Chapter 2

Larienne was wandering through the underground warehouse, searching not only for the ceramics but also for an item Sir Werner had reserved before.

‘I finally found it.’

It was a topaz giving off a radiant purple light. She had inwardly found it strange that, for the first time, he had ordered a jewel rather than ceramics or everyday merchandise, but she could not ask. Larienne examined the topaz, carefully placed in its box, for a moment in detail. As she looked at it, she had the feeling that Sir Werner had called her name, and her heart grew uneasy.

Wondering if there might be even the slightest scratch, and taking along the certificate proving it was genuine, Larienne all but ran in her haste to leave the underground warehouse. When she stepped into the shop, it was astonishingly in chaos. Ceramics were shattered everywhere, and Sir Werner was looking around with a grave expression.

“Sir Werner, what in the world happened?”

Larienne’s eyes widened at once, and she cried out to Werner.

“Go back into the warehouse. It is dangerous here.”

Still unable to grasp the situation, Larienne hesitated. It looked dangerous somehow, but she could not bring herself to leave him there alone. Was it robbers, perhaps? She had no idea what in the world was happening in broad daylight like this and only blinked.

“Hurry!”

At his urgent shout, she was startled and turned her body as if to head back toward the underground warehouse.

At that moment, seeing an arrow flying toward his chest, she rushed at him.

“No.”

It was something she did without even realizing it herself. Larienne threw aside the things she was holding and ran to him.

She shielded him, pushed him away in another direction, and she herself also tumbled toward the floor. Larienne felt an arrow graze one side of her shoulder. A stinging pain flared for a moment. Fortunately, Sir Werner had knocked the arrow away with his sword, so it did not seem to have struck near his chest. At that moment, others came rushing into the shop.

‘It only grazed my shoulder, so it should be fine. Still, I’m glad Sir Werner wasn’t hurt.’

Larienne felt strangely as if her mind were growing faint, and she closed her eyes.

“It’s a poisoned arrow. The woman needs treatment quickly.”

Even amid the confusion, Larienne understood that the arrow that had struck her was poisoned.

‘Perhaps, like this…. I may be meeting death.’

Larienne’s eyes reddened. Her mother in prison, and she had not even gathered the full bail yet to free her mother, that was the thought that came first, and then she struggled to open her eyes and look at Sir Werner’s face. His eyes were bloodshot unlike before, and his lips were twisted.

“Lari…, there are still words I haven’t said. I must see you again. So I will make sure you live.”

Werner was sobbing with Larienne in his arms.

It was an unfamiliar sight, those tears she was seeing for the first time. Who on earth was trying to assassinate him, and why? Leaving countless questions behind, Larienne closed her eyes again.

‘Sir Werner, what kind of person are you? Why were they trying to kill you…’

At his tears, she let out a long breath. Still, I’m glad you were not hurt, that at least you survived. But I regret getting to know you… You are a dangerous man. The words she had wanted to say only circled in her mind. Larienne then lost consciousness.

***

Her body felt sore and heavy. Feeling as if she would not be able to rise from the bed because her body had grown so heavy, Larienne hesitated several times. Why does my body feel like this? The ceiling above the bed seemed to spin dizzily, and for a moment she stared at it blankly. This was certainly her bedroom… Yet thinking that she had survived after all, she slowly raised herself up. It had been a house where no one but herself was there. She had not even been able to keep a single servant.

Sunlight was gently pouring into her bedroom. So it was morning. It was then. A knock came at the door of her bedroom, and then an unexpected person entered. It was Countess Hennessy. The very one who should have been in prison. Why was her mother here? She could only blink. Gathering herself for a moment, Larienne barely opened her lips.

“Mother! What happened? Have you been released?”

At the sight of her mother, Larienne’s eyes widened in shock. At those words, the Countess of Hennessy looked even more startled and asked,

“Lari, released? What are you saying? You speak as though I’ve been somewhere.”

“You were in prison. Because of Father…”

Larienne began to speak, then faltered.

“Then… is Father still alive right now?”

At those words, the Countess gave Larienne an odd look and nodded.

“Why would you ask such a thing when of course he is? He has gone to the Harnes Marquisate right now. It’s about a business matter.”

The Countess let out a long sigh. More than anything, Larienne’s eyes went wide at the fact that she herself had returned alive.

***

“I don’t know who you are. What kind of person are you?”

Larienne had a dream. It was of Sir Werner smiling at her with a sorrowful expression. She could feel his frustration at being unable to answer her words at all. Why was he always unable to open up and tell her what was truly inside him? The frustration she had felt even while meeting him was vividly revealed in the dream as well. She resented herself for having come to like him.

Ha, that dream again today. It was unbelievable enough that she had returned alive, but the fact that he still would not leave her thoughts was also a problem. But now she had no choice except to avoid him. He was the dangerous man who had led her to death, after all. Then again, she could not guess in the least why he had become entangled in such a thing. Whether he had earned someone’s grudge, she could not grasp even the slightest clue, and her head throbbed.

‘I have to stop thinking about it. Lari, now all you have to do is not get involved with him again.’

It was a very simple method, but she grew afraid that she might become entangled with him again. That man she wanted to see and did not want to see at the same time. More than anything, she needed to quickly find a way to resolve her current situation. It was urgent. Her engagement, her father’s accident, and even her own death, with all these things piled up, her chest felt stifled.

She threw open the blanket covering her and decided to start working at the merchant guild even earlier than planned. She could not just run away because she was afraid. Counting the dates, this was one year before she died. This was time blessed by God! Larienne sprang out and ran to her mother.

“Mother!”

She called out loudly to Countess Hennessy, who had been knitting in the drawing room.

“Father is trying to marry me off as a secondary wife to Marquis Harnes, isn’t he?”

The Countess’s eyes widened. It had been something the Earlhad been secretly pushing ahead, so she herself had only learned of it today, and the fact that Larienne had already found out weighed heavily on her heart.

“Lari, don’t worry. I intend to stop it somehow. No matter how poor a family may be, left with only its title, I cannot send such a pretty daughter away to become the old Marquis’s wife.”

As if making up her mind, the Countess clenched her fist and gazed at Larienne gently. Even at her mother’s look, Larienne shook her head from side to side.

“No. Father will never change his mind. I know the state of our family as well. Father failed after attempting an unreasonable business venture, and it will be difficult for him to recover any longer.”

Larienne’s eyes cooled. The fact that she had returned to one year earlier meant that she knew one year of the future in advance. If so, there was a chance. She would be able to find a way to stop her death. But before that, she had to stop her marriage first.

“Mother, quickly pack our things before Father comes back tomorrow or so. I’ve thought of a good plan. If we meet Father, an irreversible disaster will come. We have to avoid this moment first.”

Pack their things out of nowhere? The Countess looked at Larienne with puzzled eyes, then shook her head.

“Where are two women supposed to go? Do we even have anywhere to go?”

The Countess gently refused her daughter’s suggestion that they run away together.

“Mother, you may not believe me, but we absolutely have to avoid this moment.”

Larienne’s eyes even brimmed with tears.

“Please…”

Larienne pleaded with her mother, who did not move in the slightest, but realizing that there was not much time left, she decided to pack first. Even if her mother tried to stop her, it would be useless.

“I’ll pack first for now… We can’t miss the train.”