Chapter 3. The Second Life
2023.09.03.
"Gasp! Ugh..."
Her fading consciousness suddenly returning, Blair's eyes snapped open.
Her hazy vision gradually cleared, revealing an unfamiliar ceiling.
'No, that's not right. That pattern...'
Staring blankly at the ceiling's pattern, Blair realized it was the ceiling of the imperial palace where she had stayed before her marriage.
'Why am I in the imperial palace?'
Her last memory was of being attacked by an assailant at the Holstein villa, far from the capital.
If she hadn't died, she should have been receiving treatment there, but for some reason, she was in the imperial palace.
She didn't know what had happened, but right now, only one thought filled Blair's mind.
'Asiel!'
Her baby must have looked for his mother the moment he woke up.
Scrambling out of bed, Blair hurried toward the door.
At that moment, the door opened from the outside.
"Oh. You're awake, Your Highness? I was just about to wake you."
It was Blair's direct maid, Lina.
Having served Blair in the Princess Palace since childhood, Lina had earned her trust and followed her to the Delmarque Duchy even after marriage.
To Blair, she was a confidante—sometimes like a sister, sometimes like a friend.
"Lina, where's Asiel?"
"Asiel?"
"Yes, Asiel. Where is that child?"
"Who is that?"
Lina tilted her head in confusion, then let out a small gasp as if something suddenly occurred to her.
"Ah, could Asiel be the name of that cat that's been lurking around the backyard lately?"
Already in a highly sensitive state, Blair furrowed her brow.
"Lina, I'm not in the mood for jokes. Asiel, where is my son?"
"Pardon? Son?"
Lina blinked, looking flustered.
"Your Highness hasn't even married yet, so where would you have a son?"
"...What?"
Only then did Blair realize Lina was addressing her as 'Your Highness.'
'Don't tell me...'
Blinking her eyes in confusion, Blair asked Lina.
"Lina, how old am I...?"
Lina found it strange that Blair had suddenly forgotten her own age, but it wasn't a difficult question, so she answered right away.
"You turned twenty this year. You came of age two months ago."
That's impossible.
Hearing her age, Blair had no choice but to accept that an impossible assumption had become reality.
'I've returned to three years ago.'
Before Asiel was born, before she married Herdin.
* * *
Without even a moment to collect herself, Blair was dressed and taken to attend lunch.
It was a weekly family meal with her brother, Emperor Ivan, and her mother, Katrina.
Seven years had already passed since the late emperor who created this family tradition died, but the tradition was still kept as if to carry on his will.
However, Blair's mind was entirely elsewhere.
'I thought I was dead, but I've returned to the past... Am I dreaming because I died? Or is what I believed to be the future the dream?'
Chewing food whose taste she couldn't even discern, Blair recalled her memories and came to a conclusion.
'No, that wasn't a dream.'
She couldn't explain it with words, but it wasn't just a simple dream.
'Asiel's voice calling out to me, the warmth I held, his face... All of it is so vivid.'
And that was why this moment felt even more hollow.
'My baby...'
She had returned to the past like a miracle, but this reality without Asiel was hell for Blair.
The child who was her hope, her very life, her everything, had vanished into the tricks of time in an instant.
Just as Blair was sinking into that emptiness.
"Your Highness."
Lina, waiting behind her, called out in a low voice and touched her shoulder.
"...Ah."
Only then did Blair snap back to her senses.
"His Majesty is calling you, Blair."
Katrina was looking at Blair with a somewhat irritated expression.
To her, her son who had become emperor was the pride and trophy she had sacrificed her entire life to obtain.
Ignoring that trophy was an act equivalent to denying her entire existence.
"You've been completely out of it since earlier. Did something happen this morning?"
"I'm sorry. I had a restless sleep last night... What were you talking about?"
"Nothing much, just to prepare well so there are no issues with your marriage to the Duke of Delmarque."
Ivan spoke casually of the marriage that had never been discussed with Blair, as if it were no big deal.
Blair's eyes widened in shock.
"The discussion is already over. I've thrown him a decent bait, so he won't refuse."
It was a marriage arrangement that had been decided without a single word to Blair herself.
Judging that Blair's shocked expression indicated her refusal of this marriage, Ivan quickly added.
"I trust you won't make childish complaints about not wanting a political marriage."
"He's quite a decent, no, the best groom. Women all over the empire want to dance with the Duke of Delmarque even once. His Majesty has put a lot of thought into your marriage."
