Sitting in the shaking carriage, I opened the package and immediately corrected what I had said earlier.

‘The butler’s quick-witted my ass. Ah, he must have sent this to mess with me.’

The clothes the butler had packed were a long, flowing dress. Exactly the kind of dress I hate.

‘But most of the casual clothes I had tailored were pants! He managed to find such a skirt to send.’

Did he send it on purpose to annoy me?

My anger peaked when I tried to put my arms through to wear it.

‘Ugh, it’s hard to put on by myself.’

After putting my arms through, the design was so tight around the shoulders that I couldn’t fasten the buttons in the back. Usually, they make it so you can easily fasten it at the chest, but not this one.

‘This is why I don’t wear skirts.’

After struggling to put on the dress, I realized there were no underpants or petticoat, so the cold wind blew right up the skirt. I fidgeted with my legs, feeling strangely exposed.

A disparaging remark I had heard once echoed in my ears.

[Instead of causing trouble in a place like this, why don’t you go into the palace, put on a pretty dress, and decorate the royal court?]

‘It’s been a while since I thought of that snide comment.’

It was a snide remark Espen had made to me.

‘Espen has said many bad things, but that one particularly stung, so I remember it clearly.’

During the second battle, the monster I fought was none other than a tentacle-type monster.

Due to the poisonous tentacles wrapped around my leg, pus oozed out for over a month, so I had to wear pants with one leg torn off.

Perhaps finding that sight unsightly, Espen had made that snide remark.

‘It really hurt my feelings. It felt like he was mocking me for being incompetent.’

Though I always tried to appear composed in front of others, back then I was still a sheltered princess who had just entered the battlefield. I was already hurting and scared from my injury, and then to be mocked like that on top of it—I was so upset.

‘Espen was always sharp-tongued with his comrades. Especially me.’

Those icy blue eyes that were always fierce towards me remained vivid in my memory. Because few people looked at me with such eyes, it stuck in my mind even more.

All my memories of Espen were bad ones. He was always glaring, making snide remarks, and later he tried not to speak to me at all.

‘He probably hated the entire privileged class, not just me, so I tried to brush it off.’

But that didn’t mean it was okay for him to hate me, so I always acted coldly towards Espen too. As a result, we had a bad relationship.

We disliked each other throughout the whole war and then…

Finally, the mana explosion.

‘Right up to the end, there’s not a single good memory.’

Come to think of it, why did Espen suddenly cause a mana explosion?

‘What were we talking about that last day?’

Even thinking back to the day Espen caused the mana explosion, I couldn’t remember anything special.

‘The mood in the unit wasn’t bad. Rather, we were buoyed by the hope that it would be the last battle.’

If we could just drive the other races beyond those mountains, this land would finally become a proper home for humans. That’s why even in the midst of fierce battles, my comrades and I maintained a bright atmosphere.

‘On the last day, we talked about what we would do when the war ended. I answered that I would meet my fiancé, who had been waiting a long time for me while postponing our marriage.’

What was Espen like that day?

After racking my memory for a while, our last conversation came back to me.

‘Marriage. I talked about going to get married.’

And he had abruptly joined in on my conversation with someone else. He suddenly asked if I was getting married, even though he had seemed uninterested in me.

‘Looking back, that was really strange.’

It’s not like we were on good terms, so why did he suddenly bring up marriage?

What reason would there be for a colleague you’re not even close with to suddenly bring up marriage?

‘…Could it be that he really liked me?’

After blankly thinking that, I quickly shook my head from side to side.

‘No way! He really, really hated me. He avoided me like I was something dirty just by being near him.’

He disliked me from the very beginning. How could someone like that have exploded from liking me?

‘For Espen’s honor, I shouldn’t misunderstand like that. It’s really not true.’

But no matter how much I thought about it, there was no other reason for Espen to try to save me.

‘This is absurd. It really makes no sense. But then why on earth did he go to such lengths to save me?’

I had found a clue to the complex problem entangled with my heart, but I still couldn’t understand the motivation behind Espen’s grand experiment!

‘First, I should ask Hadel if he’s heard the name Espen before.’

I decided to set aside this question that had no answer for now. There were many other mysteries I needed to solve. I needed to find out why the royal couple was following Espen’s wishes, why they tried to release an ice monster in Hadel’s territory, and so on.

‘If there are no clues, I’ll have no choice but to go up to the capital and press the royal couple.’

Just as I had nearly finished organizing my thoughts, the carriage slowly came to a stop.

“We’ve arrived, young lady.”

“Thank you.”

I hopped out of the carriage. As I did, the long skirt caught on the edge of the carriage.

