Resetting Lady - Chapter 21
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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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Wrong. There’s no way those rich girls would understand such words.
Tom knew he had to give up on the gold coin. Still, he couldn’t suppress his rising anger. He does it every day. He does it every day just to eat. How much does he even do? Usually it’s over after counting to a hundred, isn’t it? Tom was so furious about that.
What’s the big deal about that? Just close your eyes once and it’s over. If that’s something to die over, then fifty men in the village should be dead.
“…I was hoping for a more original answer.”
“Do you find this amusing?”
“Somewhat.”
The girl laughed while covering her mouth. It was clearly mockery. Tom wanted to knock down the girl in front of him. So he lunged at her.
“Hey!”
“Why are you out here, Miss Karen Hyer?”
That effort ended absurdly. The blonde knight he’d seen in the courtroom had somehow tripped Tom and knocked him down. And without even looking at the fallen Tom, he continued to examine the body of the red-haired girl who had been standing. The girl, no, the woman gracefully stood up and turned to face the man.
“Oh, hello. Lord Raymond, thank you for participating in the trial. The trial is over, isn’t it? There’s nothing particular to do in my room anyway.”
His face hurt from scraping it when he fell. But this wasn’t the time to worry about his face.
‘Miss Karen Hyer?’
What had he said? Terror washed over him.
“Uh, uh…”
“…Don’t stay out here for no reason and go inside.”
“I wasn’t particularly shocked, Lord Raymond. I’m fine.”
“But Miss Hyer.”
“Don’t be too harsh with the child.”
Karen answered with a bright smile and whispered as she helped Tom up.
“At dawn, come through the third back door of the manor’s back doors. I’ll give you the gold coin. And I have something to tell you about your father.”
Gold coin. The gold coin rang out in Tom’s head, driving away fear and worry. Shining gold coin, more money.
Tom couldn’t refuse that offer.
* * *
He felt pain in his head. He could feel blood trickling wetly between his hair. It stung.
After the trial ended, he went to find the back door of the Lord’s Manor. Suddenly he was hit on the back of the head and lost consciousness. When he opened his eyes, his hands and legs were already tied. A cloth was stuffed in his mouth so only small “mmph” sounds came out. He was tied so tightly he couldn’t move at all. Tom could only watch Karen Hyer.
From over there, Karen saw that Tom had woken up and waved her hand in greeting.
“Are you awake?”
He couldn’t answer. She turned her gaze away from Tom and soon continued what she had been doing. She was sweating as if it was difficult work. Karen continued speaking in a small voice while sawing. Tom clearly realized it. He’d been deceived.
“…!”
“I need to be able to trust my instincts.”
The sound of cutting something with a hacksaw was eerily audible.
Tom wanted to scream but his mouth was blocked. He wanted to cover his ears too. But his arms and legs were tightly bound. All Tom could do was squirm. And that thing was someone he knew. More precisely, something that had been a person.
Tom could understand why he had come here.
‘Dad!’
“So I need a witness.”
Tom knew he was the witness to that something. Karen threw away the saw whose blade had become dirty and took out a new saw. Sweat was dripping down. She looked quite overwhelmed but showed no sign of stopping her work. She was feeling the joy of labor with gleaming eyes.
“Phew, since I didn’t see Nancy directly, I don’t know how many pieces to divide it into. Usually um… arms, legs, neck, so 6 pieces? Right? Surely you won’t say 6 pieces isn’t acceptable. It’s not like that, right.”
If he could open his mouth, Tom would have screamed. Anyone would have. But when he confirmed the corpse’s head, Tom wet himself. Karen had barely managed to remove the head she’d been cutting and placed it next to Tom.
“So I’d like you to watch over it for today. You can’t sleep, can you?”
He wouldn’t be able to sleep.
The sensation of stroking the brown curly hair was nice. Karen adjusted Tom’s posture so he sat up straight. Since he had to endure the whole day, she had made her own preparations. She tied his hands and feet and gagged his mouth. When he was unconscious, she made him swallow water and gave him medicine too.
“Since the weather isn’t cold anymore, there shouldn’t be a need to add fire.”
Tom, who had been rolling his eyes anxiously, began struggling violently when he confirmed the corpse’s face.
