Chapter 9
Tap, tap.
The thin room slippers Charlotte was wearing scraped harshly against the hard floor, making a sound.
The sunlight hitting her head was hot. As her mind cleared and her senses sharpened, suspicion began to slowly creep in.
Could she really manifest such a specific situation in a dream? Could this actually be a dream?
Charlotte, enduring the sharp pain striking her whole body, looked around.
The clear and sunny weather. Maidens carrying heavy laundry. Knights training in the distance.
People acting in different ways were freely wandering around the Duke’s mansion.
It looked like the familiar scene from the day before. No, actually, that wasn’t wrong.
Charlotte had lived up to June 18th, 844, in a dream where she acted like the villain in a novel.
Could all of this be a dream…?
Once the doubt emerged, the thought almost turned into a certainty, making her hands tremble.
Even she thought her reasoning was extreme. But the situation was even more surreal.
Feeling pain in a dream, and living there for two days?
And could she really remember what happened the day before in that dream within a dream?
This makes no sense…
Her heart was pounding fast. It really felt like this was reality.
But Charlotte, before she could sort out her confused thoughts, arrived at the Duke’s office.
The knight guarding the door glanced at Charlotte and opened it without a word.
The Duke raised his head as if he had been waiting.
“…Are you trying to make me feel guilty now?”
The Duke criticized Charlotte with a displeased expression.
Charlotte stared at him. She could feel the Duke’s mood, which had become so uncomfortable it almost burned her skin.
Her complicated mind started to clear up after seeing the Duke’s reaction.
Such blatant hostility couldn’t possibly be created even in a dream.
Charlotte squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again, trying to hide the confusion in her gaze. The Duke gave her a strange look.
Normally, at this point, her sharp voice would have been heard, but why wasn’t it today…?
Wait, now that I think about it, was something off since yesterday?
Had not being able to marry the Grand Duke driven her to madness? The Duke scanned her, thinking something similar to Adrian.
Meanwhile, Charlotte, pretending to remain calm on the outside, was rapidly thinking.
There was nothing she understood, but she had to accept it for now.
Especially the life she had lived as the “villain” in her mind.
If that’s all real…
If there’s even a 1% chance that this is real, she could make no mistakes here.
The original story veered off a little. According to the dream situation, I’ve already sent a proposal to Norktem, which was automatically rejected due to his engagement.
To drive the nail further here, she would have to stay far away.
Charlotte quickly came to a conclusion and spoke.
“…You called me, so you must want to talk about yesterday.”
Her voice was calm, almost deadpan. The Duke’s expression became subtle again.
Hmm, yes. Even if it was something said out of drunkenness, it can’t just be brushed off.
“My words about leaving were sincere. Since there’s no chance for an engagement with the Grand Duke, my presence is no longer beneficial, don’t you think?”
“So, you mean to become a commoner?”
“Yes. Considering the future heir situation, it would be better if I were not here. I know you plan to give me the Duchy.”
“….”
She was brutally self-critical. The Duke frowned at her with a strange displeasure.
Is she really losing her mind? Tch, this looks more normal. Honestly, a madwoman would be better than an emotionless puppet.
But what did it matter now? Whether things changed or not, her troublesome presence would be gone.
“If you leave, I won’t support you financially. Solve it with what you have now.”
The Duke made the first move. Considering his position as the head of a noble faction and one of the most influential families in the empire, his words were surprisingly petty.
Of course, Charlotte acted as though she had never expected any such support.
The Duke clicked his tongue as he observed her calmness.
Tch, well, if that’s your decision, go ahead. A noblewoman voluntarily becoming a commoner. It’s shameful, but what wouldn’t a father do for his daughter?
He said that, but a smile of satisfaction bloomed on his face.
Of course, there was a slight discomfort in his heart about abandoning his own child. But the Duke quickly dismissed it.
It was that child who first said she would leave.
Therefore, he had no fault in it.
The Duke reassured himself with that thought.
Hmm, but she can’t just disappear without reason.
There had to be a reason so that people wouldn’t think she was abandoned.
Of course, before abandoning her, he needed to use her at least once to make sure it balanced out.
The Duke quickly racked his brain. Nothing came to mind immediately.
After struggling for a while, the Duke spoke with a disgruntled face.
“Wait a little longer. I’ll tell you what to do soon.”
