Prologue part 2: The Second Dawn.

The sooner the punishment is served, the better.

(I didn’t do anything. So at least I’ll be resolute till the end.)

It was the only resistance I could muster right now.

The officers grabbed my arms from both sides as I turned my back to the handmaiden and began to lead me toward the exit of the prison.　

It was almost noon. Noon, the time of my scheduled execution.

My legs trembled.

(I won’t tremble. I haven’t done anything wrong!)

I struggled to move my legs, which were almost trembling with fear, and looked forward, staring at the gray stairs that led out of the dungeon.

But just as I stepped onto the stone stairs, an unexpected figure appeared from the upper floor.

I couldn’t believe it. It was the Crown Prince who suddenly appeared in front of me.

His chestnut brown hair was disheveled, and he was panting heavily. His brown eyes were bloodshot and red, and the cloak he wore over his armor was dirty. He must have just returned from the battlefield.　

“Your Highness! When did you return home?”

The Crown Prince stood in front of me and looked down at me arrogantly. His usually radiantly beautiful face was severely distorted.

“Liesel. … How foolish.”

I shivered. I couldn’t hold back and let out a huge sob.

Does the Crown Prince think I’m guilty too?

“Your Highness…”

Still, I was glad that the crown prince had come to see me before my execution. Even if he suspected that I had tried to poison the saint.

I had made up my mind not to cry, but as soon as I saw the Crown Prince’s face, my resolve collapsed.

The tension that had been holding me back slipped away, and my whole body gave way, and I fell to my knees on the floor. I throw my hands forward and hang onto the stairs.

(I don’t want to die! I don’t want to go to the execution grounds….!)

The stone stairs of the dungeon were cold and hard, and my knees hurt like they were about to break. But the fear and frustration I felt far outweighed the pain in my knees.

I couldn’t help but dread the execution that awaited me.

I would be tied to the outer wall of the royal palace amidst shouts of anger, and the executioner would cut off my head.

It has been decreed since ancient times that anyone who harms a saint is to be publicly executed.

My hands trembled on the hard stone steps, and my legs were weak with fear.

If I die, the Crown Prince and the saint will definitely be joined together. That’s what the king and the people want.

The saint would become the queen. 

The thoughts that I had been holding back overflowed and wouldn’t stop.

The Crown Prince slowly descended the stairs and stopped a few steps above me.

“Liesel, look up.”

At that moment, I raised my head as I was ordered.

A tremendous shock went through my body. I couldn’t believe what had happened to me.

The Crown Prince standing in front of me had thrust at my chest. The sword in the Crown Prince’s right hand pierced through the middle of my chest all the way to the middle of the shiny silver blade.

And to my surprise, his left arm, peeking out from under his fluttering cloak, was missing from the elbow down. Perhaps lost on the battlefield, it was wrapped in multiple layers of cloth and looked painful.

A piece of transparent stone fell to the floor, making a cool crunching sound. It was the rose-shaped ornament of my pendant, through which my body had been pierced. My grandfather, who had rushed from the distant state of Baral when my trial began, had given me the pendant as a good luck charm.

Now that it was shattered, it no longer protected me.

“Denka…”

I looked up at the Crown Prince, my eyes as wide as they could go.

My body slumped and fell onto the hard floor as I collapsed.

I couldn’t breathe in or out, and my white hand holding my chest was wet and slippery with my own overflowing blood.

The Crown Prince held me down as I trembled from blood loss and fear of death.

He plops down on top of me and begins to sob.

Why is the Crown Prince crying?

The crown prince’s chestnut brown hair fills my dying vision.

Oh, I’m going to die, I thought.

At the same time, in a corner of my mind, I felt somewhat relieved.

(Because it’s a lot better than being publicly executed…)

Even if it’s the cruelest way to end one’s life, being killed by the man you love.

Soon, the pain and the cold disappeared.

The final curtain falls, and my consciousness is released from my body.

My consciousness soared into the air as if it had escaped from my body.

I directed my consciousness downward and looked down to see my body lying on the stone floor. Her black hair was spread out on the floor, and her legs were stretched out helplessly, like a doll that had fallen to the floor.

The shattered pieces of stone glittered beautifully out of place.

(Oh, I’m dead. –I can’t believe it, but I’m looking down at my body right now…)

One of the bloodstained officers had finally taken the sword away from the Crown Prince. The other was pressing his cloak against my chest, desperately trying to stop the bleeding. It was ridiculous that they were trying to save my life when I was awaiting execution.

Crawling closer and cradling my dark-haired head is Katrin. She’s screaming at the prince about something, but I can’t hear a sound.　

