For the Lady's Wise Regression - Chapter 41

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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 41
‘…Could it be that you and I might become that sort of couple?’
The moment Vanessa stepped out of the restaurant, she pressed a hand to her racing heart.
He’d startled her.
She never thought Ian would say something like that.
Vanessa glanced back at the restaurant she’d just left and shook her head slightly before continuing down the street.
Ian Ruscliffe and love?
There couldn’t be a worse match.
Besides, she couldn’t even imagine him loving anyone at all.
And more than that—in the future he remained unmarried, while she did not.
It was partly for this reason that she’d set a contract term, to prevent any unexpected situation.
The risk that she might develop feelings for him, not the other way around.
If the relationship had a fixed end date, any budding emotion would surely hesitate before it took root.
“What was I thinking?”
Last night, her father had been startled by Mareo’s sudden appearance—she needed to explain the full circumstances to him in detail. But if she went to visit in person, surely Reanuk would insist on accompanying her?
“Reanuk!”
As Reanuk entered the mansion’s first floor just then, Vanessa called out to him.
“My lady.”
“I’m sorry to bother you so early in the morning. It’s nothing serious—I just need to write a letter to my father. Would you help me?”
“Paper and pen should be available from the steward, ma’am.”
“I need to write down last night’s circumstances in detail. Could you assist me with that?”
“…Are you asking me to write it for you?”
“Not exactly. My father is rather strict about these things. When you’ve done someone wrong, you’re supposed to lay out every step from cause to consequence. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Ah. So you need my experience.”
Reanuk studied Vanessa carefully.
She knew she’d done something wrong—that much was plain from her expression.
Vanessa met his gaze without flinching and nodded.
“Exactly. Something like a statement of circumstances?”
“A statement of circumstances…I understand. Then I shall fetch some paper and pen and come to your room.”
Reanuk bowed to Vanessa, then happened to glance up toward the second-floor dining room. There he caught sight of Ian’s grim expression and flinched.
It was the look of a man watching a rival take shape before his eyes.
‘…I really do want to go home.’
Thump-thump.
Ian’s lips moved slowly and deliberately.
‘You. Scoundrel.’
…Perhaps he should have trained his swordsmanship to adequate levels.
Then even from a distance, he wouldn’t have been able to read what those moving lips were saying so clearly.
He’d never had trouble fitting in anywhere before, but ever since he’d taken on the lady’s protection, he felt perpetually wedged between her and the master.
And this was only his first day on guard duty.
Now he understood why the other members always complained that guarding someone aged them ten years.
Reanuk let out a small sigh and nodded to himself.
***
Knock, knock.
The moment Vanessa heard the careful knock on her door, she pulled it open.
“You’re late, Reanuk.”
“…Here are the paper and pen.”
The letter needed to arrive by today, so the timing was tight.
Vanessa accepted the paper and pen from Reanuk, studying him sidelong.
“…Once you’ve finished writing, I’ll deliver it myself.”
“Oh, that’s very kind of you—but won’t that put you in a difficult position?”
At Vanessa’s light deflection, Reanuk shook his head as if to say it was no trouble.
“It’s my job, ma’am.”
“Well then, I won’t refuse. Last night’s affair was probably quite a shock to my father. I’ve given him a light summary, but he really ought to know the full details.”
Vanessa chattered away as she sat at the table and set down the paper.
He’d entered the master’s—his lady’s—room a few times before, but he’d never felt it so bright as now.
All that had happened was one window opened.
Yet it was as though the room had filled entirely with light, dazzling to the eye.
Reanuk watched silently as Vanessa, bathed in sunlight, bent over the letter with full concentration.
He’d thought only his master possessed such incomprehensible charm.
“…Reanuk!”
I never imagined you’d bring someone so similar to you, and yet different.
“Reanuk!”
“Ah… yes, madam.”
“What do you think of this part? Does it sound convincing?”
Reanuk pressed his lips together and approached Vanessa cautiously.
Where the pen’s nib pointed, the text read: “It happened that I found traces of someone attempting to set fire to an empty cottage, so I set it alight instead…….”
Twinge.
