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Even after everything became ashes, the flames didn’t go out.
It burned like an eternity.
I wondered if this was hell.
In the burning pain, the unfortunate past roared in flames.
The sorrow and loneliness of childhood, the pain and frustration of growing up… Which of these could have been my fault?
I regretted that I died without knowing where and how it went wrong.
The second memory of the pendant flashed over the flames. The night when the Merdy Castle was on fire.
Dehan kidnapped me that day, so it must have been his plan to set the castle on fire.
It wasn’t Halias.
But what could Dehan do?
Every time I questioned my past life, my memory was erased. But Merdy’s flame wasn’t something anyone could handle.
…if it weren’t for the flame user, they would need a very powerful sorcerer.
But Bahel Saha couldn’t handle the flames.
Was there anyone else?
The sorcerer who came one day and awakened my flames?
Could he handle the flames?
I had a sharp headache all of a sudden.
Some of my lost memories were found. But it was a mess because it’s mixed with the experiences of my past life.
No matter how many times I wandered through the web of memories, the answer didn’t come close.
As I wandered for so long, I heard a voice.
My last daughter.
I opened my eyes, but all I could see was a fire.
Does the flame speak?
There’s a famous story in the founding mythology of this country.
Prabash, the fire spirit, was said to be the first ancestor of the Merdy family. So, when the Merdy’s users called for a big fire, they used to borrow Prabash’s name…
Was that really real?
Without hesitation, the voice asked.
Do you think it’s unfair?
I didn’t care if he’s my ancestor or not. Even if it was a hallucination, I wanted to answer.
“It’s unfair! I was only three years old when I met the Oblivionist!”
Then the voice asked again.
Would you like to try it again?
What do you mean ‘again’? Don’t tell me, do you mean I can come back to life?
I was afraid that I would miss the opportunity if I hesitated, so I responded urgently.
“I’ll do it again! I’ll do it again! Over and over again…!”
The answer didn’t return for a long time, and the flames hadn’t died down.
But I didn’t give up.
Until the time came, the memories that came back with smoke were engraved one by one.
I am Liana Le Merdy.
I am the last remaining flame user in the kingdom of Zantar who served the god of fire.
Merdy’s flame is only Merdy’s.
I will never forget or forgive those who made me a puppet.
The fire raged like waves.
I didn’t collapse until the very end.
As far as I could remember.
*****
How much time had passed?
The view, which I hadn’t seen for a while, opened up blurry.
The pungent smell of smoke clouded the thought of waking up.
Am I still in the fire?
After a moment of thought, I realized that it was no longer painfully hot.
As I moved my limbs, I felt the touch of a thin, soft blanket.
My eyes became a little clearer, but I still couldn’t see anything properly.
Was it night…?
Or was it still hell…?
“Shhh.”
It was the moment when I finally got up.
“Argh.” There was a thumping sound of someone falling with a scream.
As I looked around nervously, my eyes became more accustomed to the darkness.
As soon as I realized I was on the bed, I saw incredibly short legs and tiny feet. Then I raised both hands in front of my eyes. They’re small.
…do I become a baby?
The voice I heard in the fire rang in my ears again.
Would you like to try it again?
That’s what the flame asked.
Did he mean going back to being a baby, not just coming back to life?
I groped the nape of my neck and grabbed the necklace with a locket pendant.
So I’m still Liana… Am I back in the past?
I wanted to get out of bed to check myself in the mirror, but both my legs were ridiculously short.
There was so much noise outside, and what I only could do was stomping my foot on the bed. The burning smell was also getting worse.
I had an ominous feeling, but first I had to get out of this bed.
I had no choice but to lie on my stomach and put my hands onto it. It would be a big deal if I fell off the bed and broke my short legs.
It was only when I managed to put my feet on the ground. The big black boots came before me without a sound.
Argh…!
I was startled at the face of the man looking down at me with his head bowed down.
“Red hair, red eyes. Liana Le Merdy.”
I couldn’t remember what I answered at this time in my previous life. But I knew it wasn’t the time to stand still.
“Kkyaaaaaag!”
I screamed like crazy.
A loud sound that even an adult couldn’t make, I screamed until my whole body exploded.
The man was Edifa Sischel.
My former kidnapper and a martial arts teacher.
If I was caught by him and taken to Lausanne island, I would meet nanny Bahel. Then all my memories would be gone. Again.
******
“Kkyaaaaaag!”
I lost my flame and my limbs were short, I had no weapon to fight against Edifa. But if I got caught helplessly like what happened in my previous life, it’s over.
I screamed for help, but unfortunately, no one came.
Edifa gently lifted me over my shoulder.
“Aaargh! Lif mi aone!”
Leave me alone, you b*st*rd!
Even my pronunciation didn’t work out the way I wanted it to.
I bit his shoulder with all my might, but Edifa, of course, didn’t budge.
“Aaaargh!”
I swung my small fists wildly and stretched out my feet.
He threw me down on the bed and rolled over the blanket. I was rolled into a cocoon in an instant, with a big, ugly hand.
“Aaaargh!”
With my scream, he wrapped me around his wide back and tied me tightly with a large black cloth.
I couldn’t believe the ‘again’ of the word ‘try again’ started here.
D*mn voice!
You’re Prabash, right?
Sending me back to this night, do you have no sympathy for me?
“Kkyaaaaaag!”
