# Chapter 1
Her husband was dead.
He was the illegitimate son of His Majesty the King and the Duke of the kingdom.
Yet he had fulfilled his duty with honor by going to war… and never returned alive.
The royal army had been forced to retreat, leaving them unable to recover his body.
And so today, an empty coffin was buried in his place.
Or rather, it had probably already been buried.
Clementine had not even been allowed to attend her own husband’s funeral.
“…Damien.”
Quietly, Clementine called the name of the man who would never answer again.
That name, **Damien Lambert**, was her entire world.
Several years ago, Clementine had lost everything in a sudden fire.
Or, to be more precise…
She had been told she lost everything.
She had suffered a severe head injury during the fire and lost all her memories.
“You are my wife.”
When she woke up with a completely blank mind, he was the first person she saw.
Damien Lambert.
“Even if you’ve forgotten everything, I won’t give up on you.”
He took the hand of the confused Clementine and made that promise.
“No… because you’ve forgotten everything, I *can’t* give up on you.”
Was it just her imagination, or had there been a trace of anxiety in his voice?
At first, she had no choice but to rely on him.
But little by little, his devotion opened her heart.
Eventually, Clementine came to believe with all her heart…
Meeting him had been a miracle.
Falling in love with him had been her greatest blessing.
Unlike most nobles of such high rank, Damien was a simple man.
Every morning, he personally cooked eggs and brought breakfast to her in bed.
He would quietly smile as he watched her eat.
Then, as always, he would whisper,
“Clementine, you are the greatest joy of my life.”
She remembered everything vividly.
The vase filled with lily-of-the-valley flowers, simply because they made her happy.
The candy and jewels he hid all over the house like a treasure hunt so she wouldn’t get bored while he was away.
The affectionate letters he always left on her dressing table after they had shared a bed.
“…Damien.”
He had once been a complete stranger.
Yet somehow, he also felt like the oldest and dearest family she had ever known.
She thought she had already cried enough.
She was wrong.
She wanted to grieve even more.
But…
There was something she needed to solve first.
She entered Damien’s study.
It was a room she had never dared to enter while he was alive.
Through tear-filled eyes, she looked over the neatly arranged belongings he had left behind.
Then she found a locked drawer.
Before leaving for the war, Damien had told her that if anything happened to him, she should open this drawer.
There was no key.
She smashed it open with a heavy hammer after dozens of blows.
Surprisingly, there was only a single sheet of paper inside.
“…The patient’s memory impairment is believed to have been caused by an overdose of psychotropic medication?”
It was a medical report.
It bore a doctor’s opinion and signature.
“With proper administration of the antidote, the damage is expected to be reversible, and memory function should recover…”
As far as Clementine understood…
It meant that if she took the medicine, her memories would return.
A moment later, something felt terribly wrong.
That was strange.
Damien had always told her the damage was permanent.
That there was no chance her memories would ever return.
“What is this…?”
Clementine murmured blankly.
“I was told I lost my memories because of the fire…”
She was confused.
“Why does it mention drugs…?”
An unexplainable unease made her heart race.
She looked again at the patient’s name on the report.
It seemed to be her own.
Yet at the same time…
It felt strangely unfamiliar.
**Bang! Bang!**
“Hello!”
Someone was knocking on the front door.
Startled, Clementine quickly wiped her reddened eyes with a handkerchief before opening it.
“Who is it?”
A woman stood outside.
Her skin was rough, her cheeks hollow.
Her messy blonde hair looked unwashed.
Hardship had aged her far beyond her years.
“Is Damien Lambert really dead?”
The stranger asked without any greeting.
Clementine was so surprised that she didn’t even have time to feel offended.
“Ah… yes. But why do you ask?”
“He’s really never coming back?”
Hope flickered in the woman’s dull gray eyes.
“…Who are you?”
Growing suspicious, Clementine stepped back slightly while beginning to close the door.
“I don’t know what business you have here, butā”
“It’s me, Clementine!”
