Even if the Villain's Daughter Regresses

 

“Ofcourse”

“I thought you had invented that person yourself…”

Laila and Taylor had agreed to call each other by aliases even when they were alone. It was to get used to the habit.

“Am I supposed to make up a person named Nidson? Why?”

“Well, the letter you sent me… was meant to be read by taking the first letters.”

I’m waiting.

If you took the first letters of the content from the letters Taylor had sent to Laila in the past, it formed such a sentence.

So, Laila also wrote her reply using only the first letters for the main point.

Earn some credit.

“Well, that’s true… but the content of the letter was all factual. Nidson and Ridan are both knights affiliated with the royal palace.”

“So, you really became friends with a knight named Ridan? Is that true too?”

“It’s true, but I had a fight with Ridan the following month. He’s a bastard too.”

“That’s strange. The palace wouldn’t have only recruited knights who crawled on all fours… Could it be that Terry’s personality was so strange that he couldn’t get along with the knights?”

Taylor snorted dismissively.

“Why don’t you get some sleep?”

“Terry, be a good person.”

“Just sleep quickly. We’ll move again as soon as dawn breaks.”

Right… Laila answered softly and lay down on her side, wrapped in a blanket. The air in the cabin was extremely cold. Even in the thick blanket, Laila was suffering from the chill.

It feels like I’ve become more sensitive to the cold than before… Is it just my imagination…

With her tired body, Laila pondered various thoughts until she eventually fell asleep.

A knife was plunged into Sion’s heart.

The moment Laila witnessed that scene, she realized she was in a dream.

Although she knew it was a dream, she couldn’t wake up from it. Sion’s body crumbled.

Sion.

Sion!

She couldn’t make a sound. She couldn’t even move freely.

Laila could only watch helplessly as Sion collapsed.

Soon, the scene changed.

She saw herself standing in the office of Marquis Hildegarde.

With her eyes downcast, she brazenly lied to the marquis.

She had mentioned something about investing in a company, which would later be revealed as the main funding source for rebellion.

Marquis Hildegarde was very greedy. He invested a large sum in the company Laila had mentioned.

As Laila had hoped and expected, he did so secretly, away from prying eyes.

He probably didn’t want to share the profits with others. Ultimately, that greed became the chain that bound Marquis Hildegarde.

Having secretly funneled a large amount of money into the rebel group’s finances, Marquis Hildegarde couldn’t utter a single excuse and transformed into a traitor overnight.

The day the palace knights raided the Marquis’s residence, the Marquis seemed to realize everything at once; his eyes reddened, and he shouted with veins bulging in his neck.

Laila! Lailaaaa! You damn bitch!

In that moment, the “damn bitch” Laila was also bound by the hands of the royal palace knights, just like Marquis Hildegarde.

With a bright smile,

The scene changed again. Laila found herself trapped in prison. In the prison opposite hers, as well as in the cells on either side, there were people.

To the left of where Laila was, Henry Hildegarde was trapped. Henry clung to the bars, shouting until his voice was hoarse.

“It was Laila’s doing! I didn’t know anything! Laila told me to get close to the count! I had no idea what kind of person the count was! I swear…!”

“I’ve never met the Count! I’m innocent!”

“I’m not a traitor! Please let me out!”

“Please get me out of here! Send me home!”

Amidst the cries of numerous Hildegardes, Marquis Hildegarde remained silent.

The reason was simple: he was unconscious.

On the way to the royal palace, he had resisted fiercely and was struck on the head by a palace knight.

To add, when Marquis Hildegarde lost consciousness from the blow, the marchioness and their children all fell silent and even held their breaths.

In any case, having taken quite a hard hit, Marquis Hildegarde couldn’t regain his senses properly for several days while trapped in the prison.

He would occasionally wake up to drink water, only to lose consciousness again soon after.

Laila was worried.

What if the Marquis ends up dying like this?

He can’t lose his life yet.

Not yet.

Not like this…

Fortunately, Marquis Hildegarde survived.

One deep dawn, when Taylor appeared in the prison, he subdued all the guards and managed to extract Laila and Marquis Hildegarde from their cell.

At that time, all the other prisoners, except for Laila, were asleep. The water provided in the prison that day was not ordinary.

Laila did not drink the water. When the prison door opened, she walked out of the narrow cell on her own.

Marquis Hildegarde, in an unconscious state, was carried out by Taylor.

“Aren’t you making it too easy to get prisoners out, sir?”

“Do you know how much I’ve suffered to make this happen…?”

With a pale face, Taylor, the newly appointed royal knight who had built up countless small achievements over the past year and seven months, replied.

“Let’s get out first.”

The scene in the dream blurred and then became clear again.

Laila was standing inside a dark and dirty wooden building. Although it was now empty, it had previously served as a stable.

Marquis Hildegarde was lying in a collapsed position in front of Laila. His body was in a pitiful state, like a rag.

“…You…”

“….”

“I should have… killed you… with the others.”

“‘The others’? My siblings and mother?”

“…”

“But Marquis, you were never destined to live long anyway.”

“Insolent…”

“It’s true.”

Laila looked down at the marquis and opened her mouth.

“Why did you kill Sion’s family?”

“Reasons… are… unnecessary…”

“None? Yeah, I figured as much.”

He’s the kind of person who would kill his own wife and children for no reason other than ‘just because’ or ‘because they annoyed him.’

And I’m the daughter of such a person.

“I’ve thought about it, and it seems I don’t have the right to seek revenge.”

A child seeking revenge against their parents. It’s a laughable notion.

“So you’re not dying as a consequence of your evil deeds.”

“What…?”

“Just die.”

After finishing her words, Laila turned around. Taylor, who had been standing quietly with his back against the wall, began to move.

As Laila stepped out of the old wooden building and onto the cleanly covered path of snow, a scream echoed from behind her.

The agonizing scream followed Laila persistently for at least twenty more steps.

Laila, who had been walking slowly, stopped. The scream also ceased.

“Miss.”

How long had she been standing still on the snowy path?

Taylor, who had approached her without her noticing, exhaled heavily as he spoke.

“Thank you.”

Without looking back, Laila faced forward and said, “…Let’s go.”

 

☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓

 

Laila felt a hand shaking her shoulder. She opened her eyes.

The surroundings were dark, indicating that dawn had not yet broken.

“Terry, why…?”

As Laila, still half asleep, instinctively called out Taylor’s alias, he replied.

“It seems we are surrounded.”

“…What?”

Laila instantly shook off her drowsiness and sat up. The blanket that had wrapped around her slipped down. A chill swept over her, but she had no time to leisurely shiver in the cold.

“…However, something feels off.”

“Off how?”

“The palace knights shouldn’t have caught up with us.”

“What’s that—”

The cabin door shattered at that precise moment. Laila turned her gaze.

Stepping on the wooden splinters that had once been part of the door, the intruders entered the cabin.

The armed intruders carried torches that drove away the darkness inside the cabin.

As soon as Laila saw the figure among the intruders, she sighed.

“Kidon Reisic…”

Before she knew it, she muttered the other person’s name, and Kidon’s mouth opened.

“Lady Laila. I’m surprised.”

“….”

“I knew you weren’t a doll, but I never expected you to hit me at the back like this.”