DLRV 1

Chapter : 01

The story was over

The sky was clear, without a single cloud, and the wind was cool.

Those who wished for my death had screamed in madness, and the executioner waited for me before the grim guillotine. Even though the path was short, it felt exhausting because I had been fasting for several days.

Under the dazzling sunlight, a woman adorned with shining jewelry appeared. Her bright blonde hair and warm green eyes were beautiful—Lilia.

Next to her stood people with cold eyes. They had once been my precious or closest friends, but now they were worse than strangers.

Lilia had captured their hearts, eyes, and ears, so everyone had turned their back on me.

It began with a sudden, shocking death sentence. A young lady appointed as Crown Princess… was terminally ill!

The whole country was thrown into chaos, and meetings continued day after day. My engagement to the royal family was deeply political, so it was not easy to untangle.

Through the confusion, Lilia appeared and took everything bright and beautiful from me, one by one, as if it had been hers all along.

Of course, at first, it was devastating. Humiliating, frustrating, and enraging—I struggled all the more. Unlike me, frail and dying, Lilia was kind and healthy, which I hated.

I didn’t realize my own disgrace only made her shine brighter, and I raged anyway. Everything had been mine, and yet it was taken. I cried and pouted.

I didn’t understand that in the end, all I would have left was humiliating exile. I couldn’t even predict that my family would turn their backs out of fear of anger.

Ah, foolish Anelli Roam. Your foolishness ended your life.

Someone’s ridicule came to mind. It was true. My foolishness had burned my honor, driven away my people, and broken my love.

“Bring the prisoner here!”

I was dragged by soldiers to the guillotine. Ahead, I saw the man I had loved.

My fiancé and the Crown Prince beloved by the empire—Maxel. He had one arm around Lilia’s shoulders and looked down at me.

Even from a distance, I felt our eyes meet. He was probably relieved.

He had grown weary of his delicate, increasingly sensitive fiancée. Maxel had first pitied her when she could barely walk through the garden, often collapsing along the way. Eventually, he despised her. I wanted to become healthy. Then maybe I could take back everything I had lost.

If I had known from the start that it had all been lies, would anything have been different?

Maxel—will you ever know that the doctor who gave me the death sentence was acting under Lilia’s orders?

Will my family regret adopting Lilia as their daughter and erasing my name from the family records?

Will my friends, once close, who sided with Lilia and blamed me, ever preserve that friendship?

“To this foolish creature, we grant God’s last mercy. Do you have any final words?”

I said nothing and just stared at Maxel. He didn’t look away. For some reason, I could almost taste the sweetness of a cookie I often ate.

Finally, perhaps I was going mad. I drew a faint smile with my dry lips, feeling the sting where the scab had torn.

“…Lord, have mercy.”

I just wanted to rest.

So on this clear, bright day, I would accept my early death gladly.

This was not heaven.

Nor was it hell.

My lungs filled with air. No, this couldn’t be. A sigh of despair choked my throat. My stiff tongue couldn’t speak, yet I knew:

I was alive. Someone had brought me back.

It was an unwanted resurrection.

《Evil has spread, and a resurrected one is sent to you. Stand firm.》

With the prophecy, the world turned upside down. And when the world turns, so does my life.

When I opened my eyes, I was in a temple. The priests, bowing, called me a “precious savior,” a “resurrected one,” a “saint.”

My last memory was of a crowd throwing stones, cursing me, and my acquaintances waiting coldly for my death.

A savior? What nonsense.

I stayed in that room for a month, facing the priests. At first, they tried to persuade me with pious devotion, then bribed me with lavish foods and treasures. Naturally, I mocked them.

During that time, I learned about this impossible miracle. I also learned the prophecy: evil has spread? Evil had been everywhere—from Lilia entering my life with her sweet face, Maxel despising me for her, my family turning away and joining in the blame.

If God had wanted to choose me, why not save me from that pain? Why let me suffer everything and only then bring me back in this monstrous way?

“Resurrected one, Priest Moriko has brought rare fruit for you.”
“You haven’t eaten much this morning. Try a little.”

I had learned to handle annoying apprentice priests. After I self-harmed a few times, they quickly obeyed without question.

During these moments, I realized I had monstrous recovery powers. Untreated, scars remained, but my natural healing was remarkable.

My strength and senses improved, and I could even communicate with non-human beings.

I didn’t tell the priests about my abilities. They assumed I had divine power because of my recovery. People came daily to the temple to see me.

Even nobles and the royal family requested visits. Some claimed to be my acquaintances, asking if I would meet them.

But none of that mattered. The most important thing was that I hadn’t died.

My severed body had been abandoned. My family had cast me out. For days, it had been left alone.
Somehow, it hadn’t rotted. No animals touched it. Someone had protected it. That someone was High Priest Moriko. He placed my body in a clean coffin, and one day, finding my neck and body attached, moved me to the main temple.

I could feel the clear scar on my neck—the proof of decapitation.

“Hah…”

It was maddening.

“They probably thought that after rejoining my head and body, I would gratefully fight evil.”

Decapitation hurt my pride, but at least it was convenient.

I secretly took out my bag. One month was enough to learn the priests’ routines.

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

I planned to leave and hide. Somewhere no one knew Anelli Roam. There, I would watch the evil spread in the world and eat cookies in peace.

The Roam family were founding nobles of the empire. They were close political partners and friends with the Seriad royal family, so my engagement was natural.

I had been engaged to the Crown Prince since birth. The second prince, Maxel, became the heir, making me his fiancée.

I had been taught from birth to be part of the royal family and had no resistance to loving Maxel.

Maxel… I never truly knew his heart.

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

My elder sister, Frizian, who became a minor duchess, often said: the Crown Prince loves you, and you love him—happiness remains.

Looking back, she just worried I wouldn’t want to become Crown Princess. If I refused, the duty might fall on her.

Frizian turned cold when I got the death sentence. She strongly insisted on adopting Lilia.

Even if she became Crown Princess instead, the youngest sister Seiri ensured the family line was safe. It was natural she was wary.

I wouldn’t scold her ambition, having seen it up close. My parents had also abandoned one terminal child to save two others, so it wasn’t Frizian’s fault.

Roam was such a family. Pride and reputation came first, and they cut off useless parts to maintain authority. I understood their thinking.

But understanding the betrayal didn’t mean I had to forgive it. Especially after my name was erased from the records.