Please Support My Revenge - Chapter 57

“Come to think of it, didn’t Elyan Regritina ask if I had met ‘Louis’ when we were trading the Blue Diamond at the academy?”

The mention of ‘Louis’ turned out to be a nickname for someone. Since the original story didn’t delve into details about Elyan’s siblings, she didn’t recognize Louis.

“If you’re heading to the dorm, let’s go together,” Louis said, looking a bit flustered.

“Is the book not heavy?” Lobelia asked as they started to walk together, but then she seemed to remember something and asked, “Wait here.”

“Of course not!”

“Then where will you leave the book?”

With Lobelia’s question, Louis muttered something under his breath and then left the book in an empty classroom nearby.

Lobelia, feeling much calmer, headed to the dorm with him.

“Is everything finished?” Joachim asked, stepping aside as Lobelia showed Louis to him.

“This is…”

“I’m Louis Regritina,” Louis said, meeting Joachim’s disbelieving gaze. It seemed surprising to him that there was such an amiable sibling amidst the stern Theodor and Elyan.

“I came to return the documents I dropped last time.”

“Oh, those, they’re here,” Joachim said, pulling out a stack of papers from the corner of his desk. They seemed to have been set aside while he was organizing his belongings.

Lobelia immediately handed the documents back to Louis.

“Th-thank you,” Louis said, blushing and nodding his head.

“No problem. Just take care of this,” Lobelia said, thinking her business with Louis was finished, about to bid farewell.

“U-um, next time…!” Louis raised his head towards Lobelia, clutching the documents tightly to his chest.

“Next time?” Lobelia raised an eyebrow.

“Will there be another chance for us to meet?”

“Us? Well…”

Lobelia shrugged.

“Probably not, I guess?”

At Lobelia’s words, Louis’s face noticeably darkened.

“Is everything alright? Did something happen?” Lobelia asked, wondering if she had missed something with the documents, and Louis’s face flushed even more.

“It’s nothing. I’ll just go now,” Louis quickly made his exit.

“Wait, just a moment…”

Didn’t he have to go back towards the office to retrieve the book he left in the empty classroom? But Louis dashed off in the opposite direction.

“He’s completely different from Elyan Regritina,” Lobelia muttered, scratching her cheek as she glanced once more at where Louis had disappeared before decisively heading toward the office.

The process of withdrawal went smoothly.

“Half the classes were absent, the other half had proxies, and now withdrawal…,” Bridginal sighed, remarking that such an irresponsible student as Lobelia would likely never be seen again in the history of the academy.

“It doesn’t matter, but it’s a shame she won’t be able to use the library,” Lobelia replied politely, accepting Bridginal’s words before leaving the office.

Joachim was waiting outside with the luggage.

“Let’s go back to the mansion,” Lobelia said, climbing into the carriage with Joachim and closing the door. Beyond the closing door, she caught a glimpse of the academy grounds.

It was an ideal place to hide away from Marlon’s eyes, but too cramped for conducting business.

“Let’s depart,” Joachim instructed the coachman, and the carriage began to move.

Upon returning to the estate, three maids welcomed Lobelia and unpacked her belongings.

“Um, Miss Lobelia …,” Hilda cautiously opened the curtain and entered after enjoying a warm bath.

“What’s the matter?”

“The Duke requests your presence in his chambers tonight.”

Hilda cleared her throat awkwardly before speaking, feeling embarrassed to vocalize something that wasn’t particularly unusual.

“Oh, was it today? Right.”

Lobelia, who had been lost in thought about her withdrawal from the academy, suddenly realized, causing Hilda’s face to blush lightly.

“Hilda probably thought I was going to bed, I must have sounded too casual.”

She felt a slight pang of regret for her casualness, but it seemed there was no going back now. Besides, it didn’t matter what the servants thought of her.

“He didn’t mention having dinner together?”

“No, he asked specifically for Lobelia to be served separately, as it’s getting late,” Hilda stepped aside. As she did, Adele, also blushing like Hilda, appeared holding a tray with food.

“Is the menu to your liking?”

As Hilda lifted the dome covering the food, Lobelia’s eyes widened.

“Why are you surprised? If you don’t like it, I can ask the chef to prepare something else.”

“No, no, it’s perfect.”

On the tray lay exquisitely prepared goat meat, cooked to perfection by skilled hands.

“It seems the food I enjoyed in Merdanyon left an impression. They keep serving me this.”

Lobelia savored the goat meat contentedly, unaware of Jade’s thoughts.

After finishing her bath and being attended to by the maids in the dressing room, Lobelia, adorned in a light gown over her nightclothes, stood outside Jade’s door.

Hilda knocked on behalf of Lobelia, and when permission was granted by Jade, she slowly opened the door and quickly exited.

Once Lobelia made sure the maids had disappeared across the hallway, she entered Jade’s room.

But something felt off.

