If only I had a husband to hold me right now.

“……”

My beloved. Damon, how am I supposed to find you again? What am I supposed to do now?

The thought crept in that she might never find her way back to her own body. She wanted to cry without a sound, but a thin, metallic whimper escaped her lips without her meaning it. Reality grew distant and her eyes fell shut on their own, and the hot tears that followed traced down her cheeks and dripped from her chin.

But then.

“There you are.”

A voice that sounded like Damon’s drifted from somewhere and seemed to brush against her ear.

‘I must miss him so much I’m hearing things.’

She missed his voice, warm and tender, whispering love meant only for her.

“Come here.”

The moment the owner of that voice took her hand, Hailey knew in an instant it was no hallucination. She opened her eyes and lifted her head at the sound of Damon’s voice again.

“…Damon?”

“I’ve been looking everywhere. Did you wait long?”

She thought at first it must be a dream, but he was really, truly standing before her. He even held her hand, standing there looking straight at her.

What on earth was happening? This really isn’t a dream?

Hailey’s mouth fell open in shock. She met his gaze in a daze, and he gazed quietly back at her.

“Were you crying? What’s wrong, what happened?”

Damon’s deep, intent gaze traveled slowly from her brows down to her nose, her lips, and her chin. He looked at her disheveled state with worried eyes. Every time the wind blew, his silver hair caught the light and shimmered beautifully.

His violet eyes, which moved with a quiet calm, settled on her left eye. Whenever he looked at her this intently, Hailey always wanted to bury her face against him.

Why is Damon here? Didn’t he always go to the Hersen ducal residence around this time to walk me home? And right now I must look like Marianne.

She was so far gone that she didn’t even notice when Damon reached out and wiped away her tears. It was only the rough sensation of dried tears being brushed away that snapped her back to her senses.

“Oh, I…”

“Let’s go.”

Damon led Hailey deeper and deeper into the undergrowth. She watched his back as he walked ahead in silence at a quick pace, and a thought formed in her mind. That he recognized her, the one who returned. That meeting the soul of his one and only wife overwhelmed him with emotion he couldn’t contain. That just as her own memories remained after turning back time, he kept his memories intact as well.

‘God hasn’t abandoned me after all.’

But… that was a foolish thought.

“Rianne, I love you.”

The moment she heard those words, Hailey understood with absolute certainty.

To be deceived by something as trivial as love.

The flutter of meeting her husband again already rode away on the wind and was gone. He was… having an affair even before their marriage!

Turning Damon’s confession over in her mind, Hailey gently pushed away his lips as he leaned in. That name, ‘Rianne,’ had clearly just come out of that mouth. Their eyes met and he moved toward her again, but she turned her head in an instant and pulled away.

‘Right…’

Thinking about it coldly, there was no reason he would recognize her. She never told him about the Compass of Time, and the soul swap with Marianne…

There’s no way that bastard would know, is there? That f*cking bastard?

“Rianne?”

“Damon.”

Hailey stared at him with a face gone rigid.

Was he having an affair even before the wedding? Wasn’t today the day he went on a date with me and walked me all the way to the ducal residence?

Without realizing it, Hailey took a step back, and on the sloping ground she stumbled.

“Rianne!”

Because of that, she had no choice but to let herself be caught by Damon’s hands again.

“Damon, do you really love me?”

“Of course. Are you angry? Was I too late?”

The hand resting at her waist, the scent that reached her every time the wind blew, all of it was familiar and his… yet she felt utterly lost about how to make sense of any of this.

“Call my… name.”

“What?”

“Say my name again.”

“Marianne?”

“That’s right. My name is… Marianne Schrant…”

Damon steadied Hailey again, and stroked her face. Then he gripped her faintly trembling hand tightly and kissed her once more. A little deeper than before, a little closer. It was a struggle not to lose herself entirely, but Hailey’s eyes snapped open.

Get a grip. When did Marianne and Damon become involved like this? If they were already like this long before my marriage, did it continue even after we wed? This shameless man asked me on a date and then came running to Marianne to whisper that he loves her?

“Rianne?”

Seeing Damon’s calm eyes only made her more confused. A fierce urge rose in her to find out whether he deceived both her and Marianne, or whether Damon and Marianne together deceived her.

“Rianne, are you just going to stand there? Even now that we’re finally alone?”

Alone, so what do you plan to do?

Hearing the nickname for this woman come out of Damon’s mouth over and over, Hailey felt like her already-ringing head took another blow.

‘Wait. Damon isn’t the only one who deceived me.’

The gossip papers were loud during this period. Wasn’t this the time when rumors about the Hersen duke’s daughter and the Hoople duke’s son were splashed across the front pages? Those were rumors about Hailey and Damon.

‘Then Marianne also knew Damon was seeing me, and still…’

“Rianne?”

“Stop. Stop calling me that.”

She waved her hand and pulled away from his touch, her head too full to think. Damon, his hand left reaching for nothing, ran it uselessly through his own hair and cleared his throat. Hailey found it more and more outrageous the more she thought about it.

‘To think that with the same hand he touched Marianne’s face, he also stroked mine.’

The moment that realization hit her again, a fire suddenly blazed up inside her and fury surged through her.

I came back using the compass just to bring you back to life! And ended up trapped in this strange body because of it!

“Rianne, what’s gotten into you. Are you very angry? You’re even dropping formality…”

She barely swallowed the words that rose to the tip of her tongue, but her fingertips trembled, and her whole body shook.

Oh, right, she used formal speech with him? Then I’ll match it for now.

“Yes. I am very angry. More than you could possibly imagine.”

Even so, Damon, looking pleased for some reason, curved a faint smile and opened his arms slightly.

Oh, he wants to hug me, does he?

“You’re cute.”

“…!”

What did he just say?

His low, warm voice made her heart plummet. She couldn’t believe this was really the Damon she knew. She stepped back far more than the one step he took toward her, but tears blurred her vision and she couldn’t stay on her feet where she stood. The words he said while looking at her, the countless whispered words of love… they were never meant for Hailey alone.

“You’re truly the worst.”

She should have watched Damon’s face fall a little longer.

“What? Rianne? Rianne!”

His voice came from behind her, but Hailey clenched her fist and ran out into the bright, crowd-filled street. He feared the public eye, and with the rumors linking him to Duke Hersen’s daughter right now…

‘He won’t want another scandal.’

In other words, this street full of nobles and commoners mingling for the festival was the perfect hiding place for Hailey.

“Look over there! His Highness the Crown Prince is here!”

“Wow, he’s so handsome.”

“Is he even human? He really must be of divine blood.”

“See, I told you we should have come on the first day too! He’s someone you simply can’t capture in a painting!”

The Crown Prince’s arrival caused a commotion, and no one paid Hailey any attention. What was she supposed to believe going forward, could she ever return to her original body, and even if she did, would anything be different… her mind was a tangle as she stood watching the procession with tears streaming silently down her face, when a familiar face appeared behind the Crown Prince.

“Wow, it’s the lady!”

“The lady?”

‘The lady, could that mean… this can’t be, that’s me?!’

Hailey, the daughter of the Hersen ducal family. She was ‘her,’ but could no longer call herself ‘her,’ and she was walking with confident strides behind the royal procession. Showing off the brilliant golden hair and golden eyes that once belonged to ‘her.’

“You know, the Hersen ducal family has fraternal twins. That’s one of them. They say she served as the princess’s lady-in-waiting.”

“Ah, the family famous for their golden hair? Wow, I heard they were all stunning, but she’s even more than the rumors say.”