Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Clink!

The wine glass that fell on the stone floor was smashed to pieces with a crash.

While the red wine was spilling over the floor like blood stains, the two awkward voices ringing lowly stopped suddenly.

Marianne’s fingertips trembled. When she stepped forward, biting her lips unconsciously, her view, which was hidden by the entangled rose bush, opened wide.

It was Ober who was standing in front of the great lake of the back garden.

Giyom, his bodyguard knight, was guarding him.

“…Ober. ”

Marianne called his name as if she was calm.

She wished he would not answer. She wished that he would fade away like the shade as if she grabbed the air when she extended her hand.

“Marie.”

But it was a familiar voice that came back to her.

“It’s fake, isn’t it?”

Marie.

That was her nickname that only Ober could call in this spacious mansion.

Although she heard it clearly, Marienne asked him again. She had to because she thought she could have heard wrong. Logically, she should have heard wrong.

It was impossible for Ober to do so. He was a good man. Regardless of when he was dating her or after he married her, he was always attractive and friendly.

Her father, Duke Kling, disliked Ober very much. Although he was terribly humiliated by her father several times, he never gave her up.

Without Ober, she could not have properly buried her father who died unexpectedly.

“Please answer me. Am I having a bad dream right now? if not…”

“Marie. I think you’re drunk.”

“It’s impossible you did that. No, you can’t. I must have heard wrong. Right?”

Marianne almost cried as she approached him and grabbed his arms.

“Please, Ober. Save me from this nightmare.”

Her transparent emerald eyes trembled with anxiety.

“Marie, calm down. What did you hear? Huh?”

“You said you would love me until you died. Yesterday… and until this evening, you kissed my cheeks and smiled at me sweetly. You only whispered into my ear that I’m your light and salvation! ”

“Yeah, I did!”

“Then, how can you…how could you do that to my father? If that’s true, it’s like I killed my father. How can you do this…?”

“Marie.”

“Ober, as a human, you can’t do that. No, you’re not that type of man, right? You were not. That’s why I got married to you. Ober, how can you do this to me?”

While Marianne was babbling to deny the situation, Ober’s face was hardening gradually.

Although her words were cut off in the middle and mixed with emotions because she was so surprised, her point was very clear.

She was betrayed by her husband, whom she thought she could rely on after she was left alone after her father’s sudden death.

She overheard his plan to kill her.

There was someone behind Duke Kling’s sudden death, who was none other than her husband Ober. And she unwittingly helped him carry out his plan to kill his father ….

Ober slowly stroked Marianne’s cheeks which sadly trembling. Although he stroked it so kindly as ever, what she felt from his touch was terrifying rather than comforting.

“Well, how could I do that to you?” he said in an irritating and annoying tone.

Marianne instinctively sensed danger in her husband’s instant change of his voice.

As a woman who spent her whole life only at the home of a peaceful duke, she felt something like murderous temper in him. He had the same look and expression that she used to know, but she felt as if he were a total stranger.

“Ober…?”

“Why did I do that to you, Marie?”

Ober grasped her shoulders as she stepped back. Although Marianen twisted herself with a slight moan and tried to escape, she was caught when he held her arms tightly. Her wrists hurt so much. His strong grip made her warn herself once again, ‘I have to run away. Right now!’

At that moment, Ober said, “Are you going to escape because I’m worse than a beast? Or … . ”

Mariane shook her arms as hard as she could.

Ober let go of her arms as she wished, but he strongly grabbed her under the chin this time. He strangled her neck with his smooth fingers without hesitation. His strangling was not strong enough to kill her right now, but enough to provoke fear.

“Ooops … ! ”

As he anticipated, Marianne almost clamped his arms with a moan.

It was her first life-threatening experience. She desperately beat his arms and twisted his head to pull even her little fingers away from him. But it was too tough for her to push him away as she was like a woman raised like a flower in the manor.

“Did I do it to you because you are too stupid for what you have?”

He did not hide his sneering at her.

Once she mentioned her late father, Duke Kling, Ober had no reason to spare her life. He didn’t need to pretend to be kind to her any more.

“Ober… … . ”

In the end, Marianne burst into tears. She was not a totally dumb woman like Ober said.

She came as far as here because she was so blind to love, for which she could be blamed as a foolish woman. But she was smart enough to find out the truth of the whole situation surrounding her late father.

