(Chapter 2)
The next moment, Seirena’s eyes snapped open.
The pain she had felt in her abdomen was gone. The sensation had returned to her arm, and she raised her hand. A beautiful scent and a wonderful texture were the first things to greet her. The next instant, she realized it was the bed she was lying on.
“Oh?”
A voice, not hoarse or broken, escaped her lips. It was a little husky, but perfectly fine.
Seirena sat bolt upright in surprise. Her body, frail from months without sunlight and proper food, felt incredibly light.
“What is this?”
She heard the sound of a bird chirping somewhere.
Seirena put a foot out of the bed and her eyes widened at the plush, soft sensation on the sole of her foot.
Then she stood up. This was not the body that had struggled even to rise. It was light and overflowing with energy.
Her hand traced her abdomen. The feel of soft, smooth cloth was vividly present beneath her fingertips. Most importantly, there was no pain.
“It’s a lie.”
Seirena found and slipped into a pair of slippers. She stood blankly for a moment, lost in the plush, velvety feeling she had forgotten during months of captivity.
A large bed. An end table with a glass jar of cookies and a vase of flowers. The room was neither the one where she had been imprisoned nor the Queen’s chambers.
At the sight, which was both strange and familiar, Seirena instinctively rushed towards the window.
*Swish!* The curtains were flung open to both sides. Seirena paused, startled by the sound of a few curtain rings tearing away, unable to withstand her strength.
She wasn’t this strong. Especially recently, having not eaten properly, she had struggled even to lift her arm to brush her hair. She was unnaturally full of power.
“No way.”
Seirena cast her gaze toward the window. The window frame was very old. Having forgotten how to open it, she struggled for a moment before finally managing to push it open.
The moment the window flew open, a brutally cold wind, sharp enough to slice the skin, surged in.
It was winter. A cold winter was approaching Halek, the capital of Tainmurth.
But more than that…
“Home?”
At the sight of the landscape she had dreamed of, Seirena gasped, unable to believe it.
It was home.
The house where she had lived until eight years ago, before she became queen. The Earl of Hunter’s mansion in the capital, Halek.
Slowly, Seirena looked down at her arm. It was toned, lithe, and vibrant.
Slowly again, her hand cupped her cheek. She felt smooth, soft skin.
then she turned her head and scanned the room with eyes now unaccustomed to the darkness. A black garment was draped over an armchair.
A black dress.
Seirena lifted the mourning clothes. She couldn’t recall what she had worn nine years ago when her parents died. At the time, she had been out of her mind, having suddenly lost them. She wore whatever the maids dressed her in and did whatever her uncle instructed.
But this room. This outfit. And the condition of her body.
Clutching the dress, Seirena whispered in disbelief.
“I’m back? Truly?”
—
Anna, the maid of the Earl of Hunter’s household, took a light breath before knocking on Lady Seirena’s door.
Two days ago, the sudden death of the master and mistress in a carriage accident had caused their daughter, Seirena, to shut herself in her room, weeping. Preparations for the funeral could not be properly managed, so they had frantically had to contact the Earl of Hunter’s younger brother in the countryside.
“Poor thing.”
Anna murmured softly, words she would never dare say in front of Seirena. She was barely twenty. No, she hadn’t even reached twenty yet. Lady Seirena was a month shy of her twentieth birthday. Although she was in the Knights’ Order, she was still a young lady not yet twenty. It was natural for her to grieve deeply over her parents’ passing.
“But…”
Anna’s gaze drifted toward another door down the hall. It was the room of Master Ezra, who was now thirteen. Like Seirena, Ezra hadn’t left his room. They were only thirteen and nineteen. If one of them had to pull themselves together, it ought to be the latter. Knowing this would be difficult, Anna sighed. Lady Seirena was fainthearted. To put it nicely, that was the word; to put it harshly, she had a weak will.
“They say she has a talent for swordsmanship.”
That’s what she’d heard. Lady Seirena had a talent for swordsmanship. It was said that the tutors who had come to instruct the Earl of Hunter’s daughter when she was young had all marveled at her skill. But that talent was useless without determination. Seirena had no interest in training with the sword and preferred to be a carefree countess’s daughter rather than a great knight. Her attendance at the Knights’ Order was solely due to her father the Earl’s command, so she might quit soon.
“Poor master.”
Anna sighed again and knocked on the door. Perhaps the Lady would delay her young brother’s entry into the Knights’ Order for the sake of the child who had lost his parents and would continue in the Order for another year herself.
But Lady Seirena was not that strong-willed. She was the one who had refused to even look at her brother because he was allegedly involved in their parents’ death. She was the one who sought to fill her sense of loss by hating her brother. Could such a person resolutely lead the Hunter household going forward?
