CH 2

“Ugh!”

Diana woke up involuntarily. Air rushed into her lungs in an instant.

“Cough! Cough! Huh…”

Diana coughed harshly, not even opening her eyes properly.

Turning her side, she unconsciously raised her hand and touched her head.

‘Why… is it stuck?’

As soon as such a question came to mind, her eyes reflexively opened.

Diana jumped to her feet, placing her hand on the soft cloth that was touching her face.

“My room…”

A confused murmur leaked from her mouth. Blue-violet eyes fluttered aimlessly and looked around.

The smell of musty dust vaguely stung her nose, and a view of the room caught in the bluish dawn light outside the window.

At first glance, the place might be mistaken for a warehouse, but in reality, it was a small room that was used for the same purpose as a warehouse.

It was the room Diana was using in the Susfield mansion.

Well… until five years ago, that is.

‘After I went under Rebecca, the bed must’ve been removed and used as a storage room.’

Is this a dream? 

Diana blinked her eyes in confusion and then extended her hand forward.

With her palms facing upwards, she moved her magic power and opened her mouth.

“Hillasa”

Her soft voice echoed through the air. Shortly after, tiny black dust balls burst into the air above her palm.

Soon, a total of ten dust balls appeared in the air. Surprisingly, those that looked just like dust had eyes like buttons and limbs like threads.

Beep! Beep!

Hillasa, the smaller spirit of darkness, fell on the bed.

One by one, they rolled over the duvet and gathered next to Diana and wept.

‘The sensation of moving my magic is vivid. Looking at this, it doesn’t seem like a dream…’

Crying like baby birds that lost their mother, Diana looked at the spirit with an embarrassed smile.

“Yeah, it’s me. How are you? I don’t know what the situation is, so I don’t know how long it has been.”

Beep!

“…Ah, do you want food?”

Diana was a little shy.

She reached out to Hillasa and bumped her thumb and middle finger to make a sound.

Then small black petals fluttered down from the air.

Hillasa beeped, grabbed the petals one by one, and swallowed it with its mouth bigger than its own size.

It was a sight that Diana couldn’t adapt to at all times as Hillasa swallowed the mana.

Shaking her head excitedly, she said to the spirit.

“Are you feeling better now? Then can you bring me a calendar? It’s been such a long time since I’ve been here that I don’t remember where things are.”

Beep!

Hillasa, who ate the petals made of Diana’s mana, cried pleasantly and went down from bed.

After searching the corner of the room, it soon found a piece of paper and carried it to Diana.

“Thank you.”

Diana, who briefly thanked, looked down on the calendar.

With her fingertips fumbling down the scissor mark on the paper, she paused for a moment.

‘…867.’

Blue-violet eyes shook at once.

Diana fiddled with a confused face.

She felt a pulse running on the back of her neck.

The sensation of the moment her neck fell was still eerily vivid.

‘If it’s Year 867 of the Balhanas calendar, it’s 5 years ago.’

Calendar dated five years ago.

The room and bed that she used until five years ago.

Feeling something strange, Diana stood up and looked out the window.

Behind the main building, she could see employees moving busily as if they were preparing to greet guests.

As she remembered, the day was as bright as it could be.

‘Is this all a coincidence?’

Diana, whose face hardened, turned around and found a mirror in her room.

Shortly after grabbing and pulling down the fabric covering the mirror, she let out a sigh without realizing it.

“Ah…”

Her trembling fingers slowly fell on the mirror.

Not a messy and bloody face, but a dry, young, round face with long light pink hair that has fallen out of control.

The face of 20-year-old Diana Susfield.

The rough dust that touched her fingertips was clear. The cold air from the floor made her feet ache.

When she realized that this was reality, funny enough, her memory before she died became clearer.

Diana leaned her forehead against the mirror and lowered her eyes.

“Rebecca.”

If this was really the past.

If she really went back to the time when they first met.

‘I… I don’t think I’ll ever be able to love you again, who once abandoned me.’

The blue-violet eyes reflected in the mirror darkened and subsided.

Behind her body, the Hillasa silently seeped into her shadow across the room.

~*~

“Where are you going at this hour, Diana?”

Diana, draped in her old cloak, walked towards the side exit of the mansion, and she stopped at the sound of a voice.

She turned her head and stared.

