"Huk! Heo-eok..."
As her fading consciousness suddenly returned, Blair's eyes snapped open.
Her blurry vision gradually cleared, revealing an unfamiliar ceiling.
'No, no. That pattern is….'
Staring blankly at the ceiling pattern, Blair remembered that it was the ceiling of the imperial palace where she had stayed before her marriage.
'Why am I in the imperial palace?'
Her last memory was of being attacked by an assailant at a villa in Holstein, far from the capital.
If she hadn't died, she should have been receiving treatment there, but for some reason, she was in the imperial palace.
Though she didn't know what had happened, there was only one thought in Blair's mind right now.
'Asiel!'
Our baby, he must have looked for his mother as soon as he woke up.
Blair hurriedly got out of bed and approached the door.
At that moment, the door opened from outside.
"Ah. You're awake, Your Highness? I was just about to wake you up."
It was Lina, Blair's personal maid.
Lina, who had served Blair in the Imperial Princess's Palace since childhood, had earned her trust and followed her to the Delmark Duchy after her marriage.
To Blair, she was sometimes like a sister, sometimes like a friend, a trusted confidant.
"Lina, where's Asiel?"
"Asiel?"
"Yes, Asiel. Where is he?"
"Who is that?"
Lina tilted her head, then let out a small exclamation as if she had just remembered something.
"Ah, is Asiel the name of that cat that's been lurking in the backyard lately?"
Blair, in her highly sensitive state, furrowed her brow.
"Lina, I'm not in the mood for jokes right now. Asiel, where is my son?"
"Eh? Son?"
Lina blinked in confusion.
"How could Your Highness, who isn't even married yet, have a son?"
"…What?"
Blair finally realized that Lina was addressing her as 'Your Highness'.
'Could it be….'
Blinking her confused eyes, Blair asked Lina.
"Lina, how old am I?"
Lina found it strange that Blair had suddenly forgotten her own age, but it wasn't a difficult question, so she answered promptly.
"You turned twenty this year. You came of age two months ago."
This can't be.
Hearing her age, Blair had no choice but to accept that an impossible assumption had become reality.
'I've come back three years.'
Before Asiel was born, before she married Herdin.
* * *
Blair attended a hastily arranged luncheon without time to gather her thoughts.
It was a weekly family meal attended by her brother Ivan, who was the Emperor, and her mother, Katrina.
Seven years had passed since the death of the previous emperor who had created this family tradition, but the tradition was being maintained as if continuing his will.
However, Blair's mind was completely preoccupied elsewhere.
'I thought I had died, but to come back to the past… Am I dreaming because I'm dead? Or was what I believed to be the future just a dream?'
As she chewed her food without tasting it, Blair reflected on her memories and came to a conclusion.
'No, that wasn't a dream.'
She couldn't explain it in words, but it wasn't a simple dream.
'Asiel's voice calling for me, the warmth of his embrace, his face… It's all so vivid.'
Making this moment all the more empty.
'My baby…'
Although she had miraculously returned to the past, this reality without Asiel felt like hell to Blair.
Her hope, her life, truly her everything had vanished into a trick of time in an instant.
As Blair was immersed in emptiness.
"Your Highness."
Lina, who had been waiting behind her, called out in a low voice and touched her shoulder.
"…Ah."
Only then did Blair snap back to reality.
"Blair, His Majesty is calling you."
Katrina was looking at Blair with a slightly irritated expression.
To her, her son who had become Emperor was a trophy she had obtained by dedicating her entire life.
Ignoring that trophy was tantamount to denying her entire life's work.
"You've been completely out of it. Did something happen this morning?"
"I'm sorry. I had an unsettling dream last night… What were you saying?"
"Nothing much, just make sure you prepare well for the marriage to Duke Delmark."
Ivan spoke casually about the marriage, which he hadn't even discussed with Blair.
Blair's eyes widened in surprise.
"I've already finished the negotiations. I've given him a suitable bait, so he shouldn't refuse."
It was an engagement that had proceeded without a single word to Blair, the person concerned.