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by rosalieHaving her own space made Nelisa psychologically more stable. She naturally returned to her original habit of drinking coffee instead of eating breakfast.
Today too, she roughly substituted coffee for breakfast and headed to the workshop. Since there had been no contact from the carpentry guild yet, Nelisa would be alone in the workshop for the time being.
When she unlocked the sturdy lock that secured the empty workshop, a rush of cold air hit her. She opened the windows and doors wide to ventilate the place first.
A place where one could freely engage in creative activities without anyone’s interference was extremely important for a creator. Even though Duke Wiesbaden was the nominal owner, it was fortunate to have a space where she could stay away from the mansion! Nelisa was simply grateful to the Duke for willingly setting up the workshop for her.
Nelisa sat in the workroom and began sketching ideas in earnest. Drawing on her real-life profession as a product designer, she sketched various objects that would be useful in the romance fantasy world as they came to mind.
However, among them, the most frequently sketched items were definitely the transportation series.
For Nelisa, the thing that shattered her fantasy the most after her transmigration was the carriage. The romantic and classical beauty was only apparent when viewed from the outside; when actually riding in one, there couldn’t be a more uncomfortable mode of transportation. She only used it because it was the only available option, but if there were other choices, she would sincerely want to avoid it.
⁕⁕⁕
Bang bang!
“Nel…… Nel!”
A few hours later, unexpectedly, someone knocked on the workshop door. Nelisa stopped sketching and quickly raised her head.
After checking the visitor through the window, she was even more surprised. It was Adelaide.
Nelisa opened the door promptly without even thinking.
“Adele!”
“What are you doing here?”
Adelaide stepped into her workshop with her original prickly yet dignified face, as if nothing had happened between them.
Nelisa carefully observed her mood. It seemed her anger had somewhat subsided after the apology the other day.
Anyway, since she had been asked a question, she decided to answer.
“I was sketching various things.”
“You could do that at home too.”
Adelaide’s voice was cold. Nelisa smiled awkwardly.
“Umm, Adele. I plan to spend more time here than at home from now on. Please don’t find it too strange.”
Without responding to those words, Adelaide walked around the workshop once, her heels clicking loudly as if she wasn’t paying any attention to Nelisa at all.
Nelisa shrugged. It was probably better to let the preciously raised princess of Wiesbaden do as she pleased.
She decided not to mind Adelaide either. She focused on her sketches again.
Then, quite amazingly, as soon as Nelisa withdrew her attention, Adelaide subtly approached her first.
“What are you drawing?”
Although it was a question that broke her concentration, Nelisa patiently answered again anyway.
“These are the items I’ll be creating in this workshop from now on.”
“Ah, you’re actually going to make all of these?”
Adelaide’s voice sounded quite surprised.
“I’ve never seen such items before. How did you even imagine them?”
Nelisa stopped sketching and stared at Adelaide blankly.
“You entered the light space when you regressed, right?”
The early scene of the original novel was precisely Adelaide’s regression. Nelisa recalled that scene and slightly twisted it as if she were also a regressor.
“You probably saw the future after your death there. But I was different. I saw the civilization of another world.”
Honestly speaking, she had only heard a mysterious voice and had a conversation, but what did it matter? It couldn’t be verified anyway. In Nelisa’s opinion, it was truly an excellent excuse.
Adelaide’s mouth finally opened.
“So all of this is from the other world you saw……”
Nelisa nonchalantly revealed her ambition.
“Since I’ve been given another life, I should now live to help the world rather than for my own greed. I’ve decided to reflect on my past in this way.”
Then Adelaide took her eyes off the sketches and looked at Nelisa.
“Come to think of it, you said you took your own life.”
“That’s right.”
Although she didn’t know why Adelaide suddenly mentioned the original villainess’s death, Nelisa answered obediently.
Adelaide’s eyes softened slightly.
“Were you driven that far to the edge?”
“Ah, at the time of my death?”
Nelisa nodded, trying her best to understand Adelaide’s feelings.
“From your perspective, it was completely justified. That’s how revenge works, right? It continues until the other person is completely destroyed.”
In original romance fantasy novels, revenge plots never end with half-hearted forgiveness. When Nelisa was a reader, she enthusiastically cheered for Adelaide’s satisfying actions. She had vicariously enjoyed the perfect karma that could never be achieved in reality, insisting that a hopeless villainess should be thoroughly trampled so she could never rise again.
