FWRP 02

Chapter 2 …

Explanation? What explanation was he talking about?

Regardless of her confusion, Vanessa didn’t have the confidence to face him like this. She couldn’t remember how she had treated him at this point in her life.

With her mind racing, Vanessa couldn’t choose an answer. She swallowed hard.

“Besides, if you go out looking like that…”

In the end, instead of answering, Vanessa kicked off the ground and sprinted toward the entrance of the mansion.

“Vanessa…!”

She heard his urgent call from behind, but Vanessa ran out as though she were fleeing, keeping her eyes fixed ahead.

She felt bad for Ian, but to Vanessa, the Ian Ruscliff she was familiar with was still the man over forty.

‘Maybe next time. Though I don’t know if we’ll ever meet again…’

For now, she didn’t want to face that youthful face.

Even if he hadn’t intended for it to happen, Vanessa had ended up divorcing her husband because of Ian Ruscliff—and, on top of that, had been branded an adulteress.

“Huff… hng… huff…”

Only after she had completely left the mansion did Vanessa slow her pace and catch her breath.

Once she had gotten away from Ian, she remembered her purpose again.

She had to get to the Sharoz residence quickly.

She had to see her father.

‘Where’s the carriage rental station?’

Perhaps because this was fifteen years ago, the streets looked considerably different, and it took her quite some time just to find the rental station.

Vanessa impatiently stamped her feet until she spotted a sign with a picture of a carriage in the distance. Without hesitation, she hurried toward it.

“Shar… huff… Sharoz, no… the shores of Lake Lambert…”

A suspiciously dressed woman had appeared before dawn, barely able to catch her breath.

The coachman’s eyes widened at her exceedingly suspicious appearance.

“L-Lake Lambert, yes. Please, get in.”

“Money, I…”

In her haste, Vanessa pulled off her brooch and handed it to the coachman. His eyes widened once again.

It was an expensive brooch that was obviously worth at least twice the fare, so the coachman’s face showed a mixture of awkwardness and annoyance.

“I don’t have any change…”

“Keep the change. Just get me to the lakeside as quickly as possible.”

“My goodness, Young Lady. How did you know I’m the coachman with the fastest horse in all of Dunbarne Village?”

However, that lasted only a moment. As soon as Vanessa told him not to worry about the change, the coachman’s expression brightened considerably.

She had intended to go to the entrance of the Sharoz ducal residence, but she was in no condition to show up there. So she had simply named a nearby lakeside location, yet the coachman had taken it upon himself to call Vanessa a young lady of noble birth.

Whether the woman in front of him was a thief or a noble lady didn’t matter. The jewel in his hand was proof of her status.

Perhaps thinking that way, he went even further and wiped down the back seat of the carriage where Vanessa would sit with his sleeve.

Vanessa’s status had instantly risen from that of a suspicious woman wearing a scarf around her head to that of a noble lady. Listening to the coachman humming to himself, she climbed into the carriage.

After riding for some time, the Sharoz residence gradually came into view in the distance through the carriage window.

Whatever had happened, if she really had returned to the past…

If it meant she could see her father again…

And if it meant she could apologize for her past ingratitude…

Only then did Vanessa begin to truly contemplate the dreamlike reality that had happened to her.

‘Could I have been placed under some kind of spell? I heard there are people in Delphiro who specialize in magic, but…’

Yet everything was far too vivid to be an illusion or dream created by magic. Even the breeze brushing through her hair felt real.

Besides, she had never incurred enough resentment from anyone to warrant someone casting such a powerful spell on her.

‘There isn’t anything left for them to take from me anyway.’

They had already taken all the wealth and honor her father had built up. They had even left her crippled, barely clinging to life.

What more could there possibly be for someone to take from her that they would go to all this trouble?

As Vanessa thought of those who had taken everything from her, she calmed her burning heart and got down from the carriage.

Perhaps because she had sprinted so desperately earlier, she quickly became accustomed to walking normally again.

Even so, Vanessa continued to feel that everything was unfamiliar as she walked toward the bridge between Lake Lambert and the ducal residence.

“Vanet!”

And before she even reached the ducal residence, she heard a familiar voice.

No matter how hard she had tried to suppress it, the anger that had repeatedly surged within her instantly cooled at that one call.

