the hallucination.

Though he wasn’t pleased that of all times, it had to be this period.

As far as he knew, this was three months before the wedding ceremony. Since he met the King and Prince of Leden in the fourth month, Idren could easily guess that it was then.

Early in his reign, the King of Leden who had accepted his marriage proposal invited him to Leden when about half the bride price had been paid.

Leden was in the southern part of Aglante, and Edegrun, the capital of Aglante, was in the north, so it wasn’t a convenient distance to travel, but Idren had accepted the invitation. It was because he wanted to meet Ophelia who would be in the Leden royal palace.

He had wanted to let her know that that unsightly boy from the past had grown up quite well. That he hadn’t forgotten the conversation they shared, and that he had come to repay the kindness he had received. So she could stay with him without any worries…

What a futile dream that had been.

Idren lamented as he recalled how vain his past self’s hopes had been.

To conclude, he hadn’t been able to meet Ophelia. Throughout his stay at the palace, she didn’t come out of her room, saying she wasn’t feeling well.

He should have known then. That Ophelia would never welcome him.

But his past self had been so terribly oblivious that he naively believed the letter she had written. Even though her words saying she couldn’t show her face because she was ill and would look forward to their next meeting carried only as much weight as that single sheet of paper.

“…Pathetic fool.”

Defining his past self in one word, Idren stood up.

They would soon arrive in Leden.

Horses were prepared at the dock. They had been sent from the Leden royal palace.

Just as he had done in the past, Idren mounted one of those horses. Pennel, who was checking the procession nearby, asked in a low voice.

“Didn’t you say you would buy flowers?”

Come to think of it, he seemed to have said something like that in the past. Idren shook his head.

“What’s the point when she won’t accept them anyway.”

And he spurred his horse. The knight followed him on horseback with a puzzled expression.

Leden, a kingdom with nothing but a long history and beautiful scenery, had a small capital as well. They arrived at the Leden royal palace before long.

Stopping their horses in front of the palace, small in scale but lavishly decorated, Idren thought the journey felt shorter than he remembered. Though the scenery hadn’t changed, it felt that way.

Perhaps it was because this was a hallucination. Thinking to himself, he stared at the palace made of white stone.

Leden’s palace was bright and spring-like. The reliefs carved on the exterior were ornate, and flowers in various colors not seen in Edegrun entwined the building. Idren scanned them indifferently.

Pennel, who was gazing at the spring flower spectacle with wide eyes beside him, glanced at him.

To dispel the knight’s suspicions, he should act at least half as impressed, but he lacked the motivation. Idren let out a small sigh.

Suddenly he wondered why the prince of Leden wasn’t visible.

In his past life, Prince Mahanas had been waiting even before they arrived at the palace.

But now no one was in sight, and there was even a noisy commotion coming from somewhere. Idren raised his head to look for the source of the disturbance. People were gathered near a building, buzzing with chatter.

Pennel must have seen the same thing, as he lowered his voice and said,

“It seems something has happened.”

Idren dismounted without answering the knight. He approached the gathered crowd as if in a trance.

The source of the commotion was a place he knew well. Idren pushed through the crowd to the center and looked up.

The balcony of the princess’s room was wide open.

In the past when he had briefly stayed at the palace, he had looked up at it many times but it had never once opened.

But what was even more surprising was someone sitting astride the balcony railing.

All he could see was the person’s back, and even that looked dark because of the sunlight, but Idren recognized her at first glance.

He murmured blankly.

“…Ophelia?”

As if those words were some kind of signal, the woman’s back tilted.

The first thing Ophelia Mevasa did when she realized she was in the past was to bash her head against the wall.

Next, she tried to strangle herself, and then she bit her tongue. She wanted to escape this nightmare by any means necessary.

The Leden royal palace right before the wedding.

Even though she had become accustomed to all sorts of terrible things in the world, this one was excessively bad.

Ophelia couldn’t help but vomit at the sight of her spineless brother walking around with his head held high.

It wasn’t just her brother who had an excessively oily face beyond his station. Her greedy father, and Leden which supported his vanity, were all the same.

This isn’t right.

Locked in her room, pulling at her hair like a madwoman, Ophelia muttered. This isn’t right, this can’t be happening.

In her reality, everything had been perfect. Her father, who had become king of a ruined kingdom, had begged her many times but gained nothing, and her brother had lived and died similarly. She had also neatly taken her revenge on her enemies.

After thoroughly mocking all of that, Ophelia had taken her own life. That was her reality.

Not this stupid, powerless life of a princess.

But the nightmare didn’t end.

No matter how many times she closed and opened her eyes, she was still in the princess’s room in the Leden royal palace. The situation remained unchanged as well.

The Leden princess right before marriage. A princess going insane.

Ophelia desperately denied it all, but no one listened to her. They seemed to think she was out of her mind because she had lost her long-time fiancé around that time.

Realizing that nothing was changing, Ophelia stopped what she had been doing. She didn’t bite her tongue anymore, didn’t try to hang herself, and didn’t bash her head against the wall.

When about a month had passed living in this nightmare, she finally discovered a dazzling light.

Translation complete. 100% of original text translated.