Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: If I Run From Here, Can I Avoid You?
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Esther's blood-red hair fluttered in the air.
The chill air pressing against her back and the sensation of falling made her squeeze her eyes shut. For the first time, she felt the wings of true freedom, tempting her to cast everything aside.
A dull thud echoed, followed by excruciating pain that felt like her entire body was shattering. Then came the screams piercing her ears.
Esther shut her eyes tighter, leaving it all behind.
Yes, it was finally over.
She was ready for eternal rest. Like a montage, the horrific memories of her past flashed through her mind.
<To think His Highness the Crown Prince is engaged to a woman like that. What on earth...>
<That commoner bitch holds her head so high—it's laughable.>
<Her father was a commoner too, and I hear he just died. Wonder if the daughter had something to do with it.>
Countless voices echoed in Esther's mind. Amid them, faceless fingers pointed at her, lips whispered behind her back, and open mockery rang out.
She wanted to wake up. She didn't want to live in this nightmare anymore. That was the sole reason she had thrown herself off the edge.
"Gasp!"
Esther curled up tightly, her body trembling intermittently from the ongoing pain.
Looking down at her already broken body, she suddenly realized where she was and let out a scream.
The mahogany desk in the right corner, the wardrobe she'd always turned away from as a child because she feared ghosts peeking from the gap with the ceiling, and the bed whose corner had broken when she roughhoused as a kid.
No doubt about it. This was her beloved home, the Elpis Merchant Group.
"W-what in the world...!"
"Ah, you're awake! Are you alright, miss?"
Esther stared at the man rushing in through the door opposite her, then instinctively covered her mouth.
Krune Hyde. Her companion from that fateful expedition to open a new trade route—who had returned as a corpse—was standing before her, eyes wide with worry.
"You scared us so much... Is your body feeling any better now?"
"How in the...?"
Krune brushed his forehead with long fingers as he watched Esther's face drain of color, her hands trembling uncontrollably at the unbelievable sight.
"I can't tell you how worried we've been. We all felt the shock of Ete's passing deep in our bones. But without you, miss, we can't even hold the funeral."
"The funeral?"
Esther's eyes widened at the mention of her father—the former Merchant Guild Master Ete, who had died years ago.
And with the supposedly dead Krune right there before her, she had no room to process what was happening.
"Miss, I know your heart aches, but it's been three days now. You know how much Ete suffered from the sepsis. He'd want this too."
Krune felt sorry for her. Esther still didn't seem ready to accept her father's death.
Just looking at her pale face as she leaned against the bed told him everything. Suddenly, she bolted upright.
"M-miss!"
"......"
Esther repeatedly clenched and unclenched her hands, then turned to the full-length mirror beside her.
After standing frozen like a statue before it for a long while, she snatched the calendar from the mahogany desk.
Flipping through the pages irritably to the current month, her face turned ashen as she asked Krune,
"What year is it in the imperial calendar?"
"Pardon?"
"What year!"
"923!"
Krune answered almost reflexively to her sharp, urgent tone. But Esther kept rummaging around, her hands still shaking sporadically.
"This can't be. It doesn't make sense."
"Miss, are you really okay?"
Anyone would pity the sight of her—gaunt hands like bare bones covering her face as she muttered to herself.
Krune knew how much she'd loved Ete, their Guild Master. Even the guild members had wept bitterly when such a good man passed.
How much more shattered must the heart of his own daughter be? It hurt just to imagine.
"Come down when you're ready. We need to send him off before the weather turns colder."
Krune gave the still-standing Esther a light hug before leaving. The door clicked shut, and he was gone.
A few minutes later, Esther lifted her tear-streaked face and whispered softly,
"This can't be."
She refused to believe it. Her final act of courage had been driven by a desperate bid to escape that abyss of despair.
But what awaited her was no peaceful rest.
"How can this be?"
Esther didn't want to believe it, but the evidence all around her screamed the truth.
Krune, who should be dead, alive before her. Waking not in the guild master's quarters, but her childhood room.
