Your Majesty, Please Don’t Kill Me Again - Chapter 1

I died on a bright and sunny summer day.

“Lariette Isabelle de Bellua, the eldest daughter of Count Bellua, has failed to set a good example as a noble. She has committed the crimes of indulging in extravagant spending habits, not sincerely looking after the Bellua county, daring to embezzle taxes, and having knowledge of the count’s treason but choosing to conceal the fact and conspire with him… Additionally, she is guilty of countless more crimes that are too shameful to speak aloud. As such, she is being sentenced to death.”1

BANG! BANG!

The icy voice that reverberated throughout the courtroom fascinated me. Every crime from the awful judge’s mouth was unjust, especially the first-mentioned offense of extravagance.

What crime? What kind of stupidity do you have to tell me that my crime is extravagance? Do even you know what that word means? That word describes the ridiculous dress you bought your daughter!

Despite the Supreme Court’s vacancy and a messy legal system, the crime of extravagance is the most ridiculous accusation I’ve ever heard.

I couldn’t hold back my anger and nearly grabbed the judge by the neck.

It’s possible that he saw my twitching arms wanting to but couldn’t reach out, or perhaps he had been stabbed before, but the judge couldn’t look at me in the eyes and instead fixed his gaze in the air. He was sweating profusely.

That’s right. There’s no way he wouldn’t know. All the aristocrats were aware of the fact that Count Bellua led an extremely frugal lifestyle.

[SAVE THIS. DON’T BUY THAT. KEEP IT. Don’t waste the people of the Bellua Countý’s money that they paid with their blood, sweat, and tears. Don’t spend them in vain!]

I grew up hearing my father’s stern yells every day to the point that it still hums in my ears… that’s why I never had an interest in clothes adorned with jewels or silk decorations from the East.

Whenever I attended banquets, no one could guess the feelings I had to endure while listening to the whispers of the other ladies who said I was beyond hopeless regarding fashion.

Even so, I always put the people of our county’s interests first.

I found it to be a privilege.

But he has the audacity to tell me that I was wasteful with my spending? Ha!

My extremely long death sentence was flawed from the very first line. So I found it difficult to listen to whatever they said about me because those were just loads and loads of bullshit.

I ignored the judge’s voice because I knew it would only provoke me further.

“Lariette Isabelle de Bellua… I will give you an opportunity to defend yourself for the last time.”

They were so concerned that I might die and become a ghost who would haunt them with mournful eyes of resentment that the judge even permitted me to make an unprecedented appeal.

Even if they somehow accepted that they were going to kill a traitor without a good reason.

“… defend myself?”

I was speechless as I clenched my fist.

What kind of argument are they talking about?

Wouldn’t I have needed to commit an actual crime to defend myself?

Even if I somehow managed to defend myself and survive, there was no promising future waiting for me in the end.

What use would it serve for me to stay alive alone in life where the guillotine had already executed my parents, younger brother, and even the branch family members I had never seen before?

My everyday routine consisted of crying repeatedly following my family’s demise after being implicated in the terrible charge of my father’s treachery.2

It wouldn’t change anything, even if I managed to save my own life.

Even if I am still alive, I’ll only die more each second since I’ll continue to cry all day long and exist as an empty shell that merely breathes to stay alive.

Even those regrets about my future cooled down when I gave it a thought.

So I refrained from arguing and defending myself. Instead, I looked to the Emperor, Rupert Edgar Raspe Vellelum, standing at the other end of the courtroom and sternly watched the death sentence against me.

Even though it wasn’t my fault that I was about to die due to his pointless rage, he didn’t appear pleased as he was looking at me.

His unperturbed expression, though, as though my death was a normal occurrence, astonished me.

His mouth is slightly crooked in the direction he is looking at me.

I grinned widely, taking notice of the tiny alteration in his visage.

I chewed and spit out the evil one letter at a time as I peered into his gentle, green eyes that didn’t match his violent attitude.

“Curse. You. Fucking. Bastard.”

Of course, I said those words expecting I would never see him again.

#1. My Birthday Celebration at the age of 12.

My eyelids opened.

My vision was clear.

The window, which had turned white from the cold, was the first thing that attracted my attention.

The icy glass, which makes me feel cold just by glancing at it, was opaque, as if it had lost sight of its purpose.

The snow begins to cast darker shadows beyond that opaque glass.

A faint light shot across the frosty air through a tiny fissure. It was a slender, dazzling ray of sunshine that wasn’t weak.

Bellua’s winter was bitterly cold and challenging, yet the sun was powerful enough to rival summer.

Light.

I fixed my gaze on the harsh jumbled light.

When I slightly turned my head, I could see a little reflection.

With the dawn comes a wintery air.

Snow.

Winter.

I looked out the window at the misty projection of the winter landscape.

However, it took a while for the view to be taken in entirely with my eyes.

Even after ‘opening my eyes,’ I was slightly unaware of it.

Because this concept was illogical.

‘Since I’m dead,’

I shut my eyes and cursed the Emperor.

