CH 31

Fear.

It would be a fear that could not be compared to anything.

If she couldn’t change the future the way she wanted, she might face another miserable death.

White puffs of air flowed from Raisa’s pale lips as she frantically rubbed her arms with both hands.

“Something’s wrong.”

Besides, there was more to fuel her anxiety.

“The ground definitely cracked.”

It was a terrible experience. The hard ground she stood on cracked open and the building collapsed.

Even the Imperial Palace tilted over and crumbled.

If she hadn’t gone back in time… 

Such a disaster also occurred in subsequent regressions, but now that the regressions have finally come to an end…

It became something that never happened.

This, too, was also not Raisa’s will.

Feeling extremely anxious, Raisa’s teeth clattered. At some point, it stopped.

Her gray eyes glittered like those of a snake.

It overflowed with fear, anxiety, frustration and despair, but eventually, only one feeling remained.

Avarice.

The unparalleled fear had been transformed into a greater greed and desire.

“Do you think it will happen again?”

A smirk hung on the corners of Raisa’s lips.

“I’ll change it to whatever I want, by any means I can. I’ll return no matter how many times or tens of thousands of times.”

For the moment when she holds this empire in her hands.

Of course, Raisa, whose eyes glistened with greed, could not have known.

The first of many regressions.

For the first time, truly, the regressions weren’t her will, but Richard’s.

And Richard, regressing out of his own will, didn’t know either.

What kind of cracks would that one decision, which he made without much hesitation, create in the time to come.

Though Ophelia, as well as Richard and Raisa, remembered it, the earthquake, which had become nothing due to the regressions, was gurgling and quieting deep in the ground.

Not one of the three of them knew.

That the earthquake was the first sign that the world was creaking.

.

The earthquake passed without a trace, and some time passed.

And at noon on a fine day, Ophelia was met with an unexpected, totally abrupt visitor.

No, she was forced to meet the person, so it would be right to call it an intruder.

—Tok, tok.

The door swung open behind the very formal knocking sound.

—Toktoktoktoktoktok.

Of course, no one in the aide’s office gave permission, but the one who opened the door didn’t seem to care.

Ophelia was struggling with related documents ahead of the biggest festival in the empire, until an uninvited guest stood in front of her desk.

No, she didn’t even notice her presence until the stranger put her face right in front of her nose.

“Long time no see.”

A woman suddenly appeared in front of her, dressed in a gorgeous outfit that made her eyes hurt.

Ophelia had to desperately stop her hand from trying to jab the woman in the back of the head unconsciously.

And instantly, she was bombarded with words she couldn’t understand.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you, but you’re shining.”

The woman’s eyes which contained Ophelia were brighter than jewels, and her voice was overflowing with joy and excitement.

Her favor was so blatant that even strangers, at first glance, would mistake it for a reunion between two family members who were forcibly separated.

Ophelia asked the woman staring at her right in front of her face, uncomfortably, without even blinking her eyes.

“Who are you?”

“Oh my, it’s such a bad impression that you don’t even want to remember it. For once, the idiot who shared the same blood was right.”

“Yes?”

At the bewildered Ophelia, Catherine smiled broadly and opened her mouth, about to speak further, but a sharp voice came from behind.

“Lady Sheffield.”

In mere seconds, Catherine’s sun-like smile disappeared. What replaced it was a smile so fierce that it was as if someone would eat her bones at any moment.

Having forcibly witnessed a ‘face-swap’ from close range, Ophelia let out a dry laugh.

‘What the hell is this?’

She was really busy, trying to think hard despite her brain not functioning well, but she ended up idling.

She still couldn’t figure out what the situation was.

‘A visitor who came to the aide’s office unexpectedly, no, not a visitor, but an uninvited guest.’

‘…Ah, there’s a feeling of déjà vu?’

By the time Ophelia put down her pen and tilted her head, a duel between a snake and a mongoose was unfolding a few steps ahead of her.

“I really don’t have the confidence to win through words.”

“Oh my, when did you win?”

“I thought being sarcastic would only work if it was up to par.”

“It’s even more disappointing to know that such an easy-going sarcasm would work.”

Ophelia felt like she had slipped between Iris and Catherine, where thunder and ice were falling. Beside her, Cooper whispered.

“Oh my gosh, they’re going to have a fight today. It looks like she came to visit you?”

After Ophelia decided to let go of formal speech after she became friends with Iris, Cooper, like a snake, decided on his own that he too would drop honorifics, citing that he did not want to be left out.

“Do you think it’s like that?”

