For the Lady's Wise Regression - Chapter 4

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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 4
The day I was accused of infidelity was my birthday.
Despite hearing rumors that the Duchess had become crippled, Iyan remained tender toward me.
When he asked why I wandered alone on such a good day, I turned the question back on him.
What made a day good?
‘The day you were born.’
He spoke without a moment’s hesitation, and the fragile walls I’d built came crashing down.
‘I celebrate your birth more than anyone. And…….’
‘…….’
‘Thank you for reaching your birthday safely.’
‘…….’
‘If a day is good because I can say such things…… Oh, I didn’t mean to make you cry.’
As he spoke, he reached toward me, then stopped abruptly in midair—his expression unchanged from when we were young.
The sunlight was blinding. I hid my tears behind that excuse.
Had I known his mother was watching it all, had I even suspected earlier that Kallail’s insistence on wearing high heels to my birthday was itself part of the trap they had laid, then perhaps I would never have seen him remarry the merchant’s daughter, stripping me of every last coin of the Duchy’s wealth save Sharose Mansion.
Just a week after Father died.
‘If you resent it so much, why don’t you marry again yourself? You have such a fine match right beside you, don’t you? A duke with a crippled duchess—what a fantasy couple that would make.’
One blade after another. I was struck down without warning, and my heart became nothing but tatters.
Had he never loved me once?
Though the question had no subject, he answered without hesitation.
‘Vanessa Sharose. You should have asked that question when you still had something.’
Then I would have gladly whispered that I loved you in your ear.
His eyes, which once shone like amethysts in childhood, had long since grown clouded with gray. I doubted whether this was truly Kallail Leonard I had known.
No. Looking back, his eyes had been this way since he first proposed.
Once I understood that, my love shattered within me—formless, as though it had never held shape at all.
Like a flower that bloomed for one season and withered away.
‘You were lucky to be so naive. If you hadn’t gone to see the dress that evening, you wouldn’t have kept Iyan at a distance. He interfered every time I tried to speak to you. I nearly lost you, didn’t I?’
That same evening, a letter arrived at the only property I had left to call my own.
Documents concerning the transfer of my title—bearing my signature in full.
Branded with infidelity and divorced—and now Father dead as well.
I could not let them take the Ducal Peerage.
I would go to the Royal Palace at first light.
If I requested handwriting verification, it would take time, and the transfer would be suspended pending the results.
Moreover, I possessed documents containing evidence of their crimes and illegal acts.
But an inexplicable dread kept creeping over me, and in the end, as soon as dawn broke and I hurried from the house, I was killed.
As though they had been waiting for me to leave, without the slightest hesitation.
‘I’ll collect my debt from you later. Rest well, Vanessa.’
That voice—it was unmistakably Kallail’s.
However much wealth and glory he reaped from what he stole from me in my past life, his reckoning comes now, Kallail.
Vanessa’s lips curved upward with deliberate force.
“Ah, come to think of it, didn’t you mention that Dominic Freya recently opened a restaurant near the Capital?”
Estimating when I had returned, a memory surfaced.
A fine establishment opened by the former Royal Chef. I had never been there before.
Before my marriage, I was at odds with Father; after the wedding, there were endless excuses about economizing.
It was my first time being accused of wasteful spending.
Yet they—they changed furniture, wallpaper, tableware without hesitation, day after day.
Not only that, but they dined out constantly: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and more whenever they had a spare moment.
Every cost came from my purse.
The carefree days at the Duchy seemed like nothing but a dream; upon marriage, I was systematically isolated.
When I finished eating alone, I remember how they would enter together, chatting warmly from the entrance for all to see.
Strangely, as I retraced those moments in time, even those memories transformed into thirst for vengeance.
‘This time, I’ll show them what it truly means to spend.’
If the Duchy’s young lady set her mind to spending, she would show them exactly what consequence it brought.
The more she spent, the more they would press Kallail—the wealth he thought he had lost.
They had always gazed after endless money.
The more they ached at the riches slipping through their fingers before their eyes, the stronger her vengeance would become.
“That news—where did you…… Yes, that will do. Once your business is concluded, make your preparations and return. I will be waiting.”
With Father’s words, Vanessa, who had entered the Duchy residence, adjusted herself lightly.
When she reached the entrance to the drawing room, she drew a natural smile across her lips.

If only I could have erased even the relationship of childhood friends, but there’s no help for it now.
Still, I’m grateful he came back before I accepted his proposal—at least the marriage can be called off.
“Vanessa! I meant to call first, but I couldn’t bear not to see you.”
When the door opened, instead of the composed, cold face from before, a youthful one lit with anticipation stood before her.
Once, she had thought his hair shone like sunlight itself, dazzling to look upon.
His gently curved eyes, too, had seemed to her like violet amethyst that glowed from within.
But now.
They were as dull as pale yellow wallpaper with purple paint smeared over it—no sparkle, no flutter of the heart.
“Kallail! You should have called. If you had, I’d have been back sooner.”
Vanessa widened her eyes and flashed a bright smile.
To anyone watching, she appeared to be welcoming his visit.
But the words beneath were enough to give Kallail pause.
“…Oh? Ha. Then I should have come to meet you.”
“I’m saying you should have come to meet me. I was restless not seeing you.”
……
“I… missed you too, very much.”
Did he know?
How desperately she had wanted to see him in those days.
To hate so deeply that she wished to go back to that moment and set everything right.
How much she had regretted.
***
In the silence, Vanessa watched Kallail standing before her with an awkward smile.
By now, she would have expected him to snap at her for keeping quiet—but instead he was avoiding her gaze.
At this shift, Vanessa’s smile deepened.
‘I’ve gained so much.’
The leg she had lost, her honor, her reputation—all of it had returned to her hands.
So much so that Kallail Lennard could do nothing but whisper his love.
Facing his youthful features, she could scarcely suppress the laughter bubbling up inside her.
‘Kallail Lennard, in this life, your wife will be the commoner your mother so desperately wanted.’
And you will lose even that meager marquessate.
Swallowing her laughter, Vanessa gazed softly at Kallail.
“Kallail.”
“Yes, Vanessa.”
“Do you love me?”
Caught off guard by the sudden question, his eyes widened before softening quickly.
And with a smile that seemed clearer than anything, he answered.
“…Enormously. So much I can hardly believe you and I are lovers.”
Pff.
A poorly suppressed laugh escaped Vanessa’s lips.
Mistaking it for joy at his confession, Kallail opened his mouth as though he’d been waiting for this moment.
“Actually, I was thinking of having your wedding dress made at Sobina’s Salon. I looked at a few places, but that one seemed the best. Everyone’s having theirs done there these days.”
“A wedding dress?”
“Ah.”
At her words, Kallail gave a small sigh and his face flushed with embarrassment.
“I was thinking we should hold our wedding soon. We’ve known each other since childhood, after all, and more than that… I want to be with you as your husband.”
“Isn’t that rather sudden?”
“…How could I leave you alone when you’re so beautiful?”
Unlike the honeyed words that fell so smoothly from his lips, his eyes were full of tedium.
The moment their gazes met, his eyes curved away so quickly that a hollow laugh nearly escaped her.
‘I really was quite mad back then.’
Only now did she understand the way Kallail had looked at her.

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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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