Chapter 5
The Grand Duchess’s words and actions were cold, but that no longer mattered to Elener.
When she was young, she had thought that because the Grand Duchess always wore such a cold expression and spoke so coldly, she disliked Elener for being an illegitimate child.
So Elener had avoided her whenever possible.
But now she knew.
Her mother cared about her.
She cherished her.
And there was affection hidden within the Grand Duchess’s cold gaze whenever she looked at her.
Now, Elener could read those emotions clearly in her mother’s eyes.
So it was only natural that warmth filled her heart at even the smallest word from the Grand Duchess.
When Elener remained silent for too long, overwhelmed by a wave of emotion, the Grand Duchess began to look slightly anxious.
There was no reason to hesitate.
Elener smiled and answered,
“I’d love to, Mother. I want to go with you.”
She didn’t know how she had returned to the past, but there was no way she could let go of this opportunity to set everything right.
I can never marry Joshua.
Their marriage had been the beginning of everything.
So Elener resolved that no matter what happened, she would break off her engagement to Joshua.
Then another question came to mind.
Joshua’s words at the moment of her death.
He had whispered them while strangling her neck with both hands.
“I’m the real one. I’m the real one.”
What had he meant by real?
If there was a real one, then that meant there was a fake one as well.
But what was it?
Having reached that thought, Elener shook her head and pushed it aside.
There was still plenty of time to find out.
It’s that dream again.
The moment Charles opened his eyes, he looked around at his surroundings and felt a sense of familiarity.
Then he suddenly realized that it was the scene he had been repeatedly seeing in his dreams lately.
The Emperor’s Palace.
When he was very young, his grandfather had often held his hand and taken him to meet the emperor, so Charles easily recognized the place in his dream.
There was only one difference.
The man standing in the middle of the Emperor’s Palace was not the emperor Charles had known as a child.
Charles narrowed his eyes.
The man was wearing a golden crown, and his expression was arrogant.
Every time Charles had this dream, the man looked exactly the same.
And that man was the person Charles hated most in the world.
Joshua Herace.
How could he be wearing a golden crown?
Just as Charles began wondering about it, Joshua threw something he had been holding.
The object hit the floor with a loud clatter and rolled across it.
It was a dagger.
A woman wearing ragged, worn-out clothes was kneeling on the floor.
She lowered her gaze toward the dagger.
“Why aren’t you taking it? Didn’t you want to die so badly?”
At Joshua’s mocking voice, Charles folded his arms and watched him.
He had no idea why he kept having this dream, but there was one thing he had always wondered about.
Why could Joshua behave like the master of the Emperor’s Palace?
Perhaps today he would finally find out.
Charles watched absentmindedly as the woman raised her head.
She picked up the dagger and immediately drove its sharp blade into her own heart.
At that moment, Charles was finally able to see the woman’s face properly for the first time.
It was very different from the face he remembered, but Charles recognized her instantly.
The woman was the person he had missed more than anyone.
…El?
It was Elener.
Elener’s body began to collapse, but Charles stood frozen, unable to move even an inch.
Even as the blood flowing from her heart pooled on the floor, Charles remained unable to move.
Tears filled his eyes.
No.
This can’t be happening… El!
“El!”
Charles shot upright with a scream and gasped for breath.
The thin blanket that had barely been covering his bare upper body slid down.
His scarred torso was already drenched in sweat, and even the sheets and blanket felt damp to the touch.
“Haa… haa…”
Charles slowly steadied his ragged breathing and turned his head toward the window.
Outside, the sky was already beginning to brighten faintly.
Charles pressed the backs of his hands against his eyes.
Even his feverish eyes felt as hot as his burning chest.
Soon, he let out a relieved sigh.
“It’s that dream again. But…”
Today had been different.
Lately, Charles had been repeatedly dreaming about the same person.
Not just anyone.
He kept dreaming about Joshua, her fiancé.
At first, he had thought the dreams were meaningless.
But when the same dream and the same situation repeated over and over, he began to feel that something was wrong.
And today, for the first time, Charles felt a surge of uneasiness.
It no longer mattered how Joshua had come to be in the Emperor’s Palace or why he was acting like its master.
Only one thing occupied Charles’s mind.
The sight of Elener dying.
Did something happen to El?
Troubled by the ominous possibility, Charles rubbed his feverish forehead.
For the past few days, every time he had this dream, he developed a mysterious fever afterward, making things difficult for him.
