When My Enemies Began to Regret

It was 11:31 am.

 

Originally, the woman named Fanora Celsius was soft-hearted. She was too timid, never said anything harsh to anyone, and always gave up on others. Moreover, Seir had taken care of Fanora since she was a baby. From the young Fanora’s point of view, Seir was old enough to look up to, so she felt scary and powerful.  

 

“I am just being friendly to get to know Lady Fanora. Was that worthy of making a fuss about? No one wants to serve you here! No one cares about you!”

 

“…”

 

“Rather, you should treat me well. What are you doing?”

 

So Fanora gave up her rebellion and justified it to herself. After all, it was a very trivial matter for Seir to play pranks on her. It wasn’t a threat to her life and sometimes she would take a break from her pranks, so everything would pass if she just endured for a while.

 

As Seir said, let’s not go against them anymore and stay calm. F

anora thought so.

 

“Lady is not going to drink tea for today? Then I’ll bring medicine for Lady Vanora’s wounds.”

 

Of course, this situation has always been the same with Seir venting her anger. Seir, about to turn around and leave the room, would probably bring and apply a potion that Fanora was reluctant to use since it just caused burning and pain from the wound. Even if she cried and begged for her to stop, this maid would just persistently keep applying it on. And if her shouts were to be heard outside the room, the servants who weren’t in charge of her would come and the results would just be troublesome.

 

Seir would just say, “I brought medicine and was applying it carefully because I want Lady Fanora to heal quickly.” But she would say to other servants that the lady shouted like that when she applied the medicine because it just slightly stung her wounds.

 

People always like to gossip. How interesting would it be to gossip about ‘the noble who treated their servants with a bad attitude.’ Gradually, Fanora’s reputation would become black. The prejudice around her would make her personality even gloomier. That’s how her life was supposed to be.

 

“Seir.”

 

But… that was her story from when she was 15 years old.

 

“Yes?”

 

It was 11:32 am. Fanora, who was sitting quietly on the bed, spoke to her maid. 

 

“It’s okay if you don’t bring me medicine. T-The pharmacist is far from here. The bleeding has stopped so I can recover quickly by myself! I don’t want to give Seir a hard time.”

 

Even though her status was higher than Seir’s, Fanora made a truly remarkable statement by using honorifics. Seeing that, Seir laughed at Fanora inwardly and thought, 

Is she looking into my eyes? Did she want me to cut her some slack this time?

 

“!”

 

Knock. Knock.

 

Then someone visited Fanora’s room. When Seir was about to leave this place and opened the door, she saw a neatly dressed man with gray hair.

 

“Ah, Seir. As expected, you were here. You have work to do, so follow me.”

 

“For me? As you can see, Lady Fanora got hurt. I have to get some medicine, so I’m busy right now… Is it urgent?”

 

“Isn’t that only a small scratch? This is much more serious than that.”

 

Fanora listened to their conversation from afar and thought with a calm face.

Seir. Enjoy your life to the fullest now. I will surely bury you in the cemetery of the estate as soon as possible.

 

In the meantime, the man in a butler’s suit standing outside the door met Fanora’s gaze and bowed his head with a business-like smile.  Fanora responded to the man’s greeting with a gentle face and thought.

What’s this man up to? Just wait. You’ll be buried next to Seir.

 

The man was the butler in charge of this mansion’s work, big and small. But, well, that wasn’t important. Fanora remembered that soon, even though he had explicitly witnessed Seir bothering her, the butler would ignore her request and cover up everything.

 

It was 2:18 pm. 

After finishing her early lunch, Fanora decided to use the rest of her time arbitrarily. The fact that no one cared about her in the mansion was an advantage at this time.

 

Looking at Seir’s actions and the butler, it seems that not everyone in this world has gone through the same thing like me.

She

chewed on bread to fill her stomach so that she had enough stamina to walk around and solve her curiosity.

But what if I’m not the only one who returned to the past with my memories? There may be someone else who has received the same privilege. I’m particularly suspicious of Naverius, who has become closer to me than what I can remember.

 

As Fanora continue to thought about the present situation, the face of the man that she  killed continued to pop up.

Now I’m still 15 years old. He is still alive at this time.

 

It would be difficult if that man also came back from the past. Aside from the resentment that she killed him, she couldn’t know what he would do to avoid going through the same situation. So, Fanora decided to ask the person in the mansion to find out where and what Haures was doing at this time.

 

“Excuse me, I want to ask you something…”

 

“Yes?! M-M-Me?”

 

“Hello, my name is Fanora Celsius. Well, can I ask you a very small favor?”

 

The person she spoke to was the gardener of the mansion. Fanora was speaking politely to someone of very low status. It was against the kingdom’s rules, but she couldn’t care less about it.  

 

I can’t help but feel Seir was a little strange.

There was nothing bad about being careful right now.

 

“Sir Gardener makes the garden look pretty whenever important guests come to our house. Depending on who’s coming, there are times when you decorate with different flowers, right?”

