01

A groan naturally slipped from between Rudbeckia’s lips.

Oh my. Her whole body tingled. Both arms, both legs. Even when she straightened her back, a sharp scream burst out involuntarily.

“Ah!”

And she was the most surprised by that sound.

Her voice came out, and her body hurt. In front of her eyes, she saw her fingers and the hem of her skirt.

Startled, Rudbeckia inhaled and felt her shoulders rise, then touched her shoulders.

“Huh?”

Huh? I’m moving? What is this? Why am I moving? Why is my voice coming out?

She was instantly horrified and plopped down in the chair she presumed she had been sitting in until just now.

She muttered in a weak voice.

“Finally, I’m dead.”

After a moment of chilling fear brushed past Rudbeckia, an indescribable immense joy rushed in like a flood.

The joy that pushed away the fear filled her with unbelievable delight.

“Really!”

Dead…!

“Rudy, what kind of dream did you have?”

The voice that was about to shout in joy got stuck in her throat.

Rudbeckia quickly turned her head toward the familiar voice she heard.

“I told you to take a nap because you said you didn’t sleep much after making medicine yesterday, and now you’re talking crazy.”

The face she missed, the nagging voice she longed for.

She covered her mouth with her hand.

It was Irene. Irene, who had been her friend and family, visiting her every other day for three and a half years, was here with her where she had died.

Rudbeckia, who was about to roar with joy, thinking she had finally found eternal rest, was truly at a loss after finding Irene.

“Rudy, why are you sweating so much? Do you want some water?”

“Irene.”

“Yeah. Do you want cold water?”

“Why did you die?”

Was there something she didn’t know about?

With a pale face, Rudbeckia lifted her numb legs and approached her friend. Irene calmly observed Rudbeckia and then spoke, seemingly amused.

“Even if I’m an illegitimate child, I’m still a princess. No matter how much it’s you, you’d get arrested for what you just said.”

“……”

“So, cold water?”

Rudbeckia didn’t answer, but Irene handed her cold water.

Even while absentmindedly drinking the water, Rudbeckia kept looking at Irene.

Feeling burdened by her friend’s gaze, Irene slowly moved away from Rudy and pretended to be busy, which was unlike her.

Rudbeckia’s gaze didn’t leave Irene. She rolled her red eyes following her movements, wondering why Irene had died, trying to guess the reason.

Her own death was a matter of timing. Like poison spreading and paralyzing her whole body, it wasn’t strange to die at any moment.

But not Irene. She shouldn’t have died as meaninglessly as she did.

“Rudy, the small round product you mentioned is selling well. It was a good idea. I only thought it looked like rabbit droppings.”

At that moment, Irene picked up a glass bottle and inspected the bottom. Lost in thought, Rudbeckia widened her eyes a beat late. A familiar bottle, a familiar product.

Rudbeckia’s gaze, which had been fixed only on Irene, finally began to take in her surroundings.

This place was a space Rudbeckia knew all too well. The seats, the sign, every little trinket was filled with their efforts, their workplace, the healing shop.

“Rudy?”

Rudbeckia hastily put down the water cup and grabbed the glass bottle containing the healing medicine she was sure she made. The small pellets, described as rabbit droppings, rattled around inside the bottle.

“When did I make this?”

“Look at the date, silly. You made it yourself until dawn.”

Rudbeckia’s body froze instantly upon checking the date. With a loud crash, the glass bottle shattered at her feet.

“Rudy! Are you okay? You’re not hurt?”

July 18th, Year 7 of the Gayard calendar.

Exactly four years before the last date Rudbeckia remembered lying in bed.

Rudbeckia was not yet married, and Benedict was still a prince who hadn’t staged a coup.

“You need to go home and rest today.”

Come to think of it, Irene, who was worrying about her, had the appearance she remembered from that summer when they were twenty-two.

It seemed she had somehow returned to the time when she knew nothing.

* * *

She considered all possibilities under the assumption that the time she stood in was truly when she was twenty-two.

Either her twenty-six-year-old self was having a long dream, or she was actually dead but lingering here due to regrets about the past.

Or perhaps it was the will of the goddess Rever, comforting her who was quickly poisoned and didn’t live out her life.

Rudbeckia even brought in a god she usually didn’t believe in to ponder.

Of course, no answer came. So she changed the direction of her thoughts. If she really had returned to being twenty-two, how would she live?

She made various plans, but in the end, she wished for only one thing.

‘To somehow just live out my life.’

To do so, the place she needed to avoid the most was the imperial palace.

