Chapter 1

1. Revenge begins with regression

It’s a nightmare.

A nightmare. Yes, it must be a nightmare. This can’t be real.

Adelaide blocked the gush of blood coming up her throat with her hand and looked up at the man in front of her.

Elkius Isulandt, the 13th Emperor of the Anatolian Empire.

A rebel who executed her father and seized the throne, once her lover, and now a man who became Adelaide’s enemy.

And the man she believed to be her love until this moment.

“It seems the medicine is working.”

Elkius chuckled bitterly, playing with the wine glass left over by Adelaide.

The red liquid gurgled as if it were about to overflow.

“I guess you’ve been faithfully taking the medicine I gave you.”

Medicine?

Adelaide remembered the contraceptive pills that her handmaiden used to bring her.

They were pills she had been taking in preparation for her marriage to Callion.

They were made from Nerium leaves, so they were said not to be harmful to the body.

“Usually, there are no symptoms, but when it meets with the fruit of the Tolaka, the dormant poison is unleashed, just like now.”

Elkius emptied the remaining alcohol in one gulp and dropped the glass.

The shattered glass cut her face. The stinging pain reminded her of the cruel reality once again.

“Why…….”

The words were muffled by the burning pain in her gut.

But Elkius knew what she was asking.

“Did you really think I would make you empress, Adelaide?”

“Y-You promised…”

A promise was made. A promise to make her Empress once the throne was stable.

Believing in that promise, Adelaide gave him everything. Money, love, and even marriage to a man she didn’t care for.

“A promise? I don’t remember making a promise to a lowly merchant’s daughter.”

“My father…… made a contract with you…….”

“Who?”

“My father, the Earl of Cornwall…….”

“Ah, are you talking about the corpse being eaten by rats under the castle walls?”

“Ugh!”

Adelaide, shocked at the mention of her father’s death, coughed up blood again.

“Tsk.”

Elkius clicked his tongue at the blood splatter, then pulled out something and threw it to the floor.

“A relic of your father. Consider it a gift.”

It was a pocket watch.

It was a pocket watch that her father had paid a fortune for from a Caucasian shaman who claimed it would grant wishes.

“Your father has threatened me. He’ll expose everything if I don’t make you Empress within the year.”

The man’s cloudy eyes glittered with madness.

“If I had made a petty merchant into an Earl, he should have been satisfied with that. What an audacious fool to dare to challenge the heavens like this.”

Elkius cursed her father in a coarse tone.

It was ridiculous. After all his father had done to make him emperor, this was the least he could do to repay the favor.

Adelaide glared at Elkius, her eyes wide with disbelief.

“You’re not even human.”

“Do you realize that now? It would be strange if the son who killed his father was human.”

Elkius smirked and stepped toward her.

“But.”

Then he forcibly lifted Adelaide’s chin and whispered.

“Are you human, then?”

Are you not just like me?

Adelaide bit her tongue at the low rumble of his voice.

She couldn’t deny it. Blinded by love, she was the one who handed over the empire to this demon and dragged her husband into ruin.

…What happened to Callion?

The palace is heavily guarded, but Callion is a crown prince, so he must know a secret passage or two.

If he escapes unharmed, he will not stand idly by and watch this demon’s atrocities.

“Callion won’t… let you get away…”

“Callion?”

There was a hint of amusement in the words that escaped his twisted lips.

“Bravo, Adelaide. It’s so unlike you to go looking for him when you wished more than anyone for his death. But what now? It won’t go as you think.”

“…….”

“Have you forgotten? I’m really after him, not you.”

Before Elkius could finish his sentence, someone knocked on the door.

“Your Majesty.”

Elkius opened the door as if he’d been waiting. A sickening stench of blood wafted in.

“We’ve captured him.”

Two knights rushed in, dragging a man covered in blood.

No, it couldn’t be.

Elkius tugged the man’s hair up to examine his face. Adelaide’s eyes widened in horror.

It was Callion, her husband.

“Was there much resistance?”

“Twelve of the men we were fighting are dead. They’ve been poisoned, so they won’t last much longer.”

“Well done, get out.”

Elkius’ face lit up with satisfaction as he dismissed the knights.

“I’ll have to thank you.”

“…….”

“Because the information you gave me made it easier to deal with this pesky bastard.”

Adelaide’s gaze, fixed on Callion, dropped to the ground.

‘What have I done, colluding with that demon? ’

Regret, thicker than poison, tore at her heart.

Deng, deng, deng─.

In the distance, a dreary bell tolled, announcing the funeral of the Emperor’s sister, the Duchess of Howard.

“It’s a fitting end.”

Elkius muttered as he looked down at the two bloodied men and women.

