Chapter 3

11:31 AM.

Originally, the woman named Vanora Celcius was soft-hearted. She was too timid, never said anything harsh to anyone, and always gave up on others. Moreover, Seir had taken care of Vanora since she was a baby. From the young Vanora’s point of view, Seir was old enough to look up to, so she felt scary and powerful.

“I am just being friendly to get to know Lady Vanora. Was that worthy of making a fuss about? No one wants to serve you here! No one cares about you!”

“…”

“Rather, you should treat me well. What are you doing?”

So Vanora gave up her rebellion and justified it to herself. After all, it was a very trivial matter for Seir to play pranks on her. It wasn’t a threat to her life and sometimes she would take a break from her pranks, so everything would pass if she just endured for a while.

‘As Seir said, let’s not go against them anymore and stay calm.’ Vanora thought so.

“Lady is not going to drink tea for today? Then I’ll bring medicine for Lady Vanora’s wounds.”

Of course, this situation has always been the same with Seir venting her anger. Seir, about to turn around and leave the room, will probably bring and apply a potion that I was reluctant to use since it just caused burning and pain from the wound. Even if I cried and begged for her to stop, this maid would just persistently keep applying it on. And if my shouts were to be heard outside the room, the servants who weren’t in charge of me would come and the results would just be troublesome.

Seir would just say, “I brought medicine and was applying it carefully because I want Lady Vanora to heal quickly.” But she will say to other servants that the Lady shouted like that when she applied the medicine because it just slightly stung her wounds.

People always like to gossip. How interesting would it be to gossip about ‘the noble who treated their servants with a bad attitude.’ Gradually, my reputation will become black. The prejudice around me will make my personality even gloomier. That’s how my life was supposed to be.

“Seir.”

But… that was my story from when I was 15 years old.

“Yes?”

11:32 AM.

I, who was sitting quietly on the bed, spoke to my maid.

“It’s okay if you don’t bring me medicine. T-The pharmacist is far from here. The bleeding has stopped so I can recover quickly by myself! I don’t want to give Seir a hard time.”

Even though my status is higher than Seir’s, I made a truly remarkable statement by using honorifics. Seeing that, Seir laughed at Vanora inwardly and thought,

‘Is she looking into my eyes? Did she want me to cut her some slack this time?’

“!”

Knock. Knock.

Then someone visited Vanora’s room. When Seir was about to leave this place and opened the door, she saw a neatly dressed man with gray hair.

“Ah, Seir. As expected, you were here. You have work to do, so follow me.”

“For me? As you can see, Lady Vanora got hurt. I have to get some medicine, so I’m busy right now… Is it urgent?”

“Isn’t that only a small scratch? This is much more serious than that.”

I listened to their conversation from afar and thought with a calm face,

‘Seir. Enjoy your life to the fullest now. I will surely bury you in the cemetery of the estate as soon as possible.’

In the meantime, the man in a butler’s suit standing outside the door met Vanora’s gaze and bowed his head with a business-like smile.  I responded to the man’s greeting with a gentle face and thought,

‘What’s this man up to? Just wait. You’ll be buried next to Seir.’

The man was the butler in charge of this mansion’s work, big and small. But, well, that’s not important. I remembered that soon, even though he had explicitly witnessed Seir bothering me, he would ignore my request and cover up everything.

2:18 PM

After finishing my early lunch, I decided to use the rest of my time arbitrarily. The fact that no one cared about me in the mansion was an advantage at this time.

‘Looking at Seir’s actions and the butler, it seems that not everyone in this world has gone through the same thing like me.’

I chewed on bread to fill my stomach so that I had enough stamina to walk around and solve my curiosity.

‘But what if I’m not the only one who returned to the past with my memories? There may be someone else who has received the same privilege. I’m particularly suspicious of Naverius, who has become closer to me than what I can remember.’

As I continue to think about the present situation, the face of the man that I killed continues to pop up.

‘Now I’m still 15 years old. He is still alive at this time.’

It would be difficult if that man also came back from the past. Aside from the resentment that I killed him, I couldn’t know what he would do to avoid going through the same situation. So, I decided to ask the person in the mansion to find out where and what Haures was doing at this time.

“Excuse me, I want to ask you something…”

“Yes?! M-M-Me?”

“Hello, my name is Vanora Celcius. Well, can I ask you a very small favor?”

The person I spoke to was the gardener of the mansion. I was speaking politely to someone of very low status. It was against the kingdom’s rules, but I could do nothing about it.

‘I can’t help but feel Seir was a little strange.’

There was nothing bad about being careful right now.

“Sir Gardener makes the garden look pretty whenever important guests come to our house. Depending on who’s coming, there are times when you decorate with different flowers, right?”

“Ah, yes, yes. That’s right.”