She was thoroughly betrayed by someone she loved most.

This was a strict fact that she couldn’t believe at all, which tore her heart.

Her cheeks were wet with tears. His eyes were too honest to deny it.

Marianne knew what his eyes meant: a gaze mixed with deep disgust, a bit of sympathy, ridicule and his cold feelings instead of love or even favors.

“You deceived me, even though I trusted you. I really loved you.”

“That’s very good proof that you were so stupid.”

Ober let go of Marianne.

Mariane sat down on the floor, with her legs getting wobbly. She coughed suddenly.

She wasn’t displeased at all, though she was thrown down to the rocky ground.

It occurred to her that the bodyguard, who was standing behind him, was watching her all along, but she didn’t judge her actions as shame.

“Marie, there is no love in the world.”

She once devoted herself to and loved this man. He whispered to her about eternal love. Now, he told her that there was nothing like love in the world.

She did not feel as if she was blinking and breathing well. All kinds of thoughts cluttered her mind, but she couldn’t think of anything.

“You are only a pretty doll. You would be the same if you were sold off to someone other than me.”

Dusting his crumpled clothes nonchalantly, he looked around.

The back garden with a lake was the most secluded place in the mansion, even in broad daylight. All kinds of trees and flower walls were lined up everywhere, so there were many blind spots around the mansion. As it was so large and complex, it took more than half a day for more than people to find a dog when it ran into the back garden.

How long would it take to find a duchess who got drunk and disappeared?

“If I can give you one comfort…”

Ober beckoned to Giyom.

“You were a very good doll. You were more beautiful than anyone else, with great honor and wealth that was hard to compare with any other family. But you were as stupid and loyal to me like the others.”

Giyom shut up her mouth, who plunked down on the ground.

Surprised, she struggled, but she was stopped by Giyom, who was nearly twice her size.

“So I didn’t want to throw you away until I became an emperor.”

Ober pointed his chin to the lake. She resisted, desperately hitting Giyom.

Not caring at all, Giyom walked to the lake, holding her in his arms as if he was holding a light cat.

When he passed through the shallow edge of the lake, a cold wave began to wet her silk pajamas and white legs. Without hesitating at all, he walked into the water brimming up to his chest and then let go of his arms holding her.

She did not know how to swim. She wanted to check out if her feet could touch the ground, but she couldn’t control her body. As soon as she stiffened and floundered in the water, he pulled her hair and then pushed her head down with an enormous force.

Marianne was buried under the water without being able to breathe a handful of outside air.

Her airway sucked water instead of air. She felt pain because she could not breathe. Whenever her slender body struggled with the fear of death, the water of the lake swept her.

“Why did you come as far as here at this time? You made things lousy. A funeral is too annoying during the summer.”

While Ober complained, Marianne couldn’t pull her face out of the water even once until her body that made a sizable wave drooped

Chapter 2: Chapter 2

“Let’s go. Dispose of her wet clothes,” Ober ordered Giyom.

While looking at the quiet lake for a moment, Ober turned back.

Giyom, who looked like a drowning mouse, came out of the water and followed him.

Marianne lay unconscious at the bottom of the lake they deserted, drooping like a wet piece of paper.

She felt a deep drowsiness. The energy of near death was hovering around her like a hunter. She had no power to refuse it. Just before her heart stopped and the messenger of hell rushed in, what she thought for the last time was a simple regret.

‘If I had known Ober’s malice in advance, I would not have died so miserably.’

At that moment, the water deep in the lake where she sank sparkled brightly as if stars had exploded.

It was dark everywhere.

Heavy and moist pressure surrounded her body from head to toe. She was stuck in a space where she couldn’t move even her fingers freely, let alone her arms and legs. It was warm, distant, and calm.

‘Ah, it’s water.’

Marianne suddenly realized that she was underwater. Then she opened her eyes before she knew. Her dark chocolate-colored hair floated in front of her eyes, tangled up like a water plant.

‘It’s annoying. I want to clean it up.’

When she thought so, the sense of her fingertips came back this time.

As she reached out and pushed her hair to the side, a yellowish mass of lights stabbed her eyes over the wavy surface.

‘It’s so shiny. Who has turned on so many lights?’

The moment she stretched her arms further up to cover her eyes while frowning, something hot suddenly pulled her away roughly.

