DLRV 1

Chapter : 01

The story has ended

The sky was clear and cloudless, the breeze cool and gentle.

Those who wished for my death shouted in mad frenzy, and the executioner stood waiting for me before the chilling guillotine. It wasn’t a long walk, yet every step felt unbearably heavy—because I hadn’t eaten for days.

Under the dazzling sunlight, I saw a woman adorned with radiant jewelry. Her brilliant blonde hair and warm green eyes were beautiful—Lilia.

Beside her stood people with cold expressions. Once, they had been precious to me, some even my closest friends… but now, they were worse than strangers.

Lilia had captured their hearts, their eyes, their ears—and so, they all turned their backs on me.

It had all begun with a bolt from the blue: a terminal diagnosis.
The young lady chosen to be the Crown Princess was dying.

The entire nation was thrown into chaos, and meetings were held day after day. The engagement between the imperial family and mine was deeply tied to political interests, so it wasn’t easily undone.

Lilia slipped into that chaos and, one by one, took everything that had once shone for me. Slowly, meticulously—as if it had always been destined to be hers.

At first, I was devastated. Humiliated, resentful, furious—I struggled even harder. While I grew more sensitive as I wasted away, I despised Lilia for being kind and healthy.

Not realizing that my disgrace only made her shine brighter, I lashed out in jealousy. I cried and raged that everything had been mine—that it had all been stolen from me.

Not knowing that, in the end, all that awaited me was a disgraceful expulsion.
Not realizing that even my family would turn away from me, fearing the fallout.

Ah, foolish Anelli Roam.
Your stupidity has brought your life to ruin.

Someone’s mockery echoed in my mind—and it was true. My foolishness burned away my honor, drove away my people, and shattered my love.

“Bring the sinner forward!”

My arms were seized by soldiers, and I was dragged to the execution platform. Directly ahead, I saw the man I had once loved.

My fiancé—the Crown Prince, Maxel, beloved by the people of the empire.

He stood there with one arm around Lilia’s shoulders, looking down at me.

It was too far to see clearly, yet I felt our eyes meet. He was probably relieved.

After all, as he fell into fresh love, he had grown increasingly weary of his sickly fiancée.

At first, he had pitied me—the fiancée who could barely manage a walk in the garden without collapsing. But eventually, that pity turned into contempt.

That’s why I wanted to be healthy.
I thought that if I became well again, I could reclaim everything I had lost.

If I had known from the beginning that it was all a lie… would anything have changed?

Maxel—will you ever learn that the doctor who gave me my terminal diagnosis was acting under Lilia’s orders?

Will my family, who adopted Lilia and erased my name from the registry, ever regret it?

Will the friends who once called me their closest companion—only to side with Lilia and condemn me—remain bound by that loyalty forever?

“To this foolish being, the gods grant their final mercy. Do you have any last words?”

Ignoring the priest, I simply stared at Maxel. He didn’t look away.

At that moment… why was it?
I felt the sweetness of a snack I used to eat lingering on my tongue.

Perhaps I was finally losing my mind.

As I formed a faint smile with my dry lips, the scabs cracked, sending a sting of pain through them.

“…O God, have mercy.”

I only wanted to rest.

And so, on this bright and beautiful day, I willingly accepted my early death.

This was not heaven.

Nor was it hell.

Air filled my lungs.

No… this couldn’t be.

A despairing groan caught in my throat. My stiff tongue couldn’t form words, yet I understood.

I was alive.

Someone had brought me back.

A resurrection I had never wanted.

“Evil spreads across the land, and thus a resurrected one is bestowed upon you. Stand strong against it.”

With that oracle, the world was overturned.
And when the world turned over, so did my life.

When I opened my eyes, I was in a temple.

Unable to grasp the situation, I watched as priests bowed deeply, calling me “Savior,” “Resurrected One,” even “Saintess.”

The last thing I remembered was the crowd hurling stones and curses, and the cold gazes of those who had once known me, waiting for my death.

A savior? What nonsense.

I locked myself in a room and resisted the priests for a month. At first, they tried to persuade me with devout sincerity. When that failed, they resorted to bribery—offering delicacies and treasures.

