Following the divorce, House Ormos had to pay a considerable amount as alimony.

All of Cecilia’s wealth was managed by her guardian, Grand Duke Jericho.

Cecilia became the wealthiest noblewoman in the entire continent.

Well, she had never known material lack to begin with.

Still, the lifestyle she maintained wasn’t to the extent of excess and luxury.

It’s just, suddenly, her status rose by several heights.

All those around her treated her with reverence. 

She ate dishes prepared by the finest chefs every single day.

She had new clothes tailored so often that it was possible for her never to repeat the same outfit twice.

Bringing only their finest wares, jewelers visited the grand ducal residence so frequently that they had practically worn down the doorstep.

This was the happiest period in Cecilia’s life.

 

 

‘No, happiness…? Was that true happiness?’

Cecilia looked up at the sky.

She had led a tumultuous life.

It was a bright, piercingly beautiful blue, this sky she was seeing for the final time at age forty.

“Kill her!”

“Kill the wicked wench!”

The enraged mob shouted as they waved their furious fists in the air.

Cecilia stood atop the platform, the guillotine right there with her, as she looked down at the unrecognizable mass of onlookers.

‘Wicked wench, they say…’

Cecilia had been married a total of seven times.

Four of her husbands had died.

No, one of them—the one who had become impotent—hanged himself as well. So, that makes five dead husbands.

And the last one had gotten poisoned, too.

Here, Cecilia was standing at the gallows for the crime of poisoning her husband.

‘I didn’t kill him. I didn’t kill anyone!’

And yet, no one believed her. 

A soldier roughly grabbed the wrists that were bound behind her.

Despite her lack of resistance, he was rough with her and pushed her down mercilessly.

He shoved her neck down on the crescent-shaped groove of the guillotine and tied her arms in place.

Whiiiz!

The executioner’s axe cut through the air with a sharp sound.

Cecilia closed her eyes.

All she could wish now was for everything to end quickly.

 

❖ ❖ ❖

 

“Huuuk…!”

Cecilia woke up with a start.

The tears that had welled up in her eyes streamed down her cheeks.

With trembling hands, she touched her neck.

‘I’m… alive?’

Her quivering eyes looked around. It was dark.

‘Did they halt the execution? But no, that’s impossible…’

Cecilia was certain that she had felt the touch of death.

‘What time is it? Dusk? Or dawn? And where am I even… agh!”

Suddenly, she was struck with an intense headache.

It was as if someone was stabbing her head with an awl.

Vertigo struck, the world spun.

Nausea surged. She couldn’t even scream. 

Clutching her head with both hands, she curled up into herself.

A pained groan spilled through her clenched teeth.

But mercifully, it didn’t last long.

With the headache subsiding, chills ran through her body, causing her to shiver. 

“Miss!”

A sharp cry rang out.

Someone bustled over and pulled back the blanket.

When a cool hand touched her forehead, Cecilia let go of the breath she had been holding unknowingly.

“Miss, please come to your senses. Good heavens, look at all this sweat.”

That person’s hand touched Cecilia’s forehead and face here and there.

‘Who…? No, it can’t be…’

Cecilia was wrought with confusion.

Her memories were all tangled up.

The morning of her execution played vividly in her mind, with her being dragged to the gallows.

However, the memories from before she was the age of twenty were also so very clear. 

“Dark.”

Cecilia managed to utter a single word.

Her voice was hoarse.

“You collapsed, Miss, and my heart dropped to the ground the moment you did. I closed the curtains so you could sleep well, but… Just a moment please, I’ll open them again.”

‘This voice…’

It felt to Cecilia like she knew whose voice this was, but she could not believe it to be true.

The dimly visible woman had a stout frame.

She moved hastily and opened the curtains as she said.

With the middle-aged woman now visible to her, Cecilia stared at her blankly.

The room was bathed in sunlight in an instant.

When the face of the middle-aged woman was finally revealed, Cecilia felt her heart speeding up.

The middle-aged woman hurried back to the bedside, reaching out to touch Cecilia’s forehead again, examining her complexion.

“Let’s see. Your fever has gone down quite a bit, and your complexion isn’t bad either, Miss. Please, you should eat something. You haven’t eaten anything for a whole day because you’ve been sick.”

Cecilia stared blatantly at the middle-aged woman.

After a while, the woman smiled awkwardly back.

“Miss, are you still feeling unwell? Do you want to sleep a bit more?”

“…Nanny?”

“Yes, Miss.”

“Mirror.”

The nanny, Benjamine, didn’t seem fazed.

She merely shrugged the same way she always did, then brought a hand mirror as her lady wished.

The first thing Cecilia checked was her neck.

Not a single wound or scar.