Chapter 97

Ariadne gently placed Arabella's hand, marked with scratch marks, back on the bed. She crossed the delicate hands neatly and stroked Arabella's cheek once more. Though the touch was different from when she was alive, it was a cheek she would never touch again. Then, Ariadne stood on the dais and turned her body abruptly. Her eyes blazed with burning anger.

“What happened to this child before she died?”

The first person Ariadne questioned was the housemaid standing respectfully, as she was the one who had first discovered Arabella.

“There was a bit of a commotion, and I heard a thud. When I went to check, Miss Arabella was on the floor...”

Ariadne sneered coldly. There was no way a person could fall alone.

“Didn’t you fight with Isabella just before you fell?”

Isabella was startled, and immediately afterward, Lucrezia and Isabella exchanged glances, shocked.

‘How did that girl know?’

‘She was out and just came back! Who could she have heard from? Or, was there even a witness?’

Ariadne, seeing Lucrezia and Isabella exchange glances, stepped down from the dais without hesitation and strode toward Isabella. She then slapped Isabella's cheek.

- Smack!

Isabella's head snapped to the right, defenseless. She clutched her left cheek, throwing a resentful glance at Ariadne and letting out a shrill scream.

“What are you doing?!”

Ariadne, not moving an inch, shouted back.

“Are you even human?”

“What are you talking about?!”

“You pushed Arabella!”

“!”

Arabella had lost her balance and fallen while struggling with Isabella. Ariadne thought Isabella's actions were no different from murder. But Isabella believed her crime was perfect.

“What are you saying? What did I do? How could I make such a terrible accusation?!”

But Ariadne was not shaken in the slightest. She sneered and rebuked Isabella, who was worse than a beast.

“You! If you have eyes, look properly!”

Ariadne forcibly dragged Isabella forward. Isabella struggled, but she could not resist the overwhelming strength of the enraged Ariadne. Ariadne led Isabella to the coffin where Arabella lay. She lifted Arabella's hand and placed it in front of Isabella's eyes, showing the scratch marks that were still fresh.

“Who else in this house could have dared to scratch Arabella?”

Ariadne brought her face close to Isabella's and growled.

“You pushed Arabella when things went wrong during your fight. Then you claim she fell while playing alone? A terrible accusation? You, worse than a beast!”

Isabella could not affirm any of it. If she lost here, it would be the end.

“You pushed her? Did you see it?”

She saw it. But she could not say she saw it. Taking advantage of Ariadne's momentary silence, Isabella lashed out.

“Do you have any evidence? Do you have any evidence?!”

In response to Isabella's brazenness, Ariadne replied harshly.

“Arabella's body is the evidence!”

“It’s just scratch marks!”

Isabella did not back down.

“Yes, I did fight with Arabella in the morning. The scratch marks are from then. But the place we fought was in my room! I didn’t go near the stairs at all!”

Indeed, it was Isabella. She cleverly mixed truth and lies to defend herself. The things Isabella said were, at this point, impossible to prove as lies. There were no witnesses, and the dead cannot speak.

“Ariadne! I don’t know how much you hate me, but how can you make such a terrible accusation just because we don’t get along?”

Isabella changed her stance, turning to Cardinal de Mare and appealing to her father pitifully.

“Father, Arabella is my younger sister. I have never done anything that would make me deserve to be called a murderer!”

Cardinal de Mare sighed.

Isabella turned back to Ariadne and asked earnestly. Her emerald eyes sparkled.

“Aria, do you hate me that much?”

“Aria? This isn’t about that, you rotten...”

Ariadne, seething with anger at the despicable Isabella, raised her right hand to lash out, but Cardinal de Mare intervened.

“Ariadne, that’s enough.”

Ariadne turned to the cardinal. He spoke in a grave, low voice.

“I understand that you are deeply grieved by Arabella’s death. But Isabella is also family, just like Arabella and you. It’s not like you to jump to conclusions based on such flimsy evidence.”

Ariadne gritted her teeth. The cardinal was right, but Ariadne had always been an obedient daughter. Before the regression, it was natural, and even after the regression, she outwardly wore a mask of reason and rationality, complying with her father’s words. But this was the result.

“Family should protect each other!”

Ariadne glared at the cardinal and raised her voice.

“What do you mean by being like me, Father? Is it okay to just bow and let everything pass? No matter what happens, just give in and say everything is fine?”

She spoke rapidly.

“What’s the result of that? Arabella ended up dead, didn’t she!”

“It was an unfortunate accident!”

Cardinal de Mare finally could not hold back and raised his voice in response.

“There’s no evidence!”

“Are you refusing to see the evidence that exists, Father?”

Cardinal de Mare finally revealed his true thoughts.

“The youngest is already dead, and the sister you are now accusing is still alive! How far will you go within the family?”

“Ha!”

Ariadne sneered and mocked Cardinal de Mare.

“Are you trying to gauge the shock waves to the ‘noble de Mare family’ in this situation? The youngest can’t be brought back, but if the eldest is rumored to have killed the youngest, you’ll lose the eldest too!”

Cardinal de Mare did not respond. He could not. He had been hit where it hurt. At this moment, Lucrezia interjected.