“My lady! What are you doing?!”

The girl’s voice bounced everywhere, along with transparent spray. It was a voice that she had heard a lot somewhere.

Marane, sitting up with the help of somebody’s pull, breathed out, which she had been holding back under the water. Oxygen passed through her nose and down the airway to inflate her lung. The sense of breathing that she didn’t feel normally was so clear that she breathed in and out again and again. Though she just breathed, she felt a great pleasure.

“Oh dear, you’ve learned a strange play from Miss Evelyn. … . I asked you not to play that weird game! Did you even bet who first jumped into the bath water to become a water demon first? ”

The girl nagged her.

Though she was rude, Marianne did not scold or get angry with her. She just focused on breathing for a while and suddenly jumped out of bed.

“Oh my, lady!”

That surprised girl screamed again. Mariane embraced her shoulders with her arms as if she hadn’t heard anything.

Water demon… A woman who was drowned like an idiot.

She was Marianne herself. When she recognized death, her memories of death went back to their place just like the senses of her body that came back one after another.

She died after drowning in the middle of the dark lake. Though she didn’t remember exactly when she was out of breath, she could vividly recall the process of water filling her lungs instead of air and blurring her eyes, let alone the enormous power that pushed her head down.

“Don’t you want to take a bath? I just brought the rose perfume from Marquis Chester.”

She even remembered the man who was controlling the power from a distance.

Marianne shivered with the revival of her terrible memories.

“You might have a cold again.”

The girl grunted and covered her with a large bath towel.

Marianne came out of the bath, helped by the girl. The sense of real walking on the floor was too clear for her to think she was hallucinating.

‘How can this happen?’

Marianne raised her hands and slapped both cheeks. Her moist hands were wet with water and it felt like her cheeks were burning. Nevertheless, the surroundings were not distorted, nor were the dimensions changing. She didn’t wake up from sleep, either. It didn’t seem like a dream.

‘Then, was the world I regarded as reality a dream? Perhaps… Was it a dream where I was betrayed and killed by him?’

Marianne’s hope died very shortly.

“My lady! Why are you acting like this today? Your birthday party is in two days! What if you get sick?”

“Birthday party? In two days?”

“Yes, there’s only two days left. Your twenty-first birthday party! Oh my god, you’ve been waiting for about a month. Are you going to pretend not to know that?”

She felt dizzy, mired in more confusion.

She was twenty-three when Ober murdered her.

* * *

The maid who nagged while helping her take a bath was Cordelli.

Although there was a difference in titles, she was the daughter of her nanny and she was about the same age. Marianne grew up thinking of her as a friend and a sister.

Cordelli also gave Marianne special treatment. Instead of assigning it to a junior maid, she took care of it by herself, and she stood by Marianne all the time while fulfilling her job as a housemaid. She was innocent and bright by nature. So, she felt strange about Marianne who suddenly started to have lots of suspicions, but she quickly adjusted herself and served her master.

“Cordelli, what’s the date today? If I’m twenty-one years old, it is 593 by the imperial calendar, isn’t it?”

“Right. Today is April 19, 593 by the imperial calendar. Are you testing me because I might not remember your birthday?”

“No, nothing like that… What about my father?”

“He said he would be back before your birthday. I guess he’ll be back today or tomorrow? Do not worry. He cares for you so much that he has changed his schedule to come back on your birthday party.”

Thanks to her detailed answer, Marianne was able to gather some information while walking in the familiar hallway.

In terms of space, she was in the Castle of Lennox and it was spring when she was 21. In the spring of that year, her father was out for an inspection tour of his territory, and Ober busily visited her house to win over her heart.

Though she found it hard to believe, there was too much evidence. The structure of the house that she used to know, the familiar scenery that varied with her moving steps, and the voice of Cordelli who called her a lady instead of madame. Even the room that she was in now resembled the one in her own memory.

“You must be tired. Can I bring you some hot tea?”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Let me go ahead and pick the one with the best scent.”

Cordelli responded kindly and left the room. Her footsteps faded away from the closed room.

Marianne, left alone, looked around the room one more time.

It wasn’t the main bedroom of the house where she stayed as a duchess after marrying Ober, but the room of an annex.

