Resetting Lady - Chapter 53

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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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“Why am I fighting a war?”

“Why am I the only one alive?”

“I hate him. I hate everything he has. Even myself.”

“Love alone is something I will choose for myself.”

Revenge alone isn’t enough. Personal revenge alone won’t be enough to draw him out. His hatred was more comprehensive and broader. The words he would most want to hear. An offer he could never refuse.

“Lord Raymond, the war of attrition in the White Mountains can be ended.”

“…What are you suddenly talking about?”

“Because Mr. Verdick Evans is funding House of Rutella.”

“Hmm… Karen Evans.”

Raymond smiled.

“I hate it when people I don’t know speak carelessly.”

His index finger pointed toward Karen’s forehead.

“I told you not to use your head.”

“Wouldn’t it be enough if Mr. Verdick Evans went bankrupt? I hate him.”

Karen presented a plausible reason. She gathered up the dried-up emotions of hatred. How many times did he kill me. How many times did he strike my neck. He deliberately brought a rusty, dull axe. So many times, so many times.

“You may think what you will, but my father took his own life because of Mr. Verdick.”

Karen blinked as she looked at Raymond.

“Whatever kind of person I am, whatever kind of person you are, isn’t there one thing we have in common?”

Raymond’s face hardened. Karen knew Raymond well. He had told her not to use her head, but now that these words were spoken, Raymond couldn’t unilaterally grab and shake Karen.

“I want revenge on Mr. Verdick. If you’re going to do something to me, please do it after that.”

That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it.

That must have been the kind of love you gave me. To love me and hate Verdick, and despise Isella would be fitting for you. You craved pure love and Karen was quite a good object of love. Beautiful, pitiful, and pure, just as Raymond was to Karen.

“…Karen.”

She hadn’t demanded an answer. Raymond paced around the room for a moment. Walking heavily while staring at the ground. Then he looks at Karen. Their eyes meet.

“I’ll tell you the answer you should give.”

“Ha.”

“You love me. As you said.”

“…Interesting.”

“Right?”

“Yes, when I look at women, I only look at their faces.”

“…”

“So I fell for you. That’s why I saved you.”

“Not bad… My face is persuasive.”

“And you love me. As you said.”

“Yes.”

Thus they confessed their love.

It was a starlit night.

* * *

The morning birdsong and bell tolling are annoying.

“Miss, it’s morning.”

“…Mm.”

“Miss Karen.”

“I know… I know…”

“Then stop burying your face in the pillow and get up.”

“…”

Karen swallows her curses and opens her eyes. She hates this kind of day the most. Unavoidable anger, the mood ruined by soaking in physical fatigue, things that can’t be helped no matter how hard you try. At times like this, Karen realizes that she’s a person with blood and flesh, not pure ink.

“Too grandiose a thought. I’m not fully awake.”

“Pardon?”

“Should I say it’s disgusting that humans have bodies.”

“Pardon?”

“Why are people born to work, feel tired, and die?”

“Miss… snap out of it.”

“Mm.”

Karen rubs her face with the wet towel Donna hands her. She feels like she could die from sleepiness. These days there’s too much work, so every day is tiring.

“I wish I were just dead.”

“…Miss, you know that maids like me wake up an hour earlier, right?”

Looking at Donna’s face speaking as if exasperated, Karen sighed deeply. Her stamina is definitely weaker than even Donna’s. Whether physical or mental.

“Indulge my whining a bit. I’m really tired these days.”

“Yes. Please have breakfast first.”

“Really…”

Karen opened her eyes.

The blue light of dawn was filling the room. An inexplicable sadness washes over her. This is all because of Lord Raymond. This period is tiring enough as it is. Verdick’s house was never comfortable even once. This time, instead of helping, Raymond is adding to the burden, making it even harder. Karen felt completely drained.

“Ugh, cold.”

When Donna opens the window, cold air rushes in. When Karen, wearing only thin pajamas, shrinks back, Donna panics.

“Should I close the window?”

“No, I need to wake up. I’ll eat with the window open.”

“Yes.”

Donna brings over a tray. This was a luxury unimaginable when she was Isella’s maid. I should be satisfied with this. Karen thought so as she looked down at the morning feast. Before her eyes was a quite luxurious meal for breakfast.

The thick hotcakes generously drizzled with maple syrup were surprisingly soft. The plate had clearly been warmed on purpose, and as evidence, the food was still warm and harmonizing with the butter that was just melting. Besides the hotcakes, there was much to eat. The scones that were clearly just baked were packed full of large blueberries, and crispy toast was topped with candied fruit preserves.

“…I’ll gain weight.”

“Just take one bite of each.”

“What about you?”

“I’m going to eat whatever you leave behind.”

“…Mm…”

“Oh, no, it’s fine if you eat it all! The Evans family doesn’t skimp on food expenses.”

