Resetting Lady - Chapter 146
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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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And night fell.
Karen lay alone in bed, mulling over the years.
Raymond is not in the house.
“….”
Karen got up from the bed. Half a day had passed. Raymond would not return for a long time. Since not a single horse remained, she would have to walk down to the town. It wasn’t an impossible distance to walk. Should she wait until morning?
No, no. Karen suppressed her desire to go out. If she went out unnecessarily and happened to encounter a bear or get killed by passing bandits, she would have no face to show Raymond in the next life. She had decided to endure this time, so she must endure.
But he hadn’t said anything about wandering around inside the house.
Karen got up.
“…Whew.”
The bed she slept in alone was unbearably cold.
Her mind became increasingly clear, and Karen blinked her eyes in the darkness before getting up.
She absolutely could not fall asleep. Lying still was too suffocating. Only half a day had passed, but it was already hard to bear. She needed to move her body to make herself tired.
“…Haa.”
Karen got down from the bed and picked up a lantern. She lit the candle inside. As the fire blazed, just that much light was created. Karen stood up holding the lantern.
Since she was alone, there was no need to dress properly. She looked in the mirror. Her eyes gleamed between her disheveled hair. The candlelight added to the eerie atmosphere. Even though it was her own appearance, it felt unfamiliar.
‘A bit scary.’
Karen ran her hand through her hair. Ridiculously, she got goosebumps.
Why was she scared of herself? She had killed people and wasn’t afraid of death, yet when she opened her eyes alone in the mansion, she felt fear. Was she ultimately a weak person after all? She wondered if Raymond felt no fear when he was alone. Raymond probably wouldn’t be scared of much of anything.
Karen laughed. She couldn’t imagine Raymond being afraid of anything. Especially fear of being alone.
Raymond would normally say that having people around was more dangerous. He probably couldn’t even imagine that she would be scared of this. Or maybe he thought fear was nothing compared to the threats people could pose.
Karen turned her face away from her ghostly appearance.
In fact, her essence was no different from a ghost. One who could not find peace and wandered the nine heavens eternally. Unable to mix with people, wandering places where she shouldn’t be.
Karen shook her head.
Now it’s different. Raymond is here. What flows through her body is red blood, not ink, and she will definitely go out into the world. Together, the two of them.
“…It’s really spacious when I’m alone.”
She walked down the corridor.
Tess Manor was truly large. Karen walked slowly down the corridor. It was a nighttime stroll.
It felt like an adventure, making her heart race. Even though this place was practically her own home, it felt as unfamiliar as if she had just arrived. In the past, countless servants always attended to her, but now there was no one.
No matter how hard Raymond tried, he couldn’t fill the absence of those people. But the sense of loss from missing one person was much greater than the sense of loss from missing many. Going from 1 to 0 was much heavier than going from 100 to 1.
Karen walked through the empty corridor, closing and opening her eyes. The corridor was dark, but as she went a little further, the large main hall appeared.
The main hall had many glass windows, so moonlight poured in. Even though it was a dark night, perhaps because the moonlight was shining directly, it wasn’t that dark. Still, night was night.
The hall had a smooth marble floor. Because Raymond swept and cleaned it every day, it gleamed even at night.
‘Should I be the one cleaning now?’
Raymond had emphasized several times that there was no need to clean while he was away. Because if she slipped while cleaning and died, it would be meaningless. The meals were also full of things that required little cooking, like jerky or military-style food.
But still, if she didn’t do it, dust would settle, and Karen wasn’t confident she could tolerate dirt.
When she was a maid, she had learned the basics. Her main job was to be Isella’s conversation partner, which was really just being a target for venting anger, but she hadn’t completely avoided housework. If she repeated cleaning this estate daily and then slacking off, time would pass quickly.
Let her wait for the day she dies.
And Karen closed her eyes.
This time she might not die. As Raymond said, she might be able to live out her natural lifespan. A miracle had happened. Raymond remembered, and before that day came, Karen was able to die. Perhaps she wouldn’t die and would greet the day after that day, and the day after that too. That day would be her true birthday.
