KTEESH Chapter 128

By now, the Lansval Trading Company had probably finished its calculations.

That almost all of the company’s assets and Gerald’s personal fortune were about to be wiped out. Perhaps Gerald felt as if his arms and legs were being cut off right about now.

‘This is only the beginning. I hope you aren’t already crying, Gerald.’

I wanted him to feel, just as I had on the day he first struck me in my previous life, the same fear and despair.

To lie awake all night, unable to sleep, gripped by a terror that wouldn’t disappear no matter what.

***

As Dona entered the dining room of the Lansval mansion, she suddenly stopped and swept her gaze across the table. Then she snorted loudly, as if making sure everyone heard.

“Ha!”

It was a one-character summary of the thought, ‘I was already appalled seeing the quality of the meals deteriorate day by day, but I never imagined it could sink even lower.’

“Is the table just full of greens and brown bread? What are we, beggars or something?”

At Dona’s sharp voice, Gerald and Helga shot her irritated looks. But she paid them no heed and raised her voice even further.

“Ah, come on, at this rate how is our child supposed to grow properly? Shouldn’t you at least give better food to a pregnant woman?”

She kept complaining while ostentatiously rubbing her flat lower belly. In the end, unable to listen any longer, Helga snapped back in the same sharp tone.

“We managed not to starve at all only because we hurriedly dismissed several maids! Where do you get off throwing a tantrum like this? Be grateful and eat what’s given to you! If you don’t like it, then starve!”

“No… I will eat! I said I’ll eat! Ah, seriously, you don’t let me say anything!”

She had only meant to grumble a bit and had no intention of fighting to the point of being starved, so Dona finally sat down.

But once anger had boiled over, it didn’t subside easily. It had only been recently that she had finally entered a noble household after so much hardship.

‘I thought I could finally live in luxury.’

For that single goal, she had come this far by carefully catering to Gerald’s temper, even as he openly looked down on her.

‘But for the House to start collapsing the moment I move in? Talk about rotten luck.’

She had entered a noble family that owned a trading company, so she thought she could at least live in comfort, enjoying the trappings of nobility.

‘But I’m not enjoying anything at all!’

Wasn’t this no different from when she had lived as a commoner?

No, back when she earned money with her own strength, she could at least live without worrying about others’ moods.

Thinking that, a sense of injustice welled up again, and her irritation slowly rose.

‘There’s no reason to curry favor anymore, and I don’t want to humor them either.’

That was why, these days, she had begun to vent her temper freely at Gerald and Helga.

They had no emotional leeway to take it either, but Dona herself wasn’t in her right mind anymore.

After spending several days steeped in emotions like resentment, anxiety, and anger, barely sleeping properly, it meant her usual sense and judgment were no longer intact.

She grabbed a piece of bread, tore at it roughly, and muttered again.

“Ah, seriously, what is this? My Lord, you said you would pamper me more than enough, just me alone. Is this what you call being pampered? Huh? Say something— ah!!”

Dona didn’t finish her sentence. Gerald, whose irritation had exploded, suddenly stood up, strode over, and slapped her hard across the cheek.

“Hey, won’t you shut your mouth?!”

Dona fell straight off the chair and rolled onto the floor.

The carpet cushioned her fall, so she wasn’t injured from the drop, but the problem wasn’t her body. It was the cheek that had been struck so forcefully.

She grimaced in pain, clutching her head as a ringing filled her ears. Even seeing that, Gerald showed no concern at all and only vented his rage.

“You’re really pushing it now! So what, should I starve and put meat in your mouth instead? Huh? Once you’ve entered this household, shouldn’t you think about serving the pillar of this House, me, the Baron? Instead, what? You really need to be hit to come to your senses!”

As he shouted, unable to control his anger, Gerald raised his hand again.

But at that moment, Dona, who had been holding the ear on the side that had just been struck, pulled her hand away.

Blood had smeared her palm. Seeing it, all three of them were startled and fell silent.

Her hand trembling as she stared at the blood, Dona barely managed to speak.

