Chapter 002
Ioret’s husband, Count Castelane, was an old man over sixty.
The Count had a bizarre fetish that was kept secret from others. The Count liked young and beautiful boys.
Furthermore, he was a severe exhibitionist.
Whenever he was with boys, the Count always called for Ioret.
If Ioret could not bring herself to lift her head or happened to close her eyes, physical blows and curses would unfailingly fly her way.
That was not the only horrific thing. Once or twice a week, Ioret had to lie in the same bed with him as the Countess.
On days when she had to try and sleep while trembling beside the disgusting old man, the maid would always bring tea.
Even on her last day at the Count’s estate, Ioret drank the sleep-inducing tea brought by the maid.
“Sleep well, My Lady. There isn’t much time left now.”
“Right. Five years—already almost five years have passed.”
The five years her sister promised were ending, and the day she would return to the capital was not far off.
Ioret tried hard to harbor hope as she fell asleep by the Count’s side.
When she woke up after a deep sleep, Ioret was covered in blood from head to toe.
Beside her, the Count lay dead with a dagger plunged into his heart, his limbs sprawled wide.
They say when a person is overwhelmed by excessive terror, they cannot even scream.
While Ioret froze in front of the Count’s corpse, the maid who burst through the door began to scream.
“The Mistress killed the Count! The Mistress killed the Count!”
Without even a chance to protest, Ioret was seized by the Count’s private soldiers.
While she was forcibly thrown into the basement of the mansion and then dragged to the capital, Ioret struggled with all her might to figure out exactly how this had happened.
No matter how much she thought about it, no matter how much she retraced her steps…
“Sleep well, My Lady.”
The person who killed the Count was—.
“Did you sleep well? Princess.”
Someone spoke from beside her head.
Ioret woke up with a start. Air forced its way into her nose and mouth.
“Gasp…!”
The moment she realized she was breathing, her breath caught.
She rolled onto her side and coughed violently.
Breathing is proof of being alive. The moment the blunt blade struck the back of her neck was agonizingly vivid.
A voice identical to the one in her dream followed.
“Are you alright? Did you have a nightmare?”
Ioret lifted her eyes, which were streaming with tears, to check the person speaking to her. A shock hit the top of her head.
“…Lish?”
“Princess?”
Lish Keith.
The second daughter of the Keith Viscounty, she was the woman who had served as Ioret’s exclusive maid for fifteen years.
After being dragged from the Count Castelane’s estate, she had never seen Lish again.
Ioret asked tentatively.
“You, what did you just call me?”
“Pardon? Why, Princess, of course…”
Lish had a look of bewilderment instead.
It had already been five years since Ioret had stopped being called a princess. From the moment she married Count Castelane, she was not a princess but a Countess.
‘No way.’
Looking again, her surroundings were somewhat familiar.
The low ceiling and the cold stone walls, the wooden furniture that must have once been grand but was now all worn out, the frayed carpet…
There was no mistake. This was the tower where Ioret had stayed in the royal castle.
Ioret fumbled at her neck with trembling hands. A thin gold chain caught on her fingertips. She felt the stone she had clutched tightly in her palm just before the execution.
Ioret unfastened the necklace like a madwoman.
‘The color has changed!’
The stone, which used to shine with a brilliant red light, had faded into a dull hue. It meant the magic was successful.
“Wear this at all times, Ioret. I do not know how much time I have left, but I will give it all to you.”
Ioret’s mother, Charlotte, had one day placed all her remaining life span into this ruby necklace.
It was a forbidden sorcery passed down secretly in her homeland, the Kingdom of Levia.
As long as her mother’s life span remained in this ruby, Ioret would not die. Even if she died, she would live again.
She had known about it vaguely, but this was the first time she had actually experienced it.
And a regression at that? For five years!
Ioret’s eyes, blurred with moisture, gradually came into focus.
In the mirror on the dressing table opposite the bed, a girl who had not even reached adulthood was reflected.
‘Young. And thin.’
Even her appearance, which had been her only redeeming quality, looked immature now.
Ioret repeated her mother’s last words to herself.
I must survive…
Even if I have to cast aside my human heart.
In a world ruled by Catherine, no matter how much she struggled, she would eventually end up on the execution block.
Survival was impossible as either her kind younger sister or a powerless, ousted princess.
