Ominously, the Empire held the Empress’s funeral at the start of the New Year.

On the day of the funeral, it snowed lightly. The white flakes landed on Emperor Benate’s silver hair, only to vanish immediately. His pale blue eyes seemed frozen in place, unable to tear themselves away from the Empress’s peaceful, sleeping face.

“Why… why would she…”

Benate murmured like a man struck senseless. Those present at the ceremony grew teary at the sound.

“How great his sorrow must be. He loved Her Majesty so dearly…”

Some wept with pity, unable to imagine that the Emperor himself had driven the Empress to her death.

The imperial family interrogated the palace guards at length, determined to uncover the truth behind the empress’s death. Yet the deeper the investigation went, the more it pointed to one conclusion: that the empress had slipped and fallen to her death while attempting to escape the palace alone.

Emperor Benate refused to accept this explanation for quite some time. In the end, however, even he appeared to yield. The investigation came to an abrupt close.

Even after the funeral, the New Year atmosphere failed to return. The Empire’s New Year Festival was postponed by a full month, and it remained uncertain whether it would be held at all. The streets, which usually overflowed with celebration at this time of year, were eerily quiet.

As if to deepen the gloom, winter was colder than any in recent memory, freezing the entire capital as though it had been sealed in ice.

At times, Benate visited the empress’s bedchamber. He neither wept in grief nor lost himself searching for the woman he had lost. He simply stood there, staring vacantly at the space she no longer occupied.

Then, when voices began to rise, insisting that the empress’s absence could not continue, they put forward the name of Donata Seidler — the woman rumored to be the emperor’s mistress — as the next empress.

In the third week after the empress’s funeral,

Time itself began to move backwards.

***

Early in the morning, Ailie opened her eyes in her own bedchamber. Her rose-colored eyes blinked slowly as she stared up at the ceiling in a drowsy haze.

It was a morning no different from any other, yet something felt wrong.

Then she realized—

‘How am I still alive?’

Her blurred memories finally returned. She had tried to escape the palace… and she had fallen from a cliff. She had been gravely injured—badly enough to die…

‘I’m fine. Nothing hurts.’

She felt no pain at all.

Ailie slowly pushed herself upright and stepped down from the bed. Her feet touched the floor lightly—unmarked, clean, without a single wound.

What had happened?

The first possibility to cross her mind was that time had rewound.

‘Did I return to the past?’

But the original novel, I Fell for the Emperor Who Only Trusts Me, was not a regression story. Then again, considering how different Benate was from the man depicted in the novel, it wouldn’t be strange if the genre had changed altogether…

Or perhaps everything that night had simply been a nightmare.

Trying to clear her tangled thoughts, Ailie walked toward the mirror.

She began combing through her messy pale-golden hair with her fingers when someone knocked on the door.

Knock, knock.

“Your Majesty, it’s Breni.”

The visitor was her maid, Breni.

What matter could there be so early in the morning?

“Come in.”

Still, it was convenient.

If she asked Breni the date, she would immediately understand the current situation. Even if her words sounded out of place, Breni would surely help her—

“Your Majesty! I’ve told you so many times! Everything was just your imagination!”

At that moment, the sound of Breni’s shrill voice echoed through Ailie’s mind, freezing her welcoming expression instantly.

She had forgotten — if only for a moment. In this imperial palace, no one supported the empress.

No one believed her when she spoke of the emperor’s affair. Not even Breni, whom she had known since her days at House Erdei, was an exception.

‘Of course she wouldn’t be on my side.’

On the other hand, Breni might raise her voice again, demanding to know what was wrong and insisting on calling a doctor. If that were to happen, it would be best to stay quiet.

It would be better if she understood the situation for herself than if she spoke carelessly.

Ailie let out a bitter smile as she watched the door slowly open.

The maid bowed quietly, and Breni stepped into the room behind her. She wore an awkward smile, and her brown hair was neatly pinned up. The pale yellow dress she wore looked splendid.

Then Ailie realized—

—that the dress was the same one Breni had worn to last year’s New Year’s Festival.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve seen that dress.’

As she accepted Breni’s morning greeting, Ailie found herself remembering the events of the previous day.

Last year’s festival was not a pleasant memory, to say the least. On the day of the festival, it was customary for the imperial family to appear in the capital’s main plaza. However, that year, Ailie had arrived late, only stepping out into the streets in the late afternoon.

Under ordinary circumstances, she would have done everything in her power to be on time, no matter what stood in her way. But not then.

The day before, she had discovered Benate’s affair.

The shock had been overwhelming. She had vaguely sensed that the Emperor was colder towards her than in the original novel, but she had never imagined he would commit adultery.

The moment she awoke on the day of the festival, she rushed to inform the Empress Dowager, only to be harshly rebuked.

Furious, Benate ordered her not to leave her room and said he would summon a physician.

