Sticky hands choked Rishi.
The grip on her throat was tighter than usual.
Perhaps something bad had happened today.
Whenever Alford was in a bad mood, he always took his anger out on Rishi.
“Khuk….”
A painful groan leaked out from between her parted lips, but Alford didn’t care.
“Damn it. Damn it.”
He merely cursed and squeezed harder.
‘Ah, I see.’
I’m going to die today.
It had been a long time since she had sensed the change in the way Alford looked at her.
Rishi was already approaching her forties.
There were many women who wanted to become the second wife of a wealthy man like Alford.
To Alford, Rishi—whom he had taken from the Duchy as his wife—was nothing more than garbage he couldn’t quite throw away.
Her lungs, deprived of oxygen for so long, screamed. Her vision blurred.
She had always wanted to die, but she never had the courage to do it herself. Yes, dying like this wasn’t so bad. To die at the hands of a man she loathed was, after all, a fitting end to this pathetic and miserable life.
Even in the midst of it, a bitter laugh escaped her.
‘Why have I lived like this?’
If she had known she would die like this, she would have done something. She would have risked death to do *anything*.
Why did she live her life without ever raising her voice, just doing as they said, as *he* said, as *you all* said?
The face of Britney, whom she had seen a while ago, crossed her mind.
Having become the Empress, she looked incredibly happy.
Britney had everything.
A husband at the pinnacle of power, healthy and cute children, and even her lover, Count Kay Brant Green.
Though born equally as daughters of a Duke, the lives of Britney and Rishi were so different.
‘You were always the protagonist.’
Iris was called the flower of the Wittlow Duchy, but she had never been a flower for even a single moment.
The true flower of the Wittlow Duchy was Britney.
Britney had trampled and snapped Rishi over and over again so that she could never be a flower.
Yet, without even a single scream, Rishi had lived just as she was stepped on, just as she was snapped.
And this was the result.
Even her blurry vision was now fading. As she was consumed by darkness, she felt a sudden jolt of fear.
‘Is this really the end?’
She had thought she would have no regrets. Dreaming of desires after being born into this world had been a luxury.
But as she suffocated in the sinking dark, only one thought crossed her mind.
‘I don’t want it to end like this.’
She hadn’t tasted a single fragment of happiness.
‘I don’t want to die like this.’
It was too tragic to leave without having tasted even a bite of happiness.
‘Just once more….’
Anew.
‘Just one more time….’
Passionately.
‘Just once, completely….’
Happily.
She wanted to live like that.
Her earlobe felt hot. It was strange to feel pain when she thought it was all over.
-Is that true?
It sounded as if a small voice was speaking from within the heat.
-Do you really want to live again?
It was a voice like a small bird chirping.
She wanted to answer ‘Yes,’ but her voice wouldn’t come out.
With the sensation of something snapping, Rishi realized that she was truly dead.
So death was this easy and futile a thing.
As soon as she realized her death, many things rushed before her eyes.
‘Is this what they call a life review?’
It was things Rishi had experienced, and things she hadn’t. It was the past, the present, and the future.
‘I thought a life review only showed the things I experienced in the past….’
It seemed that wasn’t the case. Information rushed in like a tidal wave, filling Rishi’s mind. Even though she was dead, she felt a headache and was startled.
Was it not all over when she died?
Was this the start of a new suffering?
Could death not even grant her peace?
Was she doomed to live an eternal hell?
-Live.
The chirping voice sounded again.
And then.
Iris opened her eyes.
+++
Rishi blinked.
Even though a full month had passed since she died, turned back time, and returned to life, she still had dreams of that moment.
Every time she woke up, her body shivered. She was terrified that the nightmare might be reality, or that reality might be a nightmare.
When she first returned in time, she thought she had just had a very long nightmare.
But as the events from the dream repeated, she realized it was no ordinary nightmare.
It was hard to believe, but Rishi had lived a nightmare of a life, died, and returned by turning back time.
As she stared blankly at the familiar ceiling, she spotted mold in the corner.
It had been raining for the past few days, and sure enough, mold had bloomed.
*Bang—!*
The door flew open without a knock, and a maid entered.
“Young Lady. Are you still lying in bed?”
The maid asked irritably.
No one would know that Iris, called the flower of the Wittlow Duchy, was treated this way in the mansion.
In the Wittlow Duchy, Rishi’s position was lower than that of the maids.
“I was about to get up.”
Rishi obediently stepped down from the bed.
“Get up, get up early. We have precious guests coming today, so we’re busy.”
The maid threw a rag at Rishi.
Rishi dodged slightly, and the rag hit the end of the bed and fell to the floor.
“Go out and wipe the hallway windows. Change your dress after that.”
“Understood.”
“Ha, seriously. You never do anything proactively. Does she think she’s actually the Duke’s daughter?”
The maid grumbled as she left the room.
Rishi picked up the rag from the floor and smiled coldly.
“The position of the Duke’s daughter? I’ll gladly reject it.”
Duke Glovern Witlow had two daughters.
The eldest, Britney, and the youngest, Iris.
Among them, Iris was especially beautiful and well-mannered, so people called her the flower of the Wittlow Duchy.
Duke Witlow also doted on his youngest, Iris, and openly said he wanted to keep her by his side forever without giving her to anyone else.
Openly, that is—only to the outside world.
In truth, Iris was the daughter born between Duke Witlow and a maid.
It was common for nobles to keep lovers and have children out of wedlock, but those children were never recognized as the noble’s legitimate heirs.
