Chapter 40 – The Child Who Remembered Everything
When I woke up, my whole body was drenched in sweat.
I gasped for breath—and froze.
Someone was slumped over on the right side of my bed, fast asleep in an uncomfortable position.
When I recognized that silhouette, my eyes widened.
“Miss Anne?”
The face I’d seen right before losing consciousness hadn’t been a dream.
For some reason, my old caretaker—Miss Anne—was really here.
My eyes filled with tears. I squeezed them shut, then opened them again.
My eyelids stung.
And it wasn’t just my eyes.
Everything hurt. My arms, legs, chest, stomach, head, neck—
there wasn’t a single part of me that didn’t ache.
Then the memories came flooding back.
The assassin from the Longtern family—Brook—had come into my room.
I’d tried to run, but failed.
Just when I thought I was about to die, I saw it—
“That light.”
Those countless fragments of light that surrounded me in an instant.
“What was that?”
I narrowed my eyes, trying to recall the moment.
When Brook attacked me, my vision had gone white and my head had spun.
I was sure I was done for.
But then, a blinding light—so bright I couldn’t even describe it—had gathered around my body.
And what happened next was even stranger.
“It was like… time itself was moving backward, just around me.”
No, more precisely—it had felt as if I was being pulled somewhere, as though I were traveling back in time.
When I finally came to my senses, the light had vanished, leaving no trace behind.
Brook had been distracted by the glowing afterimage,
and thanks to that, I’d managed to open the door and escape.
After that…
I wiggled my right fingers experimentally.
My index and middle finger moved, but when I tried to move my ring finger, pain shot up my entire arm.
“…Ow.”
I whimpered softly, careful not to wake Miss Anne.
Then I tried moving my legs—
but the pain was so sharp I bit down on my lip.
“Ow—biting my lip makes my forehead hurt too!”
Even in misery, another memory surfaced.
Was it after I tumbled down the grand staircase?
I’d been lying there, unable to move, surrounded by people.
My vision had been blurry, but I could tell it was the middle of the night—
and that I’d woken everyone up.
Through the haze, one thought had terrified me.
“For a second, I thought I was back at the Longtern mansion.”
I’d probably mumbled an apology for making a fuss.
Blinking hard, I looked around.
Still…
“They treated me.”
It must have cost a fortune.
This was an era before medicine had really advanced.
Healing drugs were rare and incredibly expensive.
Even blood-clotting tonics were hard to come by,
and doctors charged outrageous fees for house calls.
That worry made me glance toward the curtained window.
“Where’s Duchess Sharon Abner?”
The heavy curtains blocked the view, but the thin light seeping through told me it was morning.
“What should I say?”
I should apologize first—for causing so much trouble.
She had hosted my birthday party and given me a place to live,
and then, not even a day later, something like this had happened in her mansion.
My chest tightened at the thought.
And then—
“Annelia?”
Miss Anne’s voice trembled with disbelief.
I couldn’t lift my head, but when I moved my eyes downward, I saw her gaze—
full of worry and relief all at once.
“You’re awake? Oh, thank goodness! Are you okay? Can you hear me?”
I tried to speak, watching her pale face.
“M-Miss Anne…”
Then I noticed—she, too, was covered in bandages.
Her shoulders, her arms, both hands—everything was wrapped tight.
“Y-you’re hurt too?”
She pressed her lips together and came closer.
“And you’re the one worrying? You—! You almost died, Annelia!”
She tried to sound steady, but her voice trembled badly.
I hesitated before quietly asking, “…How bad is it?”
I needed to know what condition I was in.
Miss Anne exhaled shakily.
“You won’t be able to move for at least two months.”
My eyes went wide.
“Two months?!”
“Lia.”
Her voice sharpened.
“Do you even understand how serious this was? You lost so much blood! You were this close to dying!”
“…”
“The doctor said we needed to stop the bleeding right away, and that we’d have to get proper medicine to heal your wounds.
Your magic tutor—Sir Owen—went all the way to the Imperial Pharmacy to get what we need.”
So they really did use a ton of medicine.
And Owen had gone to fetch more ingredients…
“If he went to find a cure for my injuries, then it must be that one, right?”
I rolled my eyes to the side, thinking.
“But he doesn’t need to.”
Miss Anne blinked. “What?”
I hesitated.
“Because the Abner mansion already has everything we need.”
As I said before, in this era, medicine was underdeveloped.
Healing drugs were rare and weak in effect.
Owen had struggled for ages in my previous life to find a way to heal Arwyn, for that very reason.
“But this time is different.”
I had come back—with all my memories from the future,
and I knew exactly what would happen next.
In my previous life, healing alchemy had begun to flourish when I was around ten.
That was when I had started developing new kinds of medicine myself.
“There’s a greenhouse behind the main building,” I said, pausing for breath.
“Everything we need is there.”
Miss Anne just stared at me, speechless.
“Tell the Duchess,” I continued weakly.
“Lia can make the medicine herself. So she doesn’t need to spend money.”
“Lia…”
“Actually,” I added, my voice trembling,
“yesterday, the Duchess threw me a birthday party. She gave me so many presents,
and there was this huge cake.”
“…”
“She already spent so much money on me…”
‘Do you have any idea how disgusting it is—to feed and shelter the child who almost killed my daughter?!’
The Duke of Longtern’s furious voice echoed in my mind.
It must have been a dream I’d had while unconscious—a nightmare from my past life.
“I promised the Duchess,” I murmured.
“As long as she lets me stay here, I won’t eat much or take up a big room. I’ll behave.”
‘Even a storage room is too good for you. The very thought of you breathing in this house disgusts me!’
“But the Duchess… she even told Marenes to bake extra bread because I liked it.”
“…”
“And she gave me a big, warm room.
She let me have more than ten birthday gifts and that giant cake.
She’s a good person.”
My voice trembled.
“So… I have to make the medicine.
If I get sent away, then…”
The rest of the sentence stuck in my throat.
“I have nowhere to go.”
Silence fell between us.
“Lia,” Miss Anne said quietly.
“Do you know what other children your age do after something like this?”
Her tone was calm, but her eyes were sad.
“They cry. A lot.”
“…”
“They don’t try to hold it in like you.
They don’t talk about medicine or money or rooms.”
She pulled a chair closer and sat beside me, looking me straight in the eyes.
“Lia… do you realize how strange you sound right now?”
I couldn’t answer. I just stared back at her.
We hadn’t lived together long this time,
but she was still Miss Anne—
the woman who had raised me since I was a baby,
the one who had held my hand as I learned to speak.
Maybe that was why…
“Let me ask you one thing,” she said softly, taking my hand in her bandaged fingers.
Her eyes were firm but gentle.
“What happened to you?”
Her gaze trembled faintly.
“I don’t just mean what’s happened since you came to this mansion.
What I want to know is…”
“…”
“Who are you, really?”
***
It took a very long time to tell her everything.
Every word hurt. I had to stop over and over just to breathe.
But Miss Anne listened the entire time, without interrupting once.
By the time I finished, the bandages on her hands were soaked through with fresh blood—
because she had clenched her fists so tightly the whole time, trying to hold back her emotions.
“My poor baby… my sweet Lia…”
Her voice broke.
And so, I told her the truth—
that I had died once before,
and that I had come back.
Her trembling voice was barely a whisper.
“So that’s what happened… my precious girl… you really died like that.”
