Chapter 002
* * *
My twentieth birthday.
Serentia, the neglected second daughter of the Count Rosemarie family—known as a “prestigious architectural house”—awakened her past life memories.
In her past life, she had been a star architect…
“I’ll show you the ideal of my architecture this time. Hey, bring the model over.”
“…Ye-yes, sir.”
…’s top-tier errand runner.
Perhaps it was thanks to awakening that past life, where she had been a pushover but nonetheless competent.
For the first time in twenty years, she found her talent. Along with it came the hope that she could finally be of help to her family.
“Mom, designing buildings is very hard, isn’t it? I-I’ll help you out as much as I can!”
With a flushed face, the blueprints she shyly held out were…
“Sigh, Serentia, your handwriting is too crooked! Honestly, is there anything you’re actually good at?”
…thrown into the trash can along with a single word of criticism.
Just as she hung her head, thinking, ‘Of course, that’s just how I am,’ the person who unexpectedly saved her was her brother and the family heir, Max.
“Tsk, exactly! Serentia, you’re helping just by staying quiet… But, hmm… these blueprints actually look quite usable?”
It was my blueprints that placed my dearly beloved brother, Max, at the top of the Architecture Academy.
“Our cute little youngest should receive an architect award too, right?”
“Hehe, Mommy~”
It was also me who bestowed the reputation of a ‘genius architect’ upon my youngest sister, Evelyn, who was a total mama’s girl and full of aegyo.
But Mother hated me to an strange degree.
Even if what went into my mouth was scraps and the money supported to me was a pittance, she acted as if it were all being snatched away from my brother and sister’s share.
“I just can’t grow fond of that girl for some reason. It’s like she isn’t a daughter I gave birth to myself, you know?”
Even after hearing what my mother said to my aunt, I still tried to make an effort in my own way.
So, when a conscription order for the North was issued to my brother, the eldest son of the noble house, under the pretext of ‘Noblesse Oblige’…
“To draft our precious eldest grandson to the dangerous North, that’s preposterous!”
While the mama’s boy Max whimpered in Mother’s arms, only then did I realize.
“…It just has to be someone of our family’s bloodline, right?”
“Yes! Of all people, to take Max…”
“Then, I’ll go instead.”
“You? Well! You’re a dullard, but you did attend the Architecture Academy. You should be able to do something there. That’s great, then. You go!”
How much my family’s complexions brightened at the single sentence that I would go instead.
As I packed my light belongings and left the Rosemarie mansion, what was I thinking?
That I wanted to receive unconditional affection too?
But not once did I ever reveal my heart to anyone.
Until I met the man who possessed the mighty power of death, capable of killing every living being in the vicinity in a split second.
Raphael Kairosen.
* * *
“I am Serentia Rosemarie. I’ve come to help with the reconstruction of the North.”
“I have no need for useless humans, so get lost.”
When I first met Raphael, he was looking at me with a cold expression.
One day, after being indifferently rejected yet still following him around to help with the northern reconstruction.
That was the first day the blueprints I had drawn on the ground with my finger caught Raphael’s eye.
“You have talent, so why do you act like such a wilted spinach?”
In addition to receiving praise for the first time in my life…
“You’re working too hard. You don’t have to go that far. You have talent, don’t you?”
My face turned beet red at those seemingly indifferent words.
Because he was the first person to say that to me—someone who had only ever heard that I was uselessly struggling without any talent.
But I didn’t know how to define my feelings.
Because the emotion called love, which suddenly intruded upon a life that had been everyone’s shadow, was embarrassing.
As the seasons changed, there were many days when Raphael and I went out together for safety inspections of buildings in the North.
“It’s dangerous here. Don’t be a nuisance and get out.”
It was the first time. Hearing a declaration of protection like ‘It’s dangerous, so get out.’
At those thin words, I scraped together all the courage in my heart and spoke.
“I want to be a nuisance to you, Raphael… continuously.”
“…What?”
As I slowly and gradually became closer to the cold and prickly man…
I didn’t know how to confess my love, so I just bowed my head deeply.
“So, I look forward to your continued support!”
I, who had never been recognized by anyone, finally found my confidence while being with him.
“Straighten your shoulders and smile.”
“Why? Does my smiling…”
“It looks good. …Much better than looking like you’re about to cry.”
From that very day, when I gathered courage from his words and curled the corners of my lips up.
My life changed.
Because I began to calmly discover what flowers I liked and what my reading tastes were.
