I Decided to Kidnap the Male Lead

Episode 43: The Eye of the Storm (IX)

The flood, which was a huge disaster that wiped out the entire empire and killed two-thirds of its citizens, became something that only existed in the memories of the two.

And no one knew this was the second sign after the earthquake.

Richard, too, only vaguely guessed that the earthquake and flood were somehow related.

But he didn’t know specifically how they were intertwined.

Ophelia just muttered to herself and tilted her head.

“Earthquakes and floods. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them appear in succession like this…”

After thinking about it for a while, Ophelia thought of it only before going to sleep that night.

“Aren’t these two of the signs of doom in religious texts?”

Haha, Ophelia let out a dry laugh and shook her head.

“I should wipe my feet and go to sleep. It’s not a sign, it’s the sound of a dog eating grass. Destruction means tomorrow’s documents will be destroyed.”
(TL/N: ‘wiping feet’ means ‘leaving the dirt of work/burden behind’, and ‘the sound of a dog eating grass’ means ‘nonsense’ since dogs don’t eat grass in general.)

So the flood, the second omen, ended with a single heavy rain over the Imperial Palace.

.

By the time Ophelia laid down on the bed after finishing the infinite regression that finally ended the flood.

Unlike her, who fell asleep as if passing out, the employees of the Marquisate of Neir were having a sleepless night.

—Kwang!

—Clang! Psssh!

Tea cups, as well as vases amounting to a number that commoners would never touch in their lifetime, were shattered and scattered on the carpet.

The servants knelt down and lowered their upper bodies as close to the floor as possible, and prayed, hoping that nothing would fly over their heads.

It had been a long time since the young lady they served had such a near-paroxysmal depravity.

Humans were animals of oblivion.

At some point, after the fearful incidents stopped, it gradually faded in their memories…

As if to make fun of them, Raisa exploded like an active volcano and ran amok.

—Hwak!

—Chiyiik! Kwang!

When sheer curtains and decorative tapestries were invariably torn to shreds, and there was nothing left to break in the room.

Raisa gasped for breath, her pupils split vertically.

Even the shoulders raised in anger, the fiercely narrowed eyes, and the scar on the cheek couldn’t overcome her anger.

“Aaaaaagh!”

A cracking sound echoed throughout the room.

The servants fell even more flat on the floor, their necks trembling, and Raisa screamed for so long that it was indescribable.

How long did the seizure which shook the entire serene mansion and made the servants as quiet as dead rat last?

“Huu… ha, huh… huu.”

Raisa took a deep breath as the room turned completely into chaos as if a storm had passed.

The woman herself was as messy as the room.

With force, she closed her eyes and cracked her neck a couple of times before opening her eyes.

Murder, anger, hatred, and malice overflowed from her gray eyes, but she didn’t show her depravity again, just slowly inhaled and exhaled.

Raisa, who had caught her breath, opened her mouth.

Her voice, which had been hoarse from screaming, came out as if it was scratching her throat.

“Clean it up.”

“Yes, my lady.”

The servants were visibly shaking, but no one was beaten to the point of death and broken objects were no longer flying, so as usual, they barely exhaled and moved in perfect order.

The room was tidied up in no time.

However, the maid who was tying Raisa’s hair with trembling hands made the mistake of tugging a strand of her hair.

Instantly, the maid fell at Raisa’s feet and trembled.

“S-Sorry.”

Raisa looked down at the maid as if it was a teacup she had smashed with her own hands.

For the maid, one second passed like a thousand seconds, and her sentence fell.

“Put this away too.”

“Ah… l-lady, my lady! Please spare me! Please!”

The blue-faced servants dragged the maid with a deathly pale complexion.

It must be absolutely terrifying for that maid.

But the rest of the servants were expressionless.

If one person made a mistake, all those present that day would be dragged out and severely beaten, or if it went further, their limbs would disappear one by one.

Raisa shook her hand very lightly toward those awaiting sentencing.

It was as if there had never been anything that had pushed the servants’ lives to such an extent that one would cry out, ‘I’d rather die.’

“Everybody, get out. And don’t let anyone in. Until I call. Even if my mother comes back.”

A room which only the weak light of the moon shined through, where everyone had left.

