It's Too Late for Regrets - Chapter 10.3

Edgar clicked his tongue softly after hearing her quiet voice.

 

“Next time, I will teach you not to put yourself down when you speak. I let it go, but you keep talking like that. Don’t do that.”

 

“Oh, sorry. It’s a habit… again.”

 

“You should fix that habit of saying sorry too. Looks like we still have a lot to work on.”

 

Ines looked up for a moment at the shining emperor, bathed in the warm midday sun.

 

Soon, a gentle smile appeared on her lips. Ines nodded with a clear smile.

 

“Yes. Really.”

 

Edgar went back into the forest with the knights, and Ines walked toward the tent where the ladies and noblewomen who did not join the hunt were sitting.

 

“Maybe Caesar has come by now…”

 

It had been weeks since she last saw the child properly after the masked ball.

 

Since the last time the duke found out she planted someone near the duke’s protection, the reports had drastically decreased. She had no idea how the child was doing these days.

 

Her steps quickened.

 

But after only a few steps, someone blocked her way.

 

“Miss Irope, is that correct?”

 

It was a man with brown hair partially braided in a unique style.

 

He was short and small like a boy, but his face looked like he was in his mid-thirties, making his age hard to guess.

 

Ines answered with curiosity.

 

“Yes, that’s right. Who are you?”

 

“I’m Lim. A servant working at the Eleanor estate.”

 

Lim bowed deeply.

 

Just as Ines thought his bow seemed a little unnatural and clumsy, his next words stopped her.

 

“I am the doctor in charge of the young lord.”

 

“Oh, the young lord’s…”

 

So Caesar is here.

 

Ines held back from immediately grabbing him to ask about the child’s condition.

 

It wouldn’t be good if people around found out how much Celia Irope cared about the young lord. She barely kept her composure.

 

“I see. But what is your business with me?”

 

“It’s like this…”

 

Lim’s expression grew worried.

 

“After the duke went into the forest… the young lord’s condition worsened. When he is sick, he gets very sensitive and can’t stop crying, and we don’t know how to calm him.”

 

“…Then why come to me?”

 

“You saw the young lord at the masked ball, didn’t you?”

 

He acted like he knew everything. Rim smiled slightly without moving his lips.

 

“The young lord liked you very much. Among the nobles at the rendezvous, you are the only one who knows the young lord.”

 

“So, if it’s not rude, we came to ask if you could take care of our young lord until His Highness returns.”

 

He spoke fluently as if he had a prepared script.

 

Ines quietly studied Rim’s face from all angles.

 

“…Who said I met the young lord at the masked ball?”

 

When she met Caesar, she was wearing a mask.

 

They never exchanged names, so unless someone told Caesar about her identity, he shouldn’t know her name or face.

 

Only the duke clearly recognized her that day.

 

‘Did that man tell my identity to his son?’

 

She was sure he did not.

 

Rayan Eleanor probably didn’t say a word to his son about her.

 

And there was another suspicious point.

 

“You said the young lord can’t stop crying…”

 

That was probably a lie too.

 

Caesar wasn’t the type of child who cried because of pain. Even if he was sick, he endured it and would collapse eventually—he wouldn’t cry and throw a fit.

 

Ines took a faint smile and stepped back one step.

 

“Sorry, but I don’t think I can help. It would be better to take the young lord back to the estate quickly. Wouldn’t His Highness understand that?”

 

Lim stared at her without answering. An eerie feeling came over her.

 

‘This man hasn’t blinked once…’

 

Just then, a golden light flashed below her sight.

 

Ines looked down, startled.

 

The grass under her feet was pressed down in a geometric pattern.

 

Yellow light spread along the pressed marks.

 

“…!”

 

Feeling danger, she hurriedly stepped back and looked around.

 

She noticed all the people nearby had quietly moved inside the tent.

 

There was no one to ask for help. A chilling realization passed through her mind.

