Things That Don’t Change Even When Time Is Turned Back
Ricardo’s eyes narrowed as he briefly searched his memory. There was already someone on the balcony where Lienne should appear. He closed his eyes for a moment, not knowing what was causing his heart to beat unpleasantly.
“It was hard to believe. Though you were certain.”
“What… do you mean?”
“That even if time were turned back, the one who would help your manifestation would be Lady Fennel.”
Stuart, who had become fifteen while holding onto his memories alone, said that situation had been quite daunting. Nevertheless, he moved according to his promise with Ricardo.
This too was something not in Ricardo’s memory. Yet even now, he still felt that same certainty.
Even if life repeated again, his helper in manifestation would be Lienne—it would be her.
“There’s something I’ve wanted to ask for a while. Something I’ve been curious about but couldn’t ask.”
“Please speak.”
“When Lady Fennel was… burned at the stake.”
Stuart glanced at Ricardo, but there was no emotion readable on his face. It was hard to believe this was the same person who had come to him pouring out blood-curdling cries.
“What do you think would have happened if you had awakened your power at that time? Do you think you would have made the same choice?”
At that time, Ricardo had gone to a battlefield that was like a trap dug by the combined forces of the Emperor and the Grand Temple. He had manifested but had not yet achieved awakening.
Meanwhile, the Emperor had branded his lover and helper in manifestation, Lienne, as a witch, and without a moment’s respite, lit up the night of the great plaza before the Imperial Palace like day.
The Grand Temple also aided the Emperor. Claiming that unless the witch of the Principality was killed, God’s wrath would descend upon this land.
They asserted that Ricardo, who had defied God’s will, would absolutely not return alive from that war.
That the thousand-year history of the House of Rochester would be cut off.
Before the power wielded by the combined forces of the Imperial Family and the Grand Temple, even the balance of power between the ducal houses that Chaplin and Paquin had maintained was useless.
With even Chaplin and Paquin turning their backs, Rochester was truly isolated.
However, defying everyone’s expectations, Ricardo managed to return alive. It was after Lienne had already been bound to the stake at the execution ground.
Ricardo had immediately come to find the Crown Prince with a blood-stained sword in hand.
[Turn back time. Stuart Reid Schneider.]
Ricardo’s entire eyes, who had ridden through countless nights, were bloodshot red.
[If you don’t do so, tonight, not a single person bearing the name Schneider will survive.]
Watching Ricardo point a blood-stained sword at him, his jet-black eyes flashing, Stuart felt not fear but rather exhilaration.
At that time, though Ricardo had not awakened, he could have used his army to rescue his lover. If only the Duke and Duchess of Rochester had not been in the Imperial Family’s hands.
Stuart had always wondered.
If Ricardo had awakened his power then…?
The Imperial Family wouldn’t have dared to hang his woman on the stake.
If by any chance the Emperor had gone mad and insisted on branding Lady Fennel as a witch, this detestable hereditary disease of the Schneiders might have completely disappeared from this world.
Either way, it wouldn’t have been a loss for Stuart.
From beside Stuart, who was reminiscing about that time, came the sound of a low laugh. Ricardo, his eyes fixed somewhere while only lifting the corners of his mouth to smile, was both unfamiliar and familiar.
“Well, wouldn’t I know? What decision I would have made.”
“…….”
“Whether I would have swept away everything living there, or turned it back as it was.”
Stuart naturally turned his face toward where Ricardo’s gaze was fixed. A woman in a water-colored dress appeared on the balcony he was looking at. Wearing a beautiful dress with flowing fabric that seemed to capture the light sparkling on the sea.
“Whether I would have crumbled away while pouring out rage at the gods in a desolate wasteland with nothing left, or if I simply would have turned around, gone home, and taken a bath… Wouldn’t I know nothing at all? Why I made that choice then.”
The woman standing at what seemed like an infinitely distant place like the horizon shone brilliantly like a treasure hidden by the sea. She was close enough that he could clearly see her grasping the railing, stretching her body, and taking a deep breath.
However, she was not alone. Though it seemed she herself did not yet know that fact.
“The only thing I know is this. The me of that time loved that woman, and so I made a contract with Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
Around that time, Stuart learned that the Emperor had abandoned him.
