CH 77

‘Ophelia’s kidnapper.’

Lawrence looked behind Raisa just in case, but he couldn’t find anyone else, let alone anyone approaching.

Before the confused Lawrence could make sense of the mess…

—Taktaktak.

The sound of someone running was heard on the side where Raisa came from.

And after a few blinks, someone with a terrible complexion appeared.

The person raised her trembling arms toward the three who were gathered there and spoke with difficulty as if squeezing out a voice that barely came out.

“H-He… Hel… lp.”

Upon seeing the person, Lawerence was sincerely shocked again; it was unknown how many times he had been tonight.

Of course he would be.

For the person who appeared just now was not someone else, but Ophelia, who had disappeared a moment ago in a very intact state.

What on earth had happened in that brief moment for her to show up in such a state?

Ophelia did not pay attention to Lawrence, and began to act as if she had just escaped from somewhere.

“Help me, p-please.”

She waved her hand like she couldn’t even see, then collapsed on the spot.

No. Richard, who had approached her in a flash, intercepted her fall, so she was comfortably in his arms.

Even from the perspective of a monkey, it was the moment of meeting between a person who dramatically escaped from somewhere and a person who desperately looked for her.

The hand that brushed her cheek was extremely careful, and the voice that flowed out even sounded mournful.

“Ophelia.”

As if answering the call, Ophelia let out a breath she had been holding in, and her lips trembled. Richard whispered,

“Who did this?”

At the sound of a voice that could chill one’s spine, Ophelia involuntarily tightened the hand holding his arm.

She knew very well that Richard was good at everything, but she never thought he would even do well in acting; it felt very sincere.

If she had opened her eyes and saw his golden eyes, she would never have thought it was just acting.

—He really was sincere.

Richard’s golden eyes sunk deep enough to look like the darkness of night, deeper than the abyss.

He knew it was acting.

But, the instant she rushed out in a messed-up state, and then collapsed helplessly…

It was hard to resist the urge to grab and crush the throat of Raisa, who had dared to put Ophelia into such a situation.

‘You’re so precious even in my arms.’ 

‘I love you to the extent that my heart hurts…’

Richard pulled Ophelia closer a little more and hugged her tightly.

Then Ophelia slowly opened her eyes. Looking over Richard’s shoulder, Ophelia and Raisa’s eyes met.

Just like how she faced her right before the kidnapping.

The next second.

Ophelia raised a trembling hand and pointed it straight at Raisa.

Even for someone who did not know the circumstances before and after this situation, it was no different from a clear sign that it was Raisa who made Ophelia this way.

Lawrence’s eyes, which had been spinning with confusion, became clear.

Without being told by anyone, he stepped between Raisa and Ophelia and stood firm like a wall.

Then, from behind him, Richard’s low voice, dry enough to chew sand, echoed.

“Lady Neir. How do you explain this?”

Of course, there was no answer.

What would she say?

In her nervousness, Raisa bit the insides of her mouth until it was in tatters.

The fishy taste of blood spreaded, but she continued chewing the spot.

‘I have to regress right now, but I can’t get out of this situation.’

Lawrence Sheffield and Crown Prince Richard,

In the current situation, if she collapsed like that Bolsheik, she should be able to escape this situation and return to the marquisate.

However, she wouldn’t be able to send assassins to the crown prince.

As long as the crown prince was involved, her mother would watch over her with her eyes wide open.

‘There’s no choice but to regress.’

‘Isn’t that cheeky Bolsheik an aide to the crown prince?’

She didn’t know if she would rather have been caught after killing all the traces, but now the worst situation had occurred in that the kidnapped escaped.

Unlike before, there was no breakthrough whatsoever.

—Pudeuk.

The second blood flowed down her chin from the lips bitten too hard.

Richard slowly raised himself while holding Ophelia.

Then, like a miracle, he said something extremely advantageous for Raisa, which Lawrence found incomprehensible.

“I will hold you responsible for this later.”

“Your Highness? What are you saying!”

