A flash of light ran through the darkness.
Enveloped in a feeling of floating like drifting between waves, the sensation in my hands and feet gradually returned.
Just like a body that had been sinking to the bottom of the water rising up to the surface, light appeared in my field of vision.
“—I was saved?”
Wondering why the pain had completely vanished, I raised my body.
“Where is this…?”
Not expensive velvet curtains, but coarse hemp curtains.
Not a four-poster canopy bed, but a normal bed stuffed with straw and cotton.
The ordinary room, clearly different from the luxurious interior of the duchy, looked familiar.
It was my birth home where I was raised—the mansion of the North Barony.
“What is the meaning of this…?”
I should have been riding in a carriage with Lawrence and gotten into an accident.
“Even so, why am I at my parents’ home?”
Was I miraculously saved after the accident and carried back to my parents’ home?
I remember nothing, but perhaps my memories flew away due to the shock of the accident.
Staggering to my feet and stepping out into the hallway, I opened my eyes wide.
“—May!”
Standing there was a girl with brown hair very similar to mine.
She was the second daughter of the North Barony and my younger sister, May.
Not Maisie or Mabel. Just May. Even though she is supposedly a noble young daughter, it is such a simple name. Not that I have room to talk.
“May! I missed you!”
“Sarah, older sister?”
Realizing that I might never meet her again, the usually cute May looked even cuter.
May blinked her large green eyes in bewilderment, but I couldn’t help being happy to see her once more.
Right next to her, another child of the same age as May popped their head out.
“Older sister? What’s wrong?”
It was my younger brother, Kei. He is May’s twin brother.
Not Cain or Kaylee. Just Kei. Even though he is supposedly a noble young heir, it is such a simple name. I really have no room to talk.
“Kei!”
“Whoa!”
When I instinctively leaped at him, Kei let out a protest with an embarrassed look.
“Geez, it hurts!”
My cute, cute younger brother and sister.
The twins were born when I was seven years old. Since I had been an only child until then, I remember agonizing because I wanted both a younger brother and a younger sister and couldn’t choose.
When I ended up getting both a younger brother and a younger sister all at once, I was endlessly happy.
Both the mischievous and slightly cheeky Kei, and the obedient, angel-like May, are my precious treasures.
The reason I decided to work at the Albright Duchy is also because of these two.
Kei will someday succeed our father and become the lord of this land, so I don’t want to leave any debts behind.
When May someday finds someone special and gets married, I want to prepare her for it without any shame.
Because I thought that way, I worked my hardest even at unfamiliar maid tasks. …Though I ended up getting fired in the end.
While hugging the two of you tightly all at once, a sudden sense of incongruity struck me.
“You guys shrunk!?”
“?”
“Wh-because, weren’t you about this tall the last time we met? Even so, to suddenly become so small…”
The last time I met my family was at my wedding with Lawrence.
My family, who had come all the way from the North Barony to the royal capital, were all completely stiff with tension, but Kei and May skillfully played their roles as ring boy and flower girl, respectively.
Lawrence had said he wanted to tailor outfits that fit Kei and May perfectly, and had new formal clothes and dresses made for them, so the measured sizes are still fresh in my memory. Both of them should have been a whole head taller than they are now.
“Both of you are already eleven years old, yet instead of growing taller, you shrunk…”
Could it be some kind of illness? My heart felt like it would break with worry, but Kei puffed out his cheeks with an exasperated look.
“What are you talking about, older sister? We’re nine years old, you know?”
“Eh!?”
Kei and May, who should be eleven years old, are nine!?
Kei doesn’t look like he’s joking, and May looks at me with pure eyes, asking, “Older sister, are you okay? Did you even have a dream?”
I ran all the way to the mirror hanging at the end of the hallway.
“No way…?”
The me in the mirror is certainly not as dramatically changed as growing Kei and May, but I do feel like I have indeed turned about two years younger.
“Just what… does this mean…?”
Two years ago. I was eighteen, so now I am sixteen. Not only is this before I met Lawrence, but it is even before I started working at my former workplace, the Albright Duchy.
“No way… has time rewound?”
Behind me as I stood stunned, Mother happened to walk by.
“Oh, Sarah.”
My mother is someone who closely resembles a downtown matriarch rather than a noble lady. Even now, carrying a basket of picked garden weeds, she is cheerfully heading toward the kitchen.
“Sarah. I’m going to brew tea for a guest, so can you help me?”
This reaction, by no means, fits the situation of “a daughter who was on the verge of death from an accident has made a miraculous recovery.”
No matter how easygoing and leisurely Mother is, she should at least worry a little bit about my condition. Probably.
“For such a miracle to happen… I can’t believe it…”
Just as May said, maybe I was dreaming.
But the realistic sensation still lingering in my mind didn’t feel like a dream at all.
The sight of the person I love growing cold could not be expressed by the word despair. It was far more painful and agonizing than dying myself.
—I want Lawrence to live.
I remember wishing that so strongly on the verge of death.
If God granted my wish and turned back time, I will never repeat the same tragedy twice.
It was an ill-matched and mismatched marriage from the very beginning. Rather than causing Lawrence to die, it would be better not to be bound to me at all from the start.
“I will never let Lawrence die again!”
With that resolve, I clenched my fists.
—My lord, I love you. Please divorce me!
Even though we aren’t married yet! Please divorce me!