THE REBORN LADY IS LOVED BY HER FOSTER BROTHER: THE SCARIEST VILLAIN - CHAPTER 136 - 137

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Chapter 136 : A Grudge from the Past

‘Oh dear, is someone angry…?’

Peering timidly into the room, Ortansia gasped.

‘Father...!’

Two men were in the room. One was a stranger, likely the source of the earlier shouting.

And the other... was Ortansia's father, the Duke.

‘Father looks exactly the same as in the present time... So this must be the near future?’

Tense, Ortansia strained to hear their conversation.

"'I'm afraid I don't regret what happened back then.”

“You...! It's your fault...! I would have made Bernadette happy, I swear I would have...!”

‘Eh, Mama?’

The name that slipped into the conversation made Ortansia's heart leap.

“Bernadette” was her mother's name.

‘No, it’s not such an unusual name. It must be a coincidence…’

Repeating this to herself, Ortansia turned her attention back to the conversation.

As the man shouted, her father regarded him with a look of undisguised contempt.

“...Made her happy, eh? That's rather presumptuous of you.”

'She was a woman working in a run-down tavern! If she'd come with me, I'd have given her a comfortable life!'

“Bernadette wasn't the sort of woman who wanted that. She knew there were things far more important than wealth or status.”

As Father spoke, his eyes were soft, looking as though he were describing someone precious to him. Ortansia knew that gaze… Every so often, Father would share memories of her Mother with Ortansia. He wore the same expression now as he did in those moments..

‘So this “Bernadette” really is my mum?’

Was the Duke arguing with this other man over Ortansia’s mother?

As Ortansia’s thoughts churned, the shouting man grew even more agitated.

“Silence! After meddling in my affair with Bernadette, you had the gall to abandon her without taking any responsibility, you spineless wretch!”

“I proposed providing her with suitable arrangements time and again. But she did not wish for them. Forcing her into a gilded cage would only silence that beautiful song of hers”

“Just excuses! If she'd come to me, I'd have made her happy!”

“Bernadette cherished her freedom. And she did not love you. You ought to accept that fact.”

“Hmph...!”

“This conversation is over, Ducasse. I've things to attend to.”

Father rose from his chair and made his way towards Ortansia.

Ortansia tensed, but he walked straight past her, leaving her standing there.

‘Ah, right. He can't see me in my current form…’

Feeling both relieved and lonely...Ortansia sighed with mixed emotions..

Right then, what should be her next step?

Her father was moving farther and farther away.

If she meant to uncover the cause of his death, perhaps she ought to follow him as he was.

Just as that thought crossed her mind and Ortansia turned on her heel…

“Don’t you dare mess with me.”

A low voice, crawling like a snake, echoed from within the room, making Ortansia flinch involuntarily. She looked over. The man her father had just called Ducasse was gazing at her with a chillingly cold stare, a faint, mocking smile playing on his lips.

“That man... how much more must he obstruct me before he's satisfied...? It's always like this! If only he weren't there, if only he didn't exist”

Thud! Ducasse slammed his fist hard onto the table, the vibration shaking the air.

It was a fierce rage, the kind that made one tremble just watching from the sidelines.

‘This man... he hates Father…’

She didn't know what had transpired between the two of them. But the emotion that radiated from him was a profound, seething resentment.

“Kuh... kuhkukku…”

‘Eh!?’

The man who'd been seething with rage suddenly started to laugh, causing Ortansia to grip Tyrol tighter without thinking.

“If that man is a hindrance,, I'll simply eliminate him. How fortunate that I've acquired just the right tool. With a newly discovered poison from Valdor…”

As Ducasse mumbled to himself, Ortansia felt a chill of dread wash over her

‘Poison...? Surely not…’

In her first life, the cause of her father's death had never been clear. She'd been told it was due to illness, but they'd been unable to identify the exact cause. However if he had been poisoned with a new type of toxin that wasn't yet known in this country...

‘This man... killed Father...!’

As soon as the realization hit her, everything before her eyes distorted. Overwhelmed by a powerful sense of weightlessness and queasiness, she couldn't stay on her feet.

[ Sia! Are you okay!? ]

Tyrol's voice in her arms began to fade away. The world seemed to tip, and the moment she shut her eyes, Ortansia”s consciousness plunged into blackness."

Chapter: 137 If We Had Never Met

‘Ugh, haa...’

Overcome by a terrible dizziness and nausea, Ortansia's consciousness surfaced.

Gradually, her eyes adjusted and the surrounding scenery came into view.

This was not the royal palace she had been in moments before, but her private chamber within the duke's residence.

“Have I... come back...?”

Muttering this hazily, Tyrol, who had been nestled beside her, licked Ortansia's cheek softly

[ Are you alright, Sha? Do you recognise me? ]

“Yes, I'm fine, Tyrol. But…”

She had discovered an unbelievable truth. She didn't know whether the destination of her 《Time interferance》 was the past or future, but it was likely a timeline not too distant from the present.

