Resetting Lady - Chapter 105
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“Listen seriously, Karen. If you want to live, at the very least you must not lie.”
“I confessed, and I’ll be executed as the price for my crimes. Lord Raymond, why did you come?”
“Because you didn’t kill anyone.”
“Um… Lord Raymond.”
Tap, Karen struck Raymond’s leg with her shoe-clad foot as he sat across from her. It didn’t hurt since the shoes had no heels.
“It was my necklace chain that strangled Prince Guiz’s neck there. Don’t you understand the situation?”
“Prince Guiz is a serial killer, and you were kidnapped and only did that to escape.”
Karen frowned at Raymond’s rebuttal. Her face showed she found it uninteresting.
“Does the story go that way?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, my.”
Karen swept her hair back with her fingers.
“I killed Prince Louis and Donna.”
“The knife that pierced Prince Louis was hanging in a place your hands couldn’t reach. Also, Donna was… already severely injured. You showed mercy.”
“That’s not right.”
“It is right. Tell me which part is wrong.”
“…”
Karen blinked her eyes.
After thinking for a moment, she looked at Raymond while still resting her chin on her hand.
Her pupils rolled upward.
“Honestly speaking, my pride is hurt that I couldn’t surpass Prince Guiz.”
“…Is that so.”
“Yes, I wanted to become strong… But in the end, that’s how it looks. What emotions I harbored inside, what thoughts I had, such things aren’t revealed. To you, I must look weak.”
Raymond listened to Karen’s sigh and took out the paper he had brought.
“A lawyer will come tomorrow, and the trial will begin in three days.”
Karen looked at Raymond with a slightly fed-up expression.
“Good heavens… Lord Raymond, haven’t you given up?”
“No. Because you didn’t kill anyone. The trial hasn’t even started yet.”
“Prince Guiz… let’s stop this. Lord Raymond, look. Look carefully. What do you see?”
“I see one pretty woman.”
Karen made an expression as if she wanted to tear Raymond apart.
“I told you to stop with the unfunny jokes.”
“…I’ll try.”
“What do you think about Prince Louis?”
“I think it’s regrettable.”
Raymond’s stomach churned when he thought of Prince Louis who had looked up at him. But for now, he had to save the people he could save first. Karen looked at Raymond.
“Lord Raymond, we can start over. Me, you, Prince Louis… even Donna.”
“After you die?”
“I’ll live again. It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe it. And you can’t persuade me either.”
Raymond didn’t speak. Words didn’t get through to Karen. If Karen said in court before the judge, ‘I killed them all. I’ll accept the death penalty,’ then no amount of preparation would be useful.
Even if they made every effort, it was uncertain, but Karen had no will to live at all. Circumstantial evidence couldn’t overcome a confession.
To say that the mass of corpses was directly connected to the prince, there needed to be confessions from the prince’s subordinates. Count Fankair had agreed to handle them. The trial had to be seen through to the end. But Raymond was clinging to something with zero possibility.
“Life… is too light for you.”
“Death is light too.”
“…Why did you tell me to love you?”
“Because I wanted to die.”
Raymond asked.
“So are you satisfied now?”
Karen’s eyes widened. She looked at Raymond’s face. Raymond couldn’t know what expression he was making. But he felt devastated.
“Lord Raymond, are you angry?”
“Karen, at least try to live. Don’t desecrate life.”
“Hah.”
Karen sighed. Then she lowered her eyes.
“In the end, you don’t believe me.”
“…”
“Lord Raymond, I’m not afraid of being executed. Because I’ll live again. And actually, I want that more. This life is really chaotic and confusing, and your love, well… I don’t understand it. But I know you’re trying.”
“Karen.”
Karen opened her eyes straight.
She met Raymond’s gaze. She straightened her back.
She had made her decision.
“So I’ll be executed. I can start over. Next time, Prince Louis will become the rightful king. Donna will come back to life too.”
“People don’t come back to life.”
“I know you don’t believe it, but could you at least pretend to believe it?”
It wasn’t him who needed to pretend at the very least. It was her who should do that. Raymond clenched his fist.
“I’m trying to save your life right now. Don’t you understand?”
“I’m trying too. I want to give you a better future. I’m being courteous.”
From the beginning, she had never loved anyone. She demanded love while not loving. Not even herself. But he thought it would be okay.
Because there would be plenty of time.
“Karen, there is no ‘outside the book.’ Your life ends when you die.”
