For the Lady's Wise Regression - Chapter 15

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 15
Let me think through this carefully, step by step.
Following her into a secluded alley where few people passed, I’d finally felt like I could breathe.
Yet even as I knew I should release the hand I was holding—the emotion building inside me growing hotter by the moment—I couldn’t let go, wanting to savor the thrill of victory just a little longer.
The mood had felt good, or so I thought.
‘I’m sorry, Ian. It’s not your fault that I’m like this….’
But the moment she noticed people passing by, however sparse, Vanessa withdrew her hand from mine without hesitation.
My disappointment was brief. When she offered her apology, I shook my head.
‘Don’t worry about it. But if something like this happens again, then we’ll need to reconsider things.’
‘What do you mean? Our relationship?’
‘Of course. I’m not patient enough to overlook the same problems cropping up repeatedly.’
If this happened again next time, I’d beat Kalaeil Lennard senseless once more, even if Vanessa tried to stop me.
To do that, I’d need to solidify my position with her.
To Vanessa Sharoze, Kalaeil Lennard had been someone she loved, but Ian Ruscliffe was merely a business partner bound by contract.
Ian Ruscliffe, bound by contract, and Kalaeil Lennard, whom she’d once loved.
That difference kept gnawing at me.
Enough to stir up petty jealousy.
‘When that time comes, Vanessa, you’ll have to choose.’
‘What if I say I don’t want to?’
‘I suppose my feelings won’t change even then.’
Even if she opposed my plan to beat him thoroughly, I would do it anyway.
Now that we’d married, I had no intention of letting her go.
But if—if she were to reconnect with Kalaeil Lennard….
If no matter how hard I tried, she never developed any feelings for me….
The thought made my chest twist so much I couldn’t control my expression.
Vanessa’s face wasn’t any better, and in the end.
We parted without having managed even a proper date.
“Damn it.”
Ian opened his closed eyes slowly and drew out the cigar he’d been holding against his chest, placing it between his lips.
The warmth of her hand still seemed to linger in his palm.
They say the first time is difficult, but the second time becomes easy.
Once I’d held her hand, I wanted to do it again.
And now an insatiable desire had welled up—the kind that made me want to keep holding it forever.
Even knowing it was greed.
Because beneath her composed exterior, that lukewarm temperature felt so much like her true heart.
Maybe I looked like a fool.
Of course I did. I’d suggested the date in the first place, yet I hadn’t managed to do a single thing properly.
‘Appearing too experienced isn’t good either, but sir, you mustn’t grip my hand as if you’ve never held anything but a toy since birth.’
‘I never held a toy. I’ve gripped a sword since the beginning.’
‘Will you tell the mistress the same thing? That you’ve only ever held a sword since birth, so you don’t know how to hold a hand?’
His question dripped with exasperation, and though I’d wondered if hand-holding really needed practice, the results made clear it did.
‘I didn’t realize the mistress’s hand was a sword hilt. Why not just make a fist instead?’
Denian had said we were short on time, so I tried grasping his hand as if it were Vanessa’s, and I’d simply squeezed it thoughtlessly.
The sharp look and expression that came back made me resolve to cut his salary this month without fail.
Though if the date went well, I was somewhat—just somewhat—willing to reduce the number of months he’d be docked.
Ian clenched and unclenched his fists in rhythm, his brow furrowing.
‘Why am I angry anyway?’
In the end, I’d come full circle back to square one.
The only reason I’d held my anger in that situation was purely because Vanessa and Kalaeil were childhood friends—and had once been lovers.
I’d hesitated because she might take his side if I stepped in.
As for his rude behavior, he’d been like that since childhood, so I’d simply stated the truth.
Could she still have feelings for him?
Is that why she’d reacted badly when I said I wouldn’t spare him if the same thing happened next time?
No… that couldn’t be it.
If that were the case, she wouldn’t have told me not to call him by name so carelessly.
Then was it my saying that my feelings wouldn’t change even if she refused that had upset her?
