“How dare you!”

The overly forceful fist slammed down on the dressing table with a bang.

“How dare that wench tarnish my reputation?”

Caroline’s face was filled with rage.

Karina, who used to tremble and not move an inch at her words.

“Even keeping your head down quietly, barely noticeable, is not enough.”

Caroline muttered, chewing on her lower lip.

Perhaps because she was humiliated by someone she had always looked down on, her pride was hurt even more.

“Your Grace. The merchant Abdul has requested to meet with the Young Lady.”

Nicole, her personal maid, observed her expression carefully before speaking.

“Ignore him. I don’t need him anymore. Where would I use such an incompetent fool who can’t even do one job properly!”

Nicole bowed her head and stepped back at Caroline’s cold rebuke.

“I can’t just leave things like this.”

She roughly plucked a blooming flower bud from the vase decorating the dressing table.

“I need to properly teach that impudent little rat its place.”

Caroline gritted her teeth and crushed the flower bud in her grasp.

Sticky sap oozed between her fingers and dripped onto the floor.

[This is the timeline separator]

“Ahahahaha!”

Karina, lying on the bed in the room, burst into laughter until tears came to her eyes.

Recalling Caroline’s trembling figure at the banquet, filled with shame and humiliation, brought not just satisfaction but even a thrill.

‘Is this how Caroline felt when she humiliated and tormented me in the past?’

Karina smiled with vindication.

Karina knew that her plan would damage the Grand Duke’s family’s reputation.

However, Karina had no hesitation in devising and executing this plan.

The reputation of the Grand Duke’s family was none of her concern.

‘I’ll just pay back what I’ve suffered and then divorce, that’s all.’

Before her regression to the past.

She had been called a villainess and endured all kinds of insults, contempt, and disdain.

Something like this barely made her bat an eye.

‘That haughty Caroline has been so publicly humiliated, so she should be quiet for a while, right?’

“Haa.”

Karina exhaled comfortably, savoring the exhilarating feeling.

‘Ah, this isn’t the time for this.’

Composing her excited mind, Karina carefully recalled what was to happen next.

‘What happened after this banquet ended?’

But nothing particularly came to mind.

Before the regression, Karina, who had been greatly humiliated at the banquet, had secluded herself in her room for a while.

But now there was no need for that.

She couldn’t do that either.

‘First, I need to find out how I ended up in the past.’

The most suspicious thing was the wish potion she drank right before the regression.

Karina recalled the route through which she had obtained the wish potion in the past.

‘I definitely got it from the black market.’

The black market she had found with great difficulty by mobilizing all her connections.

Originally, she had intended to obtain poison.

It was to eliminate Lucia, Jeremiah’s remarriage partner.

When she demanded an antidote along with the poison, the black market dealer handed over a suspicious potion instead of an antidote.

‘There is no antidote for this poison. Instead, I’ll give you this. It’s a potion that grants wishes. Make a wish and feed this potion to your target. If you’re lucky, they might survive.’

A potion given instead of an antidote when there was none? It didn’t inspire confidence.

No, the very phrase ‘wish-granting potion’ reeked strongly of quackery.

Seeing my distrust, the black market dealer smiled.

‘Is there really a need to verify if it’s real? If I remember correctly, you asked for the strongest poison, saying you absolutely wanted to kill someone.’

He seemed to find it amusing that someone buying deadly poison to kill a person was also asking for an antidote.

“I drank the potion I received instead of an antidote, and I came back to the past. It’s really strange, isn’t it?”

Moreover, the wish Karina had made wasn’t even to turn back time.

Nevertheless, she had returned to the past.

‘To achieve what I want, I need to properly find out what this wish potion is.’

Now that she had returned in time, Karina’s greatest weapon was knowing the future for the next three years.

Of course, she couldn’t remember all the details precisely.

But she knew about the major events and incidents overall.

To utilize this advantage, she needed appropriate preparation and planning.

Karina got up and prepared to go out.

Then suddenly, she realized it wouldn’t be good if anyone found out that the Grand Duchess was visiting a black market dealer in the underworld.

Since she had a public wedding, someone might recognize her.

Karina took out a simple design outerwear with almost no decorations or lace and prepared a robe to wear over it.

‘This should be enough so that no one will think I’m the Grand Duchess, right?’

After checking her appearance once more in the mirror, she carefully left the room.

Fortunately, she didn’t encounter anyone until she reached the entrance door after passing through the long corridor and down the stairs.

‘Looks like there won’t be any troublesome issues.’

If maids or other employees had caught her in this state, it would have been very cumbersome to explain the situation.

As Karina sighed in relief and was about to open the mansion door to leave, she paused at an unexpected situation.

A carriage was waiting in front of the mansion door. And the Grand Duke’s employees were lined up in a long row from the entrance to the carriage.

‘Oh no!’

The timing was not good.

There was only one case when the employees were lined up like this in front of the entrance.

Only when Jeremiah was going out.

‘I should have come down a little later.’

If she went out now, it would be no different than advertising the Grand Duchess’s outing.

Karina quickly turned to go back to her room, closing the door she had slightly opened.

Then her eyes met squarely with a man behind her.

“…!”

“Were you going out?”

Of all people, it was the one she least wanted to encounter.

[This is the timeline separator]

A peaceful scenery was flowing past the carriage window.

Karina, who was looking out the window with a sullen expression, glanced at Jeremiah sitting opposite her.

“Shouldn’t you at least tell me where we’re going?”

Her plan to secretly find the black market dealer had ended before it could properly begin.

She had encountered Jeremiah at the mansion entrance.

When Karina made up an excuse that she was going out alone to see the city, Jeremiah snapped at her.

