Resetting Lady - Chapter 106

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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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“I didn’t kill Prince Lewis.”

Karen began to recount the situation in the room exactly as it had happened.

It was out of courtesy to Raymond.

As Karen spoke, the lawyer’s expression began to change subtly.

“…Let’s look forward to tomorrow’s trial. Since the Duke said he would announce Prince Guiz’s conduct, Miss Karen should be able to substitute with imprisonment.”

“How many years will it be?”

“That’s not important right now. Miss Karen, tomorrow you must not speak as you have been doing. There’s sufficient evidence, so with your cooperation, you should be able to avoid the death penalty.”

“Is that so.”

Karen gazed down at the teacup in front of her. The cup was already empty. When the trial ended, whether it was death or imprisonment, the end would ultimately be the same.

“There’s no such thing as starting life over.”

No, that’s not right. But she couldn’t convince him. This was something only Karen experienced. He didn’t know. He never would. How hard Raymond had lived was none of Karen’s concern. What kind of king Prince Louis would become was also none of Karen’s concern. And they didn’t know Karen either.

Between Karen and everyone else in the world, there was a wall. About the thickness of a book. Thin, but it would never break. Ink cannot leap outside the paper.

“I want to make confession before the trial begins.”

“…Miss Karen, you need to be more honest with me than with the priests.”

“I’ve told you everything I can tell you. But this is a confession unrelated to that.”

“…”

“Since it might be death, I’m scared.”

At Karen’s words, the lawyer nodded. Indeed, even he couldn’t be certain.

Even if there was room for interpretation in the law, the opponent was the royal family. The dead were royalty. Even if the new king had a friendship with Raymond, the current king was still the same, and he had lost his children. The person who considered Karen an enemy was the king of this country. There was nothing that could be known for certain.

“I understand.”

To the nodding lawyer, Karen added the most important thing.

“Please ask for Dulan Lloyd. I don’t know where he is right now.”

“…I understand.”

Dulan came.

It was the day before the trial.

* * *

“He’s inside.”

Karen straightened her posture upon hearing that he had arrived. Now there was only one day left until the trial. And now there wasn’t much time left. Perhaps she would receive a death sentence tomorrow and be immediately confined to a place where she could meet no one. She might spend her days alone until her execution.

So she had to meet him before that.

He had come.

“…”

Dulan had come.

Now was the time of judgment. Karen looked at him. His jet-black eyes, as always, revealed nothing of what he was thinking.

“I’ll leave now.”

“Th-th-thank you.”

“…Ha.”

All the guards left. Such was the privilege that priests held. Karen let out a hollow laugh seeing them all leave when they hadn’t moved even at Raymond’s request. Raymond had wanted them to leave, but Dulan looked rather unwilling to face Karen.

“Don’t you have anything to say to me?”

“Prince Guiz… I di-di-didn’t know he would be that bad…”

“Ah, honestly, I wanted to kill you.”

Karen glared at Dulan as she spoke. He said he didn’t know what would happen to her, but she hadn’t thought that far ahead. The unpleasant experience of receiving her mother’s hand-me-downs was unnecessary.

“…”

Dulan sat down and gripped his black priest’s robe. He looked like someone waiting to be scolded for doing something wrong. But the one who wanted to cry now wasn’t him. Karen also gripped her skirt tightly.

“Not that.”

Karen closed her eyes. She wasn’t even angry anymore. Before meeting Raymond, she had thought she wouldn’t let Dulan off easy when she met him.

“To me… to me who lives a repetitive life, what meaning could such things have. Yes, it’s never been as unpleasant as this time.”

“…So…”

“I have no intention of receiving an apology from you either. What’s important now isn’t such things… You know that.”

What did any of that matter to Karen?

Karen had already made up her mind as she unfastened her necklace. This time too, Raymond showed no difference from previous lives, she was tired, and there was no certainty. She had already given up on this time and was thinking about the next life. Taking the wait for the gallows as a small pleasure.

“Honestly, I don’t think I can live longer this time either.”

“…”

“Whether it’s true love or whatever, that also seems like nonsense. The lawyer and Raymond said they didn’t know, but… this time I won’t be able to live. Even if I don’t get executed, I’ve experienced trials before.”

