Chapter 6

***

Everyone in the banquet hall turned to one place.

The three-dimensional facial line along the bright golden hair and white skin was beautiful enough to be mistaken for a sculpture.

His white uniform had a red band drawn diagonally across it, and the gold insignia on his shoulders showed dignity, as if to indicate his status.

The Crown Prince of the Alvar Empire.

Ian Alvar, the male protagonist of this novel.

His golden eyes, which seemed to be cold at times, slowly scoured the people inside the banquet hall.

Filina gazed at the scene with an emotionless face and turned her gaze to the side.

She saw a lovely woman with her arm gently folded around his.

Count Haley’s daughter, who was honored as a saint for being the only one in the Alvar Empire to hear the voice of God.

Cecilia Haley, the heroine of this novel.

“Filina, why did you betray me?”

The voice that was crying out to her was still clear and pervasive.

Perhaps the third life that had brought in the rebels and taken Cecilia hostage was a much more evil woman-like figure than the original Filina.

Thinking about this made her feel empty.

As time went on, she felt embarrassed at the thought of herself playing the role of a villain in this ridiculous world.

“…Goddamn it.”

Muttering quietly, Filina turned her gaze and moved her feet, which had stopped for a moment.

While everyone was looking at the beautiful young lady who appeared with the Crown Prince with respect, she was the only one who turned away casually.

Ian’s cold eyes silently stared at Filina’s back.

A dark atmosphere hung beneath the gorgeous dress.

The red rose was sharply spiked which did not allow people to approach unnecessarily.

On the other hand, Filina walked out of the banquet hall with a distant gait towards the terrace, and walked to the garden with its green grass.

The smell of grass grazed her nose.

A cool breeze blew in, and she felt relieved a little.

Cecilia in the original book was forced into an unwanted marriage by Count Haley.

Due to Prince Ian’s proposal of marriage to her family.

That was the beginning of the story.

The voice of God came through a dream. It was a clear vision of the future.

Cecilia was able to minimize the damage caused by natural disasters in the empire and to prepare for epidemics that claimed many lives from neighboring countries.

Afterwards, people hailed Cecilia as the empire’s only saint. Everyone thought she was a god.

Then, the Crown Prince’s letter of proposal arrived.

She had known her destiny since she was a child.

Cecilia’s future was death.

She was born with a destiny to die at an earlier age than the others.

“I don’t want to die like this. If there is a God, please give me an answer.”

Fearful of death, she prayed earnestly to God, and God answered Cecilia’s prayer.

“Guard thyself.”

She understood instinctively.

It meant eternal purity. She was not to have physical relationships with anyone.

Cecilia avoided death and pledged herself to be pure. And when she received the Crown Prince’s letter of proposal, she cried tears of despair.

The Crown Prince of the Alvar Empire.

It was a position she dared not defy.

However, Count Haley had taken the liberty of sending a letter accepting his proposal, regardless of what Cecilia wanted.

And the current scene was at a point not long after Ian had received the letter of acceptance for his proposal from Count Haley.

Soon they would be talking in this large garden.

Cecilia would confide everything to the Crown Prince and ask for eternal purity.

Ian would happily pretend to grant her request, but would later break the promise he had made to Cecilia.

“I’m sick of this…”

Life repeating itself for the fifth time was boring. And time without newness was tiresome.

Everything was just a scenario that had already been set up.

The people were puppets without any will, following a set script.

As she stood in a daze, stepping on the grass in the garden, Filina couldn’t help but turn her head away at the sound of a thin breeze coming from nearby.

She could see a strand of silvery hair crossing between the grasses.

A moment later, a faint flash of light shone in her dull eyes. Filina’s fingers cramped.

“…Henry Argeny.”

She recited his name in a low voice, and her speed showed a roughened movement.

Her steps were not as fast as she wanted them to be as she walked past the large garden and into the grass.

Her heavy dress and high shoes hindered her movements.

Still, she chased after his shadow relentlessly.

Before she had time to avoid the large tree in the middle, her shoulders hit the tree. A faint pain arose, but there was no time to pay attention to it.

She only hurried to swing her legs like a crazy person at the increasingly distant distance.

Eventually, her hands lifted her heavy skirt and she started to run to chase after the shadow that had already disappeared.

It was a foolish move.

Eventually, she tripped over the hem of her dress. It was already after the traces of Henry Argeny had disappeared.

“Darn it!”

Filina fell to the ground and pounded the ground with her fist.

