I Let My Fiancé Marry His True Love After Rebirth

I died when Dante's fortunes were at their peak.

At the grand victory banquet that night, an envoy from the Royal Court, the elders of the Fire clan, and representatives of the Northern Merchant Guild all sang Dante's praises.

They said he was young and able, that he had brought the Fire Elves into the top five of the Elven Kingdom.

What they did not know was that the Fire clan had never made it that far on Dante's efforts alone.

I had won over the Northern Merchant Guild and placed the Wind clan's patrol at his disposal. Even the Fire clan's tax plan was mine, written over more than a dozen sleepless nights until it won the Council of Elders' approval.

I thought that was what spouses did for each other.

And I thought he would remember it.

After the banquet Dante poured me a glass of moonberry wine.

The moment I swallowed it, heat flared in my chest. It felt wrong, as if fire were burning its way out through my veins.

Only when I collapsed did I see Sophia emerge from behind the screen.

She wore the red gown I had given her and held the firecrystal charm Ash had worn as a child.

Ash was the boy I had raised.

I had taught him to read and to control his flames. Whenever he ran a fever, I stayed by his bed all night. Yet Sophia told me Ash was not my child at all.

"He is Dante's son and mine," she said. "He has always called me Mother."

I looked at Dante, hoping he would deny it.

Dante merely frowned, as if I were an annoyance.

"Evelyn, don't blame Sophia," he said. "She's the one who has suffered all these years. If you hadn't clung to your position as my betrothed, I would have married her long ago."

I wanted to laugh, but I lacked even the strength to lift a hand.

So the marriage I had fought to preserve all those years was, in his eyes, nothing more than me occupying Sophia's place.

He came closer, and a blade of fire took shape slowly in his palm.

"The Wind clan won't break with the Fire clan over someone already dead," he said, quite calmly. "Once you're gone, Sophia and I can start again."

When the fire blade pierced my chest, all I felt was cold.

The last thing I heard was the wind outside the window.

When I opened my eyes I was back in the Elder Hall.

The marriage contract lay in front of me, and the quill was in my hand.

Dante sat across from me, his voice impatient. "Hurry up and write. Don't keep the elders waiting."

I looked down at the blank line for the bride's name and smiled.

This time, Evelyn would not be the name I wrote.

I pinched my own arm first.

The pain was real enough.

The elders at the table still waited for me to put quill to paper. Sophia was still only a young woman of the Fire clan hiding behind the attendants' benches, and Ash had not even been born yet.

There was time for all of it.

I did not need to kill Dante immediately or rush to expose them. I had died too suddenly in my last life, before I could obtain much of the evidence. My first priority was to get away from him and gain the means to protect myself.

The Wind clan was my home, but it could not break with the Fire clan for my sake overnight. Too much depended on the treaty between them, and my mother needed time to make arrangements.

So I decided to go to the Royal Court first.

If I secured a position at the Royal Court, Dante would no longer be able to control me as easily as he had in my last life.