CH 56

“I’ve never seen a medicine called poison.”

Of course, one shouldn’t mix medicines anyhow.

She didn’t think her mother would know as much and extensively about medicines as she did about poison.

Taking out and tapping the medicine to mix to make poison, Raisa hesitated.

None of the fairly reliable tools that were brought so far had been as complete as this lie.

“Should I experiment first?”

While shaking the pink bottle, Raisa shook her head.

No, she didn’t even have to experiment with other things.

If it worked, it would be perfect, and if it didn’t, she would have to use another method.

If successful…

It could turn that proud marchioness mother of hers into an addict.

It was not a well-known drug, thus the exact side effects were a mystery, but it was said to be addictive, so it was something to be aware of gradually.

However, the mind should not be completely destroyed.

Her mother must die, crawling on the floor with her sanity, with her eyes on Raisa the moment she took it all.

—What you failed to accomplish, was taken by this daughter, whom you despised and neglected so much and used to your heart’s content.

“You have to die watching me get everything.”

A dirty smile of greed and hatred spread across Raisa’s mouth.

Raisa, who put down the pink bottle, paused.

“The process of this matter is slow.”

She patted one of the papers and furrowed her brows.

It was ambiguous whether or not he was an impurity that had entered her town.

She sent someone to track him down, but since the person was new, it would take some time to get results.

“Indeed, not everything can be perfect.”

‘At least, I’m glad I got this cute thing.’

If the problems in the village grew out of control, then she should just go back.

If she regressed, other problems would pop up, but there was no other way if a problem that she couldn’t deal with broke out now.

Come to think of it…

“This regression was similar to the last one.”

A regression that didn’t go the way she expected.

It was already the second time.

“Well, it’s not the first time, so it’s not that special.”

It was uncomfortable, but there were many other things she needed to pay attention to first.

Raisa’s two unexpected regressions were temporarily relegated to a corner of her mind as there were unexpected harvests and trouble in the town she cared about most.

This was how Richard was concerned, Ophelia shook her head not knowing that she had given the correct answer, and Raisa stopped thinking for a moment.

A third omen began to fill the sky.

.

By the time Ophelia fell into a deep sleep like sleeping beauty.

Catherine met a man who could be her nemesis in her previous life, and even in this life, she growled whenever she was face to face with him.

“Why don’t you live there?”

“I’m still alive.”

“Pack up your stuff and leave. Don’t come back. Forever!”

At her pointed words, her blood-related brother laughed and smiled widely.

“That’s a good idea. I thought you would claim the position of heir by this time. The next marquis is Catherine Sheffield! The Sheffield family’s glory continues…”

“Shut up, Lawrence.”

Widening her axe-like eyes, Catherine didn’t stop with her words and rushed to thrust her fist into his mouth.

The society’s hive. Cutting off the leash of the person she traded with at once… It wasn’t just that. A bloody look that mercilessly catches one off-guard, obtaining the most advantageous conditions.

However, Lawrence, who had been receiving such glances since he was born, did not lift an eyebrow.

His serene smile merely made Catherine’s stomach turn inside out.

“So why are you being sarcastic when you know you won’t even get your money’s worth?”

“You’ll be damned by that mouth.”

“You know that if I fail, Sheffield will also fail.”

“The family won’t be ruined just because the next head of the household is dying. I’ll beat you out.”

“Then I’ll succeed in advance… Ah, I got it. I got it.”

As a sign of surrender, Lawrence placed his hands before his chest and showed his palms to Catherine, who really seemed about to tear his hair apart, and turned his words around.

“More than that, don’t you want to know why I’m here?”

“There’s a problem.”

Catherine replied nonchalantly while looking at him with a pathetic scorn.

Then he shook his head and smiled mischievously.

“That’s being taken care of thanks to you, and I’m here to pick up a guest.”

At the evening party, Catherine received an urgent request from Lawrence, and that matter was being investigated.

There was not a piece of pretense in the words ‘thanks to you’, so Catherine, feeling a little relieved, nodded her head.

“You have a guest?”

“I’ve invited a very special guest to the brewery.”