What a perfect ending to his day, taking out his most threatening enemy and an annoying b*tch all at once.

“Let’s get this over with.”

Striding over to the fireplace, Elkius picked up a blazing log and tossed it against the oiled curtains.

“Goodbye, Adelaide.”

As soon as Elkius left the room, he heard the sound of hammering outside the door. He must be barricading the door so she can’t escape.

Adelaide looked around in despair.

There was no way out. The flames that had reduced the curtains to ashes were growing by the minute.

“Adelaide…”

Struggling to lift his eyelids, Callion reached out a bloody hand.

“Are you… okay…?”

His voice, barely audible, seemed like it could fade away at any moment.

Instead of answering, Adelaide took the hand and brought it to her cheek.

His hand was soft and warm at first, almost unbelievably so for a dying man.

“Callion…”

Tears fell from Adelaide’s eyes onto Callion’s palm.

‘Don’t cry; you don’t deserve to cry.’

If Elkius hadn’t abandoned her, she would have stood beside Callion’s corpse, raising a toast to their victory.

So these tears are deceit and hypocrisy.

“Don’t worry, Julian…… will come to your rescue soon…….”

As if trying to reassure her, Callion mentioned his captain of the guard. Adelaide couldn’t reply.

They won’t come. They can’t come. They’re already dead.

She herself had told Elkius where they were.

Only now did she realize how foolish she had been.

Realizing how foolish she had been, she had no time to even seek forgiveness.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you…….”

A small, stagnant tear slid down the corner of her eye. The hand that had been caressing her cheek fell away weakly.

“Cal…lion?”

Adelaide called to him, her voice trembling. No answer came.

“No…….”

I killed you.

Adelaide squeezed his hand and sobbed.

It couldn’t end like this. She shouldn’t have let him go like this.

He would have been emperor if it weren’t for her. Callion, not the greedy, unworthy Elkius, should have been emperor, but him.

Just once. If she could only go back and undo everything.

A broken pocket watch slipped into her blurry vision.

“A magical wish-granting artifact.”

She scoffed at the nonsense, but right now she needed something to hang onto.

She clutched the clock and prayed fervently.

“Please…….”

Just give me one chance.

One chance to seek revenge on Elkius.

One chance to atone to Callion.

“Gulp!”

Adelaide collapsed to the floor, vomiting blood. The blood seeped into the shattered glass covering.

Her vision blurred white. Adelaide closed her eyes, exhaling her last breath.

“I’m sorry, Callion.”

At that moment, the frozen hands of the clock began to spin backward.

⚜ ⚜ ⚜ ⚜

“Ugh!”

With a short groan, she woke up. Breath flowed into her blocked lungs, and Adelaide sat up abruptly.

Her darkened vision slowly returned. It was a familiar place. Inside the chambers of Tiflis Castle, where she had stayed after marrying Callion.

“What happened?”

Adelaide pressed her palm against her throbbing heart. She remembered the gut-wrenching pain and the burning sensation.

Was she dreaming, or had she really traveled back in time?

Images of Elkius laughing in triumph and Callion dying flashed before her eyes.

Adelaide shook her head vigorously to clear the nightmarish memories, climbed out of bed, and lit a candle.

The room was both familiar and unfamiliar. The curtains were the same as they’d been last fall, and the mirror, with its crack in the corner, was intact.

“…Could it be?”

Adelaide looked in the mirror. She thought she looked younger than usual, but that wasn’t enough to be sure.

She walked over to her dresser and pulled out a box she had hidden deep in a drawer. It was the box where she kept her letters to and from Elkius.

Adelaide picked up the topmost letter.

“To my beloved Elkius.”

Written in neat handwriting, the letter detailed who Callion had met and what had happened over the past month, as well as how much she missed Elkius.

Adelaide swallowed hard and checked the date on the letter.

“January 8, 169, Islantran Calendar.”

“…I really went back.”

She had turned back time.

Adelaide calmly recalled her memories of this time.

The day she was killed by Elkius was January 7, 171.

Today was two years ago, less than a year after Adelaide had married Callion.

It was not a bad time, though it would have been better if it had been sooner.

For the past year, she has been playing the role of Elkius’s mistress. She had been so faithful that even Elkius, who was suspicious by nature, couldn’t suspect her.

She knows his plans, and she won’t let him get away with it this time.

‘You should receive what you’ve done to me.’

Adelaide crumpled the letter with a grimace. As she returned the box to its place, a familiar object caught her eye.

It was the pocket watch she had clutched in her last moments.

It had stopped on January 7, 171, the date of her death.

“Two years from now.”

She had to set everything right within that time.

Revenge would begin now.