Resetting Lady - Chapter 1

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

00. A Seventeen-Year-Old Girl

The beginning is always the same.

Gray sky, sticky drizzle, a muddy garden where nothing has sprouted yet. Chilling air and dirty nightgown. The wound on my neck stings. If I don’t return to the manor soon, the gardener will discover me. I roughly push aside the rope lying near my feet and head toward the passage the maids use. Failed again this time. It’s cold. This time too. My teeth chatter. What went wrong this time?

Unlike the damp corridor, the room is warm with a fire blazing in the fireplace and thick furs blocking the cold air. When I throw my dirty clothes into the fireplace, the flames die down because of the wet fabric.

Cursing, I open the lamp that was placed at the foot of the bed. When I pour the oil inside onto the fireplace, the flames blaze up again. I glare at the naked woman in the mirror. Failed again this time.

I sit on the wooden chair. There are paper and ink on the table. After staring at them for a while, I pick up the pen. I dip the nib in ink and write on the paper.

117. My name is….

The pen nib loses strength and stops. What meaning does this have? Even my name has no meaning. It’s futile. This time, this time for sure! I thought that way for 10 years. The next 30 years I tried to adapt. The following 20 years I only thought about how to die. For 5 years I did nothing but lie in bed. And… and.

Karen Hyer.

She had fallen into a book.

And couldn’t escape for 117 years.

* * *

The book was just an ordinary romance novel. Karen, the only daughter of a minor lord, was arranged to marry her relative Dulan Lloyd to maintain the domain. Karen, a girl who dreamed of true love, broke off the engagement like any typical heroine would.

She couldn’t possibly love him because he was smelly, gaunt, and had vile eyes. After her family fell into ruin and she became a maid to a wealthy family’s daughter, Karen fell in love with her mistress’s fiancé Raymond and married him after overcoming all hardships. It was a story that unfolded over a year in the novel, and she too followed that exact path and succeeded in marrying Raymond. Happy ending. Happy ending.

And after the last page of the book ended, she was murdered on the next page. It was poison. She lost consciousness in the burning agony of her throat and woke up in the dawn garden again. She trembled in fear.

Next time, she cautiously fell in love with Raymond again, and Raymond held her close as she slept in fear. When she opened her eyes, it was the same garden. She didn’t even know the reason for the second time.

The third time, she stayed away from Raymond. Raymond married another woman and Karen applauded as a wedding guest. Then she was trampled to death by a horse in the wedding procession. It was horrible. Her whole body was crushed. The same thing repeated after that. The reasons were different each time, but the end was always the same. Her own death.

With a faint hope, she went through with the engagement a few years ago. The engagement with Dulan wasn’t broken and the wedding was held smoothly. When she woke up, it was the garden again. She couldn’t tell whether she had to die to return or if she just returned when a year passed.

Only after considerable time passed could she understand a few rules.

1. The period is one year. It always starts in the garden where it’s raining.

2. After a year passes, Karen dies for some reason and returns to the same time.

3. Objects she can hold when dying can be brought back to the beginning.

Thanks to the third rule, she could have some faith that this wasn’t a dream. A flat gold coin had the number 116 carved on it. She heated it in the fire, softened the coin’s edge, and carved it into a 7, then looked up at the ceiling. Now she can’t even remember her original face.

She had lived as Karen for over 100 years. As her mind aged twice as much as her body, she gave up hope of escaping from the book.

“I wish I were dead.”

“You shouldn’t say such things, miss. I can’t even imagine a world without you.”

Nancy, the dark-skinned maid, gently scolds while brushing her hair. She remembers a world where the most important woman in the world had dark skin. Was that over 100 years ago? The hazy memory was so vague it was almost laughable to call it a memory.

When looking at this closest maid, Karen realized she wasn’t from this place. How she shuddered with revulsion when she first saw her bow her head. But now, if the maid doesn’t back out while bowing when leaving, she’s so outraged she orders a beating. She speaks down to people of lower status even if they’re elderly. 117 years was such a time. Time that changes all of a person’s values.

“Do you dislike Lord Dulan that much?”

