The Lucid family was a beloved house of the main deity Hagios, who contributed to the founding of the Artzen Empire.

Of course, in reality, only the ancestor Lucid who reportedly saved Hagios’s life long ago received his affection, but that was what was generally known to the public.

Perhaps because of this background.

Melissa, the last remaining bloodline of the family, obtained many things naturally from birth.

“She’s the heir of Lucid!”

“My goodness. You look so beautiful today too!”

“May you always be healthy!”

Silver hair that everyone admired.

The mysterious eyes with harmonious pink and purple hues, the symbol of the Lucid family. A frail but caring mother who always worried about her.

And even a reliable patron—the Shortiras ducal family, who had been looking after the family since the time of their ancestor.

The blessing of the Artzen Empire.

Many people called Melissa that.

A sparkling life like a fairy tale protagonist destined to receive the power of precognition in the future. Melissa never doubted that her life would have a common ending like “and they lived happily ever after.”

Not knowing that this seemingly brilliant fantasy would vanish like bubbles the moment her mother, the previous Lucid, passed away.

Right at this moment.

“The funeral is being held simply at the duke’s residence. All the empire’s celebrities are there. Behave properly until the funeral ends.”

Duke Shortiras, Lionel Shortiras, dressed in black from head to toe, spat out the same words as six years ago.

The memory from that time was still vivid in her mind.

Back then, she had been dragged to attend the funeral without any explanation about her mother’s death, and Lionel’s attitude, which had always been kind to her, had suddenly changed.

It would be strange to forget such an experience.

Why was the scene from that time unfolding before her now?

‘Am I perhaps dead?’

She had read somewhere that people recall their most intense memories before they die.

‘But something seems odd about this assumption.’

Melissa looked around briefly in bewilderment before pausing.

Her head naturally tilted downward.

And she saw.

Hands and feet smaller than those in her memory.

‘……What is this?’

She couldn’t speak properly due to confusion.

What on earth was happening?

This felt exactly like……

‘I’ve traveled back to the past.’

Maybe she wasn’t dead yet. Had she gone mad from too much pain? Or was she dreaming?

After pondering briefly, Melissa shook her head.

There were still strange aspects that contradicted those possibilities.

Lionel’s cold eyes and the soft touch of the office sofa against her fingertips were too vivid.

And decisively, there was a reason she had to accept this as reality.

“Ugh.”

The familiar feeling of a knife piercing her head.

It was the exact pain she had felt when she first received her power. This clear sensation could never be a dream.

Then perhaps…

‘Is all of this actually real?’

What happened when she tried to die?

Melissa’s face turned deathly pale.

Just then, people’s voices leaked in through the window.

They were mourning the death of the previous Lucid and praying for the promising future of Melissa, who would grow up to be the blessing of the Artzen Empire.

The voices were quite loud, causing even Lionel, who had been watching her, to turn his head in that direction.

“May the light of the deity always be with you!”

“Help the Artzen Empire prosper!”

Melissa listened to those voices in a daze.

Come to think of it, the monsters’ howls that had been splitting her ears until moments ago were no longer audible.

The faces of the people visible through the window looked sad, but too calm for there to have been a monster invasion. The atmosphere surrounding them was peaceful as well.

Only then did Melissa accept that all of this was real. She had truly returned to six years ago, when she inherited the precognition after her mother’s death.

Back to before everything went wrong.

“Ah.”

She let out a small groan at the renewed sharp pain, and Lionel’s gaze fell on her.

“It seems the power of precognition has been properly transferred.”

He smiled at Melissa with satisfaction.

“I’ll tell you what you need to know from now on. I’ll only say this once, so listen carefully.”

Lionel slowly walked over and stood before her.

“Five hundred years ago, your ancestor, Lucid, made a magical contract with our family. It was an agreement to provide us with necessary information in exchange for protecting their safety.”

Melissa slowly raised her head as she listened to words she had already committed to memory until her ears bled.

“And that contract applies to you too, as Lucid’s descendant.”

Lionel’s shadow, with the sunlight at his back, approached as if it would devour her. She felt like she would be swallowed by that deep darkness.

Lionel Shortiras had always been an enormous and frightening person to her. That feeling never diminished, even until Melissa left the duke’s residence for the temple for her final precognition.

