The words that poured from Princess Camilla’s mouth came one after another like water bursting through a broken dam, leaving Evelyn frozen in shock for quite some time.

Then she finally understood what the Princess had meant by “the cleansing of House Ceres.”

“Was it you? Were you the one responsible for my father and my brother’s deaths?”

Princess Camilla gently waved the fan in her hand before Evelyn’s fiercely accusing gaze.

“So your eyesight has really returned?”

She soon laughed as though it didn’t matter.

“Since you’re going to die soon anyway, there’s no reason for me to keep it a secret. Yes. Everything happened according to my plan.”

“Then His Majesty the Emperor must be behind everything.”

“It would be a lie to say he had absolutely nothing to do with it…”

Princess Camilla lowered her eyes as if lost in thought. Then she suddenly raised her head and shouted,

“What are you all standing around for? Grab her!”

The butler and head maid, who had been watching from beside the bedroom door, approached Evelyn.

“Don’t put up any unnecessary resistance. Go peacefully and join your family.”

The butler restrained both of Evelyn’s arms so she couldn’t move and gave her a vicious smile.

“Let go of me! I said, let me go…!”

Evelyn struggled desperately to break free, but she couldn’t overpower the two of them on her own.

Watching her struggle, Camilla stepped forward.

She lightly pressed her lips against the small glass vial in her hand before speaking.

“I spent quite some time thinking about how to make your death as painful as possible. Then I thought, Raisin would be perfect.”

As Evelyn fought with every ounce of strength she had, Alexis finally came into view.

She didn’t know when he had arrived, but he was standing by the doorway, watching them.

“Alex! Please, help me…”

Evelyn hurriedly tried to call out to him.

But then she saw his eyes.

They were so utterly devoid of emotion that a chill ran down her spine.

He already knew what Camilla was about to do.

The realization made Evelyn’s gaze fall helplessly to the floor.

“I’ll… drink it myself.”

Her voice trembled.

“Surely you can at least allow me that much?”

If nothing else, she wanted to have a say in how she died.

Of course, even that small wish was denied.

“Open your mouth.”

Camilla gave the order curtly before roughly grabbing Evelyn by the jaw and forcing her mouth open.

“Ghk… Ghk…”

Even as she choked and struggled to breathe, Evelyn glared alternately at Princess Camilla and Alexis.

Camilla looked at her with an expression of satisfaction, as though she could finally breathe freely now that she had gotten what she wanted.

Alexis, meanwhile, looked down at Evelyn with calm, emotionless eyes.

Watching her final moments.

Watching Evelyn writhe in agony as blood spilled from her mouth.

***

When Evelyn realized that she was alive, that she hadn’t died, her mind filled with questions.

‘What… happened? I definitely died…’

Even more bewildering was the fact that she had returned to a time before her death.

After spending some time in confusion, Evelyn naturally came to accept reality.

Whether this was the afterlife or whether she had truly been given another chance at life didn’t matter much to her.

What consumed her thoughts was the possibility of undoing everything that had resulted from her own poor judgment.

She had failed to see Alexis’s true intentions until it was too late, the purpose behind the sweet words with which he had carefully lured her in and used her.

And because of that, she had caused her entire family to lose their lives as well.

‘Could I change the future?’

If the future unfolded the same way it had in her previous life, then perhaps she could.

If she had truly been given another chance, she simply needed to make the most of it.

Just as Evelyn reached that conclusion… 

“My lady, it’s Lena. May I come in?”

Creak.

The old door opened with the groan of rusty hinges.

Lena soon entered the bedroom carrying a tray of food. She wore a white apron over a black dress.

“Good morning.”

After greeting Evelyn, Lena placed the tray down on the table with a thud.

Evelyn simply watched as a watery soup and bread were placed before her.

“Is that all the food I’ve been allotted for today?”

“…Pardon?”

Lena looked puzzled by Evelyn’s question for a moment.

But she soon answered casually as she finished arranging the plate and utensils on the table.

“Yes, I suppose so. Just like always.”

Evelyn sat down and carefully examined the bread.

At first glance, it was difficult to notice anything unusual, but the cut edge was clearly uneven.

