Lara's room was stained with blood.
It used to be full of white and elegant things, but now it was disastrous.
The attendant, who had been called by the Marquess, sprayed hemostatic agent on Lara's wrist and put on the bandage with his hands shaking.
"Isadora has no choice but to accept my offer. Because she's stupid."
Marquess of Bailey stood in front of a door, far from Lara. He was talking to himself while smoking a strong cigarette.
"If I just wait, she will come in with her head down. Both you and that woman are emotional, so you can't make heads or tail of something and keep on acting your way."
Lara could tell without asking about it.
Her father must have sent a message to her mother. If she wanted to save her daughter, restore everything.
One might wonder what the point of restoring everything was when the knights of the royal family had completed their investigation, but Lara could see why he did this from what he was muttering about.
"I can't hand over the House of Bailey to her—to that lowly merchant who knows nothing but money…"
Everything was because of that damned ancestry.
After his father's name was stripped off, there would be only her mother and Lara in the House of Bailey. The King will try to bestow a suitable reward upon Isadora, the major contributor to this incident. If the King recognizes her mother—the richest person in Hautean—as an official Marquess instead of her banished father, wouldn't anyone speak highly of the King for making a wise decision?
∘₊✧──────✧₊∘
After hearing a scream, the owner of the riding suit boutique ran out in surprise and found Eunice and Ximena, who collapsed after being assaulted by the kidnappers.
They were in bad shape.
Their heads were torn and bleeding, and their faces had become swollen.
Ximena, who was hit in the stomach with a fist, could not straighten her back for a while even after waking up. The boutique owner urged them to go to the doctor and told them to go report the incident to the watchmen station. But as soon as they came to their senses, they ran at full speed in the carriage and went to Isadora.
"Lady Isadora!"
There was no need for a long explanation.
A carriage and men that appeared all of a sudden, assault and kidnapping.
Eunice burst into tears, saying that they both had immediately lost their consciousness, so they didn't know where Lara was taken.
"I'm sorry. I should have stopped them from taking Lara… I should have asked the carriage to be on stand-by first before going out. No, I was wrong to call Lara out…!"
Isadora was with Sebastian in the office of her hotel.
"Lara…"
Isadora's face lost its color all at once.
"Ma'am!"
Sebastian helped Isadora who was staggering.
She clasped his forearm and took a deep breath twice. Then, she quickly issued an order.
"Call a doctor. Both of you need to be treated first. Sebastian, contact the knights of the royal family and let them know about this."
"Yes, ma'am."
"What about Demian?"
"He has gone back to the arena."
"Call the wolves, tell them to bring Demian and to go to Bailey manor."
Sebastian went around the hotel to pass on Isadora's order with a voice loud enough to make the hotel resonate.
"I'm sure my husband did it. Because he knew I was the one who reported about him."
Isadora left Sebastian at the hotel for communication and set off personally to Bailey manor with her carriage.
∘₊✧──────✧₊∘
Demian, who had returned to the arena after being away for a long time, was just sleeping himself out when the wolves suddenly came and informed him that Lara had been kidnapped.
He made no response whatsoever.
As soon as he got up, he grabbed a weapon, kicked the closed door, and ran out.
"Hurry up!"
The mercenaries also ran after Demian.
Shocked by the ruckus, the arena warden came running. But Demian's room was already empty.
"Quick, faster!"
Before leaving, Isadora said to the wolves.
If they had to kill the Marquess of Bailey, so be it.
If they had to kill everyone in the house, so be it.
They did not have to worry about the consequences.
She would take responsibility for whatever happened, so she asked them to save Lara at all costs.
Isadora said with a pale face that she would break Marquess of Bailey's limbs even if a single cut was found on Lara's body.
∘₊✧──────✧₊∘
Lara was thinking that if she knew this would happen, she would not have avoided Prince Sidhar, instead, she would have jumped on him as soon as she met him and bit him like a mad dog.