 

“Ah, yes, yes. That’s right.”

 

“Do you know who’s visiting our house this week?”

 

“Ah, that’s… Countess Vincent is said to be coming at the request of the Madam. So I prepared white flowers.”

 

The gardener seemed to be unaware of Fanora’s reputation. In fact, it was still like this at this time. It was before Seir, Naverius, and others decided and started spreading gossip about her. Except for the servants, no commoners would do any great deeds against her.

 

“Countess Vincent? She’s not the one I’m waiting for. By any chance, has Baron Hopen visited recently? It will be good if he plans to visit in the future.”

 

“Aha. That person?”

 

“There are many rumors that the young master of the Hopen family has a handsome appearance. It’s hard to get close, but I wish to see him at least once from a distance.”

 

Fanora, who made up rough remarks, asked him the real question hidden in there with a more comfortable mind.  

 

The estate of the family to which a man named Haures belongs is a place that is far from here. So, according to my prediction, he hasn’t come out of his estate yet. 

She

didn’t know whether the house of Haures at this time was in the Hopen estate or was just around the corner. 

It will be embarrassing if he’s already started being active before me. 

In order to kill him once again, it was necessary to locate him.

 

“Pardon?”

 

But then. As she pondered the death of Haures in her mind, the gardener gave her an unknown answer.

 

“I’m sorry, lady, can you say that again? Who is from the Hopen family?”

 

“Isn’t there a rumor that the young master of the Hopen family is handsome?”

 

“Pardon? You must be mistaken for another family.”

 

Fanora talked to him because he looked quite smart, but why was he stuttering so much? Her gaze could not be stopped from becoming cold, and the answer that followed was even more incomprehensible.

 

“This chief gardener who works with me told this story not too long ago because he worked for the Hopen family. He said the Baron didn’t have any son born yet.”

 

“…”

 

“So, there’s no way that the young master in that family is handsome, right? Because of that, I’ve heard about the succession issue… Oh my gosh! I made a fuss in front of the lady.”

 

He quickly shut up his mouth as he felt it was a sin to reveal the circumstances of a noble family.  But those sentences alone were enough to make her feel perplexed. 

I never thought of knowing his movements completely by just listening to the gardener like this. But… what is this?

 

It wsd unknown how many years ago a former gardener of the Hopen family worked there. However, it didn’t seem to refer to something like 10 or 20 years ago in terms of nuance. At most, it will be 4-5 years or maybe 1-2 years shorter. And yet he answered that no boy was born in the Hopen family? 

Haures was older than me, and he was already famous by this time. Could such a person suddenly hide his existence?

 

The gardener took off his straw hat and said goodbye politely, leaving her behind. Fanora quickly returned to the mansion and pondered for a moment.

 

That gardener was a commoner. If she asked a question to a noble, she would get a better answer. However, a timid and shunned young lady catches a noble wandering out of nowhere and asks about Haures Hopen?

That’s so suspicious no matter who looks at it. 

And it was dangerous. Assuming that Haures was resurrected with memories just like her. 

 

Fanora visited the library again to solve her problem. There was a very thick book there which contained a family tree of nobles stretching out like a world tree.

It didn’t record illegitimate children, but there’s no way that person is not written in here. Because he was the successor that the family proudly revealed. 

As she slowly turned the page, she saw familiar family names. After a few more pages, she finally found Baron Hopen’s family tree. But…

 

“…!”

 

None.

 

On the noble list…His name was… nowhere.

 

Surprised, she hurriedly checked the book’s cover to see what year this list was revised. But the book was new, made last year at the most. Nevertheless, there was no Haures in the names that must exist in this period.

 

Haures Hopen. Haures Hopen. Haures Hopen!

She

couldn’t have forgotten the name of the man who she resented infinitely and even took his life with her own hands! In the end, Fanora, unable to believe this situation, struggled to follow the path of a man named Haures Hopen by all means.

 

* * *

It was 6 pm. Fanora

 looked out the window blankly after the second sour and salty meal handed over by the servant.

 

How can this happen? It is as if the existence of him has been erased from the world. 

In the end, there was no trace of the enemy she hated and resented so much. Even if she grabbed anyone and asked, the only answer that came was that they didn’t know the existence of Haures, someone who was so famous before.

That bastard should have died twice more…

 

Anyway, it didn’t make sense for her to return to the past.

Is it possible that I made Haures disappear from this world? So if I kill Seir, will I be back to this time again? Or to my younger life…?

She

thought about it calmly. 

Let’s no longer care about that young master who suddenly disappeared from the world. What would you do if you were obsessed with someone who is no longer in this world? Even if Haures had abandoned his name and hidden, it won’t change the future.

 

First of all, revenge on that maid is the priority.

With that, she could check if she could erase their existence in this world the same as what happened to Haures. 

 

Fanora looked around the room with an expressionless face. This room was only filled with terrible memories. But since starting to plan her revenge, she began to feel quite fond of it.