Chapter 28

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“Heuk, Heuk!”

Isabel hurriedly ran.

Grace, who was riding back on her horse, spotted Isabel.

Grace immediately guessed the situation when she saw Isabel running out of her mansion, along the coniferous trees.

She was stealing from her own house.

Taang—!

Isabel turned her head hurriedly. In the distance, Grace was riding a horse and pointing a shotgun at herself.

“Argh! Help me! Help me!”

Isabel started running in the opposite direction with tears and snot running down her face.

Grace ran after her with her horse. Isabel climbed the mountain almost on all fours.

Huuek—!

The hot wind blew harder. The trees were rubbing against each other, and fire was spreading across the mountain.

‘No! Why do I have to suffer through this? It’s unfair. I was just trying to live with my friends!’

Grace’s shotgun was an object that only a few people in the entire empire could use.

In particular, Grace’s shotgun was famous for being able to control sound and power perfectly.

Taang—!

Grace deliberately adjusted the volume and shot into the air.

Isabel then made a grotesque sound and ran further toward the top.

Talseuk—!

Running with tears and a runny nose, she fell to the floor.

The topography of the mountain was flat, but it became rough and erratic just a short distance away from where they lived.

The animals ran in fear at the sound of gunfire. Isabel was run over by a deer and almost died.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”!

Isabel rolled down, without knowing how many times.

Losing her consciousness, the last thing she saw was the cliff.

‘No! No!’

Isabel knew where this place was. It was a cliff leading to a deep and rocky valley that Mother prevented them from ever approaching because it was dangerous.

Isabel floundered. But her body was already falling down the cliff.

She was swallowed up by the water, unable to scream.

It was quite a different result from Isabel’s splendid and happy future she envisioned.

??

“What about Mother?”

As soon as Nicole saw Grace coming in alone, she asked in contemplation. Grace shook her head gently.

“Mother…”

Jay looked incredulous.

“Your mother inhaled a lot of smoke and with her sick body she eventually couldn’t hold out. She was relieved that you left, saying that she didn’t want you to see her close her eyes.”

Nicole’s eyes darkened.

“Get a hold of yourself.”

Grace spoke low.

“You’ll have to go down to town.”

“The forest fire… …but my second sister did it…….”

Jay was enraptured, but barely spoke.

“I want to see her body at least. How did she die….?”

“I left her body the way she wished. And she left me a will to tell you never to return to the cabin.”

Jay’s expression was distorted. Nicole’s heart seemed to be torn apart when she saw the boy collapse.

“It’s not something you can take responsibility for. Don’t worry, there’s someone close who can solve this problem.”

Grace sighed and took out her pocket watch.

The watch, which is very luxurious, was marked with a daily date.

“Looking at today’s date, they can definitely solve it.”

“What do you mean by the date…”

Jay asked back blankly. But Nicole understood that.

‘Raul’s ability.’

What shocked Nicole the most about coming out into the outside world in her last life was that there were people in the world with really mysterious abilities.

Such people were treated as noble families.

In the Empire, only seven families had mysterious powers, and Raul the Grand Duke of Valentine was the strongest of them all.

‘The great thing about Raul is that he doesn’t know the limits of his abilities.’

Even in the Yveschapel family, the abilities of the members of the family were not fully revealed. For example, their healing power is widely known, but their ability to grow plants and poisonous insects is not widely known.

But Raul’s ability was different.

Raul sometimes controls the weather, including light rain.

Some time ago, he was even able to stop a huge army with just a small number of people.

He was simply a living miracle. But when asked if he had all those abilities, he always answered vaguely.

‘There are times when I have and times when I don’t.’

That was his graceful reply.

Nicole only found out later.

His ability to use his power varies from time to time, and the way he could use his ability depending on the time  was very complicated and tricky.

Knowing that, she could understand what Grace said while looking at her watch.

‘I can’t think of anything, Mother…….’

However, Nicole’s mind was mixed up, so she couldn’t think straight.

She was so shocked that she couldn’t think of any other emotion.

She knew she had to let Freya go soon.

But she thought it would be a little different in this life.

In the end, Freya died at the hands of Isabel again this time.

Would the results have been different if she hadn’t surprised Mother with the truth?

“What was her last will?”

Nicole tried not to shed tears. It hurt as if someone kept hitting her heart with a big bat.

“Follow me down the mountain. This place is no longer safe.”

“…….”

The situation is the same in the lower village. Jay’s hands trembled with confusion and fear.

He had never been out in a crowded place. So is Nicole in this life.

“I watched your mother’s death and she asked me to do her a favor. Such memories are like restraints and oaths. Do you understand? I got involved in this, too.”

“Thank you, thank you…….”

Nicole barely opened her mouth and said.

