Resetting Lady

“Is she his granddaughter? I thought all of his descendants already croaked… Ah, well, they’re all dead now.”

Zion stepped closer while scratching his head. He’s trying to gauge Raymond’s mood.

After Raymond opened his eyes again, he reached forward to close the dead girl’s eyes. Raymond realized why Duke Luthella dressed his granddaughter as a prostitute. It’s not to commit incestuous acts. This girl’s body was too clean for him to think so.

‘What were you expecting from me?’

Duke Luthella was likely hoping that if Raymond thought that this girl wasn’t the duke’s granddaughter but a young prostitute, he might not kill her.

Raymond was supposed to be a man who’d feel pity towards a young prostitute, and so would not kill her.

Because he was a famous gentleman.

But that possibility would only come about if he had been in his own country.

Raymond glanced down at Duke Luthella’s hand, which Zion had hacked off. Then, he turned to look at the closed eyes of the dead girl, lying on the bed. The duke must have told her that she should ‘evoke sympathy’ so that she could be spared. But if she were to have been spared, she’d choose to take revenge. There’s no way that this would succeed though.

And she would certainly aim for Raymond, who had killed most of the people here in this residence. Even if the duke’s plan succeeded, there’s no way for salvation to come.

“Will this bring honor?”

Duke Luthella’s words echoed in his ears.

Don’t think. Don’t think about this. Raymond closed his eyes.

And Raymond needed to think about something else now. What should he think about? Raymond wanted to have his own thoughts. He wanted to think of anything better than this. Not blood. Not pus. Not tears. Something more comfortable, something more ideal.

“…Seriously.”

While Raymond stared at a pool of blood, he thought of the woman he didn’t want to think about. This only made him feel dejected.

* * *

“And that’s how Sir Raymond saved me.”

“…So cool!”

With the little girls huddled together, their eyes glistened with admiration as they listened to Carynne’s story until the end. The evident excitement in their young faces was a bit burdensome for Carynne. After all, she had omitted many parts in the middle.

In the story she told, Thomas only grabbed her by the wrist—he didn’t stab her with a dagger. And, Raymond fought off those men with his fists, not with a gun.

Of course, Carynne also did not bring up the story of her hacking Thomas’ body to pieces in front of his son, Tom, or the fact that she hid that one part of the man’s body.

The children asked naïvely and innocently.

“When will Verdic die?”

“…I’m not sure?”

“Why didn’t he die?”

Never mind about them being ‘innocent’. This was what Carynne thought as she observed how clearly annoyed Lady Soleia was to hear that Verdic was safe and sound.

“The villain should die first!”

“Yeah! And the interest rate that Verdic Evans demands is also too high.”

What a realistic outcry. Carynne maintained the smile on her lips as she handed a snack towards Lady Lianne, who was parroting words that she must have heard from her mother.

While expressing her anger at Verdic Evans’ excessive exploitation of profit, she hardly pointed out any shortcomings on the corrupt loan shark’s part.

“Surely his wealth should be put to a better use.”

“That’s true.”

Lianne looked to the side and made eye contact with Lewis, who visibly flinched in response.

With a more determined tone, Lianne asked him.

“Of course, you’ll make sure to do that, right, Your Highness Lewis?”

“…Umm.”

Prince Lewis let out an awkward laugh, then he took the cup in front of him and took a sip of the hot tea. You have so many troubles already, dear ten-year-old.

While the children were voicing their thoughts here, their parents at the back also had such sharp gazes as they wordlessly expressed their political stances. The atmosphere would be more comfortable if it’s possible to one-sidedly talk smack about Verdic Evans, but the fact of the matter was that people who had never dealt business with Verdic Evans were a minority here. Rather, most of them were closely acquainted with the man.

“Umm… I’ll think about it and consider it very deeply.”

“You could at the very least voice your opinion about this though. Are you trying to avoid it?”

“You only need to scold a bad person, but why does it seem like you’re finding it difficult?”

The girls ganged up on him. Are you doing that on purpose? Seriously?

Carynne picked up her cup and brought it to her lips. Her throat ached a little from all that talking. As everyone’s eyes were now focused on Prince Lewis, Carynne could finally breathe.

“Alright… Um… You’re right. I personally think it would be fine to push for a law about interest rates, so…”

“Your Highness, I’d like to ask you to expand on that please. Then, if the Head of the Assembly will propose that as an item on the agenda, would you personally support it?”

