Flash― A curtain of light unfolded before Biare as if a lamp had been lit.

Guided by the murmuring sound in her ears, she looked around to find its source.

As if no other sound existed in this world, only the child’s sobbing echoed.

At last, she saw a small child crying, unable to breathe evenly, with cheeks flushed red.

The child’s eyes were swollen as they tightly grasped the hand of a woman lying on a sickbed, still gasping and unable to calm down.

Biare wasn’t ready to face the fragments of memories that hadn’t fully healed, but her twelve-year-old self in the unconscious world was tormenting her.

[Mother, don’t leave me. Please.] [Bia……]

Though she should be too weak to even move now, the woman showed no signs of fatigue as she comforted and soothed the child.

[No! I can use the ‘Eyes of Truth’, can’t I? So please don’t leave me.] [Shh, I told you. That power will surely be of great help to you.]

The woman, who had inherited elven blood, looked into the blue-green eyes of the child who resembled her exactly, and added in a solemn voice.

[Bia, when you have someone you must protect yourself, use that power.]

With those final words, she quietly closed her eyes, looking at the child with loving eyes as if not wanting to miss even a fragment of her.

The child was too young to realize that this conversation would be her mother’s last will.

As word spread throughout the duke’s mansion that it was the young lady who had witnessed the duchess’s fate, everyone showed interest in the will, but Biare could not convey any words.

Not even to her father and younger brother.

No one should know that the clear, shining blue-green eyes resembling the duchess were the ‘Eyes of Truth’.

The ‘Eyes of Truth’ was a power that could make one a time traveler, and it could only be used once in a generation.

The duchess had repeatedly warned young Biare, taking her aside, that because the power was so great, there would surely be those who coveted it.

[You must never reveal that power to anyone.]

If she had used the power then, perhaps everyone in the duke’s mansion would not have suffered so much.

Thinking this, Biare had already agonized over it alone many times, it was said.

She knew that Gaizen and her father were just as consumed with longing for her mother as she was, which still weighed heavily on her heart.

The duchess had also used that power in the past, but she did not reveal to her daughter where she had used it.

But now Biare could understand. For whom her mother had used that power.

And for whom she herself should use that power.

Because the person she had to protect herself was clearly depicting just one person.

“It’s alright, I’ll protect you now.”

Biare shouted, looking at her blue-green eyes reflected in the water.

“May the blessing of truth be with you.”

With a burst, blue-green flames arose and spread, enveloping Biare, and soon covered her vision.

She felt a searing pain in her eyes, and her chest tightened, making it hard to breathe.

“Please just be alive, Sion.”

‘I’ll protect you now so you can escape death.’

As the flames disappeared and the whole world turned to darkness, she lost consciousness without even being able to struggle.

* * *

Feeling a throbbing pain, Biare opened her eyes and struggled to move her stiff body.

Only after barely moving her rigid fingers with a struggling effort did she finally feel her body being liberated.

It was just when she was thinking it felt like she had had a terrible dream, feeling a tingling sensation.

Suddenly, Biare sat up abruptly and hurriedly covered her eyes, then repeatedly rubbed them.

The pain of being engulfed in flames was so vivid that she never wanted to feel it again, making all her senses hypersensitive.

‘Did I really come back?’

When she realized the cufflink she had been clutching tightly before using the power of truth was still in her hand, Biare could recognize that all of this was not a dream.

She urgently rang the bell on the bedside table, and soon a maid entered after knocking three times.

At first glance, she looked like a young maid, but upon closer inspection, it was the maid who had been attending to her baths until now.

‘It’s certain I’ve returned to the past, but…’

Biare bit her lip gently, intending to test the maid subtly.

The maid, unaware of Biare’s intentions, was simply trying to cater to her whims.

“My lady, the bath is prepared. Is there any particular scented oil you’d like?”

“No, you can decide that. By the way, where is Father?”

“The Duke has gone to the Verdeum Marquis’s residence.”

Feeling as if her heart would sink right then and there, Biare tried to ask the meaning behind it in a deliberately calm tone.

“I see. What business does he have at the Verdeum Marquis’s residence?”