The annex was adapted to fit Marianne’s taste, ranging from the small ornaments in the bedroom to the large trees and fences of the back garden. It was the result of his father Duke Klink’s constant efforts for the only daughter of his family and his poor daughter who lost her mother as a baby.

Duke Kling accepted no matter what request his daughter made, even though sometimes it was too excessive to hurt his prestige or if it cost too much.

If there was one thing he desperately opposed, that was her marriage to Ober. He eventually gave in to her and made Ober his son-in-law.

‘I didn’t know that Ober was such crap. Neither my father nor did I know. If I had known about him in advance, things would have been different.’

Marianne walked to the window, chewing on her useless assumption like that

When she pulled the curtains, she could see the garden of the annex outside the window. The flower garden, which looked a bit blue as it got dark outside, was filled with cherry trees in full bloom, colorful tulips, fragrant lilacs, and less hyacinths.

Obviously, it was a spring garden. It was so different from the midsummer garden of the dark lake where she was stuck. That dreamy scene clouded Marianne’s thoughts.

‘Have I really returned to the past? Or did I have a bad dream? But it’s too vivid to think that this is a dream… ‘

Lost in her thoughts, she swept her hand down the window. Touching the window as if she was reflecting on her memories, she suddenly looked at her hands. And then she frowned. She noticed the wounds between the ring finger and middle finger on her left hand. The surface of the skin was slightly bumpy, as if it had been cut by something and then healed. At first glance, it was like an uncolored tattoo.

‘No way, this is… ‘

After hesitating for a moment, she touched the wound gently. She felt strange when she touched it with her fingertips. Suddenly, she had goosebumps on her back.

Chapter 3: Chapter 3

In fact, she wounded her finger in the winter when she was 22. While she was crying, holding her dead father’s coffin, her finger was scratched by a nail that protruded from it and bled a lot. Luckily, her family doctor Laeneek, who was at the funeral, gave her first aid. But the ugly scar on that finger couldn’t be removed.

“If you had your finger hurt in the summer or if you had tetanus, you probably would’ve had to cut your finger. I am so glad that your finger looks okay. Since the wound is hardly visible, don’t worry too much,” Codelli said. She could vividly recall Codelli’s voice who said so on the day when the doctor removed her bandage.

And the wound was still there on the same spot in the same shape as if to prove that her 23 years of life was not a dream.

At that moment, someone knocked on the door.

“Lady, it’s Hugo.”

The person who knocked was Hugo, he butler of the house.

She hurriedly hid her hand and looked out the window like a child caught stealing something.

“Come in.”

When she okayed, Hugo opened the door politely and showed his manners. He seemed too young to be the butler of her house, but he was more capable than any of the other servants in the house and won her father’s absolute trust. His sharp character and perfect attention to details could be confirmed by looking at his swept hair and tight shirt collar.

“What’s the matter?”

“I’ve got a message for you.”

“Message?”

When Marianne asked, Hugo answered in a polite tone.

“It looks like Duke Kling will come home soon. Originally, he was supposed to be back tomorrow afternoon, but he has adjusted his schedule a bit.”

“My father is coming now?” she asked in a trembling voice.

When she walked out of the bathroom, she asked Cordelli about where her father was.

Though her father left the mansion because of his inspection, she was told that he would return soon. Although she could not see him right before her eyes, she could believe the premise that his father was alive.

In particular, Hugo’s statement that her father would be here soon was clearly different from a vague answer that he was somewhere.

“Yes. he will probably arrive in about an hour.”

“I have to go out. I want to go out and wait for him.”

She was about to run out to the gate when Hugo stood in front of her gently.

As if she had read Hugo’s mind, Cordelli spoke as she returned to the room, “If you go out in a dress like that and get exposed to the cold air, Hugo and I could be fired today,”

“You still have some more time. You won’t be late even after you get dressed up first.”

She looked down at her body. Since she just came into her bedroom out of the bathroom, all she put on was loose silk pajamas and a thin gown for indoor wear.

“Got it. Let me get ready soon after changing clothes.”

“Let me tell the chief maid and help you prepare”.

“Don’t do that. Mrs. Icell might be absent-minded with lots of other stuff because my father is suddenly coming back. That’s why you’re here, Hugo, right?”

“I’m sorry.”

As if he was caught off guard, Hugo bowed politely and went out.