‘I do hope it's the future…’

If it was the past, there was a possibility her father had already been poisoned. The thought sent a chill through Ortansia.

‘It's fine, Father's well right now. I can still stop this...!’

Reassuring herself with these words, she sat up unsteadily.

‘In any case, I've learnt what I needed to know.’

If things continued as they were, Father would die just as he had in her first life. But Ortansia had been able to glimpse the future. Surely she could prevent Father's death now.

“The most reliable option would be to have that Ducasse fellow, the one who was arguing with Father, arrested, but…”

But it would be difficult to make that happen without any evidence yet.

So then…

"Perhaps I should warn Father to be wary of poison.”

If Father didn't ingest the poison, fate would change. 

To ensure that, she must learn everything she could about the toxin that man had talked about.

‘A newly discovered type of poison found in Vandor...’

She jotted down the words she had just heard, determined not to forget them.

She mustn't forget to hide this note somewhere Pamela couldn't find it; if she stumbled upon it, she might faint on the spot.

‘Can I really do this...? No, I mustn't dwell on whether I can or not. I simply have to…’

She  forcibly shakes off the thoughts threatening to discourage her.

She wanted to act now, but it was well past midnight. She ought to try sleeping and start her efforts tomorrow.

‘But I don't think I will be able to sleep…’

She lay down for the time being, but sleep stubbornly refused to come.

When she squeezed her eyes shut, the scene of her father arguing with that man resurfaced vividly in her mind.

‘Bernadette… she really is my mother, right…?’

Bernadette, a songstress at a seedy tavern who was said to have been close to her father…

The more Ortansia thought about it, the more she could only conclude that this woman must have been her mother.

‘From the way they talked, it sounds like that Ducasse fellow was in love with Mama too, but she never reciprocated his feelings…’

She could understand that perfectly well.

Ortansia's mother was a woman with many lovers, but she detested that sort of arrogant type.

Ortansia understood perfectly why she chose her father, Duke of Vérité, over that man.

‘...Perhaps it was my mother who caused Father to be resented by that man, leading to his death?’

The thought weighed on her terribly. She knew there was no point mulling it over, but she couldn't stop herself.

‘If Father had never encountered Mother, perhaps he wouldn't have met such an end...?’

In the end, she didn't sleep a wink that night, and morning arrived.

　◇◇◇

“Robert, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you something.”

When she called out to him, the young man, Robert, turned to look at her.

He was the young man recently hired by the ducal household to replace Lucien.

Unlike the frivolous Lucien, he was earnest and upright in both appearance and character.

It was a relief that he had taken over not only as Gérard's assistant but also as her tutor for her duties within the ducal household.

“What is it, my lady?”

“Well, um... I'd prefer it if we kept this between us, if possible…”

Leaning close to Robert's ear as he approached with a puzzled expression, Ortansia lowered her voice and whispered.

“Have you heard about the new type of poison discovered in Vandor...?”

As if hearing her words, Robert's eyes widened in surprise.

Then, he asked Ortansia.

“Is there  someone you wish to eliminate? If so, rather than resorting to poison, might it not be better to speak directly to your brother?”

“Nooo! It's not that I want to use it! Um, I just heard rumours about it recently and it made me a bit nervous…”

Hortensia desperately explained that she didn't want to use poison but rather wanted to develop countermeasures against it.

'If I understand the poison's properties, I can work out how to counteract it, right? But if I make a big fuss asking about it, there might be people who'd try to misuse that information, so ideally I'd like to learn about it discreetly, if possible”'

“Ah, understood”

Relieved that Robert seemed to accept her explanation, Hortensia relaxed.

"Well, wouldn't someone as well-informed as you know?”

When she said this in a slightly petulant tone, Robert's shoulder twitched.

He was a capable bureaucrat. But what was most astonishing was his sheer breadth of information..

Ortansia had no idea where he sourced his information, but he seemed to know everything from the gossip of the lower town shops to the extramarital affairs of the upper nobility.

Knowing too much could be frightening, so Ortansia rarely asked him anything... Yet she was certain he could tell her about the new poison.

“I must reiterate: you truly have no intention of using poison yourself, Miss? Let me be clear—entrusting the matter to Monsieur Gérard would eliminate your target far more reliably than any poison.”

“Eek... No, it's fine! I swear I won't poison anyone!”

Upon hearing her vow, Robert's expression softened slightly.

“...Understood. It will take several days, but I shall certainly provide the information you require.”

“Thank you, Robert! Oh, and keep this a secret from Father and my Brother, alright? They might try to stop me from getting involved in dangerous things...’

“Understood. The Duke has instructed me that whenever you request something, I am to comply, provided it does not place you in mortal danger.”

“Hehe, I appreciate it.”

With Robert's agreement secured, Ortansia felt relieved.

Now, if only she could find a clever way to protect her father from the poisoning plot.

‘It'll be alright. After all, we managed to deal with the demon lord. It'll be alright this time too...!’

With an almost desperate hope, Hortensia kept reassuring herself with those words repeatedly.

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