Chapter 1: Ianna

Part 01

Adonis: Reminiscence

Part 1

“Ianna!”

But why am I alive?

Ianna, who had been swinging her legs as she sat on a swing, gathered up the cumbersome skirt of her pink dress and scowled. Her senses, as sensitive as they had been in the past, picked up the quiet voice that was calling for her.

Ianna didn’t answer and hoped that the owner of the voice wouldn’t find her. The middle-aged man’s angry voice, however, only grew closer and closer.

“Ianna!”

Finally, the man walked up right behind her. Ignoring him had been the wrong choice. Ultimately, Ianna grit her teeth and answered,

“Yes, my Lord.”

“So this is where you were!”

The man walked over in front of Ianna because she didn’t turn around.

“Why didn’t you go to your lessons? Madame Puralsonne was furious. Return to your room at once.”

Ianna looked up at the man with her murky and dulled crimson eyes. She looked at his gleaming blue ones —a sharp contrast to hers— and subconsciously frowned.

“What right do you have to glare at me like that? Do you think you can act like that and still call yourself an esteemed daughter of House Roberstein?”

Ianna couldn’t understand. Why had she, who had died after her heart had been skewered by a sword during the war that was to determine the fate of the kingdom, been born again as Ianna Roberstein?

And why was her father, Cherno Roberstein, whom she had killed with her very own hands, standing before her, and why was the man, who had always scorned her no matter how endlessly hard she tried to please him, paying so much attention to her? —she couldn’t comprehend any of it. She didn’t even want to.

Ianna furrowed her brows a little and muttered,

“Screw being the daughter of a noble house.”

“Watch your tongue!”

“Oh.”

Apparently, her thoughts had slipped out of her mouth.

Ianna gave the man, who was upset with her and had a chilling look on his face, a side-eye. He had always been callous and business-like. He was a noble all the way to his bone, and he held a nobleman’s etiquette, dignity, honor, and reputation to upmost importance. He had been like that in the past and he was still like that even now.

He had detested and neglected Ianna like the noble he was even before his beloved wife had passed away. The miserable memories from when she was young had permeated all the way through to the marrow of her bones and had left deep scars in her heart even though she should have forgotten them by now. They were so bad that she remembered things that had happened decades ago just by looking at him standing before her.

And after his wife died, he…….

Ianna let out a deep breath and got up from her swing.

“My apologies. In any event, I will go and sit in on that utterly useless lesson, so please don’t worry over me, especially when you must be busy.”

She elegantly brushed off her skirt as if in protest—to show that she had no need to take lessons in etiquette. Then, she walked out of the garden with steps so soft and graceful that none could compare.

“My Lord, I don’t know if it’s because she has talent, but the Young Miss is perfect in almost all matters of decorum. It’s quite surprising, considering who her mother is. I would have felt that my time in teaching her was well spent and would have rethought my opinion of her if only I had seen her actually put forth effort in her lessons. However…….”

Cherno furrowed his brows as he recalled the indignant words that Baroness Puralsonne had spoken.

“The problem is that she had no drive and does things half-heartedly. There is no merit in teaching her. And……your daughter does not have the bright light in her eyes that all young children ought to. She shows no reaction no matter what I say to her. It’s like she doesn’t have emotions, no, like she’s dead…… I apologize. In any case, it frightens me terribly. I just cannot bring myself to like her.”

Cherno was lost in thought as he remembered how dead Ianna’s eyes had been when he had seen them just moments ago.

Ianna’s lovely face warped into a menacing scowl after she had left Cherno behind in the garden.

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

Time had continued to flow and it had been almost ten years since she had been born again. But Ianna still couldn’t understand what had happened to her, and neither did she want to.

She did not regret her life. Ianna had never once regretted her life, which had been dyed crimson in the color of blood. She had felt nothing even when people had pointed at her called her terrible names, like power-crazed wench, parricidal bitch, depraved, monster, murderer, devil, etc. After all, they were all technically true to some extent, and they had all resulted from the choices she herself had made.

And, while her life had been thrown into a raging storm when she met the man who had shaken her endlessly to her very roots, everything had ended perfectly after she acknowledged her complete defeat at his hands.

Ianna was beside herself in fury because the life she had lived in perfect satisfaction had been shattered to pieces and she was now being made to live it again.

Not to mention that the subtle change in her father was grating on her nerves. In the past, he had been the kind of man who never even looked at his daughter if he could help it. Not only that, but he would look disgusted whenever he saw her by accident and sometimes even beat her cruelly if he so desired.

“Ianna.”

A dark shadow blocked Ianna’s path as she walked across the garden.

It belonged to a young boy. Ianna let out a deep sigh as soon as she saw him.

“Are you okay? Did you get in a lot of trouble with Father?”

Ianna silently narrowed her eyes as she chewed on the boy’s careful words.

‘What kind of joke of fate is this?’

Harchen Roberstein.

He was the firstborn son of the house, as well as the only son of Count Roberstein’s legal wife, Sarachè Roberstein. He was her pitiful elder half-brother of four years who had lost his kind-hearted mother to the poison that Ianna had put in her teacup when she was eight, and who had died when Ianna slit his throat to seize House Roberstein’s power when she was twenty-four.

In the past, he had always busied himself detesting Ianna, and Ianna, who grew up hearing her mother curse him every day, had returned the sentiment. She and Harchen had been on the worst of terms.

This was why she hadn’t felt any guilt when she killed him, but it weighed on her mind when he, whom she had once killed with her own hands, was walking around alive and showing tenacious consideration for her.

Ianna’s soul was always looking back at the past, and she lived her current life by adjusting to the things she remembered. That was why she would have had no choice but to accept it when her mother gave her a bag of poison when she was eight. After all, it was what had happened in her past.

However, the bag of poison, which her mother had placed affectionately in her hands after holding her in a warm embrace for the first time in her life, did not exist.

And neither did her mother’s request for her to pour the poison, which she had said was a fragrant tea, secretly into the legal wife’s teacup during tea time. And the delighted Ianna who had secretly poisoned the legal wife’s, the sole person in the household who had ever treated Ianna with kindness, tea did not exist either.

The past had not repeated itself. The legal wife had been poisoned by someone other than Ianna, but she had survived instead of passing away. She was still hale and hearty even now when Ianna was almost ten.

Ianna had felt the past had become distorted when the servants had cheered in joy because the legal wife had regained consciousness.

Her face had warped into laughter when the past became distorted even though all she had done was watch how things played out. The distortion offended her so terribly she could not stand it. The Harchen standing before her now had also changed. And that was why Ianna said nothing.

An uncomfortable silence settled in around them as Harchen looked down curiously at Ianna, who had not replied. The silence, however, did not last for long.

“Ianna!”

Ianna brought a hand to her forehead. Why were there so many people looking for her today? It was her own fault for slipping out before the strict Madam Puralsonne arrived because she was tired of taking lessons for etiquette that she already knew.

She pursed her lips when she saw a lavishly dressed woman running up to her from afar. Harchen, too, frowned heavily when he caught a whiff of the dense perfume that the woman always wore.

The woman covered her barely contained breasts with one hand and haughtily bowed her head.

“Greetings, Young Master.”

Harchen didn’t reply. Instead, he simply left after patting Ianna on the shoulder. The woman began quivering in fury after being so spectacularly ignored.

“Ianna.”

The woman swiftly looked back up. As Ianna looked back at the woman before her, who donned the mask of the most pitiful woman in the world as she grabbed her by the shoulders, and began thinking.

“Look at your mother, hmm?”

Just whose life is this? Is this really my past?

“Do you not feel anything when your own mother is being ignored so? No one else will take my side but you!”

Ianna said nothing. Then, the woman’s face flushed red and her face twisted so that it looked like she was about to cry. Her breathing grew wilder with each breath that escaped her lips.

Slap!

Ianna’s head turned sharply to the side. She lost her balance and staggered. The woman stared at the hand with which she had slapped Ianna’s cheek with trembling eyes for a moment before she pointed at the girl and frantically shouted,

“You’ve always been like this, ever since you were young! You always look at me with those deadened eyes in pity like I’m some dirty prostitute and not your own mother! You wicked girl! You useless little bitch!”

The sight of a grown woman cursing at a nine-year-old girl was somewhat comical.

Ianna showed no response even though her cheek stung. She simply continued to stare at the woman blankly.

The blood drained from the woman’s face. Her child hadn’t started shaking in fear, or crying in pain, or even gotten angry and throw a tantrum after her mother had slapped her hard across the cheek. Ianna simply continued to remain deep in thought…….

The woman’s voluptuous figure quivered as she stepped back and saw Ianna’s cheek swell up, and she quickly fled the scene.

“…….”

Ianna’s face warped as she cradled her reddened cheek while watching the woman retreat. You wicked, nasty bitch. Ianna cursed quietly to herself.

Her mother, Lebony Roberstein, was truly quite the clown. In the past, Ianna had spent her days craving for her mother’s love and affection. Lebony, on the other hand, had never once embraced her warmly. She had coveted only Cherno’s affections and had committed atrocities without hesitation to that end while neglecting Ianna, who had only innocently wanted her mother’s love.

Lebony, who had grown tired of Cherno’s disinterest and contempt and whose father, who had once supported her from behind the scenes, had gone missing, had only started taking an interest in Ianna after learning that Ianna’s swordsmanship instructor had praised her highly for her natural talent in the art.

Lebony had busied herself by disciplining Ianna harshly ever since. She had given up on winning the Count’s love and had set her eyes instead on his vast lands and immense wealth, and she simply saw Ianna as a tool to achieve her aspirations.

Then, she had died at Ianna’s hands as soon as those aspirations had come to fruition.

And yet, the very same woman had just cursed at Ianna for not loving her mother, for not taking her side, and had thrown a tantrum about the disinterest in Ianna’s eyes before running away like a frightened dog.

Ianna glared at Lebony’s retreating figure.

Just who the hell are you? Are you truly the same woman I knew? I simply don’t crave for your love anymore because I’m not the same person I was in the past. So why haven’t you passed me the bag of poison to kill the legal wife with, and why are you saying such feeble-minded words to me while acting like you’re nothing but a pitiful mother?

“Ha!”

What a farce. Ianna laughed while hiding her mouth behind the edge of her sleeve. How absolutely ridiculous…… It’s like it’s all just a comedy.

Or, maybe it’s a tragedy?

Ianna’s lips twisted into a smile.

It was white.

Ianna swallowed down her uncontrollable laughter as she looked down at the soft carpet that had been lain across the floor of her shabby room.

“Miss, the Master said he would bring a carpet made of white fox fur for your room since you stubbornly refused to move to a room in the main building! My, he must love his daughter so.”

Parental love? Truly, there could be no words more ill-befitting of the man.

Her nanny looked excited by the news, but Ianna only grew uneasy because she, who remembered her past life, couldn’t figure out what the Count was scheming. That man, Cherno, bought me a luxurious carpet because he was concerned that I might trip in my room and hurt myself? The very thought was absurd.

“Are you listening, Young Miss?”

Ianna, who had been playing hooky earlier, had returned to her lesson. She hadn’t reflected on her actions at all and had been misbehaving all throughout her lesson, but she straightened her back upon hearing the hysteria in the madame’s voice.

“But of course, Madame Puralsonne.”

“Good; then, please try walking just like how I told you to.”