However, after transmigrating into Nelisa and becoming that very person, she secretly became soft-hearted, wondering if Adelaide could have shown a little mercy. Only after becoming the very person who had to suffer that merciless punishment did she realize the value of tolerance and forgiveness.
Honestly, Nelisa didn’t harbor much resentment toward Adelaide. After all, Adelaide was in the right. The original Nelisa was thoroughly deserving of death, and Adelaide was the female protagonist who rightfully punished that villainess. If the female lead had any fault at all, it was that she naively believed the villainess’s hypocrisy.
However, personally for Nelisa, the burden of having to face a scheming female protagonist made her constantly nervous when dealing with Adelaide. If possible, it would have been more comfortable to live without seeing each other.
“Adele, as I said before, I will never covet what’s yours again. I’ll walk a path that never overlaps with yours for the rest of my life. So you don’t need to worry about keeping me in check.”
“……”
Perhaps thanks to her very cautious attitude, Adelaide’s expression didn’t become as fierce as before.
Silence flowed between the two for a moment. Adelaide was the one who broke this silence.
“……You’re right. It’s impossible for us to trust each other exactly as we did before anyway.”
Adelaide’s voice was dry and cold, but it didn’t contain intense anger.
“The friendship from our innocent days is now gone. You must go your way, and I must go mine.”
“……”
Nelisa suddenly felt complicated by her seemingly resigned declaration. At the same time, she felt relieved. It seemed that Adelaide finally understood her sincerity.
Adelaide slowly turned her head. Then she left the workshop with slow steps.
“……”
Nelisa stared at her retreating figure. Adelaide had just bid farewell to Nelisa, her childhood companion. Now she would have to leave her childhood behind and walk her own path as an adult.
“Goodbye, Adele.”
Nelisa also quietly said farewell on behalf of the original villainess.
⁕⁕⁕
Roberto swung his sword at the training ground of the Imperial Guard Knights as usual. He was also an excellent swordsman with proper knight qualifications.
When he concentrated on practicing swordsmanship, his mind naturally emptied and his whole body felt refreshed.
“Phew……”
Finally, regulating his breath deeply, he finished his daily swordsmanship training.
He was quite modest for someone of his status as the Crown Prince. As soon as he finished training, he washed his sweat-soaked body in the knights’ shower room. After roughly shaking his wet hair, he headed straight for his palace.
Walking through the vast imperial palace sometimes led to unintentionally overhearing conversations. Just like now.
“Have you heard about that woman under Duke Wiesbaden’s guardianship?”
“Ah, you mean Lady Nelisa? The one who ran away before……”
“Yes. But it seems there was some backstory to her running away. Suddenly, they say she’s now set up a workshop.”
“A workshop? No, what would a noble do with a workshop……”
“That’s what I’m saying. Doesn’t it seem really unsuitable?”
The conversation soon passed Roberto and faded away again.
“Hmm……”
He continued walking while becoming lost in thought.
Nelisa had always been busy imitating Adelaide. Until now, he had never heard of her making a choice completely different from Adelaide’s. The Nelisa he knew always acted like Adelaide’s shadow.
Yet Nelisa never surpassed Adelaide. She was always in the position of chasing. Perhaps it was natural for her to harbor feelings of inferiority and jealousy toward Adelaide.
Ugly inferiority and jealousy eventually led to sinister schemes. Roberto still remembered well how Nelisa maliciously tarnished Adelaide’s reputation.
But now this woman with a black heart had suddenly set up a workshop?
‘What exactly is she plotting……?’
Roberto couldn’t tell whether this was a good sign or not. Although she had apparently been exposed by Adelaide and begged for forgiveness, a workshop out of nowhere was too unexpected.
Moreover, what was even stranger was that Nelisa hadn’t shown her face at any social events since the running away incident.
Originally, Nelisa had tirelessly navigated the social scene as soon as she came of age. She attended various social gatherings and parties almost every other day. Her diligence was truly comparable to that of Lady Wiesbaden. Because she circulated so actively, Nelisa had as wide a network in the social scene as a salon madam, despite her young age.
Roberto’s suspicion grew. A woman who had always struggled for people’s attention had chosen a workshop of all things after her reformation. What was her ulterior motive? What had happened?
He felt he wouldn’t be able to sleep properly without resolving this suspicion mixed with curiosity.
Eventually, Roberto summoned Sir Duran, the knight who guarded him most closely.
“Duran, I need to go out incognito after sunset. Make preparations.”
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