Prologue – Part 1

“You know, don’t you think it’s time you stopped being nice?”

The red-haired woman whispered to the woman in the mirror.

When the mirror reflected the woman’s large, round eyes, fine bridge of her nose, and cherry-colored lips, all of which seemed so nice and good, the woman spoke again, as if she had grown tired of the sight.

Kristin Edith, the daughter of the Viscount family, married Lord Raphael Rodney, the Duke, for the glory of the family. She thought she was in love with him.

Kristin Edith ran a slender finger across the gold-rimmed mirror.

As she did so, her thin slip fell down, revealing her delicate shoulders.

However, without thinking to pull up the fallen slip straps, Kristin Edith walked out onto the balcony.

It was still too cold to go out on the balcony with only a slip as an underdress.

It was September, and a cold wind was blowing that could easily catch a cold.

But she had already suffered worse than the cold.

Due to an accident planned by someone, the carriage Kristin was riding in plunged off a cliff and into the unknown depths of the sea.

It had been only a year since Kristin Edith married Raphael Rodney.

It was early autumn, but the temperature of the seawater felt as if it were piercing her skin.

Apart from the suffocation, the cold water made it feel like sharp needles were piercing her entire body, and although she cried out for help after falling into the water, there was no one to hear her.

The people in the carriage were the coachman and Kristin Edith, who had no idea that the accident would happen. There were only two of them.

As a result of the accident, Kristin lost her life, and when she opened her eyes again, she was back to the time before her marriage.

It was around the time when she received the proposal, before she married Raphael Rodney.

Kristin Edith couldn’t figure out who had killed her. There were several suspects.

Her step-sister Elena, who had always envied her, and her stepmother, Rose Veronita.

Now that she had become a member of the Edith family and gained the title of the daughter of a Viscount, they despised her and were jealous of her.

Furthermore, there were numerous women who admired Winston Zenon, a famous figure in the empire. Kristin Edith married Raphael Rodney, but even before that, she had been favored by Winston Zenon.

She had always been close to him since childhood, a friendship inherited from her mother, Elesia.

Winston Zenon, the only child of a Duke, needed a playmate when he was young. Playmates for nobles usually had to be of similar or lower status, and since there were only five Duke families in the Union Empire, finding a playmate among them wasn’t easy.

Some nobles intentionally approached the Zenon family with bad intentions, trying to befriend them. So, Winston Zenon’s father chose Kristin Edith, the daughter of Elesia, who had a respectable background.

The age difference between the two was only three years. Winston Zenon was ten years old and Kristin was seven when they first met. At first, the two playmates felt awkward, but as children, they quickly became friends.

Before they knew it, Winston, who saw Kristin gradually transforming into a beautiful noblewoman, harbored love for her in his heart.

And that feeling became evident when he asked Kristin to dance at the debutante ball, but the noblewomen who saw this were not pleased with Kristin, the daughter of a mere Viscount family.

They said that Winston Zenon, the future Duke, should meet someone from a slightly more distinguished family or someone with a nobler character.

But that was a blatant lie.

Their minds were filled only with vanity and arrogance, thinking that Winston Zenon should be with them.

At that time, Kristin was twenty years old.

She had been introduced to society at a debutante banquet, but no one liked her.

Furthermore, the Duke Raphael Rodney, who had eyes only for her with a crazed gaze, proposed to Kristin a year after the debutante ball had passed.

All because of his inferiority complex and jealousy of Winston Zenon.

By marrying Kristin, whom he did not truly love, he intended to thoroughly crush Winston Zenon once and for all.

Kristin thought of another person who might have wanted to kill her, someone she never wanted to face again.

Reaching out, she grabbed the railing of the balcony and opened her mouth again.

“I must add my husband to those who tried to kill me, Lord Raphael Rodney. It seems fitting to add him to the list.”

* * *

Kristin gently opened her eyes in bed. She felt a slight chill, probably because she had gone out onto the balcony last night.

With the help of the maids, she put on her dress and walked downstairs.

By now, it was obvious that there would be a commotion due to the proposal letter sent by Duke Raphael.

Elena and Rose would likely offer her unpleasant words upon seeing her come down to the first floor.

And they would do so, pretending to be kind to Kristin.

“Oh, have you come down? It seems like good news has arrived for you, Kristin.”

It was the same word as the day before she died. The situation hadn’t changed at all.
The same conversation, the same attire, and everything happening without a single difference.

And then there was a ‘crack’ sound as if something had broken.

“Oh my, what’s going on? Let’s get this cleaned up. But what should I do with this? This cup is precious to Kristin.”

“I didn’t break it; My Lady handed it to me….”

“Are you arrogantly implying that I deliberately broke this cup? It’s just pottery.”

“It’s a cup with lilies painted on it. It’s a precious and noble cup that Lady Elesia passed down to Lady Kristin. You can’t find the same thing anywhere else.”

Then she began to glare at the maid, Lenci, who was unjustly staring at the broken cup.

Her gaze seemed to say, “Admit you did wrong.”

Suppressing the urge to laugh at the sight, Kristin looked at Lenci as if she knew nothing.

“It’s okay, Lenci. What does that cup matter anyway? Are you hurt?”

“What?”

Lenci was taken aback and started to glance nervously at Kristin.

Kristin casually walked over to the dining table, intending to pick up the mug containing the tea, but ended up dropping it to the floor as if it were an accident.

And just like that, the mug’s handle broke off, making a sharp sound.

The mug was a precious one that Rose cherished.

“Oh my, goodness. The mug is broken. What should we do? Mother.”

Certainly, in the past, she had cried at the sight of her broken mug, feeling upset.

She hadn’t said a word to Rose, who carelessly shattered the heirloom-like mug left by her deceased mother.

If she had confronted her in that situation, her hand would have definitely flown to Kristin’s cheek.

Back then, she was afraid in her pure, kind, and delicate heart, but now she was not at all.
Instead, having come back to life from the brink of death, she had no fear now.

Having lived through such agony, breaking a teacup was nothing at all.

But because Kristin anticipated how Rose would react in this situation, she spoke first.

“Isn’t that the mug you cherish, Mother? I just picked up the first mug I saw since I didn’t have mine. But you know, Mother, since this mug broke just like mine, it’s not worth much, is it? After all, if it’s going to break, you can’t use it and just have to throw it away. Why did you treasure it so much?”

“What did you just say? Kristin?”