The woman grabbed the door with her rough, calloused hand.
“I’m Hilde!”
“I don’t know who you are.”
Clementine could only stare in confusion.
“I used to watch you from far away.”
The woman spoke desperately.
“I couldn’t get close because of Damien Lambert…”
Then she suddenly reached into her apron pocket.
“Here!”
She held out a small box containing fourteen bottles of medicine, along with a prescription.
“I barely managed to get these from the slums behind the capital. Drink them. Quickly.”
“…Excuse me?”
“It’s an antidote! It’ll neutralize the remaining effects of Letheton that are still affecting your brain!”
“An antidote… for what?”
“It’s the cure! It’s much stronger than the normal prescription, so it works better!”
Despite how ridiculous the situation was, Clementine quickly regained her composure.
“Please leave.”
She firmly pushed the stranger away.
“Coming to the house of a family in mourning to play this kind of joke is incredibly rude.”
She tried to shut the door again.
But the woman hurriedly stuck her foot into the doorway.
“Damien Lambert isn’t the man you think he is!”
She shouted with terrified eyes.
“You’re being deceived!”
Clementine froze.
“Don’t you think it’s strange that you can’t remember anything from before you married him?”
The stranger seized the brief hesitation.
“…I lost my memories because of the fire.”
“Did anyone ever tell you exactly where the fire happened? Or how it started?”
“It happened at the house where I used to live…”
“So where was that house?”
Clementine couldn’t answer.
Damien had never told her.
“Think about it.”
The woman pleaded.
“Isn’t everything suspicious?”
“At the very least, doesn’t it seem strange that there isn’t a single servant in this ducal mansion?”
She pointed toward the front door that Clementine, supposedly the Duchess herself, had personally opened.
“That’s because… Damien was a simple man. He wanted us to live quietly, just the two of us…”
“My God! That cunning man even had a lawyer lock me up in a mental hospital!”
The woman ignored Clementine’s weak explanation.
“I found out the truth because I’m not stupid! And I was trying to save you!”
“What truth? Save me from what?”
“I think Damien Lambert deliberately used Letheton to turn you into a fool so he could control you!”
“Please, make some sense…”
“You won’t understand in your current state! That’s why you have to drink this.”
The woman forcefully pressed the box of medicine into Clementine’s hands.
“If you really want to know what kind of man your husband was!”
She looked completely convinced that she had planted enough doubt.
But she was wrong.
“…Please leave.”
Clementine did not waver.
“I know exactly what kind of person my husband was.”
“Please, Clementine!”
As if playing her final card, the woman begged,
“It’s me! I’m your younger sister, Hilde!”
“…I don’t have any family except my husband.”
“No! You do!”
“I don’t. After the fire, no one ever came looking for me.”
“Because Damien Lambert never let anyone near you! Look!”
The woman desperately handed over several crumpled documents.
They were a faded birth certificate and church baptism records.
Clementine’s eyes caught one line.
> **”Clementine, eldest daughter of Sir Arthur Cornille. Hilde, second daughter…”**
The world began to spin around her.
“But Damien told me I was an orphan… that my family had all died…”
“I knew he’d tell you that! Isn’t everything becoming suspicious now?”
The woman offered the medicine again.
“If your memory loss wasn’t caused by Letheton poisoning, it won’t have any effect at all.”
She gently waved the prescription in front of Clementine.
“If you truly trust Damien Lambert, then you have nothing to be afraid of.”
It was a challenge aimed straight at her weakest point.
Caught between the love Damien had left behind and the growing pile of unanswered questions…
Clementine finally drank the medicine.
She hated the thought of doubting her dead husband over a few suspicious circumstances.
She wanted to prove that her faith and love for him would never waver.
She wanted to remember him only through their beautiful memories.
So Clementine never imagined…
That her lost memories would truly return.
Or that the Damien Lambert she remembered…
Would indeed **not** be the man she had believed him to be.
