After some time had passed, suppressing the surging emotions, the once quiet bedroom was soon filled with Bellia’s chatter.

“When I opened my eyes, I found myself asleep in the garden.”

Bellia didn’t stop talking even while lying down. It was a secret she had desperately wanted to confide in someone for so long.

She had to suppress her desire to pour her heart out, and figure out, understand, and accept the situation alone.

Bellia was incredibly surprised and bewildered by the fact that she had also regressed. But doubts piled up about whether anyone would fully believe this confusing situation that even she couldn’t comprehend, so she ended up enduring it alone.

“And Raul was by your side?”

Callid asked gently, lying next to Bellia as if soothing a child.

Bellia nodded slightly.

“I was so shocked that I pushed him away and ran wildly into the castle… All my family was alive, and the castle was safe…”

Bellia continued her words haltingly, as if the memories were coming back to her.

Callid tucked the blanket around Bellia and held her tightly.

“When I grasped the situation, I thought I could change the future this time.”

“That’s when you sent me the letter.”

Bellia recalled that time.

If Closet hadn’t talked about the empire’s second prince, perhaps Bellia would have tried to find other ways.

Thinking about it that way, she even thought that Closet might have been the starting point of this incredible event.

“If Closet hadn’t mentioned you, we might never have met.”

Though she had said it seriously, Callid burst out laughing upon hearing those words.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Because that’s impossible.”

He said, his voice still tinged with laughter.

“I told you, didn’t I? If we had even brushed past each other by chance, I would never have let you go.”

Tch. Always so smooth with words.

Bellia rolled her eyes sourly.

Then, as if suddenly curious, Callid asked.

“Did you hear anything about how I was doing there?”

Callid referred to the time Bellia had experienced as ‘there’.

It seemed like he was acknowledging that she had really regressed to the past. It was a term that referred to that time as if it had truly existed.

“…Raul became emperor, and you became a grand duke. Raul tried to kill you several times to eliminate any potential threats, but all attempts failed.”

At those words, Callid let out a sneer.

“How petty.”

Bellia laughed softly at his comment.

Petty indeed. How could there be a more fitting expression?

“Hehe. In the end, you went to the territory you were granted and never came to the capital until the day I died.”

“Is that so? How strange.”

Callid made a face of incomprehension.

Bellia agreed with his opinion and continued speaking.

“I was in a situation where I suspected you were plotting something, and Raul wouldn’t listen to me.”

“Tsk. Stupid fool.”

Callid clicked his tongue and sneered, seemingly finding Raul pathetic.

“That’s right. He was stupid. That’s why he killed me.”

He was silent for a moment. Then he asked carefully.

“…Did you still have feelings for Raul in your final moments? If so, that would be a bit painful.”

Bellia shook her head.

“Of course not. My feelings for him had disappeared long ago. I only thought that I must survive no matter what.”

Feelings for Raul?

With that miserable emotion that had gradually been chipped away, broken, and worn down after he became emperor…

“…I endured for 8 years like that.”

At her words, Callid stroked Bellia’s hair as if impressed. Bellia caught his hand, telling him to stop.

She wanted to talk with him longer, but his constant stroking of her hair was making her drowsy.

“Stop touching me… I’m getting sleepy.”

Bellia tried to force her eyelids open as they grew heavy. But contrary to her will, her eyes simply wouldn’t open.

“Calli…d…”

Covering Bellia’s eyes with his hand, Callid whispered.

“It’s alright. Sleep deeply. Have sweet dreams.”

With those warm words, Bellia’s vision faded to black.

“Hah…”

Callid sighed after confirming that Bellia had fallen completely asleep.

‘8 years.’

Callid counted the distant time she must have experienced.

Was that why she had built such a wall against him?

Was this the reason she always pushed him away, saying they were just in a contractual relationship?

‘Because that bastard Raul betrayed her.’

Thinking that she became unable to trust people because of Raul made his insides boil with anger.

‘It seems I can’t just let this go… I’m quite angry.’

Callid thought he should give Raul a small gift as he gently patted Bellia’s back.

The path leading to the empress’s palace was extremely quiet. There were hardly any maids or servants to be seen, and few knights guarding the palace.

“Shall we go in together?”

Callid asked worriedly at the entrance of the empress’s palace. But Bellia shook her head. This meeting had to be just between the empress and herself.

Moreover, she didn’t want to forcibly drag him in when he was expressing his unwillingness to meet the empress with his whole body.

“Thank you for granting my request.”

Despite Bellia’s smiling expression, Callid’s face remained stiffly set.

“Then I’ll be going.”

Bellia tightly grasped Callid’s hand before letting go, then opened the tightly closed door of the empress’s palace and went inside.

The empress’s room, reached after walking down an empty corridor, was filled with faint smoke and a strange fragrance enveloping the entire space.

The empress sat rigidly on the sofa, looking at Bellia with a lifeless expression.

‘It was similar back then too.’

