BDTIE 07

Chapter 7

 The Woman Who Lived Twice and the Man Who Regained His Name

‘If I push Cliff just a little harder, Stella will die soon enough.’

Michelle smiled brightly as she climbed into the carriage bound for the temple.

It was a new temple Clifford had built specifically for Michelle, a devout follower of Goddess Ahala.

The priest Michelle had recommended had been appointed as the temple’s head priest.

It was a major event that had greatly elevated Michelle’s standing within the religious order.

“Welcome, Lady Michelle! I have been waiting for you!”

Temple Head Turruus spread his arms wide to welcome Michelle.

Turruus had risen to become one of the most powerful figures within the religious order thanks to Michelle.

That was also why the great nobleman humbled himself before her.

“I have prepared a special prayer service for you, Lady Michelle.”

“I’ll offer the prayer myself.”

“Hoho. Someone as blessed as you will surely receive the Goddess’s special favor. I have prepared the chapel for you. This way, please.”

Guided by Turruus, Michelle made her way to the underground chapel.

Every time Michelle passed by, the priests bowed deeply at the waist.

The servants dropped to their knees and pressed their foreheads to the floor.

Whenever she received treatment no less lavish than that accorded to the Empress herself, a thrill of ecstasy welled up from the depths of her heart.

‘I did the right thing by being reborn! If I hadn’t returned to the past, I never would have experienced this joy. I really am one of the chosen!’

No one would believe her, but Michelle was living her second life.

When Michelle, who had been hanged at the age of twenty-five, awoke again in the body of her twenty-two-year-old self, she thought she had been possessed by a ghost.

Not only had a dead person come back to life, she had traveled back into the past!

It was something that should have been impossible.

Everything was exactly as it had been in her previous life.

Emperor Clifford and Empress Stella.

Unlike them, her childhood friends born into noble families of exalted status, Michelle was nothing more than the daughter of a wet nurse.

Though technically a member of the lower nobility, she had received none of the education befitting a noblewoman.

That was because of her older sister, Marcella, who was more intelligent than Michelle.

For a poor rural noble family, educating two daughters was an impossible burden.

As the youngest daughter, Michelle had been destined to become the Emperor’s lady-in-waiting from the moment she was born.

Stella, on the other hand, was a beloved young lady adored by everyone.

Compared to Stella, who shone like the morning star, Michelle’s life had been as miserable as a rag meant to be thrown away after use.

‘The only way to defeat Stella is to win Cliff’s heart!’

In her previous life, Michelle had done everything she could to seduce Clifford, and at the age of twenty-two, she had finally become the Imperial Consort.

But the true tragedy began only after she became Imperial Consort.

「Did you really think you could stop His Majesty from being unfaithful? How foolish, Michelle.」

Stella’s condescending words had enraged her, but they had been true.

No matter how she dressed herself from head to toe according to Clifford’s tastes, she could never monopolize his love forever.

Clifford began turning his attention toward women who were younger and prettier than Michelle.

Was there anything more miserable than an Imperial Consort who had lost the Emperor’s favor?

Michelle didn’t even know how to build a faction that would support her.

Many people were jealous of Michelle simply because the daughter of a low-ranking rural noble family had become Imperial Consort.

It was those people who had reported Michelle’s minor offenses to Stella.

「It’s true, Stella! I did embezzle some of the budget, but I did it for Cliff!」

「How is buying dresses and jewelry sets for His Majesty’s sake?」

「It’s an Imperial Consort’s duty to serve His Majesty while looking her absolute best! And I only had those women in the harem beaten as punishment. They insulted me, the Imperial Consort!」

「And why did you poison the woman carrying His Majesty’s child?」

「If a mere sex slave gave birth to a royal heir, it would undermine discipline! I handled it for you so you wouldn’t have to dirty your hands!」

「Michelle. You’ve committed too many crimes. Spend the rest of your life in a convent.」

「Stella! We’re friends, aren’t we?」

「Perhaps we once were. But now, you’re merely a criminal who dares speak informally to the Empress.」

「I did everything for the sake of the Imperial Family!」

「If you refuse to repent for your crimes, I have no choice but to sentence you to death by hanging.」

「There’s no way Cliff would let me die! I’m his childhood friend, his lover, and his wife!」

「His Majesty has already granted his permission.」

Despite having devoted her entire life to Clifford, she had been betrayed.