Ianna had given up on walking like a graceful lady as soon as she had become a member of the royal knights. She had walked instead in a disciplined manner while giving off a pressure that suggested she would cut down anyone who got in her way. Still, Ianna, who possessed excellent physical senses and prowess, successfully recalled the manner of walking she had learned in the past by getting lashed at so many times across her legs that she thought her calves might explode.

She walked gracefully with light steps, which she had mastered perfectly in the past, before the madame who was glaring at her.

Madame Puralsonne, who had been staring intently at Ianna’s feet to find fault in her steps, spread out her white owl-feather fan in front of her face to hide the frown her lips had twisted into.

“I don’t know how you manage to show off such perfect etiquette when you always misbehave during class, Young Miss —it’s ever the unsolvable riddle.”

That would be because I practiced relentlessly in the past so that you wouldn’t tear apart my legs, and so that I could be complimented by my mother, whom I used to think was more beautiful than anyone else in the world. So please just tell my damned father that my etiquette is perfect and that there’s nothing left for you to teach, and never come back—Ianna wanted to say, but swallowed the words.

“I wish to end your lessons as quickly as possible and never suffer to see you again, Young Miss. I have never before taught such pointless and unwanted lessons before I met you.”

Madame Puralsonne spat out in discontent as she snapped her fan shut. Once again, Ianna refrained from saying—I’m the one who wants to never have to see you again.

Madame Puralsonne gathered up her skirt as she got up from her seat as gracefully as someone who had been called over to teach etiquette should. Ianna simply nodded her farewell without bothering to get up. There was a chilly light in Madame Puralsonne’s eyes as she glared at Ianna.

“Perfect etiquette is closely associated with a sincere attitude. Let me be frank. All of your tutors, save for the kind-hearted Viscount Hephlood, have said that you appear to be exceptionally bright, Young Miss, but seeing your attitude reminds them that, like mother like daughter, you are nothing but the daughter of a lowly-born commoner. And I look at you and see the same.”

“I see.”

Ianna remained expressionless and simply nodded half-heartedly even after hearing the madame’s biting remarks. The madame opened her eyes wide in rage.

“There you go again! You lack the manners you ought to have as a student! Young Miss, you will find yourself weeded out of high society if you keep continuing to do everything as half-heartedly as you do now. You should at least work hard if you are of lowly birth. Tsk, if only you weren’t the pretty flower you are!”

“Yes. I understand.”

Ianna did not betray even the smallest of emotion on her face even though Madame Puralsonne had insulted her so fervently that she was beginning to turn red. As always, Ianna never failed to keep a tight control over her emotions and never once threw a screaming tantrum, which was ill befitting of the nine-year-old child that she was. As always, it was Madame Puralsonne who grew angry instead whenever she was met with Ianna’s dark and murky eyes.

The madame, who had grown angry today as well, muttered to herself as she quickly made her way to the door. She added a few final words before she slammed the door shut behind her.

“I came all the way here when no one else was willing only because it was the Count and Countess’ request, and what do I find?! I promise you that you will never be able to succeed in high society, Young Miss!”

Ianna leaned back against the hard chair as she listened to the bellowing grow farther away.

‘That woman’s always so noisy no matter what I do.’

She had conducted herself in a manner that she had known Madame Puralsonne would dislike on purpose. All so the damned woman would leave her sooner.

Ianna disliked Madame Puralsonne just as much as Madame Puralsonne disliked her. She also felt no need to retake the lessons she had taken in her past childhood while getting her calves lashed to the point she thought they would explode from a woman she detested and was constantly insulted by, especially since she had already mastered the rules of etiquette back when she had been a duchess.

Madam Puralsonne had come to the Roberstein household to be Ianna’s etiquette teacher in the past as well. She had been as bitter as could be expected of from someone who had no choice but to teach, and she had never once stopped using the rod during her lessons.

She was a close friend of the kind Lady of House Roberstein, none other than the very woman who had once died by Ianna’s hands, which was why she loathed the common-born mistress of the house and hated the mistress’ daughter. This was why Madame Puralsonne’s attitude had never changed even when Ianna smiled and given her lessons her very best effort.

As an innocent young child, Ianna had only ever wanted to receive acknowledgement and affection from the people who only found fault with her. She had tried desperately to excel at everything —whether it be her studies or her etiquette. She had been as kind and as decorous as she could possibly be to change the wintry look in people’s eyes when they looked at her. She had done everything she possibly could to cling onto the dream that the chilly contempt everyone had for her would one day gain even a little warmth in the future.

But the results had spoken for themselves. Nothing had changed no matter how hard she tried. People were as cold to her as they always had been, and the nobles’ society that Madame Puralsonne had spoken of had been hell.

Ianna had been treated like a worm when she debuted in high society. Scorn, insults, contempt……. Ianna had been weeded out, just as Madame Puralsonne had said she would be. She had been cast out with such humiliation that it was difficult to bear.

The parties that she had attended after her debut were just the same. The only thing she received from high society was ridicule. They pushed her away, and the once kind-hearted Ianna’s blood ran colder and colder, contrarily to her crimson appearance, until she felt that she might as well have been cold-blooded entirely. She distanced herself from the ever-colorful parties and focused solely on her sword as if she was a devil who had become obsessed with it.

And so, now she thought. That it was all right not to try so hard if nothing would change anyway.

And with that mindset, Ianna decided not to cling so fiercely onto anything the way she had in the past.

She plucked out one of the flowers that had been arranged neatly inside the vase on top of the table and threw it onto the white carpet.

Stomp!

Ianna sneered as she crushed the flower with the heel of her shoe. Water oozed out from the flower and stained the fluffy carpet. She clenched her hands into tight fists as she watched the pure white carpet be stained by the flower’s vivid colors.

Her mother, her father, her brother, her teacher, the servants. They were all ridiculous. They had ignored her and abandoned her when she had so desperately craved for their love, but they looked to her only now that she had given up on ever being able to receive it.

There had never once been a time when Ianna hadn’t been bound to her past in the nine years that she had lived since she was reborn. She was living in a past that differed from her current reality because her memories hadn’t disappeared.

Ianna got up from her seat and walked up to the window, from which the warm sunlight was pouring through. She sat on the windowsill and reached outside. She grasped tightly onto the warm sunlight that fell gently into her hand.

The sunlight she had gathered in her hand wriggled between her fingers. It rested on top of her eyelashes as well and made known its existence. Her eyelashes fluttered under its weight like the gossamer wings of a butterfly. Ianna slowly closed her eyes without stubbornly resisting the sunlight or escaping to the shade.

‘I’ll acknowledge what I must.’

If the warmth that she was feeling was real, then the life that she was currently living in it was also real.

Ianna grit her teeth as a surge of indignation welled up within her. Surely, she would not have felt so lost if she had been reborn as another person entirely, because that way she would have been able to start completely anew. She had ended her life as the woman named Ianna Roberstein without any regrets, and so, she was outraged that she had been forced to start it all over again.

She was proud of the fact that she had lived her life more fiercely than any other. This was why she regretted nothing. And, because she regretted nothing, she had no desire to start the same life over again.

When she had been held in her nanny’s arms shortly after being born, Ianna had thought that her new reality was simply a dream of sorts that she was seeing at the brink of death. And yet, the dream hadn’t ended even after an hour had passed, after a day had passed, after a year had passed, or even now, nine years later.

At the time, Ianna hadn’t been able to see clearly in front of her, as if she had really become a baby again, and had babbled when she was uncomfortable and struggled to move her limbs. She had suckled naturally at her nanny’s breast, did her business while lying down, and fell asleep exhausted for an entire day after trying to get her body to move. She answered nature’s calls as they came and thought that the dream would end while she couldn’t even form proper thoughts —and then five years had passed before she knew it.

It was only then that she realized that the dream was going on for too long, especially considering that it was supposed to relive her decades-long life in but a moment.

It only felt natural. That no one paid any attention to her when she was young, that no one loved her, that they all looked to her with only contempt in their eyes like that had so long ago.

But why was she living the past again?

The feeling that something was off that came along with her self-consciousness was unpleasant to the extreme. And this was why Ianna screamed. And when she screamed, she also cried. She haphazardly threw things at the floor, breaking them, and threw a tantrum. Her body responded in accordance to her wishes. It was only then that she understood that she was living again as Ianna Roberstein.

The disjunction bound the heart that had returned to her at that moment. It was a thorny chain that squeezed tightly against the questions she could not answer.

The first thing that Ianna had thought when she realized that she had been born as herself again were not the questions “why?” or “how?”, but about her past identity, which she had so fiercely lived out.

Dying at Arhad’s hands after his sword pierced through her heart had been far from ideal, but it had been the best end she could have achieved after becoming so utterly exhausted of life. She had never once wanted to live her life again.

She had overcome her agonizing life with the cruel choices she had made and she had been more than sufficiently satisfied with the bloody life that her choices had led her to. She did not regret anything because she had poured out her everything during the course of her life, and she had no desire to live it all over again.

But the decades-long life she had lived had vanished and she was living her past over again as a child. Surely, the life she had lived hadn’t been just a mere dream, had it?

Ianna screamed like she had lost her mind as soon as the thought entered her mind.

Was my life just a long dream? Was all that awful pain I felt just an illusion? Then, what’ll happen in the future?

Ianna glared upward with her bloodshot eyes and grasped her arms tightly.

Will I suffer their endless streams of insults all over again, give up on living a righteous life, surrender everything, take the prince’s hand —the one person who acknowledged my ability—, kill of all the Robersteins, become the prince’s royal knight, kill and kill his enemies, and then become a duchess and kill and kill all those who dare oppose me?! Will I kill and kill and kill all over again while fighting in the war that Arhad instigated?!

Will I meet my end at Arhad’s hands again?

It was gruesome. Ianna was overcome with frustration at the thought that her decades-long life may have just been nothing but a mere dream and with despair over the fact she would have to live her life all over again. Ianna, who failed to come to terms with the strange phenomenon that had happened to her, was bound by her memories and had floundered in the past for a long time.

And yet, she had felt an endless sense of wrongness in the meanwhile. Her each and every action made things go differently from how things had happened in her memories. The white carpet that Cherno had sent her, the vivid flowers that Harchen had given her that she had crushed against it, and the fact that Sarachè was still alive—were all proof of that.

But why…?

She was the only thing that had changed from her past. She, who had already lived this life through to the end once. That, and the fact that she, who had already seen her past play out once, no longer craved for the warm love of others like she had in the past.

Ianna pursed her lips. It was ridiculous. To think that just one difference could change everything so much.

And so, she decided to acknowledge it. That she wasn’t just simply revisiting the past but had actually been born again, and that something would change if she acted different than she had previously.

“What are you think so hard about, Miss……oh my goodness, how horrible! What are you doing with your white carpet, Miss Ianna?!”

Ianna stopped basking in the sunlight and turned to the familiar voice as it raised a fuss.

“Isphee.”

It was her nanny. Isphee, who was holding a bunch of crimson flowers in her arms, was shocked as she saw the flowers that Ianna had trampled.

“You stained your white carpet with the flowers!”

“More importantly, why are you here when it isn’t time to eat or time for tea? I thought I told you not to come looking for me unless absolutely necessary.”

“Lord Harchen sent to flowers today as well. He usually sends them just before it’s time to eat, but perhaps he predicted that you would trample your flowers today, Miss.”

Isphee held out the flowers she was carrying in her arms. Ianna’s frigid gaze turned on them. The neatly arranged and tied wildflowers were crimson with yellow stamens —crimson Adonis flowers.

