3

As expected, the group of strong men quickly scanned the interior of the restaurant, soon spotted Nelisa, and fixed their gaze directly on her.

Nelisa unconsciously groaned.

“Ugh……”

The sound of footsteps were approaching steadily. Nelisa, still seated, creakily raised her head.

The large men smugly grinned.

“Lady Nelisa, Lady Wiesbaden has ordered us to bring you back.”

Nelisa stupidly opened and closed her mouth. She hadn’t expected to be caught so quickly.

“Ah…… well……”

“Your escape ends here, Lady Nelisa.”

Nelisa hung her head low. The spoon fell weakly into the bowl.

Even she found it ridiculous. But still, to be caught before even finishing a bowl of soup.

⁕⁕⁕

Nelisa followed the men out of the inn. A carriage was already waiting to take her.

She boarded the carriage like a criminal. The carriage soon started with a jolt.

“Ha……”

She looked out the window with a bleak feeling. Now that she would return to the Wiesbaden family and face Adelaide, what excuse could she make?

Despite the uncomfortable ride that made her bottom hurt, Nelisa remained lost in worry, not even noticing the discomfort.

But the carriage, which she thought would return directly to the mansion, stopped after traveling for quite some time.

“?”

Nelisa carefully examined the view outside the window. No matter how she looked at it, this wasn’t the Wiesbaden mansion.

Soon the door opened, and one of Wiesbaden’s subordinates appeared. Nelisa asked with a trembling voice.

“Where is this place?”

However, the large man didn’t answer her question and only said what he needed to say.

“Follow me. The lady is waiting.”

“Eh? Here?”

She reflexively asked again, but again there was no answer.

When she got out of the carriage, the Duke’s subordinates surrounded her. As if they were worried she might try to escape.

“……”

Nelisa’s shoulders instinctively hunched. She carefully followed the Duke’s subordinate into the empty house.

After passing through an old staircase, they reached the second floor. After walking a bit down a dusty corridor, a large door appeared.

“Enter, Lady Nelisa.”

“……”

Nelisa hesitantly pushed the heavy door.

As the door opened, a clear voice echoed in the space.

“You must have had a hard time running away all night, Nel.”

“Adele……!”

Adelaide greeted Nelisa with an elegant posture that didn’t match the shabby place. A picnic basket was placed at her feet.

She opened the basket with a relaxed smile. Inside were thick sandwiches and bottles of drinks.

“Are you hungry? Let’s talk while eating first?”

“……”

Nelisa looked at Adelaide with a frightened expression.

Adelaide twisted her lips askew.

“Oh my, it’s a shame you won’t eat. Can’t be helped.”

That was the extent of her generosity. She closed the basket lid with a loud thud. It was a signal that the interrogation was about to begin.

Adelaide asked coldly.

“Why did you run away, Nel?”

“……”

Nelisa stared at Adelaide without saying a word.

Adelaide couldn’t understand what was going on in Nelisa’s mind. Before her regression, she had been completely fooled by Nelisa’s acting, but now it felt subtly different from then. Those black eyes were like an abyss.

Is this Nelisa’s true self? It was quite different from the image of her close friend that Adelaide thought she knew.

“……”

“……”

After a moment of silence, Nelisa finally opened her mouth.

“……Because you were going to kill me.”

Her lips were trembling.

“You regressed, right? You must have learned all the truths of the past. That’s why I ran away. Because I thought you would kill me.”

“!”

Adelaide remained motionless, holding her breath.

Nelisa truly knew about her regression, which she hadn’t told anyone!

⁕⁕⁕

Nelisa bit her lip. Honestly, her mind had gone blank and she couldn’t think of any excuse to make. When asked why she ran away, all she could do was reveal her true thoughts.

However, the female protagonist was indeed not to be underestimated. Adelaide countered without even blinking at the bomb Nelisa had dropped.

“What am I supposed to have learned? And what’s this about regression?”

Still, Nelisa became calmer. Having burst it out without hiding anything actually made things better.

“Don’t pretend. I know everything.”

Although this was a development completely different from the original work, she had already prepared for it. What did it matter when she was planning to abandon the role of a villain anyway?

“It’s okay. I have nothing to hide, Adelaide.”

After saying this, Nelisa momentarily conflicted. Should she reveal that she was a completely different person who had transmigrated into the body of the original villainess, or should she pretend to be a ‘regressor’ just like Adelaide?

