* * *
“Gasp! Haa…….”
As her fading consciousness snapped back, Blair’s eyes flew open.
Her blurry vision gradually cleared, revealing an unfamiliar ceiling.
‘No, this isn’t right. That pattern is…….’
Staring blankly at the ornate molding, Blair recognized it instantly. It was the ceiling of the Imperial Palace—the chamber she had occupied before her marriage.
‘Why am I here?’
Her last memory was of being hunted by a ruffian at the Holstein villa, far from the capital. If she hadn’t died, she should have been recovering there under medical care. Why, then, was she back at the Imperial Palace?
Though the circumstances eluded her, a single, piercing thought eclipsed everything else.
‘Aziel!’
Her baby—he must have been searching for his mother the moment he woke.
Blair scrambled out of bed and rushed toward the door. Just as she reached for the handle, it swung open.
“Oh! Are you awake, Your Highness? I was just about to rouse you.”
It was Lina, her personal maid.
Having served Blair at the Imperial Princess’s Palace since childhood, Lina had earned her absolute trust, even following her to the Del Marc Ducal Residence after the wedding. To Blair, she was a confidante—sometimes a sister, sometimes a friend.
“Lina, where is Aziel?”
“Aziel?”
“Yes, Aziel. Where is my child?”
“Who is that?”
Lina tilted her head, then let out a small exclamation of realization.
“Ah, do you mean the name of that stray cat lurking in the backyard?”
Blair, her nerves fraying, furrowed her brows.
“Lina, I am not in the mood for jokes. Aziel. Where is my son?”
“Ehh? A son, Your Highness?”
Lina blinked in utter confusion. “You haven’t even been married yet. How could you have a son?”
“……What?”
Only then did the realization hit: Lina was addressing her as ‘Your Highness.’
‘Could it be……?’
Blinking, her mind reeling, Blair asked, “Lina, by any chance…… how old am I?”
Lina found the question strange, but as it was simple enough, she answered without hesitation.
“You have turned twenty this year. You reached the age of majority two months ago.”
Impossible.
As the words settled, Blair had to confront the terrifying reality: she had traveled three years into the past.
Before Aziel was born. Before she had ever married Headrin.
* * *
Without a moment to collect her thoughts, Blair was ushered into the scheduled luncheon.
It was a weekly tradition held with Ivan, the Emperor and her older brother, and Katrina, the Empress Dowager. Seven years had passed since the late Emperor established this custom, and it was still practiced as if to honor his ghost.
But Blair’s mind was miles away.
‘I thought I had died. Did I return to the past? Is this a hallucination born of death? Or was that future simply a dream?’
She chewed food she couldn’t taste, retracing her memories until she reached a firm conclusion.
‘No. It wasn’t a dream.’
She couldn’t articulate how she knew, only that the warmth of Aziel in her arms, the sound of his voice, the curve of his face—it was all too vivid to be a fabrication.
And that was precisely why this reality felt like an icy abyss.
‘My baby…….’
Though she had returned to the past, a life without Aziel felt like hell. Her hope, her life, her everything—the child who had been the center of her universe—had vanished into the cruel whims of time.
As Blair drifted into that hollow silence, a voice cut through the air.
“Your Highness.”
Lina, waiting behind her, placed a firm hand on her shoulder.
“……Ah.”
Blair blinked, snapping back to the present.
“The Emperor is calling you, Blair.”
Katrina was watching her with an expression of sharp irritation. The son who had become Emperor was the trophy she had sacrificed her own soul to obtain; to ignore him was, in her eyes, a rejection of her entire life’s work.
“You’ve been miles away since we sat down. Did something happen this morning?”
“I apologize. I had a rough night’s sleep……. What were you saying?”
“Nothing special. Just ensure you are prepared for the marriage with Duke Headrin del Marc. I want no setbacks.”
Ivan spoke of the union as if it were a trivial matter of state, ignoring that he had never even consulted her. Blair’s eyes widened.
