<strong>The first timeline,</strong>


    "Tomorrow, the duke will make you the duchess, right?? I''m happy for you." Victor took her right hand and kissed it as Marte stared at him with a worried look.


    "I kinda get the ominous feeling..." he raised his head and stared at her with his puppy eyes telling her everything will be alright because he was there.


    But will it...?


    The next day, the duke died.


    The duchy was in chaos, everyone finally revealed their true color. The maid she trusted the most led the imperial army to Marte''s room using her of poisoning when seeing the poison in her room.


    "It...wasn''t me...I didn''t--"


    And the army was led by a man who was none other than Victor himself, who let Diana in his armforting her.


    Without finishing her speech, the hand which held hers yesterday pped her. The pain didn''tpare one bit to her heart which started turning to ice.


    Her trust in people sank deep like the titanic.


    "Take her to the prison." Victor ordered the knight under hismand to take Marte to the prison without hesitation, her re at him as she was taken stabbed des right through his heart.


    The night before Marte''s first execution, her hope was Victor toe and save her but it wasn''t. She tried to deny that Victor betrayed her by leading the army to the duchy as soon as the duke''s death was revealed.


    A man in the ck rope without showing his face, just a gleam of blonde hair, stared at her with his blue eyes which shone in the prison''s darkness.


    "I won''t let you die...wait for me...till I--"


    "Richard...are you happy now?? Are you d that everything goes your way??!! My father was killed by you, wasn''t it???" Marte broke down in tears as she refused the bread that the man gave to her.


    "Richard??"


    "You''re..."


    "Who''s there??!!" that man vanished into the shadow as the knight shouted in their direction leaving the bread for Marte and the bottle of water.


    She ate it slowly after checking it wasn''t poisoned. It saved her from hunger for a while.


    "Who...is that man??" she murmured sitting on the prison''s bed as she looked out of the iron bar of the prison.


    She soon fell asleep until midnight arrived, people walked toward her prison cell and unlocked it taking her hand with force leading it outside while she was still asleep.


    "Victor??" she muttered his name as his eyes were all red, he threw someone in front of Marte gritting his teeth.


    "This bastard is the one who hid the poison in your room!!" she didn''t look surprised as she already expected it.


    "You won''t have to serve me anymore, Flynn...congrattion."


    "...sorry." his short word as he looked guilty came to Marte''s ears. She was wrong that she could change him.


    "She treated you so well, and now!!! Now, this is how you repay her??" Victor kicked Flynn in his stomach, an agony groaning sound escaped Flynn''s lip as he stayed on the ground.


    "Stop it...I''m gonna go back to my prison." she was calm brushing the dirt off Flynn and helping him stand up.


    "What??" Victor was taken aback by her words after all the works he did to break her out of the prison.


    "Mydy..." Flynn murmured to her as he looked at her with guilty eyes.


    "I''m not yourdy anymore. When I die, don''te to my grave."


    "What''re you talking about??!!!! Stop with this nonsense!! Run away!!!" Victor put both of his arms holding Marte yelling at her in anger.


    "You''re in charge of this case. If I run away, who''ll be responsible??"


    "I already thought of that!!! For now, run away from here."


    "Thought of what?? You''re gonna kill yourself, right? I don''t want to see you serving me anymore. I really regret meeting you, Victor." Victor''s eyes shook as she said that right in his face. He was trembling by the thought of her dying.


    "You can''t die!!! I will distract his royal highness, just run away!!!"


    "You''re not my knight anymore. Who''re you to tell me what to do??"


    "..." Flynn shut up as if his mouth had been sealed. She already thought that the bread was herst meal, nothing could change her mind.


    "If you die, I''ll kill myself!!!" those words from Victor stopped her for a moment before she made her way to the prison.


    However, thest thing she could have thought that would happen to her was duchess Catherine to save her from the execution.


    She was spared for that one time before the execution and was taken to Nova''s household. When she looked back at the people among the crowd, she was surprised as her wide eyes met contact with the guy who wore the same cape fromst night.


    He blended into the crowd before she tried to reach him.


    She was spared but after the news of duke Jel''s legacy finally came to the public, once again, Marte didn''t have anything to hold on to in that world.


    With the tomato and eggshell on her head, she stood on the bridge looking at the scar of her reflection in theke.


    The tears fell continuously into the water no matter how much she tried to hold back her tears.


    "Father...I''ming...with you." standing on the rail, the wind blew across her hair as her eyes no longer had the spark she called hope. The eggshell she threw into the water sank deep into the water just like how she jumped into it.


    She decided to end her life and followed her father.


    Little by little, it was calm, no one ming her for doing this and that. Revenge no longer influenced her anymore. It will be better if she died.


    But the thought of how the people who taunted her lived happily gave her the force to swim back to the surface even if she couldn''t swim.


    She moved her legs and arms trying to go back to the surface but she kept sinking, she couldn''t hold onto her breath any longer.


    ''Will this how I die??''


    ''I don''t want to die.''


    ''I was wrong. Suicide wasn''t the answer.''


    ''If I can''t win in this life, so what?? I''ll create a new spell and go back in time many times as I want.''


    ''If there isn''t a time travel spell, I''ll make one.''


    ''I won''t die!!!''


