Cornelia returned to the drawing room long after the situation had finally settled.

Seeing only David sitting there alone, she looked puzzled.

“Why are you here by yourself?”

“Ah… something happened. The Count came downstairs, but then suddenly collapsed…”

“He collapsed? Suddenly? Why?”

“I still haven’t heard the reason.”

After saying that much, David let out a quiet sigh.

The image of the Count freezing in shock the moment their eyes met kept replaying in his mind.

‘Surely he didn’t collapse because of me.’

Today was the first time that David had seen the Count of Isle in person.

As the two men had never shared any kind of connection, everything David knew about Edwin came from rumors.

Logically, there was no reason for Edwin’s collapse to be connected to him in any way.

And yet, the feeling remained, sitting heavily and uncomfortably in his chest.

Perhaps it was because he had just witnessed someone gasping for breath as though they were dying right in front of him.

As David tried to push this thought aside, Cornelia quietly took a seat beside him.

“What’s with that expression? Did the Count look shocked after seeing you or something?”

David’s eyes widened.

“…How did you know?”

Cornelia laughed at his reaction.

Despite his stiff appearance, David had an honest and gentle side to him.

Scooting closer until she was pressed against him, Cornelia spoke.

“I can tell just by looking at your face. Everything’s written all over it.”

“Usually people can’t tell…”

“That’s because no one watches you as closely as I do. Do you have any idea how often I look at you?”

At those words, David’s face turned red.

He was always embarrassed by things like this.

Turning his gaze away slightly, he hurriedly changed the topic.

“Anyway, everyone was startled. The Count suddenly started gasping like he couldn’t breathe properly…”

“His breathing? He couldn’t breathe?”

“Yeah. It happened all of a sudden. The doctor came and managed to calm him down, though.”

As David explained what happened, he shook his head slowly.

Even now, the memory remained vivid.

Cornelia suddenly asked.

“Did you see how the doctor calmed the Count down?”

“Hm? Ah, right. It was actually pretty strange. He brought over a paper bag and had him breathe into it, and little by little he started calming down.”

“Really? Then it must’ve been hyperventilation.”

“Hyperventilation?”

It was a word he had never heard before.

Cornelia smiled brightly as she explained.

“It’s when someone breathes in too much air, to the point where it becomes more difficult to breathe. Sometimes people even faint, but apparently it isn’t truly dangerous because you’re not actually suffocating.”

“There’s really something like that? Still, I’m glad it’s not dangerous.”

The Countess looked extremely frightened.

Just as he reached her, Cornelia moved and sat on David’s lap.

Startled, he glanced towards the entrance to the drawing room.

“Cornelia, if you suddenly do this…”

Cornelia bit his ear hard enough to hurt.

“Ow.”

David grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back slightly.

“What are you doing? That hurts.”

“Are you seriously going to worry about your first love in front of your fiancée?”

Puffing her lips slightly, she looked almost jealous.

Flustered, David hurriedly replied.

“It’s not like that. It was just admiration when we were kids.”

“Liar. It was more than admiration, wasn’t it? Even when I first approached you, you acted completely indifferent.”

“I couldn’t help it back then. I was just flustered because you were being so forward with me…”

“First love somewhere else, suspicious personality too… People really need to know that David Nathan is even more aloof than Cornelia Isle.”

She laughed softly as she spoke.

Her tone made it clear that her earlier sulk had indeed been just that.

Though the teasing was rooted in truth.

After all, David had spent a long time being guarded around Cornelia.

“You keep teasing me.”

David wrapped his arms around her.

His embrace was firm yet completely comforting.

Cornelia remained in his arms, laughing quietly, for quite some time.

Then she asked.

“So, how was it today?”

“How was what?”

“You met the Countess.”

“It was nice seeing her again. Talking about old memories was nice too. But there’s a reason we came here in the first place.”

Relaxing his hold slightly, David pressed a kiss to her cheek.

“I’m going to marry you. I’m your fiancé, and I love you.”

Cornelia smiled softly and kissed him on the cheek.

It should have been a romantic moment.

Yet even then, her thoughts drifted elsewhere.

What remained vividly etched in her mind was something that no longer existed in this world: Her own death.

Cornelia’s death had been both meaningless and horrifying.

While travelling abroad, she had been murdered by thieves for money and valuables.

It was all because her father had driven her there.

‘Even though the scandals worsened because of the Count of Isle, Father chose to cast me out first.’

She had returned to a time even earlier than when she had died. She had died at the age of twenty-three, but awoken at twenty-one.

‘At first, I thought I’d gone mad.’

This was an unusual past.

It was a time when the Count of the Isle had disappeared.

Although the days were similar to those she remembered, they were also subtly different.

When she came to, she desperately tried to understand what was happening.

She had no desire to die a second time.

Fortunately, the Countess had withdrawn deep into the territory of the Isle and David had not yet encountered her.

‘I approached David in order to stop him and the Countess from becoming lovers…’

Had the two of them never become romantically involved, the scandal would never have spiraled out of control.

Had that happened, she would never have been exiled to a foreign country.

Driven by this thought, Cornelia approached David with the utmost sincerity, doing everything she could to win his heart.

She never wanted to experience the future she had already endured.

‘Thanks to that, I got engaged to David and ended up here.’

She had never once regretted it. Although their relationship had initially been out of necessity, she now genuinely loved David.

Simply being beside him made her feel steady again.

The world she now inhabited was completely different to the one she still carried within her.

