Rosette hesitated for a moment and was about to kneel down on both knees. However, before that, Joshua waved his hand again.

“That’s not necessary either. You kneeling won’t change anything.”

Joshua’s voice saying this was slightly softer than when she saw him during the day.

It seemed that while Rosette was gathering her thoughts, he had also sorted out his emotions.

He gestured with his eyes towards a large tree stump.

“Sit down for now. I have something I want to ask, so let’s hear your story first.”

“What story……”

“I said sit down first.”

Rosette hesitantly sat on the stump.

In contrast, Joshua did not sit and stood in front of her. His shadowed face looked even cooler.

“Was it you who turned back time?”

Rosette moistened her dry lips with her tongue and answered.

“I think so, probably.”

“Probably?”

“It’s true that I used magic to turn back time, and it’s true that when I woke up again, I had returned to the past. If nothing special happened, it must have been me who did it.”

“I see. So you remember the past, then.”

How do you remember it, Your Highness?

She wanted to ask, but held back for now.

“Why did you turn back time? Was dying that unpleasant?”

“No. I wasn’t afraid of dying.”

“Then?”

“I……”

Rosette raised her head and examined Joshua’s face.

His face, which had come back 13 years, was clearly much younger than when she saw him in prison. Yet he still exuded an intimidating aura that couldn’t be found in a child.

‘There’s no point in lying here, he’ll see through it right away.’

He was a man born to rule over others.

So Rosette decided to speak honestly.

“I wanted to set everything right.”

“What do you mean by ‘set everything right’?”

“There are many things. I made many mistakes after all. If I had to say what I wanted most among them……”

Rosette spoke directly.

“I wanted to save Father and elder brother Daniel.”

Joshua let out a mocking laugh.

“Father and elder brother? Do you think you have the right to call them that now?”

She thought she did. After all, she was the ‘Adrian’ that everyone had acknowledged.

But in front of Joshua, who remembered her past, she couldn’t say it proudly.

She suddenly realized how shameless she was. No matter if the two of them didn’t remember, how could she become part of their family?

When she didn’t say anything, Joshua sneered.

“Even you think it’s ridiculous, don’t you? Do you now realize how absurd this is?”

“But……”

Rosette lowered her eyes and muttered as if making excuses.

“I know. I know I’m shameless. That’s why I initially refused Father’s adoption offer.”

“So now you want to say you had no choice because Master keeps trying to bring you in?”

“That’s not it. Of course, there’s that too, but……”

She opened her eyes wide and looked straight into Joshua’s eyes. There was a slight change in Joshua’s eyes.

Originally, it was against etiquette to look directly into the eyes of royalty without permission. However, for some reason, Joshua didn’t seem too displeased by Rosette’s attitude.

It was because she looked pitiful yet somewhat endearing as she tried to act calm despite trembling.

‘What do you mean pitiful.’

After all, she was a woman who had committed countless wrongs in the past.

While Joshua was steeling his heart, Rosette continued speaking. Unlike her usual self, her words were fast and long.

“It wasn’t just Father, I was worried about elder brother Daniel too. In the past, elder brother Daniel limped after a carriage accident, didn’t he? I heard he was a promising swordsman, but in the end, he couldn’t even become a sword master.”

“……That’s right.”

“Actually, when I came back to the past, I decided not to catch the eye of Duke Dallas. If I didn’t go to the Dallas family, Father and elder brother wouldn’t have to die.”

“……”

“But when I saw elder brother Daniel, I realized I was mistaken. Duke Dallas won’t give up on the Adrian family even without me. The carriage accident will happen all the same, and someone will attack the Adrian family.”

“So?”

“So I decided to go to Adrian. It would be easier to protect them if I was at Adrian. In fact, I even prevented the carriage accident!”

Rosette added in a slightly less confident tone.

“Of course, for some reason, this time it was Father who had the accident, not elder brother Daniel.”

Joshua nodded.

“So it was you who saved Master.”

“Shamefully, yes, it was me.”

“Of course, I’m grateful for that. If it weren’t for you, Master probably wouldn’t have been safe. But so what?”

“What?”

“The fact that you killed Master and Daniel doesn’t change just because you saved Master.”

“But that!”

Rosette muttered as if making excuses.

“It wasn’t my will. I really……”

didn’t want to kill Duke Adrian.

If Duke Dallas hadn’t just engraved the curse, she would not have attacked Duke Adrian even if it meant going back and dying at Duke Dallas’s hands.

“What, do you want to say that Duke Dallas put some kind of control magic on you?”

“……”

“……Is that really the case?”

