For the Lady's Wise Regression - Chapter 39

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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 39
Mareo.
A man who had yearned to escape the hellish life at the Leonard Marquis House.
Even as he was ground down by that place until he could scarcely fend for himself, he had secretly looked after the one who had become lame.
He had forced open his own eyes, blinded by love, that had led his own father to death.
If his life were not spent here, he had wanted to live serving the young lady. He had never dared hope for love, yet his loyalty had been devoted to her all the same.
Every day, he would slip away to the Temple to donate every coin he had earned atoning for the deeds committed in service to the Leonard Marquis House—a man who had become as precious to Vanessa as Dia herself.
‘This time we’ll have our revenge together, Mareo.’
Vanessa gritted her teeth and ran.
Yet for some reason, the distance kept widening.
She’d known since those early escapes from the Leonard Marquis House—Mareo really did have swift feet.
‘Reanuk is…….’
Vanessa paused briefly to catch her breath, casting a glance backward.
Seeing three dark silhouettes tangled together behind her, she thought it might be enough if she simply caught Mareo.
‘I can afford to slow down a little.’
The question was why Mareo had been discovered merely ten minutes after fleeing the Saint Berthold Orphanage.
The answer was simple enough.
“Damn it.”
Unfortunately, the path he’d chosen to flee led straight into a dead end.
And that was all it took. Block the only exit, and you were bound to catch your quarry.
“Hello, Mareo.”
“……Hell. So this is where it ends.”
The Saint Berthold Orphanage was said to be, in other words, a den of legal human trafficking.
The first reason: when the children of the orphanage came of age, if a patron existed, they were required to follow that patron.
The second reason: if two or more patrons appeared, the choice belonged to the child, but……most who failed to choose their long-standing patron would find themselves worse off than commoners once they came of age.
The third reason: thus every child was obliged, in the week before reaching adulthood, to select from among the flood of patronage offers the master who would seize their life.
These were the three representative reasons, and curiously, the children of the orphanage had short lifespans.
This was why, should one peer into the guts of the Saintgard Empire, one would find it teeming with rot.
Tch. Vanessa clenched her fist and took a step toward the trembling Mareo.
“Mareo.”
Another step forward.
Mareo bared his teeth.
“……I wasn’t offering you all advice back then. If I’d known you’d be this relentless. What use could I possibly be, not even of age yet, that you’d go this far for it?”
Thud—Mareo’s back struck the wall of the dead-end passage.
Vanessa had drawn to within inches of his face, and studied the boy calmly.
He seemed to have mistaken her for someone sent to retrieve him from the Leonard Marquis House.
“What, what are you staring at like that? Whether you beat me or drag me away by force, do you think I’ll bat an eye? You’ll regret it. One day I’ll bite through your neck,”
“I am Vanessa. The only daughter of the Duke of House Sharoz, and the wife of the Duke of House Rustcliff.”
“……What?”
Mareo’s face went slack as he stared at her.
“And I’m also the kidnapper who’s come to abduct you.”
“……Huh?”
“So, Mareo. Will you let me kidnap you like this?”
His eyes flickered with confusion.
The look of someone unsure whether what lay before him was a trap or an offering.
Vanessa burst into laughter between her teeth.
“If you come along quietly, I won’t eat you.”
“How old are you, really, to say something like…….”
Ah, was that too much?
Vanessa stuck out her tongue slightly in mock chagrin.
“I’m serious.”
“Isn’t this when you’re supposed to say it was a joke? ……Right?”
“Are you going to let yourself be dragged back to the Leonard Marquis House instead?”
On cue, the sound of several footsteps overlapping echoed from behind Vanessa’s back.
“They’re probably tearing the place apart looking for you right now.”
“……I can’t break the orphanage rules. ……Can I?”
“What are you listening to me with?”
“……?”
It took only seconds for confusion to harden into understanding on his face.
“I’m planning to take you away for free.”
“…Really. I can’t even make sense of this situation in my own head.”
Behind the deflated tone came a laugh that sounded like air leaking from a punctured vessel.
Then a brief silence fell.
Mareo let his smile fade, his expression turning thoughtful.
It would be complicated, certainly.
Too little time to judge whether the person standing before him was a lifeline or just another noose around his neck.
In moments like these, Mareo was grateful for his small stature.
Vanessa glanced over her shoulder.