Even Stella, whom Michelle had believed to be her friend, refused to protect her.

As a final desperate plea, Michelle begged Stella to talk with her alone in the garden, just as they had done when they were children.

Stella could not overcome the affection she still held for their past friendship.

And Michelle pushed Stella’s wheelchair into the Imperial Palace pond.

「If the Empress suddenly dies, the Imperial Consort will have to act in her place, won’t she? This is the only way I can survive. Now even Cliff won’t be able to depose me.」

But Stella’s life was stubbornly long.

The day after Stella regained consciousness, Michelle’s execution was finalized.

The moment the noose was placed around her neck, Michelle screamed.

「I’ll get my revenge even after I die! Goddess, punish the true wicked! Please answer my desperate prayer!」

In the empty underground chapel, Michelle knelt and clasped her hands together.

‘In this life, I will gather power. I will live as Your servant for the rest of my life, Goddess. Please, take care of me.’

At that moment, a deep, ominous voice emerged from a secret chamber behind the statue of the Goddess.

“Lady Michelle. How is the plan proceeding?”

The man speaking to Michelle did not reveal himself.

At first, Michelle had found it strange to converse with someone she could not see.

But by now, she was accustomed to everything.

Even secretly plotting with the mysterious man and exchanging information in secret had become routine.

“Everything is going perfectly. The Emperor is already in the palm of my hand. I’ll be able to eliminate the Empress soon.”

The childlike, innocent smile disappeared from Michelle’s face.

Her reply was cold.

“As expected of the one chosen by the Goddess.”

“Stella will soon have a major falling-out with Marquis Landesta.”

“What if you’re wrong again, Lady Michelle, just as you were about the Empress taking in that slave? What will you do then?”

“Are you doubting me?”

“I merely wish for Lady Michelle to become Empress as soon as possible.”

Thanks to her regression, Michelle knew what was going to happen in the future.

But there was no guarantee that another variable, like Stella’s sex slave, wouldn’t appear.

‘I gave up on becoming Imperial Consort. Becoming Empress is only natural now. Once Stella disappears, I’ll become Empress.’

The Goddess had sent her back in time so that she could punish the wicked.

Stella, who had looked down on her at every turn.

Clifford, who had toyed with her body and heart.

To take revenge on both of them, she needed to obtain even greater power.

“Have you found that book?”

“Not yet.”

“It can’t compare to me, who was chosen by the Goddess, but Stella possesses the Eyes of the Stars. It will be a serious problem if she finds the book first. She doesn’t seem to even know it exists yet, though.”

“The Goddess is waiting for Lady Michelle’s victory. Please be patient a little longer.”

After speaking with smug confidence, the man casually climbed through the window.

How had he managed to sneak into my bedchamber?

What were the knights guarding the place doing?

And what did he mean when he said he had remembered his name?

Several questions flashed chaotically through my mind before scattering again.

I was the one who should have been flustered, yet his voice was the one filled with urgency.

“Master. What happened over the past two days? Why have you become so thin?”

“Have you been very sick? What’s wrong with you?”

“Where’s the physician? Your lady-in-waiting? Why are you alone?”

He bombarded me with questions.

Then, as though troubled, he scratched the back of his head and tilted his head at me from so close that our noses nearly touched.

He was fidgeting like a boy who had just discovered an abandoned kitten.

“You look like you’d blow away if someone merely breathed on you…”

He reached a hand toward my cheek, then abruptly stopped.

He seemed to remember my warning not to touch me carelessly.

He tucked his hand behind his back and watched my expression nervously.

It was so absurd that the corners of my lips twisted upward.

He looked like a huge dog with its ears drooping and its tail wagging wildly.

It was absurd to think that I was supposed to be talking casually with a man who had been so outrageously unpredictable and disrespectful, despite my having decided to die.

“You said you’d remembered your name.”

“Is that really what’s important right now?”

“Then what is?”

“Your health, your life, and your heart.”

His voice was firm, filled with conviction.

I furrowed my brow.

“I’ve never really thought about my heart.”