No, there was no time.
“I sent all your records to four professors for verification. You have no new knowledge whatsoever. You always said you would go outside the book, but there is no such place.”
Karen silently looked at Raymond. Raymond felt something constantly stretching inside him.
“Priest Dulan also said he had been lying to treat you. You don’t live again either.”
“Just because you… don’t believe it… doesn’t change the truth.”
Karen answered as if moaning. To the very end, she refused to see the situation properly. Raymond stood up.
“Nothing you say is correct. My brother died five days ago. While I was working. It was an accidental death. I couldn’t even go because I was with Count Fankair. You didn’t know that at all. You didn’t tell me.”
“But… you never mentioned such things before…”
“Prince Guiz and Prince Louis are brothers. Baron Ain was not the culprit… You know nothing, Karen.”
“Wait… wait a moment.”
Karen gasped for breath. Hearing what she didn’t want to hear seemed unbearable.
“At least don’t go to the execution stand yourself claiming it’s a confession. Out of consideration for me.”
Raymond thought.
Karen didn’t love him. She didn’t respect him either. If she had even a little of such feelings, she couldn’t do this to him. She wouldn’t speak so carelessly to someone trying to save her life.
“As a courtesy.”
Raymond stood up. Karen was hanging her head.
The guard tried to speak to Raymond, but he was in no mood to exchange words.
“…”
Raymond came outside the building. It was the middle of the night.
Let him call a lawyer to persuade her once more. To at least keep silent. Raymond found it difficult to deal with Karen.
His brother was dead. It was a meaningless death. Prince Louis was dead. It was too early a death. Donna was dead. It was a death no one would remember.
Raymond hated such deaths.
“But the trial hasn’t even started.”
The possibility wasn’t completely zero.
Let’s try to have hope. The night sky was full of stars. Like the night he confessed to her. It hadn’t been that long ago, so why did it feel like such a distant memory? Raymond leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. He felt lost.
* * *
Karen now knew that she had been turning her eyes away from reality all this time. She had repeatedly told herself to focus on reality, but all of that was nothing but escapism. Hadn’t she realized it from the beginning? But she had been scared and kept looking elsewhere.
“You know nothing.”
You’re the one who knows nothing. The truth Karen possessed wasn’t that kind. What Raymond didn’t know wasn’t that kind. No matter how the world turned, it had nothing to do with Karen.
But even so, what would change?
“You must tell me everything honestly.”
“Who sent you?”
“Count Fankair.”
The lawyer with the monocle in front of her looked quite aged. His face had wrinkles, and his eyes were shrewd. But his voice was youthful. A middle-aged man full of vigor. A man who had experienced the years that Karen could never have.
“I see… But I’m getting a bit tired from saying the same thing so many times. Could I have some tea?”
“Of course.”
The lawyer instructed the guard. The guard brought tea with practiced ease. It was somewhat different from the stiff attitude he had shown toward Raymond. He seemed to know the lawyer well.
‘It seems the Count took care in selecting this lawyer.’
Karen had such thoughts while looking at the hot black tea placed before her. To drink tea even after killing someone. Indeed, this is what happens when you kill a big shot. If only Karen’s killing of Donna had been revealed, Karen would probably have no clothes left on her by now.
Kill one person and you’re a murderer, kill a hundred and you’re a hero, kill ten thousand and you become a god, was it? Even if she couldn’t become a hero, this was quite luxurious treatment for a murderer.
“Miss Karen, please look here.”
“I’m sorry. I’ve been distracted lately.”
“It’s natural when preparing for trial. You end up repeating the same words over and over again. It wears people down.”
Appropriate consolation. But still, his voice was slippery and his eyes were cold.
‘It doesn’t matter.’
She would be his source of income right now. Karen put down her teacup and looked at him.
“Will I be able to get off as innocent?”
“…If Miss Karen is innocent, then you should come out innocent.”
The lawyer looked at Karen. A commercial smile appeared on his face.
“Miss Karen, are you innocent?”
Karen wanted to die.
Even execution seemed like it would be interesting.
If she were to die like this, that too would be a blessing for her.
“I killed them all. Please arrest me.”
“I killed His Highness the Crown Prince, His Highness the Prince, and even Donna.”
“Oh, Donna was my maid.”
Words that Karen had repeated countless times.
Truth mixed with lies. Words thrown carelessly with execution as the goal. Words that people wanted to hear.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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