Chapter 1
Prologue
At the westernmost edge of the Empire stood the academy of the Duchy of Lillony.
It was a place mockingly referred to as “the ivory tower in the middle of nowhere.”
That was where men wearing the military uniforms of the Tailese Empire arrived.
“Execute the traitors!”
“Arrest anyone bearing the surname Prelrai!”
In an instant, they stormed into my research lab at the very top of the academy.
The nameplate hanging on the door was torn loose and clattered uselessly across the floor.
Professor of Magical Engineering
— Kiana Ellie Prelrai
My laboratory—once packed with experimental devices—was reduced to chaos in the blink of an eye.
I had been in the middle of solving an equation when I was seized without any explanation.
I was completely dumbfounded. Recovering quickly, I protested.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, you bastards?! Do you all have extra lives to spare? Let go of me right now unless you want me to bash your heads in one by one with every type of magic tool I own! What is this supposed to be?!”
The imperial soldier restraining my wrists replied flatly,
“Scari Prelrai has plotted treason.”
“…What?”
I froze on the spot, stunned.
Hearing my grandfather’s name spoken so casually by a mere imperial soldier left me speechless.
My grandfather, Duke Scari Prelrai, was a man of immense power.
Although my father had gone missing a few months ago, my two good-for-nothing older brothers were each making names for themselves in their respective fields.
Even my cousin Melissa Prelrai—who had grown up alongside us—had recently manifested extraordinary divine power and made headlines.
If there was anyone in that family likely to be a problem, it was me.
Which was exactly why I had already left and distanced myself from them.
And yet… treason? The Prelrai family?
“We’re escorting the criminals back to the Empire! Move quickly—we can’t afford to be late for the execution!”
“E–E–E–Execution?!”
My eyes flew wide open.
“W–Wait. Let’s say—just hypothetically—that my grandfather’s gone senile and actually plotted treason.”
The words poured out of me.
“But I haven’t set foot in the Empire for seven years! I’ve been stuck in this rural backwater doing nothing but magical engineering research!”
It was profoundly unfair.
I had arrived at Lillony Academy at sixteen, and from that day on, I hadn’t even once visited the ducal estate.
The imperial soldier’s response to my perfectly logical argument was painfully simple.
“But you’re still a Prelrai.”
He pointed at the nameplate lying on the floor.
[Professor of Magical Engineering – Kiana Ellie Prelrai]
“….”
In the end, I was dragged away without resistance.
The headmaster was standing in the corridor.
I looked at him as though I’d found a savior.
I had contributed enormously to the academy. Surely he would step in and save me.
“Headmaster! I—”
“Ahem.”
He cut me off with a cough. Without sparing me even a glance, he politely addressed the imperial soldiers.
“Just to confirm once more—if Professor Kiana Prelrai dies, then under Lillony duchy law, all patents registered under her name will be transferred to the academy. Is that correct?”
The world seemed to stop.
The headmaster—who had always called me a paper-publishing machine and showered me with praise—what was he saying?
Smiling obsequiously, he pressed the issue again.
“Patents fall under the laws of the Duchy of Lillony, not the Empire. That was the condition under which we agreed to cooperate.”
It felt like I’d been struck over the head.
The treason of the Prelrai ducal house was an incident big enough to shake the entire continent—yet I had known nothing until imperial soldiers appeared at my doorstep.
Come to think of it, newspapers had stopped being delivered lately due to ‘bad roads.’ Now it was obvious—the headmaster had arranged everything.
I was a genius magical engineer.
Magical engineering was a discipline that combined mathematics and physics to create magical devices. Naturally, I held an absurd number of patents under my name.
The headmaster had sold me out for them.
Tears welled up.
Just as I had said—I had left that illustrious Prelrai family of my own accord and spent seven years at this academy.
I had thought of the headmaster as family for a long time. He had praised me as a once-in-a-generation genius and promoted me repeatedly until I became a professor.
With blood-curdling fury, I screamed my truth at him.
