“…ady, my lady. I told you not to sleep with your eyes open.”
My head rang every time she shook my body. I pressed a hand hard against my throbbing head.
What? Head? Hand?
It was strange. My neck had just been cut by a blade, so what was this about my head being shaken?
“Cassion?”
“Cassiooon? Which novel’s hero is Cassion this time? My lady! I told you not to read novels before bed.”
When I called out the name of the person I had met just before dying, a voice that was familiar yet childish scolded me.
What is going on?
I clutched my head and tried to gather my wits.
“You do know that today is the day we name Count Kolkos your guardian, don’t you? How can you be so out of it on such an important day?”
The nagging continued without pause.
Guardian, the royal palace, Count Kolkos… and Janice, nagging away!
Lightning flashed in my head. I leapt to my feet and ran to the mirror.
My hands went to my neck of their own accord. The neck that had been snipped clean off by a blade was smooth, without a single scar. The filthy, wretched figure I had been before my death was nowhere to be seen. In the mirror was a fair, cute, young me.
“Janice, how old am I right now?”
“My lady, are you ill? How old are you, you ask? Thirteen, of course.”
I had come back. To the past! And to the age of thirteen, no less. Goosebumps rose over my body. I covered my gaping mouth with both hands.
“I’m back! I’m back, Janice!”
I threw my arms around Janice.
“Goodness, my lady?”
Startled by the sudden embrace, Janice stood dazed for a moment before hugging me back.
So that legend was true? Salvation meant turning back life itself?
Questions followed one after another on each other’s heels, but I ignored them. Now that I had come back alive, the reason did not matter.
In an instant, I decided the purpose of my life.
The revenge I swore to take in hell, I’ll take it in this life.
And then,
Your Highness Cassion, this time it’s my turn to save you.
I thought of Cassion, who had come all the way to the execution ground to help me.
Though he had been reported dead, he was a prince. And yet he had taken my side when I was framed for overthrowing the state.
What had become of him after I was executed? Surely nothing good.
Compared with the trivial pity I had once given him, Cassion had given me something far too generous.
Joy and relief at having come back, and hope that I could take my revenge, brought tears welling up all at once.
“My lady? Did you have a nightmare?”
Janice fretted beside me. I had no intention of holding back my tears and wept with great, wracking sobs.
I wished what I had been through had been a nightmare, but the feelings boiling in my heart proved it was no dream.
So, it was time for revenge.
A week had already passed since I came back through time.
I basked in the warm sunlight falling on my face and wriggled about on top of the blankets. Bright sunshine streamed in through the window.
A soft quilt scented faintly of lavender, roses arranged in a vase on the table. A room so familiar that the word familiar felt almost strange…
The comfort of familiarity wrapped softly around me. I wanted to sleep more, but I sat up.
“Cassion.”
Ever since I realized I had regressed, he had not left my mind.
Well, that last moment was just so intense.
For having been helped only once, he had thrown away so much to come to the execution ground. The capital and the royal castle must have been unbearable to him.
I wonder if he’s doing all right. I’m thirteen and Cassion is two years younger than me, so he must be eleven now.
Thinking of his age left a bitter taste in my mouth. There was no way I could politely say he was doing well.
His childhood had been unhappy. It was said that a prince shunned by the king always led a miserable life, but Cassion, pitifully, was weak in body as well.
He had been skin and bones, emaciated, and much smaller than other children his age. On top of that, how terrible his clothes and cleanliness had been. The memory of his filthy, shabby appearance flashed through my mind.
That alone would have been pitiful enough, but there was even someone beside him who tormented him.
Dayson, that bastard.
When I thought of the First Prince who had driven me to my death, curses came along as a matter of course, like a set meal.
“My lady, Count Kolkos has come to see you. Will you refuse to meet him again today?”
Janice broke into my thoughts.
Since my regression, Count Kolkos had come to see me several times. I had sent him away every time with one excuse or another.
I glanced at the date. I supposed I would have to meet him today.
“Tell him to wait.”
I slowly slid out of bed.
Could I keep my temper at the sight of Count Kolkos? I doubted it.
“Stop being pathetic and die. The more you struggle, the more you lower the standing of the Irenber house. You needn’t worry about the house. Kolkos himself will become Head of House and lead it well.”
I recalled the words Count Kolkos had spat out when he came all the way to the dungeon. He had acted as though he loved me, as though he were making some great sacrifice for my sake, but the moment I was locked in prison, he showed his true colors.
My imprisonment must have been his doing, too. The man I had trusted enough to entrust my safety to as a child, simply because he was blood, was a snake out to swallow both the house and me.
No. A leech that sucks other people’s blood. Better yet, a parasite.
The parasite of my life.
I finished getting ready to leave, hurling curses in my heart.
“He said he came about the guardian matter?”
“Yes, the guardian appointment that was supposed to take place last week was postponed.”