Rudbeckia stayed up all night, reviewing and writing down a series of memories. She mustn’t get swept up in events and end up married again.

With a serious face, Rudbeckia was memorizing important events that would occur over the next four years.

“Rudy, why are you eating so little since last night?”

Aaron, who was sitting across from her, asked bluntly. Right now, Rudbeckia was in the carriage with her brother, Aaron, who was on his way to work.

Lost in her own thoughts, she rolled her eyes. A face similar yet different from hers looked at her suspiciously.

“No, I ate a lot.”

“But you ate as much as a bird this morning too?”

“I guess I just don’t have an appetite.”

“Then why don’t you have an appetite? Is business not going well?”

Why do you keep doing strange things?

Do you think business is easy?

How long are you going to do that? Don’t you plan to recover your reputation in society?

Rudbeckia turned her head, pretending not to hear the nagging that came flying.

In the past, she would have snapped back, but her brother frowned as his sister, who should have fiercely argued back, ignored him without a word.

“Are you sick somewhere?”

“Sick? No. I’ll go first.”

The carriage reached the center of the capital. The second shop in the southeast alley of the circular plaza was Rudbeckia and Irene’s workplace.

“Aaron, you work hard for the empire again today.”

The carriage stopped, and as she got off, she added.

“But don’t work too hard.”

It was a statement people wouldn’t expect to come from Rudbeckia.

Genuinely worried about his sister’s condition, Aaron got off the carriage and called her escort knight.

“Hugo, something’s off with her today.”

“I told you. Miss. You’ve been different since yesterday.”

The orange-haired man sitting next to the coachman openly glanced at the small, precious Miss. Though she knew the conversation was meant for her to hear, she slowly crossed the vast plaza.

Aaron’s jaw dropped at Rudbeckia’s dry attitude. Leaving the dumbfounded Aaron behind, Hugo hurriedly followed after the Miss.

“Miss, aren’t you opening the shop too early today?”

Next to the statue of the first emperor in the center of the plaza stood a clock tower.

The hour hand pointed to ‘8’. Considering that shops usually open at 11 AM, 8 o’clock was definitely early.

“If you’re tired, Hugo, go get some rest in the break room.”

“What would I be tired from? Are you going to tinker again?”

Rudbeckia nodded vaguely as her pace quickened slightly. What was once an ordinary daily routine now felt strangely unfamiliar.

Soon, she reached the small shop and took out her key to open the door. The morning sunlight revealed floating dust particles.

As if she had done the same yesterday, she picked up the newspaper placed in front of the store and opened the door wide. While ventilating the shop and brewing tea, she began some light cleaning.

It was a habit that both her mind and body remembered.

Soon, she skimmed through the newspaper while drinking warm flower tea on the summer morning, then handed it to Hugo. She didn’t want to see what the current emperor had said.

“Are you going in already?”

“Yes. When Irene comes, tell her I’m in the research lab.”

“Alright. Oh? This must be His Majesty painted by the new court painter they were talking about. Well done.”

Hugo muttered to himself, looking at Nicholas II prominently displayed on the front page of the newspaper.

Rudbeckia, who was gathering ingredients needed for medicine preparation, answered absent-mindedly.

“That painter will be replaced soon.”

“What? Why?”

Remembering how the new painter was replaced not long after, Rudbeckia easily recalled the reason.

“The emperor wasn’t satisfied with his hair color.”

Hugo’s eyes fixed back on the front page of the newspaper, thinking it was an absurd reason. He stared intently at the handsome middle-aged man’s bright yellow hair with an incredulous expression.

But Rudbeckia thought there was nothing strange about the court painter’s replacement.

“It makes sense. They painted him with golden hair instead of platinum blonde.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Well.”

The current emperor, the previous emperor, and the emperor before that were all born with platinum blonde hair and green eyes. For this reason, the current emperor’s platinum blonde hair and green eyes became a symbol and pride of his legitimate lineage in the Lorkan Imperial family.

Irene, being an illegitimate child, would mock the imperial family’s color obsession, but even while doing so, she would stroke her own long golden hair.

Trying to explain the different feeling from Irene’s hair, Rudbeckia recalled her first impression when she met Benedict.

“Well. It’s like sunlight settling on the hair, if that helps you understand?”

“What? What’s settling on the hair?”

As Rudbeckia was about to persistently explain again to the bewildered Hugo–

“So, it’s like sunlight…”

A customer visited Rudbeckia’s shop.

“…settling on the hair.”

Just like that.