“These refreshing flowers are called Adonis flowers. They symbolize memories and reminiscence in the language of flowers. They’re usually given to elderly women, but the Young Master was drawn to how lovely the flowers looked as they shone crimson under the light when he visiting the flower shop. These flowers also come in gold, which symbolizes eternal bliss. Isn’t that amazing? It’s a flower that symbolizes the ability to attain eternal bliss through memories and reminiscence.”

Ianna, who was already so displeased by the fact that Harchen had sent the flowers that she felt like her head would burst apart from the emotion, furrowed her brows as hearing what the flowers symbolized incited her irritation.

“Throw them away at once. That, or burn them.”

“You mustn’t. They’re so pretty.”

Isphee ignored Ianna’s displeasure and put the Adonis flowers in the vase after taking out the two remaining flowers that had been inside previously. Ianna sighed and pulled out the stifling hair accessory she had worn in her hair so Madame Puralsonne wouldn’t yell at her for not doing so. Her hair, now freed from its bindings, fell down past her shoulders in waves.

“For someone who’s supposed to be my nanny, you really don’t listen to what I have to say. You even disregard me completely. If only you were one-forth as reserved as Karnitz is…”

“But that’s exactly why I, Isphee, must be your nanny. You’d only grow brusquer than you already are if Sir Karnitz was your nanny, MIss. Would you like some tea while I’m here?”

“That’d be nice.”

Ianna leaned against the windowsill and watched Isphee from behind as she finished arranging the flowers neatly and began preparing tea.

She remembered that there had been people who pitied her in the past. And that there had been three people who even cherished her.

The first of the three was Isphee, her nanny. Ianna had forgotten about Isphee because the latter had died when she was young, and only remembered her after returning to the past.

Isphee was a warm woman who always smelled gently of milk. She was the woman who had embraced Ianna, whom Lebony had cast aside as soon as she was born, and fed her at her own breast. She was the woman who had sung her lullabies to sleep. And she was the woman who had grown sick and left Ianna’s side eternally after being lashed severely for speaking out against Lebony’s unjust treatment of Ianna.

Ianna remembered, albeit vaguely, that the woman with soft brown hair had once stood by her side as Isphee held her soon after she was born. Her vague recollections had become clearer under Isphee’s warm care. She remembered the frosty eyes of the people who had despised Isphee for defending her, and she remembered the fact that no one had cared to comfort or console her as she bawled her eyes out next to Isphee’s dead body.

But the past had changed. Ianna was no longer obsessed with getting Lebony’s attention, and neither did she get wounded by the cold looks that others gave her. She did not complain or cry in Isphee’s arms like she had in the past. And so, Isphee had not spoken up against Lebony or died from being lashed. Now, Ianna was not a pitiful little girl who ran crying to Isphee’s arms because people ostracized her, but Isphee’s brusque master who curtly refused people’s attention.

Ianna, who as bound by her past and simply remained as a bystander in her current reality, did not wish for the warm Isphee to die as wretchedly as she had before. She scratched at her crimson lips with her thumb and quietly whispered,

“Don’t die, Isphee.”

Slowly but steadily, Ianna was being freed from the restraints of her past.

“Goodness, Miss, I’m still young. You don’t have to worry about me dying already.”

“I wasn’t referring to your lifespan. I’m telling you not to die in vain because you got on the bad side of the high and mighty adults in charge by meddling for my sake.”

“……Your manner of speech is much too rough, Miss. To say that everything that I, your nanny, does for you is nothing but meddling! And, if I were to die like these flowers here, what would it matter if I died in vain or not?!”

Ianna giggled at Isphee’s coquetry scolding and snuggled her cheek against her knee. Isphee made to leave with the tea set when Ianna didn’t answer, and she cast a glance at the beautiful Adonis flowers and hesitated for a bit before saying,

“Don’t continue ignoring the Young Master like this when he keeps sending you such lovely flowers, Miss…….”

Ianna spoke up before she could finish.

“Isphee. Don’t meddle with anything that happens between me and the people of this house.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“It’s more than enough for me as long as you stay by my side like this and keep serving me tea. I’m already more than happy enough that you go on walks with me every so often.”

“Miss…….”

“So…”

Isphee blushed because she had been touched by Ianna’s words, but her next were as cold as when she was slaying her enemies with her sword.

“Don’t overstep your bounds and try to better other people’s impressions of me. Don’t praise me in front of others, and don’t get into arguments with them when they insult me. I don’t need it, so don’t say things that are unnecessary, especially when I never ordered you to do so.”

“…….”

“I’ll speak to you again in the morning. And, I already know that you tell the Countess about everything I do. It annoys me that the Count, Countess, or Young Master takes such an interest in me, so stop it. Either that, so stop being my nanny entirely. You’re rather precious to me, but I will not tolerate such behavior.”

Isphee simply dropped her head silently. She always looked down whenever Ianna’s words became as sharp as blades. And so, as always, Ianna said,

“Don’t cry.”

“M-Miss…”

Isphee was on the verge of tears and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. She continued,

“Are you really only nine years old? Why do you speak so coldly……? And what on earth is with your manner of speech? It’s obvious that you’ll grow up to be a beautiful lady in the future……. Sniff, so why do you talk like a brusque man……?”

“That’s what you’re crying about?”

“What do you mean, ‘that’? What kind of adorable little girl talks like that—I’m so upset I might die! Why do you talk like that? Miss, you talk like you’re a sword-wielding knight or something!”

“Enough. It suits me to speak like this.”

“Sob, sob. What will you do when you debut in high society in a few years? This is all Lord Karnitz’s fault.”

“Karnitz has nothing to do with this.”

“No, it has everything to do with Lord Karnitz! Sob……Miss, you always spend so much time with the ever-reticent Lord Karnitz, and, as ridiculous as it is, he’s also the person you talk the most to! I must be the one to tell you the bitter truth. I’ll tell him to speak like a lady for Miss Ianna’s sake! Sniff.”

“You really don’t listen at all, do you? Are you planning to torture Karnitz when he hasn’t done any wrong?”

Ianna did not intend to change the way she spoke. She was not a noble lady who needed to be protected, but rather a knight who defended her king and a commander who led her soldiers.

She spoke in gentler tones to Madam Puralsonne because she wanted to get her lessons done and over with, but a lady’s manner of speech did not suit her and neither did she feel any desire to speak as such. Just imagining herself speak the way other ladies did gave her the goosebumps.

“In any case……I’ll go prepare some tea now.”

Isphee hurried out the door while wiping away her tears. And, just before she left, she stopped for a moment to say,

“And, I’m only saying this for the sake of telling you, but I will never leave your side, Miss. How could I ever possibly stop being your nanny, Miss, when I know that I’m one of the few people who’ll take your side? Sniff.”

Isphee left the room after finishing her piece. Ianna continued to stare blankly for a while at the place where Isphee had been just moments earlier with her cheek still resting on her knee before jumping down from the windowsill.

“There was no point in telling me that.”

Ianna had already known what Isphee was thinking. The real reason that Isphee was crying was not because of Ianna’s manner of speech, but because she pitied Ianna for the way the people of the household treated her.

But Ianna did not intend to tear down the wall between herself and others. She had returned to the past, but some things would simply never change. Like her environment, and her lowly status, and one other thing.

Ianna stepped on top of the soft carpet and reached out toward the vase.

Her memories, which the lovely Adonis flowers symbolized.

She grabbed the flowers and crushed them in her hands. She had craved love and attention from them but had only received cold contempt in turn. She had felt only despair and loathing after being rejected by them until the very end.

She had killed the head of House Roberstein and his loyal watchdogs, and had become the sole survivor of the Roberstein name. She had robbed the citizens of the Roberstein territory of the fact that they were citizens of the Roberstein territory when they left the land behind because they despised her. She had caused them to completely cast the name out from their hearts.

And she was supposed to remember and reminisce these memories to attain eternal bliss? How utterly ridiculous. Her mood grew only worse as she ruminated over the flowers. Ianna had no reason to pick up everything she had cast aside just because she was acting a little differently this time than she had before.

Ianna let out a sickening laugh.

“I might have been reborn, but am I not still Ianna Roberstein, who lived for decades as the Sword Demon?”

She bit down hard at her lips as soon as the words escaped them. Then, she paced anxiously about the room. It was like she was looking for something.

She found something that was similar in shape to what she had been looking for before long. It was a long flower stem from the ruined flowers that Isphee had forgotten to clean up. Ianna picked up the yellowish-green stem with her white and soft hand, yet unburnt by the sun and un-calloused by harsh training. She stroked the firm and springy stem with her fingers. The leaves were the hilt. The stem was the blade.

It was a sword.

Ianna became her past self again and twirled her sword in the air, stabbing the space in front of her. But the impact of the thrust felt different than what she remembered. She woke up from her stupor and laughed bitterly as she threw down the drooping flower stem to the floor.

‘What do I think I’m doing with a flower stem?’

She would have been embarrassed if anyone had seen her. Ianna scrunched up her nose and laughed.

The sword.

The shock and rapture she had experienced in the past when she first encountered the sword had been so impactful that it brought tears to her eyes. She had lived her life like she was suffocating every day until she first touched a sword and shivered in delight. She had to sit down and force herself to study, but her sword had so readily obeyed her every command.

Ever since she had first taken hold of the sword, she had never once failed to love the one friend that whispered, ‘I am on your side. I will willingly do everything as you wish together with you,’ from her hands, and she had never once let it leave her side.

And yet, she had not held a sword even once ever since she had been reborn. It was because she hadn’t done so in the past. She had first held a sword after turning fifteen, and she had only started officially learning how to wield it at sixteen. It was supposed to be another six years until the day she first held a sword, and Ianna had planned on keeping away from it until then like she had in the past.

Despite that, she was doing something as laughable as stabbing the air with a flower stem as if she was in withdrawal. Her hands were quivering so much because they wanted so badly to hold a sword.

“Pft.”

Ianna broke out in laughter. It was such a stupid question.

‘That’s right, the sword was my everything —my eternity.’

Ianna slowly walked back to the window. The setting sun was drawing a crimson hue over the skies. The light in Ianna’s eyes abated as she watched the sun set over the horizon.

Indeed. Her passion for the sword, which was engraved into her soul, would not disappear just because she had been born again.

The sword, the sword, the sword.

And the one man whom she could never forget.

That one vibrant memory from that day from her otherwise washed-out past played out again behind Ianna’s darkened eyes.

Arhad Roygen.

Ianna slowly closed her eyes as she brooded over name that had been engraved into her soul just like sword was.

Arhad Roygen —his full name was Arhad Ro Ralzo Bahamut. She had been perfectly trampled over by the man during the first swordsmanship tournament she had entered when she was nineteen.

Ianna was happy when she wielded the sword. No trivial thoughts entered her head when she was dancing with her sword while kicking up clouds of hot dirt instead of dancing in a stifling party on a cold marble floor. She felt like she had overcome some kind of wall and became one with her sword when she swung and swung her sword until her breath was caught in her chest and beads of sweat were falling from her entire body.

She could feel the suffocating yoke fall off her neck and truly felt fresh and alive when she wielded her sword to the point that she thought she might die from not being able to breathe properly. She felt validated for just being Ianna —not the daughter of a dirty common bitch who used money to buy her way into being a Count’s mistress, not the stupid wench who failed to get good results in her studies even after studying so hard that her nose bled, and not the nuisance who would never receive warmth or love because she had taken after her mother.