“Come in.”
Surprisingly, a clear voice flowed from inside the room.
*Huh?* Anna tilted her head, turning the doorknob. Perhaps, after crying all night, she had realized she needed to pull herself together.
Holding onto hope, she opened the door.
“Good morning, My Lady.”
Seirena was already awake. She was sitting propped up against the pillows, having spent the night thinking about how this had happened.
She was certainly dying in that prison. Her uncle—who she wouldn’t feel satisfied even if she chewed him to death—had stabbed her with a knife and run away. A coward. He didn’t even have the courage to witness the death of the niece he had stabbed, it seemed. A cynical smile briefly touched her lips and vanished.
And the magician. The magician had refused her request to turn back time, on the grounds that she had no price to pay.
So how had she returned?
“Did you sleep well, Anna?” Seirena greeted Anna with a smile. Anna was a maid she had been close to, but her name felt hazy since they hadn’t seen each other in eight years. Thankfully, seeing the maid’s face brought the name back to her.
“The fact that you’re here, Anna, makes it certain I’ve returned.”
At Seirena’s words, which slipped out unintentionally, Anna asked, “Pardon?” In the life before her return, Anna had begged to accompany Seirena as her maid when she entered the palace as queen. But her uncle had prevented it, forcing Seirena to enter the palace alone, without anyone familiar.
“It’s nothing. Could you help me dress?”
That, too, had been part of her uncle’s plan: to isolate Seirena and make her dependent only on him. It was an easy strategy. And it also meant that she had been foolish enough to fall for it.
Seirena had heard that Anna was later dismissed without severance pay and returned to her hometown. She had felt sorry at first, but a few years later, Seirena thought it was a blessing that Anna had been chased away. Her uncle hadn’t left anyone close to her alone.
“Are you alright, My Lady?”
It was Anna who was bewildered, seeing Seirena, who had been sobbing profusely just last night, now looking perfectly fine and even smiling. She set the tray with tea and biscuits down on the table and approached.
Seirena had been an ordinary noblewoman. One who enjoyed having fun and was soft-hearted. Understanding Anna’s concern, Seirena sighed lightly. She had been a naïve, innocent, ordinary noblewoman. That was her mistake. Being immature. Being naïve. And knowing nothing and being unable to do anything.
But now was different. At the very least, Seirena knew one thing: her uncle would soon become her guardian, devour the Hunter family fortune, and offer her as a sacrifice to the mad king.
“I’m fine, Anna.” Seirena continued, getting up. At her gesture, Anna brought the black dress. “I just thought I needed to pull myself together. I am the mistress of this house, after all. And I have to look after Ezra.”
Ezra. Seirena recalled her younger brother, who had died at the age of twenty in the life before her return.
*My poor brother.*
She should have protected him. She was young, but Ezra was even younger. As Anna suspected, Seirena also believed that if anyone between the nineteen-year-old and the thirteen-year-old had to pull themselves together, it should be her.
“I brought a simple tea and biscuits.”
At Anna’s words, Seirena’s gaze turned to the table. Two biscuits and a cup of tea. She remembered that this had been her breakfast before she became queen.
Why had she been so foolish?
The last thing she had eaten before returning was thin gruel. She needed to eat well, especially for her sword training.
“No, I’ll eat in the dining room. I want eggs. And ham.”
At Seirena’s abrupt request, Anna’s mouth dropped open. Seirena had never once eaten a hearty breakfast. Despite being in the Knights’ Order, she didn’t train rigorously and, like other noble ladies, ate only a bird-sized portion to manage her figure.
The expression on Anna’s face clearly conveyed the thought, ‘My Lady, are you out of your mind?’ and Seirena almost burst into laughter.
Yes, perhaps she *was* crazy. Maybe she was actually dying in that prison, and this was the happiest moment of her dying soul, a mere hallucination. But if so, it made no sense that this ‘happy moment’ happened to be two days after her parents’ death.
Seirena sighed as she put on the black dress. Her parents’ death. Nine years ago, she had been truly heartbroken. She had wished she would die then and there.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t sad now. It was just that she knew what kind of life awaited her if she only grieved, like before. A miserable life that was outwardly glamorous but inwardly festered and was eventually abandoned.
“Did you sleep well?” Seirena went down to the dining room and greeted the butler who was waiting there.
Anna must have gone ahead to inform them, as a breakfast hastily prepared was set out in the dining room. The butler, unsure what morning greeting to offer a Lady who had lost her parents two days ago, simply nodded lightly and pulled out the chair where she always sat.
“Ah.”
She made a mistak
e. Seirena stopped in her tracks with a start. For eight years as queen, she had always sat in the Queen’s seat. In this dining room, that was the Countess’s seat.
