When Asilri’s heavy voice spoke that familiar name, Khalid, who had pulled her into his arms in a panic, gave a small flinch.

Whether it was the shock of her voice, so thick and sunken, or the strangeness of hearing his own name in it, she couldn’t tell.

But one thing was certain.

“A… ah……. Asilri, why in the world are you……. why……”

Khalid looked every bit as unsteady as Asilri.

‘Have I ever seen that man shake like this……’

He hadn’t wavered even as she withered away alone, hadn’t stirred even in the moment he abandoned her and left.

“……Ha.”

Asilri let out a heavy, scornful laugh.

To think that, in the middle of slowly sinking into the swamp of death, the one she thought of was none other than the man who had thrown her away.

‘Anyone else, maybe. But you’re not allowed to make that face.’

You, who abandoned me. Why in the world?

“……It’s horrible.”

Her fading voice carried a sincere curse.

Even as he heard that venomous curse, Khalid did not loosen his grip around Asilri.

“You, and Renatus……. ugh……”

Asilri struggled to continue, then choked, coughing and gasping.

Only then did a thin reaction fall from Khalid.

“Stop, stop it. Asilri. Please, no more……”

It was a desperate plea that had no place on that cold, cynical face.

Asilri forced her eyes open against their growing weight and fixed Khalid with a sharp glare.

Watching him remain impassively silent even now, she felt something fierce surge and rise inside her.

Was it anger at herself, for having known nothing all this time?

Was it despair that the life she thought she had endured in full had collapsed in an instant?

No. It was neither.

This unfamiliar emotion coursing through her body was a simple desire.

‘……I want to live. I don’t want to die like this.’

The desire, for the first time, to hold tight to this life.

She had tried not to cling to a life so wretched and pitiful…… yet in her final moment, a fierce longing seized her.

Yes. She couldn’t die like this.

Even knowing she had been foolishly played in the palm of Khalid’s hand.

Even knowing the truth hidden behind her parents’ deaths.

She couldn’t give up so easily.

‘If I were given just one more chance.’

I won’t stay in Renatus’s shadow any longer.

I will find the life I lost, and…… the person who killed my parents.

Asilri looked up at Khalid through half-closed eyes, and a faint tremor stirred in his gaze.

“If there’s a next life…… let’s be sure to meet again.”

Because I won’t die so pointlessly then.

Because I’ll drive a blade into your heart and break free from your grasp, right before your eyes.

‘Because I will reclaim the Bliché I lost.’

Unable to finish that last thought, Asilri closed her eyes.

She thought: so this is the end.

“……Yes, if that is your wish.”

“……”

“We will meet again, Asilri.”

At the sound of Khalid’s voice, resolute like a vow, Asilri flinched slightly without meaning to.

‘……There was a time I waited for you to say those words.’

Without knowing what she was thinking, Asilri slowly closed her eyes.

That was the death of Asilri Bliché, no, Asilri Renatus.

* * *

[If only it hadn’t been for Khalid, I could have gone with less suffering.]

Had she dreamed a terrible dream?

She had married Khalid Renatus as her father’s dying wish dictated, only to be abandoned by him and then killed by an assassin of unknown origin.

If this was a dream, she wished someone would pull her out of this nightmare.

“……Miss!”

At that moment, a bright voice caught Asilri, who had been wavering.

Bright light flooded her vision, and Asilri opened her eyes within that haze of light.

“Miss Asilri, are you all right? Your color doesn’t look well.”

Asilri stared blankly at the brown-haired girl greeting her with a worried voice.

‘Am I really dreaming?’

There was no other way such a peaceful moment could unfold before her eyes.

But for a dream, the sensations reaching her were far too vivid.

“……Ria?”

When Asilri called that familiar name, the girl called Ria nodded eagerly in response.

“Yes, it’s Ria! Are you all right, Miss? Oh, no! You’re now the proper Duchess of Renatus, our Lady.”

“……”

“I’m so scatterbrained! It’s already been a full year since you came to Renatus, and I still can’t get used to the title!”

Ria covered her mouth shyly and laughed in that endearing way of hers.

Asilri wanted to return Ria’s smile, but there was something far more important to attend to right now.

‘……A year? Since coming to Renatus?’

She needed something certain to soothe the unease stirring in her heart.

“Ria.”

“Yes, my lady. Please, go ahead!”

“What day is it…… today?”

Time at Renatus had held no meaning for Asilri, so it was difficult to recall any day that stood out in her memory.