She remembered how shocked she had been by the empress’s dark expression and the heavy atmosphere of the empress’s palace when she first came to greet her in her previous life.

Bellia let out a small sigh and approached the empress.

“I offer glory to the moon of the empire. I am Bellia, the first princess of the Kingdom of Ronica.”

Bellia greeted her, perfectly executing the empire’s etiquette, slightly bending her knees before standing straight.

At that sight, a momentary spark flashed in the empress’s eyes.

“Thank you for taking the time despite my rude request.”

“…Sit down.”

The empress pointed to the opposite sofa with a rigid expression that revealed no emotion.

Then she simply stared at Bellia without saying anything for a while.

After quite some time had passed, the empress spoke with a cold smirk on her lips.

“…I don’t understand why the emperor would allow a child like you for Callid.”

Bellia made a puzzled expression at the empress’s sudden words.

“May I ask what you mean by that?”

“I hear you chose Callid. The story of the Ronica princess weighing the imperial princes in both hands has reached even the empress’s palace.”

“That’s…”

“Enough. I didn’t bring it up to reprimand you.”

The empress cut off Bellia’s words in a monotone voice and gestured to the maid standing behind her.

The maid slowly arranged teacups and desserts on the table between them and then slowly went outside.

Bellia, annoyed by the maid’s behavior, glanced towards the door and frowned slightly upon noticing it wasn’t completely closed.

The maid’s attitude showed no respect or courtesy towards royalty. Moreover, wasn’t that behavior closer to trying to eavesdrop on this conversation?

“I don’t like you.”

However, the empress smiled faintly after taking a sip of tea, as if unbothered by the maid’s attitude.

And at that moment, with a click, the door closed completely.

‘A spy…?’

Who were they planning to report this conversation to?

Bellia quickly scanned the room with her eyes.

Then the empress spoke.

“It was unexpected that you chose Callid. I thought you were just a naive child who grew up sheltered, unaware of the ways of the world, only dreaming of a happy future.”

She met Bellia’s gaze.

“What do you want that made you choose Callid?”

Bellia was unsure how to answer.

She had heard that the empress had never been a proper mother to Callid.

Moreover, while Callid was being coldly treated by the emperor, while the empress was strutting around as if she owned the imperial palace, she had remained quietly hidden, as if she knew nothing about what was happening in the world.

What was her reason for asking about Callid now?

She couldn’t figure out the empress’s intentions in asking this.

So Bellia hesitated for a moment, then picked up the teacup in front of her and brought it to her lips as a tactic to buy time.

‘…Huh?’

And the moment a faint scent from the tea touched her nose, Bellia’s hand began to tremble.

The teacup and saucer clattered as they collided lightly.

“What’s wrong?”

Bellia barely managed to set the cup down on the table without daring to take a sip.

‘Why is that scent from back then…’

The poisoned tea that Raul had forcibly made Bellia drink.

It had the same scent.

The mixture of strong vanilla and the bitter scent of herbs that simply couldn’t be forgotten from her mind – why was she smelling it here?

Bellia’s pupils shook.

‘No.’

It was much weaker than the scent she had smelled.

So perhaps it could be a common tea with a similar scent. But because it was a scent that Bellia, who loved tea, had never smelled before in her life, her suspicion didn’t disappear.

“…It seems you know what this is.”

At that moment, the empress clicked her tongue.

“I really can’t understand why the emperor allowed someone like you for Callid.”

At the empress’s calm voice, Bellia spoke heavily.

“Your Majesty the Empress, do you know what this is?”

“Yes.”

The answer was plain.

As if it were an answer to ‘The weather is nice today.’

“Since when…”

Had the empress been steadily drinking poison in her previous life too?

Bellia barely managed to part her lips to ask the question that wouldn’t quite fall.

“Since when have you been drinking this?”

“Well. It’s been at least a few months, I think.”

The empress said, taking another sip of tea.

“…It seems they want to kill me now.”

…Was it the emperor?

Bellia closed her eyes, feeling dizzy. She saw herself overlapping with the empress.

The vision of herself dying coldly, coughing up blood on the floor, spread out behind the empress.

Her calm heart was shaken violently as if a storm had hit.

“I want you to die now, Bellia.”

Raul’s voice, speaking as he handed her the poisoned tea, rang in her ears.

She felt nauseous, like she was going to throw up.

“Why, even though you know everything…!”

Just as Bellia was about to say something in a surge of emotion, the empress softened her rigid expression and smiled.

“I have to endure, don’t I?”

Bellia realized.

The empress wasn’t crazy.

“Why, why do you go to such lengths…”

She couldn’t finish her words. Because she seemed to understand the reason the empress was enduring from the sight of her smiling with downcast eyes while fiddling with the teacup.

“You’re not in a position to ask that. I only wanted to see the face of the child who would become Callid’s wife. My interference was excessive.”

“…Your Majesty the Empress. You should reduce the tea.”

“That’s not for you to worry about.”

“But, this is…”

At that moment, the empress raised her hand to stop her words.