‘This is why skirts are inconvenient.’

As I tugged at it irritably, I felt gazes upon me. And it wasn’t just one or two people.

‘But why does it feel like everyone is watching me so closely?’

Since when did they all start paying such close attention to me?

‘Or are they just surprised to see me in a skirt?’

In the strange atmosphere, even such an odd thought crossed my mind. As I tilted my head in confusion, an unfamiliar voice spoke.

“Hello. Are you that young lady they say is the mistress?”

“…Mistress?”

What nonsense is this!

Anger rising, I glared to the side to see a beautifully dressed woman I’d never seen before, smiling brightly.

“I am Nella Orsini, soon to be the Grand Duchess. I am His Grace the Grand Duke’s fiancée.”

What on earth is going on!

I was so dumbfounded that my jaw dropped.

[This is the timeline separator]

Espen, who had been dragged into the war, was always filled with anger.

If he could have, he would never have come out to a battlefield like this.

Espen kicked a stone with the tip of his foot for no reason.

‘Damn it, why was I born into this status?’

There were many others his age in this position, but he felt he had the most miserable circumstances.

‘Other families have many sons to send to war in their place, but why me of all people!’

The son of a poor family. In a position where he couldn’t avoid military service. And to make matters worse, he was born with an ice attribute, so he was sent to the front lines. Feeling resentful about this fact, Espen kicked again.

‘I was finally born with strong magic, and for what!’

In any other situation, Espen, born with the rare ice attribute, would have been well-positioned for success. But now it was a long-term war situation. All conditions were unfavorable to him.

‘When will this damned war ever end?’

Would he be able to return alive? He couldn’t sleep due to anxiety. As he spent his days like that, ‘she’ appeared before Espen at that very time.

“Hello, my fellow soldiers.”

Her pink hair was as lovely as a freshly bloomed flower. Her brightly smiling face shone brilliantly like a star. In the gloomy battlefield, it was the first time he had seen a woman smile like that.

‘Who is she?’

Espen stared at her as if entranced. Standing before everyone, she introduced herself confidently.

“I am Marian, the First Princess of this kingdom. From today, I’m assigned to be in overall command.”

A princess.

If it weren’t for the war, she would be of such high status that a lower nobleman like him wouldn’t even brush sleeves with her.

This woman of such lofty status showed her white teeth as she joked.

“You can ignore me as a parachute appointment.”

At the princess’s greeting, even those who had been silent out of exhaustion began to laugh one by one. Marian, who had instantly softened the atmosphere like that, called out lastly:

“Everyone, don’t forget the weight of your own life and focus only on using all your strength to return alive!”

Somehow, just listening to her words made hope rise that they could return safely alive. In fact, that was the comfort Espen had longed for most, but he deliberately pushed down his excited feelings.

‘Hah, a princess will probably just think about surviving in the rear.’

A princess, a woman who grew up without knowing hardship—what help could she be on the battlefield?

Her words might sound good, but when real battle broke out, she would surely be the first to flee to the safest place.

Espen thought this as he deliberately kept his distance from Marian. But it didn’t take long for his prejudice to be shattered.

Marian had a fire attribute.

Whoosh!

It was probably during the second battle. The monster they faced was a plant with slimy tentacles, and Marian’s flames proved tremendously effective.

“Princess!”

“Quickly, this way!”

Thanks to Marian, many people were able to evacuate without major casualties. Espen was among them.

“Thank you, Princess! We survived thanks to you!”

“Sir Espen! You should greet her too.”

A comrade jabbed Espen in the side. But all Espen could see was Marian’s right leg, infected by the plant’s poison.

‘What’s with this woman?’

It must be incredibly painful. Her leg was already turning purple, likely from the poison. Yet she smiled bravely, showing no signs of pain.

‘Instead of smiling like that, she should hurry and get treatment. She’s just annoying. After all, that woman is… that woman is…’

Espen, who had been trying to belittle Marian for all sorts of reasons, finally hung his head.

There was only one reason he was finding fault with her.

‘I can’t give my heart to that woman.’

Because his heart had been shaken from the moment he first saw her. As soon as he admitted that he had fallen in love with her, reality hit him.

‘Her status is too high anyway. She may be within reach now, but as soon as the war ends, we’ll each go back to our own lives. No matter how deeply I love her, she’s a woman I can never be with.’

How base and shallow the bottom of his heart was. No matter how much he tried to bring her down, why did that woman shine so brilliantly?

Why does my heart, my own heart, not flow as I want it to?

“Damn it.”

It was his complete defeat.