“My Lord! A merchant caravan has been attacked by monsters!”

Duke Liserth dropped the newspaper he was holding when Lian burst through the door with this news.

A caravan attacked! His face turned pale.

His daughter Erin was traveling with that caravan.

“What about Erin? Is Erin alright?”

At Lloyd’s question, Lian furrowed his brow while catching his breath. Meanwhile, various scenarios flashed through the Duke’s mind.

His delicate and beautiful daughter, Erin Liserth, who looked just like her deceased mother.

Recently, Erin had severely injured several maids with excessive punishment. The Duke had heard about it but tried to ignore it as usual.

What changed his mind was the earnest plea from his wife, Corelia.

The Duchess had insisted that for Erin’s own sake, her behavior needed correction.

The Duke worried about upsetting Erin, but he couldn’t refuse his wife’s request.

Certainly, Erin’s behavior had crossed a line.

‘If this gets out, Erin’s position will become even more precarious.’

Eventually, following Corelia’s advice, the Duke arranged for Erin to return to the academy with the merchant caravan.

For Erin, who typically traveled to the academy with numerous knights and maids, this would serve as an appropriate punishment and show others that she was repenting.

As the shocked Duke staggered, Corelia, who stood beside him, supported him.

She spoke with a trembling voice.

“Lloyd, it’s all my fault. I only wanted her to mature a little before marriage…”

Strangely, though, the corners of Corelia’s mouth turned slightly upward when neither the Duke nor Lian was looking at her.

Completely unaware of this, the Duke thought of Erin, who typically needed maids massaging her shoulders and legs all day to function.

This was the first time he had sent her with just one knight and one maid.

But why did a monster horde appear now of all times? The Duke’s complexion worsened.

At that moment, Lian caught his breath and continued speaking. His face was contorted with disbelief.

“The young lady…”

“It’s my fault! I shouldn’t have done this! Is she badly injured? Or could it be…”

As the Duke assumed the worst, Lian quickly shook his head. Yet he hesitated to speak.

What he had heard was too unbelievable.

“The young lady killed all the monsters and saved the caravan!”

“What?”

Both the Duke and Corelia couldn’t comprehend Lian’s words.

Erin defeated a monster horde…?

Of course, there shouldn’t have been any powerful monsters in this area. The Duke knew this when he sent Erin with the caravan.

Besides, he had sent his favored knight, Sir Reken, along with her, so he thought there wouldn’t be any major issues.

‘Sir Reken must have done it, and someone misunderstood.’

People often rationalize when faced with shocking events. The Duke was no exception.

How could his fragile daughter possibly defeat a monster horde? If there had been even one high-ranked monster, a single high-ranking knight would struggle.

“So Sir Reken defeated them? How fortunate I sent him along. Anyway, Erin is safe, right?”

“Yes, the young lady is safe, but it wasn’t Sir Reken who defeated the monsters…”

Lian tried to explain the truth to Duke Liserth but closed his mouth.

Even he couldn’t believe what the messenger had told him.

‘What on earth happened?’

So Lian decided to give up trying to convince the Duke who wasn’t listening to him.

* * *

Reken stared blankly at Erin who was sitting before him.

“My lady… you could eat comfortably inside the carriage.”

Why was a noblewoman eating with merchants? Such a thing might be acceptable for an ordinary knight like himself.

If Erin had been following in Duke Liserth’s footsteps as a knight, the current situation might have made sense.

But she had never shown any interest in becoming a knight.

Erin’s goal had been to find a good husband and get married, and she had already achieved that to some extent.

She was definitely not someone who would camp by the roadside with him.

“How could I eat alone in the carriage when you’re out here like this?”

Erin’s hands were wrapped in bandages.

The blood seeping through those bandages made Sarah, the maid standing beside her, visibly distressed. Soon, Sarah spoke with a sob.