Reanuk seemed to be holding them off well enough for now… but if they delayed much longer, it would become difficult.
The instant that thought crossed her mind, Mareo fixed her with a look of sudden resolve.
“…Will you provide meals?”
“Of course. Three meals a day. Snacks too, if you wish.”
He was small and frail now, but she’d heard that once he reached adulthood, his blocked vessels would open as if a dam had burst, and he’d shoot up in height.
This time would likely be no different.
So she would ensure he received a nutritious diet—something her father would do once he (forcibly) took the boy in.
“…For a kidnapper, you have remarkably good manners.”
“Looks aside, I received strict etiquette training.”
“…”
“Haven’t you decided yet? If we wait much longer—”
“Fine. I’ll go. Anywhere. If what you’re saying is true, at least I won’t be squeezed dry like a wrung-out rag.”
A wrung-out rag…
In her past life, Mareo had controlled a sprawling network of businesses under the patronage of the Leonard Marquis House, orchestrating their operations to extract wealth.
It was as if he possessed an instinctive genius for finding every possible avenue of profit.
Which made it all the more puzzling why such a brilliant mind had never devised a proper plan to completely sever the leash the Leonard Marquis House kept him on.
‘He knew what treatment awaited him, and yet came anyway.’
It was pitiable, really.
Vanessa could not fathom, even after her Regression, what separated this boy—who had remained bound by that single reason, knowing all the while he would be wrung out until nothing but bone remained, because she had sponsored his temple in her past life—from herself, who had squandered her house and walked toward death with blinders on.
“Well then…”
Vanessa smiled at Mareo with a particular edge to it.
“Mareo, I’m afraid you’ll have to die.”
***
The Duke of House of Sharoz gripped his throbbing head.
The first reason being that an uninvited guest who had snuck in like a mouse in the dead of night had abruptly declared herself married, and he had a daughter who was that guest.
The second reason being that the very next day after the wedding ceremony (which had taken place scarcely a day ago), she’d brought home a boy who looked like a brittle twig without so much as a warning, and that wasn’t even the worst of it—
“Father, please employ this child as a butler for House of Sharoz.”
She’d appended those words as well.
To make matters worse, the man standing wordlessly behind his daughter looked every inch like an escort the Duke of House of Rustcliff had assigned for her protection.
The hollows beneath his eyes suggested he’d had quite the arduous day dealing with his daughter.
The poor man must be exhausted.
The Duke of House of Sharoz exchanged a silent glance with his daughter’s escort knight.
“So, Vanessa… is this matter grave enough to make your old father’s heart drop in the middle of the night?”
I thought you were some sort of female brigand, he added silently, and Vanessa gave an awkward laugh.
“I apologize, Father. I couldn’t bring him to House of Rustcliff…”
“…”
The Duke regarded his daughter with a long, steady gaze.
From the moment she’d taken her first steps, she’d gotten into every sort of trouble imaginable, leaving him with not a single day of peace.
Had it been a mistake to teach her so strictly, even bringing in the Crown Prince’s own etiquette instructor, worrying that without a mother to guide her in courtly propriety, she might be criticized for her lack of refinement?
‘The scale of her schemes only grows larger with age.’
…Though, if marriage—the most important event in one’s life—has always been a matter of either this one or that one, then I was the fool for hoping she might become even slightly more restrained. A complete fool.
The Duke exhaled quietly.
Still, she was now, unmistakably, another man’s wife.
It felt inappropriate for a father to scold her in front of her husband’s subordinates…
“His original name is Mareo, but I’ve made it look like he burned to death in a fire with his remains unrecognizable. So you’ll need to give him a new name, Father.”
“Vanessa—!”
***
By the time dawn broke, Reanuk returned to the estate, and froze like a statue before Ian, who seemed to have been waiting for him.
“So, what was Vanessa doing out until this hour?”
He had no idea what to say in response to his master’s question.
“…A person.”
“A person?”
“Death, or rather…….”
“Death?”
“…….”
“Reanuk Endion.”
Ian’s golden eyes blazed with sudden intensity.
“Tell me. What has my wife been doing?”
A man as taciturn and unfathomable as his master—one who weathered grueling training with barely a tremor, breathing steadily through exhaustion without faltering. A servant of the sun risen in darkness.
For the first time, Reanuk found himself truly understanding the words his subordinates habitually spoke once their arduous drills ended.
‘……I want to go home.’

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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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