A Second First Encounter

“Who is that child?”

“Oh gee, Milady. That lad is a slave. Can’t you see the shackles?”

In response to the servant’s words, the light blonde-haired girl looked at the boy moving the lumber with eyes filled with innocent curiosity.

A well-kept appearance. Surely, the face was smeared with dirt, but the rare amethyst-colored eyes were gorgeous.

At that moment, the child stumbled. It was because he was hobbling on one leg. Simultaneously, the piece of lumber hanging on his shoulder fell.

“Oi! You rascal!” The servant shouted as he rushed forward. “Do you know how expensive these logs are?! You d*mn slave!”

The boy rolled helplessly at the servant’s kick. The servant ruthlessly kicked the child in the stomach.

Diana was flabbergasted.

“Stop it! What do you think you’re doing?!” she shouted, running towards them.

The boy on the ground was now completely covered in dirt. She squatted down, reaching out to him without paying attention to her dirty dress.

“Milady! He’s a filthy slave. Please don’t touch him!”

“He is not. Why are you calling him filthy?”

The esteemed daughter of the honorable Brien family reached out to the slave with confidence.

“Are you alright?”

“Milady, lazy slaves like this deserve proper discipline. So I—!”

“Even so, beating people like this is wrong!” The young girl confronted the servant, who was trying to block her way.

The boy—enduring all this ordeal in silence—lifted his bruised face. There wasn’t a spot on him that hadn’t been harshly beaten, and his leg throbbed as if it were broken. However, the girl’s words struck an unsettling chord with the boy.

‘F*ck, what is that d*mn girl saying?’

It was a clear ring of resentment. He was disgusted by the hypocrisy she spewed. If he had the strength, he would have wrung her neck.

That was how deeply consumed by evil he was.

The young girl saw something hideous lurking in the eyes of the fallen boy as he lifted his gaze at her. In his eyes, gleaming with murderous intent, he was like a wild beast. Still, Diana couldn’t read such emotions. She couldn’t tell of the profound hatred that could take away her life.

She was ignorant of people’s malice.

Seeing those radiant and dense emotions, she couldn’t pull away from his eyes.

Sympathy and loathing.

Such was the first encounter between Guiscard Lodbrook and Diana Brien.

◇ ◆ ◇

Their second first encounter was even more dismal.

Diana closed her eyes. A dreadful future seemed to unfold before her. She recoiled and looked again, astonished.

Guiscard, that monster, was approaching first. A thick smell of blood seemed to sip in. With her breath caught in her throat, Diana clenched her fist. She wanted to shout that they had to get rid of that monster right away.

No, she wanted to run away.

It was as if fate had come to get her back. ‘Ah,’ suddenly her stomach twinged with pain. ‘Ah. Aah!’ She wanted to kill that bastard.

No. She couldn’t.

She suppressed the emotions that were about to burst out, as she usually did. It was certain now that she had returned to being twelve years old. So it was her father, the head of the family, who had to chase him away.

Diana knew her father’s character well. The father in her memories was always strict. He was a man who would use the excuse of discipline to restrain her even more if she threw a childish tantrum. If she suggested sending Guiscard away, it would be seen as a ‘childish tantrum,’ and he wouldn’t listen.

‘I have to stop this. I have to stop this man.’

Diana looked at the boy with a collar around his neck. Seeing the child with the collar reminded her of herself. Indeed, putting that collar on her on the wedding day was his revenge.

It was absurd to the point of disbelief. She understood one of the reasons she despised him. Diana gazed at the monster that would ruin her life. Inside his purple eyes was no zeal for life, and it seemed he was already wandering in the abyss.

She turned away from that gaze, clenching her fist and biting her lips. She felt a fishy taste.

All sorts of hatred and fear resurfaced.

‘I want you to suffer, just like you made me suffer. I wish you would suffer again for all the torment you gave me.’ That was the cause, but what for? Punishment would come once again.

“I’m here to send you to hell.”

That sinister whisper sounded in her ears. God had given her punishment. She was undoubtedly repeating hell once more. Diana struggled to suppress her vindictive urge.

‘Stay calm. You need to stay rational.’

She needed to throw away that kid as soon as possible.

◇ ◆ ◇

“So—you’re saying you want to send him away because he seems up to no good?”

Duke Brien looked at Diana as he spoke. She nodded. She was tense, speaking in front of her father, hoping she would be judged as mature for responding to the Queen’s words today.

After all, she couldn’t stay still.

“How about sending him away as a gift for my twelfth birthday?”

Duke Brien narrowed his eyes. She was careful not to make it seem like what she was doing was a ‘tantrum.’ She tried to keep her expression composed and steady in her voice. Her father, whom she met again, was always a difficult figure. And Diana knew that this request would likely seem like a tantrum.

“That child has been given as a slave by His Majesty.”

“We can let him go for incompetence.”

How could she explain that that kid was the missing prince of Lodbrook Kingdom, and he would come back for revenge in the future? If she were to say such things, her father might send her to a mental institution. It was an absurd tale, after all. Why would the King of Fanberoux send the prince as a slave? Diana didn’t know.