“I have already finalized the discussions. With the bait I’ve dangled, he won’t be able to refuse.”
The betrothal had been sealed without a word to the person most affected. Misinterpreting Blair’s shock as defiance, Ivan’s tone turned cold.
“I trust you won’t spout any immature nonsense about your feelings regarding arranged marriages.”
“It is a brilliant match—the best, in fact,” Katrina added smoothly. “There are women across the Empire who would sell their souls for a single dance with Duke Headrin. The Emperor has been most generous with this arrangement.”
“Your marriage isn’t merely a union of two people. It is a matter of restoring the relationship between our houses. As an Imperial Princess, you must exercise some responsibility…….”
The two of them boxed her in, preemptively crushing any protest.
And suddenly, the memories of the past flooded back.
‘I am sorry to both of you, but I do not want this marriage.’
Before the regression, Blair had stood her ground and refused the match. It had been her first act of true defiance. It wasn’t that she disliked Headrin; she had been terrified of him ever since the Empress’s Palace fire incident ten years ago.
However…….
“I will do it.”
The Blair of this life reacted differently. She chose to obey, just as she had before the shadow of tragedy claimed her life.
“As it is the Emperor’s will, I shall follow it.”
But her eyes were cold, filled with a fire that hadn’t been there before.
She had a reason to marry Headrin in this life, no matter the cost.
* * *
Back in the Imperial Princess’s Palace, Lina watched Blair closely, searching for a sign of distress.
‘She seems different today……. Did something occur?’
As her closest maid, she knew everything there was to know about Blair’s life. Until last night, nothing had been amiss. She had gone to bed, slept, and woken up. How could the world have shifted so drastically?
The news of the marriage to Headrin would have been a shock under normal circumstances, yet Blair appeared completely unfazed.
‘No, she actually seems… lighter than this morning.’
Lina frowned. The history between the Del Marc Duchy and the Imperial Family was stained with blood and betrayal, reaching a breaking point during the Empress’s Palace fire.
Blair’s father had taken two women: the legitimate Empress Esmeralda and the Imperial Consort Katrina. When the Empress failed to produce an heir, the Emperor turned to Katrina. When Katrina gave birth to Ivan, a brutal power struggle ensued.
Despite being the daughter of a rival, Blair had been cherished by Empress Esmeralda—until that fire. The Empress had perished, and Blair had been left scarred, her memories of the event lost to trauma. The Emperor had seized upon the tragedy to label Esmeralda a traitor, stripping her family of their honor.
Headrin, the Empress’s only nephew, had been left to hold the remnants of that shattered legacy.
‘Their Majesties are heartless. To force a marriage after all that…….’
Lina expected tears, not this eerie composure. As she moved to help Blair with her coat, Blair spoke first.
“Lina.”
“Y-yes!”
“Send word to the Del Marc Duchy. I wish to meet with him tomorrow. If he is occupied, ask him to suggest a time that suits him.”
Lina’s eyes widened. “You wish to meet with the Duke?”
“Why are you so surprised?”
It was only natural; Blair had avoided him like the plague at every banquet they had attended for years.
‘Well, Her Highness must have her reasons,’ Lina reasoned. “Of course. I will send the message immediately.”
As Lina hurried from the room, Blair turned toward the window, gazing out at the horizon. She pictured the residence where that carriage would arrive. She pictured the beautiful child who shared those same sharp, haunting features.
Blair rested her hand over her stomach, where she had once carried that life.
‘I will do anything to hold Aziel again.’
Even if ‘anything’ meant enduring that cold, lonely marriage all over again.
‘I must marry Headrin. Safely. Without error.’
If this was a preordained loop, it would flow toward its conclusion regardless of her intervention. But she would not leave the outcome to chance. She would not risk even a flicker of possibility that he might not become her husband.
‘I will meet my baby again. I swear it.’
The dull, empty look in her eyes finally ignited, burning with a new, dangerous resolve.