Charlotte walked out of the office and wandered aimlessly toward her room.
Then, she suddenly stopped and covered her mouth. Her eyes were filled with confusion.
Is this really reality?
Could her life as the villain from that dream be real too?
In fact, she still couldn’t believe it. If she were to lose consciousness now, she felt like she would wake up again in Noctem’s bedroom.
But Charlotte instinctively knew. Even if she fainted now, she would wake up here.
“But, I reincarnated… No, before that, Noctem…”
Words spilled out in a mess. They didn’t make much sense, and Charlotte took a while to figure out where to begin and what to organize.
She moved to the garden in front of her room.
The garden was filled with yellow roses, like her hair.
She found the swing deep in the garden and sat down. The sunlight that had once made her body hot had softened a bit.
“Yeah. I reincarnated as a character from a novel, so why can’t I think of this as a regression?”
Charlotte murmured to the sky, absentmindedly.
If this situation was real, then she had regressed to six years ago. Noctem wasn’t dead yet, and they hadn’t even married at that time.
This meant she had been given the chance to change her future.
Even the words she had blurted out in anger, thinking it was a dream, “The duke is right,” she had accepted.
Now, she would disappear like dust, and Noctem wouldn’t marry her. Afterward, she wouldn’t have to feel jealousy or die by having her head chopped off.
But…
“Why did Noctem look like that…?”
What confused Charlotte the most right now was the change in herself and Noctem.
If it was a normal regression, she and Noctem should have been the same as before.
However, Charlotte had become the “real” villain that everyone, including the duke, hated, and Noctem had changed in every way.
His hair wasn’t long but short.
He wasn’t wearing a wizard’s robe but a knight’s outfit.
And instead of the face he always had that smiled, he now had a fierce expression when he looked at her.
“This isn’t just a return to the past.”
Charlotte bit her lower lip as if crushing it. Her lips turned pale, and blood oozed out.
Her mind began to race. She vaguely understood that this was a parallel world, but no matter how much she pondered, she couldn’t figure out why she ended up here.
Suddenly, the bitter taste on her tongue brought her back to her senses. Her lips had been covered in blood for a while.
She wiped the blood off with the back of her hand and stood up.
“This isn’t the time to be doing this.”
Unresolved questions only became more complicated the longer she thought about them.
Moreover, Charlotte had plenty of other matters to resolve.
The most important issue was, of course, the letter her husband had left regarding the Huril Guild.
“Now that I’m not a duke, I have no choice but to ask someone else…”
It was impossible for a powerless woman to find information about the guild.
Charlotte sighed as she thought of a suitable candidate for the task.
As things stood, there was only one person she could ask for such a favor.
After leaving the garden, Charlotte hurriedly had a maid call for a carriage.
The destination was the information guild run by Adrian Verche.
The carriage stopped in the busiest area of the capital. Charlotte, who had already worn a robe, got out of the carriage.
The common people’s attention briefly shifted to the unusual carriage, but when they saw her ordinary attire, the interest faded.
Charlotte calmly walked through the street filled with people shouting in a frenzy. It actually made her feel at ease to be here.
Her steps quickly led her deeper into the capital’s bustling district.
She picked a big alley, and after a few turns, a completely different scene unfolded in front of her, far from the main square with the fountain.
Charlotte looked at the gambling house with a nonchalant expression. It was a stark contrast to the house filled with greed.
The man guarding the entrance of the house blocked her path for a moment but quickly turned away when he noticed the unusually clean blonde hair peeking out from her robe.
Charlotte walked on, looking ahead at the clear path. She could feel eyes on her, assessing her height and figure. Among them, there were some who appeared to be nobles.
The overt gazes made Charlotte frown.
She pulled her robe deeper over her, as it would be troublesome if anyone recognized her.
After walking a little more, the VIP room welcomed her. Though it seemed just like any other room, this was the door connected directly to the guild.
When she entered, a waiter who had been waiting there pressed the wall, a faint magical aura flickering in his hand.
“You may enter.”
Although the wall appeared ordinary, the waiter spoke to Charlotte in this manner. Without hesitation, she rushed toward the wall.
In an instant, the scene changed, and she was on the first floor of the guild.
The receptionist, recognizing Charlotte, silently guided her.
And there, standing proudly with his face revealed, was Adrian.