“The heart is the most important thing. Once it’s wounded, it leaves a scar that can never be healed.”

“Is that something you learned from experience?”

“I don’t remember… but I think so.”

Without saying another word, he placed his right hand over the left side of his chest.

Like someone carrying a deep wound in that very place.

What kind of person had he been?

How had he lived all this time?

His neat black eyelashes and tightly pressed lips looked strangely sorrowful.

He was beautiful enough to make me want to touch him.

Before I realized what I was doing, I reached out a hand—

then pulled it back.

“Did you injure your hand?”

He raised his voice when he saw my hand mottled with purple bruises.

I’d hurt it while going to see him.

Embarrassed for no particular reason, I turned my head away.

“It’s nothing.”

“Nothing? Your little hand is practically crushed. Who did this?”

“Haah… Did Master secretly go off to a battlefield without telling me?”

“While riding a wheelchair?”

“Master seems like the sort of person who would do exactly that.”

“How ridiculous.”

A small laugh escaped me before I could stop it.

Then I frowned.

The laughter felt awkward.

I felt even more awkward for laughing in a situation like this.

He stared at me with a dazed expression before kneeling on one knee beside my bed.

“Keep thinking I’m ridiculous.”

“…What?”

“That expression you’re making right now. It’s so beautiful.”

The corners of his eyes curved gently.

He was a man with an uncanny talent for making people lower their guard with completely unexpected remarks.

He spoke informally to the exalted Empress.

He sneaked into the Empress’s bedchamber.

And now he wanted me to keep thinking he was ridiculous?

I pressed a hand against my forehead, enduring the strange dizziness.

Oddly enough, I didn’t feel feverish.

“You really are…”

“I’d like it if you’d call me by my name.”

“What is the name you remembered?”

“Enrick.”

His deep, low voice sank into my chest.

It was only a name.

Yet somehow, I felt as though I could never return to the way things had been before.

Now there was only one question left.

“Where is your homeland? Is it the Colonaatus Empire?”

After a brief silence, Enrick shook his head.

“I don’t know.”

It wasn’t the answer I’d hoped for.

I was disappointed.

I had wanted him to tell me that he wasn’t from the Colonaatus Empire.

Even though I had said I would drive him away, I was searching for a reason not to send Enrick away.

“My mother was a traveling merchant. I grew up wandering all over the continent.”

“What about your mother’s homeland?”

“I don’t know. But she called Colonaatus the land of our enemies. She wouldn’t even sell goods to Colonaatus people.”

For two hundred years, wars between the Angel Empire and the Colonaatus Empire had never truly ceased.

The people of Angel called the Colonaatus Empire the land of their enemies.

Countless people had lost their families to them.

I was one of them.

Could Enrick’s mother have been an Angelian?

I wanted to believe she was.

“Didn’t you say you had no parents?”

“I never had a father to begin with. My mother abandoned me when I was around seven. Can you really call people like that parents?”

A faint, bluish hatred surfaced on Enrick’s composed face before disappearing.

His parents seemed to have left a deep wound in his heart.

“My mother abandoned me and left me at a temple. They performed all kinds of experiments on me. That’s when I learned that my body heals quickly even after being injured.”

“They must have been testing divine power.”

“It hurt so much I wanted to die.”

“So you can feel pain.”

“I could back then.”

“What about now?”

At my question, Enrick smiled awkwardly.

“I forgot. If I kept feeling pain, I wouldn’t have survived.”

“When did you become a gladiator slave?”

“When I was thirteen, I think. After I escaped from the temple. I was so hungry that I’d follow anyone who offered me food.”

Enrick recalled his childhood with an almost emotionless expression.

It was a life far too cruel for a child to endure.

I had thought that I had lived like a slave, but compared to Enrick, I had been nothing more than a sheltered flower grown in a greenhouse.

“When I was around fourteen, I think someone came looking for me at the gladiator arena. I don’t remember anything after that.”

“Why did you only remember your name now?”

“If it weren’t for Master, I would have forgotten the name my mother gave me forever.”

His voice was filled with resentment.

“I spent two days racking my brain so hard that I couldn’t even eat meat.”

“Why?”

“Why? You really have to ask?”