How could a landscape bathed in brilliant sunlight feel so desolate and sorrowful? Diana couldn’t take her eyes off the cart until the procession ended. 

Even though she had seen Calliope alive, even though she knew she had turned back time and returned to the past, her body trembled with fear on its own.

“Miss! My goodness, it’s dangerous for you to wander around alone!”

Bell finally pushed through the crowd and stood beside Diana.

Diana confirmed that the entire procession had passed through the triumphal arch before turning her gaze away and looking toward Bell.

“I’m sorry. You must have worried a lot. Let’s return to the castle now.”

“Yes.”

Bell glanced around at the gloomy-looking people while carefully attending to her young mistress. Just as Diana was about to board the approaching carriage, she felt someone grab the hem of her dress.

“How dare you!”

When Bell flared up in anger, Diana stopped her with an elegant gesture and turned around. The person holding her dress hem was an elderly woman with a bent back.

“…Thank you. For letting me see him off on his journey. I will surely repay this kindness.”

“It’s nothing. I know this sorrow myself, so I couldn’t just stand by.”

Diana warmly clasped the woman’s hand once before boarding the carriage. Throughout the ride back to the Count’s manor, Diana kept pressing her stinging eyes. The memory from that time remained intact in her heart, leaving a deep scar.

On that day when thunder crashed and rain poured, his body in that old cart had been so cold that she cried for a long time. Bell simply thought her mistress was feeling restless about the upcoming marriage and quietly kept her gaze fixed outside the window. It was Bell’s way of being considerate toward her mistress.

When they returned to the mansion, the internal atmosphere was strangely unsettled.

“Diana! Why are you only coming now!”

The Count stood before Diana, shouting loudly. Bell jumped in surprise at the sudden outcry, her shoulders trembling, but still stepped forward to protect her mistress.

“I went to see the procession entering through the triumphal arch.”

Diana answered gently with a smiling face. The Count couldn’t get angrier at her composed attitude.

“We have a guest right now, so hurry and get ready, then come down to the reception room.”

“Yes.”

Diana watched the Count’s retreating back with complicated eyes. He might have been lacking as a father, but as a person, he was someone worth emulating. The Cloud Count family had been a military household that had produced outstanding knights for the imperial family for generations.

So when the marriage with the Aquitaine frontier Marquis was decided—a family powerful enough to rank among the top three military houses—Count Cloud was overjoyed. 

The marriage was decided without regard to Diana’s wishes. Count Cloud thought all of this was for his daughter’s sake. The Count was someone who obeyed rules and imperial commands without question.

So he thought the arranged marriage and everything about entering the Marquis’s manor and adapting to life there was all Diana’s responsibility. At the same time, he trusted that his reliable eldest daughter, who had matured early, would handle everything well without worry.

Diana suddenly became curious. What had her father been like after she died? Did he regret arranging the political marriage, or did he blame his foolish daughter who couldn’t maintain control of the household?

“…Miss!”

“Hm?”

“What are you thinking about so deeply? A guest has come, so let me help you prepare your appearance.”

Bell tilted her head again. Her mistress’s condition was truly strange. Normally, she would carefully observe everything and react keenly to even small sounds. The marriage must be quite shocking for her.

Diana remained deep in thought throughout her preparations. Suddenly facing her father’s face made her realize she was truly alive. As she accepted reality, her thoughts gradually extended in other directions.

Given her father’s and brothers’ personalities, they would have been clamoring to see Calliope, who possessed swordsmanship skills that ranked among the empire’s best. But the Count family’s interest in Calliope had suddenly cut off at some point. When was that exactly?

“Strange.”

“I know, right. You’re so different from usual today, Miss. Is something wrong?”

Bell asked as she put down the brush. Diana quickly shook her head and put on a gentle expression.

“No, no, Bell. I’m fine.”

“That can’t be true. Miss, look in the mirror. You look gloomy. Is it because your partner is Marquis Aquitaine, who they say creates rivers of blood?”

Bell was right—her complexion did seem to have darkened. But it couldn’t be helped. Anyone would be the same. Someone who had experienced death and returned couldn’t exactly be cheerful.

“It’s just that suddenly getting married feels strange. I’m really fine, Bell.”

Diana reassured Bell and stared intently at her reflection in the mirror. She always had to wear clothes with long sleeves because the muscles she had developed from training naturally received in a military household were said to be unbecoming of a virtuous woman. Back then, she just thought that’s how it had to be.

Diana let out a short, bitter laugh and turned around. She didn’t know who the guest in the reception room was, but they certainly had no manners. What urgent matter could there be that would bring someone to a castle busy preparing for a daughter’s wedding just three days away?

