[Seian Idebald Is Finally Dead!]

Today’s gossip rag front page was decorated with Seian’s death. I lowered my eyes and read the article beneath the headline.

[Does this mean the Idebald line is completely severed? Some may find it regrettable. After all, Idebald cannot be left out of the Empire’s history.

Some will ask—doesn’t she have a daughter? Yes. That daughter who caused a s*icide commotion not long ago! Yuena Idebald.

……However, she is merely an adopted daughter. The only ones who would willingly accept even a less-than-half Idebald would be the Hertus family. One nobleman who requested anonymity said their marriage would proceed as scheduled……]

‘The article’s about me, though.’

Seian, the Empire’s villainess. She was my adoptive mother.

It wasn’t particularly surprising to me that this kind of story made the front page.

‘……If anything, I’d say it feels boring.’

In fact, even before her death, Seian frequently had her name in the gossip rags, and this article was the kind of content she probably would have frowned at and called tedious if she’d seen it.

Death.

Nothing particularly surprising about it, right? It’s not like it’s a story about Seian k*lling someone. For a moment, I had the illusion of hearing Seian’s voice in my ear.

“Publishing something like this as an article. What people with nothing better to do. Right, Yuena?”

She definitely would have said this while moving her red lips.

[The Empire’s Villainess! Dead!] was the most decent of the article titles she’d earned, and Seian had gone around committing outrageous acts.

Adopting me over a decade ago was one such example.

‘Seian said she adopted me because she liked how I pushed my friend, but……’

Unfortunately, I barely remember that time she talked about.

‘……Plus, there are some discrepancies with the facts I’ve newly learned……’

The maid glanced at me nervously, then finally spoke to me as I was lost in thought.

“Um…… Miss, shall I bring you tea?”

“Sure…… No. Never mind. I don’t want tea.”

I answered absentmindedly, then waved my hand to dismiss the maid. She flinched and withdrew.

‘I think I died after drinking tea last time. It’s too unsettling to drink it.’

It was probably a few days ago. I was poisoned to death. Someone put poison in my tea. It was such a horrific experience that if I had to die again, I’d absolutely want to avoid poisoning.

But is it even right to describe that incident as just ‘a few days ago’?

I definitely drank tea that day and felt the agony of my body burning up, but when I came to my senses, I’d returned to before my death. On top of that……

‘Past life memories and a book……’

Upon coming back to life, I regained memories of a past life I’d lived in another world and the contents of a book called <Secret> that I’d read in that world.

And also that my current life as Yuena matched the life of a character in that book  I’d read back then.

The most important problem was that I was someone who lived as a villainess and died by poisoning. It was a memory I could hardly believe, but having already lived through one life completely, I had no choice but to accept it.

‘If I keep going like this, I’ll die again.’

Belated regret washed over me.

To make excuses for myself, when I was young, I liked receiving praise from Seian.

And Seian only praised me when I did bad things.

‘Hitting people, insulting them, having others bully them…… I did all sorts of things.’

At first, it started with punishing kids who teased me for being an orphan, but gradually as that became my way of life, I came to have no hesitation whatsoever about tormenting others.

‘……That’s probably why I was poisoned.’

The problem was that I went around doing bad things here and there so freely that I couldn’t easily guess who put poison in my teacup.

But there was one thing for certain.

‘If I don’t change the course of events, I’ll be poisoned.’

My throat suddenly felt prickly. I swallowed dryly with an uneasy feeling when the maid I’d dismissed earlier knocked and came back in.

“Um, Miss……”

“What.”

“Well…… you have a visitor……”

“Who?”

I’d decided to hold Seian’s funeral modestly and had instructed them to turn away most visitors, so naturally I was irritated.

‘Who on earth came that they couldn’t just send them away properly.’

The maid glanced at my frowning face and stammered.

“I-Iophe Hertus has arrived…… What should I do……?”

‘Ah……’

Iophe was my ex-husband from my past life, and he was also one of the prime suspects in the poisoning. If it was him, it made sense the servants couldn’t carelessly send him away.

‘But in my previous life, I first met him on our wedding day.’

If there was anything different, it was only that I’d jumped out the window thinking this situation was a dream and trying to wake up?

After jumping from my second-floor room window, I felt tremendous pain the moment I hit the ground, and I had no choice but to acknowledge my regression.

‘He wouldn’t have come out of concern…… Well, the Hertus side would be in trouble too if there was no Idebald left to sign the contract.’

