Resetting Lady - Chapter 249

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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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Special Side Story 5

“…Rebecca.”

“Yes, Mother.”

“You can’t act so childishly. You’re at the age where you should be getting married, so how can you be so reckless?”

“Are you scolding me in front of my friend right now?”

“Ahem.”

Count Raymond cleared his throat from behind and stepped forward. Then he placed his hand on Rebecca’s arm and whispered quietly.

“Help me clean my gun, Rebecca.”

“I don’t want to… Ow… Yes.”

She could see the strength entering the hand that gripped Rebecca. As expected, force is the best way to deal with an insolent child. Isabella admired this and mentally applauded as she watched the Count drag his daughter away.

“I heard that Rebecca was quite rude to you when we weren’t around.”

“Oh, no. Rude? She was a very pleasant… friend.”

But she couldn’t hide her uncomfortable expression. Karen looked at Isabella and chuckled. She didn’t resemble either Isella or Sion. Isella, like a daughter raised preciously, had natural rudeness and shamelessness, while Sion, conversely, had the slick shamelessness of someone who climbed up from the bottom. But Isabella was somewhat timid yet well-mannered, and though she made displeased faces, she ultimately went along with things. How did such a child come to be born between those two? Karen felt a little envious of Isella. Rebecca had recently torn up all the dresses she received as gifts in anger and was still in a cold war with Karen.

“Make yourself comfortable. If Rebecca bothers you, feel free to tell me or Raymond anytime.”

“Th-thank you.”

So Rebecca had been quite troublesome indeed. Karen thought she should scold her daughter as she took Isabella’s hand.

“In return for the friendship your mother showed me, I too will treat you with friendship and gratitude. Don’t worry too much about anything.”

“Thank you, Mrs.”

Her slightly embarrassed smiling face seemed to resemble Isella.

* * *

“Isella seems to have raised her daughter well.”

Karen muttered while looking up at the moon in the greenhouse. Raymond paused while massaging Karen’s feet. Karen had been wandering around outside for a while after fighting with Rebecca recently, saying she didn’t want to go home. Raymond sighed as he looked at Karen’s swollen feet.

“…Rebecca is also a good daughter, Karen.”

“You’re making me out to be a bad mother, Raymond.”

“You know that’s not what I mean.”

“I don’t know.”

Comparing Isella and Rebecca somehow made her feel upset. Isella had been too busy with business to properly raise her daughter closely. She herself had done her best to educate Rebecca. A healthy, smart, and cheerful daughter. Rebecca had grown up that way. But at some point, she began to oppose Karen and become twisted.

Karen leaned against Raymond and sighed deeply.

“Should I have raised her more freely?”

“If you let Rebecca run any wilder, she’ll become a wild horse.”

“I suppose so, right?”

Karen laughed weakly.

And she leaned back to look up at the moon.

“But what went wrong…?”

The union of Isella and Sion brought only favorable winds to the two of them. Sion fulfilled what Isella wanted, and Isella provided the money that Sion thirsted for. However, how could a marriage work with only the two being happy? Verdick continued to disapprove of Sion even after the marriage, and Sion earnestly bowed and scraped to please both sides. Isella was too busy with business to mediate between them. She probably didn’t have much will to do so either.

Their relationship softened as Isabella grew up. Isabella realized that the more she behaved properly and studied hard, the softer Grandfather’s gaze toward Father became.

Ironically, by demanding less attention from both of them, Isabella grew up to be unlike either of them—a well-behaved child who was considerate yet quiet.

Polite, smart, and pretty.

‘I’d like to share half of Rebecca’s vitality with her.’

Isella lamented whenever her daughter’s story came up, saying Isabella was too good and gentle, making her feel frustrated. Conversely, Karen wanted to tone down Rebecca’s temperament just a little. No matter how much she tried to educate her, Rebecca grew up willfully and freely, like her own old dreams.

[Miss Rebecca broke a thousand-year-old porcelain… like this.]

[Rebecca beat up the young duke.]

[Miss, where are you? No, how could you leave your clothes in such a state?]

Since Raymond had been moderately cheerful but not a troublemaker as a child, the older employees of the manor didn’t know what to do with Rebecca’s incidents. Both spouses were too mentally old to recall their own childhood, and each of Rebecca’s actions was like a natural disaster to them, making them wonder ‘How could she do such things?’

Rebecca was energetic and cheerful, but she was also strong in forcing her thoughts on others and prioritized her own feelings over courtesy.

“Dear, you’ve lived so long, so why can’t you educate Rebecca?”

“I didn’t have children back then…”

“…I misspoke.”

Karen sighed. Raymond had lived too earnestly until the end of his lifespan. He didn’t tell her everything for the sake of Karen’s expectations about the future, but from what she heard in bits and pieces, she could tell he had done his best in every life. Without children and a wife, he had been able to take responsibility for more people than family, and he had done so.

Even having lived long, raising children was a first for him, so somehow she felt like she was constantly failing.

“Raymond.”

“Yes.”

“I always wanted to die, and I was so happy that you found death for me.”

Karen brought Raymond’s hand to her cheek and smiled bitterly.

“But… for the first time since Rebecca was born, I’m afraid of time passing.”

Karen sometimes woke up with a start from sleep due to anxiety about Rebecca’s future. She wasn’t afraid of dying herself. She had lived enough already. She was just regretful because now was too happy. But when she thought of her child, Rebecca, everything in the world became frightening.

‘What if Rebecca repeats it too?’

Rebecca had blonde hair unlike herself, and unlike the ancestors and mothers who were almost identical, she was a tall, refreshing figure with a flat chest. Her features were more refreshing than delicate, and when wearing riding clothes, she had an impression that could be called a son rather than a daughter. When Karen gave birth to Rebecca 17 years ago, she was certain. Now it’s completely over.

But anxiety ate away at Karen as Rebecca grew. She still didn’t know. Didn’t know. She wouldn’t know until it happened. The fact that she and her mother and ancestors looked exactly alike might just be coincidence. Rebecca might also have to live a life of dying at 17 and passing that death on to her child.

‘No!’

Karen didn’t want to pass such a life on to her daughter. She didn’t want her to experience that terrible experience of trembling with anxiety, death not being death, and life not being life. Life once was enough, and death once was enough. She would not make her daughter familiar with death like herself.

There was a way.

To marry immediately at 17, in the first life.

If she married immediately, got pregnant, and had a child, the repetition wouldn’t begin. It would pass directly to the granddaughter. And that granddaughter could also have a child at 17. That method might become endless passing along, but at least she wouldn’t have to experience the pain of Rebecca dying.

As Rebecca grew, Karen suffered from heart-wrenching pain. She couldn’t imagine how Catherine could have died leaving her behind. She had no confidence in watching Rebecca’s death with her own eyes. This was a child to whom she had given both death and life from within her womb. A part of herself that had been one body before separating. She loved Raymond to death and thought of him as her only companion, but their child was that same love and affection added together.

So Karen, out of love, advised Rebecca.

She must not make the same mistake as Mother. She would not use strange means like drugs or brainwashing. Karen made that resolution. And she explained the curse to Rebecca and explained the conditions of being 17. It didn’t matter if she didn’t believe it.

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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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