“Hah, it’s finally over.”

“Lady Litania, you were truly amazing today.”

Litania returned to the dressing room and let out a sigh of relief as Snow attended to her undressing.

“Snow. My feet hurt, so I’m going to rest here for a bit. Could you go ahead and tidy up the bedroom?”

“Would you like a foot massage?”

“No, it’s alright.”

Feeling bad about making Snow work late, Litania waved her hand dismissively.

After draping a robe over Litania, the boy cautioned her not to fall asleep on the sofa before leaving the dressing room.

Litania draped the robe over her chemise and languidly leaned back on the sofa. Lifting her legs in the air and swinging them about seemed to alleviate some of her fatigue.

“Ah, dancing really isn’t for just anyone.”

“Indeed. It’s even more strenuous for you.”

“Eek!”

Litania jumped up with a start upon hearing a voice that shouldn’t have been there.

Between the slightly parted partitions of the dressing room, Herna could be seen dressed as a maid.

Could she have disguised herself as a servant to sneak in?

“What are you trying to do? Have you still not come to your senses?”

“I wonder which of us hasn’t come to our senses.”

“I’ll scream. Not only did you escape during confinement, but you even snuck into the dragon castle. This time you’ll really go to prison, you know?”

“I came here on the condition of preventing that.”

“What?”

Herna curled her lip into a crooked smile and held out an envelope to Litania.

It was an envelope bearing the emperor’s seal.

“Why do you have this…?”

“Because it can’t be entrusted to an idiot like Vapor.”

Judging by how they had summoned Herna from confinement and even had her disguise herself as a maid to deliver this, it seemed to be a letter that needed to be conveyed quite secretly.

‘What on earth…’

Litania stiffened as she opened the envelope and checked its contents.

It was not a letter.

‘A divorce document…!’

It was an official certificate bearing the emperor’s seal, announcing the annulment of Orbis and Litania’s marriage.

“This can’t be. How can there be such a law?”

“Imperial marriages require the emperor’s permission. And right now, Ferus is the emperor.”

“It’s my marriage. Why is he canceling it as he pleases?”

“Well, were you planning to live forever hiding the fact that you’re a fake and stealing someone else’s happiness?”

The sharp words stung.

A fake stealing someone else’s happiness.

Even before, those words had made her heart sink, which was why she couldn’t help but dissuade Orbis from trying to kill Herna.

“Herna, could you possibly…”

Someone who knows about her possession.

And someone who displays inexplicable, intense malice.

“Are you the ‘real Litania’?”

If when she entered this body, the original Litania’s soul had been ejected and absorbed into another body.

And if that other person was Herna.

She could guess where the source of this bottomless, unconditional hatred stemmed from.

“I have memories.”

“Memories…?”

“Memories from before time was turned back.”

Herna grinned.

“Memories of when I refused the Divine Dragon Orbis until the very end, and ultimately lost my life to him.”

“…!”

It felt as if her chest was freezing over. It was as though the frozen piece cracked with a snap, and fragments began to fall away.

“At first, I was confused. The enormous amount of memories that weren’t my body’s, filling my mind.”

Herna spoke.

The dragon castle where lightning struck and ice rained down.

Memories of having to amputate frostbitten toes and being covered in burns from trying to survive in a place where humans simply could not live.

Memories of begging Orbis to save her in order not to die.

Memories of him, unable to understand human emotions, cutting off her limbs and killing everyone dear to her.

Even the small, precious being torn to pieces before her eyes.

“At first it was strange. Why did you bother me so much? Was it because you were a bastard child? Was it because you, a lowly thing not even acknowledged by blood and taken in as an adopted daughter, dared to show your face at the imperial ball? The more I dwelled on it, the more it made me sick to my stomach.”

“…”

“The moment I heard that Orbis had proposed to you, I knew. Ah, the past I remember was inside that body. Then what are you, who’s in that body now?”

She continued with a sneer.