“I—I think… I can’t hear out of my left ear right now…”

Caught off guard by the situation, Gerald froze in place with his hand still raised.

Helga likewise stiffened, then grabbed the back of her neck as she thought about the money it would take to call a physician for Dona.

***

I received reports of all of it through a note.

It was a note written by Solvey, who had been attending the meal and observing the situation, and it was delivered to me by another one of Rastan’s messengers.

Raven volunteered, saying he would go to the Lansval estate himself to witness the scene and report back, but I stopped him.

He was already on Gerald’s bad side, and going there in such a volatile situation could result in him suffering harm.

“Tsk tsk…”

Clicking my tongue, I was picturing the scene that must have unfolded in that mansion at lunchtime today when a familiar image suddenly came to mind, and my eyes widened.

‘That’s right. That happened to me too.’

The image of myself in my previous life, having been struck by that bastard Gerald and nearly losing the hearing in my left ear, overlapped with Dona’s current state.

‘Since I got out of there without suffering it myself, did part of the misfortune I endured end up being transferred to Dona instead?’

The feeling was strange.

The burn scars that had once been on my face, and the loss of hearing, were all pointing to the same thing.

The unjust misfortunes I had suffered in my previous life while acting like a fool were now, in this life, returning to their rightful owners.

That the arrow of causality had struck my will and changed direction back toward its original target.

Rastan, who had been standing behind my chair and reading the note with me, also didn’t bother to hide his scornful expression.

“Now that household is made up of identical kinds of people, becoming each other’s hell.”

“That’s right. It was one of the reasons I led Dona into that mansion.”

“You speak as if you know her quite well?”

Since he himself was the one who had investigated Dona’s information for me, it was only natural for him to find it odd.

“I did not know her background or profile, but I did know her personality to some extent.”

I didn’t bother making up a lie to explain myself. But for some reason, Rastan didn’t press further and simply accepted it.

“I am glad you got out of that den of demons before it was too late.”

As he spoke gently with a faint smile, his expression darkened slightly, as if something had crossed his mind.

“But no matter what, a man who beats a weak woman who is his mistress and who trusted him enough to enter his household is not something I can easily overlook. Especially when he believes she is carrying his child.”

It seemed Rastan, too, was sickened by Gerald’s trash-like character.

“Indeed. He is practically the textbook example of preying on the weak and bowing to the strong. Especially since he thinks of women as beings who belong beneath his feet.”

To Gerald, being born with what he had between his legs was a tremendous privilege and a badge of honor.

Not noble character, nor knowledge or position earned through effort, not even wealth, but only the fact that he was a man, and a noble at that, was his pride.

Brandishing those things he had obtained by sheer luck at birth or in early childhood, Gerald had treated most people carelessly.

As I shook my head inwardly at the thought, Rastan, who wore a similar expression to mine, suddenly let his eyes gleam.

“If he is your enemy, then he is mine as well. May I take the liberty of exacting a bit of revenge on him on your behalf?”

“Hmm.”

If it was framed not as Rastan simply tormenting Gerald, but as him carrying out part of my revenge in my stead, then it didn’t seem like it would pose any particular problem for the law of causality.

“What are you planning to do?”

“I was thinking of showing him a bit of kindness by removing something he has that is completely unnecessary.”

“And what would that be?”

His title? Money? There was no shortage of things Gerald possessed that far exceeded what his capacity deserved.

“Who knows?”

Rastan merely smiled inscrutably and, in the end, didn’t tell me what it was.

The next day, one of Rastan’s messengers arrived with a new note from Solvey. 

The bird that I naturally expected to come to me instead went straight to him and held out the leg with the note tied to it.

Curious, I leaned my face close to Rastan as he unfolded the note.

“What is it? What does it say? Wasn’t it meant for me?”

He skimmed through the contents quickly, then, uncharacteristically, handed the note to me with an expression that looked like he was holding back laughter.

“It was meant for you.”

Wondering what could possibly prompt that reaction, I hurriedly read the note.

And I couldn’t help but gape in shock.