Even so, she forced out the question that felt strange even to speak aloud, because she wanted to shatter the cruel hypothesis that had crossed her mind.

“Come on, Ria. Answer me.”

If it had been a year since she came to Renatus, Asilri could think of one day that fit.

Ria seemed to think the same, because she started to answer lightly, then stopped.

“Today is…… your wedding anniversary. Yours and the Master’s.”

“……Ah.”

The moment Ria finished her answer in a deflated voice, Asilri let out a heavy sound.

It was the moment an anxious hypothesis became a certain fact.

‘……I’ve gone back in time?’

Without thinking, Asilri dropped her gaze to her left hand.

On her left ring finger sat the wedding ring Khalid had given her, fitted perfectly.

She thought she had taken it off just before dying, having given up on waiting for Khalid.

The fact that she was wearing it now confirmed it. She really had gone back.

Khalid had abandoned Asilri and left for the battlefield just half a year into their marriage.

Then, after two years had passed, he returned, only to face her death.

In other words, today was both the day that marked half a year since Khalid abandoned Asilri, and the day of what had been a wretched wedding anniversary.

‘Why in the world is this happening to me.’

The fact that she had returned to a time so painful to endure alone was nothing short of horrifying.

But what was even more horrifying was the thin flicker of greed rising within her despite everything.

‘If only I had come back a little further.’

Then she wouldn’t have reached out and grabbed hold of this cruel fate.

She wouldn’t have accepted Khalid’s false confession, and perhaps she wouldn’t have lost her parents so senselessly.

So why had she come back to this moment of all times?

Asilri forgot she owed Ria a response and bit down on her lip, suppressing the surge of emotion.

Ria, who had been watching her with a worried look, bent her knees and sat down in front of Asilri.

“Oh, my lady. Your color is worse than when you were in Bliché. At a time like this, it would be so nice if the Master were here by your side.”

Ria had surely said it to comfort Asilri.

But the words reached Asilri with a slightly different meaning.

“……There’s still no word from Khalid?”

“Ah. A few days ago I heard that the Master would be taking supreme command on the battlefield again this time.”

Thinking back on it after hearing Ria’s words, she did seem to recall news like that arriving around this time.

‘Then Khalid won’t be returning to Renatus for a while.’

So this was what it meant to find a silver lining.

She hadn’t been able to prevent the wrong choices, but time remained to undo them.

Asilri felt relief knowing she still had time.

But Ria took it to mean something else entirely and made a forlorn face.

“I wonder when the Master will come back……”

“……Who knows.”

“When I hear the rumors coming out of the empire, I start to think he’s not the Master I knew. He was never so cruel and cold……”

Asilri did not answer Ria’s dejected voice, and shook her head inwardly.

Khalid Renatus, the man who had been Asilri’s husband, was no ordinary man, one the title of the empire’s sole duke could not fully capture.

[I hear the Duke of Renatus won another victory on the battlefield? They say he had the enemy commander’s head displayed on the enemy camp’s banner.]

[If it ended there, you’d count yourself lucky. Word is the battlefield was littered with heads that had lost their bodies.]

[They say the Duke, drenched in blood, looked nothing short of a demon. His dark red hair, soaked through with blood, was truly……]

The moment those brutal rumors surfaced in her mind, cold goosebumps rose and her body shuddered.

Feeling that sensation fully, she truly felt the reality of having gone back in time.

‘But it seems God has not entirely forsaken me.’

Her past life may have ended so senselessly, but this life was different.

No, it had to be different.

‘I won’t be played in Renatus’s hands any longer.’

Asilri’s warm green eyes gleamed, catching a clear light.

If today was the two of them’s wedding anniversary, then half a year remained before Khalid’s return.

Asilri had no intention of squandering the chance given to her.

“Ria.”

At Asilri’s unhurried call, Ria stood before her, still wearing a worried expression.

She remembered this strangely familiar scene.

Asilri smiled softly at Ria, who wore the same expression as she had on this day half a year ago.

From the moment Asilri, who had never once smiled at Renatus, changed her manner, her future began to slowly shift.

[Today I’ll just stay in my room. Who knows when Khalid will be back.]

“Today I’m going outside. Who knows when Khalid will be back.”

The words were similar to what she had said on that day in the past, but the meaning inside them was entirely different.

Ria, who couldn’t know that subtle difference, rushed out cheerfully to get ready.

Asilri watched her go and made a silent vow.

‘I’m going to change the future.’

I won’t die so senselessly like I did in my past life.