TDVIATD 1

“I will not break off our engagement.”

“…………”

Leah Arens, daughter of a duke, was thrown into confusion.

Tonight, at this very ball, she was supposed to be confronted with the annulment of her engagement.

Her voice failed her as she stared at her flawlessly beautiful fiancé.

Having only just finished their dance, his hand still rested at her back.

The palace’s grand hall glittered brilliantly, crowded with people pressing close together.

Over his shoulder, she caught sight of Melanie Crum.

“Lord Sieghardt…”

At last, in a hoarse whisper, Leah managed to speak the name of her betrothed—the Crown Prince, Sieghardt Gielz.

“What is it?”

Was he not supposed to declare here that he would dissolve his engagement to Leah and instead become engaged to Melanie?

“Just now… what did you say…?”

A sardonic smile curved his lips.

“I said I will not break off our engagement.”

“—Um, about that…”

He narrowed his eyes.

“I won’t let you escape. Never. Don’t delude yourself into thinking you can run from me. If you were to try… what do you suppose would happen?”

She had not intended to run—but she had planned to leave the imperial capital.

He leaned close and whispered into her ear, almost sweetly.

“If you run, I will kill you.”

A dark flame—so deep it might have been hatred—burned in his twin eyes.

A chill shot down Leah’s spine.

All she could do was stare back, stunned, into those cold cerulean-blue eyes.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

Why… why wasn’t the engagement broken?

She didn’t understand.

How was she supposed to interpret this turn of events?

Leah slipped away from the grand hall and entered a waiting room.

Several small chambers for rest lined the corridor. She stepped into one and sank into a chair.

Her fingertips were still trembling from the shock.

—Leah’s first life had ended in her mid-twenties.

For reasons unknown, after her death she had been reborn as Leah Arens once more, now living her second life.

She had regained memories of her previous life six years ago, at the age of ten.

Those memories were hazy.

Because of that, even in this second life, her days had felt reasonably fresh and new.

The annulment of her engagement had been a shock, however—so she remembered it comparatively clearly.

This time, she had steeled herself.

To be told the engagement would not be broken had shaken her instead.

In this life, events had already unfolded differently from her previous one.

And yet—believing it to be fate, she had made no move to avoid the annulment—

“Leah.”

Lost in a daze, she looked up as her elder brother, Oscar, entered the waiting room and called her name.

“Brother…”

Seeing how pale she was, Oscar exhaled softly.

“Leah… His Highness is going to break off the engagement?”

With concern clouding his expression, he sat beside her.

“It’s unfortunately common knowledge that His Highness and Lady Melanie Crum, the marquis’s daughter, are close… So he means to break the engagement in order to marry her? A man who would dote on another woman like that—”

“That’s not it, Brother… Lord Sieghardt said he will not break off the engagement.”

“…………What did you say?”

Even her brother stared at her in astonishment.

…Of course… anyone would be surprised…

Everyone had thought it was only a matter of time before the engagement was annulled.

Vile rumors about Leah were circulating.

That she cruelly bullied any woman who approached the Crown Prince—especially Melanie—and that she had even carried on an illicit affair with Melanie’s brother. A wicked woman, they said.

They were baseless rumors. None of it was true.

But Leah had resolved to accept being the villainess, to accept even the annulment of her engagement.

Just as in her previous life, she had intended to leave the imperial capital afterward and live as an adventurer.

Though she had ultimately died during her travels in her past life, she had found the journey across distant lands deeply captivating.

Slowly, Leah shifted her gaze toward the window.

The image of Sieghardt’s eyes from moments ago was seared into her mind, refusing to fade.

His features closely resembled those of her first love from long ago.

—Leah let her thoughts drift back to those childhood days, when she had not yet known that this was her second life.