“Ivy always seems to choose words that make me want to kill her. Even though I keep telling her to understand the situation.”

With that face, Miele muttered quietly.

“Why doesn’t she know? Whether Ivy becomes a saint or goes back to the underground, she’s just a slave anyway. Insurance? Would Zion care about Ivy’s situation even if he knew? Does Ivy think she has that much value to herself?”

“No, not at all.”

In response to Miele’s sharp question, Ivy answered without thinking. Then she silently bit her tongue.

‘Of course, she’ll do anything for me, confidently saying, ‘Ivy will do anything for herself.’ I wanted to boost Miele’s weakness even more with such words, but I can’t do that because of the curse.

So, instead, Ivy added like this.

“But still, if you call, he’ll turn around, won’t he?”
In response to Ivy’s provocation, Miele stared at Ivy in silence with a bone-chilling gaze. So, Ivy also looked straight at Miele.

Staring at each other as if they were going to devour each other for a while, Miele smiled thinly again, like a crescent moon.

“I wish I could break your arms and legs like in the old days.”

Miele breathed out as if it were a real pity. Then she added like this.

“Yes, Miele, I like you. So, I want to keep Ivy permanently locked in the underground.”

In the midst of Ivy being surprised by the sudden honesty, Miele turned as if she had lost interest.

“And Zion is originally Miele’s. I won’t give him away, so don’t think about stealing him.”

Miele murmured like a warning and left just like that, and Ivy stared blankly at her small figure.

‘Oh, really?’

She likes the real Count? That Miele Sedro?

When Miele saw the Count during the purification ceremony, she did make a sweet voice.

However, Ivy thought of it as Miele treating her as an equal opponent at best.

Because there couldn’t be a soft heart like cherishing someone else in the wicked Miele Sedro.

Moreover, the Count had not appeared in Teyanda for a whopping seven years. So, even if there was any contact between Miele and the Count, it would have been when Miele, that troublemaker, was just ten years old, meeting the Count approaching adulthood.

Still, does liking him mean cherishing unrequited love for at least seven years? Does that make sense?

‘Well, maybe…….’

Ivy shook her head with a smirk, thinking of the Count’s face and feeling somewhat convinced that she was losing.

Zion Laurell is a well-mannered Count in every aspect except for his temper.

After a hiatus of not appearing for not seven but seventeen years, when he shows up, all the young ladies will fabricate nonexistent memories of their first love upon seeing him. Especially that arrogant Miele Sedro would have no choice but to choose Count Laurell, a fellow high-ranking noble.

But that Miele is secretly in love?

Count, congratulations. I really hope you are doing well.

Ivy thought like this, laughing foolishly, but her laughter suddenly stopped.

Because memories that had barely been pushed to the edge of her consciousness suddenly surged at the moment she tried to address the Count in her mind.

―It’s okay, just sleep.

In response to the voice that floated up fleetingly, Ivy unconsciously shivered.

But it was too late. Following the voice, sensations from that night came back one by one.

The strong arms that cautiously supported her weight, the broad chest that could lean on like being buried, and the body temperature warm enough to warm her cold body.

The Count was someone who was completely opposite to Ivy in every aspect, and yet, everything Ivy felt when she touched him felt familiar.

‘No, no, no, it can’t be.’

Ivy shook her head in distress. But just for a moment, she bit her lips and touched her forehead.

Ah, why did I run away when I went to meet the Count that day? If I had checked properly that day, there would be no need to be so anxious now.
Ivy scolded her past self and reflected again. In reality, Ivy still had no confidence to face the Count.

After the incident with the star flower, Ivy had been almost certain of her suspicions.

That the fortune-teller who abandoned her and Count Laurell might be the same person.

At first, Ivy laughed off this excessive idea. However, it wasn’t easy to dismiss it just by laughing.

Several characteristics of the fortune-teller that couldn’t be explained unless it was “Count Laurell.”

Still, the Count’s clear denial that he was the “former Count Laurell.”

Moreover, the Count’s ambiguous attitude of excessively defending and reproaching the fortune-teller.

All of these thoughts came to Ivy’s mind at once, and the images of the fortune-teller and the Count merged into one in her mind.

And Ivy’s mind shattered at that moment.

Ivy lay on the bed the Count had kindly prepared, muttering that it was impossible countless times.

And she tried her best to think of unreasonable reasons.

First, when Ivy met the fortune-teller when she was young, the fortune-teller was an adult. And the Count is only four years older than Ivy.

So, if the fortune-teller and the Count are the same person, the fortune-teller must be someone who came from the future.

Oh, my goodness, it’s unbelievable.

Even though Teyanda is a mess, could something like this really happen?

…It might be possible. Since the moment this huge continent appeared in the sky, the ancient order has been as good as dead.

Thanks to this, Ivy spent the night groaning and rushed to find the Count without any plan.

Then, after seeing the Count’s reaction and feeling scared for some reason, she ran away without thinking.

“Aaaah…”

Ivy felt suffocated as if she had choked on something. She couldn’t grasp where to start thinking and organizing.

So, in the meantime, she kept turning away from the horribly tangled threads until her mind was ready.

Even with just this, it was overwhelming, but amidst this, there was another hypothesis that troubled Ivy.

The culprit who cursed Ivy.

The only person capable of that is Roble Tuhar, who meets all the conditions Uvia informed Ivy about.

But the Count said the saint knows nothing.

If that statement is true, and if manipulating time is indeed possible…

“Could the person who cursed me be someone from a different time…?”

Ivy thought absentmindedly and then shivered at the eerie feeling, hugging her shoulders.

It felt like something incredibly massive was surrounding her and spinning around, making her feel overwhelmingly helpless.