For the Lady's Wise Regression - Chapter 2

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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 2
An explanation? What sort of explanation was he talking about?
Vanessa’s uncertainty was beside the point—she had no confidence in facing him as things stood. She couldn’t remember what attitude she’d held toward him in this time period.
Unable to settle on any answer despite her rapidly spinning mind, Vanessa swallowed hard.
“And if I go out looking like this…….”
In the end, instead of answering, Vanessa pushed off the ground and bolted toward the Manor’s entrance like an arrow.
“Vanessa……!”
An urgent cry came from behind, but Vanessa kept her eyes forward, fleeing as if driven by panic.
Unfair as it was to Ian, the Ian Ruscliffe she knew was well past forty.
‘Next time. Though I’m not sure if we’ll meet again…….’
Right now, she couldn’t bear to face that youthful countenance.
Whether he’d intended it or not, she’d suffered divorce and been branded an adulteress—all because of Ian Ruscliffe.
“Huff, ah…… huff…….”
Only after she’d completely left the Manor did Vanessa catch her breath and slow her pace.
Once she’d put distance between herself and Ian, her true purpose returned to the fore.
She had to get to Charoze Manor right away.
She had to see her father.
‘Where is the carriage rental station?’
Perhaps because it had been fifteen years ago, the unfamiliar street scenery made finding the station take considerably longer.
Having tapped her foot impatiently, Vanessa moved without hesitation the moment she spotted a sign with a carriage painted on it in the distance.
“Charo, huff…… Charoze, no…… to Lamber Lake Shore…….”
A suspicious-looking woman who appeared before dawn, unable even to catch her breath.
The Coachman’s eyes widened at her dubious appearance.
“L-Lamber Lake Shore, yes. Please, board.”
“Money, silver…….”
She hastily unfastened her Brooch and handed it to the Coachman, whose eyes went round once more.
At first glance, it was an expensive Brooch worth easily twice its value, and the Coachman’s face took on a look of mild bewilderment and resignation.
“I’m afraid I don’t have change…….”
“Keep the change. Just get me to the lake shore as fast as you possibly can.”
“Ah, my lady. How did you know I own the fastest horse in all of Dunbaren Village?”
Yet even that didn’t last long; at Vanessa’s insistence that he keep the change, the Coachman’s face lit up considerably.
She’d meant to head for the Duke of Charoze’s residence, but she was hardly presentable. So she’d simply named a nearby lake shore—and the Coachman had straightaway called her a lady.
Whether the woman before him was a thief or a noblewoman was his concern—the jewel in his hand was credential enough.
With that conclusion apparently reached, he went so far as to dust off the carriage’s back seat with his sleeve for her.
In an instant, Vanessa’s status had risen from suspicious woman in a head Scarf to noblewoman, and she climbed aboard as the Coachman hummed.
After some time of riding, the Charoze Manor began to come into view beyond the carriage window in the distance.
Whatever the case, if she truly had returned to the past……
If she could see her father again……
If she could atone for her past filial impiety……
Only then did Vanessa begin to fully comprehend the dreamlike reality that had befallen her.
‘Could I be under a Sorcery spell? I’ve heard there are those in Delpiro who practice it…….’
But everything felt too vivid to be merely an illusion or dream born of Sorcery. Even the wind brushing through her hair.
Moreover, she’d never made an enemy vicious enough to go to such lengths with Sorcery.
‘There’s nothing left to take from me, anyway.’
Having been stripped of all the wealth and honor her father had built, having become crippled and barely clinging to life, what more could anyone possibly want from her that would warrant such trouble?
As Vanessa recalled those who had taken everything from her, she tamped down the seething rage and descended from the carriage.
Perhaps it was her hurried flight just moments before; her gait had quickly grown familiar again.
Even so, feeling the strangeness of it all, Vanessa walked toward the Bridge that lay between Lamber Lake Shore and the Duke’s residence.
“Vanessa!”
And before she could even reach the residence, a longed-for voice reached her ears.
The anger that had threatened to surge up despite all her efforts to contain it suddenly cooled at that single call.
“……Father.”
