Acidity of Regret Ch 79
- Feb 2
- 8 min read
[Sophie] "My Lady! Are you alright?"
She was submerged so deeply in gloom that she could barely hear Sophie's question properly.
[Sophie] "Uhm... perhaps if there is anything I can do to help."
It was only after hearing those words that she reacted. She lifted her face from her hands and turned to look at Sophie, her gaze faltering.
Kneeling beside the bed, Sophie wore a face full of concern. It was an expression that hadn't changed a bit from when she had helped her before.
[Vanessa] "Did he..."
[Sophie] "Pardon?"
[Vanessa] "Did Declan order you to say that, too?"
Her voice was so fragile it seemed on the verge of collapsing.
Sophie blinked a couple of times before hurriedly shaking her head and waving her hands in denial.
[Sophie] "No, My Lady. This is something I am asking on my own."
Her desperate attitude suggested she hoped her intentions wouldn't be mistaken for something impure.
Vanessa let out a breath so thin it seemed about to snap. Then, as she inhaled again, she found herself clutching Sophie's shoulders before she knew it.
[Vanessa] "Then... then, Sophie, you..."
Sophie's eyes went wide with surprise that she knew her name, but she had no time to worry about that reaction.
As she tried to organize her tangled thoughts, not knowing where to start, a sudden memory surfaced, causing her mouth to shut of its own accord.
[Vanessa] "...No."
The hands that had been gripping Sophie's shoulders as if holding a lifeline lost their strength. She withdrew her touch bitterly.
[Vanessa] "No. There is nothing you can do to help."
Before the regression, Sophie had nearly lost her life trying to help her. Her desire to help a stranger even now was commendable, but precisely because of that, she couldn't bring herself to ask.
Given how unhesitatingly Declan had displayed his vile behavior in front of Sophie, there was no guarantee he wouldn't torment her again.
Would it end with just torment?
If his plans went awry again, he might plunge Sophie into a danger from which she could never be rescued this time. Into a deep, abysmal swamp she likely couldn't handle.
Reflecting on the sheer madness in his eyes, the possibility was overflowing.
Moreover, it was Declan who had sent Sophie here. His brazen behavior revealed an overconfidence.
Even with her help, you can't easily undo the shackles. That must be what he thinks.
It likely meant that this time wouldn't be as easy as it had been before. Or perhaps he was certain that even if she escaped, she would be caught again. His malicious intent made her shudder.
But even if that weren't the case, she had no intention of asking for help. How deeply she had regretted dragging Sophie into it back then. She didn't want to relive the feeling of wanting to bite her own tongue off in regret.
So, Vanessa kept her gaze averted even as Sophie hesitated before leaving the bedroom.
She wasn't confident her resolve wouldn't weaken if she looked at her, and she wasn't confident she wouldn't push the girl into a perilous situation again if her resolve crumbled.
A few hours after Sophie left.
Declan visited the bedroom with his arrogant head held high, accompanied by the tailor he had mentioned earlier.
Vanessa, furious that he had sent Sophie to her, grabbed a pillow and hurled it at his face before the tailor could even bow.
[Vanessa] "Are you out of your mind?"
He glanced down at the pillow, which had fallen at his feet without even grazing his face, and calmly lifted his eyes.
[Declan] "I am perfectly sane."
[Vanessa] "No, you're not. You've been crazy for a long time."
At the scathing exchange between the two, the face of the tailor, who had been about to offer a cheerful greeting, turned deathly pale.
The tailor, Alvita, gulped involuntarily as soon as she saw the chain locked around the foot of the beautiful woman who made her doubt her own eyes.
Is that... a shackle I'm seeing?
If she had been alone, she would have rubbed her eyes several times to confirm the bizarre object.
No wonder.
Before entering, she had signed a contract stating she would not divulge anything she saw or heard at the Grand Duke's castle to the outside world. The clause stating that the Grand Duke held full authority over the consequences of breaking this oath was particularly terrifying, like a sword pressed against her throat.
Alvita realized belatedly that it was all to keep matters regarding this woman a secret.
[Declan] "Begin."
Unbothered by Vanessa, who was huffing in anger, he sat on the couch, crossing his legs as he spoke. Only then did Alvita snap out of her daze and start moving her hands busily.
[Alvita] "Yes. Um, then I will start by taking measurements."
Usually, when she spoke like this to the nobles she dealt with, they would naturally stand up and allow her to touch them.
However, the beauty in front of her remained motionless on the bed, even as Alvita fiddled with the tape measure and made her presence known. Her gaze was fixed not on the tailor moving back and forth in front of her, but on the Grand Duke sitting on the couch. Her eyes were a lovely shade of green like leaves, but the look in them was so sharp that their fresh vibrancy couldn't be felt.
[Alvita] "Ahem."
Eventually, she cleared her throat to assert her presence.
Only then did the gaze return to her. The luminous eyes turned her way.
Alvita had dealt with many young noblewomen and possessed the ability to handle even the most difficult customers skillfully. But the moment her eyes met the mysterious woman the Grand Duke had hidden away in his bedroom, her mind went blank. It was a beauty that couldn't help but stimulate the artistic desire she had buried deep in her heart and forgotten.