She vented her anger towards the ground a few more times, not knowing that her small hands would be scraped and scarred by the hard floor.

Henry Argeny.

He was the one who cruelly cut off Leon’s arm and killed him in her third life.

He was the mastermind behind the novel and the evil supporting character who kidnapped the female protagonist and brutally violated her innocence.

Of course, there was a plausible narrative that he could not be recklessly hated. But what’s the use of all that now?

It didn’t change that he killed Leon for any reason.

Her past life was already over. No matter how much she thought about it, the death of Leon that remained in her mind was still as vivid as if it was yesterday.

It was a nightmare that consumed Filina’s mind.

These were the people who had spent so much time and effort with her. The horrible lives that had died at the hands of the Crown Prince. All of them were the worst.

Filina lay face down and shed tears. Her white face quickly became wet. Only then did the pain in the palm add to the sorrow.

It was all so frustrating.

The corset that constricted her breathing, the dress that made it hard to move, the shoes that hurt her feet, the hair that was ruined……….

A bitter smile crossed Filina’s lips.

Why did she come running in these clothes? She didn’t have a single weapon…

‘What the hell am I going to do by myself?’

In fact, she should have thanked Henry Argeny.

She was glad she didn’t catch up with him. She could have lost her reason, jumped on Henry and lost her life here again.

She already died by it in her second life.

“Lady Filina!”

She could see Enoch came running to her from a distance.

Filina roughly wiped away her tears and sat up.

“What happened….?”

He looked at Filina with a puzzled look on his face. Filina laughed with a heavy heart at his unruly gesture.

“Don’t make a fuss. Help me up.”

Enoch hastily wrapped her shoulder carefully.

“Where do you hurt? Should I carry you?”

Filina said, looking at Enoch as he lowered his back.

“My legs are weak. But I’m fine.”

“…… I understand.”

He looked like he had a lot to ask, but quickly fell silent.

Filina knew Enoch well. He would not question her unnecessarily as long as she did not say it herself.

“Your Highness, I have a request.”

At that moment, a plaintive voice rang out from somewhere.

Enoch heard the words as well, and stopped his footsteps that had been moving.

Filina reflexively turned her head to a corner somewhere.

It was the garden where she stood earlier.

Cecilia and Ian were facing each other in a space where green grass and beautiful flowers bloomed in harmony.

“…Please?”

The Crown Prince’s cold gaze she had seen in the banquet hall was directed at Cecilia.

Filina stared at Ian with a curious face.

It was clear that the event was going according to the original story, but somehow Ian’s face as he looked at Cecilia was cold to an excessive degree.

In fact, even in the original story, he didn’t like Cecilia in the beginning.

Sending her the proposal letter was a process of fulfilling his own selfish wish.

Through her vision of the future, he used Cecilia to ensure that he would have a stable path to the throne.

A saint, who held the trust of the emperor’s people, would make Ian’s path to becoming emperor smoother. Ian didn’t love Cecilia yet. In the original version, it was a little later than now.

So it was actually no surprise that he looked at her with cold eyes.

“I’d like to delay the engagement as long as possible.”

“Give me a good reason.”

It was certainly that he had a cold gaze in the original, but it wasn’t as cold as that.

The final scene was of him accepting her proposal with an interesting look.

“Well, that’s…….”

Therefore, Cecilia should not stutter like this while looking at the Crown Prince.

“I don’t know how my story will sound to Your Highness, but ……….I saw my death in the future.”

Cecilia lowered her head and muttered quietly.

Ian’s eyebrows slightly distorted as he listened to her.

“…death?”

“God told me that in order to avoid death, I had to keep my innocence. So I have to keep that promise.”

Cecilia raised her head and looked at him straight on. Ian met her gaze in silence and let out a low laugh.

“After all, that means you can’t bear my child.”

“If you want an heir, you can change the proposal.”

Ian’s mouth lifted in interest at Cecilia’s words.

It finally flowed like the original story. It was exactly how Filina thought it would be.

Ian, who was quietly staring at Cecilia, suddenly reached out his hand.

There was a rose corsage hanging among the overgrown wildflowers in the grass. He grabbed it with his long fingers.

“We shall proceed with the engagement ceremony as planned. And the successor is……….”

Seeing that, Filina raised her hand reflexively and hastily touched her hair.

The rose corsage that Laura put on Filina’s red hair was gone.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s not your child.”

Ian smiled faintly and raised the rose corsage in his hand to his lips.