 

‘From the start, they never planned to take me to Caesar.’

 

Their goal was to cut her off from others’ eyes. Ines clenched her teeth and stared at Lim.

 

“What on earth are you doing? Who are you really…?”

 

“It’s time to go back.”

 

Lim interrupted her in a flat voice. Ines felt her heart tighten and stammered.

 

“Go back? Where to…?”

 

“To your original body, the place you came from.”

 

Lim showed his teeth in a sly smile.

 

At that moment, a strong wind blew from behind her head.

 

Ines turned her head in surprise, and suddenly a large shadow covered above her.

 

“…!”

 

All the sunlight disappeared from her view and was replaced by a dark and gloomy scene.

 

Thick trees, grass dark from lack of sunlight, eerie wind sounds…

 

“What is this…?”

 

When Ines hurriedly turned her head forward, the nobles’ tents, the waiting horses, the servants lined up—all had vanished.

 

The same landscape surrounded her on all sides.

 

Woo-oo-oo…

 

A long cry sounded from far away—maybe a bird or a wild animal.

 

Looking up, she saw fragmented sky through tall trees. The branches and leaves of old trees bent to one side in the wind.

 

No sound of horse hooves or any human presence.

 

There was no way this could be the forest edge.

 

“How could this happen…”

 

She muttered absentmindedly and realized instinctively: this place was far from even the hunting grounds.

 

A dangerous area at the mountain pass beyond the forest, filled with wild beasts.

 

She had fallen there.

 

Moving such a long distance in less than a second was impossible by human power.

 

Ines pressed her chest with her hands as it pounded fast in the sudden situation.

 

‘…I must stay calm.’

 

How long before the countess or Edgar notices she is missing?

 

Unfortunately, unless Edgar comes back out of the forest, no one would realize she’s gone.

 

Ines moved carefully, watching her surroundings.

 

As soon as she hid behind the thick roots of an old tree, her legs gave out.

 

She barely held herself up by gripping the thick tree trunk that was too large to wrap with her arms.

 

‘That man…’

 

The man named Lim.

 

His unusual hairstyle, somewhat strange common language, and the awkward bow…

 

He was not a Lezan.

 

So, which country was he from?

 

It was the time when envoys from many countries gathered in Lezan.

 

‘He said he was the young lord’s doctor, but that was a lie.’

 

Then she recalled clearly the report from the spies near the duke’s estate.

 

It said some Zhenareans who the duke brought back from the expedition were working in the estate.

 

Ah, a Zhenarean.

 

Still, she could not believe he was truly Caesar’s doctor.

 

Why would the duke assign a Zhenarean doctor, one who uses strange powers, to his son?

 

Despite her situation, anger boiled up.

 

“Why on earth did that man put such a dangerous person next to the child?”

 

She had thought the duke cared for his son like life itself, but why did he do such a foolish thing?

 

Dark doubts filled her mind.

 

What is Caesar doing right now?

 

Why did that man Lim purposely leave her far from the forest edge?

 

What does he want from me?

 

<It’s time to go back. To your original body, the place you belong.>

 

How much does he know about me?

 

One thing was clear now.

 

The reason Ines and Celia’s souls switched was related to the Zhenareans.

 

Ines nervously scratched the tree trunk with her nails.

 

‘What do I do now?’

 

It was a desperate situation.

 

Staying still here or moving somewhere blindly both seemed reckless.

 

Then—

 

Rustle.

 

Someone stepped on the grass behind the old tree where Ines stood.

 

Ines stopped breathing for a moment.

 

‘Is that the Zhenarean from before?’

 

Fear rushed in.

 

In a place this lonely, death could come in many ways.

 

It was the perfect place to hide a body…

 

The footsteps came closer.

 

Before Ines could prepare herself, someone suddenly peeked from behind the tree trunk.

 

“…!”

 

But it was not Lim.

 

She stared blankly at the person who appeared in front of her.

 

“You are…?”