Resetting Lady - Chapter 134

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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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She glanced back, but it was just sleep talking. He had finally grown tired and fallen asleep. Finally. Karen felt for the first time that the absence of people could be frightening in this sense too. A sigh of relief naturally escaped her.

“Please… let go…”

Karen kicked away Raymond’s hand that was gripping her ankle and slipped out of bed. Unlike the monstrously sturdy Raymond, she had an ordinary person’s body. This was really too much now. Karen staggered as she stepped on the floor alone for the first time in a while.

“…”

She felt dizzy.

Karen got up and poured water from the bottle beside the bed to drink. The cold water went down her throat. Karen coughed and touched her neck while grimacing. Her throat hurt. It wasn’t just her throat that hurt. She had pushed herself too hard and her whole body ached and throbbed.

She should have just enjoyed laziness. Why did she do something she’d never done before.

Come to think of it, it seemed like the first time she had made such a request first. Since she had died before becoming accustomed to sleeping with Raymond, she had only ever shown him the appearance of a clumsy and shy virgin.

But that seemed more comfortable. Karen thought she understood why Raymond had restrained himself. His words about having no confidence to control himself when they were alone together had been sincere.

Karen could also see how much consideration Raymond had shown during their newlywed days until now. Raymond moving as he pleased was not a man Karen could handle.

He had even kept waking her up to torment her when Karen fell asleep from exhaustion. This was practically torture.

“…”

After confirming he was asleep, Karen tiptoed out of the room on her toes. She wanted to go downstairs to eat something and get some sunlight.

“Haah…”

Karen sighed at the sight of the smelly things in the kitchen. She had no idea how many days they had been stuck in bed. Most were smoked meats so there was no problem, but things like birds that Raymond had caught were giving off a rotten smell.

“…Do I have to clean this up?”

Karen felt nauseous. But she didn’t want to wake the soundly sleeping Raymond either. Since it’s human nature to want to do things together, Karen gathered the rotten things in one place and began cleaning up. But she had no idea where to dispose of the carcasses.

This was something she had never done before either. Cooking was done by cooks, so cleaning was also done by those in charge. Having rationalized it to herself this way, Karen soon gave up and bit into a clean tomato from those piled in the corner.

“…I’m hungry…”

Karen felt the need to eat the detestable meat again. Indeed, there were limits to gaining strength from just fruits and vegetables. Karen put the tomatoes in a small basket and left the kitchen, heading back to their bedroom. Now she really had to tell him to stop and get up to live a normal daily life.

They really needed a cook. And they should call about five general workers. Life with just the two of them had no restraint and was too exhausting. Also, Karen wanted to talk with other people too.

“Two people is too few.”

She had thought even one person would be fine, but it wasn’t. Two people were too few. Karen wanted to live in a place with more people. She needed interaction. Before forming relationships, she had thought it was because she lacked physical intimacy with Raymond, but after spending nights together to the point her body felt like breaking, it became even clearer.

“…I need people.”

Karen needed people. One person wasn’t enough. There needed to be more people to converse with, to laugh or get angry with each other. She had kept her distance thinking all people were characters in a book, but those connections she had thought meaningless were what formed her.

Karen newly realized that she had always been surrounded by people. From when she opened her eyes in the morning, during meals, while working or until she fell asleep, maids and servants had always been by her side.

No matter how much Raymond loved her and took on most tasks alone by her side, what one person could do was too limited. That was unavoidable because Raymond was just one person.

“…Just one year.”

She just had to endure one year.

Karen walked down the corridor. Before that, she took out another tomato and bit into it. There were still plenty of tomatoes left so it was fine. If she ran out, she could just go back. Karen thought of people while feeling the pulp bursting in her mouth.

Even if they made her angry, disappointed, or distressed, she needed all those countless people. All those countless people like Isella, Verdick, Nancy, Bowen, Donna, Countess Elba, or Prince Guiz.

“…”

Karen stopped walking and looked down at the main hall. There were still the mop and water bucket that Raymond had left behind while cleaning a few days ago. He didn’t even clean that up and right here… Karen felt her face reddening a bit.

“Really too much… mm…”

Even so, that was too much. Karen rubbed her cheeks and went down the stairs. She should clean this up first while Raymond was still sleeping. Karen set down the basket with tomatoes beside her and picked up the water bucket and mop.