Her hot sweat. Her ragged breathing. Her twitching arms. Her numb body.

Fatigue overcame her whenever she wielded the sword like she was caught in a feverish dream for a spell until she collapsed. But she loved all of it. She loved feeling like she was alive so much that she could go mad for it, and it filled her heart with delight to feel her own existence being made clearer. Ianna had always laughed the brightest whenever she had thoroughly exhausted her body and had laid down across the ground completely beat.

She could live as long as she had a sword. The sword was the only means by which she could truly breathe.

Ianna had only looked forward and had run like crazy. Mana, the power that was spread across the world and was also the measure of power that ruled it, coiled naturally around her sword with each powerful swing. Ianna, who was mediocre at everything else, enjoyed so much talent in the sword that she skipped over merely being gifted straight into being a genius.

For Ianna, who loved the sword so much she didn’t know what else to do with herself, her sword was the most valuable thing in the world, and it was also both the path she was to walk and something that had become one with herself. She was so crazed for the sword that she had been called the Sword Demon.

And yet, Arhad Roygen had mercilessly broken her —her sword.

It was the day that the Youth’s Swordsmanship Tournament for those between the ages eighteen to twenty-five, which was hosted by the royal family to commemorate the founding of the Kingdom of Roanne, had commenced. Ianna had participated because of her mother’s orders……no, she had already given up on her mother’s love by then, so it was more accurate to say that she had participated because she was curious about other people’s swordplay.

And, although she was a girl of barely nineteen and had the handicap of having far less musculature than the men competing against her, she had defeated countless men with her characteristically calm and flexible swordplay and had advanced to the finals.

What can a woman possibly do? Jeez, for crying out loud. Did they call you Roberstein just now? Doesn’t that mean you’re the red-headed daughter of Count Roberstein’s mistress? Aha, so you’re the girl who was born from that infamous affair! The mistress is the daughter of that bastard Horby, the loan shark who fell into ruin and vanished a while back, right? Hmm? The extremely beautiful wench who seduced men left and right and sucked up to them? Hee hee. Your body’s just as hot as your mother’s, who was skilled as using her body as a means to an end. Why don’t you take off your clothes and give us a show?

Their sneers and scorn had been reduced to silence after Ianna’s ghastly swordplay had feasted upon them. The number of brawny men who were silenced upon having the tip of Ianna’s sword being pressed against their throats had steadily grown in number.

Ianna greatly enjoyed the newfound silence. It gave her so much pleasure that she could not bear it when the sneers that once suffocated her were silenced by her sword —her soul. She had lost herself in the delight of victory when they knelt before her blade in surrender.

And then, she had met Arhad Roygen in the finals.

“…….”

Ianna blinked as she swept back her flowing crimson hair. She scrunched her nose as the sunlight tickled her. She narrowed her eyes like a listless cat as she reminisced about that fateful day.

The once firm and steady floor of the arena was now covered in bare scars.

Ianna and Arhad —their respective swords gave off slightly different bluish reflections underneath the scorching sun. Sparks flew with every clash, and their swords’ songs cut through the air and overlapped.

Ianna’s swift and frightening rapier was blocked repeatedly by Arhad’s bastard sword. Her nimble swordplay slipped vainly off of Arhad’s destructive skill.

And she discerned.

‘The beast before my eyes is just like me.’

The two swords clashed with a metallic sound. Arhad and Ianna stared at each other from across their crossing blades. They recognized each other with their eyes —one burning crimson like the devil and the other shining gold like a predator hunting its prey— and carved each other into their respective hearts.

Ianna’s heart was racing and overflowing with emotion. She grew giddy from the feeling, which was as passionate, but not as fleeting, as romantic love, that resulted from the potent affection, born of a sense of companionship, she felt through their swords.

The man named Arhad Roygen before her eyes was just as crazy for the sword as she was. The fires burning in his golden eyes were the same flames that were burning in her own in her reflection in his eyes.

No one who lived a normal life could ever cling so heavily to the sword. Ianna had done so because she wanted to feel like she was alive. She was curious as to why Arhad was just as crazed.

Ianna pushed away Arhad’s sword, unable to endure her own palpitating heart. Their eyes had only met for but a brief moment, but the light from his eyes lingered in her heart.

“Oh……?”

It was then that Ianna had started to really push against Arhad, who was smiling with his teeth bared in a growl. Arhad pushed Ianna’s sword away like a raging wave and mowed it down as if to declare that he had only been playing until now, that he had simply been appraising her skills like he would a work of art.

Ianna floundered like she had suddenly hit up against a large wall and dropped her sword. Their surroundings erupted in thunderous cheers as she did, and the referee shouted out her defeat.

“…….”

Ianna knelt blankly to pick up her sword. The corners of Arhad’s lips began to curl up into a smile as he stood before her.

“Indeed, what an interesting girl you are.”

Just then, the sense of companionship that had filled her mind was discolored into such an overwhelming sense of defeat and humiliation that she felt as if he had ripped her soul in two. The tone of his low voice was pleasant to the ear, but Ianna only found it upsetting.

“Ianna Roberstein, was it? You’re a diamond in the rough for now, but you’ll definitely grow to be worthwhile in the future.”

Was he complimenting her, or was this simply the composure of someone who was looming over her from above?

Her heart wrenched and her mouth twisted into a scowl.

“Shut it. The next time I see you I’ll be sure to make it so that you’ll never scoff at me with that mouth of yours again.”

The wicked beast living in the deepest reaches of her heart tore off the shell of the elegant noble that she wore.

The emotions that filled her crimson eyes after having been defeated at the sword for the first time in her life were envy and rage directed toward the predator standing above her whom she must defeat to claim sole possession of the sword.

Arhad laughed out loud as Ianna glared up at him with burning eyes. The audience was so loud that his voice could have been buried under theirs, but to Ianna, who’s senses were sharp, his laughter was as loud as thunder.

“Oh dear. I’m starting to look forward to it. I want to have a good relationship with you, but it looks like you don’t share the sentiment.”

“Is Arhad your real name? Where are you from? Are you a noble?”

Ianna asked stubbornly, but Arhad simply continued to look down at her in silence. He reached out to her, and Ianna didn’t avoid him. His rough fingers gently touched her cheek. Their eyes met again. The golden light burning in his eyes was as hot as the sun itself.

Slowly, Arhad opened his dry lips.

“Now’s not the right time, so just call me Arhad Roygen for now.”

Ianna stopped pressing him for answers. His fingertips became his fingers, and his fingers became his palm as he slowly caressed her cheek.

“I want a woman like you. All the more so now that we’ve fought each other. So, go ahead and try —try to break my sword the next time we meet.”

Ianna had not heard Arhad’s words properly because of her hostility toward him. She had been so engulfed in rage that she was trembling and hadn’t heard the part when he had said that he wanted her more after fighting her. His hands, which had been covering her cheek, then moved to cover her crimson eyes.

“I will do my best to break this glare of yours.”

Ianna finished reminiscing and opened her eyes. He had always been Arhad Roygen, the man who defeated her sword, to her even after he had acceded to the throne of the Bahamut empire while scattering blood in his wake as Arhad Ro Ralzo Bahamut.

Arhad had participated in the Roanne sword tournament because he had wanted to meet Ianna, whom he had his eyes on, in person. He had revealed this to her when they next met as he tried to coax her into standing by his side. He had uplifted her by saying that he had never seen a genius as young as herself, that he needed her by his side. He tried to seduce her with sweet words every time they met.

Ianna, however, could not accept him as her emperor. This wasn’t because she was patriotic for her motherland, which had rejected her at every turn. Neither was it because she was loyal to the prince who had told her he needed her sword, but, more importantly, because, for Ianna, Arhad Roygen was neither the emperor of a vast empire nor the savage beast who was about to swallow the Kingdom of Roanne whole.

While Arhad was still her sole rival who saw the sword in the same way that she did, he was also the only opponent who had ever made her bend her knee in humiliation.

How could Ianna, who had been as one with her sword, acknowledge her defeat, bow her head, and obediently stay beneath him?

Arhad had confidently announced that he would break the competitive look in her eyes, but he had only truly managed to break her on the day she died at his hands and began reliving her past again.

Ianna had only honestly acknowledged her defeat after his sword had pierced through her heart.

It had been refreshing defeat for Ianna, who did not regret a single thing. But, it had also been her undeniable victory.

Ianna had lost completely against Arhad’s sword, and Arhad had lost Ianna forever. What else could that be called but a draw? It had been an extremely delightful draw.

Yet, the victory, the draw, and the defeat had all been erased in this life now that she had been reborn, so what was to be her goal now?

“This life……is over. But……in the next, I won’t be your enemy……but your……knight…….”

It became obvious to her as her reminiscing concluded with the last words she had said.

‘There’s no way it was all just a dream. The life I lived wasn’t some kind of dream, or lie, or even déjà vu. And this life isn’t a repeat of the past based on my memories, either.’

Until now, Ianna had lived while being bound by her past. She hadn’t even tried to change anything because she had thought that nothing would change.

And yet, she remembered everything that had happened in the past. She was not simply repeating the same life over again after having forgotten it. She had been born again, as unrealistic as that sounded. And she retained all of her memories.

The changes had begun the very moment she was born.

‘Why was I brought back?’

The sun, which had been overlooking the land from up above as though it would never set, was already sinking past the horizon.

Ianna propped her chin up on her hands and watched as the birds flew away into the twilight. The birds were looking straight ahead as they flew. If she, too, flew in the present without looking back at her past, then she would head for the future. She would be able to fly toward a better future without looking back on things that she could no longer change.

Ianna’s eyes followed after the birds as they flew with leisure.

‘I have to pursue a better future, like those birds are, instead of being tied down to my past and repeating everything all over again.’

The next question she had now that she had shed off her past was not about what her past life was, but rather the question of why she had returned to it.

The man who had radiated a brilliant light and the man who was dark but held a light within. Ianna blinked as she recalled them.

Indeed. There was another path that she could take. The other of the two fateful paths in life that she could have chosen.

After the national sword tournament that she had participated in when she was twenty-two, she had chosen the man who had reached out to her, the man who was filled to the brim with brilliant laughter, the prince who desired to become the king of the kingdom. She had become a knight to the prince, who, unlike her, was filled with a brilliant light. She had offered up her sword to the first person who had desperately needed her.

As for the other man whom she hadn’t chosen…

The prince’s brilliance faded away, and the light from the golden eyes she had seen just before she died squirmed vividly before her.

“In the next life, I won’t be your enemy, but your knight.”

Ianna slowly opened her mouth.

“I see. Becoming your sword and conquering the whole continent with you isn’t a bad option either.”

Did she need a new goal now because of the changes that had taken place ever since she had been reborn?

Ianna shook the sweat off her hands. Her hands were trembling.

The changes in the past. A new beginning.

She would hold a sword in her hands as soon as tomorrow. It was frankly quite impressive that she, someone who had once been crazy about the sword, had not held one for nine long years even if it was because she was young.

And she would wait with a sword in her hand that was sharper than it had been in the past. For the day she would meet Arhad Roygen.

She would beat Arhad when the day of her miserable defeat from the past came again, and she would reach out to him and follow him until the bitter end if he still desired her.

“It’s not bad at all.”

Ianna thought.