As soon as he reported that he had begun to fall ill, the crown he had considered his own since birth was taken away and given to his younger brother. He was not afraid of being abandoned, but he had a young son and a wife.
That’s what frightened him. Everything they would have to endure in a world without him.
Ricardo appeared, cutting through that fear.
Like a divine revelation. Like a clear answer that God especially loved Stuart.
“So I am living solely to become Emperor. And the next owner of the crown will be…”
There was no hesitation for Stuart. Though he had never thought he needed an ability like turning back time, he believed without doubt that he possessed the Schneiders’ power for that day, that moment.
“It will be Your Highness’s son.”
Ricardo turned his head slightly and smiled broadly. As lightly as if predicting who would win the next hunting tournament.
Then what comes after that? After everything is finished, what will happen to you then?
Stuart wanted to ask, but the words only circled in his mouth, nothing burst out.
Meanwhile, women like bouquets of flowers rushed onto the balcony where Lienne was. They were such splendid women that it was hard to distinguish whether there were three, four, or five of them.
Because of this, the man and woman who had been conversing briefly against the moonlit backdrop scattered to either side. Like people who had been caught doing something and were hastily hiding it.
“When you think about it… God truly loves the Schneiders especially.”
“…….”
“It’s disgusting. If God orchestrated this to give Dermeier to the Schneiders once again.”
Ricardo at that time had promised to become Emperor himself in exchange for turning back time, to protect Stuart’s wife and son. And he had presented several conditions to Stuart.
The first of these was to create a point of contact with Count Fennel so that Ricardo could go to the Fennel household earlier than originally.
In the previous life, Duke Rochester, leading his house more powerfully than ever, had sent Ricardo to a safe place in Resotia. This was because the Emperor was strangely obsessed with and afraid of Ricardo.
In the rewound life as well, Duke Rochester evacuated Ricardo to Resotia just as before.
Ricardo escaped on his own during that journey and meticulously erased his traces so Rochester couldn’t find him. After that, he was kidnapped by Count Fennel faster than originally, following the board the Crown Prince had prepared in advance.
All to meet Lienne earlier.
“Haven’t I always said it? How God loves the Schneiders, and me, Stuart Reid Schneider, in particular.”
The second condition Ricardo proposed was to spread false rumors about a divine oracle to Count Fennel and those around him.
‘The saintess of the Principality, born to a family of silver hair and blue eyes, will become the Empress of Dermeier.’
In the Principality, Fennel was the only family represented by silver hair and blue eyes. Ricardo predicted that once Count Fennel knew this fact, it would become much easier for him and Lienne to meet.
Moreover, that oracle was not a complete lie. It was an oracle that had not yet come down, but it was somewhat based on fact. Only the saintess’s name had been omitted.
Ricardo made no plans other than to meet Lady Fennel quickly. As if gaining power just by meeting her was a foregone conclusion.
This was as far as Stuart knew. After that, he had no way of knowing how Ricardo’s life had flowed. It was uncertain whether he, having lost his memories, had really moved according to plan.
Then seven years ago, one day.
The entire sky was dyed in darkness and then shone bright as heaven. It was a pure white light that covered the entire world so that anyone with eyes could not help but know.
The manifestation of the House of Duke Rochester.
Just as Ricardo had been certain, he achieved manifestation faster than originally.
At that moment, the Crown Prince lifted his head toward the sky and laughed, his chest heaving.
God certainly loves him especially. Shouting like a madman.
Stuart immediately sent a marriage proposal to Mariette, his only love and lover, and the woman who would become the mother of his son. There was no longer any reason to delay.
It was the story of late spring, a cruel season when rain unusually did not fall.
“Ricardo.”
Stuart called his name quietly, but he answered without words, raising his glass to wet his lips. His gaze fixed solely on Lienne.
“No matter how much you turn back time, there are things that don’t change.”
“Such as the fact that soon my companion and the saintess will appear with her name written in the oracle?”
Is that all? An oracle so clear that the words “appear with her name written” won’t seem like a joke will come down. Without metaphor or allegory, without even the usual controversy of interpretation.
‘The saintess of Resotia, silver hair and blue eyes. Empress of the Dermeier Empire. Judith Fan Monzania.’