Lawrence’s objection and intention to drag Raisa right away, stopped at Richard’s words.

“Ophelia is in bad shape.”

Lawrence couldn’t bear to say that he couldn’t do that, seeing how Ophelia lay limp in Richard’s arms.

“Let’s go back.”

Richard’s words sounded different to Lawrence and Raisa.

For Lawrence, it was simply about going home.

Raisa swallowed the blood that filled her mouth and bowed her head deeply.

A smile spread across her lips, as fishy as the smell of her blood.

‘Oh, I have to go back.’

‘To the past…’

Immediately, Raisa made a decision.

‘I’m not going to try something dangerous like this.’

She managed to somehow escape now, but there was no guarantee that the same situation would not happen again after regressing.

No matter how secretly situated the warehouse was, even if a guard was set up around it, could it escape the crown prince’s eyes?

‘If I want to relieve my mood, I will just have to catch another guy and lock him up.’

In the past, she would have been unable to overcome her anger and would have tried to catch and crush Bolsheik somehow, but now she was not that stupid.

The drops of blood flowing through Raisa’s chin dyed the ground red, but she didn’t care because it would disappear anyway.

As usual, her eyes were looking at the past and the future that did not come, not the present.

.

Ophelia blinked. Iris and Catherine’s voices squeezed into her buzzing ears.

“I’ll be back!”

“I’ll be back soon.”

Staring blankly at the backs of the two as they quickly disappeared, Ophelia rubbed her cheeks.

“I’m back.”

She clenched her hands again and again.

Before long, she looked around, or to be exact, behind her back.

But let alone the person who kidnapped her, there was only a dark alley without a trace of life.

“I still have to wait a little longer.”

They must wait until Raisa Neir appears.

That’s the only way they could check if she had something to do with the regressions.

So Ophelia waited in the same spot.

‘May my eyes meet Raisa’s and I be kidnapped soon.’

She stared at the crowd with the same blank, distracted eyes before the regression.

Time passed like that.

Then, Ophelia was surrounded by the returned Catherine and Iris.

“Ophelia! Look at this, it looks really strange, but the taste is…”

“Catherine, it’s flowing. Come on, drink this first.”

Ophelia couldn’t take her eyes off one spot even as she mechanically took a sip of the drink Iris handed her.

There was no one who should have been there.

Before the regression, things had already happened before the two returned.

However, even though enough time had passed for Catherine and Iris to return, Raisa did not appear.

Naturally, Ophelia was not kidnapped.

Why?

Only that was spinning in Ophelia’s head.

‘Why is there no Raisa Neir?’

‘How come I’m not kidnapped? Why…’

‘Why is it so distinctly different from before the regression… is it…?’

Every time she regressed, it wasn’t entirely the same situation.

But of course.

It was because Ophelia moved and changed the situation every time she regressed.

If she killed her assassin who killed her, she would be next killed not by that assassin but by another assassin.

The reason why the situation continued to change every regression was because she somehow moved.

Of course, during the earthquake or flood, there was nothing she could do and had to hope to get lucky, but even then, she did not move, so situations other than the earthquake and flood repeated no matter how many or dozens of times she regressed. They were almost the same.

‘But why this time…’

She didn’t move. She was just sitting there, like before.

Yet she faced a completely different situation than before.

She couldn’t understand.

‘Why do people want to go back to the past?’

‘So that they can correct the mistakes of the past and eliminate the failures that resulted from them.’

Before regression, Raisa Neir failed to do what she was trying to do by kidnapping Ophelia.

So after the regression, she should repeat the same thing as before and make it succeed.

But why?

“No way…”

“Huh? What? Ophelia?”

Catherine waved her hand in front of Ophelia’s eyes, and Iris took the cup that was about to fall from her hand.

“Ophe…”

But before they could call her, their eyes widened when they saw a figure unwittingly emerging from the darkness behind.

Credits goes to Jassie for raw providing, Ame for translating, and Dea for proofreading.