Chapter 2 - Second Chance

“Oh my! I just cleaned the floor, and somebody made it dirty like this! Who the hell is it?”

“I just saw Lady Fanora running around while bleeding.”

“Huh, that wicked mophead! I really hate everything she does.”

Fanora headed to the mansion library and left a trail of red blood flowing from her injured arm instead of breadcrumbs. 

The library, which occupied a part of the large mansion, had lots of information she wanted. First, she searched the tray used for the most recent newspapers. As expected, it was published six years ago. 

Next, she checked the contents of the book she didn’t read at this age but did later when she became an adult. As expected, the stories were all familiar to her. 

She repeated the similar process of comparing her memories and the present several times. Only then did it hit her that she went back to the past. 

“…”

Much later, she could still feel the pain and itchiness, but the wound on her arm had pretty much healed and became like a withered rose in fall. She returned to her room and stared at the clear sky while leaning against the window. 

“Huh,” she let out a little snort in the empty room. 

It was an absurd situation–she passed out and had gone back to the past when she woke up. But she finally accepted it. She also decided to interpret it more neatly. 

The second chance. To go back in time with all memories of suffering in the future. Somebody might consider it a new life and plan a bright future, but she only had one goal. 

Maybe this time… 

She realized it while killing Haures. All this time, she thought living in this world was just an act of getting through a forest of pain. But there was still something left for her, whose heart got torn to pieces, that could give her happiness.

It was the death of the perpetrators who drove her life into the hole of despair. Perfect, neat revenge. 

Making them suffer enough to make them want to die, just like what I experienced, was difficult. But if revenge was limited to taking their lives, the procedure was easy. Especially when she did it by herself, the sense of accomplishment was incomparable. 

“Ha…”

Death was the end for every human. It made all the achievements they had made in their lives so far collapse in vain. Fanora thought that of all punishments she could do to the people who had tormented her, there would be no revenge more relieving than this. 

To me back then, it was like falling off a cliff.

It didn’t matter even if this new life disappeared, or even if this painful memory had never happened and was actually an illusion due to a dream. No assumptions and reasons could hold her back. There were still many people left in this world, who she wanted to kill even if that meant she had to sacrifice something. 

I only killed the one person I hated the most because I couldn’t cover up murders. At this moment, she still recalled the memories, which were like nightmares, that filled her mind. 

The person who tried to kill her who was innocent, the person who only laughed mockingly at her when she complained that it was unfair, the bitch who said she would hold me responsible even though it was her taking away my fiancé, the man who lured away someone who didn’t like him yet changed so easily…

She couldn’t forgive all of them.

What if I thoroughly plan from the beginning this time, unlike the past so I wouldn’t get detained? What if I had the power to avenge…? Her expression gradually brightened up. 

“Hahaha,” she rejoiced. It seemed to be the first time since she became an adult that she had laughed enthusiastically like this. 

Right. This is a chance! I can’t let them, who drove me into death, live! Fanora’s heart was tingling and tightening as she relived the wounds she received all this time. This pain was called ‘resentment’.

The reason I came back in time doesn’t matter anymore.

Who gave her this special chance? Was it the God she prayed to so much? There was no way. It was written in canon that one has to be repentant and good to be in God’s arms. There was no way God would give a reward to a murderer. So Fanora thought it might be the devil who gave her this second chance. 

If it’s really you who gave me this chance, Mr. Devil, thank you so much! Aah! Thank you so, so much!

If all of this was the devil’s small prank, then shouldn’t she meet the evil being’s expectation?

“Haha!” Fanora started laughing while lining up the names of the people she had to kill in her head. She twirled in place like a madman and danced lightly, unable to hide her joy. “Finally!”

It was 9 a.m. Fanora Celsius’ morning started early. She couldn’t wake up early since she recently caught a seasonal disease–she naturally slept more for her recovery. Currently, the high fever had barely been prevented with herbs, but the shivering of body ache made her suffer. 

However, there was a reason she had to wake up early today even though she was sick. It was because very rarely, it was the day a guest visited her.

She looked back to before she returned. Since it was the first time for the young Fanora Celsius to catch such a severe disease like this, she thought in a stupor, I might die at this rate.

So she sent a letter to her only friend at the time telling him she was dying. The reason was simple. As she got close to death, the face of the boy who had been kind to her these days came to mind making her miss him. Fanora had started to favor Naverius, who was soon to be her fiancé.