Translator: Khan

Editor Group: Liber Reverie

“And I was so stupid that I did something mean to you as the maids wanted. I couldn’t even figure out what they were doing, so there were more people who thought I was the wicked woman in the rumor.”

But from here, it was a story she didn’t remember, so Mielle furrowed her forehead. ‘What on earth are you talking about?’

Aria continued, “Everyone praised me that way. They blamed me for being a stupid villain inside, but on the outside, they praised me that I was more beautiful than you. In fact, I was just a puppet with nothing but appearance.”

“I, I don’t know what you’re talking about…!”

“So I became more and more crooked, and I became a wicked woman who bullied my sister and filled my inferiority complex. It was all thanks to you.”

Aria’s expression of composure soon collapsed as she said that far.

She pretended to be lucky all the time and to be OK, but she was caught in resentment and anger by looking back on her horrible past.

Turning back the hourglass had not erased the experience of her mother’s death. The experience of beheading had not been lost either. The misery, inferiority, anger, and injustice had been all clearly carved into Aria’s head and chest, with everlasting clarity.

“… I wouldn’t have come back like this if you had done that far. I would have ended after living foolishly and just being a stupid villain! Why did you make me and my mother so miserable? What the hell is the status…? What is that? You made me turn the hourglass with a resentful and unjust mind…”

The mourning in her heart, which had been waiting for a very long time, reached the ears of Asher who was a little way beyond the prison. It was lamentable enough to break the heart of Asher who had never experienced it.

But it was an incomprehensible cry for Mielle, so the cry of losing its destination went around the prison and quickly died down. It was a useless cry.

“You wouldn’t know if I said this. Before I turned the clock, it is the past you don’t know. It’s the miserable past that only I know.”

Aria said while brushing her own cheek as if she were taking off her feelings. And Mielle stared at her with a face as if she were seeing a crazy person.

‘The wicked woman is really gone mad. She is delusional and has lost her mind.’

“Are you just saying that you’ve made me do this with that delusion?”

When Mielle asked about her injustice, Aria, who had dispelled all her dirty feelings, made a face again that had always kept herself, telling the truth if Mielle knew or didn’t need to know.

“Delusion? You may not understand if I explain it hundreds of times, but I have the ability to turn back time. Everything I say now is what happened in the past. It happened before I turned back the clock. What the elegant lady of Count Roscent did to kill the dumb villain.”

“… You’re really crazy! You can’t just talk like that without being crazy…!”

Then Mielle exclaimed as if she had been brought to this situation by the delusion and madness of Aria. Rather, she seemed to be the one who was unfairly treated. She still thought lightly of her sins and that she was being treated unfairly.

“There is the ability to move space, and what’s the big deal with the ability to turn back time? If you don’t believe it, think about it. Like you said, how could the daughter of a stupid prostitute suddenly build her power and amass her fortune as if she had become someone else overnight? If she had the ability to turn back time, wouldn’t she have been able to predict the future and do that?”

“… what…?”

Aria, who was no longer worthy of dealing with Mielle because she let go of her old feelings and poured out all she had to say, moved to the place where Asher had gone with the last words. She had no more regrets. She had avenged enough, poured out all she wanted to say, and, above all, she had formed personal ties with good people she couldn’t even imagine in the past.

Although Mielle might find it unfair until the end, it was a satisfactory result. It would be more miserable, painful, and terrifying to die crying out in resentment than to be convinced and regret the past.

“… Will you go back?”

“Yes, thank you.”

At Aria’s expression that she had no regrets, Asher’s expression of holding her hand was also satisfying. It was because now, after really finishing everything, there was a future waiting for her to move away from the past and live for herself alone.

* * *

The next morning…

As soon as the darkness was lifted and the sun rose, a guillotine was set up in the square again. It was so rare to execute someone in front of everyone and those who heard the news gathered in the square in a hurry, shaking off their drowsiness from early morning.

They all expected and imagined who had committed something terrible and why the guillotine had been built in the square. Unfortunately, the execution was so sudden that not all the high-profile nobles were present as was the execution of the Aristocratic Party.

It was partly due to the fact that it was no longer a serious issue. This was because it was the execution of a small, humble girl who had been downgraded to a commoner at best. No one cared about the little girl.

Even so, the girl was related to Aria and some nobles who respected Aria and showed kindness sat in the seats next to the execution table, and onlookers who would enjoy others’ misfortunes and deaths for entertainment filled the square. Aria also waited for Mielle, preparing to let go of the terrible past.

Looking forward to seeing what Mielle’s face would look like, she wiped her eyes with a beautiful handkerchief gifted from Sarah with a very sad face, just as Mielle had done in the past.

And Mielle, who appeared with a noisy iron carriage, had a more dazed look than Aria had expected. It was a miserable face worth telling the truth last night.

“Get down!”

Mielle pulled out from the carriage by the coercive power of a knight; she was dragged onto the podium, being hit by stones and garbage thrown by bystanders. Now that she had no one else to be her shield, she had to deal with the violence alone.

“I can’t believe that bitch committed another crime!”

“What the hell did she do again?”

“I don’t know. But she must have done something terrible and ugly!”

People’s anger flared against Mielle, who was twice brought on the podium.

Mielle wondered if she would be excused for not having done it again. She thought she’d make an excuse that she had just done what her sister had ordered to do, but unexpectedly, she looked up and looked at Aria, and she opened her mouth with a very desperate face.

“She, she really turned the time… Yaaak!”

However, she was unable to speak and rolled over the floor as the knight pulled the tight rope that was holding her, and he said she should be quiet.

“Time…?”

Aria, who recited Mielle’s words, thought for a moment.

‘A desperate look, and time… Do you really want to believe all the stories I told you last night and ask if I really turned back the time? Why are you going to check the truth now? Just blame yourself and die without hiding your anger.’

“You have committed to killing Aria, who had shown mercy several times. You tried to poison Aria, but killed your brother with the poisoned tea!”

And, quite naturally, time which was on her side did not help her enemy, Mielle. Poorly, Mielle had to be sentenced to death to decorate her end, lying on the floor. The executor continued without giving a moment’s notice.

“In accordance with the laws of the empire, I sentence the sinner, Mielle, to be put to death!”

Unlike the last time when he had instilled fear in criminals, he seemed to be in a hurry, so he might have been ordered by the Crown Prince to remove her from his eyes immediately. Asher was watching it from the top seat, and raised the corners of his mouth, as the executor was dealing the work in an instant.

“Oh, no!”

Mielle, who touched the floor and lifted her upper body, raised her voice, at the horrible last sentence, which was suddenly announced. But the man who sentenced her gave Mielle a cold stare with a stiff mouth, and the spectators also raised their voices of reproach and urged him to cut her head in haste. In the end, the place where Mielle looked at was none other than Aria.