Chapter 28

The first person to bring the letter was Lida.  

The luxurious envelope, shimmering along its grain, was sealed with a wax crest that Charlotte had never seen before.  

“Viscountess, I wasn’t sure whether to filter this letter or not, so I brought it to you. There’s no sender written on it either.”  

Lida handed the letter to Charlotte as she spoke.  

“It doesn’t even have a sender’s name, so it seems like a prank letter. But even when I return it, it keeps coming back.”  

“……”  

“I thought it might be an invitation from the library club you were active in during school.”  

Lida spoke as though she couldn’t see any writing on the envelope.  

Devour.

That was clearly a word directed at the Charlotte of her past life.  

Was it Michael? 

No, if it were Michael, who knew her secret, he wouldn’t have used such a method.  

Now, in this world of the original novel The Glorious Rebellion, Michael was the King of Rohadin.  

“Um… Viscountess?”  

Lida spoke with concern at Charlotte’s silence. Snapping out of her thoughts, Charlotte forced a smile, hiding her unease.  

“It seems to be from the school, just as you said. The library club used to hold these kinds of events from time to time. This letter is probably something similar.”  

“Oh no! Then I shouldn’t have returned the others!”  

“Even if we had known, wouldn’t they have kept sending them back anyway? Don’t worry about it.”  

Charlotte smiled, reassuring Lida as she nodded. Lida chuckled softly, bid farewell, and left Charlotte’s room.  

Left alone, Charlotte sat at her desk, silently glaring at the letter.  

If someone used the word Devour, it meant they already knew the original storyline of this novel.  

That also meant they knew Charlotte had changed the plot and survived with Erhen.  

Feeling increasingly anxious, Charlotte bit her lip.  

***

In the middle of the day, inside an empty pub.  

It was located slightly away from the bustling streets of Heringen, a district famous for its nightlife but deserted until darkness fell.  

Sitting at the edge of a round table, Charlotte perched lightly on the chair, leaning her chin on her hand as she traced the rim of her martini glass with her finger.  

She had only ever visited this place during staff gatherings with the Blumen employees. The reason Charlotte had come here now was because of the anonymous letter.  

Unlike the trembling hands she had when she first saw the envelope, the contents of the letter were simple:  

0th Month, 0th Day. Grace Pub. 1 PM. 

It was a proposal she couldn’t refuse. Using the excuse of an external meeting, Charlotte had come here with only Lida.  

Even in a sunny daytime pub, one might expect occasional patrons like Charlotte, but for some reason, there was no one else in the establishment. Even the staff member who had brought her the martini had disappeared.  

She was just beginning to think something was odd.  

“A martini at 1 PM? I’ve heard you can hold your liquor, but this is impressive.”  

Hearing the familiar voice of a woman next to her, Charlotte quickly raised her head.  

It was a voice she knew all too well.  

The woman who had grown up with Charlotte since childhood, who still accompanied her as her attendant, always by her side—  

Charlotte’s already tense face grew even more serious as she turned her gaze toward the woman.  

“…Lida?”  

“Oh my, did you just call me Lida?”  

The owner of the voice was indeed Lida. Wearing a deep navy dress, she smiled enigmatically as she spoke.  

Lida elegantly sat across from Charlotte, who regarded her with suspicious eyes.  

Her kind face, slightly shy voice—everything about her seemed like Lida. Yet, Charlotte instinctively felt she wasn’t Lida.  

Was it magic? No, it didn’t feel like the magic she had experienced firsthand while being near Erhen. It was something different.  

Charlotte’s gaze grew sharper.  

“Who are you?”  

“There’s no need to be so wary, child.”  

The woman chuckled, but her laugh was nothing like Lida’s. Lida’s normally brown eyes shimmered with a golden glow.  

As the laughter faded, the woman spoke.  

“I borrowed this body to talk to you. Even as the Overseer of this place, there are too many bothersome restrictions to act directly.”  

“Overseer?”  

“Well, in your terms, you could call me a God. Though in a place like this, where freedom of religion is permitted, my presence is faint.”  

