A sticky hand tightened around Lisi’s throat. The grip choking her neck was stronger than usual. Perhaps something unpleasant had happened today. Whenever Alford was in a bad mood, he always took it out on Lisi.
“Ghk….”
A pained groan slipped from between her parted lips, but Alford did not care.
“Damn it. Damn it.”
He spat curses and only tightened his grip.
‘Ah… I see.’
So today was the day she would die.
It had been quite some time since Lisi noticed the change in the way Alford looked at her. Lisi was already nearing forty. There were many women who wanted to become the second wife of the wealthy Alford. To him, Lisi, whom he had brought from the ducal house and made his wife, had become nothing more than garbage he could not easily discard.
Her lungs screamed after being denied oxygen for so long. Her vision blurred.
She had always wanted to die, but never had the courage to do it herself.
Yes. Dying like this was not so bad.
To die at the hands of a man she despised suited the end of this pitiful and miserable life.
Even then, a bitter smile slipped out.
‘Why did I live like this?’
If she had known she would die like this, she should have tried something. Anything. Even if it meant risking death.
Why had she lived the way they told her to live? The way you told her to live? The way all of them commanded?
The face of Brittany she had seen not long ago came to mind. Now an empress, Brittany had looked extremely happy.
Brittany had everything.
A husband standing at the very peak of power, healthy and adorable children, and even Count Kayvrant Green, who had once been her lover.
They had both been born daughters of the same duke.
Yet the lives of Brittany and Lisi had turned out so differently.
‘You were always the protagonist.’
Iris had been called the Flower of the Whitlow Ducal House, but she had never been a flower even for a moment.
The real flower of the Whitlow Ducal House had always been Brittany.
Brittany had trampled and broken Lisi countless times so that Lisi could never become a flower.
Even so, Lisi had lived without screaming once. If she was trampled, she endured it. If she was broken, she endured that too.
And this was the result.
Even the blurry vision was gone now. As darkness swallowed everything, sudden fear gripped her.
‘Is this really the end?’
She had thought she would have no regrets. Wishing for anything in this world had always been a luxury to her.
But as death suffocated her, one thought filled her mind.
‘I don’t want this.’
Not once had she ever experienced happiness.
‘I don’t want to die like this.’
To leave this world without tasting even a fragment of happiness was unbearably cruel.
‘Just once more….’
A new life.
‘Just once more….’
Fiercely.
‘Just once….’
She wanted to live happily.
Her earlobes burned. She had thought everything was over, so it felt strange to feel pain.
“Is that true?”
A small voice seemed to echo within the heat.
“Do you really want to live again?”
It sounded like the chirping of a small bird.
She wanted to answer yes, but no voice came out.
Something snapped.
And Lisi realized she had completely died.
So death was this easy and empty.
The moment she became aware of death, countless things began to pass before her eyes.
‘Is this what they call a life review?’
It was something Lisi had experienced, and yet something she had not.
It was the past, and the present, and the future.
‘I thought a life review only showed things you experienced in the past….’
Apparently not.
Information flooded her mind like a tidal wave. Even though she was dead, the headache was so intense it frightened her.
Hadn’t death meant everything ended?
Was this the beginning of new suffering?
Would death not even grant her rest?
Was she destined to live in eternal hell?
“Live.”
The chirping voice sounded again.
And then.
Iris opened her eyes.
+++
Lisi blinked.
It had already been a month since she died, returned through time, and came back to life. Yet she still dreamed of that moment.
Every time she woke up, goosebumps covered her body.
She feared the nightmare was reality and reality was the nightmare.
At first, when she returned in time, she thought she had simply had an extremely long nightmare.
But when events from that dream began repeating themselves, she realized it had not been an ordinary nightmare.
Unbelievable as it was, Lisi had lived a life like a nightmare, died, and returned through time.
She stared quietly at the familiar ceiling.
Then she noticed mold in the corner.
It had rained for several days now, and the mold had appeared again.
Bang!
The door burst open without a knock, and a maid walked in.
“Miss. Are you still lying down?”
The maid asked irritably.
No one would imagine that Iris, known as the Flower of the Whitlow Ducal House, was treated like this inside the estate.
Within the Whitlow Ducal House, Lisi’s position was lower than even the maids.
“I was just getting up.”
Lisi obediently climbed out of bed.
“Try getting up earlier. We’re busy today because an important guest is coming.”
The maid threw a rag at her. Lisi shifted slightly, and the rag struck the end of the bed before falling to the floor.
“Come out and clean the hallway windows. Change into your dress after that.”
“Alright.”
“Honestly. You never take initiative to do anything. Do you think you’re actually the duke’s daughter or something?”
The maid muttered and left the room.
Lisi picked up the rag from the floor and smiled coldly.
“I’ll gladly refuse the position of the duke’s daughter.”
Duke Globurn Whitlow had two daughters.
The elder daughter Brittany and the youngest, Iris.
Among them, Iris was especially beautiful and graceful, so people called her the Flower of the Whitlow Ducal House.
Duke Whitlow himself openly declared that he cherished his youngest daughter Iris so much that he wished to keep her by his side forever instead of marrying her off.
