"Haa, haa...haa..."
She was losing her breath. She could feel her life slipping away.

However, she couldn't give up. It couldn't end this way. She was kneeling on the floor, and she leaned on her sword to pushed her body up. Please, just a little more...

Before her very eyes stood the man who killed her father and brother and hung their corpses on the wall as a spectacle for everyone. That wasn't all. Because of him, her sister, who was as lovely and as delicate as a small bird, had been violated and died a miserable death.

She had endured this living hell to survive this moment alone. All so she could stab the enemy in the neck with her own hands!

However...even with that goal in sight, she didn't have any strength to hold on to her sword. Please, please, please! She hoped she could drag him down to hell with her, for she was not afraid of death. As she struggled to lift the sword with all her might, she heard slow footsteps coming towards her, and a chilling voice resounded in the air.

"...A bitch like you did well to come this far."
The sound of footsteps did not stop until they came right up to her. Before she knew it, she saw two sturdy feet standing tall even in her lower field of vision. As she struggled to raise her head, her dim eyes reflected his tall figure.

At first glance, he was a middle-aged man with an intimidatingly muscular body and a shaggy beard, but he still appeared impressively charismatic.

However, the man's left arm had been hacked off. Blood constantly flowed from his wound, but his condition was much better compared to her own. Rather than losing an arm, the price she had to pay was much greater.

The woman was one of the continent's top swordswomen for decades. Nevertheless, she could not overcome the fact that the man was praised as a genius.

Her whole body was nearly in tatters and the floor was drenched with her blood. However, her eyes glared at him in a murderous spirit, as if she did not care about her wounds.

"By my hands...I will...kill you..."

"Not likely. Even if you were reborn, the outcome wouldn't be any different."
She clenched her teeth. The man stole everything he had. She could never forgive him.

"Aaaaah!"
She leapt up and dashed at him with her sword.

Urk!

With a hideous noise, a blade tore across her throat.

The last moment of her life passed very slowly. Beyond her shaky vision she could dimly see her father and brother and her sister Mirabelle.

'...I'm sor...ry.'
It was the year 387 of the Empire of Ruford.

Elena, the highest level female swordswoman, died in the Battle of Huilena, unable to carry out her bloody vengeance.

*

*

*

Flash!

Elena opened her eyes.

Something was very strange.

The soft sheets that surrounded her body and the warm sunshine coming through the windows were a sharp contrast to the moment she just experienced.

'I...I must be dead.'
She closed her eyes bitterly. The anger at not being able to avenge her family burned fresh in her heart, but when she came to her senses she was lying in a completely different place.

At least it was more comfortable than the hell she had lived through. She had never laid down in such a soft bed since her whole family was wiped out, and she had never slept deeply because of the nightmares.

It was as if she had returned to to the era of her youth before her family fell into ruin.

'It's like I've gone back to the past...What?'
Elena scrambled out of bed. As she got up the large, cushiony mattress yielded under her. Although it would be hard for someone who knew Elena to believe, as a youth her skin was sensitive to touch and she used only the finest mattresses.

However, she still felt a sense of dread.

"...This is impossible."
Elena's mouth opened like a fool as she looked at the room around her. It was the room of her youth. The details were so perfect that it was impossible for it to be a recreation.

On one side of the wall were the lines she had drawn to measure her sister's height at seven years of age, then at ten and then at fifteen. Those little letters next to the lines were all her own. She couldn't imagine how this was happening.

After sitting dumbstruck for a moment, Elena rose from the bed as if she were possessed. She slowly approached the window and gazed outside. As she overlooked the garden she saw flowers blooming in dazzling colors in the morning sun. She could never forget her home. The scenery was unchanged from the past.

'I miss this period of my life so much...am I being shown a fantasy right before I die?'
Elena Blaise. She had always used her family name with pride.

Although she didn't grow up in extreme extravagance, the Blaise family had been around for many generations and lived in the south of the capital city. The family were historically counts and served as the Fourth Order of knights the royal court.

As the eldest daughter of the family she took care of her father on behalf of her dead mother, as well as helped her brother become a better knight. Sometimes it was also difficult to take care of her sickly sister by herself while managing the Count's affairs, but it was a peaceful life and there was never much to complain about.

It wasn't until she lost everything later that she realized how happy their ordinary lives were. She remembered the day when all her misfortunes came at once. The last time she had looked upon the garden there were no beautiful flowers, but dozens of red torches coming into the castle in perfect order. It was like they were coming closer to her, and she could not shake off her anxious mind even when there was nothing there.

The terrible memories slowly returned, and Elena shook her head then turned away from the window. As she looked back into the room her eye caught a mirror hanging on the wall.

"Ah..."
Reflected in the mirror was a noble lady in a silk nightgown with smooth blonde hair and skin as white as snow. Her eyes were red like the finest rubies, and her straight nose and petal-like lips gave her the appearance of a living doll.

That was her.

The last image of herself she remembered was very different from the one reflected in the mirror. As she stared quietly at herself her scarlet eyes trembled in surprise. It seemed far too real to be considered a fantasy. Though her natural beauty had not completely faded, she had never had such a fine figure during her career as a swordswoman.

Since she decided to avenge her family and began to carry a sword, she had cut off her long hair and had blisters on her hands from daily hard practice. As time passed, her naturally gentle eyes became venomous, and her milky skin became ghostly pale and lost color. Only a cold, hardened woman was left. However, even she could not perfectly recreate the distant images in her memory, even if it were a fantasy.