Arhad Roygen. In this life, you will have me, and in this life, I will beat you. And so, we will end in yet another draw.

It would be different from the past. This time, they would end in mutual victory instead of mutual defeat.

“Ahh…….”

An excited tone escaped Ianna’s lips as she failed to bear how fiercely her heart was beating.

This time, she would choose not the king of her homeland but the emperor of the Bahamut Empire. How was she to wait for ten years until that day came?

Her crimson eyes burned brighter than the flickering embers of the sun’s red glow.

Her past was being washed away from inside her.

Perhaps that light would remain eternally as a reflection…….

~~*~~

Part 2

Ianna Roberstein.

The flame-like daughter born to a woman who was like a poisonous flower. She was crimson and beautiful just like her mother was.

Ianna’s mother, Lebony, lived recklessly. She was an enchantress who was infamous for seducing men with her innate looks.

Lebony was the only daughter of Horby, a man who had climbed up to the rank of marquis by using his corrupt network of loan sharks. Horby adored his daughter, and it was thanks to him that Lebony was able to bring any man she wished back to her bed. It didn’t matter if the man was young, single, or even married.

Then, one day, Lebony had caught sight of the blue Count as he passed her by on his horse. She fell blindly in love with him, a man whose colors contrasted with her own crimson and was of a much higher status than her, despite the fact that he was a married man with a child. That was why she had chased after him and settled down in Roberstein lands.

She ensnared the Count using Horby’s dirty methods and eventually became the Count’s mistress, Lebony Roberstein, even though she was treated with contempt for being but a lowly commoner.

There was nothing graceful or elegant about Lebony, who had been born and raised on the streets. She was cruel and merciless to the people serving beneath her, and there was nothing to be admired about her at all. She was always jealous of the kind and elegant lady of the household, Sarachè, and never paid Ianna, her own daughter, any attention.

She was always busy trying to seduce the Count with her voluptuous, alluring body and natural-born colors and followed after him like a high-class prostitute……such was the public’s evaluation of Lebony, which spread not only across the Roberstein territory but all across high society as well.

So, how could the people who were loyal to the Count to their very bones ever possibly love Ianna, who had been born to a woman like Lebony, looked nothing like Count Roberstein, who was famous for his blue colors, and was the spitting image of her mother?

Of course, Ianna’s crimson hues, as bright as a burning flame, were a little different from Lebony’s darker reds since Cherno’s cold blues had been mixed into them. Lebony’s crimson was a captivating hue, but Ianna’s crimson gave off the impression of florid flames. She wasn’t as sly as her mother, either. And yet, she was cursed at as a child anyway just for having crimson hair.

The Count’s daughter, who had been born in disgrace.

Nobody had rejoiced when Ianna, a child of mixed blood, was born. Even Lebony neglected Ianna because she didn’t look anything like her beloved Count. All of the other adults in the household were determined to despise Ianna because they had despised Lebony when she was pregnant with her, and, as was their intention, they despised Ianna too as soon as she was born.

And so, the adults who couldn’t so much as touch Lebony, the daughter of a merchant as wealthy as Horby who had the Count wrapped around her little finger, began doing selfish things.

However, Ianna hadn’t been distressed or sorrowful when they tormented her even though she was just a young child who should have been desperate for their love. She didn’t get upset or cry because of the loathing that was being showered upon her and did not respond to them at all, as if she was just a doll.

Torment only became validated when the target was hurt and burst into tears. The people who tormented Ianna, who was still a young child, grew puzzled when they saw how she wasn’t shaken by their actions.

They only grew more and more uneasy as they continued to lay their hands against her. They became embarrassed at the fact that their immature tormenting of a young child, whose maturity seemed to transcend theirs, had only been in vain.

Ianna had been unusual ever since she was young. It was one thing that Lebony neglected her, but Ianna seemed to show no favor for her own mother either. She was extraordinarily mature and viewed Lebony, who had abandoned her, as nothing more than a shallow wench who was madly in love with the Count and chased after him at every opportunity.

When Ianna was eight, there had been an incident that had made her un-girlish maturity clear for all to see.

Sarachè had almost been poisoned.

People were strongly suspicious that Lebony had instigated the whole affair, but the actual culprit had committed suicide and there was no definite evidence against her. Horby had a tight hold on many of the Count’s weaknesses, and so even the Count had had no way of handling Lebony.

“You vile little bitch!”

It had happened when the people of House Roberstein were bursting in fury.

One day, Pezilla, a maid who was one of Ianna’s chief tormentors, happened to see Ianna taking a walk in the gardens while she was working on something that Sarachè had asked her to do with a few other maids.

“Oh my!”

She deliberately spilled piping hot tea on Ianna. Ianna was unable to dodge the sudden baptism of hot tea and used her arm to stop it from spilling on her face.

“I’m so very sorry.”

The maids standing behind Pezilla placed their hands on their lips as they laughed at the young girl. Pezilla, too, was happy to see Ianna in misfortune and struggled to keep herself from laughing as well.

They had thought that Ianna, who never reacted to anything and was always like a doll, would not react to their prank either. Her white skin was red and swollen and probably hurt a lot, but, just as they expected, Ianna did not so much as yelp.

Immediately afterward, however, Ianna reacted in a way that completely contrasted with how she usually reacted.

“Getting tea spilled on me was beyond my expectations.”

Ianna grasped her arm with an expressionless look on her face. She looked up and looked Pezilla in the eye. Pezilla was startled when Ianna’s gaze met hers. The girl standing before her was not a doll. She was now like a fiery blaze  —not the gloomy and deadened figure she usually was.

“I didn’t expect the tea, but I’m glad that you’re the one who came forward, like before.”

Pezilla was frightened and took a step back even before she knew what she was doing. Then, she was embarrassed by what she had done and snapped back,

“What are you talking about? Why would you be glad that I’m here, Miss?”

Ianna ignored her entirely and said,

“I’m going to punish you.”

“What?”

Pezilla asked back because she had not expected to hear what Ianna had said. The corners of Ianna’s lips pulled up into a smile at Pezilla’s half-witted response.

“Have you grown deaf, too, you dumb bitch? I may have been born from a lowly and vile excuse of a woman, but I am still a member of your master’s family who stands above you.”

Pezilla was dumbfounded by the horrible way Ianna had described her own mother. Ianna continued,

“So let me ask you this. Did the Count order you to do this? Or was it the Lady sick in bed who asked this of you? Or perhaps the Young Master whispered the request in your ear? If any of this is true, then I will overlook what you’ve done to me.”

Pezilla, who was being overwhelmed by a young girl who barely reached her waist, took yet another step back. The girl standing before her eyes had accurately grasped the situation around her despite being so young that she shouldn’t have developed a sense of judgement yet, and the clear and decisive words that left her mouth made the people listening to her break out in goosebumps.

Pezilla was rendered unable to lie.

“No……they didn’t.”

“So you did this to me of your own accord? What an arrogant bitch you are. All right, then why don’t you tell me? Did you pour hot tea on me because I wasn’t reacting to your bullying and you wanted me to cry out in pain?”

Pezilla and the other maids stiffened as they witnessed the sudden change in Ianna’s behavior because she had not only been as expressionless as a doll but had also never spoken out properly before. She accused them coldly for their crimes, interrogated them, and cornered them like a wild beast when they couldn’t refute. For a moment, Pezilla could not help but doubt if the girl in front of her really was the same child who hardly ever spoke to others.

“I will not cry just because a wench as empty-headed as you bullied me. And neither do I plan to forgive you for pouring hot tea on your master’s family and laughing instead of throwing yourself down to the dirt in apology.”

Ianna’s attitude was like a well-sharpened sword. In the past, she had been called the Iron-Blooded Duchess, who had been so lacking in love for others that it was rumored that her blood was blue, as well as the cruel Sword Demon, who had no qualms about killing.

However, that version of Ianna had disappeared from the people’s memories when she had restarted her past anew.

Ianna had been suppressing her personality and was disturbed by the fact that Sarachè hadn’t died, unlike in the past, and she had completely reverted to her original nature when a mere maid hadn’t known her place and had dared to crawl up to her.

Bloodlust seeped out from her very being.

“I will punish you for spilling tea on someone who’s station is above yours and laughing about it, regardless of whether it was intentional or simple negligence.”

“I, I’m sor…….”

Pezilla, whose blood had drained form her face as an effect of Ianna’s bloodlust, tried to stammer out an apology.

“What is the meaning of this ruckus when my mother is ill?!”

“Y-Young Master…”

Harchen, who had been out on a walk, happened across the scene by chance and walked briskly up to them. Pezilla looked to him as though he was her savior, and Ianna cursed under her breath and let her face stiffen into a frigid countenance. Harchen looked between the two of them in turns in an attempt to grasp the situation and grabbed Ianna’s arm in alarm after seeing how red and swollen it was.

“Your arm!”

Ianna frowned not because of the pain but because she was uncomfortable and tried to pull her arm away, but she could not beat a boy four years her elder in a contest of strength.

“Did you do this, Pezilla?”

“Y-yes…….”

Harchen immediately flared up in anger.

“Haven’t both my parents and I told you not to lay a hand against Ianna?! Go back to your room for now until I call…….”

“This has nothing to do with you, Young Master, so please stop caring about it.”

Harchen flinched and let go of Ianna’s arm in surprise when she, who normally kept silent no matter what, cut him off with a frigid tone. Then, after brushing off the area of her arm he had grabbed like she was wiping away something dirty, she coolly continued,

“Pezilla, I’m going to punish you now.”

“Y-yes.”

Pezilla, utterly overwhelmed, bowed from her waist. Ianna looked down at the top of Pezilla’s head, which was just about level with her eyes, by raising her chin and said,

“As of today, you will no longer have any concern for me. You will not care no matter what I do. You will no longer bully me nor laugh at me. Your punishment is that you will treat me as if I don’t exist.”

It was a punishment so trivial that it seemed to deflate the taut tension in the air. However, Ianna wasn’t quite done yet.

“If you don’t obey my orders, I will make you kneel at my feet and I will pour molten steel on your face.”

Ianna smiled chillingly as she stared down at the insignificant maid who was frozen stiff.

“Well? Am I not the wicked daughter of Lebony’s that you thought me to be?”

Pezilla failed to answer.

“I do not plan to care one whit about the likes of you, but neither will I stay quiet if you keep coming at me like this. If you ever pull a prank like this on me again, I will show you that I can be as wicked as you think I am and more.”

Ianna raised her head.

“I’ve never been welcomed warmly for it, but I am still a member of House Roberstein and one of the masters you are to serve. You cannot treat me as you please so long as the Count hasn’t removed me from the family records.”

Everything Ianna said was true. Pezilla, who had realized the mistake she had made, trembled uncontrollably. Ianna continued,

“Neither the Count, the Lady, nor the Young Master can stop me from punishing you if they care about the family’s honor. After all, I am still of their blood and they would be disgracing their own bloodline if they didn’t at least give me the right to punish a maid who intentionally spilled hot tea on me, would they not? Haha!”

Her laughter lasted only for a moment and Ianna quickly pursed her lips again. Then, she turned her crimson eyes, which had a light of what could almost be called madness dwelling in them, to Pezilla and said,

“It’s plainly obvious that you’re just absolutely anxious to get rid of me but aren’t able to do anything about it yourself, so why don’t you cling to your precious Young Master over here and beg him to chase me out of the family? I don’t really care either way. But…….”

