Episode 11
“What?”
“I was joking too. Should we go back inside now?”
Leaving behind Adrian, who stood frozen with a baffled expression, I quickly walked out of the garden.
The back of my head tingled—he was probably glaring at me—but who cares!
I didn’t want to keep talking to a man I didn’t even remember in the first place.
“Wait, Libe!”
As I pouted my lips in frustration, Adrian called out to me. I quickly fixed my expression and turned around.
“Sorry, I went too far with the joke.”
As long as you know.
Somehow, talking to him always felt draining. I just wanted to go upstairs and rest.
My fate was already tangled enough to give me a headache.
I didn’t even feel like saying I was okay. Instead, I just stood there wearing the elegant smile I’d learned in this world.
“Libe.”
“…”
“I think I acted a bit petty without realizing it.”
“…?”
“So, I mean—no, never mind.”
What? Why do you start saying something and then stop, making me curious?
“Petty?”
He looked like he had something to say, but it was as if the words got stuck in his throat. His face kept turning red and then calming down again.
Since the day he first showed up at the mansion, he’d always worn a cheerful smile.
This was the first time I’d seen such an expression on him—it made him look like a completely different person.
I was just about to turn away, silently signaling that I didn’t care, when—
“Duke Cygnus.”
The name he suddenly uttered stopped me in my tracks.
Why bring up Zerlach here?
“Somehow, it kept bothering me. Even though it shouldn’t have.”
“What do you mean?”
“You and he talking privately… it just didn’t sit right with me.”
What? When did I ever talk privately with Zerlach?
“Privately?”
When I asked again, he slowly turned his head and blushed.
He must have realized it was ungentlemanly to bring it up.
Ugh… and just when he acts like this, he seems kind of cute.
“It just looked like you and the Duke were pretty close.”
“…”
“I heard he only arrived in Mütten recently, so… how do you know him so well?”
“I don’t, really.”
The unexpected mention of Zerlach caught me off guard, and I responded quickly. Adrian seemed startled by my anxious tone. His eyes widened, and I instinctively added,
“I-I mean, I don’t know him well. I just happened to get acquainted.”
“You happened to?”
“It was at a ball recently. We became friendly by chance.”
“By chance?”
Ha… the more I say, the worse it sounds.
But I couldn’t exactly say, “I got drunk trying to embrace my impending death and caused a scandal.”
No matter how I tried to dress it up, what happened that night couldn’t be covered up.
And Adrian’s expression was getting darker by the second.
“Yeah, I just happened to meet him. But we’re not particularly close.”
As I babbled, I noticed how Adrian’s face looked more and more gloomy.
Ugh, this wasn’t even a necessary conversation!
“It’s just how it happened.”
When I hurriedly ended my explanation, Adrian shrugged with a bitter smile.
“It still sounds like you’re pretty close.”
He was someone I shouldn’t be close with, and someone I couldn’t be close with.
But the truth was, I was now deeply entangled with him.
“Libe.”
He called my name in a soft, languid voice.
“We’ve been apart for a long time, but I’ve always thought of you like family.”
His tone was completely different from when he joked around with me.
“So even when we met again after all that time, and you didn’t even remember me, I didn’t feel hurt. Maybe it’s because I felt like we were somehow connected.”
“…”
His sentimental words made me want to share that feeling with him.
But unfortunately, I had no memory of him to recall.
I felt terribly sorry about that—but at the same time, I didn’t even know what to say.
“You were always curious and sensitive as a child.”
“Me?”
I’d heard I was loud, reckless, and fearless.
That I was like a wolf cub that had come down from the mountains.
“Everyone must’ve found that sentimental side of you appealing.”
He said something I didn’t understand, then glanced at my face and gave an awkward smile.
“Well, shall we head back now?”
“Yes.”
Adrian smiled that same fresh smile I’d seen when we first met again.
Though for me, it only brought back the face I had momentarily forgotten—making me suffer once again.
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
The next day, I headed to Count Almaz’s estate after receiving an urgent call from Leoni.
I wondered what could be so urgent early in the morning. But once I heard what she had to say, I realized it was no small matter.
“Libe, just before you arrived…”
Leoni bit her lips, her face pale.
“I almost fell down the stairs trying to come see you off.”