A man of middle years with a sturdy frame and upright bearing. The man who had raised his daughter alone after his wife’s death, disciplining and loving her without lack.
When he heard that her legs had become disabled, it was the first time……not the marriage arrangement—that he’d turned away and wept.
Since when had he been waiting for her?
Had she known, she would have had the carriage stop at the Duke’s main entrance.
Seeing her father whole and unharmed, Vanessa felt as though inexpressible emotion might burst forth, and she had to bite her lip hard.
“No matter how much you’re scolded, there’s no excuse for stepping out without a word, staying the night elsewhere. Who taught you such behavior?”
Of course, her actions had clearly struck her father in a different light.
“If you weren’t determined to drive your father to an early grave, how could you possibly…….”
“I’m sorry.”
At his daughter’s hasty apology, the Duke parted his lips as if to speak, then pressed them firmly shut.
It was Vanessa who broke the silence first.
“……I’m sorry, Father. For everything I’ve done so thoughtlessly until now……”
“……Next time, leave word before you go out.”
“Yes, I will.”
Vanessa nodded, her eyes glistening as she fought back tears, her expression one of relief.
She had thought their reunion would only happen in that paradise that theologians spoke of, in the world beyond. She had even prepared excuses for the reproach she expected — why had he come so soon? — but none of that mattered now.
‘Kallaire. It seems a demon, not a god, has taken my side after all.’
When she beheld the one she had missed above all else, and realized she could undo the thing she had regretted most——
What blazed to life in Vanessa’s heart was, naturally, the desire for vengeance.
***
Father had always hidden his forehead.
When I was young and thoughtlessly fired an arrow that grazed above his eyebrow, it left a scar. He covered it all those years because he worried I might feel guilt over that childhood mistake.
The moment Vanessa caught sight of the scar peeking between the strands of his disheveled hair as he rushed toward her, she could be certain it was not Sorcery.
No one but herself knew of the scar on Father’s forehead.
Besides, the only one who could cast such Sorcery on her was her mother-in-law, and if it had been her, Father’s face would not look like this now.
What one does not know with certainty, one cannot create. That was the cardinal rule of Sorcery, or so she had heard.
So she truly had Traveled Back in Time.
How wonderfully so.
“……Making a mess and laughing about it.”
“I’m just…… so happy.”
“Running away from home?”
At his eyes, wide as if about to burst with anger at any moment, Vanessa broke into laughter.
“No.”
She closed her eyes softly to hide the tears that had gathered there. At the gentle curve of her eyelids, the Duke simply gazed at her face.
“…… It’s just, seeing Father, I’m so happy.”
“…….”
“Once you leave home, it’s really…… hard out there.”
“Nonsense. I’ve spoiled you far too much. If you’ve learned what hardship is after just one day away from the Manor, then I’ve raised my daughter far too preciously.”
Though he spoke with deliberately stern words, to Vanessa it sounded like a gentle complaint from her father.
“It’s true. And so……”
Vanessa tried to continue, but the Duke cut her off.
“I’d like to hear what you’ve felt, Vanessa. But your intended husband is waiting quite some time in the Reception Room.”
At the sudden appearance of the word “husband,” Vanessa’s eyes widened in surprise.
“My intended…… husband?”
“……The eldest son of House of Marquis Leonard.”
The Duke furrowed his brow with a displeased expression, then let out a small sigh.
“I never thought you held such significance in your friendship with that boy since childhood.”
“…….”
“Were you so offended that word never reached home saying marriage to him was impossible?”
At his gentle, comforting tone, Vanessa’s brow furrowed.
“What…… who said anything like that?”
“If you hadn’t expressed your disappointment, how would that fellow know of the conversation between you and me?”
Could it be.
The point in time I’ve returned to……
‘Before my marriage to Kallaire?’
She barely suppressed the smile that was trying to rise to her lips.
I can undo everything!
Yes. Now I remember.
Why I ran away from home at this time. And what consequences that flight had brought upon me.
“……I wasn’t trying to criticize a man and woman whose feelings aligned naturally.”
“…….”
“I opposed it because I wished you’d meet a better man. That fellow……”

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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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