Chapter 01
I once thought my life was a tragedy. But looking back now, maybe it was closer to a comedy.
“For the crime of distributing illegal sleep incense that threw the Empire into chaos, for the crime of murdering innocent citizens with deadly poison to humans!”
The judge’s droning voice echoed. I lifted my head with a blank expression.
“For nearly killing a scion of the Helenium family, who should have been the Empire’s future!”
How many times had I protested my innocence? I think I even screamed until my throat tore once.
Yes—like a fool, I had believed it when someone whispered that if I endured prison a little longer, they’d come to take me out.
“Kanoe, you know things aren’t good right now. If you struggle, it’ll only add to your charges. Just hold on a little longer, okay? I’ll take care of it.”
Such a gentle voice. His chocolate-brown eyes glimmered with the same warmth as always, concern brimming in them.
He had been my oldest friend, nearly family. So of course, I believed he would come back for me—just like the day in our childhood when I was snatched by thieves in the slums and he rescued me.
“Defendant Kanoe Bluebell!”
Instead of replying, I turned my head toward the spectators.
The very people I once thought were family. The ones I once loved more than anything.
…What a joke. Back then, when they sponsored me despite no blood relation, they called me family and embraced me. Now, because there’s no blood tie, they look away as if they don’t know me.
No warm gazes. No gentle comfort. Even the kind smile of my long-time friend had frozen into a cold mask.
But maybe time erodes even emotions. Looking at them now, I felt nothing.
All I could conclude was that the prestigious Valentir family, who prided themselves on noblesse oblige, had simply cut ties with me to protect their reputation.
They didn’t need me anymore.
The sponsorship was over. And “Kanoe Bluebell, friend of Tiana Helenium,” no longer existed.
“By the founding principles of the Aquilea Empire, crimes committed with special abilities must be punished severely. And as an ability-user, the defendant should understand this more than anyone!”
In the end, they were strangers. I would have to face this world alone.
“Therefore, by unanimous decree of Aquilea’s sacred council, the wicked criminal Kanoe Bluebell is hereby—”
It was almost over. I lifted the corners of my lips as I looked at the guillotine shoved in front of me.
“—sentenced to death!”
Through my cracked lips, a dramatic laugh slipped out.
The guard beside me grimaced, and I felt a twisted sense of delight.
If this wasn’t a comedy, what else could it be?
After all, I’d already seen this scene, heard these lines, and watched these people countless times before.
And I knew exactly what would happen next.
“Carry out the execution of the wicked criminal who disturbed the Empire and spread unrest!”
Rough hands shoved me forward, pressing me onto the cold guillotine. There’s no need to describe what followed.
The pain was brief. The despair, long. My consciousness sank like a stone into deep waters, dragging out tattered memories of the past.
It was like a revolving lantern of death—always reminding me not to forget.
It was my fourth execution.
And then, again—
“…Haa.”
—I opened my eyes on a ship bound for the prison island.
“Not this again. I’m so sick of it.”
The prison island was the southern outpost where Carcer Prison stood—an isolated fortress for ability-users, those born with powers beyond normal humans.
Since its founding, the Aquilea Empire had upheld a strict code: to protect ordinary citizens, ability-related crimes must be judged harshly.
Some claimed it was just a law crafted to keep powerful ability-lineage families in check. Whatever the reason, the Imperial family had secured the support of the common people through it.
And thanks to that, every single one of my trials had ended in death sentences.
I touched the intact skin at my neck with relief.
For reasons I couldn’t explain, every time I died, I returned to this same point—aboard the ship to Carcer, before being locked away.
Should I count myself lucky that I wasn’t already imprisoned in the inescapable Carcer Prison? Or unlucky, since even before the final verdict, ability-users were jailed like dangerous beasts?
The cuffs on my wrists rattled uncomfortably. I closed my eyes.
“At the very least…”
If only I could return to before that incident.