Ianna’s eyes flashed with crimson bloodlust. The cruel light in her eyes was someting that could only belong to someone who had murdered tens, no, hundreds of people.

Mana concentrated heavily around them in accordance to her will. Everyone around her suddenly found it hard to breathe and began gasping. They felt something prickling against their skin. They were so frightened that they responded to it physiologically. Ianna’s bloodlust had completely dominated the area.

How could normal women possibly withstand the pressure given off by a predator? The maids all bowed their heads in abject terror. Ianna looked down at them and chillingly muttered,

“I will no longer tolerate your arrogance for daring to offend me when I wasn’t doing anything to you…….”

“Miss!”

Ianna’s nanny, Isphee, was running toward them in a hurry from afar. Ianna erased her overpowering bloodlust immediately upon seeing her. It was only then that the maids standing in front of her were able to breathe again and began gasping for air. Their faces took on the complexion of bewilderment because they did not understand what had made them this way.

“Goodness! Why do you look like that, Miss?! And your arm……oh my gosh!”

A horrified Isphee grabbed Ianna’s arm, but the girl didn’t shake her off heartlessly like she had with Harchen. She simply smiled a little as Isphee genuinely worried over her with tears in her eyes.

“It’s nothing. It’s uncomfortable, if anything. Let’s hurry back to the annex since I’ll have to get this treated if I don’t want it to leave an ugly burn, and, more importantly, it smells, and I want to wash it.”

The smile Ianna gave her was as warm and the new buds of spring after the winter frosts had melted away. It felt even warmer in contrast to her frigid figure from earlier. Those who had seen her real smile for the first time froze solid.

Ianna walked away with Isphee without so much as saying goodbye, as though nothing had transpired.

When had it happened? The maids, who definitely despised her, suddenly felt a strange sense of deprivation. Meanwhile, Harchen stared at Ianna’s retreating figure as she left.

~~*~~

It was the weekend, and Ianna did not have any lessons today. She had finished her homework early and was out for a walk in comfortable clothes with her personal knight.

The green grass rustled beneath her feet. A refreshing breeze passed through the leaves and landed in her hair, disheveling it before swiftly running away. The playful breeze didn’t stop and drew out a clear song from the drops of dew resting on the lilies-of-the-valley.

The bugs in the grass cried mating cries in the wind. The dandelions had changed into a white dress and their seeds washed off in the wind and into the skies like little fairies dancing in flight.

Ianna was walking in a mountain behind the Roberstein manor. She had always liked this place, both now and in the past, that was densely covered by the shade given off by the leaves. It had always given her refuge whenever she felt like she couldn’t breathe.

That was why she had claimed the mountain as her own after she becoming a duchess. She had given up her rights to the land and had offered it up the prince, but she had kept the mountain as her own. Anyone who dared to trespass upon her mountain had been mercilessly put to death, so the people began to regard it as a forbidden place that was to be feared.

Ianna, whose eyes had been closed as she enjoyed the cool breeze, opened her eyes and moved her lips.

“Karnitz.”

“Yes, my lady,”

the man standing behind her answered when she called out his name. Ianna spun around her body, small and delicate in comparison to his large frame. Though he was large in build, Karnitz didn’t look dull-witted, but rather simply honest, as he bowed before her.

His dark brown hair was cropped short so it wouldn’t get in the way of his training, his monolid eyes were shaped like almonds, his nose was large, and his lips were thick. Karnitz, who had a commonplace countenance that was large and rough as a man should be, blinked like a gentle bull.

When Ianna looked up at him, he slowly knelt down on one knee and crouched so that she could look down at him.

Ianna felt as though the familiar sight of him had become something fresh and new. Karnitz had been her personal knight in the past, too, and he had stood loyally by her side right up until his death as her aide after she had become a knight herself.

Karnitz, who was of common birth, had not been very capable because he was not very learned. However, Ianna had helped him make up for the things he lacked, and he had eventually become one of the greatest knights in the kingdom through sheer effort and talent alone.

Countless nobles had contacted him for his service, and Ianna had told him that she would respect whatever decision he made, but Karnitz had ultimately refused all of them and decided to remain by her side. And he had died in the final battle where Ianna, too, had ultimately met her end while shielding her from powerful magics and fierce arrows with his own body.

Karnitz had become her personal knight in this life as well.

In the past, Ianna hadn’t known the details of how Karnitz had come to be her knight. She had simply assumed that he had been assigned to her early on because he had always been with her since she was very young. In this life, however, she had seen the process clearly with her own eyes.

Ianna was sure that she had no memories of Cherno ever seeking her out of his own accord. But things were a bit different in this life. Just after she had turned seven, Cherno had come to her and told her to pick a knight whom she liked, and said that he would make them her personal knight.

When Ianna had said that he could have simply assigned anyone who was convenient for the task and asked why he had gone through the trouble of asking her to pick, he furrowed his brows a little and turned away while answering that it was because Sarachè had told him to.

Was it because she was a count’s daughter and needed to look the part? Or, was it to humiliate her?

Of course, since it was Lady Sarachè they were talking about, she had probably said that out of genuine concern for the wicked Lebony’s daughter.

And so, Ianna had blindly followed Cherno to the training grounds where the knights were.

Cherno had asked the knights gathered around him if anyone wanted to volunteer for the honor of becoming Ianna’s knight. Nobody had raised their hand. It was only natural for the knights, who took great pride in the fact that they served House Roberstein, not to want to serve under the ugly duckling.

Ianna, who had been looking down at them with her arms crossed, peeked a glance up at Cherno standing beside her. His face was stiff as he looked to the knights. His face was always stiff, though, so Ianna hadn’t found anything too out of the ordinary about it.

Then, one youth had slowly raised his hand.

Ianna knew who he was as soon as she saw his face. He was younger than she remembered, but he was undoubtedly Karnitz, her loyal subordinate.

He had walked up to her slowly, knelt before her like he was doing now, and volunteered to become her knight.

“…….”

Ianna was sure that Karnitz had only volunteered because he had only recently become a knight and didn’t know how Ianna was treated in the Count’s household. She was sure that was why he hadn’t been reluctant to be her personal knight —because he pitied her. Both in the past, and even now…….

However, Ianna could not deny how happy she had been when he had said, looking as reliable and trustworthy as ever, that he would stand beside her once again.

Ianna had reached out and stroked Karnitz’s hair just like she had when she was his liege in the past. It must have been strange to be suddenly stroked by a young child, but Karnitz had simply knelt there patiently.

She placed a hand on his shoulder and said,

“Starting today, I would like to begin training in the art of sword in secret without anyone knowing. I will need your help with that.”

“Pardon?”

the normally brusque Karnitz could not help but ask because of how abrupt her request had been.

“I said, I will begin training in the art of the sword. Bring me a rapier from the training grounds.”

“I cannot.”

“Why not?”

“You are too young to be wielding a sword, Miss. You will injure yourself if you wield a sword without first training your body. Please take up a sword only after preparing your body by building up your basic physical strength first.”

“Hmph.”

Ianna smiled in satisfaction at her knight’s insubordination. Isphee would have refused her request outright by aggressively falling backward and frothing at the mouth. Karnitz, however, had not run counter to her will and had only asked to push back the date that he would carry out her orders because he was worried about his master’s health, as a knight should be.

If she had stubbornly insisted that she would wield a sword without any regard for her own body, then Karnitz, as stupidly honest as he was, would have folded and done as she wished. But who would listen to her one and only subordinate’s counsel if not her, his master?

“As you say, it’s probably for the best that I don’t wield a sword before I have the basic strength to do so. But bring me one anyway. I wish to become well-acquainted with the sword.”

“Understood.”

Ianna beamed as she watched Karnitz slowly nod his head. Karnitz saw her not as the low-born daughter of the Count, but as Ianna, his master. He never spoke out when Ianna did not act as a child should, though perhaps that was because he had never had to look after one.

Having Karnitz around put Ianna at ease because she could act like her true self in front of him. She had been awkward around him in the past because he was brusque while she had craved for love and attention, but now she was rather fond of him.

“Oh yes, how is your mother faring?”

“You do not need to be so polite when there’s such a difference in our respective stations…….”

“Stop nitpicking at everything I say like Isphee does and just answer the question.”

“She’s gotten much better.”

Ianna was almost ten now, which meant that she had been with Karnitz for almost three years. It had happened just around a year after Karnitz had become Ianna’s knight.

Karnitz and Ianna, who were both brusque and didn’t have much to say, had gotten acclimated enough with each other’s presence that they were comfortable around each other even in silence.

Then, one day, Ianna had noticed that Karnitz’s complexion was paler than usual. It was easy for Ianna, who was adept at reader other people’s feelings and whose keen senses never missed even the most minute movements her enemies made in battle, to notice the change in Karnitz’s mood. And so, she had asked,

“Did something happen?”

“No, my lady.”

She realized that he wouldn’t answer if she asked nicely. And so, she had forcibly followed up with her question.

“Tell me. I am your master. Will you disobey my orders?”

“Must……I tell you?”

“Tell me.”

“I do not wish to worry you, my lady.”

“I shall be the one to decide whether I worry or not, so tell me.”

“……My mother is very ill.”

When she had heard this, Ianna remembered how she had once asked Karnitz about his family in passing and how he had quietly replied, “My father passed away in battle when I was young, and my mother, who raised me, her only son, by herself passed away in my mid-twenties.”

“She gets sick often, but she is very ill this time. I’ve called for a doctor, but it will cost a lot of money to pay for her treatment, and I don’t even know if she’ll recover even if she’s treated……oh.”

All of the worries he had been keeping inside had spilled out once he started speaking. He shut his mouth tight and bowed to Ianna, who was still staring at him.

“My apologies. It is not something you need to concern yourself with, my lady.”

“I will decide whether I want to concern myself or not. Wait here for a moment.”

They had been conversing in front of Ianna’s room. She opened the door and stepped in. Karnitz stood by the door blankly because he didn’t know what she was doing until she came back out with a heavy pouch in her hand.

“Let’s go out.”

“That’s……?”

“It’s the gold and treasures I’d saved up after scolding Isphee for crying and trying to stop me. It was just sitting there because I had no use for it, but I see that it’s found its purpose today.”

Karnitz eyed the pouch, confused.

“Why are you taking out so much money all of a sudden……?”

“To treat your mother with.”

Karnitz opened his eyes wide in surprise.

“Let’s go.”

“You mustn’t!”

Karnitz, who had never raised his voice since becoming Ianna’s knight, shouted. He grabbed Ianna by the shoulder as she tried to walk past him. Ianna tried to shake him off, but he carefully, but firmly enough that she couldn’t stop him, pushed her back into her room.

Ianna, who had been pushed back into her room by the strength of a fully-grown man, gracefully placed her hand on top of his as he still held her. Then she turned chillingly to Karnitz, who had lost his composure, and said,

“How brazen of you. How dare you, a knight, give orders to your master and push me around. Take your hands off me before I punish you.”

Karnitz was overwhelmed by the cold pressure coming off of her and jerked his hands away before he knew what he was doing. However, he quickly formed his hands into tight fists and grit his teeth.

“I don’t wish for you to do this. That’s the money you saved up for yourself, isn’t it, my lady? How could you use that money for someone like me……?”

“Who said anything about using it for you? I’m using it for myself.”

“Pardon?”

