She has died for him nine times.

In every past life, Seol Areum loved the same man — cold, brilliant, and utterly unreachable. A crown prince. A warlord. A nameless soldier. A ruthless CEO. Different faces, same soul. And in every single life, she watched him die in her arms... or worse, watched him forget her entirely.

Now she's back. Again. Reincarnated into the body of a disgraced noble's daughter in a kingdom on the brink of war — and he is here too. Prince Kaien. The most feared man in the empire, with eyes like winter and a heart locked behind walls she's spent nine lifetimes trying to break.

He doesn't remember her. He never does.

But this time, something is different. Because this time — he's looking at her first.

And this time, Seol Areum isn't going to cry, sacrifice herself, or let fate win.

She's going to be selfish. She's going to be ruthless. She's going to make him fall so deeply that even death won't be able to take him from her.

But the closer she gets to breaking his walls... the more she realizes the truth behind all nine of her deaths.

It was never fate.

Someone has been killing her — on purpose.

"I have loved you across nine lives and watched you forget me every time. This is the last time I will be the one to break. In this life, I choose myself — until the moment you choose me too."

— A story about love that transcends lives, a woman who refuses to be a sacrifice, and a man slowly remembering a soul he was never meant to forget.

The news of the Imperial investigation spread through the capital the way that certain kinds of official news always spread: not through the official channels that had issued it, but through the social ones that interpreted it.


I observed this process from a slight distance, which was where I had always found observation most useful.


Chapter 123 - Chapter 123: What the Capital Says