Back then, Callios had lifted his sword with a chilling expression.

“For frightening someone who belongs to me… for making her witness something so vile, and…”

Driving the blade into the prince’s neck, Callios delivered the words that would become the man’s final memory.

“For making her cry.”

***

After the play had finished, Rosie went to Natalie’s dressing room. Her eyes were still swollen from crying. Although she had turned down visits from various nobles for one reason or another, Natalie accepted Rosie’s invitation immediately.

She sat cold and composed while someone wiped off her make-up. However, the moment she spotted Rosie, she jumped to her feet.

“Madam!”

Jenny handed Natalie the bouquet she had brought, which she accepted with obvious delight. Acting as if she were crying, she threw herself into Rosie’s arms.

“I was trembling so much, I nearly fainted! I’m truly glad you came, Madam.”

Those wiping her make-up off were taken aback by Natalie’s blatant theatrics, but she didn’t care at all. Seeing Rosie’s red, swollen eyes, she pretended to be innocent and asked slyly:

“How was my acting?”

“Don’t even get me started. You acted so well that even thinking about it now…”

Tears welled up in Rosie’s eyes again, and Natalie hurriedly offered her a handkerchief.

“Ah! Don’t cry! It’s just acting, truly. It’s not a real story.”

“But it was so heartbreaking…”

“Well, we can’t turn back time, can we? Ha-ha! Still, if I ever had a love as tragic as that, I’d like to try it once.”

After finally calming Rosie down, Natalie sat at the table and pulled a small cloth pouch toward her.

“Since I made Madam cry, I’ll give you a full reading today. I don’t offer this to just anyone, so come closer. After all, I am the esteemed disciple of the astrologer Elsavani.”

“M–may I have one too?”

Jenny swallowed hard beside them, stepping forward. Natalie drew out a set of cards from the pouch and agreed without hesitation.

“Of course. Miss Jenny is also Madam’s precious family. We value family very dearly, you know.”

‘Family.’

Rosie quietly revisited a word that had been on her mind a lot recently, while Jenny jumped ahead and asked for a love reading.

Rosie blinked in surprise and looked at her.

“A love reading? Do you have someone you like?”

Jenny jumped as if she had been struck, her face turning bright red. Natalie’s knowing smile deepened.

“Oh-ho… Miss Jenny’s crush. I think I know who it is.”

‘Why didn’t I know?’

Rosie blinked, then turned to Jenny with a stern expression.

“I’m not marrying you off to just anyone. Unless he’s a good man, you’re not going anywhere.”

“Oh, my lady, really. Where would I even go? Even if I get married, I’ll stick to you like always.”

While Jenny blushed and poured out her heartfelt affection, the cards were shuffled, and Natalie spread them neatly across the table.

“Think of your question and pick one.”

The card Jenny chose turned out to be the Lovers. After checking the others she picked, Natalie said.

“You two will definitely end up together. …Oh my, premarital pregnancy?”

Jenny’s face turned even redder when she heard the news. Taking the result seriously, Rosie pressed her relentlessly about who the man was, but to no avail.

Next was Rosie’s turn.

Feeling secretly tense, she drew a card. All eyes focused on it as Natalie examined it carefully.

“The Wheel of Time…”

The card showed a big wheel surrounded by white flowers. Rosie felt a sense of déjà vu when she saw it — she instantly remembered what it was.

“These flowers under the wheel… could they be—”

“You’re right. They’re moonflowers.”

Natalie lifted her head, her expression suddenly serious.

“A flower Madam knows very well.”

“……”

“They mostly grow in the Valley of the Moon. People say they cause hallucinations and all sorts of things. But in this card, it means only one thing.”

“And what is that?”

Natalie pulled the card closer toward Rosie.

“Natural order. And balance.”

Rosie quietly repeated the words to herself as Natalie shrugged lightly and continued.

“Good for good, evil for evil. This flower helps everything go back to where it belongs. It also symbolizes good fortune.”

Rosie’s eyes sparkled with interest, and Natalie, pleased by the reaction, spoke more enthusiastically.

“And what these flowers do beneath the turning Wheel of Time is—”

“Correct the distortions in time’s cracks.”

A deep, calm voice of a middle-aged man spoke from behind them.

Natalie, who had been frowning at the audacity of someone barging into her dressing room, leapt to her feet.

“O–oh! Master! You didn’t leave right away and stopped by?”

If he was Natalie’s master…

Rosie and Jenny also stood up in surprise.

“Master Elsavani, the astrologer?”

