Spring at the age of 19.
Archmage William's favorite disciple, Elisha Obern, met and fell in love with a man at a banquet, where she was forcibly dragged away by her teacher.
The young lion with black hair and blue eyes was Emperor Kaiden of the Atien Empire. He was an arrogant and beautiful man, who caught the eyes of everyone in the banquet hall.
The moment Elisha met his eyes, she realized that there was more truth to life than just mana and magic.
Summer at the age of 22.
Her body, which had learned magic all her life, changed with pregnancy. Her mana became entangled.
It is usually difficult to keep the child in the womb safe, but thankfully, Elisha's child was well.
Giving birth was more difficult than that.
Normal birth pains are great enough, but Elisha broke her tangled mana the moment the child left the womb.
It is a sentence that states that she will no longer be able to use magic in this life.
While continuing to spit out the blood that rushed from within her, Elisha gave birth to her child.
It was the product of a ceremonial relationship that was established only once with the marriage.
She would wither in the inner palace as the 2nd Empress, the mother of the 3rd Prince, who was not a successor. The emperor, who had never wanted this child, did not give the child a name.
Elisha called her child Leon, born with her own silver hair and the emperor's blue eyes. She called him the joys of her world.
Leon smiled brightly at his mother's call.
Her baby was so adorable that it filled Elisha's heart.
The truth of the world could not have been brighter than this.
Autumn at the age of 26.
Her beating heart slowed down little by little.
After two accidents that nearly killed young Leon, Elisha felt suffocated.
She could not tolerate even the slightest mistake, and she became so sensitive that small cracks were considered as a harbinger of a great threat.
As she became impatient, she could no longer wait for her child's slow steps. Elisha pushed the child.
He fell as he tried to move forward, his eyes were brimming with tears, and he looked at her sadly, but she bit her lip and endured it.
All of this is for the child.
Nothing could take precedence over the safety of the child.
Even the child's heart.
She said, "Someday you will know that there's no choice but to do this now."
However, patience does not result from compromise.
Even the light, which is as bright as ever, can repel the darkness. At that time, Elisha did not know that tears change color.
Winter at the age of 32.
The battle for the throne between Crown Prince Asensio, who lost his mother long ago with 1st Empress Isabelle, and her son, 2nd Prince Stonham, began in earnest.
Elisha stood by and took advantage of their fight.
And the results were revealed before her eyes.
The body was so clean that it looked like it was merely sleeping.
'Can I call you Mother just once?'
The prince who had asked Elisha with his eyes that were like an abandoned puppy's was dead.
With the face of a sixteen-year-old boy still remaining, the Crown Prince's time stopped forever.
In the hands of 1st Empress Isabelle, who killed his mother, who was the empress, in the thorough ignorance of his father, who merely watched as his mother died.
Elisha stared down at the prince who had given her his heart, for the humble reason that she was not his enemy. A prince who was so lonely because he couldn't even find a resting place in this spacious Imperial palace.
At that time, Leon ran past the knights who were blocking the way and fell on his face in front of Asensio.
"Brother! Brother Asensio!"
Holding him tightly in his arms, who does not wake up no matter how much he shakes, he glances up at Elisha.
"You could have saved him!"
"Had I saved him, where do you think the remaining arrows of the 1st Empress' palace will go?"
"Still, you were able to save him! What did he ever do to us!"
"Stop! There is no longer the crown prince of this country. He's just a traitor. But Leon, you too, are a prince, so make sure to protect your body!"
"Mother! Mother!"
When her son passed out because of her wickedness, Elisha had the knights drag Leon away. Elisha followed her son and stopped for a moment to turn her around. The soil on which Asensio was lying looked so cold.
Elisha removed the fingertips that were holding the robe that was on her shoulder. There must have been eyes staring at this place, but there must be no flaws.
Elisha raised her chin with a cold face and turned around. Deep inside, something creaked and cracked.
Now, Elisha thought that even if her son didn't smile at her, even if he complained as she took away his precious things. It didn't matter.
As long as Leon could do well, Elisha's own sacrifice was not a big deal.
The moment regret turns into obsession, becoming important is not important, but an excuse for yourself to keep moving forward.
A small vortex of flames swirled from the tip of Elisha's clenched fist, and the disappeared as if it had never happened.
She had lost her magic, but she finally found a replacement.
With this power, Elisha will give her son the best gift anyone in the world could ever want.
***
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter…
The four seasons that rotated around each other, but the other's tails and rolled in a circle.
The fast-sliding circle becomes two wheels, and a human body forms the bottom of the carriage.
Even without a horse, the blood flowing on the floor made the wheels slide more easily, and the fate pushing the back was fierce, making the carriage move faster and faster.
Elisha rode the carriage and carefully wrapped the gift she was holding in her arms.
Eventually, Elisha's carriage reached where Leon was.
Elisha, a rare spirit and evil woman who, even in her middle age, has the beauty of her youth, offered her son a gift.
For this moment, she had endured and struggled for a long time.
The results were finally seen.
Leon's eyes, which she had not seen for so long, met Elisha´s.