(Don’t cry. It’s over. ……)

I felt my soul being pulled upward. I think I’m being called to God at this point.　

I just really wanted to ask one last thing.

–Did you fall in love with the saint?

I couldn’t move my mouth anymore to ask.

Did the Crown Prince love me?

My consciousness was slowly rising like a balloon, and I was almost at the ceiling of the prison. Even though I was underground, I could see a ray of light pouring down from the heavens. How divine.

If I followed this light upward, I would be able to go to heaven.

At that moment, there was a movement beneath me.

I saw the Crown Prince take back his sword from the officer and raise it again.

Isn’t one thrust enough?

(Do you still want to stab me when I’m already dead? Did you always hate me enough to kill me?)

My consciousness is pulled upward by a powerful force.

And with an irresistible pull, my soul is carried away. I thought that I would finally depart for the heavens.

The answer that I would not receive forever, I had to give up knowing.

In my fading consciousness, I thought.

　–Where did I go wrong, and what did I do wrong?　

I never want to live this life again.

If I were to be reborn, I want to be a person who lives a peaceful and ordinary life, completely different from Liesel Crow…

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Bang!

With a thud, pain shot through my body.

(ouch! ……)

When I opened my eyes, I saw a wooden floor in front of me.

I wonder where I am.

I placed my hands on the floor to get up and my breathing stopped when I saw them.

–Huh? Are these the hands of a child?

I stare at my hands on the floor for a while, not knowing what to think.

(Why am I a child…?)　

I was in the dungeon of the royal palace a moment ago.

I looked up shaken and saw a bed with half of its bedding on the floor.

Based on the fact that I was lying next to it and the shock I had just received, it seemed that I had fallen from that bed. My right elbow, which I had just hit, hurt like a bitch.

The stuffed bear that I must have rolled off with is crushed under my left arm.

“Where am I?”

I open my eyes in shock and look around.

A bed with white lace curtains hanging from the canopy, a chaise longue at the foot of the bed. The wallpaper was a pale green, and there was a large bay window. It was a room that looked awfully familiar.

(It’s my room… my room as a child!)

“Why? What–why?”

I held my head in my hands.

My brain couldn’t keep up with what was happening, and I froze in a daze on my knees.

I stood up, wobbly, and ran over to the large, life-sized mirror next to the bed and cling to it.

My hands tremble over the gorgeously carved edges, as I put too much pressure on them.

In the oval-shaped mirror, I see a girl in her nightgown, her purple eyes wide open to their fullest extent, her lips quivering.

“Huh, this is… me.”

Yes, it’s me, Liesel Crow. Wet feather black hair, a small nose and mouth.

My eyes are a mysteriously clear purple. I’m pretty cute if I do say so myself.

“I’m small…!”

　This was me when I was probably six or seven years old.

This can’t be. Impossible.

With that thought in mind, I ran toward the window with flailing legs and opened the floral curtains.

The dazzling morning sun instantly fills the room, and I squint my eyes at the brightness.

Outside the window, I could see softly curving hills of grass and a number of small forests. It was definitely Baral.

There was a conifer tree in front of the crumbling fence of our house behind the window. The tree was supposed to have been broken by a lightning strike when I had been eleven years old.

I staggered back from the window and collapsed from the shock.

My buttocks hit the long, furry rug on the floor with a thud.

“Why am I back in my child form?”

–Was I just a normal child, dreaming a long dream until now? A dream in which the crown prince had taken a liking to me and then killed me was too scary.

“No, that wouldn’t be the case. I remember everything.”

The person I loved was taken from me by a saint, and the person I loved killed me.

The shock pierced my heart, and tears flowed from both eyes.

But the voice that leaked out was so clear and high-pitched, it was the voice of a child.

I can’t help but think that time has rewound.

“I don’t want to be killed anymore…”

The Crown Prince never really loved me. Maybe he was just playing games, deceiving a rookie sorcerer who was a naive country aristocrat.

The only one who thought it was serious was me.

I was a fool.

I was the one who had no sense of self-respect.

It was a youthful mistake to think that I might be worthy of it.

I folded my still small hands and prayed to God, trembling like a small animal.

“…I’m not aiming for the crown anymore. I will be satisfied with a marriage that fits my status. I don’t like the fate of being killed!”

I put my hand on my chest where I was stabbed.

Although it was smooth and unscathed now, I could still clearly remember the heat and pain of the sword piercing me.

It couldn’t have been a dream.　

I don’t know why, but I have returned to a time long before I was killed.

(Surely, God gave me a chance to start my life over..!!!)

No more mistakes. This time, I won’t be put on trial.

I clenched my small fist, wet with tears, and made a firm decision to start my life over.

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