HTEVD 01

Chapter 01 …

Third Life, Thirteen Years Old

‘I think I had a bad dream.’

The burning pain in my stomach, the suffocating stench of iron, the blood that welled up and spilled from my mouth, and the hem of my dress that turned crimson.

Amid the screams of the women, I clutched my neck. The sound of a teacup shattering on the floor rang in my ears. My vision blurred. In unbearable pain, I fainted without uttering a single scream.

When I opened my eyes, I was lying on a pile of straw in the stable. I could smell hay and hear the sound of rain. Along with a piercing pain in my head, memories of my current life and my previous life came flooding back.

“Evelyn! Wake up!”

A girl with rose-red eyes shouted at me. Her long black hair, in stark contrast to her pale skin, was tied up haphazardly, and her clothes were worn and shabby. But the thirteen-year-old Ruby was just as beautiful as I remembered her.

“I’m fine.”

When I opened my mouth, a voice far too young and delicate spilled out.

I had returned again.

A third life that was far too generous for someone as despicable as me—a third chance. I didn’t know why, but I had regressed twice. The first time, and now the second, both began in the stable of the Biln Orphanage. Both times, a red-eyed girl watched over me with worry.

“Get it together. The viscount pointed to you. If things go wrong, you must at least escape. Can you walk?”

She looked at me quietly. Her slightly upturned eyes and crimson pupils, which once looked down on Viscount Royalte’s arrogance, gave her an air far too noble for a commoner.

“You’re wrong. We’ll get caught soon.”

We had run away from the orphanage because the director had sold me to Viscount Royalte. He had been a long-time patron of Biln Orphanage and would always take children with him whenever he visited.

“Black hair, isn’t it?”

Viscount Royalte had said this in surprise when he saw me.

‘Because of this damned black hair.’

Like a man choosing an exotic animal for his collection, he pointed to me.

The viscount loved hunting. Only after being dragged to his estate did I learn the horrifying secret of his hunting grounds. There were no beasts there—only children.

The nights in the hunting grounds echoed with the cries of wild animals, the quarters were less sanitary than the orphanage, and the children held back their sobs. We were summoned to the parlor, to be shown off as prey. The room reeked of cigar smoke, with cracked leather sofas and a dark brown table covered in weeks-old newspapers.

One day, while cleaning the parlor, I saw my friend in one of those newspapers. It was Ruby. My only friend, surrounded by a crowd showering her with flowers.

Heir to the Imperial Sword, House Perriang
Ruby Perriang

Even though we had grown up in the same orphanage, wearing the same tattered clothes and sharing moldy bread, Ruby was the only daughter of a great noble house.

And I…

The next day, I didn’t run in the hunting grounds.

When the pain subsided and I opened my eyes as if waking from a dream, I had miraculously returned to the past.

It was the rainy early spring of my thirteenth year, just hours before Viscount Royalte’s return to the orphanage to take me away.

I struggled desperately not to miss this final chance to escape my horrible fate. Trampling Ruby’s small shoulders and back, I reached for the high stable window. Just before climbing out, I told her:

“I’ll come back with the key. Just wait a little.”

It was a lie. I had no intention of returning to the stable.

By chance, a gentleman visited the orphanage, and I ran into him in the backyard.

He was under imperial orders to find a black-haired child. There were only two of us at Biln Orphanage with black hair: Ruby and me. Her silky black hair gleamed beautifully, while mine was a frizzy mess, but black hair was rare in the empire either way.

The man examined the ring I wore carefully. It was engraved with an eagle and set with a red jewel—Ruby had entrusted it to me.

Thirteen years old.
Black hair.
A child with the head of House Perriang’s ring.

Because of that, I easily took Ruby’s place and entered the Imperial Palace.

‘I became the Lady of the West Palace…’

My second life was spent buried in beautiful dresses and expensive jewels. Until the day I died, people mockingly called me “The Lady of the West Palace.”

The shabby little girl had grown into a jewel of high society—and was poisoned at nineteen. Foolishly, it was only as death tightened around my throat that I realized:

‘It was never my place to begin with.’

For a life I had clung to so fiercely, it ended in emptiness.

Ruby grabbed my arm.

“There’s still time. We have to get out of here quickly.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean why! Viscount Royalte will arrive soon! No one who’s gone with him has ever come back alive!”

“What about you?”

“What?”

“What will you do?”

After I left, what happened to you? Did you, like I once did, stare at a newspaper announcing House Perriang’s heir and feel miserable? Did you hate me, the one who stole your place, with a murderous rage?

“I’ll be fine.”

Ruby grinned, showing her white teeth. Despite the hardships she’d endured in the orphanage, she had an innocent streak. Was that noble innocence something she was born with?

“I can take a few hits… I’m taller than you, bigger too, and also…”

“And also?”

“I’m lucky. You can tell just by how much Viscount Royalte dislikes me.”

“But still…”

“I said I’ll be fine.”

“What if they catch you again? They’ll punish you even worse.”

Ruby straightened my collar and spoke like an adult.

“Take this.”

It was the ring with the red jewel—so familiar to me. I slapped her hand away as if burned.

“No!”

She pressed the ring into my palm, then pulled me into a tight hug and didn’t move. I couldn’t breathe, but I leaned quietly into her warm embrace.

“It’ll be alright. I’ll follow after you.”

Did you know what it was that you gave up so easily? If there’s one regret I had in my past life, it was stealing Ruby’s life. But I didn’t hesitate for long.

“Lend me your back. I’m going out the window.”

If I was taken to the viscount’s estate, I would be dead in a month. I had to escape somewhere—anywhere—first.

Ruby crouched beneath the window. That’s when I noticed the bloodied wounds peeking through her torn dress. Tears welled up in my throat.

‘Even in my past life, Ruby offered me her back…’

She supported my shoe with her small hands, lifting me up. I had trampled on her back and hands without hesitation, too desperate to escape to notice her pain back then.

This time too, I stepped on her and squeezed myself through the small window. As I struggled to get out, Ruby shouted:

“I’ll find you!”

For a few seconds, our eyes locked. I turned away from her desperate crimson gaze and jumped. I landed awkwardly on the ground but got up immediately without time to nurse the pain. Leaning against the stable wall, I whispered:

“I’m sorry.”

I spoke in a tiny voice—for fear of the caretakers hearing, and because I was on the verge of tears.

‘I need to get out of here first.’

I ran with everything I had. But before I could even escape the central hall, a vicious shout erupted behind me.

“When did this little rat sneak out?!”

A rough hand yanked my hair violently.

“Aagh!”

It felt like my scalp was being torn off, and a groan escaped my lips. Just as the caretaker raised a huge hand to slap me, a dignified voice rang out.

“What’s going on here!”

The hand gripping my hair immediately let go.

A tall man with silver hair, probably in his forties, stood beside the orphanage director. I recognized him instantly.

‘Duke Trapiche!’

His cold blue eyes scanned me slowly, lingering on my tangled curls.

“What’s your name?”

“Evelyn.”

“Evelyn…”

His eyes trembled slightly as he repeated my name. I bit my lip hard. My escape had failed. I had deliberately avoided the backyard to keep from running into the duke—but it was useless.

I didn’t want to go to the viscount’s estate. I didn’t want to go to the palace.

But now, there was only one path to survival.

I looked down at the ring with Ruby’s red jewel on my thumb.

‘Maybe the pain I know is better than the pain I don’t.’

Forcing down my regret and fear, I emptied my mind.