“Well…”

The maid checked to make sure no sound would escape the room before carefully whispering in Biare’s ear.

“This morning, we received news of a death from the Verdeum Marquis’s family.”

“Oh my. Did something happen?”

“It’s said that the Marquis and his wife were ambushed by bandits on their way back from inspecting their territory.”

Only then could Biare gauge when the ‘Eyes of Truth’ had brought her back to.

“Sion… I mean, was the young lord in the carriage too?”

“No. I believe the young lord did not accompany them.”

Biare’s blue-green eyes shook violently, but she gradually regained her composure at the maid’s words. However, her heart felt heavy.

‘If only I had come a little earlier…’

Feeling as if she had unintentionally handed him a bitter cup of sorrow twice, Biare couldn’t say anything.

The accident of the Verdeum Marquis and his wife was an issue that remained unresolved for years, becoming the talk of the town.

Moreover, since the knights of the prestigious Verdeum Marquis family had accompanied them, there was an atmosphere of disbelief that they had fallen so easily to an ambush.

There were so many questionable aspects, but no one stepped forward for Dension.

Because everyone knew the imperial family was working hard to conclude the case.

Long ago, the Verdeum Marquis, disgusted with the corruption of the imperial family, had withdrawn his long-standing loyalty.

Although this greatly incurred the Emperor’s antipathy, Verdeum was an influential and prestigious family, so it was unlikely to fall easily.

However, it seemed the Emperor still harbored deep resentment towards Verdeum.

Despite Dension’s repeated requests for reinvestigation, his plea was never granted until the Emperor’s death.

All that remained for him now were his retainers and the knights who had stayed at the marquis’s residence due to injuries, and at seventeen, he succeeded to the title of Marquis.

The young lord, still inexperienced and not even knowing how to protect himself, thus began to rule the territory.

But Biare vowed several times that she would no longer just stand by and watch him continue this lonely fight.

‘There must be a way to protect you. So don’t worry, Sion.’

* * *

When Biare, having finished her bath, asked for a black dress, one of the dressing maids cautiously inquired.

“My lady, are you planning to go somewhere?”

“……”

Although Biare did not answer, her attire clearly pointed to one place.

“But only the heads of families can enter there, can’t they?”

“Yes, I know.”

Only the heads of families could attend the funeral of the Marquis and his wife, as the Verdeum family wanted to hold a quiet funeral, citing that they had not yet fully uncovered the truth behind the incident.

‘I’ll just confirm that Sion is alive, just that much.’

She wanted to see with her own eyes, even from afar, that Dension was alive.

The maid seemed unable to understand why Biare wanted to visit the Verdeum Marquis’s family, with whom she had no connection.

However, her reflection in the mirror looked so solemn that the maid silently helped with the preparations.

Biare picked up any jewel visible in her jewelry box and handed it to the maid.

“Don’t tell anyone, and call for a private carriage.”

The maid, who had been adamantly refusing compensation, reluctantly accepted the jewel and followed the young lady’s wishes.

“There’s a passage that only maids use.”

Biare, wrapped in her robe, boarded the private carriage she had prepared, avoiding the servants, and headed straight for the marquis’s residence.

At the Verdeum Marquis’s residence, a flag announcing the death of the Marquis and his wife was hung high on the flagpole.

‘May they rest in eternal peace.’

The hastily prepared funeral due to the unexpected accident was proceeding quietly amidst a chaotic atmosphere.

It must have been a series of ordeals too much for seventeen-year-old Dension to bear.

Confirming his survival with her own eyes from a distance, Biare finally let out a sigh of relief.

‘Sion, I’m glad you’re alive.’

The relief that he was alive and the regret of not being able to approach him were strangely intertwined in her heart.

She wanted to approach him and offer comfort, but she dared not.

‘Did I make you unhappy?’

Soon, overcome with emotion and choked up, she was struggling to suppress her burning insides.

All she could do was watch him from afar.

‘Yes, don’t be greedy anymore. Just this much.’

This distance was the line Biare had drawn between herself and him.

Seeing him made her finally realize she had returned to the past. She tightly closed her eyes, then opened them and headed towards the duke’s mansion.