I Thought It Was a Common Transmigration - Chapter 129

“The doctor said you should be careful for a month, so make yourself comfortable and let me take care of you.”

Anna spoke in a businesslike voice as she pulled my clothes off with her skillful hands.

But I know the sincerity behind that voice.

Because when everyone else was saying bad things about me, or saying they didn’t know, or didn’t see, she was the one who stood up for me through all the grueling interrogations.

‘When we get to Ryzen, I’ll keep you as my personal maid for a few years and then promote you to head maid.’

I thought it would be too much to ask of her, given her young age. But she’s bright and perceptive, so it won’t be long before she becomes a head maid.

After cleaning me up, Anna went straight to preparing my breakfast. We usually eat breakfast and lunch around 11 or 12, but Killian insisted on a light soup breakfast.

Of course, the soup wasn’t ‘light’, it was often made with precious ingredients that Killian had scrounged up here and there.

“Today’s soup has mushrooms and minced beef.”

From Anna’s description, it sounded like the Ottogi Soup [1] I had occasionally eaten in my previous life, but the beef in this soup was from a famous production area, and the mushrooms must have been more expensive than beef.

[1] A brand name of instant soup.

“I’ll enjoy it.”

As I scooped up spoonful after spoonful, Killian walked into the bathroom to take a bath and change.

And Anna would stay by my side while Killian did what he needed to do the day, and then when he came back and was by my side, she would go and do something else…… and it just kept repeating.

But today, when Killian came back a little earlier than usual and joined me for breakfast, he didn’t look happy.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, just……”

“Just……?”

Killian gave me a look that seemed even more complicated than it already was, and then sighed heavily.

“I realized that I was a human being who couldn’t see people and be objective.”

“All of a sudden? What do you mean?”

“I don’t know how all these years I’d been thinking of Lizé as some kind of angel. Besides, I thought my father and brother were morally unblemished people, really……”

That’s because you had to go with the flow of the original story……

I knew I couldn’t say this to Killian, though, so I just laughed.

“Why are you doing this again?”

“Lizé’s still playing dumb about what happened that day. Even though there are so many witnesses…… and my mother and Cliff are feeling sorry for her.”

Looking at him again, Killian seemed pretty pissed off. He must have been trying to keep his temper in check in front of me.

“My father is distancing himself from Lizé, but I think Cliff has been coaxing my mother, who doesn’t know the whole story, and she asked me…… if I could forgive Lizé just once. I got pissed off and said it’s not something that’s up to me, so she asked me to ask you…… once.”

I nodded.

Cliff aside, it wasn’t like I couldn’t understand the Duchess’ feelings.

No matter how sorry she was for me, she had only known me for a year, and Lizé had been like a daughter to her for the past six years.

If I think back to the original Lizé, she must have been a very good, bright, and supportive person before I came into this house.

And since the Duchess doesn’t know the whole truth about what happened at the execution ground and what happened in the recent past, there’s no way she could hate Lizé enough to throw her out of the house, even if she’s done some strange things.

So if I say I can’t forgive her, it’s only going to hurt our feelings.

“Killian. As the Duchess or Cliff said, let’s just pretend it never happened, at least on the surface.”

“I knew you’d say that, which is why I didn’t want to ask.”

Killian gritted his teeth.

“It’s so heinous, I can’t forgive myself. I don’t know how you expect me to forgive someone who has deceived us all this time. I can’t even forgive myself!”

Ugh, I can’t get used to this coming from the person who once wanted to kick me out the most.

Of course, I understand how Killian feels, just as much as I understand the Duchess and Cliff.

To begin with, Cliff is a bit crazy, a man who will use any amount of denial or conspiracy as a means to an end.

But there is something rather pure about Killian, beneath his harsh façade.

And as much as he takes great pride in the name Ludwig, he despises dishonesty.

‘But as long as Cliff’s obsessed with Lizé, we can’t kick her out anyway; it’ll only make Killian look awful.’

Of course, I was also annoyed with Lizé.

The fact that she’d been smiling like an angel all this time, deceiving me and trying to kill me, sent chills down my spine and made every hair on my neck stand on end.

But I could understand it to some extent. She was the female lead who was most affected by the author.

In the end, I decided to take the pragmatic route of seizing this opportunity rather than protecting my pride by fighting a losing battle.

“Why kick out someone who’s been a caring daughter to your mother for the last six years? Besides, she has nowhere else to go.”

“That’s true, but……”

“And no matter how we get out of this, Cliff’s going to marry Lizé, who’s going to be your sister-in-law.”

Killian clenched his fists. “If only I had been born before my brother……”

“Because you would have taken the heir position? Then you wouldn’t have married me, right?”

“Um…… no way……”

I don’t know if he said it to make me feel better, but I couldn’t help but laugh at his irritated tone.

“To be honest, I’ve been jealous of Lizé too, maybe she was too. Maybe she just wanted to get your attention back after it was all on me.”

“Why? She said she loves my brother.”

“There’s a lot of people who think that money and love are the more the better.”

Killian still looked confused, but he didn’t look like he was going to disagree with me.

I smirked at his disgruntled look and made a condition.

“Instead……”

“Hm?”

“On the surface, we can pretend nothing happened, but I’d like to have a word with the person responsible. If you want to end this quietly, don’t say no to this.”

Killian smirked, his mood suddenly lifted.

“I certainly seem to like that smirking gaze of yours.”

“You have dangerous tastes.”

We’re laughing right at each other like we’re the villains in a con job.

But here is the victim, the one with the generous heart!

***

The evening after Killian spoke to me, the haggard Lizé came to Killian’s room with Cliff where I was lying down.

“Long time no see, both of you.”

I greeted them, smiling as brightly as I could.

Of course, they weren’t so stupid as to not recognize the sarcasm.

“I apologize for the late visit.”

The person who should be apologizing to me was avoiding my gaze, and Cliff apologized on her behalf.

“First of all, I’ve been misunderstanding Miss Edith all this time……”

“Cliff.”

I boldly cut him off. I didn’t want to stall with the obvious.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t really have any questions for you. I’d like to speak with Lizé alone.”

Cliff and Killian looked worried at the same time.

Cliff was worried about Lizé, but Killian was clearly worried about me.

Because Lizé had tried to hurt me.

“It’s okay, Killian. It’s not going to happen twice, is it, Lizé?”

Lizé nodded reluctantly, looking extremely anxious.

In the end, it was just me and Lizé in the bedroom.

Killian and Cliff decided to wait just outside the bedroom, just in case.

Once Killian and Cliff were gone and the bedroom was quiet, I stared at Lizé for a long time.

She is still a dazzlingly beautiful woman, but she no longer has the radiance I felt when I first laid eyes on her.

It isn’t because I’ve gotten used to her beauty.

She herself has lost her luster.

“No one will hear what we’re talking about here, so let’s be honest.”

“……well, we’re here anyway, so, yeah, let’s do it.”

Lizé’s tone was so unlike the woman I had known before.

I felt my heart skip a beat at the prospect of finally getting to know her for who she really is.

“Let me ask you one by one. Let’s start with the document leak from about a year ago. Did you forge my handwriting?”

Lizé sighed heavily and nodded.

I had guessed it, but the answer that came out without any resistance was a bit bizarre.

“Then the poisoning of the embroidery thread was also done by you……?”

Again, Lizé nodded lightly.

“You applied the poison yourself, and poisoned yourself……?”

“It was not that hard to do.”

I shook my head in disbelief.

But suddenly someone came to mind.

“Are you…… the one who killed the maid who saw you poisoning that embroidery thread?”

This time she nodded easily.