Even though Prabash had no sympathy for me, I had my voice. But no matter how much I screamed like a crazy baby, no one in the burning castle came into my room.
Damn it!
Edifa climbed down the rope that was hanging from the window while carrying me.
In my previous life, I might have already passed out, but the second time in my life was different.
“Euaaaaaag!”
I screamed with the determination to rip either my throat or Edifa’s eardrums. But why was no one coming to my rescue?
Edifa, who got on the horse, swore softly.
“Haa, you d*mn kid…”
Who the h*ll are you talking about?
“Ssi! Editta yu wicki bassat! (Edifa, you wicked b*st*rd!)”
My tongue was terribly short, but he finally flinched once.
“What, what…?”
Ah, I see.
I couldn’t say it right, but I didn’t care.
Edifa would be horrified seeing a three-year-old know his name.
I clenched my teeth, and then I screamed again.
“Euaaaaaag! Edippa, yu bassat!  (Edifa, you b*st*rd!)”
But Edifa no longer flinched.
Just like in my previous life, my head shook hard on the back of the horse that was running like crazy.
It’s midnight and it’s in the woods.
Let’s save my strength.
There was only one figure in this place when I was taken to Lausanne in my previous life.
Just before going to the island, we go to Naru to get on the boat.
[T/N: Naru : A certain place where a boat crosses in a river, in a river, or in a narrow sea.]
I wasn’t going to faint, I was going to hang in there and asked for help somehow.
I was Merdy with red eyes and red hair
Anyone would know that I was Merdy, so I had to get off this man’s back and catch someone’s eye.
I had to.
*****
“Ug, Uweeeg.”
However, it’s impossible to control the physiological phenomenon.
Shortly after throwing up for the second time, the words stopped.
Edifa got me off his back and wiped my lips with the back of his rough hand. Then, he threw away the blanket, which was covered with vomit, and watered me.
Seeing the bottle of water reminded me of a piece of my previous life. At that time, I had a hard time drinking that water and throwing it up a little later. So this time, I drank two sips and only moistened my lips.
Edifa looked down at me with strange eyes the day when I stopped crying at some point.
If it was my previous life, I would have collapsed from crying, but in my second life, I asked without hesitation.
“Yu, do yu kwill my mwother twoday?”
There was nothing to be afraid of. Edifa couldn’t kill Merdy’s precious princess.
Because Marquis Dehan wanted a flame user to fight against Halias, and only Merdy was gifted with fire magic.
Dehan wouldn’t forgive Edifa for killing such a precious flame user.
He smirked.
“You, are you going to keep being creepy? How the h*ll did you know my name?”
“Jus anwer mwe! Do yu kwill my mwother? Hou abwot my fwather?”
I wanted to sigh because of my pathetic pronunciation, but Edifa managed to understand and replied.
“I don’t know. I heard Merdy is such a strong family. What, descendants of Prabash? Do these extraordinary people burn to death even by their own flames?”
In my previous life, I was burned to death by my flame.
“Ewishh!”
Sitting on the trunk of a tree, I jumped up and stuck my foot to Edifa’s belly.
Of all the three-year-old body parts I had, my short legs looked the most useful, but Edifa only smirked.
I was angry, but there’s nothing I could do about it. Edifa was my martial arts teacher in my previous life. There’s no way I could fight him when I’m still a baby.
He lifted me up again, put me on his back, and spoke as if consoling me.
“You’re going to throw up anyway, so I can’t give you food. You’ll be hungry but hang in there until you meet Bahel. Because it’s just around the corner.”
Of all the words he had ever said, it was the scariest.
Bahel? No!
I couldn’t help it if I met Edifa a hundred times. But not Bahel…
Little by little the dawn came.
Edifa wasn’t even sleepy.
I’d rather go to sleep. There’s no way to meet anyone on this forest road anyway. Now that I was hungry, I should sleep for a while.
*****
“Hey, you. Are you alive?”
How much time had passed?
Edifa asked, still carrying me.
I couldn’t see anything. I was wrapped in a black cloth, but I didn’t feel the rattle like before.
The sound of the horse’s hooves that had been heard tirelessly disappeared.
…we got off the horse, huh?
When I didn’t answer, Edifa asked again.
“Hey, red hair.”
Come to think of it, he’s such a cheeky guy.
He knew my name, he knew that I was a princess, yet he called me ‘hey’.
I didn’t like it, but I didn’t say anything and held my breath to understand the situation.
Edifa was annoyed.
“Baby, did you faint?”
I got a hint from those words and, rather, relaxed my body and drooped.
He then said in a slightly worried tone.
“Hey, you can’t die.”
Of course, I will.
I closed my eyes and focused on the sounds around me.
Have we arrived at Naru?
I hadn’t heard anyone’s voice yet.
Prabash.
I apologize for swearing earlier, so don’t send me to Bahel.
Please.
I, I will live a good life.
I’m not going to burn anything like I did in my previous life.
I just closed my eyes and waited for someone’s presence around me.
The sound of other horses’ hooves, the sound of wheels rolling, the sound of humans’ voices, and anything else.
Then, something like a murmur began to be heard.
I waited and waited until they got close enough.
I finally opened my eyes.
He took a deep breath and inhaled again. Then he shouted with all his might.
“Help me! Help me! Oh, please. Merdy, answer me!”