---

“So, your fiancée, Lord Damian…? Um? Lady? Why are you suddenly laughing?”

“Oh, uh?… I’m just so happy. So happy, Hailey.”

The warm sunlight from the south streamed through the carriage windows.

Along with it, Hailey’s chattering made me smile involuntarily. Although decades had passed since I returned to this life, the scenery repeating itself was enough for Hailey’s news to put a smile on my face.

“Lady, do you know you’ve been acting a bit strange lately? When you first heard about the engagement at the castle, you looked dazed, and now you appear as if you own the world. Are you feeling unwell or something?”

“No. I’m more well than ever. Of course, I should be happy to marry such a wonderful person.”

“Uh, it’s still just an engagement, Lady.”

Hailey placed her chin in her hand and pretended to look anxious in response to my answer.

“Uhmm… Maybe I shouldn’t have been talking about Lord Damian so positively. You shouldn’t let your guard down like that. One must judge a person by meeting them in person. What’s heard through rumors could be completely different! How can you be so naive, my lady?”

Hailey’s unnecessary worries had begun again. She used to shower me with praises of Damian back then, probably to reassure the tense me. Now that I was so relaxed, it was understandably worrying her.

But I knew better than anyone in this world that what Hailey feared would not happen. Even though it was far away and not by my side, I had watched ‘him’ for decades, not Damian, and I knew his character well.

Naturally, Elena recalled her past with him.

But soon, her face soured as she shook her head and buried the rising memories back into the sea of recollection.

Sure, there were happy times, irreplaceable memories of Elena herself falling for him, but no matter how those memories felt, in the end, it had been a failed life.

Not only did she not stay by his side, but she also dashed off, behaving recklessly, and lost him to another, and instead of finding her way back to his side, she had to let him go due to her own mistakes.

‘No, it was wrong from the start. So, if I go back and start again, everything will be alright.’

When I first went through the regression, I shouldn’t have equated him with the Damian I had known.

He had been making all sorts of attempts to distance himself from me, and right at our first meeting, I threw a punch to break off our engagement. It was as if I had tossed away the opportunity given to me.

If it hadn’t been for that, if I hadn’t thought of him as Damian from the beginning, surely, I could have connected with him.

However, unlike before, there was no need for me to waver in my feelings this time, nor did I think of leaving his side again. The information I had and my relationship with him were fundamentally different from the starting line of others. To lose here would only be possible if I didn’t bolt out myself as I did before.

‘Damian, wait for me. There won’t be any more mistakes.’

I now understood what he worried about. Previously, I didn’t know, so I couldn’t grasp why he was trying to distance himself from me and thus felt resentment, but now I knew what it was, and this Elena Edelweiss realized she was a woman capable of eliminating all his concerns.

Having slain God and gone against the very principles of existence, what was a mere twist of fate that came from those principles? If I was aware of it, there was nothing to worry about. Even if things went wrong, I could simply clear any obstacles away.

Now, all I needed to do was think about what kind of happy life we would lead together in the future.

“Hailey?”

“Yes? Why did you call, my lady?”

“How many children should we have? One is definitely too few, right? Hmm… at least three? Or maybe four would be just right?”

“My goodness. What did I just hear?”

With a smirk, Elena spoke, while Hailey wore a face that seemed weary of her mistress.

Afterward, a rather serious family plan flowed from Elena’s lips, and while Hailey politely listened, she found herself in confusion, questioning whether this was the same Elena she once knew, grappling with an odd sense of dissonance around her.

It almost felt as if the invitation sent from Count Kraus House had some kind of brainwashing magic cast upon it.

While the two discussed, time passed, and the carriage carrying them soon arrived at the Count Kraus estate.

*

Does changing one’s mindset make the world look different?

Initially, the Count’s residence had filled me only with hatred, yet now it felt like a cozy home I was returning to after a long time.

In my first life, it was the torture chamber where Damian had inflicted every wound, while in my second life, it was the home from where ‘he’ had stayed with my love, making any gaze toward this castle a suffocating pain.

So it was truly amusing that such a place felt like a home simply because I had a slightly altered mindset.

As before, I followed the guide slowly toward the room where he would be. The tension I felt earlier was absent now. Instead, I felt relieved, as if I were finding my rightful place.

They say a home carries the essence of its inhabitants. Though it was a vast castle, too large to simply be called a house, I could still feel his traces lingering here and there.

Following the faint scent of him led me, unsurprisingly, to the same place the servants guided me to. Standing before the door, I realized my hands had been trembling for some time.

‘Beyond this door lies ‘him’ as I know him. Not Damian.’

My body reacted instinctively to the familiar scent and presence I hadn’t felt in a long time. I quickly covered my smiling face with both hands and tried to calm my excitement.

Hoo… Hoo…

By taking several deep breaths, I finally subdued my wildly racing heart. I touched my relaxed face here and there, restoring it to its original state, and then looked at Hailey.

“Hailey, how do I look? Do I seem off in any way? Right?”

“The only thing unusual now is your mind, my lady… Why, your face is as beautiful as usual!”

“Just being beautiful isn’t enough! I must be the best in the north, no, the best in the entire continent!”

At that, Hailey covered her mouth, seemingly horrified by my words.

“Oh, my Lady. Are you not embarrassed…? You certainly are very pretty, but even so, saying that yourself…”

But you told me this before!!!

Reluctantly, I gave my hair a bit of a fix before signalling to Hailey that I was ready. She nodded in response, knocked twice to inform those inside of my arrival, and carefully opened the door.

Previously, I had charged in and thrown a punch at him the moment the door opened. As a result, there hadn’t even been a conversation, and we immediately declared our broken engagement. But if I simply entered as the original Elena Edelweiss, what reaction would he have?

As the door opened, I caught sight of hair as dark as the night, contrasting sharply with myself.

The one seated wore a robe of the same black cloth as his hair, embroidered with gold thread depicting the family crest. Just a moment before the door opened, he exuded a volatile energy that suggested an imminent explosion, but had been neatly composed into an aura of a noble being.

His sharp eyes, reminiscent of a dragon, locked onto mine, and soon we were staring at each other.

It was a beautiful color, one I could never tire of. Back when I had seen Damian, it had evoked no feeling, but now, it felt bright and warm like the sun in the sky.

How long had we been gazing into each other’s eyes? What felt like an eternity to me was merely a fleeting moment, as the clock on the wall barely ticked a minute.

He smiled softly at me.

Had I ever seen such a smile before? Of course, I had seen it many times. He always wore such a face when he was with his lover. He had only smiled at me like that once before he took his last breath in my arms.

But now, that smile was directed at me naturally. Just that was enough to make all the emotions and agony I had felt before my regression feel compensated.

Soon enough, a gentle voice reached my ears.

“Nice to meet you, Lady Edelweiss. I am Damian Kraus, the eldest son of House Kraus.”

The moment I heard those words spoken with that smile, it felt as if my heart had stopped. My mind had already given up trying to think normally. With reason eradicated, only raw desires filled my thoughts, conjuring up endless fantasies.

Thankfully, my heightened intellect prevented my body from acting upon those impulses.

If I were to let those feelings run unfiltered, I couldn’t even imagine how he would look at me.

However, amidst this blend of reason and desire, one thing remained clear.

Right now, I was truly happy with just that simple, formal greeting he had given me.

Am I not an incredibly easy woman? Me.

 

---