My elder sister was so clever that she could see right through my heart. I was ashamed, but I didn’t refute.

The father, worse than a beast, sold my elder sister to obtain a gold mine, yet couldn’t let go of his greed and licked his lips in regret.

‘If only she hadn’t given birth to the Emperor’s son… I could have taken a bribe from the Empress to depose her and sell her off somewhere else.’

That’s why I hated the nephew I had never seen. Because I had planned to smuggle him out with Porsha when my elder sister returned.

But that thought disappeared the moment my elder sister, using her illness as an excuse, earnestly pleaded with the Emperor and Empress to bring me into the imperial palace.

The young nephew I saw for the first time was truly, truly adorable.

The first thought I had upon seeing the child was, ‘Someone needs to protect him.’ The nephew was so small and fragile. My elder sister said he was just single-minded, but smarter and stronger than he looked, but I couldn’t believe it. His limbs seemed like they would snap if touched, and his face was so small it was remarkable that it contained all his features.

‘I’m sorry.’

My elder sister whispered to me as I stared at the child in a daze. I froze like a statue. Because I understood what she meant. Now that my elder sister was of no use to our father, it was my turn.

‘Father will pick my bones clean.’

I was neither as clever nor as calm as my elder sister. Just before leaving for the empire, I recalled my father ranting that instead of the depleted gold mine, he needed to obtain another gold mine, and that I should even strangle my elder sister if necessary. The hair on my body stood on end.

Now, instead of my elder sister, I had to endure that nagging, that greed.

‘Trust Porsha. Father… won’t last long.’

My elder sister whispered a great secret to me, frozen with fear. But at that time, I was too panicked to understand properly.

‘Time is on your side. So… just let it be forgotten.’

What did she want to be forgotten? After my elder sister died, I was very curious about that. I would probably never find out. Porsha just cried when she heard that story.

After my elder sister fell asleep, I staggered out of the palace in secret. Fortunately, I had enough sense left to borrow a servant’s clothes to avoid revealing my identity.

As I walked unsteadily, I came to a dead end. Leaning against the high wall, I swallowed my tears. When my elder sister was suffering under our father, I was only scared, but now that it was my turn, how hopeless it felt…

‘You’re a coward, Ellie.’

My elder sister’s sacrifice was taken for granted, but when it came to myself, it felt unfair… Filled with self-loathing, I banged my head against the wall.

Then I heard a sharp voice from behind.

‘That’s a dead end.’

I ignored those words and continued muttering.

‘I’m always like this. Always making the wrong choices…’

‘What if I take the wrong path? What if others overtake me in the meantime?’

‘Father won’t leave me alone…’

Perhaps he might even put a puppet child from a collateral line on the throne and kill me without anyone knowing. As I involuntarily shuddered at the thought,

‘You can just turn back.’

A nonchalant, firm voice was heard. I slowly lifted my head from the wall and turned around. There stood a young girl.

‘Why do adults make things so complicated?’

The child grumbled, frowning her plump, reddened eyelids. I could easily tell that she had been crying until just moments ago. It was funny that she was meddling with me, who must have looked like an adult to her, when her own life didn’t seem particularly easy either. So I listened quietly to what she had to say.

‘What’s important isn’t being at the forefront right now.’

The child said, clenching her fists.

‘Then… what?’

The child declared, her eyes sparking.

‘It’s how long you keep moving forward.’

‘For a long time?’

The child stood with one leg forward and folded her arms. Then she began her lecture in earnest.

‘People don’t realize… but if you keep trying steadily, you can succeed at almost anything. It’s difficult because not everyone can do that. What did I say was difficult just now?’

She asked sternly like a school teacher, and I answered obediently in my bewilderment.

‘…Doing it consistently?’

‘That’s right.’

The child smiled approvingly and continued.

‘What’s important is taking even small steps for a long, long time. So what if you’re a hundred steps ahead now? If you get complacent and slack off, I’ll overtake you before long.’

The child’s eyes flashed and she gritted her teeth as if recalling someone she disliked.

‘So don’t compare yourself to others, compare yourself to who you were yesterday. Then someday you’ll be at the very front.’

‘…’

I didn’t say anything in response. Although the child was speaking to me, in reality, she was making a promise to herself. Instead, I looked her over and asked gently.

‘You’re an apprentice lady-in-waiting, aren’t you?’

‘That’s right.’

The child glared at me as if asking if there was a problem. Her defensive attitude suggested she had been through quite a bit of hardship. I asked calmly.

‘What will you do if you don’t succeed as a lady-in-waiting?’