Ianna loosened up and laughed when Karnitz, who did not understand what she was saying, asked her the question. Karnitz had only been used to seeing Ianna expressionless. Even when she had smiled in his presence previously, he had only seen the corners of her lips pull up a little in something that looked close to a sneer. That was why his jaw had dropped in mute amazement when he saw her smiling so warmly.

“It irritates me to see you look like you’re about to cry so much that I can’t bear it. So much so, in fact, that I almost want to remove you from my presence, but I can’t do that because you’re my one and only knight……. And so, that leaves me with no other choice but to remove the very thing that’s making you look that way, does it not?”

Ianna’s kind words and warmly smile, as warm as a bonfire, branded themselves onto Karnitz’s heart. He understood that she had chosen her words so that he wouldn’t feel burdened by her actions and lowered his head to her in gratitude, though he was also sorry for making her say them.

Even after that, Ianna had always passed the healthy foods that Sarachè sent her on a regular basis to Karnitz and continued to ask after his mother like she did today. Karnitz did not refuse her goodwill and always informed her about his mother’s status. Just as he did now.

“Thank you again for your kindness. My mother is truly grateful as well.”

“I don’t need your thanks. I’ve never liked adorning myself in riches, so the only thing that was ever given to me is money, and the treasures I have are as useful to me as is trash, so I am satisfied with just the fact that you, who belong to me, found better use for them.”

Karnitz lowered his eyes when Ianna mentioned that he was hers.

“……You are always so kind and so strong.”

Just as Ianna had thought, Karnitz had volunteered to be her personal knight out of pity for her. He had only recently become a knight to House Roberstein and hadn’t fully understood the circumstances at the time, but he had understood that Ianna, who was only just a little girl, was the recipient of a lot of contempt and hatred.

He had not had any reason to raise his hand on the day he had applied to be Ianna’s, the Count’s daughter’s, personal knight. Ianna had simply stood quietly on the platform while looking down at the knights. She had looked so lonely that Karnitz could not help but raise his hand.

He had since learned very clearly after spending time with her that his initial impressions of her had been but a mere illusion. The little girl, who had appeared to be lonely at first, was actually more aloof and more aristocratic than any other and enjoyed her solitude.

Ianna was strong and proud. And she carried warmth within her cold flames.

She was cool. Karnitz, who was now twenty-six, honestly thought that the nine-year-old girl he served was truly cool. She was already so cool at such a young age, and he couldn’t even imagine just how beautiful, how elegant, and how strong she would grow to be in the future.

“What nonsense is this?”

At Ianna’s censure, Karnitz looked up and loosened his stiff face into a faint smile.

“I am honored to have become your knight, my lady. I will follow you no matter where you go.”

“Why are you saying something so embarrassing all of a sudden……?”

“Even if it costs me my life.”

Karnitz, as upright as he was, never lied. Ianna, who had been staring back at him until then, turned her back to him.

“I don’t need your life, but I do need a sword right now, so go and pick out a good one for me if you’re really that grateful.”

Ianna strolled about the trail that smelled refreshingly of grass with Karnitz in tow until the day grew darker. Her pink dress had long since been dirtied by the grasses. Ianna, however, could not have cared less for it.

A cool breeze blew by. Ianna leaned her head back and took in a deep breath of the chilly air. She laughed in delight as the wind hit gently across her white cheeks. She liked being out in the chilly winds of nature more than she liked being coped up struggling against books.

The moon had risen in the sky. The stars, which had also been hiding from view along with it, were also beginning to show themselves one after another. But the sun hadn’t set quite yet. Ianna stood still and appreciated the way that the crimson sky over the mountain was being dyed in the color of twilight.

All life that had ended fell beneath the skies like the setting sun. It gradually faded away while leaving behind a reddish shadow over the world. The present was as dark as night now that the past had disappeared. She could neither look back on the past nor predict the future. But there was one thing that she knew for certain. That a brighter sun would rise in the future.

Ianna’s crimson eyes sparkled as they stared at the night —no, the present.

As their surroundings gradually grew darker, Karnitz, who had been following after Ianna in silence, said,

“It’ll be night soon, my lady. Let’s head back now.”

“Yes.”

Ianna wriggled her fingers endlessly on their entire way back the way they had come. She wanted to hold a sword. She wanted to hold one more than ever now that she had determined to do so. She was about to go crazy over the time she had wasted up until now while being tied down to the past and rotting away.

Then, a sudden question popped into her mind. It was said that talent was generally inherited; but then, where had her talent come from? Her paternal lineage, the Robersteins, were a family from which many talented civil officials had been born, and her maternal lineage was a family of merchants that had mainly practiced loan sharking. So how on earth had she, someone who held so much talent in the martial arts that she outshone even the houses that were traditionally famous for it, come about as a product of their union?

Had her talents been gifted to her by a god who had taken pity on her?

Ianna didn’t believe in the gods, but she had begun entertaining such eccentric ideas after experiencing something as absurd as being returned to her past.

Karnitz, who had escorted Ianna back in front of her room, bowed to her once they entered the annex.

“May the light of Laos, who gave us his remaining time, be with you. I will find a light rapier that suits you from the training grounds tomorrow, my lady.”

“All right. Keep in mind that I want to train in the sword in secret.”

“Of course. However, you are someone whom the Count cares about, my lady. I don’t believe it’ll be possible to do something in secret for long periods at a time…….”

Ianna shook her head no when Karnitz voiced his concerns.

“It looks like I made it sound like I was trying to catch clouds when you will be the one who is to aid me most. I can’t tell you everything, but can tell you a few things that you ought to know.”

“Of course.”

“I’m not planning to be secretive about my training forever. I only want to keep quiet about my training in the art of the sword until I’m sixteen and old enough to be admitted into the Institution. And I already know of a place where I can train in secret.”

Karnitz digested her words carefully for a moment before snapping his head up.

“The Institution? You mean the Valgenta Institution, which is mostly attended by commoners, and not the Royal Theodore Academy?”

“Yes.”

Karnitz responded to Ianna’s confirmation in a quiet tone.

“But why there? I say this because I’ve attended the Institution myself, but it is not a place where someone like you should attend, my lady. The Institution is like a battlefield where commoners with lofty aspirations for their future flock to in droves. It is littered with flatterers-to-be who are there to learn what they need to say in order to be chosen by nobles. It’s not that there aren’t any people there who attend solely because they truly want to learn, but there are commoners who are very hostile against nobles who are handed the education they yearn for like it’s only natural. It may be imprudent of me to say this, but…….”

Karnitz cut himself off because he couldn’t bear to say the rest. However, Ianna smiled in direct contrast to his efforts and understood what it was that he had kept himself from saying.

“I’m a half-blooded noble who will obviously be scorned by other high and mighty nobles because of the common blood running through my veins. And I’m an unlucky wench who bought her status as a nobleman’s daughter with money, not talent, and has neither the ability nor the qualifications to draw their attention.”

Karnitz opened his eyes wide in surprise as Ianna directed a stream of biting remarks at herself without the slightest bit of hesitation. She continued,

“Haha. It’s not a place where someone like me should attend, you say? Then, should I go to the Royal Academy or stay holed up in this house forever instead? You should know by now. About how I’m treated in this household. Noble society will only treat me worse than how I’m treated here, not better.”

Karnitz had no choice but to shut his mouth as Ianna gave her clear and level-headed judgement about her circumstances.

Karnitz, who had protected Ianna as people glared at her behind her back and had heard Isphee vent her frustrations for the past three years, knew better than anyone else about what kind of situation Ianna was in.

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand the pride and loyalty the people here had for the Count’s noble house. But he did think it was cruel of them to implicate Ianna, a young child, for a sin that she hadn’t committed and hate her blindly for it. Ianna hadn’t done any wrong no matter how hard he thought about it. It had been the adults who had done wrong, so why?

‘So that must be why my lady doesn’t smile much.’

Karnitz furrowed his thick brows because he was displeased with the situation.

“Neither the nobility nor the commoners will welcome me into their ranks, but if I had to choose between the Academy and the Institution, then I choose to attend the Institution, where capable commoners gather, instead of the Royal Academy that is filled only with rotten privilege.”

“…….”

“I will prepare for my future there.”

The look on Karnitz’s face changed ever so slightly. Just what kind of future was Ianna preparing for?

Karnitz tightened his hand into a fist before he was aware of what he was doing. He wanted only to protect his little lady from behind. He wanted to take Ianna, not House Roberstein, as his liege. After all, his lady would surely grow up to be so incredibly cool that his slow-witted head could not possibly imagine how cool she would be.

Karnitz sincerely hoped that he would be included in whatever future it was that Ianna was preparing for.

Ianna, who hadn’t seen how Karnitz had shivered, brushed back the crimson lock of hair that had fallen in front of her face with a petit hand. Karnitz followed her small hand with his eyes. Her hands were still small. They were so young and small that it was unreasonable for her to wield a sword with them. Ianna tapped on his shoulder to tell him to go.

“May I ask you just one last thing?”

“What is it?”

Karnitz hesitated for a moment before placing her small hand in his larger ones.

“Why are you trying to wield a sword, my lady? Is it to gain admission into the Institution? You can get into the Institution through talents other than swordplay.”

Ianna smiled a little as she heard the worry that was hidden in his asking. He was willing to adhere to her wishes, but it looked like he was still worried all the same.

“Gaining admittance into the Institution is merely a secondary benefit to my learning of the sword. The reason that I’m trying to wield a sword…….”

There was only one answer.

“…Is because the sword is my life.”

For Ianna, the sword was the destiny that had been carved upon her soul. Even now, after she had returned to her past, she still trembled at a sense of fulfillment and wholeness that filled her being whenever she held a sword, as if she had found a long fragment of her soul.

Ianna could never cast away her sword even if she was reborn tens, hundreds, or even thousands of times. It was the one gift that had been granted to her after she had been deprived of all else. It was the eternity that would walk by her side as she changed her future.

She was satisfied with the talent she was given, even if the devil had caused her misfortune in her childhood in exchange for it.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying, my lady, because I am slow.”

“You’re not slow —you don’t understand because I said something that only I could understand. You will come to understand naturally when the time comes.”

Karnitz lowered his head. It looked like his master planned to reclaim her life with the sword.

Ianna was a girl, and that meant that she would naturally be weaker than a man. She would reach her limits one day. But, she was so sagacious and unfathomable that she would surely find a way around them.

Karnitz did not doubt her. As a knight, he had faith in his liege.

“I don’t understand. So I will wait from behind until the day comes that I fully understand your will.”

Karnitz wanted to watch over Ianna from behind as she grew older. He gently picked up her hand and placed a light kiss on it. Then, he let go of her hand as carefully as if he was handling a baby bird and stood up.

Ianna stared deeply into him.

‘Do you really plan to stand by my side forever? Even if I leave the Count’s household, betray the kingdom, become the enemy emperor’s puppet, and destroy the kingdom? Will you still follow me even after the whole kingdom points to me and calls me a traitor?’

He wouldn’t be able to. Ianna convinced herself of this as she shook her head. It was not because of the future that she had just predicted in her head. Karnitz would follow someone forever once he accepted them as his liege.

But Ianna had changed her precious subordinate’s unsavory past. In the past, Karnitz had been able to willingly offer Ianna his life because she, his liege, was the only person he had to protect.

Now, however, Karnitz had someone else by his side whom he had always regretted that he hadn’t been able to give a comfortable life to in the past. His precious mother was living and breathing by his side. And so, Ianna did not plan to drag Karnitz into the future that she was to build for herself.