“I’ll tell you your mother’s will while we’re on the way. So pull yourself together. Down to the lower village, from now on you are Karen and you are Jen. Got it?”

“Yes.”

The two nodded mechanically.

A mother would want her two children to survive.

Now she has to protect Jay. Only the thought of that responsibility made Nicole move like a machine.

Nicole and Jay took Jen and Karen’s clothes out of their luggage and changed. Then she took the cloak that Grace had lent her.

It was a cheap cape without any character. Grace said it was something she used to lend to her employees.

“No matter what happens, you shouldn’t show your healing power. And don’t talk as much as possible.”

Nicole whispered to Jay.

“I brought your luggage well, so don’t worry.”

Grace’s saddle was lined with leather pockets. It was all Nicole’s stuff.

Grace skillfully fastened the wagon to the horse. It was a small, roofless cart that was commonly used in the countryside.

Fortunately, the road down to the lower village was flat enough to pull the wagon.

Nicole and Jay climbed into the wagon and held their breaths.

Grace climbed into the horse seat.

The wagon carried the legacy of the Yveschapel family, which was hidden in the box.

??

“There’s a forest fire!”

“I’m sure it’s the wandering people’s fault who were roaming around in the mountains!”

While looking at the forest fire, people gathered at the foot of the mountain near the village entrance and were shaking.

As people came down from the mountain, they looked at them as if looking for someone to blame.

There was one rider and two people on the wagon.

It was natural for people’s eyes to become violent at the sight.

In addition, Nicole and Jay looked more shabby than usual in Karen and Jen’s clothes.

They looked very tired, with soot covering them everywhere as if they just emerged from the fire.

“Did you guys start the fire?”

Someone asked point blank.

“They must have lived in hiding on that mountain. They’re suspicious things.”

People whispered. People with angry eyes gathered.

This region was extremely poor, and the village lord was a man of no status.

‘They’ve been openly exploited for a long time, so the public is in a state of chaos.’

To make matters worse, the capital had no interest in them.

Since there were no taxes collected, the capital had to provide them with money.

The subsidies were all embezzled, and even that fact was revealed only afterward.

These people whose lives were so impoverished were constantly looking for scapegoats.

‘In my previous life, Grace was witch hunted…… The reason why they killed her with such an uncivilized method was because their circumstances were so cruel.’

They live near the forest. They won’t let them go unless they catch the culprit who set the mountain on fire.

“They didn’t start the fire. It’s very irrelevant.”

Grace said as if she was dumbfounded.

Grace was a noble who didn’t ignore others, but she didn’t know the way these rural people thought because she lived alone in a remote place.

“What do you know!”

Grace, however, was dressed in expensive clothes and looked nothing like an ordinary person.

There happened to be people who recognized Grace.

“She’s the lady living in the mountains, isn’t she?”

“That’s right. She owns a lot of land on that mountain.”

“She handed out milk and gave us silver coins.”

They were the servants and maids Grace hired from the village.

They couldn’t prove Grace’s words because they weren’t at work today, but they built a relationship of trust enough to warrant her identity.

The eyes of the people looking at Grace softened.

“What about them?”

“Are they the children of that lady?”

“No, there are no children in the house.”

“They look like tramps.”

Nicole and Jay lowered their cloaked faces even more.

“They’re a strange face, pull them out!”

“We’ll see if they caused the fire.”

Eventually, people surrounded the wagon.

“Stop it! Didn’t I say these kids were innocent? Why are you doubting these kids recklessly?”

“That kind of forest fire doesn’t just happen. A few years ago, wandering bandits started a forest fire while drinking and playing.”

But people didn’t even listen.

Grace recalled the martan gun hidden under the wagon.

However, they are not in the mountains now and the number of villagers was large.

In addition, even Grace could not shoot other people at will.

It would ignite their madness even more if they did it carelessly.

“Ah!”

People grabbed Nicole and pulled her out.

Then the hood came off and Nicole’s beautiful face was revealed. Greed flashed in the eyes of the men.

“I’m going to take this girl and interrogate her myself.”

“Stop! Don’t touch my sister!”

Jay said and shook the man’s hand. However, his hands were trembling because he was surrounded by many people for the first time in his life.

‘No.’

Nicole felt a slight dizziness.

The execution of her previous life came to mind.

The sight of a lot of people surrounding her and screaming for her to die.

It was then.

“Stop.”

Someone said, people have become as quiet as a lie.

The speaker’s voice was not loud. However, it was calm and clear, attracting people’s attention even in such a noisy place.

Soon there was the sound of horse hoofs.

The morning sun happened to set, and Nicole had to knit her brows to be able to look up at him.

Slowly he came up to them on his horse. After that, the knights on horseback followed.

“I am Grand Duke Valentine. What did they do?”

When people saw the knights, they changed their expressions, trembled, then knelt in unison.