“Lovely lady,” Carlyle tapped Lorelai on the shoulder, the same way he had greeted her at the masquerade ball in his last life. It had worked before, so it should work again. “Would you care to dance with me?”

Lorelai whirled around in surprise, having not sensed his presence. Her fingers twitched and Carlyle could almost envision the hidden weapon concealed within her dress. Lorelai never goes anywhere without a blade of some sort on her.

He held in the urge to laugh.

Lorelai recognized him, he could tell. Not from her previous life. Carlyle doubted that anyone could possibly remember the timeline that was erased when he turned back time. 

No, Lorelai recognized him as the infamous second prince. She scrutinized him for what seemed like an eternity to Carlyle, then held out her hand to him. “Sure.”

She was curious about him too. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have accepted. Carlyle’s gamble had paid off.

You shouldn’t force a lady to dance with you, Theodore had said. Carlyle didn’t, not this time.

He grinned to himself as he led her to the dance floor.

This time, Carlyle was a much better dancer than in his past life. He had practiced this time. He could sense Lorelai’s mild surprise at his dancing skills. No doubt, she must have thought him something of a hermit as Carlyle was well-known for keeping to himself.

Everything was going well. Carlyle even asked his father to increase security during the masquerade ball in preparation for the poisoning attempt. And just in case, he sent out several people to carefully watch the drinks for signs of anything suspicious. If the culprit strikes again, Carlyle is prepared.

“Why did you want to dance with me?” Lorelai asked.

Carlyle smiled. “I just felt drawn to you.”

Lorelai rolled her eyes. Carlyle found every single one of her actions endearing to him. He had full confidence that he could make her fall in love with him again.

Surprisingly for him, the ball in this life went smoother than his previous life. No one poisoned the emperor. After the dance, Carlyle and Lorelai went to the terrace again, just like in his previous life. And this time, they had a fun conversation that wasn’t interrupted by the untimely death of his father. 

The two got engaged not long after. Lorelai didn’t become the successor to the Ashburn Dukedom in this life. Not when she was to become the future Grand Duchess Elephy. 

Duke Ashburn was noticeably disappointed that she turned down her succession right to marry Carlyle, but he acquiesced to the decision of his beloved daughter. Lorelai then moved to the Duchy of Elephy in preparation for her marriage as the Ashburn Duchy was too far for Carlyle and Lorelai to meet regularly, and Lorelai didn’t want Carlyle to wear himself out from teleporting to Ashburn so often.

For five glorious months, Carlyle thought he had achieved his happiness ever after. He thought he had cheated fate.

Until one night, when he returned to his territory after fulfilling one of his father’s missions—to arrest a noble for illegal activities—he returned to a terrible scene.

He first knew something was wrong when he was greeted at the door by several distraught-looking servants. And his butler delivered him the awful news with a pale face. 

“The lady had been poisoned.”

Without hearing another word, Carlyle ran into his mansion. He can’t lose her again. How could he live without her?

“Lorelai!” He called out. “Lorelai!”

He stumbled into the dining room, startling several servants with his abrupt entrance.

“Where is she?” He demanded.

The servants immediately step back to reveal the figure of a fallen woman on the floor. Carlyle’s heart dropped when he identified her by her bright red hair. 

“Where’s the physician? Why isn’t anyone attending to her?” Carlyle demanded.

“Your Grace.” Someone stepped forward from the throng of weeping servants. 

Carlyle recognized him to be the mansion’s physician. 

“Treat her!” He demanded as he grabbed the physician by his collar.

“I can’t!” The physician flubbed in his grasp. “Her Ladyship has already passed away.”

Carlyle’s body turned cold as ice. “What?”

One of the servants spoke up. “It was one of her personal maids, Della. She was the one who served Her Ladyship her dinner earlier. And Della committed suicide after being detained by the guards.”

Carlyle let his grip on the physician relax enough for the physician to worm free from his grasp. Carlyle knelt down beside the body of his fiancée and cradled her head in his arm.

“Please, open your eyes!” He desperately touched her cheek. It was cold. She had traces of blood near her mouth as if she had vomited blood before she died. Just like the emperor in the past timeline.

Carlyle’s father was never poisoned in this life. They never found any trace of Lethrindor poison during the masquerade banquet. 

Then, how was it that Lorelai came to be poisoned by it? Is that the price to pay for letting his father live?

No, this couldn’t be the end. Lorelai didn’t live longer than her past life. She had died earlier. She died at nineteen in her past life and eighteen in this life. 

Why? What had he done wrong? What did she do to deserve this? 

If he had a clearer head, he would have thought to investigate Della. He would have looked into who instigated Della to poison her mistress. 

But he didn’t have a clear head. All he could think about is how Lorelai’s life had ended unfairly. Again. That and how much pain his heart was in, like someone had stabbed a knife into his chest.

How cruel the world was. How naive he had been to think he could be happy. Is this Solarius’s will? Why would a god allow someone like Lorelai to die like this?

He couldn’t accept this. He needed another chance. Just one more.

In that raw moment of anguish, Carlyle let his emotions take over his reason. He unleashed all the mana he had inside him and turned back time once more.