“What?”
“You know I’m slow when I walk, so I rarely trip. That was the first time I almost slipped on the stairs.”
“…”
“What should I do? These unlucky things keep happening. I feel like something terrible is going to happen to me eventually.”
“What are you saying? No, that won’t happen.”
Despite my words, my heart thumped unpleasantly.
Trying to wet my dry lips, I gulped down cold tea. Then Leoni continued.
“So I was thinking, Libe.”
“Yeah?”
“Louisa said maybe I should get a tarot reading.”
“Tarot?”
“Louisa heard from Elome that there’s a fortune teller who’s eerily accurate—about both the past and the future.”
I’d heard of tarot readings too.
In Mütten, it was trendy to predict the past or future using astrology and tarot cards.
At first, I found it fascinating.
In fact, I once went around visiting fortune tellers, desperate to avoid my repeated deaths.
I spent every bit of my emergency savings and even traded in expensive jewelry.
But no one could stop my death.
Even when I offered precious accessories and gold coins, I still ended up dead one way or another.
Since then, I believed all that astrology and fortune-telling was a bunch of lies.
‘Ugh, those tarot readings are never right. But Leoni wouldn’t believe me even if I said that now.’
“Libe, you’ll come with me, right?”
“Mm. Of course.”
I would go with her—but I had to speak my mind.
Because looking for a fortune teller while in a vulnerable state like this could actually be dangerous.
“Leoni.”
“Yeah?”
“I didn’t mention it before, but I actually had a tarot reading recently too.”
“What? Really?”
Leoni’s eyes widened in surprise.
Then she looked at me with deep concern.
“What happened? Was it something bad?”
“Huh?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Oh, it wasn’t anything that serious. Haha!”
I couldn’t exactly say, “No matter what I did, I was accused of trying to harm someone and got executed.”
I avoided Leoni’s sparkling gaze.
“Well, it was kind of a relief to hear someone out and share my worries.”
“Yeah.”
“But not everything they said was right. Some parts were totally off.”
“Oh…”
“I think it’s fine to go since they’re well-known, but you don’t have to believe everything they say.”
Because… I’d been burned too many times.
How much money did I waste on things like “This will ward off fate,” or “This will banish demons”?
“Libe, you’re such a dependable friend.”
Leoni looked at me like she was about to cry again.
Ah, this wasn’t the reaction I was aiming for.
“D-Dependable, really…”
“With everything going on with my father, I’ve felt so alone lately. If it weren’t for you, I’d have no one.”
“Leoni…”
“And now these little accidents keep happening—it’s been so hard.”
Leoni’s father had recently been involved in a troubling scandal.
Count Almaz owned several famous hotels. But not long ago, one of them was found to have housed traitors plotting rebellion.
They had been using the hotel as a hideout for quite some time, and the Count found himself in a deeply awkward position.
Though it was eventually proven he had no involvement with the rebels, people stopped going to the hotels owned by the Almaz family.
Because of that, Leoni had started to be shunned by high society.
In the original novel, Liberata took advantage of this moment.
It was the perfect opportunity to manipulate the isolated Leoni.
‘But in the original story, Leoni never went for a tarot reading claiming she kept getting into accidents…’
“Libe, I’m so glad I have you. Thank you, really.”
“Don’t thank me. Please don’t.”
As I held Leoni’s hands, the tears welling in her eyes finally spilled down her cheeks.
“Leoni…”
“Sorry, I’ve just been thinking such dark thoughts lately. With my father, and all these little accidents… I feel like I need to hear something. You’ll come with me, right?”
“Of course!”
Not long after, we found ourselves sitting nervously in front of a fortune teller on Jenniton Street.
‘I’ve never seen this one before.’
After dying nineteen times and coming back, I thought I’d seen all the famous fortune tellers around.
Her hair was streaked with white, but looked like it had originally been red.
It hung long over her face, hiding most of her expression and eyes.
‘If she tries to say something weird just to scam Leoni, I’ll stop her right away.’
I knew their tricks all too well.
I almost sold my house after falling for their words the first few times.
‘Everything they say is predictable. I’m not falling for it again.’
I was glancing at the old woman with a determined expression when she looked at both Leoni and me—then raised a finger.
“Young lady… you are the problem.”