A God? An Overseer? Charlotte’s face hardened even further at the unexpected revelation.  

After receiving the letter, calming her chaotic emotions, and coming here, she had considered countless possibilities.  

Was it someone who had reincarnated like me? Or someone who had temporarily possessed a body?  

If not, could it even be the original author of this novel?  

But a God?  

“Are you the one who reincarnated me into this world? I’d like to see your face at least once.”  

Suddenly, the thought came to her.  

Charlotte stood up abruptly, her frustration spilling out before she could think.  

“Did you come here personally because I asked to meet the one who reincarnated me?”  

“Child.”  

“I didn’t do anything bad in my past life, so why did I have to play the role of someone who dies unjustly?!”  

“Sit down and let’s talk.”  

The calm yet commanding tone stopped Charlotte mid-sentence.  

Though the words were gentle, they carried an indescribable sense of absolute authority.  

Pressing her lips together, Charlotte obediently sat back down.  

Still glaring at the Overseer, she lifted her glass and took a sip. The high-proof alcohol burned her throat on its way down, momentarily calming her agitated emotions.  

Watching her, the Overseer smiled faintly.  

“Have you calmed down now?”  

“Yes.”  

Charlotte’s expression remained stern. The Overseer, with her golden eyes, continued.  

“You’ve changed your fate.”  

“I didn’t want to die, so of course, I did.”  

“And you’ve changed that boy’s fate too.”  

The boy—Erhen.  

Unconsciously, Charlotte clenched her fists. The Overseer’s gaze briefly flicked to her clenched hands before she sighed lightly and added,  

“To be honest, you’re my mistake. An error that shouldn’t exist.”  

“What do you mean by that?”  

“Let me explain. In a dimension higher than this one, Overseers like me manage various worlds. Those worlds sometimes manifest in other dimensions as books or films for people like you to experience indirectly.”  

The Overseer added, 

“In simple terms, every single book or movie you’ve seen represents a real, existing world.”  

“Managing so many worlds, mistakes like you sometimes occur. A soul might return to the past upon death, or, like you, be born into a new world with memories of a past life.”  

“A multiverse… Is that the concept?”  

“Ah, so you’re revealing that you studied engineering in your past life. Something like that, yes. Except for the idea that a single soul endlessly connects across multiple worlds.”  

At the Overseer’s words, Charlotte’s face turned pale.  

No, it couldn’t be. Ever since she remembered her past life, she had tried to deny it.  

Charlotte’s lips quivered.  

“Does that mean…?”  

The Overseer smirked.  

“Yes. Both your past self and your current self are ‘you.’”  

The Overseer’s confirmation crushed her doubts. Charlotte closed her eyes in despair.  

The fate of Charlotte Rothschild, the original character who was destined to die as the Empress of the Tyrant Rufus, was ultimately her own.  

Opening her eyes, Charlotte spoke sharply, her voice brimming with frustration.  

“So, are you saying I should have just accepted my death?”  

“It would’ve been ideal, but who would willingly submit to such a fate?”  

“At least you understand.”  

Her bold tone made the Overseer laugh.  

“Seeing how you managed to put yourself through graduate school on scholarships as an orphan in your past life, I see where your strength comes from.”  

“That’s why I’ve been watching your actions for the past three years. Your defiance against your given fate was admirable.”  

“……”  

“But.”  

The Overseer tapped the table lightly with her fingers. Her smile vanished, and she murmured quietly.  

“It seems the time for that leniency has come to an end.”  

The Overseer’s voice echoed in Charlotte’s mind.  

The end.  

The time the Overseer had allowed her to live, after defying her destined death and surviving with Erhen, was over.  

That meant death.  

Charlotte’s hand, holding the martini glass, began to tremble.  

What about my family? And… and Erhen?  

The Overseer’s gaze briefly lingered on Charlotte’s trembling hand before meeting her wavering eyes. Then she spoke.  

“Child, do you love that boy?”  

The words pierced Charlotte’s ears one by one.  

Through the half-open pub window, strands of sunlight poured in.  

The stillness of the space, the calm air—it enveloped Charlotte.  

It was another name for helplessness.