“…Ugh, dirty.”

Looking around leisurely, quite some time had definitely passed. Karen sighed looking at the filthy mop. Time had passed so the moisture had dried up completely, but the mop was covered with dirty things. Karen took the water bucket and mop and went out to where the faucet was on the garden side.

“Really, why is it so dirty when there aren’t even people here. Two people really is ridiculous.”

Since the manor was so large, didn’t it get dirty right away like this? Karen grumbled as she turned on the dusty faucet to fill the bucket with water. As water began to fill up, she rinsed out the dirty water inside.

“…Oh my.”

What is this?

Karen picked up the dirty mop she had pushed to the floor. Something was glinting inside the mop.

“…”

If Karen had been a little younger, say about 20 years younger, Karen would have screamed.

Karen knew what this was. Karen picked up the small glinting thing and examined the water bucket with her other hand.

It was dirty.

Karen could tell what these stains were.

She couldn’t not know what this thing that had turned brown with time was.

“…”

Karen stared blankly down at the object in her palm.

It was something she hadn’t expected.

It was someone’s fingernail.

* * *

Don’t think about it.

She didn’t know how she had returned. Somehow she had limped back to the room. Karen lay down beside Raymond again.

Could it be animal blood? Raymond always butchers meat. Sheep or cattle. Raymond couldn’t have done that. Why would he bring bleeding animals alone?

It wasn’t just blood. Why was a fingernail there? Karen wondered if there were animals with fingernails similar to human fingernails.

Sheep, cattle, horses, chickens…

But no matter how much she thought, Karen couldn’t think of an animal with fingernails resembling human ones.

What could it be? No, who could it be?

“Karen.”

“…Yes, Lord Raymond.”

Karen almost screamed for a moment. Raymond asked Karen in a hoarse voice.

“When did you wake up?”

Karen had to smile naturally. Fortunately, that wasn’t too difficult.

“Get up now, Raymond.”

“…Yes.”

“And you know… shouldn’t we have a meal now?”

“I understand.”

Raymond took Karen’s hand.

“It’s good having you by my side.”

“…”

Karen couldn’t pull her hand away from him. But she couldn’t ask more either.

Why were you cleaning bloodstains?

Whose fingernail is it?

She didn’t want to hear lies. I should ask. But I don’t want to hear the answer. I’m afraid I’ll be disappointed. I should maintain courtesy.

Karen felt Raymond’s face coming down over her lips again and closed her eyes.

Raymond’s love was beyond doubt.

That’s why she couldn’t ask.

Whose fingernail could it be? Karen sat alone in the room after Raymond left and looked down at the object she had picked up.

She had thought it was glinting, but looking again, it was just an ordinary fingernail fragment. It had just glinted in the sunlight and water. Unlike when she saw Donna’s severed hand, it was difficult to deduce anything. It was hard to distinguish whether it was from a man or woman. It had even been in dirty water.

Judging by the size of the fingernail, it wasn’t a thumb, and looked to be about the size of a man’s ring finger or a woman’s index finger. The end was damaged but that alone couldn’t guarantee it belonged to the working class. And on the opposite side were saw-like marks.

Though flesh or blood wasn’t attached since it had been washed by water, there was still something she could tell. This fingernail hadn’t been broken, but pulled out.

That must have hurt.

Karen held the fingernail up to the sunlight but it was still difficult to deduce anything more from it. She had only aged and lacked knowledge, so there were limits to deducing anything from this small fingernail fragment.

“…Who could it be.”

Karen buried her body deep into the bed again. It was a bed that still retained Raymond’s warmth. And he was probably in the kitchen now making a meal for Karen and himself.

Karen doesn’t doubt Raymond’s love. That’s not something to be doubted. There are only the two of them in the world. Only these two can understand each other.

Raymond had loved Karen even when she killed people. But back then he was someone who kept Karen by his side to watch her, not someone who would make proposals like ‘Shall we spend our lives killing people together?’

Raymond was now older than Karen too. He had become too much older.

“…Old man.”

“You’re not talking about me, are you?”

Karen almost screamed once more. Raymond was looking down at Karen with a frowning face.

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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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