TMWDS Chapter 4

Apparently mortified at having been sent sprawling in front of his whole family, Nils kept spitting out ugly curses. He didn't seem to realize it only made him look worse.

Nils soon managed to steady himself and stand, though he kept staggering, his head evidently still ringing.

Spitting out the blood pooled in his mouth, he noticed a fragment of tooth mixed in with it, and his expression changed in an instant.

Nils lunged toward one side of the study and yanked a sword down from the wall with rough force.

"You—Ah'll thend you t' hell today! Ah'll kill you dead!"

Nils shouted, turning to face Ionna as though he might draw the blade at any moment.

Ionna answered him with a face utterly untroubled.

"Draw it."

"……."

"That sword. Draw it."

But even with the opening handed to him, Nils couldn't bring himself to pull the blade free.

Beads of sweat had gathered, somewhere along the way, on the temples of a man who'd been so full of bluster a moment ago.

He seemed to have grasped, on some instinctive level, that Ionna would be different from here on. That she wouldn't submit to them the way she used to, wouldn't quietly endure whatever unjust treatment came her way.

"When you want someone's life, you'd best come prepared to offer your own throat first. Take responsibility for what you've done, Nils Modrov."

Ionna said it evenly, pulling off the glove on her left hand. Then she threw it, aimed at Nils's face.

Nils gritted his teeth, watching the glove strike him square on the nose and fall to the floor.

As he slowly bent his knee to pick it up, Hayden, his face gone pale, called out his son's name.

"Nils!"

Every eye in the room turned to Hayden.

Hayden warned his son, his voice low.

"Stand down."

"Fatheh, hut—"

"I said stand down!"

At that, Nils rose to his feet as though he had no choice. He walked, wordless, to stand beside Hayden, as if to show he couldn't defy his father.

There was a faint relief in the eyes with which Nils watched Ionna, now that he was somewhere safe.

At that ridiculous sight, Ionna couldn't help but let a short, breathy laugh escape.

"At least the older one's got better judgment about the situation."

Hayden gripped the arm of his chair, barely managing to swallow his fury.

Seeing her trusted father and older brother cowed in front of her, Yvonne, too, grew frightened and looked away.

"Ionna, get out of here."

Hayden ordered Ionna, his face tight with tension.

But instead of following his command, Ionna slowly began walking forward.

The closer Ionna came, the more the expressions of those watching her shifted, moment to moment.

Ionna studied these unremarkable people and sank briefly into thought.

Was this a dream, or was it real?

If the latter—was it God's punishment, making her relive what she'd already survived? Or a gift, letting her savor the winning a little longer?

Perhaps God, taking pity on her hard-won life, had granted her the mercy of a gentler ending. Giving her the chance, this time, to end up a somewhat more presentable corpse.

'But if that's true, then why this particular point in time?'

The reason Ionna had been able to face her death without regret was that she hadn't left anything unfinished.

So why, then, were the people who should rightfully have gone back into the ground alongside her, standing here in front of her eyes, breathing?

She'd been given life again—but unfortunately, that same luck had extended to her enemies as well.

'If there's a place for me to die, it's the day my death means the ruin of House Modrov.'

"Didn't you hear me tell you to get out! Go to your room, now!"

Blatantly ignored, Hayden shouted, unable to contain his rage.

Ionna came to a stop and bent to pick up the glove she'd thrown to the floor.

Brushing it off with a couple of taps, she pulled it back onto her hand; the leather settled familiarly around her knuckles.

Slowly curling her fingers into a fist, Ionna smiled, mocking.

"I'm afraid I've already spent too long locked up to be following orders like that."

Revenge was something she'd already done once before, so there was little difficulty in doing it again. Getting the chance to build them their coffins for a second time meant, if anything, that this journey could afford to go at a more leisurely pace.

Ionna decided to make use of that leisure and settle some old debts along the way, while she was at it.

"And besides, I understand the day you agreed to meet with the Duke isn't far off."

Struck where it hurt, Hayden's jaw twitched.

Ionna studied his eyes and asked, unhurried.

"How much time is left, exactly?"

"Did things go well with the Baron?"

Returning to her room, Ionna was greeted by more unwelcome faces.

Her assigned maids, Betty and Grita, had been waiting for her, ready to receive her the moment she walked in.

Their manner was outwardly polite enough, but neither of them was truly working for Ionna.

Since Hayden was still the head of the house at this point in time, the staff had no choice but to follow their employer's wishes.

In other words, everything about Ionna's daily life flowed, without exception, straight back to Hayden's ears through these two.

Because of that, Ionna let out a sigh the instant she laid eyes on them.

Counting it all up, Ionna had gone through a battle and an explosion, died and woken up once, and then, on top of all that, had a full confrontation with her family. Enemies at every turn—exhausting, no matter how she counted it.

Managing to summon what patience she had left, Ionna asked, plainly.

"Betty, is Paula in the house as well?"

"No, she's taken leave and gone down to her hometown for a while."

"Is that so. Then send a letter and tell her not to bother coming back to the estate. That'll be her last task—after that, all three of you are dismissed."

"……I'm sorry?"

Caught off guard, Betty asked again, looking dazed.

She wore an awkward smile, as though trying to smooth over the moment.

But Ionna didn't reassure them that she was joking, and before long, an odd tension had settled between them.

Betty studied Ionna with a sour look, then quickly abandoned any pretense of courtesy.

She warned, her voice calm.

"The Baron won't let this stand."

It was the answer Ionna had expected, so she didn't feel any fresh anger over it.

They'd always betrayed her, spectacularly, at exactly moments like this.

She could keep them nearby, keep performing the same unchanged act—but Ionna no longer wanted to bear the exhausting weight of doing that.

Ionna looked down at the two of them with cold eyes and said,

"When the Baron asks why you've been dismissed, tell him it's because 'the children he sent proved careless enough to let their true purpose show.'"

Betty, at a loss for words, looked to Grita as though searching for reinforcements.

After a brief exchange of glances, Grita stepped forward next.

"……My lady, we're the ones the Baron entrusted to look after you. For you to order our dismissal so arbitrarily is effectively going against the Baron's will. We're only saying this for your sake—please don't take it the wrong way."

The words were kindly enough on the surface, but the substance underneath was coercive.

It amounted to nothing more than a suggestion that she'd best fall in line while there was still a good way to say it. At that, Ionna's patience finally reached its limit.

"How strange. I live by the sword, and yet the people in this household run their mouths at me without the slightest fear……"

Ionna trailed off and took a step closer to the two of them.

She gently ran a hand over the hilt of the sword at her waist, and the maids' faces gradually drained of color.

Ionna tapped the pommel with her fingertip and continued.

"Bold, are we? Or do you simply believe whoever's backing you now will still be able to protect you in the next life?"

Betty flinched back a step, unconsciously, her eyes flicking rapidly between Ionna's waist and her face.

She answered, her voice unmistakably trembling.

"……I'll go report this to the Baron first."

"No need to come back afterward."

Ionna laughed shortly and stepped aside. The instant the path opened, the two of them bolted for the door as fast as their feet would carry them.

Left alone, Ionna locked the door firmly, then went and lay down on her bed.

After the scene she'd just caused, Hayden surely wouldn't ignore her message.

Either way, further damaging his relationship with her wasn't in his interest either.

After all, she was about to become the Duchess.

Duchess, again.

The old title landed with an entirely different weight this time, and despite herself, Ionna let out a hollow laugh.