Rosette couldn’t give a proper answer and just kept her mouth shut.

‘I shouldn’t cry……’

As she recalled that day, tears welled up in her eyes uncontrollably. She took a deep breath through her nose, but it was no use. Soon, tears began to fall from Rosette’s eyes.

“I really don’t understand. I was curious before too. Why are you crying? You’re the one who did wrong.”

“I’m sorry. I tried not to cry……”

Rosette roughly wiped her eyes with her palms.

“But I really, I really want to regret my past and atone for it. Hic, really.”

“……”

“It’s okay if you don’t forgive me. No, hic, you probably can’t forgive me. But can’t you give me a chance to set everything right?”

Rosette knelt down right in front of Joshua. Continuing to cry, she begged with both hands.

“I’ll ask like this. I can’t just stand by and watch Duke Dallas harm Father again. I’ll solve everything.”

Joshua kept his mouth shut.

Before turning back time, when he visited Rosette imprisoned in jail, she cried so pitifully like this too. Seeing her like that made him angry.

Why was the person who killed Master and Daniel crying? If she had been falsely accused, it would be understandable, but it was certain that she was the culprit.

These were nothing but crocodile tears.

He was the one who should be crying and demanding answers. Yet she acted as if she was the one who had lost her close ones.

But he never imagined there would be such circumstances. Until now, he naturally thought that Rosette had killed the two under Duke Dallas’s orders of her own will.

But if she didn’t want to kill them but did so because of control magic, then the story changes a little…….

‘What changes?’

He gritted his teeth.

‘There must be some other ulterior motive.’

It was an unchanging fact that Rosette had saved Duke Adrian. However, Joshua didn’t believe her words that she would work for the Adrian family from now on at face value.

Until he came back in time, he had met many people as a prince. If there was one thing he learned, it was that people don’t change as easily as one might think.

Could Rosette change in an instant just because she turned back time?

‘That’s impossible. There must be some ulterior motive.’

Even if she really was trying to change the future for the sake of the Adrian family, there must be another reason.

Regretting and repenting for her actions? Nonsense.

‘Besides, her attitude might change when she meets Duke Dallas later.

Could Rosette not waver when she sees Duke Dallas? After all, he was once family.’

So for now, the answer was to completely remove Rosette, who was a risk factor and variable.

Joshua tried to ignore Rosette, who was still crying, and spoke coldly.

“It still doesn’t change anything. Do you think everything will be solved because you cry? In any case, the fact that you killed the two with your own hands remains unchanged. Do you think I’ll just let you stay in the same mansion with them?”

“Then……?”

Joshua said firmly.

“Leave Adrian.”

“But……!”

“I’m giving you a chance to disappear quietly in recognition of your efforts to turn back time. If it weren’t for that, I would have turned the Adrian household upside down right away.”

“What if I say I’ll stay?”

“Then I’ll have to tell them everything.”

“Who?”

“Who else? Master and Daniel. I’ll tell them in detail what you did.”

“……!”

It was a lie. Joshua had no intention of telling the truth to the two even if Rosette said she would stay.

It was an unbelievable story.

Of course, even so, the two would believe Joshua’s words, though with surprise. That’s the kind of people they were.

‘That’s why it’s more problematic.’

Joshua knew Duke Adrian’s personality well. He was a man who died at Rosette’s hands without fighting back. Such a man would surely accept Rosette as his daughter even if he knew all the facts.

That’s why he couldn’t tell them.

‘But I can fool this kid.’

The Rosette he saw was very naive. She didn’t look at all like someone who remembered the past until she was twenty years old.

At first glance, she just looked like an eight-year-old kid. To put it nicely, she was innocent, and to put it harshly, she was slow-witted.

‘It seems Duke Dallas didn’t educate her at all except for magic.’

Seeing how she couldn’t even properly greet royalty, it seemed so.

So he thought this method would work on Rosette.

Indeed, her face turned pale as she pleaded.

“Please, not that.”

“Then do as I say.”

“……”

“I’ll give you a week. Leave naturally so that Master doesn’t feel anything strange.”

“No matter what I say, Father will think it’s strange!”

“Say you miss your friends from the orphanage where you used to live, or that you can’t stand the noble life, or that there’s too much studying and it’s hard. There are many reasons, aren’t there?”

“It won’t work if I say that now!”

“That’s not my problem. Come up with the reasons yourself. Or run away secretly. I can help you with that much if you want. It’s my last act of mercy.”

“……”

“I’ll send my familiar again in a week, so make your decision by then.”

Having said everything, Joshua turned away coldly.