As though someone had simply torn it apart by hand.

For nobles, mealtimes were about more than merely satisfying hunger. They were supposed to be an opportunity to enjoy fine food.

Yet Evelyn’s meals usually consisted of nothing more than coarse bread made from a mixture of wheat and rye, along with thin, watery soup, instead of the high-quality white bread made from soft wheat that nobles were accustomed to eating.

Her meals were barely any different from those served to the servants.

It was a small but telling indication of how poorly Evelyn was treated by House Schneider.

Occasionally, she would receive a soft piece of bread soaked with meat juices.

But those pieces weren’t prepared for her.

They were leftovers from someone in the Schneider household.

The kind of food that might otherwise be tossed into the kitchen yard for the rat-catching cat or a stray dog.

Evelyn hadn’t realized the truth until much later.

“Evelyn, why are you so thin? You aren’t… sick, are you?”

Once, her older brother Shion had noticed Evelyn’s bony wrist peeking out from beneath her dress and questioned it.

Viscountess Schneider had offered the following excuse.

“Thin women are fashionable in high society these days. Evelyn is also old enough to make her debut soon.”

“Even so, this is…!”

When Shion showed his displeasure, Viscountess Schneider took Evelyn’s hand from the table and held it tightly.

“It seems your brother worries about you too much. For the sake of your health, you should start eating a little more from now on. What do you think, Evelyn?”

She made it sound as though Evelyn’s frail body was entirely the result of her own choice.

Shion was normally a calm and composed man, but that time, he became furious.

And once Shion lost his temper, he was not one to calm down easily.

That was why Evelyn couldn’t bring herself to contradict Viscountess Schneider.

She only saw Shion once every few months at best, sometimes with years passing between their meetings. He was taking a brief respite from the battlefield, and Evelyn didn’t want to burden him with worries about her as well.

“Take it away.”

“You’re not going to eat?”

Lena looked confused when Evelyn stood without touching the food.

“The bread.”

Evelyn glanced at it.

“It looks as though someone already ate it.”

“…Pardon? N-No, that couldn’t possibly be the case.”

Lena recoiled in alarm, taking a small step backward.

Evelyn stared at her quietly.

Perhaps unable to withstand that unwavering gaze, Lena swallowed nervously.

“…I-I’ll clear it away.”

Leaving Lena to hurriedly gather everything from the table, Evelyn sat before the dressing table and began brushing her hair.

“Are you going out?”

Lena, who was about to leave the bedroom carrying the tray, turned back toward Evelyn.

“Yes.”

“Where are you going?”

Evelyn stopped brushing her hair.

Slowly, she turned her head toward Lena.

“Speaking of which, Lena, where have you been since this morning?”

Lena hesitated before answering.

“Lady Beatrice sent for me…”

Lena was the maid Viscountess Schneider had assigned to Evelyn.

It was perfectly normal for a noble young lady to have one or two personal maids, but Lena prioritized the needs of the Schneider household over Evelyn’s.

In reality, it was likely the butler or head maid who paid Lena her wages.

And the person who paid their wages was Viscountess Schneider.

If one only looked at the immediate situation, it was easy to misunderstand whom Lena was supposed to be loyal to.

For a maid who worked in exchange for wages, following the person who controlled her livelihood was, in a sense, only natural.

But that was a case of seeing one side of the picture while completely missing the other.

The reason the people of House Schneider could live such luxurious lives was because of the financial support provided by House Ceres.

“I think I should take these to the kitchen and then go back to Lady Beatrice. I haven’t finished what she asked me to do earlier.”

Thinking back, Evelyn realized that the Evelyn of her previous life really had been a good girl.

She listened carefully to what everyone around her said and lived her life by accommodating them.

Whenever someone called her kind, she was happy.

It made her feel as though they had recognized the goodness within her.

But now she knew better.

A good person, or, more precisely, someone who was only good, was the perfect person to take advantage of.

She had realized it rather late, perhaps.

But one death had been enough to teach her.

Evelyn lowered her eyes and let out a quiet, thoughtful hum.

Then she called Lena’s name in a meaningful tone.

“Lena.”

“Yes?”

“I think you’ve misunderstood something.”