Chapter 3

Reina braced herself to be struck by an inkwell and went to find Edgar.

Trying to keep her clammy, sweat-soaked hands hidden, she spoke softly. “It doesn’t matter to me if you bring that woman in as your concubine. But... but my son has to be the heir to House Heathvilion.”

Edgar laughed when he heard her. “Do you think I wouldn’t know what a dogfight half-siblings can get into?”

“I know that you do...”

His fight for succession was how she had been able to marry him in the first place, after all.

“Then there’s no need for me to explain. I have no plans to bring in another woman nor to see a child from another womb.”

“Thank you...”

Her unease subsided.

Then, three days later, Reina had her child taken from her.

She cried over the sight of her baby’s empty cradle. Upon hearing that the duchess was causing trouble, Edgar came to find a rampaging Reina and spoke to her in a low voice.

“He’s my child. I gave birth to him!” she shouted.

“Your child—? You call him your child, but you can’t even hold him.”

Edgar had learned that she was unable to touch the baby. The revelation struck her speechless.

“I can’t entrust the child to a mother like you.”

Reina clung to Edgar’s ankle and begged, “I don’t need anything else. So please, give me back my child. Give me back Ell. You won’t ever hear from me again.”

It was no use, and when Reina sought him out in his study every day, Edgar confined her to a detached building.

“It would be good for you to cool your head for a while,” he said.

First the detached building on the Binochet estate, now the detached building on the Heathvilion estate. Once again confined, Reina was banned from leaving entirely.

She survived on the meals an old maid brought her. The thought of leaving everything behind again crossed her mind, but she couldn’t.

Her baby’s pale blond hair wouldn’t leave her mind.

“Ell. My son.”

The solitude that found her once again was worse than it had been at Binochet.

She began to hallucinate.

She saw her mother covered in blood. Her little brother, his arm bent grotesquely. A wailing child, unable to grow up.

Being alone with the hallucinations was so terrifying that Reina screamed bloody murder.

Anyone is fine. Anyone at all, so please...

Please save me.

She clung to a sliver of hope that Edgar—the Edgar who had met her eyes—would come and rescue her.

But she had been abandoned.

***

Time passed hopelessly.

In her confinement, Reina decided several times to die. However, she failed to maintain her conviction at the last moment every time.

She couldn’t stop thinking about the baby she had given birth to. She wanted to see her son again before she died.

If only I could hold him in my arms, just once.

Her hands may have been dirty, but she held on to the hope that it would be fine to hold him just once in her dying moment.

Eventually, Reina contracted lung disease.

It was the middle of winter, two months after the last of the firewood had run out. Edgar sent a doctor, but her disease, just like her life, had already passed the point of no return.

“The doctor said you don’t have long to live...” He continued when she said nothing in response, “That you’ll die.”

Through her blurry vision, she could see the exhaustion on Edgar’s face.

“Tell me if you have any last words.”

Reina’s dying eyes shone for a brief moment. “My child. Ell. I want to see him.”

That afternoon, warmth entered for the first time since the doors to the detached building had been closed tight. The child clung to the black-haired woman’s side.

Reina, seeing that the child was terrified of her and unwilling to come closer, began to cry. The tears that fell were the ones she had cast aside when she had abandoned herself long ago.

Ell...

At the moment that death finally came for her, Reina still harbored regrets over her child’s name, which she had never been able to say out loud.

If she was just given another chance.

No matter what happened, I wouldn’t run away.

Repeating the words over and over to herself, she forced her clenched eyes to open enough for one last peek.

A bright light poured into her.

It was a second chance.

Change

The Empire of Sorcier was vast and known as the beginning and end of the continent, as well as the nation home to the Chariot of Fire and the Tower of Ice.

The land within the empire was plentiful, allowing many nobles to hold fiefs of their own. However, only two of those many noble houses with territories held the title of duke. These were House Binochet, called the Chariot of Fire, and House Heathvilion, called the Tower of Ice.

The two ducal families had lands as grand as their statuses. Because of their great prestige, even the emperor wouldn’t dare speak informally to the dukes.