“…Father.”

Though he was already middle-aged, he had a sturdy build and an upright posture. After his wife died, he had raised his daughter alone, disciplining her properly while giving her more than enough love.

He was the man who, upon hearing that his daughter’s legs had become crippled, had turned away and cried for the first time, saying that he never should have married her off.

How long had he been waiting for her?

If she had known this would happen, she should have stopped the carriage at the entrance to the ducal residence.

Seeing her father healthy and whole made such overwhelming emotions rise inside her that Vanessa had to bite down hard on her lip.

“Even if you were scolded, what kind of upbringing teaches you to spend the night away from home without saying a word?”

Of course, it seemed her father had interpreted her actions in an entirely different way.

“Unless you deliberately intended to worry your old father to death, how could you…”

“I’m sorry.”

At his daughter’s immediate apology, the Duke moved his lips as though he wanted to say something, then firmly closed them.

Vanessa was the first to speak again.

“…I’m sorry, Father. For everything. For all the childish things I’ve done until now.”

“…Next time, at least leave a note before you go out.”

“Yes. I will.”

Seeing the relieved expression on his face, Vanessa nodded while desperately holding back her tears.

She had thought that the next time she met him would be beneath the paradise spoken of in the Holy Kingdom. She had even prepared an excuse for when he scolded her, asking why she had returned so soon.

‘Carlisle. It seems it wasn’t a god who was on my side, but a demon.’

When she met the person she had missed more than anyone else, and realized that she could undo the thing she regretted more than anything…

Naturally, what ignited inside Vanessa’s heart was a desire for revenge.

Her father always covered his forehead.

When she was young, she had carelessly fired an arrow that grazed above her father’s eyebrow, leaving a scar. The reason he continued to cover it was because he didn’t want her to worry about what had happened when she was little.

The moment Vanessa caught sight of the scar peeking through his disheveled hair as he hurried toward her, she became certain that this was not a spell.

No one except her knew about the scar on her father’s forehead.

Besides, the only person who might have had a reason to cast such a spell on her was her mother-in-law. If it had been her, however, her father’s face would not look like this now.

She had heard that one of the unwritten rules of magic was that you could not create something you did not know with certainty.

Therefore, she really had returned to the past.

And she was incredibly happy about it.

“…You’re laughing after doing something wrong.”

“Because… I’m so happy.”

“About spending the night away from home?”

At his wide eyes, which looked as though he might erupt in anger at any moment, Vanessa burst out laughing.

“No.”

To hide the tears that had gathered slightly in her eyes, she gently curved them into a smile. Seeing her softly curved eyes, the Duke quietly gazed at her face.

“…Because I’m so happy to see you, Father.”

“……”

“After leaving home, I realized… life is really hard.”

“You’re ridiculous. I spoiled you too much. If you learned what hardship was after only one day outside the mansion, then I must have raised my daughter far too delicately.”

He spoke in a deliberately stern voice, but to Vanessa, it sounded like nothing more than her father’s small complaint.

“Really. That’s why…”

Vanessa was about to continue, but the Duke interrupted her.

“I would like to hear what you experienced as well, Vanet. But your… future husband has been waiting in the drawing room for quite some time.”

At the sudden appearance of the word husband, Vanessa’s eyes widened.

“Future husband…?”

“…The eldest son of the Marquis of Leonard.”

Her father frowned in displeasure before letting out a small sigh.

“I didn’t realize you attached so much importance to the fact that you’ve been friends with that boy since childhood.”

“……”

“Were you so upset when I said you couldn’t marry that fellow that you couldn’t even bear to come home?”

At his gentle, consoling tone, Vanessa furrowed her brows.

“What… Who said something like that?”

“If you weren’t the one complaining about being upset, how would that fellow know about the conversation you and I had?”

No way.

The point in time to which she had returned was…

‘Before my marriage to Carlisle?’

Vanessa barely managed to suppress the corners of her lips from curling upward.

She could turn everything back!

Yes. Now she finally remembered.

Why she had spent the night away from home at this time.

And even what consequences that night away from home had brought her.

“…I wasn’t trying to object to the two of you meeting and developing feelings for each other.”

“……”

“I only opposed it because I wanted you to meet a better man. That fellow…”