TCIWTFY - Chapter 2

Someone shook Medea.

"Are you awake, Your Highness?"

She blinked. It was a blank face as if someone had absorbed all of her expressions.

The maid's shoulders trembled in surprise at the lifeless doll-like appearance.

"Your Highness? Are you listening to me?"

A human image was reflected on the mirror placed on the table. Brightly shining green eyes. A slightly raised forehead and a smooth nose bridge. And those cute, blushing lips.

A girl was standing somewhere between a child and a woman.

She mechanically lowered her head and looked at her arm.

'There should be a scar left by the demon...!'

There was not even a trace of the countless wounds suffered during the expedition. Instead of a scar, the white, slippery skin was shiny.

'Is hell this clear? It's not like I'm young again.'

Past. A sudden thought occurred to her and her body stiffened.

"What about Peleus?"

"Yes?"

"Is he alive?"

Peleus, her brother and King of Valdina died because of her.

Because she stole the Philosopher's Stone Valdina's barrier collapsed. Swarms of pitch-black demonic beasts covered the entire country.

Her brother died while trying to block the onslaught of demonic beasts.

It was a time when she was fighting for the throne for her husband in the empire.

Only then did Medea realize. What is the role of the Philosopher's Stone? Why have the demons that have been infesting the continent so far been unable to cross the border of Valdina?

"What are you saying? Of course, he's alive."

Medea jumped up at the maid's words.

"Where is he?"

She had to see Peleus.

He is not a half-corpse bitten by a magical beast, but a fully alive person.

"Dea, don't think about coming back. Valdina is no longer a land of protection.

"I don't blame you. Live. Then It's done."

Her only family, who worried about his ugly sister until the end. 

"Where are you going? How are you going to see someone on the battlefield?"

The maid caught Medea, who suddenly got up and stumbled. 

"Battleground?"

"Don't you remember that either?"

The maid said she hit her head when she fell from her horse.

"We're still at war. The conquest is not over, is it? He's still alive."

The rambling question seemed more like a whisper than a question.

The maid shook her head. 

"I guess it won't work. I'll call the royal doctor."

It was time for the maid to sigh.

"No, I have to see him with my own eyes."

Medea got up from her seat and ran out.

"Your Highness! Where are you going!"

The maid hurriedly chased after her, but only an empty hallway greeted her.

"We're in big trouble!"

The thoughtful maid hurriedly ran out.

***

The basement of Valdina Palace.

The light in a secret place allowed only to a few bloodlines was brightened.

Medea went down to the bottom of the spiral staircase and pushed against the stone wall with all her might.

The door opened, a breath of cold air biting her nose. The altar in the center was brightly lit. No, in fact, it was the light pouring from the national treasure placed on the altar.

"There it is."

The Philosopher's Stone, the national treasure that protects Valdina's territory.

Beyond her trembling fingertips, the cold chill of the gemstone was wrapped around her hand.

Medea buried her face on it. Transparent tears poured down the smooth surface.

"I need the Philosopher's Stone. My uncle says he will keep his promise if I bring it to him. He said he would hand over the throne."

Jason asked Peleus, King of Valdina, for the Philosopher's Stone, but was flatly refused.

But Jason eventually got it. Because the King's sister Medea loved him.

"Help me, Medea. I am the rightful heir to the Kazen Imperial Family."

"If I become emperor, you will stand by my side, and our child will rule the empire. Medea, you certainly don't want our child to grow up like you, without the shadow of his parents, do you?"

"I love you, Medea."

With blind affection.

"Sister Medea, His Highness is in so much pain. If only he had the Philosopher's Stone, he would be perfect.

"The Philosopher's Stone is a natural treasure in name only. You can just give it back. I'm just borrowing it for a while. If the relationship between our two countries improves, Peleus will understand you later."

"We're saying this because we're all thinking of you."

Medea fell for the sweet appeasement. 

If she thinks about it, the beginning of the tragedy was from then. In her last life, the Philosopher's Stone stolen by the young and ignorant Medea, was broken into pieces and buried in the Katzen border wall.

'The Emperor was afraid that I would ask for it back, so he destroyed it in a hurry.'

She gritted her teeth.

"Again... I'm back."

How could she not believe it when the national treasure was so intact before her eyes?

"Ahahaha! Ahaha!"

God has granted my last request!

A flash of light erupted.

"The ancestor of Valdina, the God and spirit who protects this land."

Medea bent down and kissed the foot of the altar. The soft light from the Philosopher's Stone enveloped her.

"I will never be stupid again."