They were the same colors as the emperor's, whom she had killed, but Elisha passed the gift without avoiding the other's eyes.
"Is this the emperor's crown?"
Leon smirked, picking up what his mother had given him and twirling it around his fingertips.
The noble decorations for the emperor's head roamed around Leon's fingertips…
Changing!
And fell to the floor.
"You don't know how long I've waited for today. I've been dreaming about this moment at that time when I lost Janice, when I lost Asensio, and even when I lost Chad. The moment I'm most excited about."
Cough!
When Elisa saw Leon coughing, Leon refused her approach unconsciously.
Blood flows from Leon's lips.
Leon wiped the blood with the back of his hand and twisted the corners of his mouth.
"Have you ever loved me?"
Elisha's eyes shook greatly. None other for the reason that the truth was as true as much as this question shouldn't have to be asked.
But Leon acted as if he already had the correct answer, which was the complete opposite of Elisha's.
"I've been your every finger, haven't I? As a puppet to project your ambitions, to replace Father, who doesn't love you."
Elisha shook her head, saying no thoroughly, but Leon didn't seem to be impressed.
Leon vomited blood and collapsed.
The moment he heard that she was coming, he had been poisoned with deadly poison.
Leon fell to the floor as he continued to vomit blood.
Even then, he still rejected his mother.
Leon's face overlaps with Ascencio's on that day.
"Mother, why did you give birth to me? I've never been happy in my life…"
Leon, who had been blinking his eyes in difficulty, looked up at his mother and licked his lips, then slowly stopped moving.
The empty carriage that Elisha was riding on, without an owner, is blown away by the wind and falls forward.
Elisha, with her back on the empty carriage, fell down.
In front of Elisha, who knelt down on her knees, was lying her son, who was getting cold.
Why did it become like this?
I did everything I could.
Elisha reached out her hands and pulled her son's body.
The bitterness becomes a sharp spear that penetrates the whole body.
A fire erupted from Elisha's body.
She and her pact with the Fire Spirit King, Ignis, entangled in the black darkness, and she let out a scream.
Fwoosh!
With a loud explosion, fire engulfed the world.
Chapter 1. Return of the Villain
Elisha was drifting.
Like she was about to exist or disappeared without any weight or warmth.
But someone kept calling her.
No matter how hard she tried to remember who it was, she couldn't remember.
If it's really something she can't forget, she wouldn't have forgotten.
Elisha wanted to be completely destroyed.
However.
"Mother."
Tok.
A raindrop fell.
"Mother."
Tok.
Another raindrop fell.
"Mother?"
Tok-tok.
Sweet rainwater filled her ear and flowed into the earhole. It filled her whole body and overflowed, eventually squeezing out Elisha's closed eyes.
Then, a small, soft touch presses the corners of Elisha's wet eyes.
"Mother…"
Eventually, Elisha remembered who was calling her.
It's not that she forgot about him.
It was buried deep inside her. She just couldn't dare to take it out.
Elisha opened her eyes.
The two blue eyes that had approached her nose widened.
"Leon."
"I was wondering if you were sick. I never meant to be late for class, Mother."
Leon licked his lips and lowered his gaze.
He's around six years old?
Where did the young man who ate poison with his own hand and died in front of his mother went? And in place of him, a young child as small and immaculate as a chick was standing in front of Elisha.
Elisha hurriedly lifted her upper body from the table where she was lying down. Leon thought he would be scolded, but there was no particular agitation.
Elisha pulled Leon with both hands and held him in her arms.
Alive!
How lovely is this warmth compared to the body temperature that was getting colder?
My jewel that shines brighter than the truth of the world, my child.
"You don't want to go to class?"
"It's not like that, you said that to be a good person, I have to study a lot. To show the qualifications of a prince, I cannot show any gaps."
Leon felt awkward because his mother's arms were unfamiliar to him after a long time, but he gave a flawless answer as if he memorized them.
That little boy was already preparing to become an adult.
To that child, Elisha touched his cheek and told him the secrets of the world.
"You don't have to be a great person."
For the first time, Leon was flustered and asked.
He thought he heard her wrong.
"What?"
"You don't need to study a lot, and you don't have to work hard to show the qualification as a prince."
"Mother…?"
"Just be happy. Believe that tomorrow will be brighter than today, and be a person who can move forward. No, no. I don't want anything. Just you, Leon. Be the person you want to be. This mother means that she will love you whoever you become."
"Mother, you are really weird today. What's wrong with you?"
I was wrong.
But Elisha will never tell the child about it for the rest of his life.
"Let's have dinner together tonight. And let's go for a walk. We'll play until the middle of the night, and then we'll oversleep tomorrow. Okay?"
Leon, who had been hesitating over and over again, finally wiped his mother's cheek with his hand.
"Okay. I understand, Mother. I'll do that… Please don't cry."
Elisha didn't know that she was still crying. She was surprised, but quietly took the child's hand.
If this is not a dream, then it's a miracle that's given a new opportunity to meet her child again.
She stole a lot in the name of doing it for him, so she wanted to do whatever he wanted.
Elisha swore that she would be a good mother this time.