“You miserable piece of trash! You wrung every last drop of value out of me and then sold me off for money, didn’t you? Even if I go to hell, I’ll claw my way back just to haunt you for the rest of your life! I’ll contract with the most vicious demon imaginable if I have to—just to ensure you and your descendants rot in ruin forever!”
At the age of twenty-three, as a professor scraping by at a tiny academy in the corner of the continent,
I was suddenly sentenced to death by hanging and sent back to the Empire.
The moment I returned to the Empire, I was thrown—looking like a beggar—into the underground prison of the imperial palace.
That was when—
“Kiana!”
A woman who looked even more wretched than I did lunged forward and grabbed my hand.
“So you finally got caught too!”
It was my cousin Melissa Prelrai, the same age as me—whom I hadn’t seen in seven years.
“Nice to see you! I’ve been waiting!”
Was that supposed to be a greeting? It sounded more like a curse.
I hated Melissa, so I immediately yanked my hand away and asked,
“What happened? Grandpa—treason?”
Sniffling, she replied,
“You know Grandpa would never do something like that… We were framed.”
Tears streamed down her face as she muttered,
“I… I know the truth. Only I know… Hic….”
Even in this state, Melissa was still beautiful.
Her blonde hair sparkled despite the grime, and her red eyes gleamed like rubies.
Sighing, I forced myself to calm her.
“Melissa. Stop bawling and rambling nonsense. Speak logically.”
“You haven’t changed—still horrifyingly foul-mouthed. Consistently grown, I see.”
Sniffling, she continued.
“Prince Hiten came to see me yesterday. He said he was the one who framed the Prelrai family.”
“What? Why would that bastard bother telling you?”
She rubbed her nose.
“Chirpy said it’s because I dumped him ages ago. He’s petty enough to want the last laugh.”
Chirpy was Melissa’s yellow skylark familiar.
Due to the suppression collar, it lay unconscious at her feet.
Melissa had always been popular with men. Hiten was probably just one of many.
Frankly, I didn’t care.
Rubbing my forehead, I muttered,
“Grandfather must really be getting old… falling for something like this. But still—why target the Prelrai family at all?”
The man I knew was anything but incompetent.
Melissa answered incoherently,
“Grandfather’s been sick lately… And Prince Hiten’s under pressure these days too. I think he believed we’d side with the Crown Prince.”
…What? Why was the Crown Prince suddenly involved?
I slumped to the floor.
The injustice of it all was overwhelming—to die meaninglessly after being dragged back without knowing anything.
For a long while, only Melissa’s sobs echoed through the cell.
Then—
“Execution time! Bring out the prisoners!”
Fear flickered in Melissa’s eyes.
Mine too. No one remains calm in the face of death.
Heavy footsteps approached.
“Kiana… am I really going to die?”
“I… I don’t want to die.”
As if anyone did.
I stared at her in disbelief—and then noticed something strange.
What’s wrong with her eyes?
She wasn’t sane.
“I—I’m going to run.”
“What?! Are you insane? Run where on the way to the gallows?!”
“I have divine power.”
She muttered, eyes shining with madness.
“I should’ve entered the monastery earlier. If I’d abandoned the Prelrai name, I could’ve survived alone.”
Those with divine power could become priestesses by entering a monastery—abandoning their surname, marriage, and worldly life forever.
It was a brutal path. Few chose it.
I grabbed her shoulders and shook her.
“Get a grip! Unless you can go back in time, how are you supposed to enter a monastery now?”
“Yes! That’s it! Time!”
Her eyes lit up.
“I have immense divine power. I have to try, don’t I?”
“…What?”
The Melissa I knew—kind, radiant, loved by all—was gone.
In her place was someone utterly unhinged.
“I’ll turn back time. I’ll return to one year ago—with all my memories intact. I’ll enter the monastery immediately and live a life completely separate from the Prelrai family. I won’t die like this!”
At that moment, blinding light flooded the prison cell.
