Resetting Lady - Chapter 234

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Circumstantially, Dulan was the culprit, but after questioning Isella several times, even Isella herself wasn’t certain whether Dulan had stabbed Karen.

More than anything, what bothered him was that Raymond hadn’t subdued Dulan, but had followed Karen in suicide. Adding the letter to that made the judgment even more difficult.

In the end, the Duke had no choice but to release Dulan after some time due to insufficient evidence.

“Don’t forget that I’m watching you wherever you go.”

“…”

Dulan’s face, still that of a young man, had changed to look like an old man’s. Though his skin hadn’t sagged yet and his hair was still black, his back was more hunched and his body had withered like a stick. His appearance, closer to that of a plant or still life, could hardly be called that of a young man in his prime.

His eyes had lost their light and he could barely speak. To have a conversation with him, one had to tap him, and even then had to explain the situation for a long time afterward. Dulan had been out of his mind ever since the incident. When left alone, he wouldn’t eat or drink water, so someone had to be assigned to him. Duke Fankair clicked his tongue.

Since Dulan hadn’t received a guilty verdict, he had to return and become Lord Hyer. It was two years after the wedding.

Even after returning to the Hyer Estate, Dulan couldn’t come to his senses for a while. The memories he couldn’t handle appeared as hallucinations and auditory illusions, and Dulan could only sit still and endure them.

I’m going to get married.

Do you even understand what I’m saying?

Priest, please. Please bless me.

Bless us.

It was much later that Dulan recognized himself living like a ghost. Only when he was on the verge of death from not taking care of his body did Dulan move. And he saw himself standing alone in the empty manor. Dulan staggered and crawled toward the estate graveyard.

Before he knew it, it had become autumn for who knows how many times. Though it should be a season representing abundance, the weather was gloomy, and since no one came to the mad lord’s manor, the surroundings were all in ruins.

The town visible below was already desolate. Most people had left, and vagrants had taken their place. Dulan stared blankly at that sight before moving his steps again. Exhausted by ghosts, he wanted to go to the grave. This was his limit now.

When a person is too tormented, they don’t even have the strength to commit suicide. Dulan pulled himself together and crawled up to the grave to die.

Let’s die, quickly, as always.

In his bosom was medicine. Not medicine to sleep briefly, but medicine to sleep forever. The closest tombstone came into Dulan’s view.

Karen Hyer.

Karen’s body was buried in the Hyer Estate, and Raymond’s body was also sent to the Sayertes Estate. Since they couldn’t properly hold the wedding, families and relatives wanted to reclaim each body.

“…My lord.”

Dulan looked down at the lord’s tombstone buried next to Catherine’s grave. Lord Hyer had died again this time. And in front of it stood Karen’s tombstone.

Lord Hyer had collapsed upon seeing his daughter’s death and never got up again. Looking at the family grave, Dulan stood there blankly, then took out the medicine from his bosom.

“…”

Suicide is easy.

Dulan had done it countless times before.

He looked at Karen’s tombstone. He saw the epitaph that said she died at seventeen.

Ironically, what stopped Dulan’s suicide was the fear of meeting Karen again. If he died now, he would see Karen’s face immediately, soon. And Karen and Raymond would die in front of Dulan countless times in the future.

Until he gave up, continuously.

Dulan knelt in front of the tombstone. He couldn’t see a way to escape. All his memories had returned, and Karen and Raymond knew that fact too. Even if he could commit suicide physically, he would be drawn into their fate again.

“No.”

Dulan realized. If he didn’t find a way to escape now, Karen would die immediately in the next life, and so would Raymond. Now he could no longer use death to escape, and it would be that way forever.

“You killed me!”

Dulan tore at his hair. It wasn’t guilt but too many memories flooding in like a torrent that made his head hurt. He couldn’t escape through death. But even living, he didn’t know what to do.

Was all that remained now eternal revenge? Dulan clutched his burning nose. Blood was flowing from his nose again. Since his memories returned, blood would flow at the slightest thing, and hallucinations and auditory illusions never ceased.

How could he escape from this pain? Dulan sat blankly and breathed. At least at the graveyard, he saw fewer hallucinations.

And remember…

I forgive you.

How can I…

Receive forgiveness.

Karen’s mouth spoke of forgiveness, but her eyes cried for revenge. She and he anticipated the pain he would experience. It wasn’t that they weren’t angry. They were saying they would forgive him “despite everything.”

Then, as if by chance, a memory from the not-so-distant past came to mind.

“I hope you can understand this pain of ours, Priest.”

Dulan knew that bloody tears were flowing from his eyes. But he couldn’t tell if it was physiological or emotional.

“I don’t want to.”

“Why is that?”

“I don’t want to do it.”

Dulan wanted to observe and understand Karen, but he didn’t want to love her. He didn’t want to become weak. He didn’t want to remember. He knew that doing so would end eternity himself.

And his guess was correct. Dulan had regained all his memories and came to understand Karen. What was like religion to him, eternity, was a punishment worse than hell for Karen.