"...What in heaven's name is going on?"
She touched her face with a perplexed expression. Suddenly, the door opened. It was rude to enter another person's room like this without knocking, even more so if it was a woman's room, and Elena turned her head, frowning slightly.

As soon as she saw the person who came in, she completely froze. Her scarlet eyes widened, showing her surprise before her trembling lips could even speak.

"Big sister Elena!"
Mirabelle walked into the room, smiling more warmly than the morning sun. It was like a dream. Elena forced herself to watch with breathless attention. Mirabelle had the same golden hair and dark green eyes as her father. She was small and thin for her age due to her sickly condition.

Mirabelle tilted her head briefly at Elena's strange facial expression, but Mirabelle soon smiled and happily looked up at her.

"You're not gonna scold me for barging in, are you? If you're going to talk about manners, do it later. I have a real emergency right now. You might be surprised to know this."
Elena's eyes began to wet when she saw Mirabelle singing like a small bird before her eyes. Was this a dream? It had to be. Otherwise Mirabelle would not have appeared in front of her like this again. If so...she hoped she would never wake from here.

Tears began to slip down Elena's cheeks. Mirabelle was surprised to see her crying suddenly.

"Sister? Is something wrong?"
Watching Mirabelle anxiously, Elena could not answer. She bit her lips to stop the sobs rising up her throat and she wordlessly took Mirabelle's small body into her arms. She was afraid this moment would go away forever if she made a sound.

Elena clearly remembered the last time she had seen her sister. It was a pitch-black night, and her sister was surrounded by evil men and she was screaming in a completely different voice than now.

"Sister! My sister Elena! Help! Help!"
There was the sound of Mirabelle's nightgown tearing. Elena never forgot those blood-curdling screams. It was a tragedy that happened overnight in the Blaise Castle, the most peaceful place in the world.

It was her brother Derek who caught her running towards Mirabelle. He whispered sadly but firmly in her ear, It's too late...

If Derek had not shut Elena's mouth and dragged her away, she could have died there with her sister. How good would that have been, and for a long time, she felt sorry for herself.

Her lovely sister. She regretted that she couldn't save her.

She hugged Mirabelle and shed silent tears. She would never miss her second chance.

Nothing mattered now, whether it was a dream or reality. Just seeing Mirabelle again was everything.

Mirabelle looked at Elena's tears with a troubled look, and she immediately raised her hand and patted her older sister's back.

"Don't cry, sister."

"Uh-huh."
Elena could no longer hold in a sob and it burst out of her lips. Mirabelle waited silently as she patted her sister's back while Elena let out all the grief she had endured in her life as a cold-blooded female swordswoman. The comfort from that little hand was so warm that Elena could hardly stop crying.

But as the time passed, Elena's composure gradually returned. Mirabelle was still in her arms and the temperature coming from her tiny body was so real. Elena murmured to herself with an incredulous look.

"...This isn't a dream?"
Seeking to dispel the shade of doubt in her heart, she hurriedly released her arm that had been hugging Mirabelle and grabbed her sister's small shoulder and examined her thoroughly. Mirabelle gave Elena a worried frown.

"You're having a hard time managing the Count's affairs alone, aren't you? I didn't know about that...I'm sorry that I keep whining about things."

"...What?"
Elena couldn't help let her mouth drop open again after seeing Mirabelle speaking as if she were really there in front of her. This was not a fantasy. Moreover, it was not even a dream. The Mirabelle in front of her looked too alive for that.

Mirabelle continued to speak with a gloomy face, as if she mistook Elena's dumbfounded look for being scolded for her immature behavior.

"It's just the for the first time the crown prince, who had always been away at the battlefield, will show up at the ball. I really wanted to go there with you..."

"The crown prince? Who?"

"What's wrong with you today? The crown prince of the Ruford empire?"
Elena's head began to spin rapidly, but she hadn't a clue as to which crown prince Mirabelle was talking about. The Ruford Empire was one of the largest powers on the continent. In every respect, their military was far superior to those of smaller nations. From generation to generation, the belligerent emperors of the Ruford Empire loved war, and the founding myth of the empire even suggested that the emperor had the blood of a dragon.

Only the 12th Emperor Sullivan of the Ruford Empire had a gentle nature, and he helped develop an empire that cared more about developing state affairs rather than war. Under him the empire that was once obsessed with bloodshed came to prosperity. In order to achieve this, it had been said that the previous emperor intentionally chose the gentle-hearted Sullivan as his successor, different from any other emperor. If that was true, it was an wise decision.

However, the problem was with Sullivan's brother, Paveluc.

Paveluc was at first thought to become the next emperor, but in the end he was deprived of the throne by his brother Sullivan and instead ruled over the small duchy of Lunen as a grand duke. Though many people expressed concern because Paveluc had been born with the nature of an emperor, Paveluc had kneeled and submitted to his brother.

For as long as a decade he didn't show his claws. He waited for his chance, then the traitorous brother eventually rebelled and won. The Blaise family, who headed the Fourth Order of the Royal Family in the course of the regime's replacement, was also purged by Emperor Paveluc.

That was the man that Elena wanted to kill all her life. Emperor Paveluc, the 13th Emperor of the Ruford Empire.