“Well, um, the Duchess couldn’t bear her grief and took her own life.”

“What? S*icide? The Duchess Winchester I know wouldn’t do that.”

“It-it’s true, sir.”

The maid shook her head with sad eyes, but her expression seemed awkward. Her tears felt artificial, giving Edwin an unpleasant feeling.

“Why isn’t anyone trying to search for the Duchess?”

“We-we were too shocked. I was about to go down the cliff.”

“What did I just see? It looked like someone threw her off the cliff.”

He hadn’t actually seen it happen. He was merely testing them, but instantly noticed the bewildered expressions on the faces of the servants and maids. Apparently, they had been overconfident that their plan would succeed.

“Arrest everyone for questioning.”

There wasn’t clear evidence yet, but Edwin discovered the Duke was the culprit when his lover, Charlotte, betrayed him.

He had only threatened her slightly, but she became frightened and confessed everything. After harming Diana to become the Duchess, she showed such weakness when cornered. Truly pathetic.

After instructing his knights to arrest everyone at the villa, Edwin went down the cliff with his mercenaries.

There was no time for despair. He needed to find her body somehow. She wouldn’t have thrown herself off.

It was urgent to recover evidence that they had murdered her before it disappeared. That seemed to be his only way to atone for her.

Fortunately, a river flowed beneath the cliff. Since the mercenaries weren’t enough, Edwin mobilized villagers to search for Diana’s body. The heavy rain and strong currents made finding her difficult.

“Captain, it’s too dangerous to continue.”

“I must find her, even if I’m alone!”

The rising river threatened to flood, limiting their search. He couldn’t risk endangering others to save her.

So Edwin continued searching alone, and finally found her at the estuary.

Her body hadn’t decomposed yet, with blood soaking her chest. He could confirm she had been stabbed with a sword before falling from the cliff.

Her body was damaged, scratched and torn in various places. The sight of the woman without any color in her face delivered a tremendous shock.

Once decomposition set in, those wounds would be difficult to identify visually, so they probably planned to keep her death secret until then, making excuses that she was recuperating.

Those despicable people.

Everyone who came to the villa was an accomplice to m*rder. Most might not have been directly involved, but the crime of standing by while the Duchess died was significant.

“AAAAARGH!”

Edwin felt like he was falling into an abyss of despair. He had tried to control his emotions, but in the end, he had lost her forever.

Was it already too late? If only he had accepted when she asked him to be her knight.

If only he had arrived a little earlier. No. If only he had paid more attention to her, would the future have been different?

His roar of frustration and anger echoed through the forest.

* * *

“So you’re wasting away, just like I thought.”

After Diana’s death, Edwin lived almost like a recluse. Feeling guilty for failing to save her, he resigned from his position as Captain of the Knights and stayed confined to his home.

The person who came to visit him was Lady Queensberry, Chloe.

Edwin’s face, thinned and sharpened, exuded a harsh aura. Pale, dry skin, hollow eyes, sunken cheeks. He looked like a shell with his soul departed.

Yet he continued writing something on paper.

Instead of answering, Edwin looked at her, seemingly wondering how she had entered. He had ordered that no one be allowed into the mansion after the Crown Prince kept visiting and bothering him.

“They let me in when I threatened to kill them if they didn’t.”

Chloe grinned, showing the sword at her side. But her smile didn’t last long. She instantly changed her expression and grabbed Edwin by the collar.

“Are you going to stay like this forever? Her death wasn’t your fault.”

“No, I knew about their evil deeds but couldn’t stop them.”

“What? How could you know about their marriage… Wait, you…”

Chloe looked at Edwin with disbelief.

“Yes, that’s right. I planted people there. I know it was crazy.”

“Yes, you’re definitely insane.”

As she cursed and released his collar, Chloe’s eyes fell on the paper Edwin had been writing on. Her pupils dilated.

Noticing where her gaze had landed, Edwin hesitated before speaking.

“I was wondering…”

But he immediately closed his mouth.