“Really?”

Karen was puzzled by something different from her memory. Maybe not for what she ate, but were they so generous even to the servants? She always had small and shabby meals. Leftover food and coarse dishes.

“Yes. They provide food well… It’s other things that are hard.”

“They used to be stingy.”

“Huh? How do you know?”

“…No. I just heard such stories.”

Where and how did the story change again? Karen looked down at her breakfast. I should worry about weight gain, not taste.

For a poor household, it was enough for a family to last a week. Also, for drinks, there were milk and two kinds of juice, water with lemon and warm black tea.

“…To think I would have this meal.”

This is the meal an Evans daughter has. Eating just one or two bites of luxurious food. Although the work is caring for Isella, what she eats, wears, and sleeps in is extremely luxurious.

“I should be satisfied with this.”

Karen added milk to her tea and approached the window. Morning mist was rising dimly.

This Evans Family Estate was on the outskirts of the Capital. A town incomparably more luxurious than Hyer Estate stretched out below. Looking down, pet swans were swimming leisurely in the lake, and white horses were drinking water by the lakeside.

“Oh my, is that a knight down there?”

“…”

Karen forced a smile and waved her hand. She wanted to just ignore him. But Raymond spotted her first and waved, so she had no choice.

“So it was a lie that he’s shy around unfamiliar horses.”

Seeing him petting the backs of horses that were clearly the Evans family’s made her laugh. Donna asked.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Lord Raymond told me he’s too shy to ride unfamiliar horses.”

“Huh? Pfft, what’s that about!”

“So he insisted we had to ride in the carriage together.”

Donna’s mouth falls open.

“My goodness, my goodness, that’s totally… you know.”

“Right?”

That’s the story.

Karen drank her milk tea.

It was sweet with sugar, but there was a subtle bitter aftertaste, as if the tea had been steeped too long.

Karen’s daily life was busy. During the day she cared for Isella, and at night she was tormented by Raymond. Meaningless days flowed by.

“So… these days, you see. It’s a chapter of hardship.”

“….”

Karen spoke while changing the soiled cloth. It smelled terrible.

“I never thought I’d be serving you in this manner.”

“….”

“To end up in these clothes.”

Karen looked down at her maid’s uniform made of coarse fabric and sighed self-deprecatingly. Sweat dripped onto the pristine white apron covering the thin, dark navy maid’s dress. It had been cool in the morning, but now the afternoon was fully summer. Karen took out fresh supplies to change Isella’s IV fluid and needle.

“Ouch!”

“….”

Blood splattered onto her apron. Karen pressed hard on her fingertip. Was she tired?

“…This is unusable now.”

Karen threw away the needle.

* * *

“Why do you look like that?”

“Mr. Verdick scolded me for wasting a needle.”

“How heartbreaking.”

“Don’t laugh.”

“…Sorry.”

But the knight’s face looked amused. Karen was annoyed and struck the floor with a thud using the cane she was holding. She might not need it inside the house, but she still required the cane when going out.

“When will I get better?”

“Well. I’ve never been injured like this before, so I don’t know.”

“Why don’t you go see a priest?”

“….”

“I forgot. Really.”

When Karen glared at him in disbelief, Raymond raised both hands.

“Hah.”

“Miss, today you must attend the charity concert at Elliot Hall.”

“I don’t like it there because of all the stairs.”

Karen couldn’t help but frown. That hall had many stairs, making it torture for Karen who still had to use a cane.

“Have you been there?”

“…I heard about it.”

She couldn’t answer “because I’ve been there” to his question of how she knew. But Raymond was persistent.

“From whom?”

“From a street fairy.”

“How mysterious.”

“Right? Just get in already.”

Raymond helped Karen climb into the carriage.

‘I’m tired.’

Every day Karen had to have her duties inspected by Verdick during the day, and spend time with Raymond at night. There were far too many places she had to accompany him to as his fiancée.

“Where do we have to go tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow Duke Dalton is holding a recital. He’s presenting his own composition, I hear.”

“I see.”

“Yes.”

“….”

“Don’t you have anything more to say?”

Raymond crossed his legs and smiled.

“What are you going to do?”

“Hah.”

“Prove that your words weren’t just bluffing.”

“It’s not time yet.”

“Good excuse.”

It’s true though. Right now there really was nothing she could do. It was truly a chapter of hardship.

Pain doesn’t become familiar. Torture doesn’t become comfortable. That made it even more agonizing.

Every day she had to prove her usefulness.

Verdick made her show her worth as Isella’s maid during the day, and forced her to play the role of Isella’s substitute at night. On top of that, Raymond would smile and pile on more burdens to her already struggling self, thinking ‘One more thing should be fine, right?’

‘I want to kill him.’

No.

‘I want to die.’

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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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