I will not miss this opportunity you have given me. 

Medea raised her head. Her clear eyes sparkled bright blue on top of the pale complexion.

"Claudio."

All the glory given to her uncle will lose its luster.

"Jason."

The brilliant crown that Jason had hoped for would be taken away.

"I'm back."

The prophecy that returned once life shone in a gloomy light.

***

Medea appeared from a dark underground passage. Her tears had long since dried up.

'The maid said earlier that I fell from a horse.'

Even in distant memories, there were still vivid moments. These were especially the memories of hurt that made her life more painful.

Cursed Princess. Half-blood. A child who brings bad luck.

These were all modifiers given to Medea.

The late King of Valdina met a wandering dancer during the war, fell in love with her, and made her his Queen.

There was a lot of talk about her origins, but no one dared criticize the Queen. The King loved his wife so much that he even went to battle with the Queen.

His son, Peleus, also followed his parents to the battlefield, but his daughter, Medea, stayed in the palace because she was too young.

<I miss you so much. Please come see me. >

On Medea's seventh birthday, she couldn't resist and wrote a letter.

For the sake of their beloved youngest daughter, the King and his wife responded without hesitation that they would go see me.

However, due to successive defeats, poisonous enemies ambushed the two on their way back. In the end, the only thing that reached the land of Valdina was the couple's cold coffin.

The Kingdom was in chaos.

When it became known that the King had suffered an accident on his way to see his young daughter, people accused Medea of being the starting point of the tragedy.

"It's because of you! Even if you didn't call! You killed my son!"

At the King's funeral, the Queen Mother fainted while holding her young grandson instead of her eldest son's coffin.

As soon as Peleus took over the throne, he immediately went to the front again. A boy who has not yet reached adulthood loses his leader and tries to straighten out a disintegrating army.

In that chaotic process, the young Medea was left alone.

The Queen Mother hated her granddaughter, her brother was on the battlefield the whole time, and she had no maternal relatives who could protect her.

It was her uncle, the Prince Regent, and his family who reached out to her as she struggled with loneliness.

They were sweet and gentle to the titular Princess.

Medea became their puppet and did as she was told and as they wished. Thus, without knowing that her uncle's power, which had become stronger, was targeting her brother.

'How foolish I was.'

A gentle lie and a clever trick.

Medea saw neither the truth nor the sincerity.

"Mom, Dad, you all left me because of me?"

The image of her younger self, crying alone out of loneliness and guilt,  seemed to overlap in the desolate corridors of the royal palace.

But it's different from then.

She was a strategist who made Jason Emperor through an arduous expedition and struggles for the throne of the empire.

So, she was able to understand the entire plan her uncle had made at a glance.

'When I was about seventeen, I went to a tea party and fell off a horse.'

The Tea Party and Falling Horseback.

Two events that couldn't be more fitting happened that day.

If her maid, Neril, had not thrown herself to save her, Medea would have broken her neck and died.

'But after that, Neril left the palace.'

When Medea woke up, Neril had already left.

"She left because she thought she would die first while serving the royal family."

"Neril said she would never come back. She said that no matter where she goes, she won't be any more shabby than here.'

Medea, feeling betrayed, forgot about Neril after that.

But now, her reason was telling her that this would not be the only thing.

'She wasn't the type of kid to leave without saying anything."

Now that she was given a second chance to return to the past, the first thing Medea had to do was to build a secure sanctuary.

She couldn't fight alone in this palace surrounded by enemies on all sides.

'If only Neril was by my side.'

If there had been at least one person left who could have her back and be completely loyal to her, her past life wouldn't have been so hard.

"Did you hear? I heard that Jenna is currently harassing one of the servants in the Princess's palace."

At that time, a group of maids passed by in the hallway. Medea quickly hid herself.

"Do you know who it is? It's her! A special breed who gave up her knighthood and entered the Princess's palace on her own."

"Oh my God, is it her? What did she get wrong? Still, she was the only one working properly there."

"Originally, she was so big that it caught the attention of the maid. I was thinking of only one thing, but this time, it looks like Her Royal Highness is planning to send her away by using the fact that she fell off her horse as an excuse. They say Jenna punishing her for it."

"What? Nonsense. Did she save Her Highness? I saw it all."

"If the maid is like that, then so be it. If you wear it on your nose, an earring becomes a nose ring. Who among the people currently working at the palace could go against her will, huh, Your Highness?" 

The maids were startled when Medea suddenly blocked their path.

"Where is it?"

Medea's voice rang down the cold hallway.

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