In that instant, Reanuk felt a sharp pain pierce through his temple.
Where was he even supposed to start picking this apart?
Or could he pick it apart at all?
“……Just say you bought an empty cottage.”
“What? How did you know?”
It was Reanuk who found himself flustered by her wide, confused eyes.
It had been little more than a casual suggestion, yet he’d stepped backward straight onto a tiger’s tail.
Really?
You bought an empty cottage to set it on fire?
It was then that Reanuk’s words failed him entirely.
Because the way she looked at him was the way one might regard a criminal.
“Even as protection, stalking is a crime,” she said mildly.
A sigh escaped Reanuk’s lips—a stalker masquerading as a guard.
I can’t keep up with how she thinks. Why did the master assign me to protect her…….
No, wait. If it’s me, at least I can somewhat manage madam’s unpredictable nature.
If it had been any of the others, they’d have been dragged around by her without question.
Reanuk clenched his clasped hands tighter behind his back and spoke slowly.
“I don’t know the Duke Sharose well, but based on what madam said earlier……you wronged someone, didn’t you?”
“Yes?”
“Then it seems madam would have been less angry about destroying something you owned.”
“……Was that so? Hmm, it does seem like it might have been…….”
Her tilted head caught the sunlight, gleaming now here, now there.
……Madam truly radiates warmth even in such circumstances.
Reanuk cleared his throat softly, released his clasped hands, and pointed with his index finger to the section Vanessa had indicated.
“So perhaps you should write here that you set fire to the cottage you purchased hastily in preparation for this, and that your reason was to protect the boy from someone—a patron, for instance.”
“…….”
“Madam?”
At his quiet voice, Vanessa looked up at Reanuk.
“Did you happen to see which house the mercenaries you subdued belonged to?”
She was smiling, and yet an unmistakable pressure emanated from her.
If anything, it resembled less a building-sized tiger and more a small creature bristling with fury.
A small creature covered in thorns.
“……No. It was late at night, and I couldn’t see clearly.”
One thing was certain: madam wanted him not to know who they were.
It was easy to play along.
He always had.
“I’ll trust you. And…… thank you for not telling Ian.”
At his words, Vanessa’s eyes softened, and she returned her attention to the letter.
As her head bowed, her fallen hair conveniently obscured the letter’s contents.
‘I needn’t report on the letter’s contents……’
A brief silence descended.
Only the scratching of the pen occasionally broke the quiet.
“Done!”
Vanessa, who had already sealed the envelope, wore a smile as bright as sunlight, as though she’d never emanated any pressure at all, and gazed at Reanuk.
“Please send it by express courier. It needs to arrive today so father will completely take Mareo in.”
Reanuk slowly accepted the envelope she held out.
“I obey your command.”
A strange woman.
She must know that he essentially monitors her every move at the master’s behest, yet she still forces him into impossible choices.
It shouldn’t sit well with him.
Yet he couldn’t explain why the woman before him seemed so fragile.
Why she wouldn’t be here long, or why she kept secrets from the master despite being his wife.
So until he found the answer——
……I suppose I can prioritize madam’s orders.
***
Stretching with a low groan, Vanessa watched Reanuk through the window as he shrank into a distant speck receding into the distance.
‘Not bad. For now, at least.’
To move about this mansion with any real freedom, she needed someone who kept their mouth shut.
She’d nearly given up on the prospect when the Knight Order Commander suddenly insisted on assigning protection to her.
The way he hadn’t mentioned to Ian that her robe had been singed—or that despite his reputation for being sharp as a knife, he turned out to have remarkably loose lips when it mattered.
Besides, someone of his rank could move independently without Ian seeming to mind much at all.
But then.
‘Still not enough.’
He was far from being bound to her by enough shared secrets to confide in Ian about all this.
Blocking a mercenary or two hardly made him think he was her accomplice in this affair—she doubted he saw it that way at all.
Once Reanuk disappeared completely from view, Vanessa finally pushed herself away from the window frame.
“Well then…… shall we go spend some money?”
To cherry-pick the ventures from her past life—the ones where Leonard’s family had struck it rich.

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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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