‘To survive, I must become the Queen. Me, not Catherine.’
Survival is directly linked to power.
In the past, she had been foolishly unaware of that simple truth.
Just then, Lish firmly helped Ioret up.
“It seems you slept very soundly, Princess. If you don’t start preparing soon, you will be late for lunch. You shouldn’t keep your future husband waiting.”
Ioret roughly shook off her arm.
“Let go. I never gave you permission to lay a hand on my body.”
The maid with freckles on both cheeks looked at Ioret as if she were absurd.
Yes, I remember this woman clearly.
Catherine’s loyal dog, who had coerced and monitored Ioret while maintaining only the bare minimum of manners.
And the only maid allowed to enter the master bedroom of the Castelane mansion.
It was certain that this maid was the one who killed Count Castelane.
* * *
“Count Castelane has arrived.”
At the words of the chamberlain, who threw open the door without permission, Ioret was forced to leave her bedroom.
Lish glared with wide eyes and made a threat.
“Princess, you do not have the right to choose. If you continue to refuse to meet the Count, we will have no choice but to call the knights.”
Ioret was forced into the dress Lish had brought. Disgustingly, it was a paper-thin evening dress with a plunging neckline.
While heading to the dining room, Ioret quickly retraced her memories.
‘It is now the spring of Imperial Year 1058.’
It was the exact period when she had had her wedding ceremony with Count Castelane and was sent down to the Castelane estate as if being exiled.
Fortunately, Catherine is not yet the Queen.
Catherine’s ascension was about four years from now, immediately after the sudden passing of their father, the King.
The situation must be overturned within that time.
‘There are five days left until the wedding.’
In this life, I will not be dragged away submissively.
However, there wasn’t much Ioret could do right away.
She had no friends, no trusted subordinates, and Lish, who monitored her, was by her side all day.
Enemies were swarming everywhere, but she didn’t have a single weapon.
‘I must find a reliable guard. Before that, I have to get rid of the watcher.’
Lish, who followed behind Ioret, gave a low warning.
“Watch your behavior in front of the Count. If you burst into tears like last time, the Crown Princess will be very sad.”
Looking at her now, a fragment of a sneer that she hadn’t noticed before was hanging on the corner of the maid’s mouth.
Ioret let out a short, cynical laugh following her.
“We’ll see.”
As if Catherine would be sad. If anything, she would clap and laugh.
But from today on, she won’t be able to laugh.
‘It starts with you, Lish.’
A chill settled on Ioret’s face.
When they arrived in front of the tower’s modest dining room, Ioret ordered Lish.
“Ah, I left the Count’s gift in the bedroom. Go and find it. It’s a brooch in a velvet box.”
Lish had a suspicious expression, but she soon nodded.
After confirming that Lish had disappeared from view, Ioret opened the dining room door.
The heavy scent of perfume stung her nose. Count Castelane was sitting at the table with his fat belly protruding.
“Princess?”
Upon discovering Ioret, the Count narrowed his eyes lecherously. He seemed to be trying to smile with his eyes, but it was only disgusting.
“My, you’ve grown even more since I last saw you?”
The Count, with oil between his wrinkles, had a bloated physique. His belly fat protruded so much that he couldn’t even stand up from his seat.
The Count lewdly scanned Ioret’s attire. It felt as though she might vomit at any moment.
“Almost nineteen. It would have been better if you were four or five years younger… Tsk.”
At the sight of the Count’s thick fist, Ioret’s shoulders flinched reflexively.
In the face of violence, status was of no use. Ioret was thoroughly the weak one.
That was how it was in the past.
“Sorry I’m late, Count.”
“Ho ho. You’ll be my wife in a few days, so it would be better to sort out your speech and title in advance. I fear what others might say to belittle the Princess if they heard.”
“…Now that you mention it, you’re right.”
Ioret circled the table, scanning the set tableware and silver candlesticks. The Count’s greasy hair gradually drew closer.
“This maiden has been disrespectful, Count. Please forgive me.”
When she submitted with a mournful look in her eyes, the Count grinned, his lips sagging.
“That’s right. For your information, it’s also not polite to keep your husband waiting. Especially for a husband like me, who is like the heavens with all his accumulated experience—”
Before the Count could even finish his nonsense, Ioret snatched a silver candlestick from the table and struck the back of his head.
THWACK!