Vanessa, staring blankly at the mesmerized tailor, twisted her lips.
[Vanessa] "There's no need to take measurements. I won't be making a wedding dress, and I certainly won't be wearing one."
She calmly denied the reason for Alvita's existence here.
[Vanessa] "More importantly, could you report this? There's a kidnapper here."
Alvita clamped her mouth shut without realizing it.
Cold sweat trickled down her spine. No matter how oblivious one might be, it was impossible not to know upon seeing the shackle on the woman's ankle that she was not here of her own free will.
And seeing her vivid anger directed at the Grand Duke, one could vaguely guess who the culprit behind this scheme was.
Alvita's nerves stretched toward the Grand Duke behind her. To boldly speak of kidnappers to the man who wielded absolute power in this land...
Of course, as a worker invited by the Grand Duke's order, she would never report it. Even if a report were made, a single gesture from the handsome Grand Duke sitting there would surely make it disappear.
Nevertheless, Vanessa's intent to scratch at the man's composure by speaking this way was clear.
The air surrounding the bedroom was heavy, pressing down on the skin. A man and a woman whose relationship defied easy definition. The tension they created tangled thickly into the stagnant atmosphere.
Alvita stood there, tape measure in hand, rolling her eyes in confusion, not knowing what to do.
Declan watched Vanessa glaring at him, then stood up.
[Declan] "I will measure her myself."
Alvita handed him the tape measure as if she had been waiting for this. After Declan dismissed her and only the two of them remained in the room, he held the end of the tape measure, stretched it out, and approached the bed.
It was the moment Declan, now close, reached toward her waist.
[Vanessa] "I slept with Hayden."
The atmosphere, which had been frozen taut like frost-covered strings, cracked in an instant. A fierce glint flashed in his paused eyes. He seemed unable to suppress the anger surging from within.
But since that was the reaction she had hoped for, she had no hesitation.
[Vanessa] "We spent time together almost every day, and there were many times we were alone from night until morning. Everything I did with you, there isn't anything I haven't done with him."
In truth, she had never even held Hayden's hand properly. Even when they almost kissed last time, Hayden had cleanly backed away the moment she inadvertently showed reluctance. That was how much distance they kept, almost overly polite.
[Vanessa] "It was such an enjoyable time that I couldn't even think of you. He is so kind and considerate that it feels sorry to even compare him to you."
But she spoke as if confessing something that had actually happened, with an attitude that seemed to discard even the shyness a noble lady should consider a virtue.
[Vanessa] "So what I mean is... there is no room for you between us."
[Declan] "..."
[Vanessa] "Don't think you can hold me with a mere marriage. Even if you forcefully bind my ankle like this, my heart belongs to him."
As her calm declaration continued, the light in his eyes grew cold.
It would be a lie to say she wasn't nervous seeing that ominous glint. Yet, hiding her tension, she faced him stubbornly. Her gaze locked onto his stickily, as if believing she would lose if she looked away first.
His reaction came a moment later.
[Vanessa] "What... what are you doing!"
Declan suddenly grabbed both of her wrists and wound the tape measure around them tightly. Then, he pressed them firmly onto the bed. As he leaned his upper body forward with one knee on the bed, the shadow cast by his massive frame completely covered her.
[Vanessa] "Let... let go of me...!"
She shrank back, her previous boldness—rushing forward like a racehorse without looking back—vanishing as if it were a lie.
It was a bedroom filled only with terrible memories. The ominous feeling that she might suffer something similar to what happened before her regression right here made her chest flutter with anxiety. Even when she tried to suppress it, it wouldn't obey her will. This fear was an instinct from deep within, something she remembered and reacted to.
[Declan] "Do not."
Her wrists, bound by the tape measure, were pinned above her head. He tapped her cheek, then trailed his finger down to the nape of her neck. His finger lingered as if to lift her disheveled collar, dipping toward a precarious spot before coming back up to caress her lower lip.
[Declan] "Provoke my temper any further. I don't want to be rough with you."
His face, devoid of any laughter, was serious. He meant it.
It was strange. She hadn't felt this way when the shackle was placed on her ankle. But now that her hands were bound too, she felt a sense of confinement... as if she could never escape him.
[Declan] "I know your measurements well, so I will inform the tailor myself. It will be useless to complain later that you don't like the dress design."
His firm tone, refusing to fall for her provocation, held a will that he would go through with the marriage no matter what.
She had thought that by deliberately touching on his inferiority complex toward Hayden, she would elicit a new reaction. She expected at least a crack to form in his stubborn attitude, which seemed deaf and blind to everything but his own will. She had hoped a small fissure would appear in his tightly shut heart.
Making her previous reckless behavior seem pointless, Vanessa looked up with a dismayed face at him as he untied the tape measure.
Her chest went cold. The time given was short, and hope was drifting impossibly far away, refusing to be grasped.
Is he really... going to marry me?
A terrible sense of reality seeped into her helpless heart.
The energy she thought she must never lose was fading. Perhaps it was because she was in the bedroom that had gifted her such fatal lethargy. Even though she had regressed and returned, she couldn't believe she was still trapped here, waiting for the day to become his bride.
Every passing moment felt like a stake being driven into her heart. She stared blankly at his retreating, unable to hide her misery.
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