Diana stopped her response mid-sentence.

That’s strange…

Come to think of it, she didn’t feel the burning pain in her body. She had been stabbed with a knife, but not feeling any pain didn’t make sense.

She had fallen off a cliff. Finding this thought strange, Diana’s eyes widened as she examined her body.

There are no… wounds?

Is this a dream?

Now that she thought about it, being in her bedroom was odd. Even after marriage, she had continued living at the Winchester family home, but Diana had changed rooms upon marriage. She had left her maiden room exactly as it was and moved to the room next to Clive’s.

But they had brought her to her old room instead of the one she had been using.

No matter how she thought about it, the current situation didn’t make sense, so she thought she was dreaming. After falling off the cliff, she was wandering in the afterlife, bound to the past.

As she continued looking around the room with suspicious eyes, Marie took Diana’s hands with worried eyes.

The moment she felt Marie’s warm touch, she realized that the situation unfolding before her eyes was reality.

“Am I… alive?”

How did this happen? Has this become her reality now? Then were the things she experienced until the brink of death just a dream?

The memories were vivid. So she couldn’t think of what she had experienced as a dream. She could still feel the pain of death, so how could it be a dream?

She had fallen off a cliff, but was she lucky enough to be rescued? So she was unconscious and kept dreaming?

But what about the wounds? Wounds disappearing didn’t make sense.

The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed that the current situation was a dream, so Diana hurriedly pinched her cheek. If this was a sweet dream, she needed to wake up. If she became captivated by such a dream and then woke up, she would despair even more at the hellish reality.

But no matter how much she pinched her cheek, the scenery before her eyes didn’t change. Wasn’t it a dream after all?

Reality? Really?

“Miss, what are you talking about?”

Miss? It had already been three years since she became the Duchess of Winchester, yet she was being called miss. It felt like she had returned to before her marriage.

That didn’t make sense.

At that moment, tens of thousands of thoughts flashed through Diana’s mind. The employees she had encountered at the villa. The conversations she had shared with Charlotte.

And her husband’s betrayal.

If it had been a dream, it should gradually become blurry, but as time passed, it became more vivid instead. Enough to be certain that it was something she had experienced.

Then what was this current situation?

“Why am I in this room?”

“Huh? You went to bed early last night saying you were tired from learning the new fashionable dance until late.”

She learned a new dance yesterday?

“What dance?”

“The dance created by Mrs. Perth. It became a topic because it suited waltz music. So you also wanted to learn that dance and practiced dancing until late yesterday… Why are you acting like this?”

Marie looked at Diana with puzzled eyes. Diana also tried to remember when Mrs. Perth had created the dance with a bewildered face. That was… four years ago.

Feeling something was strange, Diana asked Marie again.

“What did I do the day before yesterday?”

“You attended a congratulatory party to celebrate Lady Valesia’s engagement.”

A congratulatory party?

Lady Granard’s engagement congratulatory party was also from four years ago.

Had she returned to the past? Did this make sense? Come to think of it, Marie’s face did seem a bit more youthful than before.

“Can you bring me a mirror?”

“Of course.”

Marie immediately walked to the wooden wardrobe and opened the first drawer. She took out a small mirror from there and handed it to Diana.

Hadn’t her skin become rough after marriage? But now it looked soft and youthful.

‘Have I come back to life?’

Though it was hard to accept, given the circumstances, it seemed she had indeed returned to the past. If so, then perhaps…

She suddenly remembered. The image of the two people who had suddenly left this world. Diana jumped up from her seat and shouted in an urgent voice.

“Can I possibly see Mother and Father?”

“The Duke is out, so it would be difficult to meet him. Shall I call the Duchess?”

As expected. The moment she heard the word “Duchess” from Marie’s mouth, her heart swelled. Though her body trembled slightly, Diana maintained her composure and said.

“No. I’ll go myself. Where is she now?”

“She should be in the reception room…”

Before Marie could finish speaking, Diana flung open the door and came out into the corridor. When she thought that the two of them would be alive, she only wanted to see their faces as quickly as possible.

When she ran to the reception room, she saw the Duchess drinking tea with an elegant posture. Tears welled up in Diana’s eyes when she saw her mother’s face.

She’s alive!

It really isn’t a dream. When she realized it wasn’t a dream, she rushed into the Duchess’s arms.

“Mother!”

“What’s wrong? Is something the matter?”

The Duchess of Winchester looked at Diana with worried eyes. She lifted her head and carefully cupped her mother’s cheek. When she felt the warm touch, tears of emotion poured down endlessly.

“I had a terrible nightmare.”

The kind of dream she never wanted to have again.

“Oh my. You must have had a very difficult time in your dream.”

The Duchess gently stroked Diana’s back.

“Everything’s fine now.”

Because it just needed to end as a nightmare.

“Mother.”

“What is it?”

“Please be careful when riding in carriages. Check the condition of the carriage every time before getting in.”

This was all Diana could do for her right now. It was a statement born from her earnest hope that the events of the past would not repeat.

She won’t let such things happen again! With that resolution, Diana smiled gently.

* * *

A week had already passed since returning to age 21, but Diana still couldn’t leave her bedroom.

Even after confirming dozens of times with her own eyes that her father and mother were alive, returning to the past still felt unfamiliar.

Fearing that she might return to her previous life if she woke up from sleep, Diana had to remain in an anxious state for several days. She repeated staying up until dawn because she didn’t want to fall asleep, then falling asleep anyway several times.

“Gasp!”

Sometimes she would bolt upright from nightmares. Only after fully realizing that she had returned to the past could she come out of her bedroom.

After spending the following week peacefully, Diana suddenly became curious. Now that she was acting differently from the past, how would her future unfold?

Since she had returned to one year before her marriage, it would be the time when Duke Winchester was busily searching for Diana’s spouse.

Around now, Father would be thinking of Clive Orkney as the most likely husband candidate, right?

The reason he, the second son of Count Orkney, could marry Diana was because her father and Count Orkney had a very close friendship.

Count Orkney had introduced both his eldest and second sons to Diana, but the eldest son was arrogant and rude, making her feel unpleasant whenever she met him. 

In contrast, Clive, the second son, was kind and affectionate, so she naturally built a friendship with him afterward, which naturally led to their engagement.

With his thoughtful and affectionate personality and handsome appearance, it would have been natural for her to lose her heart to him, but Diana hadn’t been able to do so in her previous life.

‘You are a beautiful, intelligent, and wise woman. Though I have many shortcomings, I want to become your companion.’

Even when he offered words of praise, she felt no particular emotion. She was grateful, but strangely her heart didn’t go to him.

Even after marriage, her feelings didn’t deepen, so she wondered why, but now she seemed to understand the reason. Since it wasn’t sincere, it was impossible to capture Diana’s heart.

“If I had realized this earlier, there would have been no need to marry Clive…”

The more she recalled her past life when she had lost her parents so meaninglessly, the more anger surged up. No matter how much she had gained a new life, her hatred toward the bastard she wanted to tear apart and kill wouldn’t subside.

She wanted to throw him off a cliff the same way, but she couldn’t. Diana had no justification to harm Clive.