“Why start talking and then stop? If you have something to say, say it all.”

Chloe frowned in frustration. A moment of silence followed, but it didn’t last long.

“Would it be difficult to approach the monster core?”

“Are you mad? You still haven’t come to your senses!”

The monster core. It was an object known to contain mysterious power. Located in the center of the monsters’ forest, it was said to be guarded by the creatures.

Many had tried to obtain the core, but most never returned alive, making any attempt to approach it tantamount to s*icide.

Researchers who studied fragments brought back by the few survivors discovered that the life energy of all monsters was concentrated there.

Some claimed it could potentially turn back time to the past. However, there were also theories that the core alone wasn’t enough—a human life would need to be sacrificed—but these were mere speculation.

Infuriated by Edwin clinging to such uncertain stories, Chloe grabbed his collar again.

“I heard about the Duchess Winchester too. Her unjust death is tragic, but this isn’t right.”

“It’s my life. What’s wrong with me doing what I want with it?”

A life without Diana. What meaning could it have? He only realized her importance after losing her.

“Hah. You’re so stubborn.”

Chloe sighed deeply. She held her forehead with both hands, looking like someone who had been given a troublesome task, and screamed.

“ARGH! Why are you doing this? What’s wrong with living your own life? Why do you keep making me worry about you!”

After shouting for a while, her expression suddenly became resolute, like someone who had made a grave decision. Chloe put her hand on Edwin’s shoulder and nodded.

“I’ll go with you.”

“What?”

The response was so unexpected that Edwin couldn’t answer immediately.

“I know our lives might be in danger. But I’m not happy with my life either. Nothing has ever gone my way, so what attachment do I have to this life? If I’m reborn, you have to help me fulfill my wishes.”

“What do you want?”

“I want to join the Imperial Knights. You could help me, right?”

Edwin was the boy Count Queensberry had brought as Chloe’s assistant. Though called an aide, he was closer to an errand boy. Their relationship changed after he had been at the Count’s house for six months.

Six months after Chloe began teaching Edwin swordsmanship, he caught up to her skill level. After that, their relationship quickly transformed from noble and commoner to friends.

Chloe built her skills to defeat Edwin, and before she knew it, she had grown to the level of the Imperial Knights.

But because of the law that noble ladies couldn’t become Imperial Knights, Diana had to marry Count Nottingham according to her father’s orders.

Though her skills were on par with the Imperial Knights, she couldn’t become one simply because she was a noble woman. 

Meanwhile, Edwin, from a commoner background, had risen to the position of Captain.

“You became the first commoner to become an Imperial Knight and then Captain. So I want to be the first woman to become an Imperial Knight. I can’t be Captain because of you, so should I aim for Vice Captain?”

Chloe winked at Edwin.

“Just ask the Crown Prince.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

The Crown Prince, like Edwin, remained unmarried without a fiancée, and there was one truth about this that people in high society didn’t know.

It was that the Crown Prince had taken a liking to Chloe.

After Edwin became an Imperial Knight, Chloe occasionally came to visit him. Sometimes she would spar with him, and after seeing the two of them fencing, the Crown Prince fell for her.

But since she was already engaged to Young Master Nottingham, the Crown Prince kept his feelings to himself. 

When she divorced, he revealed his feelings, causing quite a commotion in the palace.

Fortunately, the rumors didn’t spread to high society, but Chloe considered it an annoying problem. She wanted to become a knight—becoming the Crown Princess was out of the question.

“Don’t you want to be the Crown Princess?”

“What? Me, the Crown Princess? Are you serious?”

Chloe waved her hands dismissively and giggled.

“Why not? He hasn’t let anyone close to him because he can’t forget you.”

“Let him find a Crown Princess who suits him. I’m not interested. It’s just a temporary attraction anyway. I don’t want to ask anything from a womanizer. I’ll prove my strength and achieve my goals myself. Just open the path a little for me. Do you understand?”

“If we go back to the past, I’ll try.”