Proving they were indeed in mourning, her young self stood before the mirror dressed head to toe in black, and...
"Father's trade goods and contracts for the deal he wanted to finalize."
They were carefully stored in the desk—without a single completion mark.
It was the deal to which Ete, the guild master, had devoted everything, unaware his health was failing.
The calendar matched perfectly, as did the date of her father's death aligning with when she'd collapsed in her past life.
Deep down, Esther already knew she couldn't deny it. She'd lived through this before.
"Why? Why me!"
Her pitiful cry, almost a scream, echoed through the room in a shrill voice.
No answer came. Just like when she'd demanded why the nobles despised her.
Esther sank to the floor. Despair and rage welled up at the realization she couldn't even end her life on her own terms.
The world had watched her twice now.
Staring blankly at the blue sky outside, a spark suddenly lit in her dead eyes.
"No. This time, I can live freely."
Maybe the world hadn't abandoned her—perhaps it pitied her and granted another chance. In that instant, she unearthed the tiny hope buried deep in her heart.
...Yes. Perhaps everything hinged on the choices from here on.
Her misfortune began at nineteen, with her father's death from sepsis.
After that, she'd abruptly inherited the guild and struggled desperately to protect it.
Only after succeeding in the very deal her father had prepared did she receive her countess title—and meet the two men who ruined her life.
"If I run from here, I won't have to meet them."
As if possessed, Esther rose and stuffed her clothes into a bag in the corner.
She planned to leave. Far away, where no one could find her.
"Guild Master, if you go like this, what about us...?"
Her hands froze at the voice thick with sobs.
Unknowingly, she'd drifted to the window where the sound carried best and peered down.
There, her guild members—family in all but blood—sobbed around the coffin.
"It's because we couldn't take care of you properly. Leave it to us, miss..."
"Yes, rest easy now. We'll carry on this guild. Watch over us always from your side."
Esther clamped her hand over her mouth to stifle the sob escaping her throat.
She already knew they'd kept that promise. And yet, here she was, planning to abandon them.
She, who had fallen into ruin without a soul to help her in her previous life, was about to act just like the people she despised most.
The realization filled her with disgust.
"I'm sorry..."
Ah, what a selfish, rotten person she was. Esther berated herself.
After silently choking back tears for a long while, she wiped the last one trailing down her chin and murmured with resolve,
"I'll stay until the guild is stable, then leave."
Her life had crumbled after receiving the countess title and signing further contracts at the Imperial Palace.
Esther vowed: No countess title. She'd complete her father's planned deal, then leave without hesitation.
In the end, she couldn't abandon her family.
Not those who loved her first and last, nor this guild that held all her father's dreams.
"Miss, are you feeling better now?"
By the time Esther came downstairs, Krune looked at her worriedly and asked.
Not just Krune—all the guild members kept stealing concerned glances at her.
"Let's begin the funeral."
Esther forced down the surging grief at witnessing Ete's funeral for the second time.
At her words, the pallbearers seized the handles on the coffin corners and hoisted it up.
Esther led the way at the front. As the guild members moved to follow,
"The Empire's Little Sun, Crown Prince Helios von Evgenia, has arrived. All pay respects before His Highness."
At the announcement, every guild member and onlooker bowed in unison as if on cue.
Too flustered to bow, Esther stared toward the guild entrance where she'd been heading.
This couldn't be happening.
In her past life, she had no memory of Helios attending the funeral. Why was he here now?
Memories of his past atrocities flashed through her mind, distorting her face before she could compose herself.
"You there! Why aren't you showing proper respect?"
The herald who had announced the prince glared at the unbowed Esther.
She quickly tried to lower her gaze and bow.
At that moment, the voice of the man she'd once loved and longed for rang out.
"Enough. It's we who must show respect here."
Footsteps drew nearer, stopping right before her.
"You may raise your head."
Esther looked up without thinking.
There stood the man with those kind, gentle eyes from her brief childhood glimpse—her unforgettable first love, who had broken her heart. Helios.