Needless to say, the children born from a maid were even worse off.
The Duchess tried to erase the terrible incident where her husband had slept with a maid and produced a child.
However, the moment the Duchess saw the newborn baby in the maid’s arms in the shabby room where she had come to kill them both, she changed her mind.
“Kill the maid, and I will claim the child as my own.”
The Duchess said in front of the Duke.
“You… want to raise that child?”
“Yes. She looked like she would grow up to be very beautiful.”
“We already have a beautiful daughter. There is no need to raise one who isn’t even a son….”
“I won’t give my daughter to just anyone. But that wench’s daughter is different.”
A cruel smile played on the Duchess’s lips.
“Let’s raise her well and beautifully. So we can sell her off at an important moment.”
Thus, Iris became the daughter born of the Duchess.
Iris grew up as the youngest daughter the Duke cherished, receiving countless lessons and becoming a ‘product worth selling.’
However, that didn’t mean the Duke’s family actually cherished Rishi.
They treated her worse than a maid, abused her, hit her, and starved her.
The atmosphere of how the Duke’s family treated Rishi was passed on to the employees as well.
The small bullying they inflicted on Rishi, avoiding the family’s eyes, grew bit by bit, and Britney even intentionally made the maids kick Rishi or force her to prostrate herself before them.
Britney loved seeing Rishi feel humiliated.
-Make her do something. She needs to be good at chores to be loved by her husband.
That’s how bullying worked.
At first, perhaps someone had pitied Rishi.
Someone else might have thought, ‘How could they do that to the Duke’s daughter….’
But once one person took the lead and encouraged them, saying, ‘It’s fine. Do more,’ cruelty settled into everyone’s hearts.
To the people of the Wittlow Duchy, Rishi was someone to whom they could do anything.
Chapter 1
I finished cleaning and changed into the dress.
Because a ‘precious guest’ was coming, the maids brought out the highest-quality dress and assisted me.
As they were cinching the corset tight, the door swung open without a knock.
“Iris!”
Britney exclaimed cheerfully as she entered.
Unlike when they treated Rishi, the maids bowed politely to Britney.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Hurry up and change Iris into her dress. It’s the first time she’s meeting her future husband, so she needs to look pretty.”
Britney looked as if she couldn’t contain her excitement.
“Iris, you’re so lucky. To marry Alford, the owner of that massive trading company. Everyone is going to be so jealous.”
Alford.
‘So, I really did return to the past.’
Because my daily life had been so ordinary, I had sometimes doubted whether my regression was real.
But today, with Alford’s visit, I was certain.
I had lived until I was nearly forty, was killed by the hands of my husband, Alford, saw many things within death, and then returned to when I was twenty.
‘It was a good thing I went straight to find Kay back then.’
A month ago, when she was revived, Rishi went straight to find Kay.
She didn’t want to live like she had in her previous life.
She didn’t want to stain her newly acquired life with terrible bloodshed.
Using the information she had gleaned while drifting through death, she negotiated with Kay.
After returning home, she had been beaten severely for having disappeared from the mansion for several days, but she had no regrets.
And today.
Alford is coming.
In her previous life, Alford had visited on a day just like this.
‘And I obediently agreed to the marriage, following the Duke of Witlow’s will. Without even putting up a small protest.’
In this life, Rishi had no intention of living so pathetically until her death.
‘This time, I will decide both my death and my life.’
*Whack-!*
Britney suddenly grabbed Rishi’s hair and pulled it hard.
“Hey, I’m talking to you. Can’t you focus?”
Rishi moved only her eyes to look at Britney.
Britney frowned.
“Where are you looking with your eyes wide open like that?”
“I am focusing on you, Miss…”
*Thud-!*
Britney struck Rishi on the head with her fist.
“Who is your sister? Didn’t I tell you to call me Miss?”
“Yes, Miss.”
As Rishi answered submissively, Britney smiled with satisfaction and let go of her hair.
“Anyway, I saw that man at a party a while back. He’s incredibly pot-bellied. Oil was literally dripping down his face. Seeing that, I suppose you’ll at least be well-fed at his house. I’m just a bit worried that you might end up just like him, all bloated and oily.”
“…”
“But honestly, who else would want a girl like you as a wife? Be grateful and serve that man well. Understand?”
“Yes, I will.”
“And don’t you dare do anything to smear our family’s reputation. Well, I doubt you have the capacity for that anyway… then again…”
Britney leaned in and brought her lips close to Rishi’s ear.
Then, she whispered in a voice too low for the maids to hear.
“Your mother was a loose woman, after all. I’m worried you’ll turn out just like her. Bloodline doesn’t just go away.”
Having heard those words hundreds of times, they had no impact on her.
Until now, she had silently endured such remarks, but she no longer had any intention of doing so.
While Britney pulled away, smiling as if she had just said the cleverest thing in the world, this time, it was Rishi who stepped closer.
And she whispered into Britney’s ear.
“If we’re going by that logic, the same goes for your father.”
“What…?”
Britney’s eyes went wide, as if she couldn’t believe what had just happened.
Britney was so shocked that she seemed to forget even to be angry, her lips trembling, when a maid came running into the room.
“Miss, Miss! There’s an emergency!”
“What is it?”
Britney snapped at the maid in irritation, but the maid ignored her and said:
“Count Green, Count Cavebrand Green has arrived!”
Rishi smiled.
Cavebrand Green.
He decided to accept the deal.