Prologue
Beneath the dazzlingly white snow-covered mountain, a woman wearing a white robe stood with a noble posture.
Around her, everything was dyed in bright red blood. It was truly a dreadful sight.
It wasn’t her blood.
It was the blood of those who had chased after her to capture her.
Licking the blood smeared on her fingertips with her tongue, Lilliana looked at the man approaching her.
Brilliant golden hair.
Eyes as red as rubies.
A man with a sturdy physique and an untouchable charisma was looking at Lilliana with calm eyes.
Lilliana looked at him and smiled.
“Why did you come so late? I was bored to death waiting.”
“It doesn’t look that way.”
He said it while looking at the gruesome scene spread around them.
“I was waiting for you, but flies kept gathering, so I dealt with them a little.”
“For dealing with them, wasn’t that a bit excessive?”
“It was not. I sent them off in one go without pain. Then, did I not go easy on them?”
He drew his sword and pointed it at her.
The dazzlingly white blade was aimed at Lilliana.
“There is no need for words.”
Lilliana burst into laughter.
“As expected, you really are different. The man I chose.”
Lilliana drew the demonic sword Dekion.
“Try to defeat me this time, Estevan.”
“I will.”
Estevan moved his mana. Golden light flickered along his sword. It was an aura blade, said to be usable only by those who had reached a high realm.
Lilliana also raised an aura blade. Unlike Estevan’s, her aura blade carried a black light.
KWAANG!
Thus the two exchanged dozens of blows.
“Amazing, to become this strong so quickly.”
Lilliana admired him sincerely.
Until now, she had fought Estevan, who had been pursuing her, several times.
Each time, she had defeated him.
But the Estevan of now possessed a strength different from before.
It was astonishing.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Lilliana gradually began to struggle.
She had consumed much strength to succeed in her revenge, and while waiting for Estevan here, she had fought another battle.
Lilliana was already expecting her own death.
The demonic sword Dekion was a monstrous sword that devoured an enormous amount of mana.
Now it was even swallowing her life force to create an aura blade.
Lilliana was slowly pushed toward the cliff.
“It’s over.”
Lilliana smiled faintly.
“I will gladly accept it.”
Estevan thrust his sword toward her.
At that moment, Lilliana let go of the demonic sword in her hand.
Estevan’s sword pierced through her chest.
His red eyes widened.
At the very moment his sword pierced her, Lilliana had discarded the demonic sword.
“You…”
Lilliana held the blade with both hands and smiled.
“Congratulations on becoming a hero, Estevan.”
Using the last of her strength, Lilliana pushed Estevan’s sword away.
As the sword was pulled out, blood burst from her chest. Then her body fell straight down the cliff.
Estevan’s expression twisted.
Even as she died while falling below the cliff, she was smiling.
That sight made his eyes sting.
Having witnessed her death with his own eyes, Estevan shut them tightly.
At that moment, a dazzling light burst out from below the cliff.
The moment the startled Estevan turned around, the light swallowed even him before disappearing.
Chapter 1
Under a clear sky with a gentle breeze blowing, Lilliana lay on the grass, basking in the sunlight, chewing on a leaf held in her mouth as she thought.
‘To return to the past.’
It was astonishing.
When she first opened her eyes, she was sitting at the dining table, eating with her father and her younger brother.
Her younger brother Cedric scolded Lilliana, who was picking out the carrots, and Lilliana was startled by her own action of picking out the carrots.
It was too real to be a dream. She thought it was a dream born from memories that had remained only as faint recollections, but it was not.
The warmth she felt when she hugged Cedric in the middle of the meal, the gentle smile her father sent her.
More than anything, the reality that felt as if it were truly alive was hard to believe.
She didn’t know how happy she had been.
In the past, Lilliana had lost everything after being betrayed by her friend Elisha and her lover, Crown Prince Mikael.
Mikael, who became Emperor, first designated her family, House Dayan, as the first target of his purge, and destroyed the Ducal House by framing them for treason.
The charge was the assassination of the former Emperor.
However, the one who assassinated the Emperor was Mikael, and Lilliana had merely witnessed it.
Knowing that fact, Mikael pleaded with Lilliana to keep her mouth shut.
