#8. Death of a Previous Life (1)
2023.08.08.
Before she even regained her senses, Amy felt the cold, damp air clinging to her skin. A terrible yet familiar sensation crawled up her spine. The moment she opened her eyes unwittingly, she saw the gaze of Lady Esmaine, brimming with hostility.
In that instant, Amy realized. Ah, this was a dream of that time, from her previous life.
“So you’re the witch who has His Highness the Crown Prince wrapped around her finger?”
Lady Esmaine spat, her eyes flashing with an icy blue light.
“It is a misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding? His Highness the Crown Prince said so himself—that he was waiting for you.”
Amy muttered under her breath.
“That idiot, I told him not to say anything…….”
“What did you just say?”
Amy pretended not to hear and changed the subject.
“It was merely a childish infatuation from when we were young. Hasn’t he been seeing you quite often lately, my lady?”
At her placating tone, Lady Esmaine arrogantly lifted her chin.
“Indeed. And unless something unexpected happens, I shall become the Crown Princess.”
“Then why me…….”
“You are an eyesore. I have no intention of living in the same palace as the woman he fancies.”
Who would have thought Lady Esmaine’s frigid words could sound so welcome! Amy cried out joyfully.
“I shall gladly leave.”
“Who said I would let you walk out on your own two feet?”
The young lady scoffed. At a single gesture from her, both of Amy’s legs snapped with a sickening crack. As Amy groaned through the pain, a foolish, goat-like voice called out from behind.
“Is this her?”
“Baron Dollian, what brings you here?”
Amy realized that Baron Dollian—the younger brother of Lady Esmaine and the next Duke of Esmaine—had come to the prison.
Rumors abounded that Baron Dollian was of small, dwarfish build, had an obsessive streak to his personality, and was so engrossed in bizarre ancient superstitions that he was burning gaping holes in the ducal family’s fortune.
Furthermore, ever since he was young, he had harbored a secret affection for Amy, and whenever he attended banquets, he would inevitably approach her and act overly familiar.
The moment he looked Amy up and down with a broad grin, his own face crumpled upon seeing her battered face, already swollen from several blows.
“Sister, it’s not her.”
“What?”
“She’s the one I told you about. The maid who exchanged glances with me.”
Even in the midst of horrific pain, Amy felt dizzy. Have I gone mad? Exchange glances with you?
Apparently Lady Esmaine thought the same; she dismissed her brother lightly.
“What are you talking about, you lunatic.”
As was typical of a man with no ability but excessive pride, Baron Dollian flew into a rage. Right in front of Amy’s cell, a vulgar squabble suddenly broke out between the siblings.
Amidst all this, Amy fell into deep contemplation.
She stood at a crossroads: should she claim to be the maid who had exchanged glances with Baron Dollian, compromising her integrity, or deny it with dignity, thereby crushing her life?
But before she could make up her mind, their fight had ended. Lady Esmaine seemed to have won. The moment Amy’s eyes turned to the loser, seeing his face look even more like a wild boar than usual, she made her belated choice.
She would rather just have her life crushed.
For Amy was a woman who could forgive a man for having no money, but never for being ugly.
Lady Esmaine flicked her fan and spoke.
“His Highness the Crown Prince said so. That you played with his heart.”
“!”
Amy cursed inwardly. Did that halfwit—no, two and a half laps further behind a halfwit—shoot his mouth off?
“I have never committed any act that would warrant such dreadful words.”
Since she was going to die anyway, she answered with refinement, determined to die with dignity.
But her refinement was soon shattered to pieces. Because Lady Esmaine scoffed and said the following:
“Did you think I arranged this? The order came from Her Majesty the Empress, but it was with His Highness the Crown Prince’s tacit approval. He said you must be punished.”
“!”
Amy felt so wronged and furious that she could spit blood.
Good heavens. After shedding blood and sweat to barely make a dimwit like him shine, he repaid her kindness with what? Playing with him? Punishment?
Lady Esmaine glared at Amy with eyes that looked ready to devour her.
“At last spring’s banquet, you had a secret tryst with His Highness, did you not? And the next day, when I went to the Crown Prince’s palace to confront him, what did he say? Didn’t he tell me not to falsely accuse an innocent person?”
“You are still falsely accusing an innocent person even now. I suppose it is your hobby.”
Amy felt hollow.
Of course, Amy had not had a secret tryst with the Crown Prince at the spring banquet.
It seemed there was someone else meeting him in secret. Finding it strange that there was something she didn’t know, she quickly racked her memories and recalled that around that time, the Crown Prince had indeed behaved suspiciously.
Amy had merely thought it was because his feelings were hurt from the Empress’s scolding, so she had generously given him the day off.
A bastard who repays kindness with betrayal.
The Crown Prince, whom she had nurtured like a younger brother with all her heart—though she hadn’t loved him—had sold her out merely to hide his secret tryst with another hidden lover.