"Your marriage isn't simply a union between a man and a woman. It's for improving the relationship between two families, so as a princess of this nation, you must take responsibility and..."
Ivan and Katrina preemptively blocked any opposition Blair might have expressed to this marriage arrangement.
Seeing their reactions, Blair finally recalled her past memories.
'I'm sorry to the two of you, but I don't want this marriage.'
Before her regression, in the same situation, Blair had refused to marry Herdin.
It was the first rebellion from Blair, who had always meekly obeyed Ivan and Katrina's words.
It wasn't because she disliked Herdin. Blair found him uncomfortable and frightening. Ever since the day of the Empress Palace fire incident ten years ago.
But...
"I'll do it."
Blair in this life showed a different reaction from her previous one. Submitting to Ivan's command, as she always had before her regression.
"It is His Majesty's will, so I must naturally obey."
However, her eyes were different from before.
In this life, she had a reason she absolutely had to marry Herdin.
* * *
After finishing lunch and returning to the Princess Palace, Lina glanced at Blair.
'She seems different from usual today... Did something happen?'
But as her closest maid, there was nothing about Blair's every move that she didn't know.
Until last night, there had been nothing out of the ordinary.
She had simply slept quietly in her room and woken up; there couldn't have been anything happening in between.
If anything, the news of her marriage to Herdin heard at today's lunch would have been shocking.
But Blair seemed completely unbothered by that news.
'No, rather... she looks in a better mood than this morning.'
Lina tilted her head in confusion.
It was before she entered the imperial palace, but she knew the relationship between the Delmarque Duchy and the imperial family was not good.
And that the Empress Palace fire incident had sealed that bad blood.
'A marriage was suddenly arranged with a family that was an enemy, yet she looks in a good mood.'
Blair's father, the late emperor, had two women.
The lawful wife, Empress Esmeralda, and Imperial Consort Katrina.
But the Empress had been without a child for several years, and Imperial Consort Katrina was brought in as a concubine for that reason.
When she first entered the palace, Katrina, of Gypsy origin, had neither influence nor power, but the moment she bore a son, Ivan, those who sought to cling to power quickly appeared.
As the power struggle between the two intensified, a political rivalry formed centered around Esmeralda and Katrina.
Despite this, the Empress cherished Blair, the daughter of her rival, as if she were her own.
At least on the surface, it seemed so. Until 'that incident' occurred.
A fire broke out in the Empress Palace, resulting in the Empress's death and Blair, who was with her, being severely injured.
From the shock, Blair lost her memories of that time.
The emperor vowed to uncover the truth of who had harmed his daughter and investigated, and as a result, all evidence pointed to Empress Esmeralda.
The Delmarque Duchy, Esmeralda's family, denied the results, insisting it was impossible, but in the end, the Empress was buried as a traitor.
Her only nephew was Herdin.
'Their Majesties are heartless. Even if it's a marriage to restore relations...'
An unwanted marriage, especially to someone who was a direct victim of the incident—how could a marriage with Delmarque be welcome to Blair?
Worried, Lina was about to speak while taking her outer garment, but Blair spoke first.
"Lina."
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Send someone to the Delmarque Duchy. Tell them I wish to meet tomorrow. If he's busy, ask him to let me know a convenient date."
At Blair's command, a startled Lina's eyes widened.
"You want to meet the Duke of Delmarque?"
"Why are you so surprised?"
It was understandable, as Blair had avoided him even at the Harvest Festival banquet a few months ago.
'Well, Her Highness must have her reasons.'
Lina thought so and answered.
"Ah, it's nothing. I'll send someone and return."
After Lina left the room, Blair, now alone, gazed out the window.
She soon saw a servant leaving the Princess Palace in a carriage.
Blair thought of the master of the duchy where the carriage would arrive. And also the lovely child who looked just like him.
Recalling that face, Blair placed her hand on the belly that had once held that child.
'If it's to meet Asiel again, I can do anything.'
Even if that 'anything' meant repeating that terribly lonely marriage with him.
If so, there was only one thing she had to do now.
'Successfully marry Herdin again.'
If that was the foreseen future and her return to the past was real, things would flow according to the set course even without her intention.
But Blair didn't want to leave even the slightest possibility that he wouldn't become her husband.
'I will definitely meet my baby again.'
Her eyes, which had lost their light, began to sparkle once again.