Our marriage arrangement was one of the many ways Seian screwed over the Hertus family to begin with, so in my past life, I never dreamed this marriage would actually happen.

“Um……”

The maid asked with a restless expression after I didn’t answer for a while.

“What should I do……? Should I tell him to leave after all……?”

“No. I should meet him. Is he in the drawing room?”

“Yes.”

When I went down to the drawing room, Iophe sat there with emotionless eyes. I had the same thought I had when I first saw him in my past life, but he really was handsome.

Fine silver hair, smooth and transparent skin. The trio of ruby-like pale red glowing eyes harmonized in a truly chilling way.

But seeing the expression on that face brought me back to my senses. He slowly rose from his seat upon seeing me.

‘Looking at his face, someone pushed him to come.’

“I’m sorry for your loss regarding Seian.”

Iophe mourned Seian’s death in an emotionless voice.

“Thank you. But what brings you here so suddenly?”

“Before the wedding, shouldn’t I know whether the bride is dead or alive?”

Translating those words, it would be something like ‘I heard you caused a s*icide commotion, but you seem perfectly fine.’

“Should I apologize for being fine?”

“If you wish, I’ll accept it.”

“……”

I mustn’t get angry. Not only for the Hertus family, but with Seian suddenly dead, I needed this marriage too. To inherit the Idebald family assets registered under Seian’s name while unmarried would require paying enormous taxes.

Of course, I did suspect that Iophe might have put poison in my teacup after the divorce, but at least when we divorced, he cleanly stamped the documents and didn’t covet the Idebald family fortune I inherited.

‘If I’m going to do it anyway, someone verified is better. It’s too tight on time to find someone new now…… Plus, Iophe is a character who appears in <Secret>.’

That was why I’d put Iophe on the list of poisoning suspects. In my past life, I tormented ‘Rosie,’ a fellow orphanage kid, to death, and ‘Rosie’ was the female lead of <Secret>. Iophe was the ultimate villain who appeared in it.

So if I had to marry someone, wouldn’t it be better to choose someone whose future I knew at least a little?

I lifted my chin and spoke arrogantly.

“I’ll divorce you in a year.”

Iophe kept silent for a moment as if gauging my intentions, then spoke in a cold voice.

“For something that came out of your mouth, it’s a pleasant sound, but what’s the reason?”

‘That manner of speech is also nostalgic.’

I composed my expression after a brief reminiscence.

“I’m saying let’s take what we each need. Seian used the business consent form as bait to arrange the marriage. You didn’t come all the way here without knowing that, did you?”

“You’re saying you need me for the inheritance. And I need your signature on the business consent form.”

The business the Hertus family was pursuing included Idebald territory, and such business required the signature of the territory’s owner. Upon hearing that news, what Seian put on the negotiating table was marriage to me, her adopted daughter.

‘Though no one expected they would actually pursue such a humiliating marriage.’

Idebald was an important family that invariably appeared when learning the Empire’s history, but that was ancient history. They’d long since fallen from political power, and the only Idebald around was Seian, so unless they were children fairly cast out by their families, no one would associate with Seian.

‘It means it’s a business the Hertus family is staking everything on.’

I looked up at Iophe and smiled brightly. Even as an adopted daughter, Idebald was attached to my name.

“The consent form needs an Idebald, not just Seian.”

“Fine. Let’s coordinate the details gradually.”

Iophe left, saying he’d send documents soon.

What remained now was……

‘Rosie. I need to help Rosie find her parents.’

During my first life, I tormented her even more after Rosie found her parents.

Of course, I had my reasons.

Unlike me, adopted by a villainess, she found her biological parents and received high society’s warm welcome.

It was far too different from me, who was hated one day for being the villainess’s daughter, another day for not being a real Idebald.

It was an infuriating situation, and the fact that her surname was Lakier added fuel to my bullying.

‘Idebald and Lakier have been on bad terms for generations.’

I remembered something Seian once said while drunk.

“Those Lakier bastards…… they cursed me for doing something I didn’t do, so I made it real…… Ahahaha.”

Seian, who laughed hysterically while looking at me, stared at my face intently that day, as if searching for something in me.

‘……Now that I think I won’t see her again, I remember all sorts of things.’

I pulled the bell cord to summon a maid.

“Prepare for an outing.”

“Yes, Miss.”

Looking out the window, the sun was setting. The sunset was red. On the opposite side, the moon was faintly rising. Hazily, as if reminding me of what I needed to do before the sun fully set.