Consequently, she decided not to appear at all that day.

Usually, she would carry out her duties with composure in any situation, just as the original Ailie would have done. But this time, her mind went completely blank. She didn’t want to do anything. She simply sat on her bed, staring into the hazy air, wondering endlessly where everything had gone wrong.

It was then that her maid, Breni, came to see her, just as she does now.

By then, it was almost afternoon.

“Your Majesty, His Majesty the Emperor is waiting for you.”

She knew it couldn’t be true. After all, Benate himself had ordered her not to leave the room. There was no way he would forget his own order and wait for the empress.

He must have left alone, feeling ashamed and unwilling to appear in public with his mistress.

He would behave as though the Empress did not exist. He would stand there alone, as he always did, his icy eyes revealing nothing.

At that time, however, Ailie was younger and unable to accept what Benate had become.

So, she hastily got dressed and stepped out into the streets that late afternoon.

And then—

‘I saw it.’

She saw that woman. The one who stood shamelessly by the emperor’s side as though that place belonged to her.

After that, Ailie attended every imperial event without fail. Despite her festering heart, weakening body and open wounds, she did everything she could to hold her rightful place.

It was all because of the dreadful memory of the New Year’s Festival the previous year.

“What are you thinking about?”

Breni asked, her expression worried, pulling Ailie from her thoughts.

“It’s the first day of the New Year’s Festival. You should get ready and head out.”

Today was the New Year’s Festival…

Ailie fell silent, gripped by an uncanny sense of familiarity.

Had she somehow travelled back to last year’s New Year’s Festival, when she had experienced such profound humiliation?

“His Majesty is waiting—”

“Breni.”

“Yes?”

“What did I tell you last night?”

Breni’s round brown eyes blinked.

Her face showed clear confusion—What is Her Majesty saying now?

“You said that you couldn’t tell me everything right away, but that you had witnessed something shocking. You said you were going to report it to the Empress Dowager tomorrow and hear what she had to say…”

“I see. So that’s what I said.”

“Your Majesty?”

This must have happened before she went to see the Empress Dowager — the morning after she had discovered the Emperor’s affair.

It was far too late to beg for trust or love.

But that no longer mattered.

Ailie turned towards the mirror. The corners of her lips curved upwards in a graceful arc. Her expression was hollow yet unmistakably joyful.

Perhaps Breni caught sight of it in the mirror because Ailie heard her take a step back.

As the distance between them widened, Ailie crossed it in a single stride and spoke.

“Today is the first day of the New Year’s Festival, you said? All right.”

“Y-you will attend, then?”

“Yes. As the empress, of course I must show my face.”

Ailie could not suppress the smile that tugged at her lips. Fortunately, she had been given the opportunity to get her own back on Benate and his accomplice.

Grief, suffering and silent endurance had all failed her. Fleeing had failed even more miserably. None of those options had enabled her to keep anything.

In the end, she died alone.

The emotional wounds she had sustained before her regression still felt raw, as did the agony she had endured in the moments before her death. She never wanted to experience that again.

This time, Ailie would be bold.

She would crush the ground beneath the other woman’s feet, leaving her with nowhere to stand.

She did not intend to kill her. One careless act could easily dig her own grave. Instead, she would survive — cleverly and intelligently.

She would slowly and quietly take Benate apart, piece by piece.

‘I won’t let you do as you please, Benate.’

Smiling brightly, Ailie radiated sunlight as she gently placed a hand on Breni’s shoulder. The dazed, unreal fog in her eyes had vanished and her rose-colored irises were sparkling.

“I need to get ready quickly. You commissioned this dress three months ago for me to wear today, didn’t you?”

“Ah… You knew?”

“Of course. I’ve been looking forward to it.”

“Um, Your Majesty, about that…”

Bleni hesitated.

The Empress, who had previously cried with a blotched face and claimed to have witnessed something shocking, had changed overnight — it was no wonder that Bleni was bewildered.

She could not begin to imagine what Ailie had been through in the meantime. Nor could she comprehend that she had betrayed the empress so easily.

Bleni took a step back, shaking her head frantically.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty, but something has happened at my family home. So… I won’t be accompanying you today…”

Ailie knew perfectly well that Breni was free that day — of course she was. After all, she had stayed by Ailie’s side the entire time before the regression that day.

So she was lying.

Ailie’s eyes curved into a smile.

However, she had no intention of taking revenge on Breni. It was Benate and that woman who had truly caused her suffering.

Nevertheless, Breni had trampled on the last shred of trust Ailie still had left.

‘Then I’ll just use her however I please.’

Yes, take her with you and make full use of her. She will forgive you once the revenge is over.

That would be enough.

“It won’t take long. It would be a shame to waste the new dress.”

Ailie answered shamelessly and stubbornly, then pulled Breni’s arm towards her.

“Come and help me get ready.”