“Do you know who’s visiting our house this week?”

“Ah, that’s… Countess Vincent is said to be coming at the request of the Madam. So I prepared white flowers.”

The gardener seemed to be unaware of my reputation. In fact, it was still like this at this time. It was before Seir, Naverius, and others decided and started spreading gossip about me. Except for the servants, no commoners would do any great deeds against me.

“Countess Vincent? She’s not the one I’m waiting for. By any chance, has Baron Hopen visited recently? It will be good if he plans to visit in the future.”

“Aha. That person?”

“There are many rumors that the young master of the Hopen family has a handsome appearance. It’s hard to get close, but I wish to see him at least once from a distance.”

I, who made up rough remarks, asked him the real question hidden in there with a more comfortable mind.

‘The estate of the family to which a man named Haures belongs is a place that is far from here. So, according to my prediction, he hasn’t come out of his estate yet.’

I didn’t know whether the house of Haures at this time was in the Hopen estate or was just around the corner.

‘It will be embarrassing if he’s already started being active before me.’

In order to kill him once again, it was necessary to locate him.

“Pardon?”

But then. As I pondered the death of Haures in my mind, the gardener gave me an unknown answer.

“I’m sorry, lady, can you say that again? Who is from the Hopen family?”

“Isn’t there a rumor that the young master of the Hopen family is handsome?”

“Pardon? You must be mistaken for another family.”

I talked to him because he looked quite smart, but why is he stuttering so much? My inner gaze could not be stopped from becoming cold, and the answer that followed was even more incomprehensible.

“This chief gardener who works with me told this story not too long ago because he worked for the Hopen family. He said the Baron didn’t have any son born yet.”

“…”

“So, there’s no way that the young master in that family is handsome, right? Because of that, I’ve heard about the succession issue… Oh my gosh! I made a fuss in front of the lady.”

He quickly shut up his mouth as he felt it was a sin to reveal the circumstances of a noble family.  But those sentences alone were enough to make me feel embarrassed.

‘I never thought of knowing his movements completely by just listening to the gardener like this. But… what is this?’

It is unknown how many years ago a former gardener of the Hopen family worked there. However, it didn’t seem to refer to something like 10 or 20 years ago in terms of nuance. At most, it will be 4-5 years or maybe 1-2 years shorter. And yet he answered that no boy was born in the Hopen family?

‘He was older than me, and he was already famous by this time. Could such a person suddenly hide his existence?’

The gardener took off his straw hat and said goodbye politely, leaving me behind. I quickly returned to the mansion and pondered for a moment.

‘…’

That gardener is a commoner. If I ask a question to a noble, I will get a better answer. However, a timid and shunned young lady catches a noble wandering out of nowhere and asks about Haures Hopen?

‘This is so suspicious no matter who looks at it.’

And it was dangerous. Assuming that Haures was resurrected with memories like myself.

I visited the library again to solve my problem myself. There was a very thick book there which contained a family tree of nobles stretching out like a world tree.

‘It didn’t record illegitimate children, but there’s no way that person is not written in here. Because he was the successor that the family proudly revealed.’

As I slowly turned the page, I saw familiar family names. After a few more pages, I finally found Baron Hopen’s family tree. But…

“…!”

None.

On the noble list…His name is… nowhere.

Surprised, I hurriedly checked the book’s cover to see what year this list was revised. But the book was new, made last year at the most. Nevertheless, there is no Haures in the names that must exist in this period.

‘Haures Hopen. Haures Hopen. Haures Hopen!’

I couldn’t have forgotten the name of the man who I resented infinitely and even took his life with my own hands! In the end, I, unable to believe this situation, struggled to follow the path of a man named Haures Hopen by all means.

* * *

6 PM.

I looked out the window blankly after the second sour and salty meal handed over by the servant.

‘How can this happen? It is as if the existence of him has been erased from the world.’

In the end, there was no trace of the enemy I hated and resented so much. Even if I grabbed anyone and asked, the only answer that came was that they didn’t know the existence of Haures, someone who was so famous before.

‘That bastard should have died twice more…’

Anyway, it doesn’t make sense for me to return to the past.

‘Is it possible that I made Haures disappear from this world? So if I kill Seir, will I be back to this time again? Or to my younger life…?’ I thought about it calmly.

Let’s no longer care about that young master who suddenly disappeared from the world. What would you do if you were obsessed with someone who is no longer in this world? Even if Haures had abandoned his name and hidden, it won’t change the future.

‘First of all, revenge on that maid is the priority.’

Then, shall we check if I can erase their presence in this world the same as what happened to Haures?

I looked around the room with an expressionless face. This room is only filled with terrible memories. But since starting to plan my revenge, I began to feel quite fond of it.