Chapter – 02
A New Beginning
Bright sunlight brushed past Jessica’s eyes. Since becoming the Duchess, she had hated anything that disturbed her sleep, so her windows were always covered with curtains.
“Lord Alter, it’s so bright.”
“My Lady?”
She was startled as she spoke. Her voice was coming out normally. It was her own voice, which she hadn’t been able to hear even once after being poisoned. Her voice, once praised for having a charm like a siren’s that could enchant people when she sang, had been ruined beyond recognition, producing only harsh, unintelligible sounds.
“My Lady? Are you alright?”
At her surprised words, a young-voiced woman asked with a worried look. After her husband, Banaton, used poison, Jessica trusted only her knight, Alter. Waking her in the morning was also Alter’s duty, so who was this woman?
‘Who is she?’
Even as a Duchess who had lost her power, she was still the mistress of the Salermir Ducal household. It was impossible for anyone to be assigned to her without her knowledge. Although Banaton Aron, a close associate of the Emperor, had come to take over the Ducal house…
‘Don’t tell me he placed this girl in my bedroom… But this child is… Ah, that’s right. I died.’
They said that after death, you are shown the happiest moments of your life. It seemed they were showing her the time when she was happiest.
“Anna.”
“Yes, My Lady.”
Anna was the only maid assigned to her by Jessica’s late mother before the new Marchioness arrived. When Jessica was to be married off to the Ducal house, Anna had insisted on following, but Jessica had left her in her hometown, fearing she couldn’t guarantee Anna’s safety if she stayed by her side.
‘In the end, she died by Banaton’s hand.’
Banaton, who coveted her guild, had approached Anna to extract information, and when she, who knew nothing, refused to give any information, she was killed in his rage.
How enraged she had been, watching a drunken Banaton boast about it proudly. She regretted not being able to kill him with her own hands.
“Are you awake?”
“Awake?”
“Yes.”
Her whole body was damp, as if soaked in sweat. She wanted to sit up to see Anna’s face more clearly, but she had no strength.
“You mustn’t get up. Just lie down. We all thought you were really going to die.”
“Die?”
“Yes. You cried so much at the funeral that you collapsed, and everyone was worried.”
“Funeral?”
“Yes.”
Anna looked at Jessica, who kept asking questions, with strange eyes.
“I… didn’t I die?”
“Ugh, My Lady, what kind of awful thing is that to say! Die? Of course not!”
“I didn’t die?”
“Why would you die! It’s sad that the Marchioness has passed away, but…”
“The Marchioness?”
Did that mean the new woman had died?
“Our My Lady… Sob! You must be so sad. Please rest a bit more for now. I’ll go tell everyone you’ve regained consciousness!”
She wanted to ask for details, but she could only stare blankly at Anna’s back as she hurriedly left the room. Sometimes she would disappear like that without listening to her superiors. Jessica shook her head and looked down at her own hands.
“Why are my hands so soft?”
After becoming the Duchess, she was buried in paperwork every day. The callus on her middle finger was like a medal. The noble ladies who didn’t hold pens would whisper whenever they saw her hands, but Jessica didn’t care.
It was the result of her fierce struggle to survive. But now it was gone. Her hands, which she ran her other hand over, felt so soft, the sensation vivid.
“And she said the Marchioness died.”
She called me ‘My Lady’. Anna, who had died, was by my side.
“Is this not a scene shown after death? Could it be?”
Jessica bolted upright from her spot and approached where the mirror stood. Large, blue eyes and a somewhat youthful face. Her pale complexion seemed to reflect her situation of having been confined to a sickbed. Staring blankly at the mirror, Jessica finally realized.
“I’ve gotten younger.”
Yes. Younger.
“I’m alive.”
Yes. She was alive. She didn’t know why she had gotten younger or how she had gotten a new life, but Jessica was here, in her room at the Viterne March residence. She had returned to the March house she loved.
“How on earth did this happen?”
Magic that sent people to the past didn’t exist. As the head of an information guild, she knew that well. Interfering with time was something only a god could do. There was no reason for a god to grant such a miracle to her, who wasn’t even a devout believer.
But to have returned… It was confusing. However, the confusion was short-lived as the door burst open. It was her father, who had died.
“Jessica!”
“Father!”
Her father, Marquis Viterne, who had rushed in surprised, stopped in his tracks. The Marquis Viterne, who hugged Jessica standing in the middle of the room, whispered in a small voice.
“I almost lost you too. I was really scared.”
