Turning back time was getting easier and easier. Carlyle hated that. He wondered if there was a price to pay for turning back time. Would it consume years of his life? He felt perfectly healthy. 

From what Carlyle noticed, the only cost appears to be mana, but that gets replenished easily because time regression returned Carlyle to the exact state he was three years ago, which also returned his mana levels to full capacity.

Even if it did cost him years of his life, Carlyle felt that it was a small price to pay for ensuring Lorelai Ashburn’s life.

Carlyle acted fast. Within one short month of his return, he caused the Marquis House of Winscroft to fall into ruins. Lorelai would hate him for this, he was sure. But he can’t let a traitorous snake like Geneva Winscroft stay by her side.

This time, instead of proposing a crown princess selection, he simply brought up Lorelai’s name during their discussion over Theodore’s marriage. But he had to do it in a way that wouldn’t draw suspicions. 

“Well, I was discussing Theodore’s marriage.” The emperor spoke the exact same words as he did in the previous life.

“Theodore’s getting married?” Carlyle repeated the same phrase he said before.

“I said I’m not interested, Father.” Theodore retorted..

“You’re twenty-one now. Even if you’re not interested in finding a wife, you should at least consider an engagement.” The emperor scolded the crown prince. 

“What’s this?” Carlyle pointed to the paper scattered all over the emperor’s desk.

“Oh.” The emperor picked two of the papers up. “These are applications for the new knight captain of the second imperial squad. Captain Holsen is retiring soon, so I will need to pick out a new captain.”

Carlyle peeked at one of the applications in his father’s hand. “Who’s Lorelai Ashburn?”

“That’s Duke Ashburn’s daughter.” Theodore explained. “How have you not heard of her? She’s one of the most famous ladies in high society.”

Carlyle pretended to be offended. “I don’t really care about high society issues, brother.”

Theodore scoffed, until Carlyle added, “But wouldn’t she make a wonderful marriage partner for you then?”

Theodore froze, not expecting Carlyle to say those words.

“Hmm.” The emperor furrowed his eyebrows. “She is definitely a flawless lady. I have heard many of her achievements. Her tutors say that she’s a genius. Even Captain Holsen endorsed her to become the next knight captain of the second imperial squad.”

“Then why are you hesitating, Father?” Carlyle asked.

“The Duchy of Ashburn is a very powerful and venerable duchy.” The emperor explained. “They are on parr with the imperial family in terms of influence. If Lorelai doesn’t wish to marry Theodore, then nothing will convince her.”

Carlyle declared himself lucky to have been her lover in one life and her fiance in another.

“You won’t know if you’ll refuse until you try.” Carlyle told him.

Theodore looked at the two of them with an expression of frustration and annoyance. 

“Are you going to decide on my marriage partner without my input?” Theodore demanded.

“Of course not, you should meet her before we send her a marriage proposal.”

Theodore sighed. “Fine, father. Do as you wish.”

Then the crown prince turned and left the emperor’s office.

The emperor later summoned Lorelai into the palace. She could decline an invitation from the emperor, but not a summon, so she went to see him.

Carlyle wasn’t around for the conversation, but he heard quite a bit of gossip from the servants. From what they said, Lorelai left with a dark expression on her face. And in addition to the emperor’s negative moods, Carlyle surmised that Lorelai must have declined the proposal.

He was relieved by that news, despite being the one to bring up the idea of an engagement between them in the first place.

However, during the emperor’s fiftieth birthday celebration in that life, Lorelai unexpectedly attended.

And later that evening, the emperor happily announced the engagement between Crown Prince Theodore and Lady Lorelai Ashburn. 

Carlyle, who was hovering around his father to prevent any poisoning attempt, was caught off guard by this. 

That was a very bad idea. He can’t stay in the palace, not while the love of his life is getting married to his brother. He wished for Lorelai’s every happiness, but it hurts him too much to see her with someone else.

So with his father’s blessing, he became the Grand Duke of Elephy again, with his own territory near the capital.

There was a poisoning attempt on the emperor at his fiftieth birthday celebration, but it was prevented by Carlyle’s diligence this time. 

Carlyle had managed to cover up his heartbreak by excusing himself from the ballroom later that night so he could distract himself by tracing the trail of Lethrindor poison.

The trail leads nowhere. No one had seen anything. No one could have gotten close to the emperor enough to poison him. No one except for other imperial family members.

No wonder they couldn’t find a culprit in Carlyle’s first life and used his mother as a scapegoat instead. It was impossible and Carlyle was forced to give up. 

He could only hope that the culprit doesn’t strike Lorelai this time. Hopefully not, since only one person died from Lethrindor poisoning in each life and Carlyle had prevented anyone from dying in the current life.

His idea for Theodore to marry Lorelai seemed like a successful idea. Despite being only engaged to the crown prince, Lorelai immediately took over the duties that a crown princess would do. She deftly handled administrative work and diplomatic affairs, and she sent supply to other territories when famine struck.

Whenever people speak of the royal family of the Argent Empire, the first person they think of was not the emperor or the crown prince, but the future crown princess. 

In all his lives, Carlyle had never seen the empire at so much peace. Lorelai was right; she really would make a perfect empress one day. He might have lost the chance to be by her side, but it was worth it if she could live and make this empire a better place. The thought of that eased his heartbreak a little.

Carlyle should have known better than to let his guard down. Because despite preventing anyone from being poisoned by Lethrindor, Lorelai died anyway, a few months before her wedding with Theodore was to be held.

Not from poison this time, according to Theodore. Someone tried to assassinate the crown prince and Lorelai died while protecting him. Just like in Carlyle’s first life.

Twice now, the girl he loves died protecting his brother.

Carlyle wasn’t in the palace when this happened. The emperor had sent him out to investigate a case of someone hoarding food during famine instead of feeding the people in their territory.

When he returned to the palace, Lorelai was already gone. Carlyle rushed into the palace as soon as he heard of the tragedy and came upon a strange scene: the emperor grabbing his eldest son by the collar and shaking him angrily.

“Are you crazy?” The emperor roared into Theodore’s face. “How could you let her die like that, you useless piece of trash!”

Carlyle could only gape at the scene in shock. The last time he saw his father like this was when Geneva poisoned Lorelai. Much like before, the emperor was incredibly fond of Lorelai and was enraged at her death.

“She was the empire’s biggest hope! And not only did you fail to protect her, you even let the assassin get away!”

Theodore jerked himself out of his father’s grasp. “I didn’t ask her to save me! You think I wanted her to die? Why don’t you blame the assassin who killed her instead?”

The emperor gave his son a long look of disappointment. “You should have died instead of her.”

The look of shock on Theodore’s face mirrored Carlyle’s feeling.

The emperor had never scolded Theodore to this extent before, not even after he found out how lacking his son was. His father had never given up on molding Theodore into a respectable crown prince.

Setting up a marriage between the crown prince and Lorelai Ashburn must have been the emperor’s last ditch effort in making sure the future of the empire is in good hands. And Theodore screwed up by letting his fiancée get murdered by an assassin that was targeting him.

For all the love the emperor held for his two sons, Carlyle knew how much he prioritized the future of the empire as well. That’s why the emperor was reacting the way he is.

Theodore did not take the emperor’s word kindly. He lunged at the emperor.

“If I’m such a disappointment to you, why don’t you just kill me, Father?” Theodore shoved the emperor to the ground. “I’m tired of you looking down on me every day! I’m the future emperor! I—”

Carlyle couldn’t take any more of this nonsense. He released his mana and turned back time.

Lorelai Ashburn, please don’t die again.