‘The Grand Duchess wants to go out and wander around alone? The thieves and kidnappers lurking everywhere would be very pleased.’

‘Shouldn’t you have some awareness that you’re the Grand Duchess?’

In the end, unable to find an excuse to go out alone, Karina was forced to accompany Jeremiah.

“Are you really not going to tell me?”

“I told you it’s a village inspection.”

The northern part of the empire was barren and desolate. Nevertheless, it was enormously large.

So the cities and villages ruled by the Grand Duke’s family were divided into four zones – north, south, east, and west – for management.

“I mean which village. You’re not going to inspect all regions today, are you?”

“You’ll find out when we arrive.”

Jeremiah answered with his eyes fixed on the documents in his hand.

She didn’t expect him to readily tell her where they were going, but his curt answer made her feel annoyed.

“It’s really uncomfortable.”

“Uncomfortable?”

Jeremiah raised his head and glanced at Karina.

It was the Grand Duke’s carriage, no less.

The carriage, pulled by six horses, was luxurious beyond compare with soft cushioned seats, a plush rug on the floor, and dignified interior decorations.

If this carriage was uncomfortable, nothing would be comfortable.

“I’d rather ride a cart instead.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying that if I ever need to go somewhere in the future, it would be better to take separate carriages.”

“You must be bored to be talking nonsense.”

“Does it sound like I’m saying this out of boredom?”

“I’m busy now, so try not to talk to me as much as possible.”

Jeremiah focused back on his documents.

A silence fell over the carriage.

It felt suffocating, as if she had fallen into deep water.

Just as she was thinking it might be better to just jump out, Jeremiah spoke casually.

“I received a report about what happened in the dining room yesterday.”

At the mention of yesterday, she realized he was talking about the incident where the maids had given her food waste.

“And?”

“I heard that you usually harassed the maids over trivial matters.”

Karina inwardly scoffed.

‘So they decided to cover it up like that.’

“Is that what the maids said?”

“If you want to be treated like a Grand Duchess, act like one.”

“What does it mean to act like a Grand Duchess?”

“It means don’t act like someone desperate to bully those beneath you.”

“Haa.”

Karina laughed weakly with a frustrated sigh. She felt no value in responding to his words.

“I’ve taken measures to give appropriate punishment and disciplinary action to the servants according to their wrongdoings.”

“How thoughtful of you.”

With Karina’s response, an oppressive silence continued.

Just as her patience was about to run out, fortunately, the carriage arrived at its destination.

As she was about to get out of the carriage, Jeremiah warned Karina.

“Individual actions are prohibited during the inspection.”

Karina inwardly snorted and ignored him.

[This is the timeline separator]

On the outskirts of the village, as they got out of the carriage, a few knights who had been waiting in advance joined them.

“There have been various disturbances recently due to the large influx of outsiders.”

“That’s common during this season. Increase the security forces.”

“Two days ago, there was a knife fight between mercenaries who came in as escorts for merchants and local thugs. The merchants are asking for leniency, saying they absolutely need their escorts.”

“No exceptions can be allowed. Deal with them according to the law.”

“Understood.”

Jeremiah surveyed the city center while receiving reports.

The northern region governed by the Colsberg Grand Duchy was a trade route that merchants heading to the eastern Ferdin Kingdom had to pass through.

Despite the high and treacherous mountain ranges teeming with monsters, the reason merchants used the northern route was because of the specialties that could only be found here.

Especially after the monster subjugation that eliminated the rampant magical beasts, merchants from all over the continent flocked to the north.

It was to obtain various by-products such as leather, monster cores, horns, eyes, claws, and teeth that came from processing the magical beasts.

Equipment and products made from monster by-products were popular not only among magicians but also among nobles.

However, Karina’s eyes, looking at the streets full of vitality, were clearly bored.

‘If it’s going to be like this, why did he bring me along?’

She wanted to find the black market dealer as soon as possible.

She couldn’t understand why Jeremiah was dragging her along for a security inspection.

The group, slowly moving while checking the security status, eventually entered the bustling downtown.

The downtown inspection was at least less boring than the quiet outskirts, as there was something to see.

The stalls that had been filled with monster body parts and leather changed to interesting items as they went further in.

Karina unconsciously turned her gaze.

‘Right. Whether it’s inspection or whatever, let him do as he pleases. I should just look around.’

As she shifted her attention, there were quite a few things worth seeing.

Cute porcelain dolls, fascinating glasswork that changed color depending on the viewing angle, soft yarn balls made by winding thread, ribbon strings knotted in various shapes, and so on.

Karina looked at the items with an excited heart.

It was then, while she was absorbed in one side of a stall. Suddenly, someone grabbed her wrist.

“…!”

Startled, she looked up to see Jeremiah. He was looking at her with a frown and an unpleasant expression.

“Have you already forgotten what I said?”

Karina recalled what Jeremiah had said just before getting out of the carriage.

‘Individual actions are prohibited during the inspection.’

“I didn’t act individually. I was diligently following along, wasn’t I?”

Probably.

Karina said, shaking off his hand.

It wasn’t a lie since she hadn’t secretly tried to run away on a different path.

“Don’t get distracted and follow closely.”

At his words, a feeling of defiance surged within Karina.

Just as she was about to open her mouth to say something.

Kwang!

Along with a vibration that shook the ground, smoke billowed up.

Karina was startled by the explosion that occurred nearby.

Just before the fiercely rising dust cloud was about to engulf them.

A strong force grabbed her wrist. As Karina suddenly found herself in an unfamiliar embrace, a low voice leaked into her ear.

“Stay still. Just like this for a moment.”