The girl strongly refused at first, but Zorba started to coax her with words. I will get a home for you, I will never let you down, etc. Other women would have never believed that, but Anna was too young to know about the world and men. Zorba stopped meeting other women saying he truly loved Anna, and she believed him.

He then ran away immediately the night she got pregnant. I do love her, but I love my freedom more and cannot be bound to one place blah blah.

In the end, Anna had to give birth to her baby and raise him all by herself. Rubica still gritted her teeth when thinking about that Zorba. She even wanted to stop the function of a specific part of the man’s body by pouring a certain drug into his mouth, all in order to prevent Anna from suffering again if she ever met him in this second life.

‘I will not be fooled! He’s getting competitive just because I’m not throwing myself under his feet like the others. It’s better not to be close to such a man who kisses so easily.’

She told that to herself again and again as she fell asleep.

***

“This is where the Claymore’s scholars do many kinds of experiments.”

“Nice to meet you, Your Grace.”

Rubica forgot to reply to the scholars in front of her and looked around in a daze. Today was going to be spent visiting the west annex. She had thought it would be inhabited by scholars just like the east annex and have labs full of beakers and liquids like the labs in the abbey.

However, when she reached the building, she had to admit her imagination hadn’t been enough. When she went inside, she met an unbelievably wide space. The place was huge and tall with mana stone lamps attached on the ceiling to light the place at night.

The scholars had been either experimenting or discussing, but they all stopped and looked at Rubica when she entered. She nervously moved her toes in her shoes because of the many people looking at her.

“Nice to meet you too.”

She hoped they would get back to work after hearing her reply, but they were still looking at her. Her palms got sweaty. Were they going to stare at her until she left? She wondered what to do but then recalled what Edgar often said.

“Please go back to your businesses.”

Then all those gazes were gone at once. She managed to breathe. Getting too much attention was one of the things she really wanted to avoid.

‘Being the duchess is really hard.’

Then the man who had introduced himself as the director gave her a tour.

“This is a new war chariot we are working on. Your Grace, this iron isn’t just ordinary iron. Even a troll’s ax wouldn’t be able to penetrate it. Haha!”

The director laughed as he pointed at the huge war chariot which was at least five times bigger than a normal chariot. Rubica was supposed to laugh along with him, but she couldn’t.

“And it has cannons here, so it can be used for both offense and defense.”

The director had been given special directions from the duke before Rubica’s arrival. He was supposed to explain in detail on how great he was, how great his inventions were, and what kind of profit they had gained for the kingdom.

‘Hu, he is a man as well.’

The director had once thought the duke wouldn’t even bleed when poked with a needle, so he was shocked to see his change. He said he wanted to impress his wife so proudly. That was a skill as well, but the director had no choice but to diligently obey that order. His career depended on it. Plus, there were many projects that couldn’t proceed without Edgar.

But no matter how much he talked, the duchess didn’t sparkle her eyes with respect for her husband. She only seemed to get gloomier.

‘This won’t work. If she leaves in that state, I will have to pay for it.’

The duke was scary when he would get mad. He expressed his rage not by throwing documents but by assigning pile of documents. That was even scarier. He would assign all kinds of difficult problems almost impossible to solve with a strict deadline. If the director somehow managed to bring him the report, he would point out which premises were wrong, where the calculation was not right, and where it wasn’t logical.

Anyone would be destroyed beyond repair for at least a month after getting that attack.

“Your Grace, and the cannon’s direction can be readjusted.”

The director decided to use the best card he had to catch Rubica’s attention. An assistant inside the chariot operated the machine following his order. Soon the cannon moved with a large sound.

“It will hit the apple right next to you.”

Rubica turned deadly pale when the canon was pointed at her, but the director was so sure. The cannon had been made following Edgar’s design and had great accuracy. He was sure it would hit the apple without even grazing Rubica’s hair.

Rubica wanted to yell, ‘Stop!’ However, when the canon’s mouth was pointed at her, she could do nothing. That dark hole. Oh, the fire from that hole had taken so many lives.

She had even survived underneath the bodies of those who died first. She trembled in fear.

“Stop it!” Ann yelled instead of Rubica. She was now furiously mad.

“How can you dare to point a cannon to Her Grace?”

“But there’s no need to worry, this cannon is perfectly accurate. Your Grace, you will also be surprised to…”

Scholars tended to be overconfident with their own inventions, so Ann punched the director’s back with all her might. He rubbed his back with a silent scream of agony.

“Can’t you see she is surprised? I’ll report this to the duke!”

“What? Oh.”

Now he had screwed everything. The director turned pale, but Ann turned her back on him and took Rubica’s still shaking hands.

“Your Grace, are you alright?”

“Yes.”

“Why don’t you take a walk in the garden and get some fresh air?”

Rubica barely managed to nod. She then leaned on Ann as she left the west annex.

“Geraniums have bloomed in the inner garden. The gardener said they smell very good.”

They headed straight to the inner garden. Rubica tried hard to get rid of those shocking memories that could either be her past or her future.

‘… yes. He is the man who made that terrible weapon.’

She realized the reality which she had forgotten. Life at the mansion was just too peaceful. Good dresses, good rooms, and good people…

She had even started to think Edgar was quite nice.

At first, she had hated herself for being drawn to his beautiful face, but it turned out he wasn’t that bad. He had rudely kissed her without her permission and had spoken things that angered her at first but, even then, he had accepted her terms of refusing to have intercourse with him without any objection. She was worried that he might be the kind of man who would change his words after the wedding, but he didn’t demand physical contact that she didn’t permit even later. It was hard to find people who did that much among men. Yes, his mouth often spoke the wrong things, but actually, he was quite well-mannered and nice.

‘But, he created all of it.’

Bombing from the sky. Those war chariots that were once created to defeat monsters and protect people fired at the people with their cannons. So many people died and even more suffered.

Just thinking of all that made her despair. Before she met him, she just hated the man who had made all that but, after finding out he was a nice man, now another fact tormented her.

If Edgar had known the future, if he had just known what would happen, would he still have made such weapons? Maybe, just maybe she had come back in time because…

She sighed as she looked at the geraniums in front of her. She wasn’t sure she could explain logically about what had happened. He would only think she had had a strange dream.

“Do you not like the smell of geraniums?”

Rubica was surprised at hearing Ann say that.

“If you don’t like that, I’ll have the gardener plant different flowers.”

“No, no.”

Oops, she had forgotten that she wasn’t an ordinary woman anymore. The duchess was quite an enjoyable occupation. She could do anything and enjoy anything. Instead, now she had to be with people who watched her every action and tried to find meaning in it no matter where she went.

“Then, um.”

Ann tried to find out why Rubica had shaken her head, but then a maid spoke first, “Is the weather cold? Should I bring your shawl?”

Rubica slowly shook her head. They were thinking of having the gardener renovate the garden just because she had shaken her head at seeing some flowers. She worried saying it was because of her dress would put the blame on the seamstresses.

“But then…”

“I was just thinking?”

“Thinking? Your Grace, has anything made you uncomfortable?”

Oh, how good would it be if she could talk? How good would it be if she could confess the future, the miseries everyone was about to face? She knew she shouldn’t say that as she was the duchess, but she had almost said to the maids to deposit their money in Jackal Bank instead of the national bank many times. However, she couldn’t say anything and just smiled awkwardly instead.