The single-story log cabin was quite dilapidated, having been built long ago.

Callian opened the door with a darkened, hardened face.

The unpleasant creaking sound of rusty hinges was heard.

It was the kind of house where one would be reluctant to even touch the doorknob without gloves.

Inside the dim cabin, there seemed to be two rooms, and in the living room, an old blanket was spread out, with two women there.

Riona and Yuri.

Seeing Callian, Riona brightened and rushed towards him.

And with trembling hands, she caressed Callian’s cheeks.

“…Duke… Why is your face so bruised?”

Callian looked at his mother with a dark and angry expression.

But Riona paid no heed and continued to stroke his cheeks.

“Still, it’s fortunate that Her Majesty the Empress hasn’t forgotten the roots of Klaus. She released this mother from prison and even found us a house.”

“…A house?”

Callian’s furrowed brow twitched.

He soon opened his mouth, pouring out his anger.

“Does this truly look like a house to you?”

At those words, Riona momentarily flinched.

For those who had lived in the Klaus mansion, this space was not even as good as the barn of the estate.

No, rather, a stable would be more comfortable to stay in.

The bed was broken, and the old straw mat, which seemed to have been used by the previous owner, was crawling with lice and should have been burned.

Even at this moment, the sound of rats moving on the roof could be heard.

“…Is this a place for people to live?!”

“Then what should we do? We have to live like this somehow… If we endure, good times will come. Her Majesty the Empress won’t forget us.”

“Damn it!”

Callian, seemingly frustrated, kicked a kettle rolling on the floor.

With a thud, the kettle dented.

Riona, her fists clenched tightly, trembled.

At this moment, Yuri, who had been sitting silently, stood up.

Her belly was quite protruding, with less than three months left until delivery.

Yuri stood in front of Callian and said.

“This is all because of Esika.”

Her red eyes were flashing with hatred for Esika.

Callian looked at Yuri silently with a hardened expression.

Yuri continued.

“After the Duke handed over the mansion, instead of selling it to pay off the debt, she somehow raised funds to pay the debt and kept the mansion for herself.”

“…”

“She coveted the mansion from the beginning and demanded divorce and transfer papers from the Duke!”

The beautiful Klaus mansion, its owner should have been herself and the son she would bear, not Esika.

Feeling that she had lost everything while wide awake, Yuri was furious.

“Is that true? That damned woman swallowed up the mansion?!”

Riona glared at Yuri and asked.

“We ended up like this all because of that witch Esika.”

Yuri said with eyes boiling with anger.

“Actually, I had an audience with Her Majesty the Empress recently.”

At those words, Riona startled.

Yuri had never mentioned this to her before.

“And I testified about how vicious Esika is, how she suddenly started behaving insanely as if possessed. Her Majesty listened to my words carefully and said she would summon me again. She will surely punish Esika!”

The Empress had summoned Yuri to hear about Esika, and Yuri had come back after ranting extensively about Esika’s wickedness.

“How can I believe your words? Her Majesty the Empress is not someone who meets just anyone. Even I was driven away without an audience.”

At Riona’s words, Yuri raised the corners of her mouth and said.

“…Before Esika framed me with the poisoning charge, I had sent a letter to Her Majesty the Empress. Saying that a witch defying Tameron’s will was trying to swallow up Klaus. And… only after things ended up like this did Her Majesty realize!”

The Empress is a devout religious believer who claims to have dedicated her entire life to Tameron.

There are rumors that she has fallen into heretical doctrines beyond pure devotion, and if Yuri’s letter aligned with her direction, it would make sense for her to meet Yuri.

“…The downfall of Klaus is not because of Esika.”

But Callian interrupted Yuri’s words.

“And Esika is not a witch.”

It would be better if he could purely hate her.

But to do so, Callian had learned too much and realized painfully.

The cause of all this calamity was not Esika.

Callian said, rubbing his brow.

“It’s because of Mother, who greedily invested in Tuchen, even borrowing military supply funds.”

“Duke…!”

At Callian’s accusation, Riona cried out as if wronged.

“And because of me, who trusted Mother and left everything to her.”

“…”

Riona’s eyes wavered at Callian’s words.

Callian said to the two with a hardened face.

“Even if you appeal to Her Majesty the Empress now and try to pin it on Esika, nothing will change. I need to rest now.”

And he turned around and went into the room.

The sound of the door closing was heard.

“…Hah…”

Grabbing Riona’s wrist, which was trembling at Callian’s cold attitude, Yuri said.