    The strong current blew her away from the surface like it wanted to kill her, she tried and tried until her hands touched the leg of the bridge.


    She held onto the iron attached to the bridge and finally came back to thend.


    "Well, that was refreshing." she smirked wriggling her hair that shook with water, and then came to the town square where those people threw disgusting things at her.


    "Oh?? Come back for your mask??" the people who tossed her mask around mocked her as if the status between her and them disappeared.


    People keep throwing those things at her as she made her way to those three men who saw her as a joke. Little did they know that the joke they looked down on was the monster of Mortel.


    The tomato on her head was like a red crown made of ruby and the eggshell as she crumbled inside her hands was just like the head of the pests that were crumbling in her mind.


    They tossed the mask her father gave to her again, but that time, instead of running to get it, she used her magic to grab two of them leaving the one with the mask falling onto the street.


    When they looked at her in the eyes, their brave heart broke in two.


    "ytime''s over." she snatched the mask back and made her way back to the Nova household then ordered the group of assassins to kill those people the next day.


    The time she spent until Diana destroyed the duchy wasn''t sitting in the room in denial. The newspapers she ordered to her room were all the important things she needed to send the letter to her allies.


    There was always a change of newspapers every day in the household, so to hide the act she had allies from prince Richard and Duchess Catherine, she used hidden code and wrote it on the newspaper when the maid took it in the evening and threw it in the trashcan.


    Her allies will pick it up then. To her ultimate n, to bring down all of those people at once, people who lost was when they were at the peak of their arrogance.


    <Write down all the nobles who supported Richard.>


    <Try to take prince Philip on my side.>


    <Follow the emperor every steps.>


    <Don''t let Victor find out about this.>


    The letters she sent out every day while the world kept their guards down around her. But that wasn''t enough. She took the magic orbs that made her magic run wild every day to surpass her potential and found the ancestor''s tombstone to learn the memory magic from him while using the excuse she wanted to visit her father''s grave.


    Taking back the duchy from Diana was in her n as many valuable items of the Mortel were in that house, but Diana interrupted her n again when she decided to destroy the duchy.


    In the middle of cold winter, she screamed in anger at Diana her name when seeing her basement was destroyed, all of her magic books were in there.


    "Diana!!!" when she ran trying to hurt Diana, a hand pushed her into the pile of snow protecting Diana.


    "You''re lucky you''re alive, you heartless monster." Diana cursed Marte in disgust seeing the person she hated the most tried to touch her.


    Diana''s head was always about prince charming not thinking how reality worked, it was that heartless monster who was helping her from the prince again and again.


    A sense of exhaustion hit Marte, she then rest on the snow pillow. She was tired, she wanted to take a break from all of those sh*ts.


    But life didn''t give her a break when the man who pushed her came back.


    "I''m sorry for pushing you. Are you alright?? Let me take you back." he took off his warm jacket and put it on Marte''s cold body keep apologizing to her.


    "Victor...I felt sorry for you. Is it exhausting?? Trying to stay on both sides??? You can rest now, just follow your heart."


    "What''re you saying?? The only person I love is..."


    "Diana, is it?? I don''t need this fake care anymore, just go back to that woman."


    "Why...?? Why did you keep pushing me away??!! You know clearly who I loved and yet you tried to ignore that fact."


    "Yeah?!! I know!!! You love me!!! But I have nothing to give back to you, if I could rip my heart and show you, I would!!!! There''s nothing left, my heart was already gone!!! Not just once...a lot!!!"


    He hugged her as she sobbedining about the things she''s been through.


    "The one who gave me the sense of the outside world lied to me!! The knight I cared about betrayed me!!! The maid I trusted betrayed me for money!!! I had no friend, and a lover is out of my reach!! My brother hated me!! My father left me!!! They all died in my mind!!! And you!!! Although you kept showing me your feeling but your action was different!!!"


    "I will be by your side, just tell me!!! I won''t stay by Diana''s side any longer...if you tell me you love me..." her hand dropped on the cold snow and then murmured to him, "I need a break, in this life, just stay away from me as you can. I don''t want to see you again...at least in this life."


    "..." he bit his lip obeying her order as she pushed him away, seeing him leaving, that back of his when he turned away, she stared at it with a smile on her face.


    "You did the right thing...Victor."


    <em>Haa...</em>


    She took a deep breath listening to the Christmas song, for that night, she wanted a rest.


    ''Please...if anyone disturbs me, I''ll hit them.''


    Just three seconds after that, aughing sound was heard. She got up angrily from the pile of snow.


    "Look!!! This snowman has the same face as you!!" the snowman with the smile upside down in front of her made by the first prince of the empire.


    "What''s with you??"


    He chuckled at Marte who frowned, her expression started looking simr to the snowman.


    "Don''t sleep here. Let''s go back to my ce." she threw the snowball at him when he suggested that and went back to sleep in the pile of snow.


    But the stubborn prince didn''t give up and sneaked behind her.


    "Touch me, I''ll cut your finger off." he took his finger back and then muttered to her, "I see the letter, I ept your proposal. I''ll take the crown and you take the duchess''s title."


    "Well, now we''re talking." she took his hand and gave up from the snow swearing her life will be his until the n became a reality.


    <strong>To be continued....!</strong>