That was only in public.
In truth, Iris was the daughter born between Duke Whitlow and a maid.
It was not uncommon for nobles to have children with lovers, but those children were rarely acknowledged as legitimate.
A child born with a maid was even worse.
The Duchess Whitlow had intended to erase the terrible event of her husband fathering a child with a mere maid.
When she entered the shabby room to kill them both, she saw the newborn baby in the maid’s arms.
And she changed her mind.
“Kill the maid. The child will be mine.”
The duchess spoke in front of the duke.
“You want to… raise that child?”
“Yes. That child will grow up very beautifully.”
“We already have a beautiful daughter. And it’s not even a son. There’s no need to raise—”
“I will not give my daughter to just anyone. But that woman’s daughter is different.”
A cruel smile spread across the duchess’s lips.
“Raise her well. Make her beautiful. Then sell her when the time comes.”
And so Iris became the daughter of the Duchess Whitlow.
She received countless lessons as the duke’s cherished youngest daughter and grew into a “valuable commodity.”
But that did not mean the ducal family cherished her.
They treated her worse than a maid.
They abused her, beat her, and starved her.
The atmosphere of the ducal family spread among the servants.
At first, the small acts of harassment done secretly behind the family’s back grew little by little.
Eventually Brittany deliberately ordered the maids to kick Lisi or force her to kneel before them.
Brittany loved humiliating her.
“Make her do something. She needs to learn housework if she wants to be loved by her husband.”
That was how harassment worked.
At first someone may have pitied Lisi.
Someone else may have thought, ‘But she’s still the duke’s daughter….’
But when one person took the lead and said, ‘It’s fine. You can do more,’ cruelty spread through everyone’s hearts.
To the people of the Whitlow Ducal House, Lisi was someone they could do anything to.
After finishing the cleaning, she changed into a dress.
Since an “important guest” was coming, the maids brought out the finest dress and helped her put it on.
They were tightening the corset when the door suddenly opened without knocking.
“Iris!”
Brittany entered cheerfully.
Unlike when they dealt with Lisi, the maids bowed respectfully to Brittany.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Just hurry and finish dressing Iris. She’s meeting the man who’ll become her husband for the first time, so she has to look pretty.”
Brittany looked unable to contain her excitement.
“Iris, you’re so lucky. Marrying Alford, the master of that massive merchant guild. Everyone will envy you.”
Alford.
‘So I really did return through time.’
Life had been ordinary until now, so she sometimes wondered if the regression was real.
But Alford’s visit today confirmed it.
She had lived until nearly forty, died at the hands of her husband Alford, and after seeing countless things within death, returned to the age of twenty.
‘It was the right choice to go find Kay immediately.’
A month ago, when she came back to life, Lisi had gone to Kay right away.
She did not want to live the same life again.
She did not want to stain her new life with the same dreadful blood.
Using the information she learned while drifting through death, she negotiated with Kay.
After returning home, she was beaten badly for disappearing from the estate for several days.
But she did not regret it.
And today.
Alford was coming.
In her previous life, he had also come on a day like this.
‘And I obediently married him according to Duke Whitlow’s wishes. Without even the smallest protest.’
In this life, Lisi had no intention of dying after living such a pathetic life.
‘This time, whether I die or live will be my decision.’
Suddenly—
Brittany grabbed Lisi by the hair and yanked hard.
“Hey, I’m talking to you. Are you not paying attention?”
Lisi moved only her eyes and looked at Brittany.
Brittany frowned.
“Where do you think you’re looking?”
“You told me to pay attention to my sister—”
Smack!
Brittany punched Lisi in the head.
“Who’s your sister? Didn’t I tell you to call me Miss?”
“Yes, Miss.”
Lisi answered obediently.
Satisfied, Brittany released her hair with a smile.
“Anyway, I saw that man at a party once. He’s incredibly fat. His face was dripping with grease. Looking at him, you’ll probably live comfortably over there. Though I’m worried you’ll end up with a big belly and greasy face like his.”
“……”
“But who else would want a girl like you as a wife? Be grateful and serve that man well. Understood?”
“Yes, I will.”
“And don’t do anything that would disgrace our family. Though honestly, what could someone like you even do… but when I think about it…”
Brittany leaned toward Lisi’s ear and whispered quietly so the maids could not hear.
“Your mother was a loose woman. I’m worried you’ll turn out the same. Blood doesn’t lie.”
She had heard those words hundreds of times. They no longer hurt.
Until now she had endured such insults silently.
But she had no intention of doing that anymore.
Brittany stepped back with a proud smile, as if she had just delivered the greatest insult in the world.
This time Lisi stepped closer.
Then she leaned toward Brittany’s ear and whispered.
“By that logic, your father is the same.”
“What…?”
Brittany’s eyes widened in disbelief.
She opened and closed her mouth in shock, forgetting even to get angry.
Just then a maid rushed into the room.
“Miss! Miss! Something terrible has happened!”
“What is it?”
Brittany snapped irritably.
But the maid continued excitedly.
“Count Green is here. Count Kayvrant Green has come to visit!”
Lisi smiled.
Kayvrant Green.
So he had decided to accept the deal.