CH 98

She muttered dozens of times a day.

“Bring the medicine. No, I don’t need it!”

“Now! Medicine! No! No more… No more…”

But ‘no’ was only for a moment. Soon after, her body started to hurt as if she would die if she didn’t take the medicine.

She took the medicine several times a day, her body twisting in unbearable, maddening pain.

“You were the beginning.”

The cold voice’s pronunciation was very clear, completely different from a few seconds ago.

Even though the words came without context, Raisa could understand exactly what her mother was trying to say.

“Who else could it be?”

With a smirk, Raisa lightly shook the pink vial in front of the marchioness.

“It’s a fatigue reliever, Mother. You took it yourself when I said that. For several days, no, almost dozens of days?”

“You… you!”

However, the cool-headedness was short-lived, and the once strong Marchioness Neir was no longer a threat to Raisa.

“Mother examined it. And you must have been convinced. It’s not poison. Of course, it’s not poison itself. It’s a good fatigue reliever that I’m sorry I don’t have anymore.”

As if singing, Raisa recited the story of what had happened so far.

No, she was singing. A very simple story that drove Marchioness Neir to ruin.

“You looked down on me. You never imagined I’d be up to something like this, even though you kept a watchful eye on me due to the liquor license.”

The marchioness despaired of anger, astonishment, and irresistible desire, but it was too late.

“Why was I so afraid of you?”

Raisa looked down at Marchioness Neir. The latter tried to muster strength and move her hand, but her hand, which trembled with the energy of the medicine, couldn’t have such strength.

“You’re a human being who collapsed helplessly with just this kind of medicine.”

Raisa whispered in Marchioness Neir’s ear.

“I still remember the day you cut my head after you severed my limbs.”

Marchioness Neir’s eyes bulged open.

“What, what nonsense.”

“It’s a future that won’t come now, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

Raisa took a step back from Marchioness Neir.

“Because the only future that will come is your head rolling on the floor.”

Leaving behind Marchioness Neir, who soon lost her temper and screamed like a beast, Raisa got out of the pit-like room.

“Do not let anyone in.”

From the moment Marchioness Neir’s reason began to fade, all the power of the family had already passed to Raisa.

Having imprisoned her mother alive, Raisa headed to a place darker and more sunken than her mother’s room.

Which was her own room.

Walking into that darkness as if she was being sucked in, she crushed her little notebook that enabled the regression.

It was salvation. It was a miracle, and it was a rope she could never give up.

But due to this…

“Is the world really going to end?”

She was out of breath.

She hated dying.

‘No. I hate that!’

Raisa screamed silently and tightened her body.

In front of her eyes, the red rain and the teeth of the most ferocious golden lion flickered.

—Tak, dak.

The sound of teeth clashing echoed through the tomb-like space.

In a room where one couldn’t feel the warmth of the living, Raisa looked at the present, not the past or the future.

However, the present reflected in the eyes that had only seen the past and the future was just a stark darkness with no end in sight.

So she couldn’t do anything.

Ah, that was not it. She didn’t know how to get what she wanted without regressing.

However, if she regressed, the death that she could neither refuse nor avoid would only get closer; it strangled her.

Raisa’s gray eyes began to see things that were not real again.

It was just that the things that repeated before her eyes were neither the past nor the future.

The moment when her throat was cut.

Just like that, she didn’t know that she was tilting, and she didn’t realize that she was collapsing rapidly, literally in an instant.

…In the same way that the Marchioness Neir fell so easily that it was too futile.

But ironically, the moment Raisa let go of the things that didn’t work out perfectly even though she worked so hard.

It started to roll perfectly like a lie.

.

Wasn’t there a saying that what would happen would happen?

Even though the existence of a ‘saint’ did not appear, rumors about the crown princess were flowing out.

No, it wasn’t just flowing out, the emperor called Richard separately.

“Isn’t it time for you to have a crown princess?”

Richard mercilessly cut off the order of the tired-looking emperor under the guise of a question.

“Didn’t you entrust that task to me?”

“I’m asking this because I can’t see any progress.”

Seemingly too tired to even press his temples, the emperor let out a long sigh.

“Crown Prince.”

“Yes.”

“When and what are you going to do?”

The emperor did not ask in anticipation of a specific answer.

There was only a feeble expectation that if he knew even the vaguest timing, he would be able to burn all the documents about the crown princess flying in from all over the continent.

But… At Richard’s answer that followed, the emperor opened his eyes wide for the first time in years and leaned forward.

“I’ll do what she wants at the right time.”

“She? Did you just say that?”

“Yes.”

It was a short answer, but it was also an affirmation that couldn’t be more clear.

“Huh… Hah.”

The emperor buried his back in the throne and stared blankly at Richard.

“Crown Prince.”

“Yes.”

“Prepare to be hit without any shortage.”

The emperor didn’t ask anything.

To be the crown princess, there were certain qualifications she must meet.

Like if she was born with blue blood, what was the level of her family, whether she had the qualifications to enter the imperial family, her personality, and so on.

If you asked him, the crown princess position was one where even the length of the eyebrows could be measured.

But to the emperor now, none of those things mattered.

He was just genuinely happy as the father of a son.

And his attitude that it didn’t matter if he didn’t have to consider those things was proof that he trusted Richard that much.

The child who would greet him while holding hands with his son would surely become the joy of his life because she was able to enter his heart.

The emperor did not doubt that.

Silently, Richard bowed his head deeply, and the emperor nodded with an indescribable expression.

He still couldn’t hide his weariness and tiredness, but the greater joy wouldn’t leave his face.

.

Around the time Richard was facing the emperor…

Ophelia was facing Lawrence.

“Thank you for accepting the invitation, Lady Bolsheik.”

“Yes. Oh… uh… It’s been a while since we last met.”

Even as she faced him, Ophelia could not hide her wonder.

What on earth did Lawrence invite her for?

She was even more puzzled because the invitation in his name had no clear purpose written on it.

After reading her expression, Lawrence handed over the prepared wine bottle and casually started talking.

“The damage to the brewery from the locust swarm is severe. But everyone is working together to restore it, so it won’t be long…”

Listening quietly, Ophelia had to swallow a sigh that was about to burst out as she tried to manage her expression to become increasingly strange.

She wondered why he invited her to explain such things again, but it was natural.

To Ophelia, who had regressed, everything with Lawrence was over, but for him, it hadn’t even started yet.

“So…”

“Lord Lawrence.”

Ophelia didn’t waste time beating around the bush.

She asked directly.

“If it’s about the investment, please give me the paperwork. I want to do it right away. Also, may I ask what’s your real reason for inviting me?”

Silence fell between the two, but not for long.

‘He is really Catherine’s brother.’

When Ophelia asked for the main point, not wanting to go back and forth, he didn’t give any far-fetched reasons.

“To be honest, it’s not that I fell in love with you at first sight. And it’s not like I’m passionately in love either.”

In a way, it was a rude remark, but Lawrence’s ability to express it in this funny way didn’t make Ophelia feel bad.

“But Lady Bolsheik…”

Ophelia stopped him before he could even mention the proposal.

“Lord Sheffield.”

“Yes.”

“Before I hear what you have to say, I want to say that I think you’re misunderstanding something.”

“Yes?”

Upon hearing the story that continued after those words, Lawrence’s face was dyed red.

Soon, having cleared the absurd misunderstandings from where they had started—so cleanly that they could no longer be there—Ophelia got up, refreshed.

“Excuse me.”

Ophelia, who was about to leave in consideration of Lawrence, who still couldn’t lift his head, stopped abruptly.