Charles pushed aside the blanket covering his lower body and picked up the clothes scattered across the floor.
As he brushed his damp hair back from his forehead, he listened to the sounds coming from outside the room.
Someone was running down the corridor.
A moment later, there was a faint knock on the door.
“Young Master, are you awake? It’s urgent!”
The familiar presence and voice belonged to Daniel, Charles’s aide.
Although Daniel spent far more time at the Berihimen Marquessate than he did at his own home, he would never normally wake his master this early.
Charles wiped the sweat running down his chin with the back of his hand and glanced at the clock on the table.
It was just past six in the morning.
If someone was making this much commotion at such an early hour, it had to be something urgent.
“Come in.”
Daniel hurriedly opened the door and entered.
His hair was completely disheveled.
He wasn’t even properly dressed, and Charles frowned the moment he saw him.
Looking at Daniel’s disordered appearance somehow made Charles feel as though his fever had risen even higher.
Charles placed his cool hand against his burning forehead and spoke.
“Daniel. What on earth is going on this early—”
“He’s disappeared!”
Charles froze.
The words were abrupt and lacking any context, but he suddenly felt an unfamiliar sense of anxiety.
“…What did you just say?”
“L-Lord Marquis has disappeared!”
The moment Elener arrived at the Raiwens Grand Duke’s residence, she parted ways with the Grand Duchess without even having time to exchange greetings and entered another hall.
Magnificent chandeliers brightly illuminated the hall, beneath which dozens of round tables had been arranged throughout the room.
Various desserts and beverages were placed on the tables.
At a glance, it was obvious that they had been prepared with great care over a long period of time.
Listening to the beautiful melody played by the orchestra stationed to one side, Elener walked toward a secluded corner.
She felt that she could only relax if she stayed somewhere no one could see her.
After taking a seat in the corner, Elener discreetly surveyed the people gathered in the hall.
It seems all the powerful families are here.
People around her age were gathered in small groups, laughing and chatting happily.
Among them, the most conspicuous was Sebastian Raiwens, the son of the Grand Duchess of Raiwens and the host of today’s social gathering.
The Grand Duke’s heir, Sebastian Raiwens, was offering kind smiles to the people gathered around him in a circle, wearing the most gentle expression imaginable.
Watching his obviously false demeanor, Elener inwardly scoffed.
In her previous life, Elener had thought that, like everyone else here, the Grand Duke’s heir was nothing more than an elegant and refined gentleman.
But after learning the truth, she discovered that he was a disgusting and despicable man who was every bit as vile as Joshua.
No.
In some ways, he was even worse than Joshua.
One of his many despicable acts had been giving his own wife to one of his vassals.
Joshua had once told Elener why Sebastian had done such a horrible thing.
The reason was simple.
He had grown tired of her.
Even knowing that ugly truth, Joshua kept Sebastian by his side because his connections were useful to him.
On the other hand, after learning the truth about Sebastian, Elener had once found it so difficult to see him at parties and banquets that she would feel nauseous.
Everyone should know what kind of person he really is.
After staring at Sebastian with contempt, Elener soon turned away indifferently and waved toward a servant walking around the hall.
She accepted the non-alcoholic fruit wine the servant handed her and fell into thought.
While riding in the carriage to the Raiwens Grand Duke’s residence, Elener had realized that this was the first time she had ever attended a social gathering with the Grand Duchess of Frihosen.
The Grand Duchess was not particularly fond of showing herself in public, so she only attended events she absolutely had to attend.
Elener had attended more social gatherings than her mother, but she had deliberately avoided the ones the Grand Duchess attended.
At the time, she had thought that was the wisest thing to do.
She had never realized that the more she tried to show her mother consideration, the farther apart the two of them would become.
Fortunately, she had been given another chance at life.
She would not do anything she would regret.
Elener was sitting alone in a comfortable chair in the corner of the hall when she felt several people glancing in her direction.
The gazes filled with curiosity, contempt, and various other emotions were familiar to her.
But unlike in her previous life, she straightened her shoulders and met their gazes without flinching.
She sat there leisurely, paying no attention to them.
Then, suddenly, she sensed another gaze directed at her.
The emotion behind it felt different from those of the people who had been watching her before.
The intensity of the gaze was so sharp that she found herself wondering what it meant.
“……”
Elener turned her head.
And immediately, her breath caught.
…That’s impossible.