Naturally, I mocked their efforts.

At the same time, I investigated the absurd miracle that had happened to me. That’s when I learned about the oracle.

Evil spreading? Evil had already spread long ago.

When Lilia entered my life with that innocent face.
When Maxel fell for her and came to despise me.
When even my family abandoned me, joining others in blaming me to save themselves.

If the gods had truly chosen me…
why didn’t they save me from that suffering back then?

Why wait until I had endured everything, until I had given up—only to revive me as this… monster?

“Resurrected One, Priest Morico has brought rare fruits for you.”

“You barely ate breakfast—please, have at least a little.”

I had grown used to brushing off the bothersome apprentice priests. I had plenty of experience being unpleasant, even before I died.

After I injured myself a few times, they learned to back off the moment I picked something up. This time too, as I lifted a book irritably, they retreated.

Through those acts, I discovered that I now possessed monstrous regenerative abilities. If untreated, scars remained—but my natural healing was far beyond normal.

My stamina had improved, my senses sharpened.

But the most significant change…

I could communicate with things that were not human.

I didn’t tell the priests about this. Seeing my recovery, they assumed I had immense divine power. I heard that believers gathered daily outside the temple.

Recently, even the imperial family and nobles had been requesting audiences. Some were said to be people I once knew.

If I wished, they would arrange meetings.

But none of that mattered anymore.

The only thing that mattered was this:

I had not died.

My beheaded body had been discarded. Having been expelled from my family, no one had claimed it—it had been left abandoned for days.

Yet strangely, it did not rot. Animals didn’t touch it—instead, they guarded it.

Then came the oracle.

On a whim, a high priest named Morico retrieved my body and placed it in a clean coffin. One day, he noticed that my head and body had reattached—and, shocked, he transferred me immediately to the grand temple.

It was impossible to doubt their story.

A clear scar remained on my neck—the proof of my execution.

As I absentmindedly touched it, I felt the rough, uneven skin.

“…Ha.”

This was utterly insane.

“So they thought that if they stitched my severed head back on, I’d gratefully go and fight evil for them?”

Honestly, the execution itself was more insulting than anything.

I took out a bag I had secretly hidden. A month had been more than enough to memorize the movements and schedules of the temple staff.

“Thank you. This time, I’ll try dying more gracefully.”

I planned to leave—go somewhere no one knew Anelli Roam.

And there, I’d cheer on the evil spreading across the world… while eating snacks.

The House of Roam was one of the founding families of the empire. As close political allies of the imperial Syrion family, their children were naturally bound by engagement.

From birth, I had been the fiancée of a prince.

There were four princes, and when the second prince, Maxel, was named Crown Prince, he became my fiancé.

Raised to see myself as part of the imperial family, I grew to love him without resistance.

As for Maxel… I’m not sure how he felt.

But at least, when I was healthy, our relationship wasn’t bad.

My older sister, Frigian—who postponed her own obligations and became the young duchess—used to tell me often: that the Crown Prince loved me, and I loved him, so only happiness awaited us.

Now that I think about it, she was probably worried I might refuse to become Crown Princess. If I resisted, the responsibility might have fallen to her.

She was the first to turn cold when I was diagnosed as terminal. She was also the one who strongly insisted on adopting Lilia.

If she became Crown Princess in my place, there would still be our youngest sibling, Seiri, to carry on the family line.

It was only natural for her to be cautious.

I don’t blame her ambition—I had seen it up close for years. Nor do I blame my parents, who chose to protect their two healthy children over one dying child.

That was the kind of family the Roams were.

A family that valued dignity and pride above all else, willing to cut away anything unnecessary to preserve their authority.

As their child, I understood their way of thinking.

But understanding betrayal doesn’t mean I have to forgive it.

Especially not after my name was erased from the family registry.

“The Duchess of Roam has collapsed.”

“What? Even then, she refuses to meet them? They say she’s at the Grand Temple.”

I glanced sideways.

The people gathered at the city’s central notice board were just ordinary citizens—people who knew nothing.

People who had only seen the noble façade the Roams had constructed.

So their words didn’t even anger me.

“She was infamous in life. Even if she’s come back to life, what difference does it make?”