How was I supposed to endure that?
My patience wasn’t vast or generous enough to overlook him lurking about even after they’d broken up.
Judging by Vanessa’s reaction when dealing with Kalaeil Lennard, that shouldn’t be a problem.
So then, what exactly was the issue?
‘Ah……’
Only then did Ian realize his mistake.
From early morning until noon, he hadn’t eaten a single proper meal.
“This is……”
No wonder she was angry—he’d wandered about all day without eating, then come home empty-handed.
***
[Give me a chance to make it right.]
Two days had passed since that date that wasn’t quite a date.
Vanessa examined the letter that had arrived from Ian.
‘What mistake?’
Was this in reference to her comment about reconsidering their relationship if things kept going this way?
Well, at the time she’d already been frustrated with the whole situation, and his words had felt like fanning the flames on an already burning house. But……
When she’d come home and thought it over carefully, she realized she might have said the same thing.
After all, she hadn’t properly explained to him why she and Kalaeil had broken up in the first place.
From Ian’s perspective, it was a perfectly reasonable thing to say.
If she’d accepted his proposal for a Contract Marriage only to have him deal with her ex lingering around, unable to properly move on, he’d be justified in feeling he’d stumbled into an unnecessary complication. She would’ve felt the same.
Though his sharp, “there won’t be a second time” attitude had stung a little.
Still, theirs was merely a contractual arrangement to begin with, so she couldn’t fault his logic.
The problem was that she was the one who’d ended the date unilaterally, so she’d been spending all her time worrying about how to apologize for it.
So why was he sending her this letter?
It was her place to apologize, wasn’t it?
Was he misunderstanding something?
Vanessa replayed that day’s date slowly in her mind.
The mood hadn’t been as bad as she’d thought, had it?
She’d assumed it would be a waste of time, but watching him tinker with things had surprised her.
Ever since she’d seen Kalaeil, she hadn’t been able to hide her feelings.
But still, she hadn’t wanted to ruin the date with Ian, so she’d apologized to him.
When his response to that was ‘if this keeps happening, I’m going to reconsider our relationship,’ she couldn’t help but leave……
But now that he was extending his hand first like this, she could only be grateful.
Whatever misunderstanding there’d been.
After all, they needed to maintain the marriage until her Revenge was finished, so there was no need for them to grow distant.
Vanessa quickly wrote her reply, then called for Dia.
“You called for me, ma’am?”
“Could you deliver this to the Ruscliffe manor?”
“Should I wait for a reply?”
“Just deliver it and come back.”
“Very well. I’ll be on my way.”
Good. That’s one thing handled.
Vanessa watched Dia leave, then picked up the documents on her desk.
[Saint Berthold Orphanage—Current Residents Report]
“I’d be in trouble if he’s not here either……”
The most crucial element for executing her Revenge against the Lennard house.
It was to identify early on the person who, in her Previous Life, had been as essential to the Lennard house as a brain—and extract him.
Even a broken clock shows the correct time twice a day; it just needs the right person to wind it.
Every time the Lennard house struck gold, it was this man who transformed it into a stable source of income.
Mareo.
The man who was almost always at the side of the marquis’s wife.
That she’d crossed paths with him had been almost purely by chance.
When he mentioned he’d spent his childhood in an orphanage and had been supported by the Lennard house until his adulthood, she couldn’t hide her shock.
‘Even though he clung to money like a demon possessed him.’
Was this perhaps some twisted sense of gratitude from one of those broken clocks?
Otherwise, there was no way those misers who’d grimace every time they had to pay even the annual fees the Empire required would voluntarily become patrons.
Since she’d known only that Mareo had grown up in an orphanage, she’d ended up having to investigate the circumstances of every single orphanage in the Empire.
In her Previous Life, Mareo had tried to report all the misconduct and illegal activities of the orphanages to the Royal House, only to fail.
And it had happened on the very day the Red Diamond was discovered in the Marguula mines that the Lennard house had purchased at a bargain price.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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