Resetting Lady - Chapter 190
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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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“The young lady fell asleep crying.”
“Her memory?”
“She can barely remember anything now… But when I told her it had been several years since Lady Catherine passed away, she suddenly collapsed.”
How long has it been since I’ve seen her? I tried to avoid meeting her as much as possible. I had planned to meet only with the Lord and return quickly, but I ended up encountering Karen. Before I knew it, Karen had reached adolescence, grown tall, and carried herself like a lady. They say she forgets her memories more and more frequently.
The plan was proceeding steadily.
Karen’s recovery of memories became increasingly rare, and she often acted unfamiliar toward people she knew well. Nancy said Karen was increasingly acting as if she had become a princess from a fairy tale. A little more gentle, a little more kind.
“How ridiculous.”
When she was young, Karen couldn’t be called good-natured even as empty flattery. Dulan remembered Karen throwing tantrums. And he remembered Karen who had locked him up and released a pack of dogs.
Dulan opened the door and entered, looking down at the sleeping Karen. Her eyes were swollen, and her slowly rising and falling chest indicated she was in deep sleep.
She could now be called a ‘woman.’ If she grew just a little more, she would become a dazzling beauty that anyone would turn to look at. And if among the countless people she would meet, she encountered a decent man… it would lead to death.
“…Karen.”
“…”
“Karen… Hyer.”
He called her name but she didn’t wake. He felt relief at that.
No matter how much he thought about it, he was reluctant. Why must one die? Why must time flow? Under his hands was someone who could enjoy eternal life.
Karen had the opportunity to live forever. Catherine had dismissed it like a bad joke, but Dulan thought it was a true blessing. This beauty would be preserved forever.
Catherine’s face had been miserable.
The face of one tired of life and dying was terrible. It would be even more terrible for Karen to quickly find a man, succeed in pregnancy, bear children, and live the ordinary life of a person dying.
Here was eternity. All that vast knowledge and history that Catherine had shared with him was immense and profound.
Why should eternity be abandoned?
Why must people die?
Catherine was dead.
But Karen would not die.
Forever.
Dulan knelt down. And he offered a prayer. About what he was going to do.
And he confessed to himself that he had become a heretic.
His god was this girl sleeping before him.
* * *
“Priest, Priest Dulan.”
He heard someone calling him. Dulan realized he had fallen asleep sitting up. Dulan opened his eyes and looked at the man entering. It was Bowen who worked at the manor.
“I’m sorry. If you were sleeping, I’ll come back later to speak with you.”
“Ah, no… It’s fine.”
Bowen used to be a butcher. The only thing slightly special was that he sometimes butchered people as well as animals.
His mother was still in a position where she could only survive by taking Dulan’s medicine. Bowen tried his best to improve his attitude, but even while quietly running errands for Dulan, he sometimes used rough language. Showing a disheveled appearance in front of him was not a wise action.
Dulan stood up and looked at Bowen.
“Miss Karen has sent a letter. News that she’s currently in the capital with Miss Isela Evans… The Lord would like to have tea with you, will you join him?”
“…Yes.”
“Yes, understood. Then I’ll tell him you’ll be there soon. And it would be good if you changed clothes before coming. New clothes are in the wardrobe.”
“Al, alright.”
Dulan rubbed his rough, dry cheeks while gathering his thoughts. Two days had already passed since arriving at the estate, yet his mind was still unsettled. Dulan opened his eyes and looked in the mirror. There was one gaunt, hunched young man. There was one patient bewitched by eternity.
There was one thing he was curious about.
“Why… was it me, of all people?”
* * *
“I heard there was a fire at the monastery, is your body alright?”
“I’m, I’m fine, my Lord.”
Dulan looked down at the tea placed before him, then raised his head to look at the Lord and answered. Even if Karen rejected Dulan, it wouldn’t change that Dulan would become the next lord. It would only end with postponing the day of Dulan’s return a little.
But in the meantime, various things had happened to Dulan. From minor incidents like objects disappearing and reappearing, to sudden drowsiness, and even nearly causing a fire when a lamp fell over.
“It’s over now.”
What Dulan had to do was no longer at the monastery. Dulan listened to stories about Karen who had left for the capital while bringing the teacup to his lips. The Lord looked at him and carefully began to speak.
“I hear there’s a man… to be introduced soon.”
“I, I, is that so.”
“Yes… You might not like it, but I’d like you to congratulate her too.”
Dulan could understand why the Lord had called him to speak so carefully. Was he worried that Dulan might think Karen had been taken from him? Dulan smiled bitterly to himself. Both the Lord and Catherine were thoroughly mistaken.