“Father.”
Tears nearly welled up at that affectionate yet sorrowful voice.
“Calling me Father, Jessica. That’s so disappointing. No matter how much I can’t replace your mother’s place… Can’t you just call me Dad like you used to?”
“Yes, Dad.”
Swallowing the rising tears, Jessica smiled brightly. Marquis Viterne, noticing the tears clinging to the corners of her eyes, was about to say something to her but instead hugged her tightly.
Feeling her father’s affection after so long, tears fell drop by drop from Jessica’s eyes.
“I’m sorry for being so late.”
Her father, Baramo Viterne, was the Margrave of this empire. He was always away guarding the border, and the ones protecting the March residence were her mother, the Marchioness, and Jessica. That was one reason why Jessica was quick with calculations and good at managing the Ducal residence.
The position of Margrave was similar to that of a Duke. That was why, even though she was the daughter of a Marquis, she could marry a Duke in a political marriage.
“When did you arrive?”
“I came as soon as I heard the obituary. If I had known you would collapse too, I would have come sooner…”
Her mother, who had been frail, was often bedridden, and because of her mother’s illness, her father couldn’t return to the March house even more. Her mother’s illness required her to periodically take a special herb to improve her condition, but the price of that herb was absurdly high.
In the not-so-affluent March house, the only way to obtain the herb was for the Marquis to go to the battlefield, achieve merit, and obtain spoils of war. Even if they wanted to open a shop, other nobles who already monopolized the trade routes and sales rights wouldn’t give them up. For her father, who had lived his whole life as a knight, there were no other options.
“But you’re here now, so it’s okay.”
Jessica hugged Marquis Viterne. Half a year after her mother’s death, the Marquis would accept a new woman as the Marchioness. That Marchioness was the daughter of a crumbling Baronet family and coveted the March house’s wealth, which was far more affluent than her own. When Jessica opposed it, that was the woman who sold her off through a political marriage.
‘Her friend was the Duke’s concubine, I recall.’
Marquis Viterne had only one reason for taking a second wife. He was worried about Jessica being left alone, so he accepted his vassals’ opinions. After the marriage, the Marquis, who immediately left for the border, was captured and killed by savages.
‘That obituary itself might not even be true.’
Perhaps even that incident was fabricated by someone trying to take control of the Viterne March house. She vividly remembered the voice of Lord Alter, who had been furious, saying it made no sense for the Marquis, who had roamed the battlefields, to be captured and killed by savages.
“When are you leaving?”
“Leaving? I won’t leave now. I’ll stay by your side.”
Although Marquis Viterne said that, the current situation of the Ert Empire wasn’t good. The neighboring empire was eyeing the border covetously, and the savages’ invasions continued. The Emperor’s decree ordering him to go to the border would arrive at the March residence in half a year.
“I wish you could stay by my side forever.”
“You’ve become more spoiled after being sick.”
“I missed you.”
At her words, the Marquis’s expression twisted. Guilt for leaving his young daughter alone covered his face. The Marquis gently stroked her head and whispered to her.
“I’ll stay by your side from now on.”
“Really?”
“Of course.”
Although they were nobles, the Viterne March house was a place overflowing with affection among family members. Jessica, the only daughter of that March house, grew up receiving that love abundantly. How painful it must have been for her to be married off to the Ducal house as if being driven out. If Marquis Viterne had been alive to see that, he would surely have cried tears of blood.
“Father.”
“I said call me Dad.”
She gave a slight smile at the Marquis’s insistence on being called ‘Dad’ even if he died, and spoke again.
“Dad.”
“My daughter.”
With a touched expression, the Marquis hugged her tighter. It was hard to breathe in his arms, but she endured it. Because it was her father’s affection. The butler, the Marquis’s knight, and finally Anna, who were watching them from the side, were seen taking out handkerchiefs and dabbing their eyes.
Could she let such a father die half a year later? She couldn’t just let things happen like that. But it was still an event half a year away. There was no need to worry just yet.
‘Of course, I still need to prepare.’
She didn’t know how it happened, but she had returned to the past. To the time of her mother’s funeral. She had returned to the happiest moment of her life. Although her mother had already passed away, Jessica steadied her mind, knowing she would be happier in heaven than suffering continuously from illness.
She was determined not to let some Baronet’s daughter even set foot in the March house, and she would not leave alone those who had betrayed her. No one could notice the sharp light in her eyes as she was in the Marquis’s embrace.