“Did she come here to retaliate for the last incident?”

“Last time? What happened last time to that lady?”

As Ophelia’s eyes widened in confusion, Cooper let out a fake laugh, an expression of doubt clear on his face.

“What, was it such a shocking experience that you erased it from your memory? You handled it incredibly well at the time.”

“What? Me? What happened to me?”

Puzzled, Ophelia pointed at her chest and asked, but the answer came out of Catherine’s mouth, not Cooper’s.

“Yes! It was a very intense first meeting!”

Before anyone realized, Catherine had turned her head this way and her gaze was fixed on Ophelia.

“Intense… an intense first… what?”

Anyone who heard it would think that she had found the love of her life as if she was struck by lightning while walking down the street.

Catherine’s voice stuck in Ophelia’s ears, who had caught the fish as she packed her things.

“It sucks to be right by an idiot, but it’ll be worth it. You’ll remember this when you see it!”

Catherine searched through her bag with confidence and took out a finely wrapped handkerchief that was very expensive at a glance.

What appeared amid the three people’s attention was a tattered, broken fan that could no longer function.

“You’re really crazy…, oof, ugh.”

“I didn’t know you could do that.”

Iris frowned and tried to say something nasty, but was stopped by Cooper, though he too shook his head and sighed.

And Ophelia, the party concerned.

She still didn’t catch what was going on even as she looked at the fan that was almost garbage.

Ophelia’s gaze, landing on Iris and Cooper once, finally turned to Catherine.

“How about it, do you remember now?”

From the full anticipation to the attitude, where one could feel a tremendous liking for an unknown reason.

It was a pity that Ophelia couldn’t remember at all, but even if she peed on her bare feet, she couldn’t remember something she couldn’t remember.

“I’m sorry…?”

Ophelia, who first handed out an apology, dwelled on some questions.

Was this really something to be sorry about? Ophelia glanced over the current situation.

Wasn’t it a situation where an uninvited guest who suddenly barged in without a prior appointment in the middle of work hours was crying out why she couldn’t remember her?

“I can’t believe you don’t remember even after seeing this… As of today, I’ll have to reflect on how dim my presence is.”

Iris replied to Catherine’s words, the latter setting down a fan that was almost trash in front of Ophelia with a most disappointed expression.

“If it’s considered faint, the entire empire is blind.”

Literally, by no means could Catherine’s presence be ‘weak’.

“Ophelia.”

“Yes?”

“She is Lady Sheffield, who visited a while ago and did a lowly thing like purposely throwing a fan on the floor, wanting you to pick it up. Do you really not remember?”

“Fan. Ohhh, ah, ah, that fan.”

Come to think of it, something like that happened.

Ophelia had completely forgotten about it because it was so long ago.

“Oh, do you remember? That’s right, I’m the one who got hit hard by the lady for doing that lowly thing, me.”

Seeing the delighted Catherine, who even clapped her hands, Ophelia felt a sense of unease.

‘No, I don’t think the experience of getting beaten up for doing something petty is something to be suffocatingly happy about.’

And maybe Cooper had exactly the same thoughts as Ophelia, for he said with a laugh.

“Is that something to be happy about?”

“Thanks to you, I met the jewel-like Lady Bolsheik, no, an aide, so it’s a great thing! I think it’s great luck.”

“Yes?”

Having suddenly been declared as Catherine’s jewel, Ophelia was startled. Almost immediately, Iris stood in front of Ophelia, cutting between Catherine and her as if protecting Ophelia.

“What do you mean?”

“There’s no such thing as an ulterior motive. If I had to say what I’m up to, it would be wanting to have a very deep conversation with Lady Bolsheik. Well, I won’t hide it. That’s why I came here.”

“Lady Sheffield!”

“Oh my God, I don’t want to see Lady Fillite’s face anymore. Come on, Aide Bolsheik.”

Pushing Iris aside without hesitation, Catherine handed something to Ophelia.

“I’ll be looking forward to our next meeting. At that time, it’ll be just the two of us, with no one who will interrupt.”

Sweeping Ophelia’s chin down with an alluring smile, Catherine vanished just as coolly as she came like a storm.

Blinking rapidly, Ophelia stared blankly at the open door and looked down at the thing in her hand with a stunned face.

“An invitation?”

There was no difficulty in realizing what it was, as the extremely expensive envelope, which smelled of strong perfume, had the word invitation clearly written on it.

Looking at it as if it was a poison which would kill her when she touched it, Iris said,

“What is she really up to, giving an invitation?”

“Can I take a look?”