Then, beyond the open door, a neat young man came into her view, stepping down the well-polished stairs.

Neat hair in light milk caramel color. Blue-violet eyes that are lighter in color than Diana’s.

He was Diana’s half-brother, Milard Susfield, the successor to Viscount Susfield.

“You probably don’t know what day today is. If you walk around dressed like that and catch the eye of the First Princess, what will she think of the Susfield family?”

Milard had a very neat impression, but Diana’s gaze was colder than the frost in the middle of winter. He scolded her in a polite manner.

‘Whatever.’ Diana mumbled to herself without even blinking her eyes.

‘It’s just that you don’t want me to run into Her Majesty the 1st Princess.’

Before Diana’s return, when Rebecca Dune Bluebell visited Viscount Susfield, she happened to meet Diana from Milard.

The current Viscount Susfield was originally a merchant.

It was in the village he had been passing through for a while on a deal that he met Diana’s mother.

However, after excavating the opera diamond mine in the frozen land, which was known as a barren land, he accumulated enormous wealth and purchased a title to become a nobleman.

After becoming a noble, the Viscount did not return to the countryside, but chose to marry a woman of the aristocratic family, the current Viscountess.

It was common in this era.

‘He must have been a good prey in Rebecca’s eyes, a low-ranking aristocrat with a lot of money and a desire for honor.’

1st Princess Rebecca Dune Bluebell was the most influential member of the royal family except for the 3rd Prince at the present time.

Rebecca paid attention to Susfield’s infinite wealth, and in order for her to succeed the throne more clearly, she wanted to raise the family’s dignity by building ties with her, who might become the next emperor.

What they devised as a result was the most classic and efficient method.

To get married right away.

‘Of course, they ended up just getting engaged…’

Later, Rebecca seduces Milard, steals Susfield’s property without leaving anything behind, and kills them.

That was the additional revenge Rebecca did for Diana, who has become her hands and feet.

Above all, the key was that Rebecca had no intention of keeping her promise with the Susfields from the beginning.

‘These people didn’t even know that and just laughed since they were happy.’

“Go back to your room. You must not forget that you have no presence here when Her Majesty comes.”

As it was the day to wrap up the topic of engagement with the first princess, Milard looked much more polished than usual.

When he, who was more beautiful than any other nobleman around, lowered his gaze and spoke secretly as if to threaten, there was also an illusion that the surrounding air seemed to subside without knowing it.

However, Diana had a sad face as she lowered her head.

‘How can I be scared…?’

Diana lived five years as Rebecca’s sword, hands, shadow, and buried countless blood on her hands.

Before her return, she didn’t even dare to look at Milard, but his threat to her today was no joke.

‘Too bad I can’t kill you right now.’

If she killed Milard as she wished, she would be immediately caught by the guards and die. That was not what Diana wanted.

‘You abandoned me once, so it would be fair for me to abandon you too.’

Her eyes dimmed under the hem of her hood that covered her head.

It makes her want to see the throne Rebecca wanted to fall into someone else’s hands and for her to lose everything.

That was Diana’s goal in this life.

“I’m sorry, young master.”

To do that, first of all, she had to clean up the annoying thing in front of her.

Diana revived her memory as much as possible and imitated herself five years ago.

“I wanted to see the procession of Her Highness the First Princess from afar. I’m sorry that I went around without understanding the difference between the young master and I. I’ll go back to my room.”

When I lowered my eyes at an angle and answered quietly, Milard’s eyes were filled with satisfaction.

“Yeah. I’m glad you understand the subject. Then go.”

“Yes, young master.”

Diana, like an illegitimate child, continued to be obedient.

With that appearance, Milard turned around with a satisfied face and went back.

It was then that the hem of Diana’s skirt, as she lowered her eyes and bowed her back politely, swayed gently.

“Aaaah!”

Milard, who had just taken a step, fell down with a loud noise and slammed his face on the stairs.

The screams freaked out the servants.

“Oh my god, young master!”

“Call the doctor, come on!”

“Ah! my nose! My nose…!”

Milard was busy covering his nose as it was dripping with blood.

The clothes he had put on with care were soaked in blood, so he couldn’t keep his eyes open.

People were so obsessed with him and making a fuss that they didn’t even notice the little dust balls rolling under his feet.