If she revealed her transmigration, she would be thrown into this strange world with nothing; if she pretended to be a regressor, she could at least keep the original villainess’s possessions she had packed the night before!

The deliberation was brief. Nelisa took one deep breath and finally revealed her choice.

“Because I regressed too.”

“!”

Only then did Adelaide’s previously calm expression shatter completely. Her red eyes widened and her complexion instantly turned pale.

Nelisa had firmly decided on her direction. She would pretend to be the original villainess and beg desperately for forgiveness. Although the sins weren’t directly committed by her transmigrated self, by accepting the ‘villainess’ shell, she could atone for the evil deeds the villainess had committed and somehow survive.

Having made this decision, surprisingly, everything else flowed smoothly.

“I won’t make excuses. I caused your death and tried to take what was yours. It’s all my fault. I’m too ashamed to even ask for forgiveness.”

Adelaide still seemed unable to recover from the shock and gave no response.

Nelisa quietly lowered her eyes. This was actually for the best. It would be better to say goodbye here than to secretly leave home.

“I won’t come near your life anymore. So please let me leave like this.”

“What……?”

Only then did the female protagonist speak.

Adelaide distorted her fine eyebrows.

“After all the lies you’ve told me and my father, you think that level of apology……”

“I’m sorry.”

Nelisa calmly bowed her head.

Adelaide’s anger erupted consecutively.

“Without that miracle, I wouldn’t have been able to come back alive like this! You killed me! And you thought you could solve this by running away without a word?”

“……”

Nelisa made no excuses. Having chosen to pose as a regressor, she had no choice but to bear the karma of the original villainess.

Besides, Adelaide’s sharp words were a bit frightening. Although her body wore the clothes of a vicious villainess, her inner self was originally a gentle soul.

Honestly, Nelisa knew well that she had a personality prone to being taken advantage of. Even if she could fight back with a loud voice, she found it more comfortable to step back.

Adelaide’s angry voice didn’t stop.

“If I hadn’t regressed, you would have taken everything that was mine! Now that your wicked intentions have been exposed, you hastily ran away? How can you be so irresponsible?”

Nelisa remained silent. She truly didn’t know how to apologize sincerely for crimes she hadn’t actually committed.

“Ha……!”

Adelaide got up from her seat and paced back and forth as if trying to calm her anger. Nelisa quietly waited for her to calm down.

After a while, Adelaide coldly spat out.

“I can’t allow you to leave. Don’t think you can easily escape your crimes like that.”

“Then……?”

Nelisa was anxious. What if she demanded that she kill herself right here?

Fortunately, Adelaide’s demand was different.

“Let’s go back home. Then, undo everything you’ve done with your own hands, one by one. That’s the only way for you to atone for your sins.”

At the words ‘go back home,’ Nelisa’s tension completely dissipated. Because of this, a question that hadn’t passed through her mind slipped out.

“So you’re not going to kill me?”

“No, why would I kill you?”

Adelaide screeched. Then, as if she realized her voice had been too loud, she let out a big sigh and continued in a cold tone.

“I’ll watch whether you truly repent. Until then, your life will be safe, so don’t worry.”

“Okay……”

Nelisa finally felt relieved. She had just passed the first quest: surviving the awakened female protagonist.

⁕⁕⁕

In the carriage on the way back to the mansion.

“……”

“……”

Neither Adelaide nor Nelisa exchanged any conversation.

In fact, Adelaide, despite her outwardly calm appearance, was still in a state of shock. To think there was someone else who had regressed besides herself, and that it was Nelisa!

Thoughts followed one after another. Like herself, Nelisa had also regressed. That meant she too had once faced death.

When? And how? Did she regress after peacefully completing her life? Or was she killed by someone’s hand like herself?

“……”

Adelaide glanced sideways at Nelisa. She had turned her head toward the window and not once looked back at Adelaide.

And there was another reason why Adelaide had brought Nelisa back home.

Adelaide needed to solve the mystery of Nelisa’s regression. In reality, until just before meeting her, she thought she was the only one in this world who had experienced regression.

Nelisa was someone who shared the same experience as her, another person who, like her, had come to know the ‘future’ through regression.

Therefore, Adelaide needed to keep her by her side.