“Perhaps it was her fate to go this far.”

A trace of anger appeared on Ariadne’s lips. She had clearly ‘seen’ it. The blurred vision of Arabella, the last words she heard.

- “You defied your sister, and this is what you get.”

- “You cause accidents all the time and do nothing! I really wonder why I even gave birth to you! I’m so upset, really!”

- “If you weren’t here, my life would have been better! Better than this!”

Arabella did not deserve to hear any of those terrible words. Lucrezia, as a parent, had completely failed to protect and educate her children. Arabella’s last sight and words should never have been such.

Ariadne could no longer hold back and exploded.

“Hey!!!”

She lunged at Lucrezia. Charging forward like a bolt of lightning, she grabbed Lucrezia’s collar with her bony arms and howled like a beast.

“You’re a mother! You’re a human! Where is fate in this world! Where is such a dog-like fate in this world! Is life just about living and dying as fate dictates? No way! I can’t accept it!”

Ariadne clung to Lucrezia, wailing and screaming.

“Arabella’s fate was never meant to be this! Not to die at ten! No, even if it was, if you’re born unlucky, are you supposed to just ‘accept your fate’ and die? Where is something that doesn’t change no matter how hard you try? I can’t accept it!! I will change everything!!”

Cardinal de Mare signaled to the butler Niccolo. He was telling the servants to take Ariadne away.

- Rustle.

While Ariadne’s screams filled the grand hall, a few servants approached. Ariadne, sensing their presence, released Lucrezia and strode directly to the cardinal.

“Father, you see everything. Now you’re thinking about whether the second daughter, who is out of control, can be trusted.”

She met her father’s eyes and glared directly at him.

“If you think the second daughter, who is angry at the first for killing the youngest, is more out of control, you are making a huge mistake. Think carefully about who to bet on.”

Ariadne coldly glanced at the butler Niccolo and his subordinates, who were approaching as ordered, unsure of what to do.

“Don’t come closer. I’ll go on my own.”

Ariadne turned to the remaining family members and declared.

“Even if my hands are stained with blood, even if I end up in hell, I will send those who harmed Arabella to hell. I don’t care what the consequences are!”

She glared at Isabella and Lucrezia with burning eyes.

“Be prepared to pay the price!”

Ariadne stomped her foot and left the grand hall.

Cardinal de Mare only bowed his head at the mess of his family. * * *

Cardinal de Mare thought Ariadne’s declaration to “send those who harmed Arabella to hell” meant she would thoroughly investigate Arabella’s death and clearly determine the right and wrong. But the cardinal was only considering a half-baked world of reason. For Ariadne, who had come from beyond time, proof was unnecessary. The Golden Rule had shown her the truth.

Everything that needed to be taken had been quantified. Only the execution of blood money remained.

Ariadne entered her room and, with a face burning with anger, muttered to Sancha, who had followed her in.

“Sancha, if you want to see Maleta’s face, see it now.”

Sancha asked cautiously.

“Miss, why Maleta suddenly?”

“I will take Arabella’s life back. It will start from there. Maleta, or rather Ipolito, is a crack and a weak link. If Lucrezia’s karma bursts, it will be because of Ipolito.”

Ariadne clenched the bedsheet until her hands bled.

“Blood and flesh will burst. A feast of slaughter will begin.”

- “Do you know the story of the Port merchant? One pound of flesh. You can take only the flesh, but if a single drop of blood is spilled, it is a new sin. I cannot take everything I am owed. Live honestly even if it means a loss.”

Ariadne shook her head, recalling the gypsy woman’s words.

‘Even if I fall into hell, I will take everything I am owed! A lost soul that obediently behaves well and enters heaven after successfully avenging with a pocket full of gold is a hundred times worse!’

After vowing revenge, the overwhelming emotion that flooded in was a sense of loss. Even if she tore Lucrezia and Isabella apart and drank their blood, Arabella would not come back.

Arabella’s laughter, Arabella’s small hands, Arabella’s stubbornness, Arabella’s warmth.

And the most intense emotion was guilt.

‘Because of me. Because I brought her the iron lock. What am I, after all...’

Thoughts cascaded one after another. If I had been a little more resolute, this wouldn’t have happened...! Even if it meant going to extremes, if I had poisoned Lucrezia and locked Isabella in a convent forever, Arabella would still be alive...!

February 1, 1023. The day Arabella died. She lived about nine months less than her original lifespan.

‘If I hadn’t regressed, could Arabella have lived happily for nine more months...?’

Despite regressing, she couldn’t make the life of someone she loved better. No, she had even caused harm.

Ariadne, overwhelmed by a sense of powerlessness for the first time in a long while, locked herself in her room and cried until she had no more strength.

‘Can fate be changed...?’

Whenever she felt like giving up, Ariadne thought about the futures she had changed. Sancha, who should have died, was by her side, and the old woman Galleazzo, who would have committed more evil for ten years, was nowhere to be found.

‘I can do it.’

She reaffirmed her resolve. She could do it. She had to do it. She would mourn today and act tomorrow. Lucrezia and Isabella would pay the price.

Soon.