She remained small and insignificant before him.

“It would be better not to resist or try to escape. Don’t think about revealing this elsewhere. The price for breaking the contract is quite severe.”

She knew.

She had already experienced it to the point of revulsion in her previous life.

Melissa remembered the tremendous pain she had felt when she first escaped from the duke’s residence.

‘Though not as painful as the final precognition, it was quite agonizing.’

Confused by the pain she had never experienced before, she panicked and eventually returned to the duke’s residence.

That was when it began. When Melissa started living in captivity.

Lionel gave Melissa nothing but a few sips of water for a week after she had run away. Since he couldn’t violate the contract to “protect the Lucid family,” he provided just enough to keep her from dying.

Of course, that didn’t mean Melissa remained docile.

She diligently planned escapes, researched ways to perform precognition without pain, and even begged Lionel to break the magical contract.

But it was all useless.

After several attempts, Melissa gave up trying to escape from Lionel and only waited for Edgar, who had gone to the Magic Tower, to return. She endured by believing the sweet letters he sent.

She believed that the Edgar she knew would come to rescue his beloved fiancée.

Though it was all in vain…

‘Wait. How was I able to die in the first place?’

Melissa’s body stiffened at this unexpected realization.

Originally, the Lucid family couldn’t take their own lives. Their bodies would become paralyzed the moment they tried to die.

No suicide. Must bear at least one child.

These were additions to the magical contract made by the ducal family to ensure the power of precognition would continue.

She had been too overwhelmed by pain at the time of her death to realize it, but thinking about it now, it made no sense.

Perhaps…

‘Maybe the deity granted my wish.’

She had begged so many times to be saved.

After those desperate prayers, the deity had listened to Melissa. This was an opportunity to undo everything that had been broken.

‘If I remain passive, my future will be the same as before my death.’

She couldn’t endure such a terrible situation again.

She needed to escape from Lionel’s grasp and from everyone who would cling to her in the future.

‘First, I need to break the magical contract.’

But how?

There was no place in the duke’s residence beyond Lionel’s sight.

To discover a way to break the contract, she would need various materials and research, but such conspicuous actions would surely alert Lionel. She needed a place beyond his reach.

Could she leave the duke’s residence, even briefly?

‘It seems impossible to do alone. What should I do?’

Stay calm.

Though she felt like crying, Melissa took a deep breath and barely held back. She had no intention of wasting time just desperately praying as she had in her previous life.

If it’s difficult alone, find someone to help.

Fortunately, quite a few people had entered the duke’s residence. This was the funeral of none other than Lucid. As Lionel had mentioned earlier, notable figures whose names everyone would recognize must have attended in large numbers.

Though they were cautious of the Shortiras ducal family, whose influence exceeded even the imperial family’s, many coveted the power of precognition.

With the right negotiation, she might be able to leave the duke’s residence briefly. This funeral was her opportunity.

Moreover, after the funeral, Melissa would be confined to the duke’s residence under the pretext of protecting Saintess Lucid. And after coming of age, she would be moved to the temple for large-scale precognition.

Though she still couldn’t believe it and her mind was in chaos, one thing was clear.

If she missed this chance, it would be over.

“……May I go see Mother?”

Melissa deliberately asked in a tearful voice.

At this point, Melissa was a young girl who had just lost her mother, so such a reaction was appropriate.

In fact, she had reacted this way in her previous life as well.

“Go quietly.”

Lionel, who had been briefly considering whether there was anything to handle before the funeral, soon gave permission. He clearly judged that even if he let her go, there was nothing she could do alone.

Melissa rose from her seat, shedding a few tears. As soon as she left the room, she began to run.

‘I need to find someone quickly.’

Though the pressure weighed her down, Melissa didn’t stop and ran hard because time was short. She didn’t stop even when her body ached all over.

This was nothing compared to what she would face in the future.

‘Just a little more……’

Gritting her teeth and running, she could see the building where the funeral was being held right in front of her.

Melissa quickly reached for the door that seemed just a few steps away. But contrary to her expectation, the door opened before her hand could touch it.

She froze at the figure that appeared through the gap in the door.

The other person also stopped with the door half-open upon discovering Melissa.

“Melissa?”

A youthful but very familiar voice, unlike the one in her memory.

It was Edgar.