1. Why Must It Be Marriage?

Medric Archild regained consciousness in a familiar bedroom. His sweat-soaked tunic clung unpleasantly to his body.

Clutching his pounding head, he looked around.

A bedroom in the Archild ducal residence.

It was the bedroom he had used before the kingdom of Ptotr fell.

The curtains hanging in the bedroom billowed and subsided with the wind. He furrowed his brow at the peaceful scenery, so different from his troubled mind.

Looking around in confusion, he touched his neck. It was intact. The sensation of a sharp, cold blade digging into his neck was still vivid.

‘I’m certain it happened.’

Somehow, when he regained consciousness, his body was miraculously alive.

Knock knock.

While holding his throbbing head and thinking, the bedroom door opened and a man entered.

“Sleeping in so late? That’s not like you. I stopped by before going to the palace, just in case.”

Medric looked at the owner of the voice with widened eyes of surprise.

David Iosif, with his short brown hair and neat appearance.

He was an aide who served the Archild family and a subordinate who had lost his life protecting Medric on the battlefield.

“What is it? Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?”

David asked while touching his face.

“Run away! This place, I! Ugh.”

Behind David’s face, Medric saw a flickering image of him shouting desperately and coughing up blood.

“You’re sweating a lot. Are you sure you’re alright? You were working late last night. Are you feeling unwell?”

For reasons unknown, unlike what Medric had seen, David was alive now. Looking much younger than when Medric had seen him on the battlefield.

“What year…”

“Pardon?”

“What year is it now?”

David looked at Medric quizzically but answered straightforwardly while tilting his head.

“Now? It’s the year 828.”

The year 828 was ten years before the fall of the Ptotr Kingdom that Medric had witnessed. A shock spread through him like being hit on the back of the head with a stone. His vision turned completely white as the hellish times he had experienced flashed before him like a panorama.
He had clearly witnessed the kingdom’s downfall with his own eyes…

“Was yesterday’s work too difficult?”

“No, no…”

Medric shook his head.

It couldn’t be possible, yet it felt as if he had returned to life. No, he had definitely returned.

His head was spinning in a whirlwind of confusion.

“Are you ill? You look pale. Just a moment. I’ll call for a physician.”

As David was about to leave the room with a serious expression, Medric stopped him.

“The family. Is the knighthood still alive?”

“The Anas Knighthood? Of course they’re alive, and full of energy. Just yesterday they were causing a commotion, demanding to be sent on an expedition.”

The members of the Anas Knighthood had sacrificed their lives trying to prevent the fall of the Ptotr Kingdom.

They were talented individuals Medric had personally trained since childhood, not deserving of the tragic deaths they would face.

“If we continue like this, everyone will die. We should surrender now!”

“Surrender will get us nothing. Do you think this is why I permitted the knighthood to be formed?! Sacrifice your lives to protect the country!”

His heart ached just thinking about the knights who had been used to fulfill the king’s greed in a crumbling kingdom.

When Medric closed his eyes, the faces of those who had met innocent deaths due to the incompetent king flashed before him.

He felt something hot rising in his chest.

Ah.

He understood.

‘I’ve come back to the past to save my people.’

Medric opened his eyes slightly and looked out the window. Colorful autumn leaves were falling.
His red eyes suddenly grew hot with emotion.

Having experienced the hellish downfall of the kingdom, Medric had regretted over and over. Discovering too late that the Ptotr Kingdom was rotting from within. That he had only moved according to Ptotr’s orders.

“If it’s 828 now, what happened to the Modga family?”

“The Modga family? You mean the family that was exterminated two years ago?”

“…So that’s how the timing works. Well, I only learned about the Modga family after that incident happened…”

As he muttered incomprehensibly, David looked at Medric with increasing confusion.

The Modga family had many people skilled in divine power. However, the Modga family, who refused both to belong to the temple and to follow the country’s orders, was soon exterminated. Framed with the false charge of treason.

‘Yet she still sacrificed herself for the country.’

Medric recalled the black-haired girl from his memories.

The only surviving daughter of the Modga family possessed immense divine power. Her power was so strong that even high-ranking priests struggled to subdue her.

With such power, she could have lived comfortably in any country, yet she used it to challenge the festering nation and tried to set it right.

‘Eve Modga…’

Medric recalled her name from his memory. And where she was now.

“Your Grace. I really think you’re overworked. You should see a physician… Wait! Where are you going?”

“I’ll be away for a while. We’ll talk after that.”

After briefly stating his business, Medric got up and changed into the prepared outdoor clothes.

“What? What talk? Besides, if you leave now…”

“Ah, prepare a room while I’m gone. A very important guest will be coming.”

“Prepare a room… Wait! At least tell me who this guest is before you go!”

Ignoring David’s desperate calls from behind, Medric left the mansion.

‘I will save Eve Modga.’

***

Eve gasped for breath. Droplets of what might be sweat or blood fell from her clothes onto the floor.

“You dare try to leave this place? You must be insane, wanting to die.”

With her body battered from whippings, she let out a hollow laugh and said,

“Kill me if you want to.”

At her words, a vein bulged on Baptiste Renox’s forehead.

“If I die, I’ll be free from this hell, and you’ll lose your money. It’s a win-win.”

Baptiste’s face turned bright red at her taunting that scratched at his insides. Clearly, he was the one torturing Eve, but strangely, he felt his temperature rising and his anger mounting.

Baptiste gritted his teeth and grabbed Eve’s hair.

“You talk so well for someone who has neither the thought nor the intention to die! Don’t you know that the only way to survive here is to bow your head to me?”

“I am bowing. I’m making the holy stones you want, what more do you want?”

Her expression was utterly serene. She even looked somewhat pleased.

Her black eyes, containing who knows what, gleamed softly.

Baptiste took a step back, startled by her direct gaze.

Baptiste couldn’t kill Eve. No, he was unable to kill her.

Eve knew this fact.

The divine power that a person from the Modga family could produce far exceeded what an ordinary person could generate. The higher the divine power, the higher the purity of the holy stones that could be created. In Ptotr, where divine power users were decreasing, holy stones were traded at high prices.

“Try killing me if you can—someone who can produce holy stones indefinitely.”

Eve raised the corner of her mouth as if mocking Baptiste.

At this, Baptiste scrunched his face and glared at her as if he would strangle her to death right then. However, knowing that hitting Eve more might actually kill her, he just ground his teeth without moving further.

After glaring at Eve for a long time, Baptiste threw her hair, which he had been gripping, to the floor. Her head hit the floor with a dull thud.

It would have been nice if she had lost consciousness, but unfortunately, she remained conscious and saw his boot coming down on her hand.

Unable to control his rising anger, Baptiste stomped on her hand. As the large, fleshy Baptiste put his weight down, pain rushed through her as if her bones were being crushed.

“Do you still think you’re some noble lady of a marquis family!”

Eve suppressed the scream she wanted to let out from the pain. She bit her lip to prevent a moan from escaping.

“Do I still look like someone who groveled under your father?!”

His hideous abuse continued as he stomped on her with all his remaining strength.
Eve curled her body into a ball to minimize the pain.

Under Baptiste’s kicks, Eve’s consciousness finally sank below the surface.