Chapter 1
The Duke of Northgate, Edward Blackwell, was drugged with a lethal aphrodisiac by a foreign spy.
When he burst into my tent, I looked at the man I had secretly loved for years, but I didn't undress to save him.
I simply watched him suffer on the verge of collapse before turning to walk out.
Edward didn't know that I had already lived this life once before.
In my previous life, when he was drugged, I had thrown caution to the wind and offered myself as his cure.
When his childhood sweetheart, Isabelle Stone, found out, she fled the camp in a fit of grief and fell to her death from a cliff.
Edward didn't react at the time, but on our wedding day, he destroyed my reputation by accusing me of being pregnant out of wedlock, which led to me being stripped of my royal status.
I eventually died a miserable death in his manor, freezing to death in the snow along with my unborn child.
But when I opened my eyes again, I realized I had returned to the very day Edward was drugged.
*****
"Why are you crying, Charlotte? Isn't this exactly what you wanted?" Edward said.
His voice was rough and full of rage.
I opened my eyes wide, and it hit me. I transcended to the day Edward was drugged.
In my previous life, I was completely infatuated with Edward.
Our first meeting was at the Everland Dynasty's triennial Autumn Hunt Grounds.
Edward, who was like a brother to my father, the king, rode into the grounds. With his jade crown held high and his military robe accentuating his strong figure, he was instantly the most striking presence in the crowd.
Later, when assassins suddenly attacked and took me hostage, Edward shot one of them dead with a single arrow and pulled me into his arms to protect me.
His midnight cloak wrapped around me, and with it, he stole my heart completely.
On the day I came of age, I confessed my feelings to Edward, who was nine years older than me.
But Edward, who had always treated me with affection, suddenly changed his expression and scolded me, saying I was just a silly girl who confused dependence with real feelings.
The very next day, Edward went straight to the king and requested to be sent to his fief in Northmoor.
I begged at the palace gates for an entire day, and in the end, my father, who had always doted on me, finally relented and allowed me to go to Northmoor.
When I first arrived in Northmoor, everyone in Northgate Manor was very respectful toward me. But not once did I catch a glimpse of Edward, even after a whole month there.
So I swapped my fancy dress for plain clothes, took on the name Caroline, and slipped into the camp as a commoner. That was how I ended up as a medic with the Northgate Regiment.
Three years into my life with the Northgate Regiment, Edward was set up and drugged by a traitor in the camp. I didn't hesitate. I walked straight into his tent and gave myself to him, becoming his antidote.
The next morning, Isabelle, his childhood friend and fellow comrade, stumbled upon us, disheveled and half-dressed. She was devastated, her eyes red with tears as she rode away from the camp at full speed.
But fate was cruel. On her way out, she was ambushed by enemy troops. With nowhere left to run, she threw herself off the cliff in utter desperation.
After that, Edward was never the same.
He and the brothers in the regiment built a memorial tomb for Isabelle, gave her a hero's send-off, honoring her as a general, and then petitioned the king to marry me.
By the time the imperial edict granting our marriage arrived in Northmoor, rumors about me were already spreading like wildfire across the Everland Dynasty.
People said I had no shame, that I seduced Edward and would stoop to anything, even drugging him.
They blamed me for Isabelle's death, and claimed I used royal power to strong-arm Edward into marrying me.
By the time our wedding day arrived, my pregnancy was obvious for all to see.
In those days, I shut myself off from the world, focused only on nurturing the baby and quietly preparing our wedding ceremony.
It was only on the day we wed that I learned just how much Edward despised me.
He hated me for the death of Isabelle.
He hated me for loving him.
After that day, there was no longer any trace of the radiant princess who was once the apple of the Everland Dynasty's eye.
All that remained was the Duchess of Northgate, left to wither away day and night in the cold, lonely backyard of Northgate Manor.
During three years of marriage, I lost three children, each one taken from me in the most cruel ways.
The first died in the backyard before even reaching three months old. The manor physician said the pregnancy was caused by the drugs, and even if the baby had survived, it would have been mentally impaired.
My second was lost in the fourth month, after I was forced to pay my respect as punishment. On Isabelle's death anniversary, I accidentally knocked over her memorial candle. Maids held me down before her tomb for three days, until blood pooled beneath me.
The last child was already eight months along. But Northmoor was struck by a rare, century-level blizzard. Every courtyard in Northgate Manor was fortified in advance, except mine, which was left exposed to the storm.
The snow kept falling for seven days, and the sun never showed its face.
The folks in Northmoor knew how to handle blizzards, so hardly anyone in the city got hurt.
But me and my unborn child? We were left to freeze and die in that storm, buried by the snow for good.
After my death, my spirit hovered above, watching as Edward clung to Isabelle, miraculously returned from the brink of death, in his arms.
Everyone in Northgate Manor was ecstatic, convinced that Edward had finally gotten his heart's desire, that the heavens had answered his prayers and brought back the one he loved most.
As for me, buried beneath the snow, not a single soul cared.
To them, I was nothing but a troublemaker; my death was the best thing that could have happened.
Maybe fate took mercy on me, seeing all the lives I saved during my three years with the Northgate Regiment. Somehow, I was given another chance, transcended on the very day Edward was drugged.
This time, there was only one thing I wanted to do, making sure Edward and Isabelle found happiness together.