“Such wounds on the young lady’s delicate hands… it’s too upsetting…”

Isn’t there something more important to worry about? Reken thought as he examined Erin closely.

No matter how he looked at her, the person before him was indeed Erin Liserth he knew. Then how could yesterday’s events be explained?

When he first woke up, Reken thought he had dreamed it all.

But the wounds on Erin’s hands were clear evidence that yesterday’s events weren’t a dream.

‘Did she secretly learn swordsmanship?’

But Reken immediately shook his head. The very idea that she had secretly learned swordsmanship made no sense.

Although the House of Liserth was famous for swordsmanship, Erin had always been far removed from anything related to swords.

Luxury, indulgence, laziness. She was characterized by words that sounded negative just hearing them.

If someone like her had learned swordsmanship, he would have known.

As a high-ranking knight, he could gauge the skills of those less proficient than himself.

If Erin had been practicing swordsmanship since childhood, he would have noticed.

‘But there’s no way Lady Erin could be stronger than me.’

Reken was Duke Liserth’s most favored knight and a promising talent who had graduated second in his class from the Swordsmanship Department at Atenz Academy.

‘Then what was that swordsmanship?’

When the caravan was attacked by monsters yesterday, Reken had prepared himself to lose an arm if necessary.

Although the caravan had decent protection because Erin was traveling with them, the monsters were numerous.

There were even mid-ranked monsters among them. If he had faced them alone, there would certainly have been many casualties.

It was manageable at first, but gradually became overwhelming.

‘They were definitely powerful monsters.’

They weren’t monsters that Erin, who typically struggled even to walk, or any ordinary person could handle.

Yet she accomplished the impossible.

“My lady, where did you learn swordsmanship?”

At Reken’s question, Erin remained silent, seemingly lost in thought.

To him, even her calm response seemed strange. It was as if someone else had entered her body.

If not that, could a person change so drastically in an instant?

“I learned by watching Karon practice.”

“Just by watching?”

“…”

“No, how could that be…”

At Reken’s reaction, Erin’s face stiffened slightly. She abruptly stood up and cleared away her soup bowl.

‘When did she finish eating?’

Erin’s bowl had definitely contained a large portion of soup.

Reken had assumed the food would be wasted. She typically ate only tiny portions, like bird feed.

“I’ll get up now. I’m still a bit tired from yesterday.”

Her face didn’t look tired at all, but Reken couldn’t say anything.

He realized he was already being overwhelmed by Erin’s presence.

* * *

Erin’s carriage, decorated with lavish jewels, looked completely out of place in the merchant caravan.

While claiming to punish Erin, the Duke had prepared a special carriage for his daughter, knowing she would be uncomfortable in a merchant’s carriage.

In retrospect, that action hadn’t helped improve Erin’s reputation.

Erin furrowed her brow as if the jewels decorating the carriage gave her a headache. Still, she reflected deeply on her life.

A life she had returned to after two reincarnations.

She tightly gripped her slightly trembling hand with the other.

Contrary to Reken’s suspicions, she was indeed Erin Liserth.

“Erin Liserth.”

She savored the name for a moment.

A notorious villainess, a girl known for her cruelty and extravagance.

But none of it was true. Erin slightly lifted her skirt.

Unhealed bruises were visible on her legs. All were wounds from “punishments” inflicted by Duchess Corelia.

‘There must be other unhealed wounds elsewhere.’

From the moment her father remarried Corelia through the Emperor’s arrangement, Erin had never known peace, either mentally or physically.

“Erin, you’re truly a useless child. What would your father think if he knew?”

The abuse occurred secretly, away from everyone’s eyes. Words casually thrown at her since childhood had worn down her spirit.

Almost brainwashed, she feared disappointing her father so much that she couldn’t tell him anything.

It was a life not worth living.

She became the Duchess’s puppet, unable to resist.

Eventually, Erin was murdered by the Duchess.

‘I never expected to live again after dying.’

And then she was reborn in another world.