Resetting Lady - Chapter 84

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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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Raymond didn’t know that at the time. He had never seen such a thing before. And people didn’t look at Raymond with such eyes.

 

Raymond found his upended daily life almost fascinating. Raymond had to focus more on enduring his brother’s changes than on grieving his parents’ deaths.

 

His parents, who remained only in portraits, were always preserved with gentle faces, but Baron Seyertes revealed his presence with that heavy body. Dead family members are kind, but living family members are cruel. That was the problem.

 

“We give thanks for our daily bread today as well.”

 

It was literally ‘daily bread.’ Raymond looked at the meal before him and realized that the household was absolutely not the same as before. There was oatmeal, bread, and chicken. That was all. It was a pitiful meal incomparable to what they had before.

 

“…”

 

If their meals were at this level, just how bad was the situation? When Raymond hesitated to pick up his knife, the Baron spoke.

 

“Is dining with me so painful?”

 

“…What?”

 

“Is that why you’re making such a disgusted face?”

 

“What are you talking about, brother? That can’t be it.”

 

Raymond answered hastily. But the Baron’s face didn’t look convinced at all. His thick jaw twitched as it moved.

 

“Of course. Even I feel like throwing up looking at myself.”

 

“Brother, don’t overthink it. What I was thinking was just…”

 

Raymond stopped speaking for a moment. What he had been thinking was just… that the house seemed ruined. But was it okay to say that directly? While he pondered this, the Baron twisted his face and pushed his plate away.

 

“How could it not be?”

 

Brothers should join forces to overcome hardships.

 

However, Raymond’s hardship was his own brother.

 

Baron Seyertes’s attitude grew worse and worse, and Raymond had even fewer people to talk to. As brothers do, when his brother occasionally acted spitefully, their parents would mediate, but now their parents were gone. Raymond’s only guardian was his brother, Baron Seyertes.

 

* * *

 

“Are you going to see the Baron again?”

 

“Xenon!”

 

Xenon spotted Raymond in the corridor and raised his hand.

 

“What brings you to the castle?”

 

Xenon, who was the gamekeeper, rarely had reason to come directly to the castle. And Raymond, who had little occasion to go to the hunting grounds after the Baron and his wife died, was glad to see him. Xenon was someone who was good at showing boys the kinds of things that would drive them wild. His face, which used to laugh heartily, wasn’t as bright now though.

 

“I have something to discuss with the Baron. Are you well?”

 

“I’m fine. But brother is…”

 

Raymond’s stomach churned when he thought of the Baron.

 

“Brother spends more and more time just staying in his room. He needs to come out and move around. He needs to talk to people too.”

 

“Who says such things?”

 

“The doctor.”

 

“Since it’s what smart people say, it might be right, but… I’m not sure.”

 

“About what? Then do you think it’s right to just leave brother alone, Xenon?”

 

“Sometimes that helps too.”

 

“Thanks for the advice. But that method doesn’t seem to be the right answer either. When I leave him alone, he gets more… like that.”

 

‘Squealing like a pig.’

 

Raymond spoke as he walked. Xenon’s advice didn’t seem very useful. But Raymond still had enough courtesy left not to say it was unhelpful. Unlike the Baron. Let’s not think too deeply. He’s the only family left.

 

“Do you absolutely have to meet with brother right now?”

 

“Yes…? Is there some problem?”

 

Xenon looked down at Raymond in bewilderment. They weren’t far from the Baron’s study now. Raymond grabbed Xenon’s hand.

 

“Yesterday, the Evans family’s lackeys came to collect interest and took this month’s budget.”

 

“What? Damn… the situation’s gotten pretty ugly.”

 

“His mood is particularly bad today.”

 

“Young Master Raymond.”

 

Xenon spoke with a serious face.

 

“Don’t worry about it.”

 

“What?”

 

“Don’t worry about it, I said. James told me. The Baron isn’t handling any business at all right now. The situation is serious, but the Baron just shouts from inside his room. James is handling things for now, but that will reach its limit soon too.”

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

“I heard that Earl Landon, who is godfather to both the Baron and you, sent a letter. But the Baron tore it up, according to the maids… I don’t know what the contents were, but… they say the Earl sent the letter to you, Young Master Raymond, not to the Baron.”