“No, um, for me to say for sure…”

“Your Highness!”

‘I wonder what I was doing when I was ten years old.’

As Carynne watched the kids, she tried to think about it. She couldn’t remember, so she didn’t know. 「 Carynne 」 was either very thoroughly tempered by medications for her lunacy, or she was being brainwashed by Nancy herself.

Have fun with your debates over there. Leave me out of it.

Carynne closed her eyes and savored the tea. As expected, anything prepared by the royal family was a delicacy. Carynne was satisfied. For someone like her—who was stuck in place and unable to move forward in time—no matter how the world would progress, no matter how the relationship between the royal family, the nobility and the nouveau riche would change, it was all meaningless.

It’s a bit self-deprecating, but what meaning was there to anything when time would not pass for her? Despite these kids perhaps having potential, what’s the point? Did anything matter when, in Carynne’s world, none of these kids would become adults anyway?

‘Who on earth made this.’

Carynne savored the taste of the biscuit that was broken down by her teeth and melted by her tongue. However, her short-lived peace was soon broken by that young tyrant.

“Ah, we won’t have that many chances to meet Lady Carynne, so wouldn’t it be better to ask her more questions first? You can always ask me later.”

Hey.

Carynne felt the teacup in her hands shake.

“Oh my… I don’t believe my stories are worth all that much, Your Highness.”

“Please don’t twist my words.”

“…Alright. What would you like to hear?”

“What do you like about Sir Raymond? Oh, don’t answer right away. How about we try to guess?”

Prince Lewis asked with a smile. Carynne grew stiff.

“I beg your pardon?”

Please. Don’t bother me.

However, Carynne’s silent protest was so easily ignored. Despite the imploring look she gave him, Prince Lewis smiled broadly and made a suggestion to the young nobles.

“What do you say? I’ll give a prize to whoever Miss Carynne says has guessed right. You can look forward to that prize.”

At that, the eyes of the young nobles and their parents behind them glimmered. We can’t miss this. Carynne could practically hear their thoughts.

As soon as Prince Lewis finished speaking, a boy raised his hand.

“Oh, so soon? Speak up, then, William. You seem confident.”

“Your Highness is asking the obvious. Of course, it’s Sir Raymond’s merits. I heard that Sir Raymond had dealt with a thousand people all by himself.”

William spoke confidently. He was the youngest son of Baron Strieder, who was standing behind his son while looking at him amusedly.

“I do think that a thousand people is a bit exaggerated.”

“Still though, everyone knows that he’s famous for his physical prowess. And he saved you, right, Miss Carynne Evans? How can you not like him for that?”

Miss Carynne. When that kid, whose height couldn’t even come up to her chest just yet, called her with that title, she felt just a bit incensed.

Nonetheless, Prince Lewis nodded after hearing William’s answer.

“That’s possible, too. I also heard that Sir Raymond has such a heightened eyesight that he can see two kilometers away. Then maybe Sir Raymond’s merits are what made Miss Carynne fall for him? Does anyone have other guesses?”

Prince Lewis’ scheme succeeded.

The boys were rather indifferent to Carynne’s storytime, but they listened with rapt attention when Raymond’s exploits were brought up. If Carynne was like the princess of a fairytale to the girls, then Raymond would be the knight of a fairytale to the boys.

It was thanks to this that the matter of Verdic’s high interest rates was immediately pushed aside. Lady Lianne seemed to be unhappy with the topic change, but she soon joined in on the conversation.

“Umm… Can Sir Raymond really jump down from the top of the cathedral?”

“My house wasn’t as high as the cathedral, so I’m not very sure.”

Oh, she’d push him from there if given the chance. Carynne was determined to do so. Raymond was alright even after jumping off the seventh floor. So she wondered, what was his limit? If he were to fall from a higher place, his head would surely be cracked open, and he’d die. Would Raymond still be able to land normally on the ground if someone would push him from behind?

“Still though, I can’t imagine him getting hurt.”

Carynne envied Raymond. If she was as strong as Raymond—if she was properly armed—Carynne could become the mass murderer she wanted to be. She could just kill everything and still survive in the end. She wouldn’t kill only weak people like children or women, and she wouldn’t need to exert herself to do so.

Fleetingly, she wondered if Raymond was shooting a bullet through a human head right about now.

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