Resetting Lady - Chapter 29

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

Isella looked around, feeling slightly creeped out. The forest was very dense. So dense that the areas without paths were packed tightly with trees, making it dark as night. Where Karen and Isella stood, all the trees had been cut down to create a clearing, but Isella shuddered at the thought of bears emerging from the darkness beyond.

“We’ve set up plenty of traps and have enough people to guard this place, so it’s fine. It’s not that dangerous. Animals don’t usually come to dangerous places either.”

Animals try to avoid people too, so it’s okay. Though Karen said this, Isella couldn’t hide her unease without Raymond there. All the servants and maids here now were Karen’s people, not Isella’s. But knowing that being anxious about this was excessive paranoia, Isella tried to be brave.

“If animals come, they’ll get caught in the traps right away, so don’t be so scared.”

Karen smiled as she looked at Isella. Isella didn’t like that face. It was a gaze that seemed to be looking down at her from above. Isella turned and headed toward the back of the trees. She wanted to adjust her outfit. The corset under her riding habit was too tight and felt suffocating. She just needed to loosen the knot at the end slightly.

“I’m not scared.”

“I see. But don’t go too far.”

“Karen, mind your own business!”

Isella shouted irritably.

“If you go any further, your ankle will be cut off.”

“…!”

Isella stopped in her tracks. One step ahead of her was a menacing trap.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner? That was dangerous!”

“I did tell you, didn’t I?”

Karen shrugged her shoulders. But Isella couldn’t laugh. The blade of the trap was so sharp it would really have mangled Isella’s ankle. Isella’s ankle could have really been severed. But how could she be so casual about it? However, Isella found it hard to say more due to the gazes around her. The maids were all glancing at her sideways, looking at her with pity.

“…I’ll fix my clothes in the carriage.”

“Alright, I’ll help you.”

Karen followed Isella into the carriage. She didn’t like it, but there was no choice.

Click.

The carriage door closed and Karen stood behind Isella. Karen’s fingers undid the buttons on the back of Isella’s riding habit. As she undid them one by one, her fingers touched Isella’s back.

“…”

How unpleasant.

Cold fingers touched her back. Though they were careful fingers, they felt strangely unpleasant. To Isella, it felt like bugs crawling around. Why did she dislike Karen so much? Because Raymond showed interest in her? Of course, that was probably part of it. But right now, it was giving her goosebumps.

“Isella, shall I just loosen the end of the corset and then tie it back up?”

“…Yes, please do that.”

Isella endured it.

Maybe it was because of that day. Isella suffered from particularly severe menstrual cramps. The day before, she would suffer from headaches and back pain. Of course, she suffered from abdominal pain throughout the entire period. It was about time for it now.

“…Please, be gentle…”

“Yes.”

This is strange.

Isella got goosebumps.

Isella’s menstrual cycle was quite regular. And it was almost time for her period now. It was natural that she was suffering from the familiar menstrual cramps. But when she thought about blood showing, she remembered blood that shouldn’t have been there.

“There was blood on the bed and skirt?”

Oh.

Because Karen said it, Isella was convinced. She had seen it wrong. Blood had suddenly appeared. Hadn’t she seen blood on her own skirt? But…

“All done.”

There was blood on Isella’s skirt, and blood on the bed, but no blood on her underwear. It was the night she saw the black maid’s corpse, the night she thought she had seen a corpse. Even while looking at the cleanly laundered skirt, she tried not to think about it.

But no matter what, she couldn’t shake off the unsettling feeling. At that time, Isella thought she was lying down with menstrual cramps, but the next day there were no traces on her clothes. The menstrual cycle didn’t match the timing either. She had forced herself to think it was menstrual blood, but no. What wasn’t right wasn’t right. The blood wasn’t her blood, and someone’s blood had soaked her clothes and bed. She couldn’t even say someone. It was just one person. The woman named Nancy who was always with Karen.

“…Karen, what about that girl named Donna? The new maid by your side.”

“Donna?”

Karen tilted her head with a face asking why she was asking that, but soon smiled brightly.

“She’s a good girl.”

Why? Isella couldn’t understand. A personal maid stays attached all day long. She wakes you up in the morning, helps you dress, and assists with grooming. She helps with every little thing and must please her master until bedtime. And surely Karen had said at that uncomfortable dinner that it was disappointing that Nancy had suddenly left like that. She too was officially hearing about Nancy’s disappearance for the first time.

Why is it okay?

A woman who had been with her all day, for years, disappeared without a word, and she just changed maids without any fuss and that was it? Isella would have made such a scene even if one necklace went missing. Naturally, she would do the same if a person disappeared. Because a maid was her property. Her asset.

“Donna is quite kind and cute.”

Karen smiled as she opened the carriage door.

A servant standing outside helped her down.

Isella stared blankly at her retreating figure.

A woman who didn’t care at all even if the maid who had served her for a long time suddenly disappeared one day.

