Chapter 25
-It is a difficult matter. The moment you enter into a contract with me, your existence in ‘this world’ will be fixed. I cannot touch any other member of the Imperial family who is not a contractor, so I cannot lay a hand on your parents here either…. Let’s do this instead.
The white being spoke.
-I shall allow you to be born in another world for a short time. I will ensure you are born to wonderful parents, receive a fine education, and are loved to your heart’s content. However, though there may be slight differences, it will end the moment you reach your current age in that world. Your existence there will be erased as well. Ultimately, for the proper execution of the contract, you will wake up in your past body at a certain point. …Once that happens, you will no longer be the ‘you of now.’ Would you still be alright with that?
“I-I-I don’t care.”
-Your memories will not be intact either. Not that you need to remember that you are my contractor. There will be a shock to the soul as it travels between another world and this one. The reality you remember might remain distorted.
“It’s fine.”
-This is as much as I can do for you. From now on, it is about what you must do after contracting with me.
It was a long story.
The white being asked once more if she truly intended to make the contract, and Titania agreed without hesitation. No matter what price she had to pay, she would not regret it in the slightest.
Titania felt sorry for Raymon. Shamelessly, only now. She couldn’t forget Lisianthus’s words as he condemned her.
But she simply didn’t know how.
She had been told that if she were a normal person, if she had any sense of shame, she wouldn’t act that way toward Raymon.
She had been told countless times that it would be better if she didn’t exist at all.
Then what exactly did ‘normal’ mean?
Looking at Bibi, whom she had truly envied and hated, Titania realized what those words meant.
However, whenever she looked at Bibi, who was loved by everyone, her own ugliness would resurface, and she couldn’t bear it.
That was why she had harbored wicked thoughts, and it had led to this. She had brought it upon herself.
I’m sorry.
I’m so sorry.
If simply dying could serve as an apology, it would be nice, but she was told she must not die.
There was no need to blame anything in this world.
The one in the wrong was Titania. The one who caused trouble was her.
So, let us start over.
I don’t need to be loved.
I will not love shamelessly.
Then everyone will be better off than they are now.
When I opened my eyes, I saw an unfamiliar ceiling.
“…….”
And people even more unfamiliar than the ceiling were guarding my side. Wh—What, what is this?
As soon as she saw me open my eyes, a maid who had been guarding the bedside stood up abruptly, as if she had been frozen alive, and shouted.
“The Imperial Princess has opened her eyes!”
“P-P-Princess!”
“Tia-nim!”
I froze at the fervent reaction, which made me feel like a Messiah descending upon believers.
I could guarantee that not even when I was born was there such a reaction.
Every single one of them looked haggard as if they had stayed up for days, yet madness flickered in their eyes.
With a bewildered expression, I scanned the bed I was lying on and the room.
It was a place I had never seen before.
It was incredibly spacious. The bed alone felt big enough for four or five grown people to sleep in.
Towels, water bottles, medicine vials, bandages, mysterious multi-colored Magic Stones, and a silver tray with a bowl of soup that was still steaming….
It was a luxury suite that would make a real-life billionaire’s VIP hospital room jealous.
No matter how I looked at it, the design and the items weren’t from the Rose Palace…?
The faces of the people, too…?
More than that, the person sleeping on the floor over there with an incredibly exhausted face, indifferent to this commotion—isn’t that the kind of clothing a High Priest wears…?
It was right then, while I was dazed and unable to grasp the situation properly, that the door burst open.
“Unnie!”
Bibi came hopping in like a rabbit and looked as if she were about to throw herself into my arms…. then flinched and looked at me, as if afraid I might break if she touched me.
As soon as I saw those lovely eyes wavering as she gauged my reaction, I nodded as if possessed.
Then, Bibi smiled broadly, pulled my hand toward her, and buried her cheek in it.
At the soft and warm sensation, I felt my heart melting like a snowman placed next to a heater.
I-Is this the power of a female lead? Is that it? Wh-What is this? Bibi, what is this? Bibi! Why are you so cute!
“…I’m so glad you woke up! If you hadn’t woken up, Unnie, Bibi would have, Bibi would haaaave….”
Sniff, sniff. Tears welled up in her deep blue eyes.
“I would have died of sadness!”
It was a truly cute and lovely line, but something about it felt strange. Was it because I knew she was a regressor…?
It felt like she was…. declaring in a different way, ‘Hey, so you guys better treat Unnie well on your own.’
The moment Bibi’s eyes filled with tears and she began to sob, the people who had been barely holding on near my bed were visibly horrified.
“You mustn’t, Young Lady!”
“Please, take care of your health!”
“The Imperial Princess is safe!”
“Please, don’t say such things!”
I see….
These people, the High Priest who had fallen asleep from exhaustion, and these impossibly luxurious items—they were all thanks to Bibi after all….