Ianna beamed.

“I thought you were brusque, but you’ve actually got yourself quite the silver tongue.”

“I am being sincere.”

“Haha. Well, in any case, I need you for my future. You, and nobody else. After all, you are the only person here whom I trust…….”

Karnitz’s breathing became rough. Ianna continued,

“For now, I will use our walks together as time for training. You will have to violate the knightly code and lie for me often. And I will probably be demanding more from you even after that.”

Ianna waited for Karnitz’s rough breathing to go completely offbeat and continued,

“Karnitz, will you help me even still?”

“But of course.”

With his prompt reply, Karnitz placed a hand on the left side of his chest and bowed from his waist. He continued,

“Use me as you please, and please give me any command at any time should you need me. I am a knight who will only follow you, my lady.”

“……Oh?”

Just what did Karnitz see in a nine-year-old girl like herself that he was pledging his loyalty to her like this? Just what did he see in her that he valued her so in both the past and the present? Ianna couldn’t tell if he was simply dull, or just overtly naïve.

Her heart grew heavy at his preposterous attitude. Ianna hid her lips behind her hand as a heavy breath escaped her.

Trust, while not as sweet as vain love, was warm and serene. Why had she frozen up so coldly in the past without knowing how nice this felt? Why had she depended solely on the hot sparks that poured out every time she crossed swords with Arhad when she had wandered through life in search of only love and affection?

Ianna did not regret her past life, but she did think that she had been exceedingly foolish while she lived it.

And that’s why her heart wavered.

To be honest, she wanted nothing more than for Isphee, who always cared for her warmly, and her knight standing before her, who had infinite trust in her, to stand by her side forever.

“Are you feeling ill?”

Karnitz asked worriedly as Ianna continued to keep her hand at her mouth. Ianna shook her head no as she slowly put her hand back down. Then, she narrowed her eyes and smiled a lovely smile at her loyal knight.

“I was simply overjoyed by your words.”

And so, she was all the more convinced that she would not drag them along with her on the wicked and cruel path of a villain that she planned to take.

~~*~~

Karnitz made his way to Ianna’s room with a rapier that he thought would suit her as soon as daylight broke.

He wanted to give it to her as soon as possible. After all, it was the first thing that Ianna, who had never complained about anything all this time, had ever earnestly wanted for.

Her crimson eyes had felt like a heated blaze, unlike the heartrending look she normally wore, when she had ordered him to bring her a sword.

He had never seen her like that before. That was why he dared not disobey even though he thought that a sharp sword could be dangerous for his young lady.

Knock knock.

“Who is it at this early hour?”

Karnitz, who had only been thinking about how happy Ianna would look when he gave her a sword, only realized his mistake after hearing her groggy question. It was still much earlier than when even Ianna, who never slept in, usually woke up for her morning walk. Karnitz hit himself on the head for being so stupid.

“My apologies. It’s Karnitz.”

“Come in.”

Karnitz carefully opened the door and scowled a little as the light poured into his eyes. There was a large window facing the door.

It filled the room with a bluish light during the day, but it was daybreak now. The bright light that the sun was shining directly into the room was blinding. Ianna was standing with her back to the light as she stared back at him.

Karnitz was amazed. It was undoubtedly dawn right now, and the birds were chirping. Any child Ianna’s age should have been fast asleep in the land of dreams at this hour.

Karnitz had always known that Ianna woke up early on her own because he had listened to Isphee grumble about how she could not wake Ianna up because Ianna always woke up earlier than her nanny. But he had never imagined just how early. He had come he running as soon as he had woken up, so just how early had his lady woken up?

Karnitz stood there in mute amazement for a while before he realized that Ianna was looking back and forth between himself and the sword he was carrying and bowed.

“My apologies. I have been discourteous.”

“It’s fine. I see you’ve brought me a sword. Bring it here.”

He carefully handed her the sword.

Delight spread across Ianna’s face as she received it. A pleasant chill ran across her skin and her once dead heart beat burned brightly. The long and slender form of a sword never failed to move her.

Ianna held up the sword vertically and grasped it tightly. The sword let out a cool ring as it fell smugly into form. It had been a longtime habit of hers to look at her reflection in her sword and not a mirror, so Ianna looked at her reflection in the proudly glittering sword in her hand before she realized what she was doing.

And then, she quietly laughed out loud. In the mirror of her blade, Ianna’s crimson lips curled up like a crescent moon as satisfaction spilled out from them. Her pupils, seated in her similarly arced eyes, were burning bright like a red flare.

Ianna, the crimson Sword Demon who was crazy for the sword.

Her true self, which had never been revealed ever since she had been reborn, was staring back at her from within her sword.

‘Yes, this is me!’

She laughed in joy as she felt this perfect sense of wholeness again for the first time since she had returned to the past. Ianna was so thrilled that she could not hide how flushed her face had gotten and she pushed her sword back into its sheath and said to Karnitz, who had stiffened up and was staring back at her,

“Let’s go on a walk right now. Come along.”

Karnitz followed after her like he had been possessed once Ianna walked past him. Ianna left the annex and walked toward the north gate that led to the mountain behind the manor. No one blocked her path because it was still early in the morning.

Karnitz couldn’t settle down his heart as he followed after Ianna’s brisk pace. What had that smile just earlier been about? His heart had skipped a beat at the sudden change that Ianna had shown, like dry wood that had suddenly been set ablaze, as soon as she had held the sword. And even now, Ianna was all but running like she was still on fire.

‘My lady was capable of smiling like that, too.’

Ianna, who normally only smiled faintly, had smiled with such intensity that it was on a completely different level than the warm smile she normally gave Isphee or himself.

The feeling that had taken hold of his heart wasn’t one that was directed toward someone of the fairer sex. The feverish passion that Ianna had directed to the one and only thing she was crazy for had passed on to him and made his heart race.

Yet, on the other hand, he could not comprehend Ianna’s elation at all. He stared at the cheap sword he had brought her with confusion in his eyes. Just what was it about the sword, that Ianna had never even touched before in her life, that made his cold young mistress burn so brightly?

Ianna, who had arrived at the north gate, stepped past the dozing guard and quickly began climbing the mountain. Karnitz was beside himself as he followed suit. Ianna pushed past the forest leaves, climbed over a sturdy rock wall, and began walking on a path that differed from the path they normally took on their walks, but Karnitz only came back to his senses once she had stopped. Then, he looked around at their surroundings in alarm and asked,

“Where are we……?”

They were definitely still on the mountain, and yet the area was level. At the center of the area was a tree stump so large that it would take at least twenty grown men to circle around it with their hands locked together, and a layer of tall trees surrounded the entire area protectively.

Ianna walked up to the tree stump. Then, she stroked the traces of the many long years that it had once seen.

This place always looked like time had stopped flowing. Ianna let out a pleased sigh as the corners of her lips curled up.

“Isn’t it nice?”

This place had become Ianna’s refuge as soon as she had discovered it in her past life. She didn’t know why, but all of her anguish disappeared and was replaced by tranquility whenever she sat down on the tree trunk she was touching right now and controlled her breathing.

“It’s a curious place. I’ve never heard about there being a place like this on the mountain before…….”

“Nobody ever comes here, though I don’t know if that’s because they simply don’t care to or because this place is difficult to find.”

No one else could ever reach this place even if they did enter the mountain. It was the best refuge Ianna could ask for when she wanted to be alone. And, starting today, it was to become her secret training grounds as well.

Shh.

Ianna drew her sword slightly out of its sheath. The sword that Karnitz had brought her was not a special sword that had been crafted by an artisan, but a normal, mass-supplied sword. Still, Ianna was more than satisfied with the long piece of cold steel in her hands just for being a sword. And so, laughter readily spilled out of her.

‘How on earth did I endure being without one all this time?’

She had not been Ianna until then.

She only truly became Ianna when she held a sword.

Rustle.

Ianna saw the leaves falling in the wind as she stroked her sword with trembling fingers and grasped the sheath so hard with her left hand that it rattled.

Her eyes sparked as she placed her right hand gently on the hilt before drawing the blade so naturally, like flowing water, and yet so swiftly, like a savage beast extending its claws, and making the metal ring.

Her crimson hair scattered and fell across her white face.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The rapier sang as it cut through the wind. With each short, but powerful, thrust, the tip of the sword pierced through the falling leaves, while the blade swiftly and cheerfully slashed apart the leaves while leaving behind traces of light.

Swish swish swish!

The leaves, which fell down irregularly, were cut into pieces as they passed by her. Ianna’s crimson eyes sparkled radiantly with joy as she followed after the traces of light left behind by her sword while the broken leaves scattered in the wind.

Karnitz felt like his breath had caught with each and every lively movement Ianna made. And he thought. That his mistress was someone who had to wield a sword no matter what the sword meant for her.

He was captivated as he watched the arcs of light that Ianna’s sword drew. He ran up to her as soon as her sword dance was over and looked down at the broken leaves that she had cut to pieces.

He broke out in goosebumps.

“Is this……not your first time wielding the sword?”

There was no way that it was.

Karnitz gathered the remains of the leaves in his trembling hands. Some of the leaves were riddled with holes like a young caterpillar had gnawed at them and some of them were cut precisely in half along the main vein while others were completely shredded to pieces. The cuts were so sharp they could have been made by a razor. This was the work of someone who had been training with the sword for a very long time. No, it might not even be possible to reach this level no matter how long one trained.

“I’ve never held one before, but I’ve often enjoyed watching the knights train. It made me want to learn swordplay myself, and that was also when I began reading many books about it. While wielding a stick in my room, that is. So how was I, my dearest knight? Did I do well?”

Ianna made up a half-baked story since she couldn’t tell him about her past life. It made absolutely no sense, but Karnitz took her at her word anyway. Karnitz was deeply impressed and shook his head frantically.

“You were flawless. It’s obvious that you are a genius, my lady. You only saw others training, and yet…….”

Ianna’s skill with the sword was more than enough to make it her life. Karnitz, as simply honest as he was, was convinced that she would become a grand success with it. He had already been enthralled by the liveliness and passion that Ianna gave off as soon as she had taken hold of the sword.

Clatter.

The sword fell from Ianna’s hands just then. It rolled across the ground like a stone that had been kicked out of the way. Karnitz was startled and stared at it in surprise. Ianna, who had been staring down at the muddied sword, sighed heavily and frowned. She raised her hand. Her entire arm was quivering and convulsing.

“My lady!”

“Just like you said, it seems that my body isn’t strong enough to wield a sword yet.”

Her delicate muscles had gone into shock after suddenly being made to perform flawless swordplay. Her arm, which she normally only picked up teacups with, had failed to adapt to suddenly holding a heavy sword and performing high-level swordplay. It was only natural that her body, which had never exercised to such a fierce extent before, could not keep up with her memories.

Ianna looked dissatisfied as she massaged her aching arm. To be honest, she hadn’t been entirely pleased with the skill she had displayed earlier either. She had been able to maintain her posture in accordance to her memories, but her speed, power, and force were all shabby compared to what they had been in the past.

Still, it would be far too greedy of her to expect herself to immediately regain all of her past skill. Even in the past it had taken her time to slowly build up her body to be stronger and more perfect than any other’s.

Ianna looked down at the sword she had dropped while holding her arm tightly and grumbled,

“It looks like it isn’t time for me to be able to wield you perfectly just yet.”

It was time for her to start training.

—“Ianna” End