 

In other words, the Earl was thinking of him as the actual heir.

 

That was why James the butler had been looking at him with dark eyes as he passed by. His brother’s sensitive behavior toward him wasn’t groundless either.

 

Raymond felt like he might get dizzy. He was twelve years old. His shoulders felt heavy.

 

“I’m too young. And… I don’t want to take brother’s place.”

 

“Young Master.”

 

“If brother has an heir anyway, the position will legally go to that child. Everyone’s overthinking this.”

 

“I don’t know much about such things, but… anyway, James will tell you soon. He asked me to tell you beforehand so you wouldn’t be surprised, but oh dear.”

 

Xenon scratched his head vigorously.

 

What should I do?

 

What should I do?

 

How should I live?

 

“Would it have been easier if I had just died with my parents?”

 

Raymond asked while making confession to the priest.

 

The priest, who was a relative, answered while gripping his own robes.

 

“God gives trials to those He loves. Do not doubt His love.”

 

“Did God give brother such a trial because He loves him?”

 

“…His will is so… deep that sometimes people find it hard to understand.”

 

The priest’s words didn’t resonate with Raymond. But Raymond didn’t express anger toward the priest. He was too young to complain to an adult about life’s unfairness. But there was frustration. So Raymond asked.

 

“Did you give others the same answer?”

 

“…Yes. The trials He gives are… so difficult. We can only pray that He will not let us fall into temptation, and ask only for trials we can bear.”

 

“Did my parents fail to bear their trial?”

 

He thought of his parents. Raymond couldn’t understand. The priest quickly denied his doubt. He had to give appropriate words to a young child. He had to comfort him.

 

“No. That’s not it. It’s just that good people die quickly. Because there’s so much work to do in heaven.”

 

“Then are those who survived not good? Are brother and I sinners, still alive and suffering?”

 

“…”

 

The priest’s face looked pained. If Raymond had been just a little older, he wouldn’t have tried to torment his relative, a country priest who had lived faithfully, with such questions. But Raymond was young and felt suffocated by his own pain.

 

“Wouldn’t it have been less painful if I had been buried with my parents rather than face this trial?”

 

“Raymond!”

 

“Why are you like that?”

 

“Don’t say such things. Being alive is a blessing. And thinking of death is wrong. Never say such things in front of me again. If you treat the life the Lord gave you carelessly, you’ll go to hell.”

 

Why is it a sin for the living to think of death? Why is it a sin to want to go to His embrace, to the embrace of beloved ones who went before, before suffering makes us sin? The questions endlessly led to more questions, but Raymond could no longer speak about the dead.

 

Because the priest’s face also looked pained.

 

So Raymond asked something easier.

 

“How can I get along well with brother?”

 

At that question, the priest’s face brightened slightly.

 

Because speaking to a younger brother having discord with his older brother was less burdensome than speaking to a child who had lost his parents.

 

“The Baron is sick. If you, as family, endure and help him, he’ll surely overcome it.”

 

It’s okay.

 

Brother is sick.

 

Raymond thought so. Light shone from the sky again. And Raymond decided to try. He wasn’t sick, and the Baron was sick. And there must be a reason for that. A reason people couldn’t understand. There was no need to be frustrated by that. No reason to be sad. People have limitations.

 

What he had to do was forgive and love his brother.

 

Let’s try.

 

There’s no need to hate sick people.

 

No need to despise them either.

 

His duty as family was to love.

 

To love and cherish.

 

“This is my younger brother Raymond.”

 

And one day that man came.

 

Verdick Evans.

 

* * *

 

When Raymond first met Verdick, Raymond couldn’t shake the impression that he had seen his face somewhere before. He was too young to be called middle-aged, yet too old to be called a young man.

 

“Raymond, how do you do.”

 

“Yes. Your name is….”

 

“Verdick Evans. We must have met once before. I attended a gathering hosted by the Countess of Landon as a patron.”

 

Where had they met? Raymond searched his memory. He combed through his rather limited experiences but couldn’t be certain. Raymond had rarely had occasion to meet nobles outside his relatives on his own. And when he was with family, he didn’t have such responsibilities. He wasn’t of that age yet.

 

“I apologize. I’ve been quite distracted lately, Mr. Verdick Evans.”

 

But now he had to remember and act on his own.

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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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