“Let’s go anywhere. Whether it’s white snowy plains or an endlessly spread sea.”
Karen recalled Raymond’s words. Thinking of him brought a smile to her lips. She felt much better.
Not only going somewhere, but later when they succeed, let’s celebrate here.
Let’s gather everyone and start the true lives of herself and Raymond. Let’s celebrate that they are ultimately not people who will leave for somewhere, but people among people, members of society.
Let’s bless their deaths. Just like the wedding that was celebrated here.
Even if they can’t speak of it, let’s receive congratulations.
She remembers the wedding that took place here.
Once upon a time, Father was alive too. Back then, most things ended well. When was that? Sometimes there were such times. In the beginning, Karen demanded love from Raymond, thinking he was the answer.
And because Raymond truly showed Karen convincing love, the ending was always a happy ending. Raymond always returned to Karen no matter what difficulties there were with Verdick or other competitors. So he was Karen’s knight, and remained so until that day.
If Raymond had been a bit more pathetic, could she have given up quickly?
Karen suddenly had that thought. The reason she could believe for a hundred years that her life was a romance novel, and accept it that way from the beginning, was because Raymond was too excellent. Karen laughed. If Raymond had been a more ordinary and dirty man, would she have suspected sooner?
She remembers the wedding.
There had been so many that she couldn’t remember exactly how many times.
When banquets were held here, the sound of shoes echoing on the floor was noisy yet cheerful. Karen stamped her foot.
Tap.
But what she was wearing now were leather slippers, not shoes, so only a quiet sound could be heard.
Karen sat on the central staircase holding the lantern.
Being alone, there was nothing to do but think. Getting up and moving became bothersome. Karen thought she might die if she just lay there. She needed to get up.
“….”
Tess Estate, brightly illuminated by moonlight, was quiet yet splendid and antique. If she closed her eyes quietly, she could hear the sounds of insects, owls, and sobbing in the distance.
“…Hm?”
Wait, Karen shook her head at the strange sound. Why do I hear sobbing? She opened her eyes. The strange sound was no longer audible. She must have heard wrong.
Sob….
Only silence lingered.
A world where only she existed.
Really?
Is she alone right now?
Karen suddenly had that thought. She closed and opened her eyes. No sound was heard. Was it an auditory hallucination? Karen lamented her own weakness.
“…It’s because I’m alone.”
But feeling fear was probably because people had died here. Karen got up again.
Who did the fingernails belong to? And how are things going now?
“….”
Should she look for it when Raymond isn’t here?
They’re probably already dead. But she didn’t think it would be just one person. It might not be just one or two. Karen hated being afraid.
This sensation is familiar. Nights trembling with fear are familiar. At times like this, someone should be here. Raymond should be here, and at minimum she should call a maid like Nancy. But sometimes even that wasn’t enough.
So she killed people.
When something is too scary, you have to deliberately get used to it.
If you’re scared of looking at darkness, you should enter the darkness. If you’re scared of dying, you should become a murderer. Then you feel like it gets a little better. But if you’re scared of being alone?
Could she discover other people if she searched the house?
When scared, wouldn’t finding a scarier corpse make her less scared?
Really, what reason did she have to fear ghosts? Why should the possibility that people might appear after death be a reason for fear?
The sudden thought led to one thing after another.
“…Damn it.”
She should have moved with a gun after all. Even a small pistol could kill if shot in the head at close range. Even weak as she was, she could kill people if she had a gun. She needed that heavy weight.
Karen climbed the stairs again while looking around below. Back then, what Raymond was cleaning was the floor of that hall. And the fingernails were also stuck to the mop that was cleaning that place.
‘Someone here…?’
He had pulled someone’s fingernails somewhere in this house. Who had bled on that hall floor? Where did they go from where? Did Raymond completely dispose of the body? Was it just one person? Is Karen really alone right now?
Her head was spinning. At times like this, she needed to check. When darkness is scary, you must enter the darkness. When the unknown is scary, you must know.
Karen went back down the stairs.
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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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