Resetting Lady

Isella looked up at her mother with blank eyes. Impossible. H-He… However, her mother uttered no words of denial, and soon Isella bowed her head.

Impossible, she thought? No. Isella already knew. Raymond never once looked her way.

“…I-It’s only because I was unconscious,” Isella murmured.

She was entirely overwhelmed with despair. Verdic gestured to his wife. Isn’t it too early for our daughter to know? But all his wife did in response was to glare at Verdic as she rose from her seat. Then.

Bang!

She left, and the door closed behind her forcefully.

Isella was flummoxed. She had just woken up, and too much had already happened. Isella sniffled and blew her nose into a handkerchief. It’s just so difficult.

“W-What in the world happened…”

Verdic sighed, preparing himself to explain. He would have to retell the events of the day she had collapsed. Not about that wretched man.

“You couldn’t wake up. Do you remember the fire that broke out in the Hare manor?”

“Fire…” Isella repeated.

“Yes, it’s how Lord Hare and one servant boy died. Fortunately, Reverend Dullan saved you, but it’s only today that you woke up.”

“Is it because I inhaled too much smoke?”

“Yes, I believe so. Raymond, that goddamn, empty-headed son of a bitch, no good for anything but his face. He—”

Verdic stopped speaking.

—He didn’t save you, Isella. He saved Carynne.

And Verdic couldn’t bear to tell his daughter that Raymond clearly favored Carynne more than his own betrothed. So, Verdic did not say anything more about Raymond.

“He couldn’t save you. Instead, Reverend Dullan has been taking care of you.”

Isella looked up at Verdic, baffled.

“Dullan?”

Verdic went on to explain to his daughter again, as she didn’t seem to recall who that man was. It must be because she had been asleep for far too long.

“That man, the one who’s a little gloomy… That is to say, Carynne’s former fiancé.”

“…I-I know who he is. You must be talking about that priest.”

“That’s right. Do you remember now?”

As Isella cast down her eyes, a scowl soon formed on her face. For as long as she had slept, her mind was so foggy right now. Her head just went round and round with the words she had heard from her father.

That her fiancé, Sir Raymond, had left her.

“Sir Raymond… What kind of woman is his fiancée now?”

“Stop thinking about that accursed man.”

Verdic felt his chest getting heavy as the fact that Carynne and Raymond were engaged was stamped across his mind.

If he had known that Isella would open her eyes again like this, he would never have arranged for that engagement to happen.

At that time, he truly thought that Isella wouldn’t be able to open her eyes again. So, apart from the fact that his daughter would no longer rise from her sickbed again, all he could think about was a way to minimize his losses as efficiently as possible.

This was his thought process when he eventually turned Carynne Hare into Carynne Evans so as to continue the engagement with Raymond.

Verdic had invested too much into Raymond, and he poured so much money into the development of the Hare estate as well.

It would just be too wasteful if he were to give up on all that.

And Raymond was a little too good of an asset to let go of.

“I did something useless.”

He should have picked a more stupid man.

Verdic already noticed that ambition had been rearing its head in Raymond’s consciousness long ago. However, Verdic only thought him arrogant.

But now that his daughter was awake, it was time for revenge.

“Tell me, Father, what kind of woman stole him from me? And Mother mentioned that… I have… I have a sister? Who is it?”

Isella persistently asked her father one question after another. Her eyes were filled with indignation.

Verdic understood his daughter’s feelings—how vexed she must feel that her man had gotten engaged to another woman while she was in a coma, trying to take her place.

He should give his daughter a chance at revenge.

And so, Verdic revealed the truth.

“It is Carynne.”

At this, Isella looked up at Verdic, completely perplexed.

For a moment, he recalled that his daughter had been suffering from an inferiority complex due to Carynne’s beauty. How difficult this must be for her. Her man had been taken away, and her fortune had dwindled.

“I’m sorry.”

His judgment was wrong. He should have prioritized his daughter first, not his business.

He had given that man as a present to his daughter, so he should have let her keep him until the very end.

“Carynne… Hare…”

Verdic chest started hurting even more as he watched his daughter’s expression grow even more distorted. Right then, he approached his daughter, who was on the verge of shedding tears, and tried to console her.

But then, Isella opened her mouth and yelled at the top of her lungs.

“A-AAAAAAH! Father! Father! It’s her! It’s her, Father!”

Isella cried bitterly.

“Carynne Hare! She tried to kill me!”

Verdic’s rage slowly started to boil over.

Verdic was not a man who knew how to forgive. He wouldn’t allow it.

Carynne committed a transgression against himself.

That red-haired wench tried to kill Isella Evans and take her place. And, she stole Raymond Saytes, who was Isella Evans’ man.

Ever since Carynne left the Evans household with Raymond, Verdic had been suffering from something that brought him constant discomfort. It would not go away no matter what he did, even if Dullan had prescribed him some medicine to drink every night.

“Isella, think of your own condition first.”

Three days was enough for Verdic to prepare.

Until now, Verdic had been bribing various nobles, and amongst those people were the noblest of them all—the royal family.

Crown Prince Gueuze had a predilection for spending far more than the budget that’s allocated to him, and so Verdic lent him some money.

Of course, there was little chance that the money he lent would ever come back in his hands.

“Crown Prince Gueuze is exceptionally interested in Miss Carynne.”

It’s become a rampant rumor that Crown Prince Gueuze was exceptionally interested in Raymond’s fiancée, and it all started when he crashed the tea party that his own son was hosting.

People ate up that kind of story.

The fact that Crown Prince Gueuze was lusting after Carynne quickly became widespread. And, naturally, it reached Verdic’s ears.

“I am Carynne’s legal father.”

If you want, I’ll give her to you.

Of course, Crown Prince Gueuze also promised an abundance of rights to Verdic from this exchange. At this, Verdic rejoiced.

It was known by practically everyone that Crown Prince Gueuze was a promiscuous man.

The moment Verdic would hand over Carynne to him, he’d receive both revenge and profit at the same time.

Still, Verdic had a dilemma—how exactly should he hand over Carynne Hare? It wouldn’t be easy for him to do so either, since she was currently residing at the countess’ mansion.

However, it all worked out easily enough.

Because Carynne Hare personally crept into the Evans mansion.

So, Verdic decided to act right then, the moment Carynne had been found in Isella Evans’, his daughter’s, room.

Ever since Isella had woken up, she had been sleeping in her mother’s room because she was afraid of sleeping alone.

When she heard that Carynne had been found in her room, Isella was completely stunned.

“She came into my room?”

“That’s right.”

“That, that woman is g-going to try and kill me again…”

Even so, Verdic thought that it was a little strange.

If Carynne had tried to kill Isella, she had plenty of chances before.

There was no consistency in any of her actions.

Why the hell had she come now?