Amy wailed mournfully.
“I devoted my loyalty to you hoping you would become a great Emperor (who would guarantee my stable and abundant future)!”
How desperately she had ignored the Second Prince, who had followed her around pretending not to, pouring all her energy into the Crown Prince’s safety and development. Amy recalled the brass hairpin the Second Prince had once stuck into her hair with his tiny hands. Even now, it was dangling in her disheveled hair.
“If I had known this would happen, I would have stuck with the Second Prince instead.”
She beat her chest and lamented, but it was already long too late.
Thinking of the Second Prince made Amy’s heart flutter uneasily.
The Second Prince was truly strange. Amy swore she had never been kind to him, never given him affection.
Yet whenever he saw her, he would run over and greet her happily.
Amy knew that after losing his mother, the Imperial Consort, he had gone through a lonely and deprived upbringing.
But she had thought it had nothing to do with her and had brazenly exchanged greetings with him.
Perhaps he had liked that indifference?
Then she suddenly thought.
“Come to think of it…… didn’t the Second Prince give me a strange gem yesterday?”
They had crossed paths while passing through the imperial garden, and he had deliberately run up to her, pressed a gem the size of a fingernail into her hand, telling her to take it, and left.
Its color was murky and it didn’t shine, so she had thought it was nothing special and shoved it roughly into her pocket; since she had been kidnapped right after, it should still be in her pocket.
“By the way, what should I do with the gem……?”
If she died like this, it too would be buried in the ground, a waste.
Amy squirmed, using her hands bound with ropes to fumble around and trace the outline of the gem inside her dress pocket. During her time imprisoned, a guard had become her conversational companion; she thought it would be better to leave it to him as a keepsake.
Just then, whether suspecting she was up to something suspicious, Baron Dollian dashed over like an arrow and shoved her. The moment her body swayed and collapsed, something flew out of her pocket and rolled across the prison floor.
Thump, thump, thump…….
What stopped on the floor was the gem the Second Prince had given her and a silver coin.
“Ah, that was there too.”
Amy’s eyes fixed on the silver coin.
It was a lucky silver coin she had obtained when she fled from her family to the imperial palace as a child.
She hadn’t particularly believed in it, but somehow she had kept it until now.
Amy smiled weakly.
“You’ll be buried with me too, I suppose.”
Meanwhile, Baron Dollian, who had been staring blankly at them, suddenly widened his eyes.
“What is this!!”
He turned pale and flung himself toward the gem.
Amy started in surprise and scooted far away on her bottom.
Because she did not want to come into contact with a wild boar.
“Wh-why is this here…….”
Baron Dollian paid no heed to whether Amy was disgusted by him or not.
His attention was solely fixated on the gem.
He picked it up with trembling hands and gazed at it with a fascinated, entranced look.
“What is it to make such a fuss?”
Lady Esmaine grumbled, covering the corners of her mouth with her fan.
Her furrowed eyes suggested she was displeased by her brother’s senseless behavior.
Baron Dollian screamed, spewing spit.
“Th-this is an extremely precious magic—!”
Then he clamped his mouth shut and suddenly whipped his head around to look at Amy.
His buttonhole-like pupils blazed.
Amy turned her gaze away quickly, disgusted inwardly.
With his eyes bulging like that, he looked like not just a wild boar but also a toad. A horrifying hybrid.
Baron Dollian pressed Amy.
“Y-you, where did you get this?”
“Why do you ask?”
Did he think she would tell him nicely? Amy hung a scoff at the corner of her mouth and answered insolently.
At that, Baron Dollian, veins bulging on his forehead, shook his fist and spat.
“Do you think I’m joking? How could a maid like you come to possess something like this? You’d best tell me honestly where you got it.”
Aha, so that tiny gem was an incredibly precious object.
Amy wondered why the Second Prince would give her such a thing, but at the same time, she resolved never to tell them.
She said shamelessly.
“I picked it up.”
“……What?”
Amy stared at his toad-like face and enunciated each syllable.
“I. Picked. It. Up.”
If she said she received it from the Second Prince, it was obvious what these savage people would do to the poor Second Prince.
Amy was a selfish person by nature, but not so wicked as to betray kindness shown to her.
So she made up her mind. Since she was going to die anyway, she would take the secret with her to the next world.
She drawled.
“Where did I pick it up, now? Was it the stable? By the pond? Or perhaps, the outhouse?”
Realizing she was mocking him, Baron Dollian’s face flushed bright red.
“Y-you insane thing!”
Smack! A thick hand flew across her cheek.
Amy, brutally slammed to the floor, coughed up blood and laughed.
If they thought mere broken legs and a beating would be enough to change her mind, they were sorely mistaken.
Her eyes shone viciously.
“Why, this thing still—!”
The moment the baron, unable to contain his anger, raised his leg high, Amy squeezed her eyes shut.