She walked carelessly to the reception room, where an unexpected guest was sitting. Diana stepped back in bewilderment.

“…Cal…”

Calliope Aquitaine. It was him. Without realizing it, the pet name she had called him for so long slipped out. Calliope also seemed to have heard his nickname, raising his eyebrows slightly, but soon approached with his usual stoic face and offered a polite greeting.

“I apologize for taking up your busy time. I am Calliope Aquitaine.”

It seemed to have been an urgent visit, as he hadn’t even removed his armor.

“Oh, hello. I’m Diana Cloud. I heard you’ll be my husband. But why did you come to see us so urgently today…?”

As Diana rambled on, the Count deliberately set down his teacup with a loud sound to draw attention.

“Diana. Sit down. What’s with all this fuss, so unlike you?”

“I’m sorry.”

Diana couldn’t take her eyes off Calliope until she sat in her chair. She felt like tears might burst forth at any moment. What had his final moments been like? 

Only his head barely remained, while his body was tattered like rags.

Beautiful face was covered with dirt and blood mixed together, and his closed eyes wouldn’t open. Everyone said he had been killed by monsters, but surely her husband had been murdered.

“Head…”

“Miss Cloud?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I was preparing in such a hurry that I was worried whether my hair might have become disheveled.”

Diana quickly changed her expression and showed her usual smiling face. However, her mind was spinning rapidly. Come to think of it, only the head from the corpse had been completely intact without a single scratch.

A strange sensation crept up through her entire body. Didn’t it seem like someone wanted her to confirm that this person was indeed Calliope? 

The face of Calliope sitting across from her, sipping coffee and staring intently at her, overlapped with the image of when he had returned as a gruesome corpse.

Diana had no choice but to jump up from her seat abruptly.

“Diana! What kind of behavior is this!”

“I’m sorry… I mean, this is…”

Diana covered her mouth with both hands. Anyone who wanted to reveal the identity of someone they had killed would be one of two types: someone who would definitely benefit from Calliope’s death being revealed, or someone who held a deep personal grudge against Calliope.

Noticing Diana’s body trembling finely, Calliope spoke in an indifferent tone.

“It’s fine. If I make you uncomfortable, perhaps we could correspond by letter instead?”

“No! I was just a little surprised…”

“I apologize for startling the young lady by coming in armed attire. However, even though it’s an arranged marriage, I thought pre-wedding conversation might be necessary, so I came here abruptly.”

“…Pardon?”

Diana narrowed her brow slightly, sensing something strange. In the popular novels in the imperial library, everything except the protagonist who returned to the past flowed exactly like past events. Of course, reality wasn’t the same as novels, but she couldn’t hide her bewilderment.

Ten years ago, she had first met Calliope at the wedding ceremony. But why was this person suddenly acting like this? 

Diana didn’t want to make any changes after her regression until after the marriage and before the Grand Duchess arrived.

Going to see Calliope entering through the triumphal arch today had been a very minor, small action. Anxiety surged like a tide—the anxiety that everything might have changed because of that action.

“If it’s alright with you, how about having some simple tea together tomorrow? It’s not a demand, so please answer comfortably.”

“Of course that would be wonderful!”

Diana’s eyes widened in surprise at her own voice, which had burst out louder than expected. The Count sitting beside her shook his head and grasped Diana’s wrist gently but firmly.

“…Diana.”

“I’m sorry.”

Calliope, who had been watching Diana quietly, slowly rose from his seat. His golden eyes, burning like fire, gleamed with the same intensity a predator shows when hunting prey.

Diana, who had shown such a flustered appearance to Calliope, wanted to hide in a mouse hole. But the moment she met Calliope’s eyes, she couldn’t help but look at him like she was entranced. These were the eyes she had wanted to see even while dying—practically her last wish.

“Miss Cloud.”

Calliope called Diana in a low, deep voice. Their gazes remained locked together.

“Have we perhaps met somewhere before?”

Her heart dropped with a thud.

“…No.”

She had to answer like she was being squeezed. She felt like she might beg him right then and there—don’t you remember me? Didn’t I turn back time and return here because I wanted to see you just once more?

At Diana’s answer, Calliope immediately nodded his head lightly and took on a polite attitude.

“I must have been mistaken.”

“Haha, isn’t that kind of line a bit outdated, frontier Marquis!”

The Count laughed heartily and struck the armrest. Just as Diana thought that chair would break soon, the armrest cracked and rolled onto the floor.

“……”

A moment of silence flowed.

“You have good strength as well.”

Calliope was the first to naturally break the silence.