“Shh shh, stay still. It’s just a corpse anyway, right? It can’t touch you. You’re safe.”
Tom, what you should be wary of isn’t the corpse but me. But Tom was convulsing as if trying to get away from the corpse, so Karen had to threateningly hold up a wooden block again.
‘Maybe I should have given him some strong medicine.’
But the nine-year-old body was too small for Karen to know the proper amount. If he died early because of medicine meant to calm him, only she would lose out. While she couldn’t help but understand Tom’s confused reaction, Karen had her own excuse. The corpses she could easily obtain were limited from the start.
“It’s not that I particularly want to torment you.”
Karen said while patting his small back.
“Even if I try my best, I need an opportunity… like the physical differences between men and women… Even if I try to kill more, everyone’s busy, they’re not alone, and I’m weak too… In the end, the only ones worth killing seem to be children like you. I wish I had a bit more physical strength. Hmm? Sorry, don’t cry. You won’t live long anyway.”
So you’re the easiest target. Karen wrapped a blanket around Tom.
“Not just the timing of your appearance either. Realistically, you’ve caught too many diseases. I don’t know if your hair fell out less because it’s curly. The blisters on your hands and feet, and the severe ulcers in your mouth too… You worked too hard, didn’t you?”
Your body’s market value turned out to be lower than I thought. Karen said while disinfecting. It might be unnecessary treatment, but a weak sense of camaraderie moved her. The child’s body was severely affected by blisters and inflammation everywhere. Delicate areas had been grotesquely changed by inflammation.
Normal growth would be impossible. No wait. Karen searched her memory. In the end, even when Karen took him in, Tom died within a month. Assuming growth was meaningless.
In the end, this is too easy a choice. Using a corpse and an orphan no one cares about for experiments. It hurt her pride a bit, but that was all.
“If I had to add an advantage… since it’s your dad, you as his child would observe best, wouldn’t you.”
Thomas was fortunately among the intact ones. The criminal’s corpse had a report written by the coroner before trial and was simply embalmed with the internal organs removed.
And after the trial ended, it was appropriately discarded as fertilizer for the mountain, which Karen picked up. At first she chose Hans, whom she had stabbed with a knife as a kind of revenge, but soon thought that Thomas, being Tom’s father, would be better for Tom to focus. And Thomas was at least lighter than Hans.
“Still, it’s fortunate it hasn’t rotted much yet.”
She closed the door.
Tom had to make eye contact with Thomas’s severed head. He closed his eyes. He’d rather die. Thomas’s eyes were exactly like those of a dead animal. Those empty eyes were so disgusting that Tom prayed for Karen to quickly finish her experiment and return.
“Sob, mmph.”
His whole body was bound but opening and closing his eyes was free. I should sleep until she comes. He prayed that while sleeping he would never wake up again, that he would just die while sleeping.
But the cold rising from the floor reminded him of the cold reality, and even with the blanket wrapped around him, the cold didn’t go away.
* * *
“Something’s definitely strange, Father.”
Verdick was getting increasingly annoyed.
The work was nearing its end, so why did she keep obsessing over useless matters? The Lord was greatly displeased by Isella’s aggressive remarks. Getting an answer even while ruining the atmosphere was purely to ease Isella’s anxiety. But why was she still acting like this?
“What’s the problem? Didn’t Mr. Hyer give a definitive answer?”
“In the end, only you saw it, didn’t you, Lord? You could be lying to cover up the truth, couldn’t you?”
“Stop it already. Why are you being like this? My head is already complicated thinking about how to handle your engagement ceremony.”
“What… what if the Lord committed murder, or the servants committed murder among themselves? In that case, couldn’t Father use that? Something’s definitely strange. I’m sure that day…”
Bang. Isella flinched and stepped back. Verdick frowned.
“No matter how much profit I bring, I can’t drive the Lord out of this house. For a natural merger, we need a silent puppet. Isella, we need to live without bothering each other too much. Especially over such trivial matters.”
“What do you mean…”
“Isella, stop it already. Whether one maid dies or not, especially a gypsy maid, that’s none of our concern. The Lord answered about that part, and we have no right to question further. Stop it. Even if…”
He caught his breath.
“Even if the Lord killed that maid, what’s such a big problem about that?”
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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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