“Diana, what’s the real reason behind all this? Is it really because of a feeling?”

Diana swallowed hard at the duke’s words. She couldn’t reveal the crucial information. Instead, she said, “His gaze was strange.”

“His gaze?”

“It looked like he wanted to kill us all.”

“Who? That slave?”

Duke Brien raised the corner of his mouth.

“I thought you had grown up, yet you still act like a child. Forget about the slave and focus on your embroidery or something.”

With that, Diana realized that her request had not been accepted.

“I don’t intend to send that lad away.”

“….”

“So, don’t make a fuss about it.”

His stern words felt like a death sentence. Diana sensed a hint of obsession in his statement about never letting him go. She looked at her father as if he were a stranger.

Her father, despite being an imperialist, did not support the slave system. And even though he was gruff, he was fundamentally kind towards people, so the servants liked him.

Why did he bring in a slave? Why did he show no hint of compassion for the child he brought in? Diana somehow felt that she had to approach this issue carefully.

“I apologize, Father. I just wanted to act a bit spoiled.”

“….”

“I didn’t mean to interfere with your affairs, Father.”

As Diana put her hands together and bowed, warmth filled the duke’s eyes.

“You did nothing wrong. You will replace your mother’s position in the future, after all. You are too young now.”

“….”

“This old man doesn’t intend to remarry until you’re a proper lady.”

“Yes.”

“I hope you can take over behind me soon.”

Diana felt a sense of guilt for having looked at her father with cold eyes. She had resented her father for bringing Guiscard, the source of disaster.

This was the man he was. Nobles often remarried after the death of their wives to take care of household affairs, but Duke Brien longed for her mother and never remarried until the very end.

“Mirba will be in charge of the mansion, as usual. Do you know it, right?”

When the forgotten name was brought up, Diana tried hard not to frown.

Mirba, her mother’s childhood friend and handmaiden, had taken control of the mansion until Diana turned fifteen. The relationship between the two was the worst.

“Father, I’ll take care of that myself.”

“I appreciate the offer. But you haven’t learned anything about the management of the mansion, have you?”

Diana let out a small sigh. Everything felt so constricted. She had regressed in time too fast, with no freedom in sight.

◇ ◆ ◇

“Miss, where are you going?”

Mirba appeared as Diana stepped out of the mansion. She came from a humble background as the daughter of a baron; however, she dressed ostentatiously to the point of vulgarity, dousing herself in strong perfume as if she wanted to make it clear that she was an aristocrat.

‘Oh, I truly despise it.’

Diana frowned.

“I’m going for a short evening stroll.”

“Oh goodness, you shouldn’t learn to wander around at night so soon.”

When Diana was young, she didn’t understand, but now she knows exactly what this tiresome relationship she had with Mirba meant. That comment was undoubtedly mocking. Diana wanted to punish her for her arrogant remark, but she widened her eyes instead.

“Father goes out at night, too. Are you implying that Father is not honorable?”

“Pardon?”

“His Majesty calls him to work at night… I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”

“Miss, that’s because of work. It’s different circumstances.”

“Father also goes for a night stroll with His Majesty, though?”

Diana passed by her with a light smile. She had too much to do. When she did manage to free herself from that woman, she was only fifteen. She wanted to get rid of that annoying woman immediately, but she had other things to attend to.

She glanced back to see if Mirba was following, but fortunately, she didn’t.

The maids who served her knew about Diana’s hobby of stargazing at midnight and didn’t mind it, but Mirba was always like that. Diana knew it wasn’t out of concern or worry.

She looked around and nodded. There was an abandoned barn. The wafting smell was unbearable, but she didn’t care and opened the door. The moonlight spilled behind her, revealing a figure lying inside.

She pulled out the knife from her pocket.

“My dearest Ann, you must become someone who can always protect herself.”

It was an heirloom her mother had bequeathed to her before she died.

Approach that crouched beast and stab him in the throat. It wouldn’t be difficult. He can’t resist; he has a restraint collar around his neck.

Yeah, you don’t want to suffer.

I might as well just kill you.

Let’s end this nightmare.

The man who killed her family. The man who pulled her by the hair and turned her into a dog. The man who lusted after her, watching her wither away by his side. The man who abandoned her in the end!

‘I will break the chain of revenge!’

Diana’s eyes flashed. The blade she held gleamed a bluish tint in the moonlight. She was about to thrust the dagger downward, but she abruptly halted.

“Help… me…”

“….”

“It hurts… too much…”

A crying monster—no, a boy who was a victim—sobbing with pain. Observing his pitiful state, Diana attempted to brandish the dagger several times.

Diana lowered the dagger, looked at the harmless boy, and stepped back.

She gritted her teeth.

If this dagger—if this dagger moved, that boy would die. It was revenge on her enemy. Her family won’t have to die, and Alexia won’t have to die miserably. She won’t have to live in that cursed-like marriage.

But—but, why couldn’t she do such an easy thing!

Diana raised the blade with bloodshot eyes.

Yet, the dagger fell heavily to the side with a thud.

_