David had become her lover.

Each time she acknowledged this fact, the memory of her death at twenty-three faded a little more.

At least it had, until she heard the rumor that Edwin had returned.

‘I never imagined the Edwin who returned would actually be that Edwin…’

Cornelia was certain that the Edwin who came back carried the same memories she did.

The hyperventilation he suffered after seeing David was decisive proof.

‘At the Countess’s funeral, he truly looked insane.’

The funeral itself was a complete disaster, consumed by utter chaos.

Yet that paled in comparison to Edwin’s madness.

Whenever he was sober, he would either scream or burst into tears.

At the slightest trigger, he would start to hyperventilate.

The doctor practically followed him everywhere, paper bags constantly at the ready.

It was Edwin who created scandal after scandal, yet it was she who was forced to continue living abroad.

Ultimately, she remained outside the Empire until the day she died.

‘People really are strange. Now that I know he’s that Edwin, I suddenly want to delay the wedding.’

If Edwin found out that she and David were getting married, he would be more enthusiastic about it than anyone else.

The person he feared most would finally be out of his life. The thought of Edwin finding peace, however, twisted something unpleasant inside her.

“You know, David… about announcing our marriage. Maybe… we should take it slowly?”

“Why? You were the one insisting you absolutely wanted us married by next year.”

“That’s true, but…”

She was desperate to marry by the following year because she would turn twenty-three after that.

In her previous life, she had died before her twenty-fourth birthday.

If she failed to create a different future for herself, she might die again.

Wanting to erase that lingering fear, she chose marriage.

‘When I heard Edwin suddenly returned, I became even more anxious and wanted to marry as quickly as possible…’

Now that things had turned out this way, however, hesitation set in.

As Cornelia sat there, clearly conflicted and unable to decide what to do, David smiled faintly.

It was the first time he had ever seen her so uncertain since they had met.

“So what do you want to do? We came all the way here to ask for permission to use this place for the announcement. Should we just go back?”

If they announced their engagement in spring, they could get married in autumn.

Before her twenty-third birthday, she would begin a whole new life in a completely different place.

It would be a future utterly unlike the one she remembered. It would be a world in which she would never again live in fear of history repeating itself.

The same would likely apply to Edwin as well.

‘I hate that thought. Part of me wants to stay engaged like this and let Edwin suffer in anxiety over David for as long as possible…’

However, for that to happen, David would need to visit the estate frequently.

He would also need to see the Countess regularly.

That would be far too dangerous.

After all, the David in her memories had truly loved Richel.

It’s incredibly common for admiration to turn into love.

‘If the two of them keep meeting, there’s no telling how things might change… I shouldn’t gamble everything for the sake of petty revenge.’

Straightening herself, Cornelia finally spoke.

“I think it’s better if I just marry you quickly.”

David lightly kissed her forehead.

It was his way of saying he understood.

Cornelia remained still for quite some time simply because she liked gestures like that.

“Ah, right. I went to see Father earlier, remember? While I was there, I brought up the marriage too.”

“Really? If you were going to talk about that as well, I should’ve gone with you.”

Cornelia smiled as though trying to reassure him.

In truth, however, things had not gone very well.

James despised it when people disrupted the hierarchy like this.

The moment he saw her arrive unannounced, his expression darkened frighteningly, and he flew into a rage.

And yet, she had been able to endure it.

Cornelia no longer feared James.

‘Because I learned there was no point in living as the obedient daughter.’

James loved his daughter, but he never respected her.

He only cared about her according to his own standards and judgements. Whenever something else became more important, he would sacrifice her without hesitation.

There was no point in trying to gain the approval of someone like that.

So she informed James of her decision regarding the marriage.

“We’re planning to announce our marriage next spring.”

“A marriage announcement? The Nathan Viscounty isn’t in a position for that.”

Marriage announcements were usually held at the estate of the titled family involved.

The problem was the current state of the Nathan estate.

If they waited for the repairs to be completed and held the announcement there, it would have to be postponed until the following autumn.

Even under the shortest possible timeline, at least six months typically passed between the announcement and the wedding itself.

This meant that if the announcement were delayed until the following autumn, the wedding would not take place until the year after.

“That’s why I intend to ask the Count to lend us this estate. For the marriage announcement.”

It was not uncommon to borrow the estate of a titled relative for such an occasion.

There was nothing unusual about what she said. The only strange thing was that she hadn’t discussed any of it with James beforehand.

“You dare make plans like this without even consulting your parents? Return home immediately!”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. David and I have already discussed everything.”

“You dare inform me of your decision?!”

Enraged, he slapped Cornelia across the face.

Despite it being the first time he had ever hit her, Cornelia remained calm.

She had endured far worse treatment than this before.

In fact, she took a strange sense of satisfaction from the thought that she had forced him to suffer the humiliation of being informed only after the decision had been made.

However, because of this, she ended up staying away longer than expected, waiting for the redness on her cheek to fade.

Cornelia turned towards David with a soft smile.

“I finished talking with Father. I explained the marriage to him properly as well.”

“And the announcement ceremony?”

“He said he understood.”

That wasn’t a lie.

James was furious, but ultimately accepted her decision.

After all, he didn’t want his daughter to remain unmarried for another year.

Recalling that moment, Cornelia laughed softly.

“Father said he’d personally ask the Count for us. So I think we can just stay here and enjoy ourselves.”

Enjoy ourselves.

Thinking of both her father and Edwin, Cornelia smiled once more.