“Get a grip, Mother.”

“What?”

She was about to slap Yuri’s cheek in anger, but Yuri was gripping her wrist tightly, preventing such an act.

Yuri said to Riona with fierce eyes.

“Since the Duke is so heartbroken, we should pull ourselves together.”

“…We?”

Riona’s eyebrows twitched.

“Yes, we. The Duke has divorced Esika, and I’m carrying the Duke’s child in my womb, so now I’m the daughter-in-law of this family.”

Yuri thought there was hope as long as the Empress held hostility towards Esika.

Yuri saw hope in the Empress’s cold gaze. The hope that someday when the Empress punishes Esika, they could reclaim everything she had taken away.

“If Mother and I work together to overcome this situation, we’ll be able to reclaim our positions someday. I’ll be the Duchess, and this child in my womb will be the heir to Klaus.”

Yuri’s hand caressed her protruding belly.

Of course, Riona thought that even in this utterly ruined situation, Yuri was unworthy to be Callian’s match.

A witch would be better. Better than such a greedy vixen.

But she knew she shouldn’t drive Yuri away in anger here.

If Yuri left, she would have to do the laundry and cooking herself.

How meticulously she had cared for her beautiful hands.

“…Callian’s face is badly injured. Prepare food so he can eat his fill.”

She suppressed the urge to hit Yuri and turned around, folding her arms.

But before she could take a few steps, Yuri’s sharp voice was heard.

“Are you saying you’re going to make me, who’s pregnant with the heir to the Duke’s family, do housework?”

“…What?”

“Her Majesty the Empress told me to protect the Klaus family’s child well. She said she wouldn’t stand by and watch an innocent child fall victim to demons.”

Yuri sat down in a chair, crossing her legs, as if she had no intention of doing anything.

Riona was dumbfounded by this impudent behavior, but the Empress’s words relayed by Yuri caught her attention.

If the Empress was expecting Yuri’s unborn child, the chances of receiving her help would increase.

Yuri, observing Riona’s expression, stroked her belly again.

“The child in my womb wants potato soup and fresh fruits. Well, you’ve lived as the Duchess for decades, but…”

Yuri said, raising the corner of her lips.

“You must have cooked for your family yourself in Smichen, Mother. You must have done housework too.”

At Yuri’s words mentioning her exposed past, flames of anger flashed in Riona’s eyes for a moment.

Right now, I should grab her hair… But Riona clenched her fist again.

‘Just wait until you give birth. I’ll kill you then.’

**

Behind the mansion, Sella was buried.

The wind gently caressed Esika’s hair, and Hemos’s sobbing could be heard.

Hans looked at Sella’s grave with a small sigh.

On the day Sella died, Hans had been knocked unconscious by an attacker, and Hemos had been out at the market, avoiding the disaster.

“You showed me a new world. I could die for you, madam.”

The coroner reported on the body. He says she was likely tortured before death.

Esika didn’t shed tears.

She had been the same when she learned that the Cheonma Faith had been annihilated.

Cold reason and revenge were Esika’s only ways of mourning.

‘My real enemy was… the Empress Dowager.’

After receiving information about the Empress’s portrait from Hans, she fatefully realized.

The karma of the past was repeating itself in this life like a wheel.

Callian, the reincarnation of the Emperor from the previous life.

Even in this life, he was still foolish and unable to stand on his own.

He was someone Esika had to repay, and she had repaid him that much.

His mother Riona, who persecuted her with distorted maternal love, and Yuri Anesis, who deceived her under the false pretense of friendship and then had an affair with Callian, were not enemies from the previous life,

but she had returned to them as much as they had given her.

However, she hadn’t realized it then.

That there was one more enemy of bitter karma remaining, connecting the previous life to the current one.

That woman who was wicked and cruel, valuing human life less than that of a fly.

In the previous life, she had annihilated the Cheonma Faith, the spiritual home of the spirit,

and in this life, she had cruelly killed Sella.

She had thrust a sword into Esika’s heart, and would continue to struggle to cut off her arms and legs in the future.

The face and gaze in the portrait were remarkably identical in both the previous life and the current one.

‘I’ll surely avenge you, Sella.’

Esika looked back.

Resban was standing far from Sella’s grave.

The man who had been on her side until the end and followed her.

His deep golden eyes were fixed on Esika.

Esika approached him.

In her eyes, perhaps for the first time, moisture welled up.