He had to admit it. Dulan Lloyd was an apostate. Eternal life could no longer be an unchanging truth for him. Having regained his memories, he was so weak and afraid that… he wanted to repent. So he had no choice but to seek a way.

He also came to know what he had to do.

Thud.

Dulan poured the medicine he was holding onto Karen’s tombstone. He had to give up suicide.

He realized the reason she had taken measures to ensure he wouldn’t die, the reason Karen forgave him.

“Don’t run away anymore.”

He had been able to run away until now. He could escape to the next life through the means of suicide. But now he couldn’t do that. He absolutely had to live.

Living like that, he had to spend his entire life researching how to make Karen’s body capable of pregnancy again. He had to clean up what he had done himself. And he had to meet her again in the next life.

I forgive you.

Forgiveness originally comes after an apology.

Since Karen had forgiven him, Dulan had to apologize before that.

* * *

Karen stroked her belly.

She thought of the child who would be stillborn, the child who couldn’t be born, the child who would die repeatedly like herself in the future.

My child whom I haven’t even seen yet, whom I don’t know what you’ll be like. Perhaps bringing you into this endless world would be cruel to you. Perhaps disappearing without even being born now would be a blessing.

Actually, it doesn’t seem like I’m feeling tremendous maternal love all of a sudden. I might be creating you for my own sake. But I truly, desperately want you and want you again. I’m curious about your face. How you’ll walk, what kind of life you’ll live… I really want to meet you.

So let’s die together now.

07. Happily ever after

The beginning is always the same.

It’s a garden in the rain.

There was a gold coin in her hand. Karen raised her hand and looked up at the gold coin. It was an ordinary, common gold coin with no numbers engraved on it. She could tell that it wasn’t Dulan who had handled her in the previous life. Karen threw the gold coin onto the rope at her feet.

Karen didn’t move.

She stood still and got rained on.

It was cold and chilly, but she had to wait.

She imagined the situation after her death. Did Raymond follow not too late? Did Dulan give up? And this time, would it end?

Whoooosh…

After waiting for a long time, the rain stopped.

Karen opened her eyes. The cold dawn rain had stopped and dawn was beginning to break. If she stayed longer, this life would begin again. Nancy would come in to wake her, and the servants and maids would prepare breakfast and start cleaning, preparing for the start of this life.

To prepare for this life, she should go in before it was too late, but Karen didn’t want to go in. There was something more important than such trivial things. There was something she could know without promising. Karen stood there blankly and continued to wait.

And finally, the moment came when the blue dawn was torn apart by the burning morning. And in between, there was one dazzling white dot. That figure rapidly approaching from the horizon seemed to be running while tearing through the dawn.

Above all, a dazzling morning was beginning.

Though it was a dim dawn, there was no need to say who that white and golden glowing figure was. It was a young knight who, far from calming his wildly raging white horse, excited it even more to make it run.

As he came close to Karen, he jumped down without even stopping his horse. The horse continued to rear and run before disappearing somewhere.

There was no need to confirm who he was.

It was just something she could know.

Because her knight always comes to her.

Tears were washed away by the rain and morning came.

The transparent morning sky filled the world. Karen embraced her knight with her arms. A body that seemed to burn golden wrapped around Karen.

* * *

The lord was surprised by his daughter knocking on his door from early morning.

His daughter, whose mind had rapidly become strange over the past few years, rarely came to see him. Since he also knew his daughter’s circumstances of maintaining only minimal encounters, the lord didn’t go looking for his daughter either. But that day she knocked on the door really urgently, so the lord hurriedly changed clothes and opened the door himself.

“Child, what’s wrong? My goodness, you’re completely soaked.”

His grown daughter’s body was completely wet. It was as if she had fallen into a lake. Knowing his daughter’s madness, the lord was startled with fear, but contrary to his worry, Karen smiled brightly. It was a smile he hadn’t seen in a very long time.

“Yes, I’m fine. I’m just soaked, that’s all.”

Karen, with her rain-soaked hair and body, smiled and hugged her father. It was something that hadn’t happened in years. The surprised lord embraced her back in confusion. And he asked his daughter.

“What happened?”

“There’s so much I don’t know what to say first!”

Karen giggled and laughed like that, and finally patted the lord’s back, then turned her body to point behind her. There stood a young man he’d never seen before. The man tried to offer a handshake, but Karen was faster.

“I have a man I love. I want to introduce him to you.”

“A man you love?”

“Yes.”

The Lord was flustered by the sudden words, but soon he understood.

This was ‘that moment.’ The one Catherine had spoken of.

Though her face was full of smiles, he also realized that what gathered at the corners of Karen’s eyes were tears, not raindrops. Catherine really was…

“I see.”

The Lord smiled back at Karen. He too had been waiting for this moment. He didn’t know how much time had passed. But he believed. Karen turned around with a smile.

“You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for this moment.”

Slowly, a blond-haired young man entered the Lord’s field of vision.

It was the appearance of a man with a tense face, about to propose.

【End】

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————