“…Wh-when?”

“That’s not important. What does it matter when. I slept with a married man and his wife committed suicide. So I was imprisoned, but the guard was the wife’s brother. He put rat poison in my food and that was the end… Even then Raymond didn’t give up on me. Isn’t that funny?”

So Karen couldn’t understand. But because of Raymond’s words, she decided not to run away anymore. Karen looked at Dulan’s face. A priest with a corpse-like pallor and sunken eyes. But Karen knew what his face looked like when he was younger.

“Why does mother say such things to me.”

She rides the swing. Behind her stands a boy with a frowning face.

“I’ve already given up on hearing about true love from you.”

“…Why…”

“Rather than the trial, or whatever… whether the end is execution or whatever… there’s something I need to confirm. Something real, not your nonsense.”

Dulan looks at her. Karen looks at him. Now is the time of judgment. Not a human trial. That is a trivial matter.

“You said the outside of the book was comfort. Yes… I needed comfort. That there was a place to return to… not this place. So… there would be real family there, and friends…”

“So what was your original name?”

“I don’t remember. It was over 100 years ago.”

“Of course you can’t remember. I was Karen Hyer from the beginning. I knew from when I went to find Mrs. Deere. There’s no way I wouldn’t notice. Nancy was just giving me false hope.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay.”

“All of that is just things inside the book.”

She must remember what a gypsy woman whispered every night. She hears that voice comforting herself as she struggled against the coming loss and fear.

She could no longer stop the memories that had been sunk to the other side from surfacing.

She fell into a book.

117 years had passed.

A 117-year-old girl.

She was born in this world from the beginning. Inside this book.

* * *

Karen struggled to steady her voice. She had to prevent tears from bursting out. Now she had to confirm.

“There’s no way you didn’t know from the beginning. I thought of it immediately upon hearing. As soon as I heard that mother was like me, I realized it right away! There’s no way you wouldn’t know…”

“Your mother was also like you…”

Red-haired beautiful women, women, women.

“But I didn’t try to know, and you didn’t tell me clearly either. It’s something anyone might think… but we didn’t confirm it, we passed it over with vague words. Talking about love and such.”

“…”

Karen felt suffocated. But she had to speak. She had to speak. Now she really had to speak.

Soon, there would be another ending, she would die, start again, and if she didn’t drive him to the point of killing someone again, Dulan wouldn’t speak, and again.

“If mother gave birth to me and then stopped… it’s simple. It’s something anyone would think. Have a child, and pass it on to my child…”

Karen had to speak. But it felt like blood would burst from her throat. She didn’t want to speak. She didn’t want to confirm. She didn’t want to hear a definitive answer. But all those undeniable things, Raymond’s words, Mrs. Deere’s words, Prince Guiz, Louis, Catherine.

“It’s a plausible story. A child is… the result of love, and if I find someone to love and form a family, then it ends.”

But that was impossible for Karen. Karen clenched her hands. Blood flowed from her hands. But she felt no pain. She wanted to run away. But she couldn’t. Because.

“The comfort you spoke of… true love… is ultimately nonsense… Nothing but a mirage.”

Mother’s mother, mother’s mothers, the blessing passed down through blood, repeating time.

“Because I’m infertile.”

Karen finally said it.

Tears flowed from her eyes.

How many times, how many times.

Even without her father saying it, even without Deere saying it, Karen had suspected many times while living her repetitive life. Her periods were extremely irregular. But the body of a woman under extreme stress was naturally like that. Karen tried not to think about it.

Karen had spent nights with countless men, but there were no results. Out of curiosity, she met even more different men. Meeting, sleeping, confirming. If not Raymond, then Dulan, if not Dulan, then even Bowen, if not him, then even street thugs, even with men who had children, to confirm.

And Karen had no choice but to be certain.

She could not bear children.

“So… there’s no way for me to end it… is there?”

Karen looks at Dulan. Tears keep flowing. She couldn’t tell if tears or blood were flowing. But still she looks at Dulan. Even in this situation, she hopes for denial. She hopes for hope.

“…”

But Dulan nodded his head.

It was a death sentence.

“…I see.”

No scream came out.

Silence filled the room.

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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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