Chapter 4
She had been so terrified that even when she had a fever so high she couldn’t see straight, she had groped along the walls and handrails to make her way down to the entrance.
Recalling the past, Laila sighed into her blanket.
Today was the day the Marquis was returning home after a full fifteen days away. And he wouldn’t be returning alone. He would be bringing a boy who looked around Laila’s age. Without even knowing what kind of child he was, or how he would grow up…
Laila yanked the blanket up over her head.
“My lady?”
“Get out.”
“Pardon?”
“I’m going back to sleep, so get out. Don’t wake me.”
“Miss Laila!”
Marie, who had somehow perfectly understood the muffled words from under the blanket, cried out in frustration. But Laila couldn’t care less. She stubbornly refused to lower the blanket, and eventually, Marie left the bedroom.
Laila let out a long breath.
As soon as Marie left, Laila pulled the stifling blanket down to her neck. Fresh air flowed freely into her nose and mouth. She closed her eyes. The bedroom was quiet. Quiet and peaceful.
If only this peace could last forever…
But it was shattered in an instant.
Just two hours later, knights barged into her bedroom without knocking, grabbed Laila by both arms, and dragged her out into the hallway.
I thought I could hold out for at least a day…
She had overestimated the villain’s patience.
Laila was dragged straight to the Marquis’s office. The knights unceremoniously dropped her arms and Laila slumped onto the bare, uncarpeted floor.
“I heard you were sick.”
Instead of getting up, Laila only raised her head and stared blankly at the Marquis.
Sick? Who, me? Ah, Marie lied for me.
It was touching that her maid cared enough to cover for her, but unfortunately it had all been for nothing.
Marie won’t get punished, will she?
Laila would feel terribly guilty if that happened. Just as the thought crossed her mind, the Marquis continued, “Are my eyes deceiving me? You look perfectly fine.”
Laila remained silent.
“I’ll give you a chance to explain yourself. Say whatever you wish.”
Any other time, she would have started by apologizing. She would have pressed her forehead to the floor and sworn never to miss greeting him again. If it were any other time…
“Marie did nothing wrong.”
“What?”
“I told her to say I was sick. I threatened to have her fired if she didn’t do as I asked. All Marie did was relay my lie.”
“I did not give you a chance to speak just to hear such useless nonsense.”
She knew that. But truly, she hadn’t even started on the “useless” nonsense yet. Still sitting on the cold floor, Laila let out the words she had held back for so long.
“Why are you like this, Father?”
Instead of the “explanation” the Marquis wanted, she finally voiced the thoughts she had harbored for such a long time.
“Why do always do such terrible things? You massacre innocent people, drag them to the castle like objects, and then killing them just as quickly…”
“Laila.”
“Why are you my father? Why am I your daughter? How wonderful it would be if I could turn back time right now and be born to someone else.”
“Laila Hildegard.”
“If not that, I wish I could just be removed from the family register and no longer be your child. But do you know what they say? They say it can’t be done. Even if I leave this house and get married, I’m still your daughter. No matter what, I can’t change that…”
The Marquis’s face, which had been frozen in a terrifying expression, gradually went blank. He gestured to the knights who had dragged her in.
“Take her out.”
“Do you know how to drain blood? He said he’d let me live if I drained all of mine. If you know how, please tell me. I want to live. Dying is just so…”
Exhausting.
Before Laila could finish her sentence, she was dragged out of the office, just as she had been from her bedroom.
After that, Laila was confined to her room. She wasn’t allowed to take a single step outside until further notice. It was exactly what she wanted.
Laila lay in bed, sleeping, waking, sleeping, and waking in an endless loop. When the hunger became unbearable, she ate the food Marie brought her. When she could no longer stand her own body odor, she washed. And then she slept, woke, slept, woke, and slept again.
During this time, the butler visited her bedroom twice, at ten-day intervals. Every time he came, he told her to inform him if she was feeling better. In other words, if she was ready to beg the Marquis for forgiveness. Laila pretended not to hear him. She didn’t even spare the man a glance.
When the butler appeared in Laila’s bedroom for the third time,
“Miss Laila, please prepare to leave. As you do not seem to be recovering, the Marquis has ordered that you go to the southern villa to recuperate.”
Laila was forced into a carriage. The carriage left the castle, traveled down a secluded forest road for about an hour, and then overturned.
* * *
“Resurrection!” Laila clutched her chest and shot up in bed.
She felt a profound relief to wake up in her own bedroom. She had almost succumbed to lethargy and ended her life forever in a terribly empty way.
I’ve already tried wasting my life once. That’s enough. Time to get a grip.
Laila moved from the bed to her desk. Knowledge is power, as the saying goes. She decided to organize the facts she knew of her current situation.
Sitting at the desk, Laila pick up a pen and began to write on a blank sheet of paper.
First: Regression can happen multiple times.
Regression—returning to the past.
Laila searched her memory. Including this time, she had already died a total of five times and woken up in the past.
How many times can I regress?
Laila scribbled down the question. How many chances did she have left?
And what are the conditions for regression? Simply death?
Laila let her imagination run. If so, even if she lived to be ninety before dying, would she still return to the past like this?
That… really wouldn’t be really necessary.
Laila wanted to live to be ninety. That much was certain. But she didn’t want to live that life over and over. Once was enough. After all, too much of a good thing was worse than too little.
Of course, right now my situation is severely lacking…
Laila moved her pen again.
Anyway, I’ll look into this separately.
She quickly jotted down a note: Investigate the Regression Stone when I have time. Then wrote a new sentence below it.
Second: The point in time to which I regress is fixed.
Out of habit, Laila glanced at the desk calendar and clock. May 11th, Year 332 of the Kingdom Calendar. The time was 6:00 PM.
And the location was always right here in this bedroom, on this bed. Every time Laila regressed, she woke up under these exact conditions. Whether she died before a single day passed, or after living for over ten years. Those conditions had never changed.
It was probably set the first time I returned to the past.
Once set, the conditions would likely never change.
Which meant…
Third: It is absolutely impossible to prevent that incident.
Laila put the pen down for a moment and pressed her hands to her forehead. A long sigh escaped her lips.
That incident.
To put it plainly, it was arson at an orphanage.
That insane villain…
Laila turned the grim details over in her mind as she recalled the memory. When was it again? Probably about a month after the child brought to the castle had died.
Over a meal accompanied by wine, the Marquis had suddenly started talking.
“Come to think of it, there was such a place west of the capital. It was an orphanage, quite small. It looked almost like a regular family home. When I blocked entrance and set it on fire, it burned as well as kindling. But there was some young brat there…”
His tone had been light. It stayed that way the entire time he spoke. As if it were only a trivial recollection, using it as shallow conversation to pass the time.