“If you’re gasping for breath, it must be a pretty important person.”

“Sure. It’s important. It’s Lady Bolsheik.”

“What?”

“You sent a letter that seemed like you would soar into the sky, saying you found the person of your destiny. How could I stay still? Oh, but I invited her after your schedule.”

The driving force was really extraordinary; there was no doubt that he was born with the same blood.

Catherine couldn’t believe the words of the irritating bastard and asked again.

“You invited who? Ophelia?”

“Yes.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Hey!”

Lawrence, glancing at the face spilling out harsh words, only shrugged his shoulders with a very relaxed face.

Having listened to all the curses in the world for a long time, Lawrence held Catherine’s face in the palm of his hand.

“Thanks to you, I can live another hundred years.”

“You’ll survive even if the world perishes, because you ate so many curses!”

“Thank you very much for that.”

“That’s a curse, you fool!”

“Brother. I enjoy talking with you, but let me ask one thing.”

“I’m not happy— Eup! Eup! Ugh!”

The moment Catherine was about to pounce, Lawrence blocked her mouth with the palm of his hand and tilted his head towards her.

“Did you properly recognize the person of fate?”

Catherine, who struggled to remove his hand, paused.

She pried his hand off and gave an annoyed look at the face that looked similar to hers.

“It’s none of your business.”

Although Lawrence hadn’t said anything yet, Catherine’s reply was full of thorns, as if she was going to protect Ophelia from him.

Despite having no intention of stepping down, Lawrence obediently uttered, “Oh, is that so?” 

The one with a sullen face in front of him was his younger sibling.

Although Catherine was a notorious young lady who did her work clearly and spoke her mind in front of anyone, Lawrence saw her as just a hollow deep fried rice puff.

(TL/N: ‘강정/gangjeong’ is a traditional Korean confectionery made with glutinous rice flour. The deep fried rice puff has a hard outer coating of honey, crushed beans/seeds and more, a hollow inside. In other words, Lawrence thinks Catherine just has a hard front.)

He was not talking about her ability or the power she possessed.

She made loud noises, but was soft on the inside… No, it was not soft. In any case, she was not as ferocious and wild as the thorns she exposed on the outside.

Rather, she was an innocent child who believed in fate in a fairy tale that everyone read and fell asleep to in the old days.

‘Well… Looking at her face now, isn’t she naive?’

Lawrence tilted his head, making a smile.

As the one sharing the same blood as her, he knew very well that she would never tell him. 

And he knew very well how to get her to open her mouth.

Lawrence, befitting of a natural enemy of the same blood, provoked Catherine calmly and without hesitation.

“Actually, I thought I’d never find out what you’re talking about, whether it’s fate or not.”

“It’s only natural that you can’t think of anything else with your little head.”

Of course, Catherine wasn’t easy.

“Still. Really? What is fate? A person who believes in such things and even acknowledges it? Didn’t you dream in broad daylight?”

Even his expression, tone, and gestures seemed sincere, that he really couldn’t understand.

Catherine was well aware that it was a provocation, but she still fell for it.

“Hey!”

“No matter how sweet the alcohol I sent you is, you shouldn’t drink it in broad daylight and get drunk. Did you dream?

“This…”

As Lawrence had predicted, Catherine started swearing at him again, and it wasn’t long before she cried out.

“Invitation! Well done! Very well done! See it clearly with those eyes and engrave it clearly in that little head! The person of my destiny!”

Out of breath from screaming and shouting incessantly, Catherine let out a gasping breath before forming an ‘oops’ expression, but Lawrence was calm.

“Well then. I knew you would say that. I’m glad I invited her.”

—You knew it but you still got hit.

‘It was like this every time I talked to that bloody, irritating guy.’

But Catherine knew too.

If she hadn’t really wanted to show Ophelia, she wouldn’t have fallen for the provocation.

She knew how Lawrence felt when he said he had to see Ophelia.

She really found it meddlesome, an irritating concern, but he was not going to listen to her even if she said that.

Well, anyone would want to check it somehow if their damned sibling changed his or her stance, claiming their fateful partner appeared overnight.