TVLT 04

Chapter 04

“How can we bring Lawrence down somehow? But the difference in our forces is simply too great. My men and I know nothing but military affairs. We have no idea how to close that gap.”

Artizea stared at him blankly.

Cedric’s face, which she had thought looked like a statue, now seemed to burn like the blazing sun.

He did not raise his voice. Yet to Artizea, it sounded as if he were shouting.

“I know that you are a wise person.”

“……”

“You may not have had the judgment to choose the right master, but I believe you were blinded by your love for your family. You used dirty schemes and tricks, but I know you did it all for Lawrence.”

“……”

“I cannot think of anyone but you who can turn this situation around and overcome it. Marchioness Rosan, I need your strength.”

Cedric lowered his head.

But perhaps he thought that was not enough. He soon knelt down and bowed until his forehead nearly touched the ground.

Artizea was horrified.

She flailed her limbs, but she could barely even sit upright, and she ended up falling over. The steward quickly caught her.

Cedric raised his head. His black eyes seemed to hold fire, like red-hot coals.

“You have no family affection left for Lawrence now. After seeing the Empire, do you not regret what you have done?”

“……”

“I know that you are a schemer, but you are not a devil. You are different from Lawrence. Have you never thought about doing something good with the power you gained through all those schemes?”

Artizea shook her head.

What right did she have to regret anything?

What people said was true.

If there were a witch who was not a devil herself but had made a pact with one, that witch would be her.

Even if her heart had changed, she no longer had a tongue with which to speak or hands with which to write.

Her body was exhausted from pain and blood loss. She could barely think clearly.

“Marchioness Rosan, you still have your sharp mind. You can hold a pen in your mouth and write, and even if you need someone else’s help, there must be a way for you to communicate. You are still alive. If you have the determination and the will, you can do anything. I need you.”

Artizea stared at him for a long while. Her vision blurred.

It was absurd.

Even Lawrence, to whom she had devoted her entire life, had never told her that he needed her.

Artizea knew Cedric.

Because he had been her enemy, she knew him better than anyone else in the world.

The resentment he held in his heart must have been deeper than a valley filled with flowing lava. The people around him were probably begging him to have her sliced apart alive.

And yet he was kneeling before her.

All for the sake of the greater cause.

But once again, Artizea could only shake her head.

What she was good at was framing people, winning their favor, assassinating them, and plotting schemes. Strategy and military tactics had never been her field.

She could not accomplish what Cedric himself had been unable to do.

Even if she truly were a brilliant strategist, there was no way to overcome a situation where the balance of power had already shifted this far.

“I see.”

Cedric seemed to understand why Artizea had shaken her head.

“Even you cannot do anything about it anymore.”

He spoke bitterly.

Tears fell from Artizea’s eyes.

She had vowed not to regret anything until the day she died. She had made that decision from the moment she first stained her hands with blood.

Even if she regretted it now, could she ever be forgiven?

If the dead wanted someone to blame, then let them blame the fate that had made them be born into a world like this.

Other than newborn babies, who in this world could truly be without sin?

No.

Even newborn babies often became the cause of sin simply because they had been born.

Just like her.

And Lawrence, too.

And yet she regretted it.

The regrets that had quietly piled up like dust in the deepest part of her heart had finally gathered into a massive stone, pounding against her heart.

“I am sorry for asking too much of you.”

Cedric stood up.

“The military camp is not in good condition, so I cannot offer you proper treatment. But I will send someone to take you to the countryside soon. I hope you can spend the rest of your life in peace.”

Artizea could not say anything. She only looked up at him with tears streaming down her face.

That night, she lay curled up alone inside the tent and thought.

A way to set everything right.

There was no such thing.

Not in her current state.

But in truth, Artizea did have a way.

She crawled over and managed to sit up on the mattress.

She had not wanted to use this method.

Because she was a sinner.

She did not think she had sinned against Lawrence. But she was still a sinner.

So she had intended to simply die and rot, carrying with her all the evil she had committed for Lawrence.

But……

‘There is no strategy. But there is a way.’

If the balance of power had shifted too far to be reversed, then she only needed to return to the time before it had shifted.

Artizea bit down on the half of her tongue that remained. Then she drew a magic circle on the mattress.

Magic had disappeared from this world long ago.

However, the method of casting magic had still been passed down.

Highly concentrated blood, a precisely drawn magic circle, and human sacrifice.