A sturdy man with sun-darkened skin and patches of white in his beard scratched the back of his head. Dressed in a loose blue robe, he bowed politely to Rosie, who was too startled to speak.

“Did you enjoy the play, Madam?”

“Our master gave the idea for this script.”

Natalie said brightly as she slipped into Elsavani’s arms. Rosie nodded.

“It was very moving.”

She felt a sense of awe. After all, this was the legendary astrologer who had served the imperial court. The current emperor had tried several times to summon him, but he had always managed to evade him.

However, Rosie’s awe turned to confusion when Elsavani made a strange remark.

“Actually, this is not the first time I’ve seen you, Madam.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve met you once before. You didn’t see me, but I saw you.”

“…Pardon?”

“You weren’t in any condition to see me then.”

In response to his cryptic words, Rosie tilted her head slightly. The man offered her a gentle, benevolent smile.

“You are doing well, Madam. Do not worry too much.”

She didn’t know what he meant, but his warm encouragement gave her strength. She opened her mouth to thank him when Elsavani spoke again, this time in a firm tone.

“But keep that white flower close.”

“…Pardon?”

“Unless you wish to be crushed beneath the wheel of time that has been rewound.”

Rosie turned the unusual warning over and over in her mind.

Meanwhile, Elsavani offered one last polite bow before heading towards the exit. True to the rumors that he never stayed in one place for long, he was already slipping away to somewhere else.

The wheel of time had turned backwards.

Turning back time.

A returned timeline.

Regression.

At that moment, Rosie remembered the message that Elsavani had once sent her through his disciple, Natalie.

“You must find your balance in the rushing current of time. Prepare to uncover the forgotten truths that are coming to light.”

Even if they are truths you wish to avoid.”

A sharp instinct struck her.

Elsavani knew that she had regressed.

He probably knew things that she herself had yet to discover.

Startled, Rosie rushed after him. But in the brief moment she hesitated, he had already disappeared into the bustling crowd in the hallway.

“Just a moment!”

She reached out, but he was gone, swallowed by the crowd.

Her heart pounding, Rosie pushed her way through the crowd.

She had to find him, she had so many questions.

Why had time turned back?

Why was she being forced to relive all this pain?

Why…?

A storm of unanswered questions churned inside her when someone suddenly grabbed her arm, stopping her from being swept away.

Rosie staggered, almost losing her balance, and looked up.

“What are you doing? It’s dangerous.”

The low, reprimanding voice immediately drained the strength from her.

It was Callios.

He looked in the direction she had been desperately staring and asked.

“Who are you looking for like that?”

“Master Elsavani. Didn’t you see him?”

Callios frowned and swept his gaze over the churning crowd.

“No. Elsavani was here?”

“Yes.”

“If I’d known, His Majesty would have been pleased. That man always slips away before anyone notices.”

Had he slipped away quickly to avoid meeting the Emperor?

Rosie knew that Elsavani was a wanderer, but she had hoped that he would stay just a little longer this time.

Long enough to tell her the truth.

Still scanning the crowd for him, Rosie’s gaze was cut off abruptly when Callios stepped forward and blocked her view.

“Talk with me.”

“…You said you would wait.”

Callios bit his lip with a frustrated expression.

“Waiting doesn’t mean we can’t even speak, does it?”

“……”

“Can’t we at least walk together? I won’t take too much of your time.”

In the end, Rosie sighed and agreed.

Elsavani had clearly left, and Rosie was too far from the dressing room to turn back quickly.

After sending a message to Jenny and Natalie via someone waiting backstage, she stepped outside, where she found Callios waiting for her.

At that moment, Princess Isildoa spotted Callios and approached him, chatting cheerfully.

Rosie’s brow twitched almost imperceptibly.

He could have simply gone with the princess. That would have been easier.

However, Callios greeted the princess with only the barest courtesy; his every movement exuded coldness. He then turned his head away, making it clear that he had no intention of holding a conversation.

Princess Isildoa only shrugged, then noticed Rosie standing a distance away.

Glancing between the stiff, expressionless Callios and Rosie, she gave a faint, knowing smile. She whispered something to Callios, then slipped away as abruptly as she had appeared.

The moment she was gone, Callios strode quickly towards Rosie.

As Rosie watched the princess disappear, she asked curiously.

“What did Her Highness say?”

“That bothers you?”

His eyes lit with expectation, but Rosie cut him off at once.

“No. She just seems to have an… unusual personality.”

Her cold answer left no room for misunderstanding, and Callios’s brow creased.

“She asked if we were really divorced.”

Rosie quietly looked up at him and asked, as if wondering why the princess even questioned something so obvious.

“We… aren’t?”