She planned to attack the Prince slowly after preparing everything.
But she put it off because she needed to deal with her father. Now it seemed that she was going to die without paying him back anything. Sometimes Lara could hear the sound of the soldiers coming in and out, but she did not ask for their help.
They were probably bribed by her father anyway.
Lara went to the edge of the bed and sat still.
That was the cleanest place in the room as the whole floor was filled with blood. She did not even want to get close to the sofa because that was where her father sat.
What should I do?
It was dark outside.
The room was dark even though the attendant who treated Lara left five candles and lamps on. She could not even rely on the moonlight as the shutter outside the window was locked.
The thin summer curtains shook slightly as the weak wind leaked from somewhere.
The curtain shadow was enlarged due to the candlelight.
Funnily enough, Lara recalled what Konny had said.
"It was a ghost that lives behind the curtain. It was said that at night, it will come out and try to hurt someone sleeping."
"I heard the curtain ghost is scared of fire. So we need to sleep with a lamp on our head…"
Fire, huh?
Lara thought she needed to take her words back when she told Konny to stop reading weird books. One thing she realized after going back to the past was to remember every word Konny had said. Lara got up from the bed and approached the window. Then, she reached out one hand and grabbed the long, thin curtains.
She was lucky that the rain had stopped.
The curtains were dry and fluffy.
It was a curtain for summer, so it would burn better because it was thin.
It wasn't just the curtains. Even the blanket and tapestry were the same as the day she had left the house. Especially the clothes piled up in the dressing room that was connected to her bedroom.
Once again she recalled Konny saying that her dress was funny because it looked like she was covered in a blanket and that her dress was like a curtain ghost.
Somehow my maid might be a genius.
Lara planned to give Konny a suffocating hug again when she came back.
Marquess of Bailey could not accept the fact that Lara had completely changed even when she had a different tone and acted differently. She could tell by the fact that he only locked her up in the room, but didn't restrain her movement. He might believe that if he had kept her locked up for days and starved her for a few meals, she would cry and apologize for her faults.
"This is why you keep on being outwitted, Marquess of Bailey."
Because you did not want to admit the fact that your daughter had changed.
Lara moved quickly.
She first ran to the dressing room and pulled out all the white dresses Konny had laughed at.
The clothes were heavy.
She used to wear the dress well back then even with such a skinny body, but she didn't know why it felt so heavy now.
After taking out all the white dresses, she threw the blanket and tapestries that were on the bed onto the floor. Finally, she ripped off all the long curtains on the window.
She was sweating profusely and out of breath.
She felt dizzy because her heart was beating so fast. But Lara did not stop. She even felt a strange feeling of joy.
"Scissors."
Where is it? It must have been in the dressing room for the maids to cut the threads.
Lara ran back to the dressing room and quickly found a small pair of scissors. Then, she plopped down on the floor.
The long white dress was like a symbol for when Lara was the fake saintess. Her father always forced her to only wear that dress. Lara began to tear the clothes that made her so angry by just looking at them.
The sound of the fabric tearing was loud. Fine dust floated around as the threads snapped.
"Achoo!"
Even when she could not stop sneezing, she did not stop tearing the clothes.
"Flipping saintess can just go die."
She really wanted to tell her past self that.
Why the hell did you do that?
Lara, you fake saintess.
You're just a one-time tool.
You were just a stupid, exploitable prey. You were just an emotional slave that was perfect to exploit because you were an easy target.
"The flipping House of Bailey can go die. Get stuck in the gutter forever!"
It truly gave her the creeps and made her feel disgusted when her father said that all the blood flowing through her body came from her father. Lara meant it when she slit her wrist. She wanted to give it all back to him at the risk of death.
Lara was her own person, so it disgusted her when her father treated her like a subordinate.
"Sidhar Hautean, just wait and see. I will make sure to give you back ten times the misery I felt."