Out of fear, even when her vision was blurred by a high fever, Laila felt her way down to the entrance by touching the walls and railing.
Laila, remembering the past, sighed into her blanket.
Today marked the day of the Marquis’ return after a whole fortnight away.
And he would not be returning alone.
He would bring a boy around Laila’s age.
She didn’t know who the boy was.
She didn’t know how he would grow in the future…
Laila flipped the blanket over her head.
“Miss?”
“Get out.”
“What?”
“I’m going to sleep better, so get out. Don’t wake me.”
“Miss Laila!”
Marie, who managed to understand Laila’s muffled words, jumped up from her seat.
But no matter what,
Laila didn’t pull the covers off, and Marie eventually retreated from the bedroom.
“Ha.”
As soon as Marie left, Laila pulled the heavy comforter down around her neck.
Fresh air flowed unhindered through her nose and mouth.
Laila closed her eyes.
The bedroom was quiet.
Quiet and peaceful.
If only this peace could last forever…
It was shattered in an instant.
Within two hours, Laila was dragged out of her bedroom by the knights who had appeared in her bedroom without knocking.
‘I thought I could endure for at least a day…’
She had underestimated the villain’s patience.
Laila was dragged to the Marquis’ office.
The knights released her arms without any consideration. Laila sat on the bare floor, without even a carpet.
“I heard you’re not feeling well.”
Instead of getting up, Laila, dazed, lifted her head to look at the Marquis.
Not feeling well? Who, me?
‘Oh, Marie must have lied for me.’
She was grateful for Marie’s concern for her. Sadly, it turned out to be a futile effort after just two hours.
‘I hope Marie won’t get punished for this.’
If that happened, she would feel too guilty. As Laila thought so, the Marquis continued speaking.
“Do my eyes deceive me? You seem perfectly fine.”
“…….”
“I’ll give you a chance to explain yourself. Speak up, whatever it is.”
In different circumstances, she would have probably started with an apology.
She might have vowed never to miss his arrival again while kneeling on the floor.
Yes, if it were a different time…
“Marie didn’t do anything wrong.”
“What?”
“I asked her to tell you I wasn’t feeling well. I threatened her. If she doesn’t comply, I’ll talk to the housekeeper and get her fired. Marie only conveyed my lie.”
“I didn’t give you a chance to talk about such useless things.”
She knows.
But the real ‘useless’ talk hadn’t even started yet.
Laila, still sitting on the cold floor, poured out words.
“Why is Father doing this?”
It wasn’t the ‘explanation’ that the Marquis desired; instead, it was the outspoken words she had wanted to say for a long time.
“Why do you always choose to do such things? Slaughtering innocent people, dragging women to your bed as if they were objects, and then disposing of them so easily…”
“Laila.”
“Why are you my father? Why am I your daughter? How great would it be if I could be born from someone else if I could turn back time?”
“Laila Hildegarde.”
“Or better yet, if I could erase my name from the family register so that I wouldn’t be your child. But you know what? That’s not possible. Even if I leave home and get married, I’m still your daughter. There’s no way to change that fact…”
The once stern expression on the Marquis’ face gradually turned emotionless.
He gestured to the knight who had brought Laila.
“Take her away.”
“Do you know how to drain blood? They said they’d let me live if I drained all my blood. If you know the method, please don’t hide it; teach me. Dying is too…”
Boring.
After that, Laila was confined to her bedroom. Until further instructions were given, Laila couldn’t take a single step outside her bedroom.
It was what she desired.
She lay on the bed, repeating the cycle of sleeping, waking, sleeping, and waking.
Occasionally, when the unbearable hunger struck, she ate the food Marie brought.
When she couldn’t stand the smell emanating from her body, she bathed.
And then she slept, woke up, slept, woke up, and slept again.
Meanwhile, the butler of Hildegarde Manor visited Laila’s room twice at ten-day intervals.
Each time the butler came, he asked if her condition had improved and suggested she confess her wrongdoings and apologize to the Marquis.
Laila pretended not to hear the butler’s words. She didn’t even glance at the man who came to her room.
On the third visit of the butler to Laila’s room:
“Miss Laila, prepare to go out. The Marquis ordered you to go down to the southern villa for recuperation since it seems your body is not healing well.”
Laila was forcibly placed in a carriage.
The carriage traveled for about an hour beyond the Hildegarde estate and was overturned on a remote forest path.
*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚
“Revive!”
Laila sat up in bed, clutching her chest.
She felt a profound sense of relief that she had awakened in her room.
She had almost succumbed to depression and was ready to permanently end her life.
“I’ve wasted my life once; that’s enough. It’s time to pull myself together.”
Laila moved from the bed to the desk.
There’s a well-known saying that knowledge is power.
She decided to organize the current situation and what she knew.
Soon, Laila sat at the desk, gripping a pen, and began writing sentences on a blank sheet of paper.
First, regression can happen multiple times.
Regression means going back to the past.
Laila searched her memory.
Up until now, she had already died a total of five times and woke up in the past.
‘How many times can I regress?’
Laila scribbled down the sentences as if throwing them out. How many chances are left?
‘And what are the conditions for regression? Simply death?’
Laila let her imagination unfold.
If that were the case, would she return to the past even if she lived until the age of ninety and died?
‘Well, that’s unnecessary.’
Laila wanted to live until ninety. That was certain. But she didn’t want to live like this, returning to the past multiple times.
Once was enough.
Why? There’s a saying that too much of something is worse than too little.
‘Of course, right now, the situation is too little…’
Laila moved the pen.
“Anyway, let’s look into this separately.”
Investigate the regression stone when time permits.
Laila, jotting down one of the things she had to do in the future, continued writing new sentences below.
Second, the timing of regression is fixed.
Laila glanced at the desk calendar and clock out of habit.
Kingdom Year 332, May 11th. The time is 6 p.m.
Additionally, the location is right here, in this bedroom, on the bed.
Every time Laila regressed, she woke up under the same conditions as described above.
Whether she died without living a single day or lived for over ten years, there was never any change in those conditions.
‘Perhaps it was determined when I first returned to the past.’
The conditions that had been firmly solidified would likely never change in the future.
That being said,
Third, preventing ‘that incident’ is absolutely impossible.
Laila briefly set down the pen and touched her forehead with both hands.
Then a long sigh escaped from her.
“Haa…….”
That incident.
To put it bluntly, the orphanage fire.
‘That insane villain…’
Laila recalled the details, her mind racing.
When did it happen?
Probably a month or so after the death of the child who had been brought by the Marquis.
It was during a meal accompanied by wine that the Marquis suddenly began talking.
Now that she thought about it, there was something like that in the western part of the capital.
It was an orphanage, and it was quite small.
It was like a regular home.
After blocking the entrance and setting fire, it burned quite well.
But there was a young boy in that place.
His tone was light.
Throughout the conversation, it was like that.
It was like he was chewing on one of those little things from the past that he suddenly just remembered.