“It means you’re a fake.”

To summarize Herna’s words:

The real Litania died, turned back time and regressed, and possessed the body of her half-sister, Herna.

And the now-empty original body was entered by her current self.

“Just because I’m a fake doesn’t justify what you’re doing to me.”

Litania thought Herna’s hostility was unjustified. After all, she didn’t intentionally enter this body.

Judging by their identical appearances, she could guess why she ended up possessing this body in particular, but it wasn’t as if Litania had chosen to be born with this face either.

She had originally tried to avoid Orbis to avoid getting entangled with him, and had no intention of clashing with the imperial family. Even when Herna ignored her and picked fights, she had intended to let it slide as long as it wasn’t too severe.

“This body may not be mine. But everything that fills me now is what I’ve created.”

The current Litania is different from the original character she remembers.

Orbis did not imprison or abuse Litania, nor did he cruelly kill those dear to her.

He didn’t try to forcibly violate her, and always respected the boundaries she wanted.

The ferocious divine dragon who loved the Litania from before the regression met her current self after the regression and became gentle. So she doesn’t think it’s unjust for her to receive his love.

“So I can’t accept the divorce. I’m going to request reconsideration.”

All imperial noble divorces are given a one-month grace period before being officially recognized.

The emperor’s order is special, so the moment Litania received this divorce document, her divorce from Orbis became a fait accompli, but the one-month grace period under imperial law is still valid.

If the emperor reverses his decision during that time, the divorce will be null and void.

“If you don’t intend to fall out with the Divine Dragon, the Crown Prince… no, His Majesty should think carefully. Orbis loves me, so he won’t want to separate.”

“Is that so? I wonder about that.”

Herna narrowed her eyes and looked Litania up and down sideways. It felt as if she was being touched by the tip of a knife, sending chills down her spine.

If Herna really was the pre-regression Litania, could she look at her own body with such a chilling gaze?

“I don’t know why I have these memories. Which means turning back time wasn’t my intention.”

Prick. It felt as if a long needle was sharply piercing her chest.

“I wonder, am I really the only one who remembers the past life?”

“…!”

“If Orbis knows you’re a fake, I think he might breathe fire, asking why he’s been tolerating it until now.”

Herna was an intruder in the dragon castle. She even went so far as to disguise herself as a maid to get in.

Litania should have restrained her and interrogated her further about what she was plotting, but she couldn’t.

She stared blankly at the empty doorway where Herna had disappeared, then staggered forward.

The reason why the original story she remembered differed from the present.

One was because the regression occurred after the events of the original story, and the other was because she had possessed Litania’s body after the regression.

“I wonder, am I really the only one who remembers the past life?”

At those words from Herna, Litania’s heart clenched tightly and her breathing quickened.

What if, like Herna, Orbis also remembered his life before the regression?

No, what if Orbis himself was the one who turned back time?

In the original story, Orbis, who loved Litania so deeply that he ruined her, repented before her as she lay dying.

Unable to forget her after she died, he finally turned back time, intending to love her again without making mistakes this time.

If that were the case, his strange behaviors up until now would make sense.

‘Yes, it was strange. No matter how incomprehensible his thought process might be for not being human…’

Orbis’s actions toward Litania were too blind to be explained by mere differences in dragon and human thinking.

Proposing at their first meeting, persistently seeking her out and teasing her despite her obvious fear and avoidance, never leaving her side yet never initiating any contact that made her uncomfortable.

What if it was all because he regretted his actions in his past life and was trying to act differently?

‘If it wasn’t me who changed Orbis…’

Then is the love she’s receiving now righteous?

Isn’t she, a possessor, effortlessly snatching and devouring the fruit that the Litania of the past life achieved through the agony of death?

Is Orbis failing to recognize the woman he loved so deeply, and instead devoting himself to the wrong person?

‘If he’s not loving me, but loving me by mistaking me for someone else… what should I do?’