He frowned when he heard my unusual mocking insults, and I laughed at him until my last moments.

In addition, it was midsummer3 on the day I passed away. It was when the sun was sweltering.

But now, a clear winter day may be seen from the window.

I furrowed my brows as I suddenly thought I had seen this antique window before.

This slightly grittier olive-colored space is unquestionably a familiar one.

“My lady!”

The door flew open as I tried to recall my hazy memories, and a woman entered.

The voice shocked me, and I leaped to my feet.

“N-nanny?”

“Are you up now?”

Viscountess Coen, my childhood nanny, and her husband perished in a carriage accident in the fall of last year.

What is happening?

Is this heaven, then?

Although I haven’t committed any crimes to the point where I should be executed, I have never been as good as she was.

I grinned and sped over to her.

“NANNY!”

“Yes, indeed. How are you doing today? How unusual for you to have woken up so early. You must have been excited since today is your birthday.”

“Yes? Birthday?”

Does heaven have birthdays too?

But I was born in the winter and passed away in the summer.

In heaven, I believe I missed two seasons.

I asked again after opening my eyes, but my nanny did not respond.

“Hurry up and prepare… it must’ve been chilly here all night, no?”

“No… it was not.”

“Voight received my order to burn a lot of firewood because of your sensitivity to the cold.”

“Voight? Is Voight here?”

Did Voight die as well? But he did nothing wrong!

If the maniac Emperor really caught him, then I must apologize profusely to Voight for being caught by that psycho.

My nanny briefly raised an eyebrow as though she were hearing a weird rumor.

“Don’t worry… Ah— you mean vacation? I see. Did you forget?”

“Vacation?”

“He and his wife went on a vacation since they’re newlyweds. Please understand.”

It has already been seven years since Voight was married. What does she mean by ‘newlyweds’? Can you marry more than once in paradise?

Sigh. You can’t really tell if he and Emily are genuinely in love.

He sang about love and whatnot and now look at him.

‘Haha.’

This is why men should never be trusted.

“Well… ugh, then, let him be since he’s a newlywed.”

The nanny complained as she cleaned the sheets, whether or not she heard my little voice.

“Ah… the Count as well! Why would he make you sleep in this dreadful bedroom on the eve of your birthday just because you didn’t do your lessons!”

Although it was filled with her trademark displeasure, I burst into laughter at the remarks directed at me.

You have no idea how much I missed that kind and considerate lady.

I gave her a behind-the-back embrace as she knelt down to fold the blanket.

Warm.

I’m fortunate to have a babysitter in paradise.

“Nanny, I miss you so much,” I said.

“Oh, why does the young lady keep acting like a child?”

“It appears that I’m aging backward.”

In response to the nanny’s playful teasing, I grinned widely.

She completed setting up the bedding while hanging me up on her back.

I grabbed onto the grip she was in with my strength out of fear that she would slip away.

My nanny moved away from me and didn’t shake my arm.

“Did you wake after nightmares?”

“No. Uhm. Was it a nightmare, perhaps?”

“Ahygu… why is it like that? Even the young master experiences nightmares frequently these days.”

“Young master?”

“Hmm? What do you mean? Of course, it’s Young Master Lehan!”

Lehan couldn’t come to heaven. I laughed.

Lehan passed away before me, and I was astounded to learn he was in heaven.

I was confident that this was heaven, so I opened my eyes in wonder.

“Is Lehan here?”

“Why do you keep on saying strange things? Of course, he’s here. Where else would he be except the Counts’ house?”

‘He’s not allowed in paradise.’

I didn’t say anything in response to the nanny’s remarks.

What did she just say?

What was this place?

My voice was stuck in my throat.

I scowled bitterly.

In response, my nanny gave me a delicate finger rub on my wrinkled forehead.

“The Bellua Estate, in the Bellua County, within the Vellnelni Empire. And, this is the attic of the annex… Are you still not fully awake, my lady?”

What? The Estate?

A month ago, the same day my father and Lehan were arrested, the estate was set on fire.

It makes no sense since only the burned frame of the household was left, as I saw it with my own two eyes.

I pressed my hand against my thumping chest as I glanced around the room.

Right.

This space is familiar to me.

This is the Room of Repentance, an old attic belonging to the Count’s annex that my father frequently used to discipline Lehan and me when we were children…

I haven’t returned there since I was 12 years old, but it was a place that I hated very much because I despised being alone and despised the darkness.

We started the story with a very rigged trial. Our protagonist, Lariette, considers herself a very frugal, proper noble lady. However, here, the Judge accused her of living in opulence and extravagance and conspiring with her father on treason against the Emperor. ↩️
Glossed over in the manhwa version, but Lariette was a crying, depressed mess after the death of her family. She couldn’t eat or sleep for weeks from when they were executed, her being jailed, her going through the rigged trial alone, and her being the last to be executed. She had really lost all hope. ↩️
Midsummer usually describes the day of the summer solstice or the hottest day in the summer, usually mid-June. ↩️