Chapter 2
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Chapter 2 : I Must Become a Troublemaker (2)
Her fiancé started a rebellion.
And he killed her brother.
The Emperor’s imperial seal, God knows when it was stolen, had fallen into the traitor’s hands, and the only thing Legina could do was flee. With the help of the head maid and her escort knight, who had cared for her since childhood, Legina barely escaped. She then took up a sword to revive the usurped Imperial Family and the fallen Empire. Discovering her talent for swordsmanship after 23 years was an unexpected bonus.
The beginning was promising. The remaining pro-Emperor nobles and common people supported and followed Legina, who held both justice and a legitimate cause. However, as months and years passed—one month, two months, half a year, one year, and two years—justice and the legitimate cause scattered like sand slipping through her fingers. Exhausted nobles and common people began to leave Legina’s side one by one. To be honest, it was remarkable that anyone had believed in her and followed her for two whole years.
The end came in that way.
Legina, alone amidst the ruins permeated with the smell of burning corpses and blood, barely supported herself, leaning on her sword stuck in the ground. Her ragged breaths were mixed with the scent of blood, and her short-cropped black hair was tangled and messy, soaked in sweat and blood.
Forcing her swaying body, which looked as if it would collapse at any moment, to stand upright, Legina glared at her former fiancé, who stood with numerous soldiers behind him, and his woman—no, his sorceress.
“Just give up now. It’s over.” The traitor said calmly.
“You, I am the one who declares the end.”
At Legina’s answer, mixed with a harsh, metallic sound, the sorceress, her lips curled into a smile, stepped forward and repeated the traitor’s words.
“Give up.”
“As long as my name is Legina B. Alpere, that will never happen.”
“If you give up now, we will let you live. You have nothing left anyway, do you?”
“Why would you let me live?”
“Because you have a duty to survive and watch this empire be torn apart and thrown into the gutter.”
“It would be beneficial for you traitors to kill me, just as you did my father and brother.”
It was one of the things she had realized while fleeing the Imperial Palace and fighting countless battles against the traitors. The Emperor, whom she thought had died suddenly, was murdered. And it wasn’t just a simple killing. He had been toyed with, made to cross the river of death at any moment they desired.
“Why don’t you try it on me too? Was it the Witch’s Tear? You used it a lot on my father, and on others too.”
“A provocation made with an antidote prepared only makes you seem petty.”
“Such words cannot be attached to the actions of an Imperial Family member.”
“Yes, only God can judge the actions of the Imperial Family.”
Legina gritted her teeth at the sarcastic tone. She hated Hermann, who watched this situation like a bystander, more than the babbling sorceress.
If only I had realized it then…!
The Emperor was poisoned at the birthday banquet of Legina’s younger brother, Theore, the Imperial Prince of the Ellias Empire, when he was eleven years old. At the time, no one realized that the dagger wielded by the approaching servant had been coated with a poison called ‘Witch’s Tear.’ Everyone simply breathed a sigh of relief that it had only resulted in a slight superficial wound. They had tested for poison just in case, but no one imagined that an ancient poison called ‘Witch’s Tear,’ undetectable by current technology, had been revived and coated on that dagger. Furthermore, they had no way of knowing that the Witch’s Tear could have its activation time adjusted at the whim of its creator. That was their biggest defeat.
“Tell me, traitorous sorceress. Is my brother… is my brother, who died at the hands of that damned traitor, also your creation?”
Her brother, who changed from a troublemaker to a pushover overnight, even though he suffered an accident. At the time, she hadn’t thought deeply about it, but looking back, the question remained: could a person’s personality change so drastically?
“What difference does knowing the truth make now?”
At the sorceress’s reply, Hermann, who had been standing silently until now, subtly moved his hand, prompting the soldiers waiting behind them to advance. Legina gritted her teeth as she watched the traitor’s soldiers approach, slowly closing in like a noose with their pointed spear tips.
“Do you think I’ll give up easily?”
Legina gathered all her remaining strength, straightened her posture, and glared at the traitor and his sorceress standing behind the soldiers. Overwhelmed by her suddenly changed demeanor, the soldiers halted their steps and looked to their master for orders.
Smiling slowly at this, Legina reached inside her armor, which was crumpled and torn in many places, and pulled out a necklace.
“Th-that’s!”
It was the first emperor’s relic. She didn’t know how the traitor’s sorceress recognized a relic known only to the Imperial Family and stammered in such surprise, but the sight of her pale face was quite satisfying, allowing Legina to smile.