Raisa sat gracefully on the empty sofa and nibbled at her fingernails.

The tip of her fingernail, which had been ripped out like that, reflected blood, staining her teeth red, but she didn’t care and continued to chew.

She couldn’t stand it, her stomach was boiling and she was irritated.

Her anger had already exploded once, but the exasperation and hatred inside her would not disappear just like that.

In the regression this time around, again, something was strange.

Things that she hadn’t expected happened, and it led to some terribly good outcomes.

But due to that, after the regression stopped, all that was left in her grasp was a decent level of results.

“Again… need to kill again.”

Raisa took out the small notebook she had kept with her.

The messed up fingernails stained the leather of the notebook and even gave off a fishy smell, but Raisa didn’t care.

Because her eyes were searching for the past and the future that had yet to come, not the present.

All she wanted in this regression was this one thing.

The completion of a village.

The village was a very special place that she planned and built alone from beginning to end.

A fairly large village built on the outskirts of a territory not far from the capital.

Its beginnings go back an incredibly long time ago.

A place where, through many regression, she made into the shape and direction she wanted.

Yes. It all started with the meeting of a man.

He looked poor, but he was a man with a decent face and a neat demeanor.

He was from a family that had already fallen to the point of no saving and would not come out unless you searched the list of the nobility of the empire, but anyway, he was a blue-blooded noble with his own talents.

And Raisa bought the man’s trick.

No, it would be accurate to say that she robbed him.

“Is that all I have to do?”

“Yes. If you do a good job, your family will live without knowing anything.”

Raisa ordered a man who cared for his family for reasons she could never understand, and told him to build the village.

The man was more capable than she thought, and the village grew larger than she expected.

And it was still expanding, albeit slowly.

“Now that the size of the town has been scaled, you should know what to do.”

‘Yes, but…… Do people really want to do that?’

“It’s your job to make that happen. Oh, of course, I’ll help you. Until that happens. And it will.”

The man’s face expressed that he found her words incomprehensible, but Raisa intended to regress until the village was completed as she wanted.

And finally, at the end of this regression, a messenger came from the man.

“I used the method you said, and everyone said they would do it. Every single one.”

It was a satisfactory report. However…

Raisa’s blurred eyes, recalling that point, slowly came into focus.

“Not enough.”

Certainly, it was almost completed the way she wanted, but her heart was hardly filled.

A little more. No, more.

The more greed was filled, dried up and emptied, the bigger it swelled.

‘If I had to do it, I would do it perfectly.’

‘If I regress until I get what I want perfectly…’

Before long, Raisa giggled and scratched the bloody leather of the notebook.

“There is no such thing.”

She knew it herself.

That no matter how many times she went back, the perfect thing she wanted wouldn’t come out.

When one was obtained, she would want another, and if ninety-nine out of a hundred were gained, then she would want a thousand, and then ten thousand.

Besides, following the bizarre disaster that shook the ground, this time, there was a flood?

Just as the last disaster passed away, this disaster had become something that never happened after repeated regressions.

But if she went back, she couldn’t guarantee that either.

It was a disaster that she could not have imagined, let alone expected, so she did not really want to go through it again.

“Is this the second one?”

Raisa tilted her head, then shook it off.

Because disasters that have now become non-existent were not important.

She had to do something to alleviate some of the unresolved minutes of flipping and scratching her insides.

In order to do that, it would be good for her to see the results of what she had done so far.

She had never seen the town with her own eyes before.

The man who built the village gave her information, but she wasn’t naive enough to believe it as it was.

Naturally, there was one who monitored the place, and a person who watched that one. And watchers for him were also set up.

Not only were there those who kept an eye on each other biting their tail like that, but there were also a few who reported separately about the village.

“I’ll have to get some lab mice.”

The corners of Raisa’s mouth twisted as she said that, and a insidious smile bloomed.

‘If I see how much I’ve achieved with my own eyes, I’ll feel a little better.’

—Tok tok.

Raisa’s face was contorted savagely.

Didn’t she say not to let anyone in?

“Lady Raisa. You told me to not let anyone in, but this person said you told him he could enter anytime, and no matter what, there is information that he must convey now.”

Raisa frowned at the servant’s words that came from outside the door.

‘If he was told to enter anytime…’