Only then did I reach an understanding and nod with a humble heart. I was someone who had already hovered between life and death not long ago.
The difference between when I was panting in the Rose Palace during the hot summer without even receiving proper treatment and now was, quite literally, the difference between heaven and earth.
Our Bibi is like a magpie repaying a favor. How kind of her.
Seeing the array of tools using Magic Stones of every color made me feel overwhelmed.
That one is for humidity control, that one for temperature, that one for body heat, that one for repelling insects…. and so on.
It was a luxury unimaginable for anyone other than the Ducal House of Castline, which held the exclusive rights to distribute Magic Stones.
I could bet that just selling the items in this room where I lay would cover five years of the Rose Palace’s budget.
Furthermore, I tried putting strength into my back to sit up as a test, and my whole body felt light.
I didn’t think I had ever felt this comfortable while living in this body.
The High Priest, who looked like a discarded rag on the floor as if all his vitality had been drained, probably played a major role.
Right then, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed.
“She’s awake?!”
My eyes widened significantly when I identified the person. It was because Young Duke Raymon, who always lived with impeccable grooming and perfect attire, entered looking noticeably disheveled.
I thought I heard a mad dog’s voice shouting from what seemed like across the hallway, ‘Hey, damn it, Hyung! You’re being petty, dumping this on me and going first?!’… but maybe it was a hallucination.
The man’s golden eyes captured me in surprise, then felt relief in the next moment, and then were dyed a peculiar color in the next.
It looked somewhat like self-reproach, or perhaps regret….
I sat there with only my waist straightened, one hand given over to Bibi, blinking blankly as he approached without hesitation and stopped a step away.
And then, he knelt on one knee.
“……?!”
No, I mean, why is this man doing this here? Why?!
I was genuinely shocked.
The value of Raymon’s knee was immense. To put it bluntly, he didn’t even kneel before the Emperor.
There was even an episode in the original story where the Emperor struggled and eventually got snubbed while trying to get Raymon to kneel during his formal appointment.
The prestige of the Castline Duchy was effectively equal to the Imperial power.
Given the reality of the Empire, where the security of more than half the vast territory was essentially dumped onto the Duchy, it was impossible to force them into submission.
If it were the second son, Lisianthus, or the youngest, Rasper—or perhaps the adopted Bibi—it might be different.
If they knelt individually to follow their own will and repay a personal debt… well, that could happen.
However, the knee of the future head of the family, Raymon, did not belong to him alone.
No matter if I was his fiancée, or the savior who spared his family’s lives.
It wasn’t something a lady could thoughtlessly pester him for out of a romanticized longing for a knight’s oath.
In that knee resided the blood price of the loyal knights and soldiers of the Castline family who had died to maintain the Northern front….
“Titania Sol Kite Hamastion, First Imperial Princess.”
His profile, which looked as though it had been tempered from well-forged steel, opened its mouth as if to say what must be said.
Eyes that looked like they were melted by sunlight and hardened by twilight captured me fully as he spoke.
“I have incurred an immeasurable debt of gratitude to you.”
It was at that very moment.
I doubted my eyes.
Everyone in the room followed Raymon and slowly knelt.
Even those who had been looking at Bibi with pleading eyes, saying ‘Young Lady, please pull yourself together!’, did so solemnly without a word.
Starting from the direction where I sat, they bowed their heads.
Bibi was the same.
She knelt beside Raymon, clutching her skirt, and lowered her head. The face that had held a smile as innocent as a child’s was now strikingly serious. The sight of the hair and clothing of those kneeling before me spreading across the floor was astounding. It didn’t feel real.
“Raymon of Castline, representing everyone, expresses his gratitude to you.”
“…….”
“A favor shall be returned until both hands are full; revenge shall continue until both feet can no longer move. Yet, the grace I have received from you is so deep it cannot be measured by any means.”
A favor is returned ten times over through both hands and every possible method and means.
Revenge does not stop until it reaches the end desired by the victim. As long as it concerns the one who caused the grudge, no one is forgiven.
It was the unofficial motto of the Castline family. And….
“Therefore, from this day forward, Castline shall be your hands, your feet, and your sword.”
I was momentarily lost for words at something I had never even imagined.
‘That’ Raymon of the Castline family slowly kissed the back of my hand and the top of my foot.
With the utmost solemnity.
As if treating something that would break if touched incorrectly.
It was something I hadn’t even imagined in my dreams.
“I shall not allow even death itself to take your life.”
And, if things turned out like this, surely… it shouldn’t have happened…….
I couldn’t say anything and had to suppress my violently racing heart.
With a dazed face, staring blankly at Raymon, I must have looked pathetic.
Strangely enough, it felt like I was going to cry.
