Guidelines for the Perfect Goodbye - Chapter 5
Daybreak.
At the Lasphilla County’s countryside residence, the Coffret Manor.
The amethyst room at the end of the second-floor corridor was known to receive the sun particularly late. Thus, it was only natural for the room’s occupant to wake up late.
Cecilia Lasphilla, the seventeen-year-old troublemaker of the Lasphilla Count’s family, was notorious for her love of sleep.
“Milady! Again, again! You’ve overslept again!”
A corpulent woman with awkward footsteps burst into the room without knocking.
“Get up, quickly, now!”
The woman, likely to suffer much due to her unruly curly hair, stretched out her short fingers and ruthlessly beat the blankets.
Hannah Linfitt.
She was the only personal maid assigned to Cecilia. Her manner was surprisingly rude for a servant.
Cecilia, waking from a deep sleep, looked up at her with bleary eyes.
“Milady! Can’t you come down quickly? Do you really need a spanking to make you learn your lesson?”
“Missus Linfitt.”
Cecilia’s low call made Hannah flinch. Cecilia usually called her ‘Auntie Hannah’ affectionately.
‘Strange? Why is she drawing a line today of all days?’
Doubt clouded Hannah’s face. Something was different. What could it be? Staring hard, she still saw the Cecilia she knew.
Though resembling her mother and fairly pretty, there was something gloomy about her appearance. Her cheeks, still chubby with baby fat, were the only youthful aspect of her, but her thin neck and plump face looked precariously matched.
Yet… she definitely felt different from yesterday.
Was it the problem with the blue eyes tinged with silver? Cecilia’s gaze was dry and brittle, like an older woman would have.
“Milady, don’t try to gloss over this with your solemnity. If you’ve overslept, you should hurry down!”
Even as Hannah raised her voice in panic, Cecilia remained unshaken. Her voice, like pearls falling in a mist-covered lake, was serene.
“Missus.”
“Why do you keep changing how you address me…?”
“From tomorrow, you don’t need to come to my room.”
“If you keep this up, I’ll have to… What?”
Her calm statement caused a huge ripple. Hannah trembled and breathed heavily through her nose.
“Are you saying you’re firing me? You, Milady?”
“Firing? I’m simply saying that you can return to your original duties.”
Original duties.
Before being assigned as Cecilia’s nanny, Hannah Linfitt was merely a housemaid, the lowest rank responsible for cleaning the hearth’s ashes and the servants’ staircase.
Rather than enduring the road dust, being Cecilia Lasphilla’s nanny was a hundred times better.
Realizing her mistake, Hannah started to coax Cecilia like a child.
“Milady, if you are angry with me…”
“I am not.”
“Then why…?”
“I just don’t need you anymore.”
Faced with Cecilia’s stubbornness, Hannah switched to threats.
“It wasn’t you who put me back in this position, but the Count himself! Ignoring me like this is the same as disregarding His Lordship’s opinion.”
“Then I shall tell Father. I no longer need a nanny.”
If Count Lasphilla would accept Cecilia’s opinion, Hannah would have no ground to stand on. Caught in a dilemma, Hannah’s confusion was unmistakable.
“I really don’t understand. Why this caprice early in the morning… Did you have a nightmare…?”
“It’s not that…”
Suddenly, the piercing sunlight became too harsh, and Cecilia frowned abruptly. As the conversation dragged on, the sun had risen to a sharp angle.
Cecilia, shielding her eyes from the natural light, replied without relaxing her brow.
“Sorry. It’s too bothersome to explain.”
“……”
“It’s not worth it either.”
And thus, the nanny who had tormented Cecilia, Hannah Linfitt, found herself relegated to the attic overnight.
***
Cecilia leaned back in her bed and closed her eyes.
“…I really have returned.”
It was only after Hannah’s rude awakening early this morning that Cecilia truly felt the reality of having regressed to the past.
‘But only ten years back?’
The extent of regression was proportional to the spellcaster’s remaining lifespan.
She hadn’t expected her past self to live long, but she never imagined that the ‘ten years’ of life she paid as a price would be all she got.
She would have been in trouble if she had wasted several years indecisively.
“It’s okay. Ten years is enough.”
Cecilia had first freed herself from Hannah Lingfit’s violence. Her plan for revenge was to proceed slowly, carefully, without staining her hands with blood.
‘First, I’ll reclaim my rights, one small step at a time.’
And finally, she would teach those who slandered and ignored her in court the truth of retribution.
Christian Pierce.
Bernarda Lasphilla.
Carolina Lasphilla.
And… her father, Adam Lasphilla.
Ultimately, these were her targets in this life.