It had happened one night at the Bluebell Hotel.
“Tiana!”
A little girl staying as a guest was killed, and my dearest friend, Tiana, fell into a coma.
The problem? The hotel was mine.
“Kanoe. Just cooperate with the investigation. Even if something went wrong, nothing will bring back the girl who died at the Bluebell Hotel.”
Rev spoke rationally—drawing a line I hadn’t noticed at the time.
“…We’ve discovered issues with the sleep incense used at the hotel. We also confirmed that Bluebell Hotel maintained close ties with an illegal distributor.”
“…”
“Is that correct, Miss Kanoe Bluebell?”
I stared at the investigator sent by the Imperial Court, my face frozen.
As the hotel’s proprietor, I thought it was my responsibility to shoulder the blame: to endure the resentment, cooperate, compensate victims, honor the dead.
But that expression—already certain of my guilt—wasn’t right.
“I did not.”
“According to testimonies, the hotel had been using this incense for a long time. Were there no issues before?”
“It was a mild fragrance meant to help guests sleep. And if they didn’t want it, we never used it.”
“I see. And you are an ability-user, correct?”
The investigator scribbled relentlessly, his tone hardening.
“You will be confined to the prison island until trial. Given the distribution of incense, the casualties, and the Helenium family’s involvement, the matter is of grave concern.”
Once again:
I never did it.
“What if I was falsely implicated?”
“Perhaps. But all evidence points to you—trafficking illegal incense in Centwell and killing innocent citizens.”
His eyes turned sharp, as if he were looking at filth.
“And besides… you bear the Bluebell name.”
“I—”
Before I could finish, Imperial knights bound my arms.
I stared them down and forced the words out one by one:
“I have never trafficked illegal incense.”
Would a criminal distributing contraband really cooperate so honestly, without destroying evidence?
The incense had been a perfectly ordinary one available on the market.
And now suddenly there was fabricated evidence of secret dealings with distributors I’d never heard of? Death blamed on incense?
“That will be for the court to decide.”
At those words, my raging emotions cooled into clarity.
They had never intended a fair investigation.
I realized it too late.
“The naive Kanoe Bluebell who trusted people… she’s long gone.”
I laughed dryly, erasing the past.
This was my fifth life. And the last four had all ended the same.
Once, I trusted people like a fool. Another time, I lost myself to rage and despair.
Sometimes I gave up. Other times I clung to hope of escape. But in the end, the result was always execution.
So this time, I had to escape before reaching the island. The prison ship was my last chance.
The reason I was repeating death didn’t matter. Only one thing mattered—breaking this cursed cycle.
Revenge on those who ruined me? I forgot that long ago, sometime in my third life.
When you rot away in a frozen cell for years, change is inevitable. I needed nothing else now.
All I wanted… was freedom.
The right to open my eyes beneath the blue sky, to squint under the bright sun.
That alone.
I wanted nothing else but to live freely.
“And for that…”
I needed a card strong enough to turn this situation around.
“Prisoner No. 1190, Kanoe Bluebell.”
The door of my tiny solitary cell creaked open.
I had been expecting this. Calmly, I nodded.
“This is a procedure all convicts go through before entering the island. Cooperate.”
Escorted down the corridor, I stopped before an armored black iron door.
On the other side, the Navy was conducting identity checks of the prisoners aboard.
And there, waiting, would be Admiral Frederick—the master of the warship Marina.
No… he wasn’t the one waiting for me.
I had been waiting for him.
“Prisoner No. 1190, Kanoe Bluebell, has arrived.”
“Send her in.”
At the knock, a composed voice called from inside.
The door opened, spilling light across the room.
Black hair like the midnight sea, sharp and elegant features.
A navy-blue earring glinted as it caught the light. The crisp white uniform of the Navy suited him perfectly.
“…Miss Kanoe?”
My crucial card.
The master of the Marina, Admiral Ian Frederick.