On my first day back, the very first thing I did was put the guardian appointment on hold. The whole house was thrown into an uproar. People came and asked me why.
I just kept my mouth firmly shut. Because I had not yet thought about what would come after not appointing Count Kolkos as guardian.
I hated the guardianship system itself.
The guardianship system existed to protect a house and its heir when the only remaining heir of the house was a minor.
Until the heir came of age and formally became Head of House, the guardian exercised the authority of the Head of House in the heir’s place.
In a word, a guardian was both the protector of a minor Head of House and, in effect, the true leader of the house.
That was why the procedure for choosing a guardian was quite demanding. Some houses even waged secret power struggles to become guardian.
But Count Kolkos had been able to become guardian without any real opposition. Because I had supported him wholeheartedly.
Back then I really thought he cared about me. Never knowing he meant to gobble up my wealth and power in one gulp.
Repent, foolish me of the past!
In any case, the guardianship system had been created with good intentions, but it had many problems.
I grumbled inwardly.
Ugh, I just don’t want to appoint a guardian at all. There’s no guarantee anyone else would be any different from Count Kolkos. I’d do the work of Head of House better myself, so isn’t there some way? Ugh, honestly, what a law that’s worth less than dog poop.
As my expression crumpled more and more, Janice spoke to me gently.
“My lady, please don’t worry too much. There is pressure to appoint a guardian, but they won’t be able to do anything without your permission.”
Janice, who had noticed that I disliked Count Kolkos, tried to comfort me.
Janice looked at the future with optimism, but if I did nothing, Count Kolkos would naturally become my guardian.
Even if the heavens fell, I did not want Count Kolkos as my guardian, so I would have to settle that first.
Enough dithering. Let’s put an end to it today.
I checked my attire one last time. As I opened the door, I said to Janice,
“Let’s go, Janice.”
I would have to show the Count, once and for all, that I was not the person I used to be.
“It’s been a while, my dear niece.”
Count Kolkos, tall and thin with a face glistening with oil, greeted me with a broad smile.
Dressed up in finery, Count Kolkos looked like a drowned male peacock. He had gone to great lengths on style, yet he cut a sorry figure.
According to what I had looked into after my regression, Count Kolkos’s finances were a mess.
Count Kolkos had a greed for money and a greed for business, but no skill.
Given his finances, the clothes by a famous designer he was wearing now, and the more than ten rings on his hands, were things he should never have dared to dream of.
And yet he went about dressed to the nines. I could easily guess what he had been saying around town.
He must have said he had become my guardian. Or that he was certain to become my guardian.
The mere possibility of becoming guardian to the Irenber house was enough to change how the banks treated him.
Thinking that he had been selling the house’s name around, irritation welled up in me.
Should I just go back? Do I really need to deal with Count Kolkos? If I keep looking at that face, I think I’ll throw up.
While I was thinking that, the Count approached.
“I heard you were ill, and indeed the flesh has fallen right off your cheeks. How pitiful.”
Count Kolkos spread his arms wide to embrace me. I took a step back. In the past I would have thrown myself into his arms long ago. Count Kolkos’s eyes narrowed.
“You must not be feeling well. Shall I come again another time?”
I barely swallowed the words telling him to get lost this instant, and gestured at the sofa with my chin. It was better to settle this quickly and rest.
“Please sit. I had something to say, and you’ve come at just the right time.”
“Yes. We have much to talk about, don’t we? Hahaha.”
Having been turned away at the door several times, Count Kolkos was delighted even by my telling him to sit. He sat down across from me, smiling. The smile never left his face.
“Shall I speak first, or would you like to speak first, Uncle?”
“About what?”
“You came because you have business with me. Isn’t that so?”
“Not exactly. I heard you were very ill, so I was worried and came to see you.”
Count Kolkos lied without moving a single eyebrow.
I can’t feel a shred of sincerity.
The drooping brows, the greed lodged in the forced wrinkles, were now plain as day to me.
Why hadn’t I seen it before?
To think I was swayed by fake comfort handed over like charity.
The me of the past had been truly foolish. Once again, I gave my former self a failing grade.
“Since you say you have nothing to say, it seems only I need to speak.”
Count Kolkos nodded, telling me to say whatever I liked.
Even the way he straightened his body as if to listen attentively was repulsive to look at. I wondered whether he could keep up that benevolent expression after hearing what I had to say. I declared in a clear, deliberate voice.
“I am withdrawing my plan to appoint you as my guardian, Uncle.”
“W-what did you say?”
Count Kolkos’s eyes grew so wide they seemed about to pop out.
He was so shocked that even his half-raised rear lurched in the air. I repeated it for him, plainly, once more.
“I said you cannot be my guardian, Uncle.”
Count Kolkos’s eyes shattered into pieces from the shock.
Had my own eyes looked like that when he came to the dungeon and told me to die? The thrill of revenge raised goosebumps across my skin.