“I intend to bet on this.”
A red stone said to grant wishes in exchange for a life.
Seeing it sway on a silver chain, the sorceress tried to rush towards Legina, but the soldiers blocking her path slowed her down. That became Legina’s opportunity.
Honestly, it was just a legend passed down from the time when gods existed. However, this was Legina’s only hope to cling to. If it succeeded, it would be good, and if it failed, it wouldn’t matter. She would at least avoid the humiliation of giving her life to those traitors.
Legina smiled at the sorceress rushing through the soldiers and the traitor, who was frantically ordering his soldiers to make way, then lifted the sword she had plunged into the ground and cut her own throat. Her sword, chipped in many places from battle, once again soaked its surface with its owner’s blood.
“No!”
The sorceress’s scream echoed in the distance, and the world began to move slowly. And Legina, starting to fall to the ground, saw the red stone, soaked in her own blood, begin to glow.
‘What do you wish for?’
‘I want to correct my mistake…’
‘What mistake?’
‘…My brother…’
Why did her brother’s face appear in response to the intertwined questions from several different voices? Well, for the past two years, she had constantly regretted, “If only I had left Theore to live as a troublemaker, I wouldn’t have been pushed to this extent…” She had thought “what if” every day.
‘Is that truly all you want?’
‘…Yes.’
So Legina nodded. If Theore had remained a troublemaker, he wouldn’t have pulled off the absurd act of being manipulated by swindlers and handing over the imperial seal, nor would he have been swayed by Hermann to increase the traitors’ wealth. He wouldn’t have been a pushover Crown Prince who only said “YES,” but rather an utterly unruly Crown Prince who could control the nobles as he pleased…
No, wait a minute.
‘Yes, I understand.’
‘Wait, just a moment!’
‘I will grant your wish.’
‘Ah, no. That’s not what I meant…!’
Before Legina could even clean up the mess she had made, the gem’s light intensified and swallowed her. The world, momentarily brightened, instantly turned black and flipped upside down.
And so, Legina regressed.
When she first opened her eyes, she was trembling with fear, unsure how the necklace had interpreted her wish, leaving her no time to grasp the abnormal situation. After confirming that she had merely gone back in time, regressing to the past, she became unable to doubt the absurd situation of “regression.” She had fallen asleep trembling with fear that the necklace might have done something foolish, only to wake up in the morning, repeating this several times. Now, too much time had passed to doubt this situation.
“Fifina, winter.”
Even the timing of her return was excellent. If she had returned any younger, there would have been little she could do in her name, and if she had been older, it would have been after the Emperor had been poisoned.
“Is it because it’s an heirloom left by my ancestor? I’ve returned to a very advantageous time.”
Legina offered her gratitude to the first emperor, whom she only knew from portraits, then rose from her bed and walked towards the window, where morning sunlight streamed in.
She had returned.
So, what should she do now?
For a very brief moment, she considered abandoning everything and escaping, but discarded the thought as soon as it arose. She was the princess of the Ellias Empire. She had enjoyed its privileges since birth, and she couldn’t simply enjoy the rights and abandon her duties as a member of the imperial family. Others might laugh and call her foolish, but Legina didn’t want to do anything so undignified. It was Legina’s usual belief that an imperial family member must maintain their dignity, even if their opponents acted basely. Thanks to that belief, she had endured until her final moments before regression, and she didn’t want to change that belief now.
So, the conclusion was that she had to deal with Hermann, her fiancé and the future traitor of this empire, and his sorceress…
“No, before that, I have to deal with Theore somehow.”
What should she do with Theore? She would prevent the future where he became a pushover, as happened before her regression. But she couldn’t just let him run wild as a troublemaker either.
“He’s such a guy with no moderation…”
Legina sighed, lost in thought. To be honest, she had already found the answer. Before her regression, she had lamented that it would have been better if Theore had grown up as a troublemaker, constantly thinking “if only” and “I would have done this…” every day. Her current contemplation was merely, “Is there any other way besides that?”
She gently pushed the window open, and the cold winter wind brushed against Legina’s soft cheeks and her glossy black hair, which stretched long down to her hips. That helped clear her head. Why ponder when there was already a method that guaranteed the most certain effect?
“Yes, I’ll do it. That’s the only way.”
Legina had a lot to do. So she would discard useless worries.
Legina’s violet eyes gleamed with determination.