They were the ones who had proposed the deal, so why were they afraid to carry it out? They found the execution process difficult to accept. They couldn’t treat Karen comfortably, and they suspected he harbored selfish motives. They watched Dulan’s reaction to Karen choosing someone else. Why would he be angry?
“Of course.”
It was something to celebrate.
Whoever Karen met, it was something to be blessed.
Because what he would do wouldn’t change.
Because what he had been doing wouldn’t change.
“So how about we consider the conversation with Catherine as if it never happened.”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“I mean, stop tampering with her memory too… Catherine…”
The Lord’s face became slightly flushed.
The purpose of calling Dulan was to have this conversation.
“I lost my wife, but I also lost my daughter during that time. I don’t want to lose the family that came to me first again.”
Dulan rested his chin on his hand and pondered.
The Lord had said this to persuade Dulan, but his words only gave Dulan certainty. Karen herself had said she lived again. To her father.
Dulan threw a gold coin and caught it again. Clink, clink. The coin flew through the air and fell repeatedly. Dulan thought. He had to think.
Did Karen live again? Dulan believed it. But Dulan was slightly confused because Karen had regained her memories yet held nothing in her hands. Karen should have been holding something. Hadn’t Catherine said so?
“To be certain that I live again, I should remember first, but it would be good to set a marker.”
Catherine had once told Dulan.
“What you hold in your hand when you die, you can start with. Something small enough to fit in your palm… In my case, the very first time it was a finger.”
A finger? Dulan looked down at Catherine’s white, thin, long fingers. Catherine raised her hand and folded one. My finger, I mean. I cut it off and brought it back. I’ve thrown it away now since it rotted.
“You know what? Human fingers have patterns.”
Was she talking about the texture of skin at the fingertips? Dulan looked down at his own fingertips, but they were smooth from the medicine. But later he learned, as Catherine had said, that every person had unique patterns that could distinguish each individual.
“Was it because pregnancy was the answer? A part of my body definitely comes back with me. When it’s not my body, this is what remains most clearly.”
Catherine picked up a gold coin.
“This remains best without any rejection. Other things keep causing problems.”
“I see.”
“So later, if you want to confirm whether Karen has been revived or not, you can check if she’s holding something like this.”
“What if she doesn’t hold anything when she dies?”
Catherine poked Dulan.
“You can put it in her hand.”
“…”
“Even right after death is fine. Someone can put a gold coin in that dead child’s hand…”
That’s why you must become a priest.
Because you must guide that child’s death.
* * *
They said Karen wasn’t holding anything.
Was it because this life was her first? Dulan had thought so at first. But at the Lord’s words to leave Karen alone now, Dulan became suspicious. Karen had persuaded the Lord to leave this house. And in that process, she had said she had lived again many times.
But why wasn’t she holding anything in her hands? Dulan couldn’t understand why his past self hadn’t put a gold coin in her hand. If Karen had died, he naturally would have put a gold coin in her hand. But this time Karen’s hands held nothing.
Dulan felt his head becoming more itchy. He wanted to take out his brain and organize it.
Karen said she remembered. And there was no coin.
Coin.
Dulan thought of the object he had been mulling over repeatedly.
Karen was not at the manor now.
Could someone who had lived at the manor all her life and whose memory wasn’t even intact show such initiative? It hadn’t been long since she left.
Nancy, who had been caring for her, had run away with money. There should have been a strong bond between Karen and Nancy. At minimum, Karen should have been somewhat manipulated by Nancy. After all, she had been giving her medicine and caring for her. But Karen hadn’t returned home even after Nancy ran away.
It was strange.
Could a person act like that? Was Karen indeed living again? And she was already introducing a man? Dulan gripped the coin tightly.
Karen’s actions were not those of someone who had lived only one life. She couldn’t be seen as someone who had lived practically confined to a manor her entire life. Her initiative and resourcefulness spoke volumes. Dulan smiled, twisting his lips.
He could also understand why his life at the monastery had been dangerous. He could guess why things had gone missing. Karen had ordered someone to do it. She had clearly been trying to find out something from him.
This wasn’t Karen’s first life.
And she would have extracted the truth from him to some extent.
My past self succeeded.
No matter how much Karen struggled, he had absolutely no intention of letting her go. Dulan felt his past selves whispering beside him.
Seize eternity.
Trying to run away?
From eternity to death? To eternal rest?
But she wouldn’t be able to do that.
Whoever the man she had chosen was. Dulan stood up and began shoving things into his bag. Any man, any person, it didn’t matter. Anyone would do. The actions he would take remained unchanged.
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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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