‘I’ll find another path.’

Surprisingly, the child immediately said she would give up. I was taken aback. According to what she had lectured me on, shouldn’t the answer be that she would try until the end? Anyway, moving on…

‘Aren’t you scared? Finding a new path so late?’

Somehow the conversation had shifted its focus from me to the child. The child stubbornly shook her head.

‘If I can’t become a lady-in-waiting, it won’t be because I didn’t try hard enough, but because of my circumstances. That’s not something I can control. Anyway, that’s not the point right now. The important thing is that I’ve tried my best at this job, so I think I’ll do well at other things too.’

The child added, looking at me with eyes full of conviction.

‘So I’m not too worried.’

Slightly overwhelmed, I closed my mouth for a moment before carefully asking.

‘…How can you have such faith in yourself?’

‘If you do even small things consistently, you can’t help but believe in yourself.’

The child used a speaking technique of stating the conclusion first and then adding examples to increase credibility.

‘You see, I decided to leave home when I was 7 years old. I prepared for over 3 years, and finally succeeded.’

The child glanced at me and pouted.

‘You’re thinking 3 years isn’t much, right? But think about it this way. I’ve been working consistently for 1/3 of my life.’

Hearing it put that way, it was indeed impressive. As I nodded in admiration, the child became confident again and continued speaking.

‘Do you understand? I’m the kind of person who can do anything.’

‘I see. It really seems that way.’

When I agreed readily, the child rubbed her nose with her hand, seeming embarrassed. I looked at her fondly. My situation was still in the gutter, but at least my mindset in accepting it seemed to have changed by 10 out of 100.

Feeling indebted, I pondered briefly on how to repay her. Then I took off the ring on my finger and held it out to the child.

‘Take this. Consider it a token of appreciation for our meeting today.’

The child stared at the ring intently before shaking her head slightly.

‘It’s too big. If someone like me has something like that, everyone will be suspicious.’

Then she clenched her fist and muttered angrily.

‘I really hate being accused of theft.’

‘…’

I looked at the child pityingly and separated just the jewel part from the ring. Actually, it wasn’t a jewel but a metal whose composition is unknown now… Anyway, this thing that was of little help to me could have some meaning for the child.

‘I’ve removed just this part of the magic tool, so it would be good to make it into a brooch and always wear it.’

‘…It’s not a jewel?’

The child’s reaction was lukewarm, as if she had never encountered a magic tool before. But she seemed rather satisfied with my answer that it wasn’t a jewel. Before handing it to the child, I made a brief wish. That this magic tool, whose purpose of creation was unknown, would somehow be of help to the child’s life at least once.

Ellie superimposed his own memories onto their story, reconstructed from Amy’s words. He looked fondly at her as she eagerly explained to Noah.

She had been just a clear-spoken child then… How time flies, now she’s grown up to firmly support his nephew. The power of time was truly great.

‘She really did become the head lady-in-waiting.’

The child had finally fulfilled her pledge to become the best at whatever she did. Ellie felt proud for no reason.

“That’s what happened.”

As Amy finished her short story, Noah stared intently at the brooch on Amy’s neck.

“You say that’s a magic tool? What kind of power does it have?”

Amy shook her head and said weakly.

“I don’t know. I only just remembered that it’s a magic tool.”

Then she looked at Ellie. He also shook his head at her questioning gaze, asking if he knew anything.

“In this era, it’s more surprising to find a working magic tool.”

Suddenly, his eyes lit up.

“Come to think of it, they say the newly ascended Grand Duke in the North performed magic to bring spring.”

“It just happened that way.”

Noah cut him off curtly and turned his head away. Seeing his attitude clearly indicating he didn’t want to talk more about it, Ellie just shrugged. Watching them, Amy suppressed her complicated feelings.

‘I was just trying to probe if he had memories from before the regression… Now I even have to suspect if he’s the one who made me regress.’

The fact that the brooch she had kept on her body until her death before the regression was a magic tool was certainly shocking, but Noah concerned her more. She fell into thought while fiddling with the brooch.

‘If it wasn’t the jewel given by Noah that brought me back to life, but this brooch, then what becomes of everything I’ve done for Noah?’

The motto of her second life was to live happily. That included repaying her debts of gratitude first. That’s why she had been running non-stop for Noah from the moment she opened her eyes again…

Suddenly, she noticed Noah gazing at her endlessly. His expression was lonely and dark, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking right now. At that moment, her heart ached sharply.

As Amy stared blankly into Noah’s eyes, she thought,

‘Even if that’s really the case… could I ever abandon Noah?’