Jade seemed off. He stood by the window, not approaching Lobelia, his gaze fixed outside. Did he not notice her coming in? Wondering if that was the case, Lobelia tentatively called out to him.

“Duke?”

Upon hearing Lobelia’s voice, Jade startled as if shocked by electricity, jerking his body slightly. Nevertheless, since he hadn’t failed to notice her presence, Lobelia shrugged and approached him.

Jade turned hesitantly towards Lobelia, his demeanor unusually awkward. Lobelia raised an eyebrow at his unnatural behavior.

“Are you okay, Duke?”

In response to Lobelia’s question, Jade sighed deeply before nodding his head.

“Do I seem strange to you?”

“Very much so.”

Jade sighed once again.

“What about you…”

With an expression of anguish, Jade glanced at the delicate nightgown peeking from beneath Lobelia’s gown.

“Are you not bothered at all?”

“What do you mean?”

Lobelia tilted her head, puzzled.

“Well, eliminating the curse mark is a difficult task. But I assure you, I’m doing my best, so don’t worry.”

Lobelia thought Jade was worried about the curse, so she reassured him. Despite showing signs of improvement after two dream therapies, she couldn’t predict when things might go wrong again.

“Yeah, right. I’m afraid of the curse.”

Jade’s voice sounded feeble.

“Let’s begin the treatment.”

Jade removed his gown and lay on the bed dressed in a shirt and trousers. Lobelia brought a chair next to him and sat down, taking his hand.

“…!”

Lobelia sensed Jade’s startled reaction when she held his hand.

“He still doesn’t like holding hands, it seems.”

Lobelia brushed off Jade’s trembling and proceeded with the familiar gesture, smoothly drawing the magic rune on their touching hands.

“Now, close your eyes.”

With a hint of sleep-inducing scent in the air, Lobelia spoke softly to Jade.

Jade’s eyelids trembled slightly.

“…Why are you speaking like that?”

He asked with his eyes closed.

“Don’t you like it? Sometimes, when I couldn’t sleep due to nightmares of Josephine’s abuse, Julia would whisper comforting words like this to me.”

It was nothing extraordinary, but to Lobelia, it was a cherished and tender moment.

Suddenly, the memory of those times resurfaced, and she wondered if Jade felt similarly, whether he liked it or not.

“If you don’t like it, I’ll go back to the usual.”

“No.”

Jade hurriedly denied it.

“Very well.”

“Huh?”

It was an unexpected compliment.

“No, I mean… um…”

Jade struggled to explain, flustered, and finally managed to come up with a suitable excuse.

“It’s just very soothing for falling asleep.”

Lobelia let out a soft “Ah” at Jade’s words.

“So, that’s what you meant.”

“Yeah, right. That’s it.”

And so, the two of them held hands and surrendered to the drowsy scent in the air.

Their consciousness faded, and they slipped into the realm of dreams.

****

Lobelia woke up alone in the empty forest. The woods were eerie and dark. In the distance, strange cries echoed, and beneath her feet, there was a thick, viscous substance of unknown origin scattered around.

Given the unusual setting, she quickly surmised the nature of the dream.

“It must be a dream of monster extermination.”

If so, this place was the Monster Forest in the northern boundary zone.

For generations, the Ferrado Ducal family had been exterminating monsters in the northern boundary zone every three years. Jade, too, had taken up this duty but fell victim to a curse by an indigenous shaman.

“If the sequence of this dream is just reversed and the content remains the same as the original, then this must be the extermination from a year ago.”

Jade was cursed during the extermination four years ago, and he went out to exterminate the monsters once again while still under the curse. And there, he experienced tremendous trauma.

As it was a challenging dream where even the heroine struggled, Lobelia steeled her resolve.

First, she began to assess her situation. To locate Jade and approach him, she needed to first understand her role in this dream.

“Let’s see.”

Without a mirror, Lobelia turned around to check her appearance. She was wearing worn-out clothes, and monster fluids were smeared all over her as if scattered on the ground.

“I’m probably a refugee, aren’t I?”

Whenever there was a monster infestation, refugees were also created.

“It’s a pity. If only I had come as a knight accompanying the Duke, it would have been easier to approach him.”

Lobelia flicked away the monster fluid from her hands, but it was futile. The thick green fluid expanded its range indifferently to Lobelia’s touch.

With a sigh, Lobelia accepted that she was a refugee.

“First, I need to find the Duke.”

Lobelia started walking.

The forest was dense and unwelcoming to outsiders. Lobelia nearly tripped over protruding tree roots several times, and she startled and stumbled upon small animals that suddenly appeared.

“It’s fortunate it’s a dream…”

If it weren’t, Lobelia would have been covered in wounds by now. But because it was a dream, Lobelia endured all hardships unscathed.

After wandering through the forest for a while, Lobelia stopped and listened to a disturbing noise.

“A human voice!”

Finally, it seemed she had reached the stronghold of the Ferrado Ducal family’s knights.