Donovan’s family had served as butlers to House Heathvilion for generations, and he considered it to be a point of pride that his master was one of only two dukes in the empire.

However, one issue had weighed on his mind as of late.

“I can’t figure out what she’s thinking at all.”

Reina Binochet.

The daughter of Duke Binochet, and now the Duchess Heathvilion, freshly wed to Duke Heathvilion.

The woman was most notoriously known as the “cursed Binochet.”

She who had destroyed her mother and brother.

It was most unpleasant that such a woman had become the lady of Heathvilion. Not to mention the handful of soldiers she’d brought with her to Heathvilion and the gossip that inevitably ensued at the time—gossip that claimed Binochet was more powerful than Heathvilion.

The vassals of Heathvilion didn’t hesitate to tear the woman down as a result. Donovan imagined the woman with her long, light-pink hair standing beside his master.

She doesn’t suit him at all.

With effort, he moved on from these useless thoughts and quickly headed to the dining hall. He had to see if the fruit that the woman had requested was ready.

After falling severely ill not long ago, the woman had opened her tightly clamped lips and requested all sorts of things.

“I want fresh fruit, so bring me some that is in season.”

“You expect me to eat this watery gruel? Bring me well-roasted deer meat.”

“Bring me some books or cross-stitching supplies to fill my time with.”

Regardless, he couldn’t deny that the woman was the lady of Heathvilion. So, Donovan dutifully fulfilled her requests.

I heard she never spoke at Binochet, so what possessed her to do so now?

He was curious, but his master had ordered him to fulfill all of her requests no matter what they were, so he couldn’t criticize.

While Donovan busily moved about the estate, Reina had spent the whole day buried in the finest quality blanket filled with goose down.

The image of her wrapped up so tightly in the blanket was a comical one, but she didn’t care. What does it matter what people think of me? There wasn’t anyone who would come in unless she called for them anyway.

She gently stroked her flat stomach beneath the plush blanket.

Reina spoke to the life in her belly in a very soft voice. “Ell, Ell, are you asleep? How do you feel today?”

Her extreme fortune still felt like a dream.

She didn’t know how or why she had returned to the past.

But the moment Reina had realized she’d returned to a point in time when Ell was still in her womb, she no longer questioned it.

It felt as though the moment she was suspicious, everything would disappear into seafoam.

“Congratulations, my lady. You are pregnant.”

A week prior, when Reina had opened her eyes, she heard the voice of the doctor confirming her pregnancy.

She laughed and cried like she had lost her wits. A joy greater than any emotion she had ever felt in her life engulfed her. Once the joy passed, she quickly regained her composure.

I can’t tell Edgar about my pregnancy.

She needed to delay her announcement as long as possible. She didn’t want to have her child stolen a second time.

Reina threatened the doctor in order to buy time.

“Keep your mouth shut for the time being.”

“Pardon? But such joyous news—”

“Doctor. Does this seem like a request? No. This is an order from a Binochet.”

It was still difficult to speak aloud to another person, but at that moment, the threats had flowed easily from her lips.

I still don’t understand how I could do that.

It was the first time she had ever threatened anyone.

It was a bit of a gamble but made possible because she felt confident that the doctor would listen to her. And as expected, the doctor had caved easily. But her stomach would soon grow to the point where hiding it would be impossible. Even if she hid it, she would soon be caught.

“Ell...”

Reina unconsciously lifted her hand to rest on her stomach. She thought back to when her stomach had grown round as she gently stroked her belly.

She may not have been able to touch her son once he had been born, but she had stroked her belly like this numerous times when he was still in her womb.

In her previous life, she had done nothing for prenatal development. Most pregnant mothers would devote time reading educational material and listening to orchestra music to benefit their unborn babies.

However, Reina had repeated one thing to her unborn baby over and over.

“Don’t take after me. Take after Edgar...”

That thought still hadn’t changed.

But perhaps I could have told Ell some other things...

The thought crossed her mind, and Reina shook her head.

What good did it do to linger?

I can’t take back the past.

Now that she had stolen a bit of time, Reina thought about the future.