How could I like him? You’re all like ink on paper to me. Meaningless and not even harmless like ink. You’d die if you drank it. Should I call it poisoned ink? What remains is just brief pleasure. Even if it’s short pleasure that doesn’t last even a page.

She giggled inwardly. Dulan wasn’t very appealing in bed either, just like his appearance. When was the last time she slept with him, a few years ago? He was always clumsy, pathetic, a stutterer without even youthful vigor.

“He’s ugly.”

“…Good heavens.”

“I’d consider it if you switched him with your boyfriend’s thing.”

“…Where did you learn such words? Which maids was it?”

“Don’t be so uptight. It’s just the lively joke of a 17-year-old girl who doesn’t know men.”

“What are you saying to me, who raised you from when you were nursing? I didn’t raise you like this…. Anyway, 10 years after marriage, there’s nothing else to do but that.”

That’s not true.

“Will Dulan last 10 years?”

“About a year later? Then you’ll have even more time. Hurry up and let’s tighten your waist first. We should see if there’s a chance to catch a better man than Lord Dulan with a slender waist.”

“…Ugh!”

If only it weren’t for this damn corset, I could enjoy it a little.

The whalebone corset that even strangles curses seems ready to crunch and devour her thin waist. Her breath is completely cut off. She hates this moment.

“Nancy, I prefer an era when voluptuous women are popular.”

“In such an era, you’d be the ugliest in the world, miss. Someone with such a small appetite.”

No, Nancy. Actually, I love eating.

Greasy meats, sweet snacks, all those foods that melt softly in your mouth.

But none of the food in this world suited my taste. The bread had too many stones, and the meat was too fishy. Salt was so expensive that before marrying Raymond, I could only eat salted food once a week.

That’s the biggest reason I like Raymond. He lets me eat delicious food. He’s a man who knows that good meals and good sex are related. I swallow the words I can’t speak.

“Won’t you attend worship today either?”

“Why would I, when I’ll hear prayers five times a day once I’m married?”

Since Dulan was a priest, he was scheduled to receive the Highergard Domain along with this region’s parish. Thinking of Dulan chanting God’s name from the first night of their honeymoon made her feel sick.

“How wonderful. I’ve watched you since you were little, but you’re quite different today. Everyone’s like that before marriage, but you’ll be fine soon.”

I’m not fine, Nancy.

I’ve never been fine once in 117 years.

A remote lord’s daughter’s 17th birthday isn’t such a big deal. Especially for Karen, whose marriage is already half-confirmed. The domain was so inconveniently located that even the nearest other lord’s castle required a full day’s carriage ride. So the hall was quite quiet.

Blood relatives who awkwardly exchanged letters and those related to business wandered around the hall. The mediocre musicians played off-beat songs listlessly with faces that said ‘I want to finish quickly, get paid, and leave.’

Even in such a place, Karen was shining among those around her. Not because she was the protagonist of the ball, but thanks to her beauty. Her red hair, groomed by Nancy’s skillful hands, flowed naturally in waves.

The tightly laced corset emphasized her chest in contrast to her slender waist. Despite being a 17-year-old body, it was breathtakingly full of sexual appeal. Even those who were killing time with trivial conversation became lively and raised their voices when Karen came into view.

Karen could know all this without having to look at each instance. Though they didn’t approach openly since she was a potential married woman, most of them would get excited and rush at her tearing their clothes if Karen just whimpered ‘I don’t want to marry like this.’ She spent about 7 years rolling around with men. She got bored faster than expected. Most of them smelled and their hair was rough and unmanaged.

What should I do to pass time this round? I’m too lazy to marry Raymond, too lazy to spend time caring for the domain’s people, I’ve read almost all the books I can get, and the food tastes bad.

“Ka, Karen Hyer. Will you make that face when your hus…band comes too?”

“Not yet.”

“…Enga…ged.”

“Anyway, not yet.”

Dulan, Karen’s fiancé.

It was bizarre that he came wearing black priest robes to what was supposedly his fiancée’s birthday party. Though she was used to it now, Karen’s brow furrowed in displeasure at the murmuring around them upon seeing his attire and appearance.

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