In truth, the greatest reason magic had disappeared was not the issue of human sacrifice, but the fact that so few people could draw a magic circle accurately.

The letters of a magic circle had to be written in an ancient language.

Anyone might be able to copy one, but very few people could adapt and use it as they wished.

Artizea could.

She was one of the few people who could freely handle the ancient language that had long since become a dead language.

She had also studied magic circles before, intending to use them for wicked purposes.

The bleeding would not stop easily, but Artizea bit her tongue several more times and chewed the inside of her mouth until blood flowed.

To write with the blood from her blunt, damaged tongue, she had to draw the magic circle quite large.

She drew the magic circle throughout the night.

There would be no second chance, so she had to get it right the first time.

At some point, her vision began to blur. To keep herself conscious, she bit her tongue even harder.

At last, just before dawn, she finished drawing the circle. But the blood she had lost was too much, and she collapsed onto the magic circle.

‘A perfectly fitting human sacrifice.’

Artizea weakly closed her eyes.

The magic circle, having consumed her life, began to glow blue.

Cedric noticed the strange phenomenon inside the tent and rushed in. He stared at her in shock.

But the magic circle, which had already begun to activate, would not give up its sacrifice.

A surge of electricity erupted, preventing anyone from approaching.

‘In the next life, I hope you achieve what you wish for.’

That was Artizea’s final thought.

The magic soon became a pillar of light that reached the edge of the sky, splitting the night.

When she opened her eyes, it was the middle of the night.

Artizea wiggled her feet beneath the blanket.

Then she moved her hands.

Finally, she touched her tongue with her fingers.

“Was the interpretation of the magic… wrong?”

She said the words aloud.

Her voice came out perfectly as well.

The ancient words she had written on the magic circle meant, 《Taking the life of Artizea Rosan, in return, turn back time.》

So Artizea had naturally expected to die.

But she was alive.

There was not even a trace of pain in her body.

Only the regret that had been pounding against her heart like a heavy stone still remained, making her heart race.

With a strange feeling, she raised her hand high.

Moonlight slipped through the window and turned her fingernails blue.

Artizea silently stared at them for a while, then pulled back the sheets and climbed out of bed.

She lit the lamp and went to look at herself in the mirror.

“I’m back.”

The girl reflected in the mirror had bright platinum-blonde hair and turquoise eyes.

She touched her cheek with her fingertips.

Her own face felt unfamiliar.

Had she really looked like this?

She suddenly realized that she had not cared about herself in a very long time.

She had hardly looked in a mirror.

She hated having a face that looked different from Lawrence’s and Milaera’s.

Milaera would often complain that Artizea was so ugly that she could not stand looking at her.

Lawrence rarely even looked directly at her.

Well, who would pay attention to the face of a sibling?

Perhaps only someone like Artizea, who had been forced to take care of everything from Lawrence’s clothes to his problems with women.

Artizea turned away from the mirror and returned to the bedroom.

She had never intended to come back.

Her purpose had been to turn back time and give Cedric one more chance.

Even without her, Lawrence’s influence would weaken considerably.

Milaera was excellent at pleasing the Emperor, but she was impatient by nature. No matter what scheme she devised, she always left traces behind.

Lawrence was not the type to plot conspiracies in the first place.

Besides, Artizea had originally been the only one who kept Cedric in check.

From the time he was still merely the Emperor’s nephew, before he had risen to prominence, Artizea had watched him carefully and eventually cut off both his hands and feet.

So if she did not keep him in check, Cedric would probably be able to preserve his strength until the decisive moment.

Even after all the damage she had inflicted on him, had he not survived until the very end and resisted Lawrence?

‘But I came back anyway.’

Then she had to do something.

Whether the magic circle had gone wrong or there was some other reason, there had to be a reason she had survived.

「I need your strength.」

Artizea remembered Cedric lowering his head before her.

A sharp pain struck her chest, as if a stone had been driven into it, and she quietly placed a hand over her heart.

‘In exchange for kneeling before a devil, you will gain a devil who will dirty her hands in your place.’

It felt like a vow.

Artizea walked over to the desk.

There was a diary at the bottom of the desk drawer. She took it out and opened it to the last page.

《June 2, Imperial Year 482》

Eight days earlier, Artizea had turned eighteen.

She still had nearly two years left before she turned twenty, the age when she could inherit the title of Marchioness Rosan.