Chapter 5: The Beginning of an End

The sorcerer drew a large magic circle around the castle. Soon as Lawrence and his party of knights came out, the sorcerer set the castle on fire.

Ailea died in the sea of flames.

But for odd reasons—whether it had been because the sorcerer was hasty in casting the fire or because it wasn’t cast properly… or perhaps some cosmic mishap… Ailea opened her eyes.

Again.

When she did, she came to the sudden realization that she had gone back in two years in the past, about a month before she had been cast out of the Imperial Castle.

Ailea rose from the bed and looked at her surroundings.

‘What on earth happened…?’

A week after learning that she’d gone back in time, Ailea trembled in the corner out of fear from memories of Lawrence’s betrayal and the blazing sea of flames burning her to death.

But she soon snapped out of it and pushed the terrible memories aside.

She had made up her mind.

Looking around, she saw everything was just as it was when she still lived in the Imperial Castle of Calise.

The bird feed she left on the windowsill was still there.

Ailea took a deep breath. She opened the window and heard the sounds of birds chirping.

The Outer Castle she’d been cast out of was surrounded by wastelands. There were rarely any birds, if any. She gathered some bird feed in her hand and extended it out the window for the birds to eat.

The birds landed on her hand that had a few darkened spots. The disease had yet to cover her entire body.

The dark spots printing her skin were only found here and there, unlike when she looked just before she died where her whole body looked completely charred.

“Hi there. Good morning,” Ailea gently greeted the birds.

As if understanding her soft, gentle words, one of the birds pecking on her hand flew over and landed on her slender shoulder before flying circles around her and finally setting down on her hand once again.

Feeling the weight of the bird on her hand only solidified her thoughts that this was reality.

She wasn’t sure why this happened, but she thought it an amazing opportunity to be able to relive the past two years of her life once more. It was something she was grateful for.

As she knew Lawrence’s true feelings, she couldn’t possibly run back to Ilyanna Castle. Should she make that mistake, Lawrence would only announce to the emperor that his fiancée ran away. She wouldn’t know what would become of her family.

Her future had already been determined. Two years from now, she will face the hands of death. The only difference was the knowledge she held. She was lucky knowing when and how she’d die.

When she’s sent away to the Outer Castle a month from now, she won’t spend the rest of her days wallowing in tears as she did before.

She’ll make the most of the time she had left to live life happily to the fullest.

After the birds finished off the remaining seeds in her hand, Ailea made up her mind and left the room.

While walking through the corridor, Ailea looked at the cleaning girl, Cassie, she passed by.

Noticing Ailea’s presence, Cassie said, “Ah, Miss Ailea! Why are you up so early?!”

Cassie wasn’t asking because it was the early hour of the day but because of her mere suspicions. Ailea often took sparse walks in the garden late at night while covering her face only to wake up late in the morning.

“Cassie,” Ailea said, looking sorrowfully at the girl, “You should head home now.”