To just call her cold-hearted, she was incredibly kind even to that clumsy maid.

Karen was kind to everyone, to each and every servant.

But why… did she have no interest in Nancy’s disappearance?

Isella felt uncomfortable.

* * *

“The stench of blood is overwhelming.”

“…”

Dulan was sprawled in his chair and frowned at Karen with a disgusted expression. During the 7 days of the festival, he selected one sacrificial animal each day and cut its throat, drew its blood, and set it on fire in front of the public. Unlike him, who was steeped in blood and medicine, Karen was radiant. Dulan looked at such Karen with a displeased face and said.

“…Ha, you look leisurely.”

“Lord Raymond is so capable.”

Karen shrugged her shoulders as she looked at the dissected rabbit. The priest played a role like a butcher during the festival period. How ironic that believers would get blood on their hands to show gratitude to God. The preparation of sacrifices, which seemed to require quite a long preparation period, ended faster than expected.

The preparation period, which was expected to take about 2 weeks, ended in just 3 days with Raymond and Xenon joining forces. Karen, who had planned to meet Father during the remaining preparation period to investigate traces about Nancy, had to abandon that plan due to the unexpected schedule change.

On the fourth day of water, Isella and Raymond’s engagement ceremony would be held.

That schedule turned the entire manor upside down. Work increased several times over, and the employees and servants were practically running around. An engagement ceremony on top of a festival that was already grander than usual.

For Karen too, it was an unexpected engagement ceremony. An engagement during this period. And between Isella and Raymond at that. This had never happened before. Thinking about what aspect made Verdick accommodate Isella’s whims to such an unreasonable extent made her even more excited.

Nancy’s death frightened Isella, Raymond’s coldness made her even more anxiously pursued, and Verdick made an unprecedented accommodation in 100 years to appease her. But what was even more exciting was something else.

“…Are you disappointed that he’s getting married?”

“A little.”

Karen giggled as she massaged Dulan’s shoulders, then wrapped her arms around his neck.

“He’s handsome, isn’t he? Capable and rich too.”

She put strength into her arms. Wouldn’t he die from being strangled like this? Of course, that faint hope was crushed by Dulan without much effort. Despite Karen’s efforts, Dulan easily loosened her arms. Even though she had put in considerable strength by her standards. The difference in strength between men and women was really significant.

“Rejecting my embrace. I’m sad.”

“…Crazy.”

Though Dulan said that, he didn’t seem particularly upset. This time, Dulan seemed strangely more relaxed than in the past period, even more than when he was married. Karen didn’t quite like that.

Because the subtle leisure shown by men she had slept with was ridiculous. She wished he would show a bit more jealousy. Was Raymond and Isella’s engagement ceremony making his nerves dull instead? If so, it was a very displeasing schedule.

“…During the 4 days of the festival, the body must be kept pure and clean.”

What are you expecting? Karen grabbed Dulan’s hair hard. A weak groan was heard.

“Ugh.”

“No gray hairs in your head.”

“You, you really.”

She hoped he would show more clingy emotions. But for Karen, who had now found something more interesting, there was something more urgent than Dulan’s jealousy. Since Raymond had finished work quickly, she could use this opportunity to search through Father’s study and things related to Nancy.

That was more exciting than Raymond’s engagement ceremony.

“You’re the one lounging around right now, aren’t you? Anyway, Father is too busy to see. Tell him to make some time. He doesn’t even come out during meal times, so I can’t see him.”

“…The Lord is busy.”

“Then give me the study key.”

“…Why?”

“Helen doesn’t have it, does she? What’s the point if the housekeeper doesn’t have it?”

“The, the study should be open.”

“Not that study, Father’s personal study. I heard you have the other one, not Father’s.”

Dulan held his head and frowned.

“…Why there?”

But Karen, who had already prepared an answer, replied without hesitation.

“I want to see Mother’s portrait. They removed them all from this house.”

“…If things go missing for no reason…”

“I think you’re mistaken about something, but this is ultimately my house, you know?”

Dulan rolled his eyes once, then took out a key from his desk drawer. It looked complicated enough that it would be difficult to duplicate. When Dulan stared at her intently, Karen immediately lowered the key and asked him.

“Slaughter tomorrow too?”

“Don’t speak in such… terms. It’s unfaithful and foolish…”

“Sorry.”

When Karen cut him off with an apology, Dulan opened and closed his mouth a bit more, then gave up on the sermon and continued speaking.

“…Well, to be exact, starting tomorrow. Today was the grain ritual.”

“Then what’s that?”

“…Practice.”

“The smell is no joke. No, you don’t need to wash up right now. Tomorrow we’re going out. That’s what I came to tell you. Together with Raymond and Miss Evans. Oh, Lord Raymond. Don’t use the cherrywood carriage. I’ll be using it tomorrow.”

“Quite, you’re, calling me familiarly.”

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