Lilliana, who loved Mikael, quietly kept silent.
But he placed the blame for that crime on her and her family.
Everything had been a conspiracy prepared in advance.
House Dayan was trampled by the Imperial army sent by Mikael, and her father and younger brother Cedric let only Lilliana escape before fighting to the end and dying.
Moreover, Anna, who was her maid, used her small body to lure away the Imperial army in Lilliana’s place and helped her escape safely.
She could never forget the misery she had felt then.
What allowed her to endure at that time was the fierce determination to live and take revenge.
Thus, for several years she roamed the world, building her strength, and eventually succeeded in her revenge.
She obtained the demonic sword Dekion, became the successor of the Dark Emperor, Cartel, and became the leader of the dark organisation, Black Cat.
After that, she intended to find rest at the hands of Estevan.
Yet to return to the past.
An unbelievable miracle had occurred. She had met again the people she could never see again.
If it was a dream, she hoped she wouldn’t wake up. But after spending several days, she realized it was reality.
That she had truly returned to the past at eighteen years old.
To two years before everything began.
Lilliana looked at the bracelet on her wrist. It was a bracelet woven from pitch-black beads, with a sword-shaped ornament attached at the center.
It was the demonic sword, Dekion.
The demonic sword Dekion could change its form.
Lilliana had transformed it into a bracelet. That was why it was on her wrist in the form of a bracelet.
The demonic sword Dekion was a legend she had heard from a group of passing mages when she had been wandering the streets.
At that time, Lilliana needed power for revenge, and the legend of the demonic sword Dekion became a thread of hope.
To obtain it, one needed dark mana.
So Lilliana boldly changed the attribute of her mana to darkness.
Dark mana had great destructive power, and its nature itself was rough. With the dark mana she obtained in that way, Lilliana awakened the demonic sword Dekion.
After obtaining it, she could vaguely feel it.
A sense of being connected to the demonic sword Dekion.
She could tell what the demonic sword wanted.
Lilliana stretched her hand into the air. Dark mana swirled along her hand.
It was such an enormous amount of mana that it could swallow her entire body.
When Lilliana withdrew her hand, the dark mana was sucked back into her hand and disappeared.
The mana core engraved in her chest shone with a clear light.
“So only my body became younger.”
Her abilities remained the same.
The problem was that the demonic sword was in her hand. If she had returned to the past, then the demonic sword should have been sealed as well.
The fact that it had returned with her made her think that perhaps the one who had sent her to the past was the demonic sword.
Lilliana closed her eyes and looked into her inner self.
‘There isn’t any.’
The demonic energy was gone.
‘If only the demonic sword is in my hand, and the demonic energy is gone…’
It meant she had to obtain the demonic energy again.
She didn’t know why the demonic sword had sent her back to the past. But one thing was certain…
‘I can start again.’
If that was the case, then there was no problem.
Lilliana brushed herself off and stood up. The hem of her skirt had gotten a little dirty.
“If Anna finds out, there will be trouble.”
After all, the daughter of House Dayan, one of the two great Ducal Houses of the Empire, was rolling around on the grass.
If her loyal maid Anna saw this, she would start nagging again.
Anna was a maid who had been with Lilliana since childhood, practically like a friend. And in the past, she had willingly given her life for Lilliana.
So Lilliana always felt both grateful and sorry toward Anna.
“My Lady, you are here again?”
Just as the saying went, ‘speak of the tiger and it appears’, she had been thinking about Anna when she showed up.
“I knew it. What happened to your clothes?”
Anna bent down and brushed the dirt off Lilliana’s skirt.
“I told you…”
“The Young Lady is the face of House Dayan, so she must uphold her dignity?”
When Lilliana said the words Anna often repeated, Anna became speechless and sighed while nodding.
“Yes, that is right. You know that well, so why do you keep doing this?”
“Can’t I be a little free when I’m at home?”
“No, you cannot.”
As expected, she answered firmly.
“How do you always find me so well every time?”
“Every place you go to is all in my head.”
“Anna, you should have become an official instead of my personal maid. What a waste.”
“Please do not say that. I will never leave your side, my Lady.”
At those words, Lilliana let out a small laugh.