Cordelli put a tea tray on the table and looked impressed.

“I am just amazed by Duke Kling’s dedication to you. In fact, he said his schedule was too tight for him to be back in time for your birthday. So, I was a bit worried. But he kept his promise! I think he is the most dedicated and kindest man in Aslan.”

Forgetting her own position, Marian laughed at her praise of her father.

Corelli’s words reminded her of her father’s kindness and affection.

She wanted to see him as soon as possible, right now.

Rather than an hour, she didn’t want to wait another ten minutes.

“I agree. My father has cared for me so much like this, I think I have to repay for his efforts. Can you help me prepare for his return?”

“Sure. Let me call the junior maids and pick out the dress for you ”

Cordelli quickly left the room as if she was more excited than Marianne.

Left alone, she turned around and looked at the quiet room again.

She felt it looked like a dream, but she became calm when she touched the scar on her left hand as if she memorized a spell. It was really strange.

Though the scene unfolding before her eyes as was nonsensical and even ridiculous, she felt she was recovering the sense of reality little by little.

It was only about a month or so after Duke Kling returned home after the tour.

It took him so long partly because the Aslan Empire was large and vast, and partly because the two territories he ruled were too far from his house.

Most of the great aristocrats with more than two territories had either pioneered or subordinated the land adjacent to their original territories. But Kling was a little different. The Castle of Kling was located at the southwest end and the Castle of Lennox was at the north end.

Given this situation, a full month was not enough for him to make a good inspection trip. According to his usual schedule, it would take at least two months for him to finish the inspection tour, so it was thanks to Duke Kling’s special considerations of his daughter that he cut down his schedule by 15 days and came back home. Before he left, he had promised to return before her lovely daughter’s birthday, and as promised, he returned to his mansion in Lennox two days before her birthday.

Several carriages arrived in front of the mansion, led by Astolf Knights, the elite knights of northern Lennox. Duke Kling got out of the middle one in a row of carriages.

Marianne, eagerly pacing up and down at the entrance of the mansion, quickly glanced over a bunch of people. Even though there were only a few people moving around, her heart beat so fast that she could not find him. After sunset, the yard was lit by rows of lanterns, but what she saw was blurry. She realized after a long time that it was blurry because of the tears in her eyes.

“Oh, Marie. My lovely daughter!”

In the end, Duke Kling recognized her first.

She heard his familiar voice coming from far away.

‘Marie, my lovely daughter.’

She breathed in when she heard that familiar and kind voice of his. She wanted to run and hug him right away, but her feet wouldn’t move.

The wound on her told her this was not a dream or hallucination.

Nevertheless, she was stricken by the fear that her father coming nearer to her might be a ghost.

‘If I approach him, look at his eyes and hold his hands, will I disappear in a handful of ashes? What if my body is broken like the frozen soil that buried my father during that cold winter? Maybe I’m still dreaming a dream that I won’t wake up from while being rotten in that lake…’

She crumpled the collar of her dress without knowing what to do.

A light blue frill of her dress was squeezed out through her fragile hands.

“How have you been? I really pushed the horsemen hard to come back before your birthday,” said Duke Kling, who climbed up the stairs quickly while doing himself credit for his quick return.

“Marie? Why are you crying? Are you sick?”

He was pretty much surprised at the wet marks around her eyes.

In fact, it was not only Kling Duke, but also all of the people, including the chief maid, who were pretty much embarrassed at her reaction.

“Marie, what’s wrong with you? Huh? What happened? Mrs. Icell, what happened during my absence? Why didn’t you report it to me quickly? I clearly told you that you should report to me anything about her, right?”

“I’m sorry, sir. Except for what I reported to you regularly in letters, there has been nothing unusual or particular about her.”

Chief Maid, Countess Elgot, was restless while watching her face.

Given that there was no duchess and no successor, Marianne was the only woman that she had to take care of. Sometimes it was a greater sin to fail to meet her feelings than to rub the duke the wrong way.

“Dad!”

If Marianne had not diverted Duke Kling’s attention by calling him at that moment, Mrs. Icell and her maids would have been given a good scolding on the spot.

Fortunately, the duke immediately turned his eyes from the countess and looked at his daughter. He wiped her wet cheeks kindly.

“Come on, Marie. Tell me what happened. Why are you crying?”

“Dad, I… … . ”