And at the center of all my changes, there was always Raphael.
Then one day, while spending such happy days.
Raphael, who plucked a flower and handed it to me, said.
“…I have something to say. See me at the clock tower tomorrow afternoon.”
Time to be alone with him was secured.
I, who had been following him around quietly like an assassin because I liked him, made up my mind.
‘That day, I’m confessing!’
However, an hour before the appointment.
The North, which had been suffering from frequent earthquakes due to the debris left by beasts, was suddenly hit by a massive earthquake.
While trying to clear a collapsed building, I was completely buried under the rubble.
Eventually, as my breath was fading away, Raphael came to find me.
“Serentia.”
…Calling my name, urgently.
I tried to smile a little, but my vision gradually blurred.
“Don’t die, please.”
With a desperate plea, in a thick voice, Raphael whispered.
“The reason why I, well, saved you every time was…”
Eyes that people judged to be incapable of feeling emotion. His blue eyes, which were always so cold, were shaking terribly.
He was…
He was crying.
The moment his tears touched my cheek, I realized.
I am in love with him.
I tried to move my lips to say something to him, but the words wouldn’t come out.
I was no longer the oppressed person I was before coming to the North.
‘I can finally, truly, confess to you properly now.’
But to die so pointlessly like this…
The injustice of not being able to confess or even date him was so great that I felt like I wouldn’t be able to close my eyes even in death.
At the moment I closed my eyes in such sorrow, a sudden hallucination reached my ears.
“Found her, the human who will save Raphael…!”
While I was just listening blankly, the voice spoke again.
“I’ll turn back time for you. However, there’s a condition! Stick close to Raphael’s side. If you don’t, you’ll die!”
As soon as I nodded as if possessed by those words, I regressed.
To the time when I was twenty, just having awakened my past life and trying hard to look good to my family.
The problem was that there was still over a year left before I would go to meet Raphael for the northern reconstruction.
And in the meantime, I was destined to be exploited by my family.
But even so, it was okay.
In the current timeline, no one knows my abilities yet.
Furthermore, I know the future where the Kairosen family will offer a marriage proposal around this time!
Thanks to that, I was able to deliberately snatch up the marriage proposal with Raphael Kairosen.
* * *
…Yes, until then, everything was perfect!
I had come up here in a carriage as if I were being sold off, and I had even sent back all the maids from the Rosemarie family.
‘So, you’re saying I can’t meet Raphael?’
It was true that Raphael was busy.
Even before the regression, he moved around very busily for the reconstruction of the North.
I, who came to the North solely for Raphael, was in despair…
‘Nope, I won’t lose hope!’
…Instead, my eyes sparkled.
‘I should do one confession a day starting from today, right?’
From the next day, I busily roamed around Kairosen Castle.
But as expected, no matter how much I looked around, or moved back and forth through the hallways…
“Oh my, Honey…!”
“That is a wall.”
“Oh, I see. Oh! Here is Lord Raphael…”
“No, that is a portrait of the previous head of the family.”
…Raphael was nowhere to be found.
Something was wrong.
For two whole days, my only conversation partner was the giant head maid, Melosi.
“This is the etiquette book of the North.”
“It is mealtime, future Grand Duchess.”
“This is an important place for the family, so according to the house rules, you cannot visit yet.”
Even when I told Head Maid Melosi that I wanted to meet Raphael, the only response I got was the cold remark, ‘Lord Raphael lives a life planned to the minute and second.’
‘How should I meet him? A very fateful encounter would be nice…’
…I was rejected at the first meeting, but I will never give up!
‘For the second meeting, the staging is important.’
It was precisely at that moment, while I was wandering through the garden in all seriousness after dismissing even the head maid.
“Cough, cough…!”
I only coughed once, but a faint trace of blood appeared on my palm.
‘It’s… hemoptysis?!’
I had never been particularly ill in my past life, so what was going on?
At that moment, I remembered the suspicious voice I heard before regressing.
“I’ll turn back time for you. However, there’s a condition! Stick close to Raphael’s side. If you don’t, you’ll die!”
I had been anxious ever since I found it difficult to run into Raphael.
But this time, I felt a massive sense of crisis.
Simply calling him ‘Honey’ or confessing that I ‘like’ him wasn’t enough.
It seemed I had to physically stick right by his side for me to survive.
‘Then just what on earth do I have to do to meet Raphael?’
At that moment, a lightbulb flickered in my head.
