Just Leave Me Be

Chapter 2

The world flashed before her one last time before it came to an end. Adele kept her eyes tightly shut, not fully ready for her first glimpse at the afterworld. She couldn’t believe that her adoptive father, Duke Viphta, had been the last person she thought about before her death.

What an awful way to end things.

Did that really have to be her final thought? The words the duke said to her on the first day they met had stuck with her like a parasite her entire life, binding her down as if they were shackles.

I’m exhausted.

Believing she had finally met the sweet release of death, Adele’s eyes gradually opened. Fortunately, dying was not as painful as she had expected. But her mind was completely drained, and it would take a great amount of time for her to feel fully restored.

Adele stared blankly at the ceiling above her for a long while after she opened her eyes. Eventually, Adele pulled her eyes from the ceiling and looked around her, blinking slowly.

So the afterworld looks like my old home?

Life was cruel that way.

Born an orphan in the streets, she’d been adopted by the duke—the sole reason being that she looked like the nobleman’s late daughter. Just a week before Adele died, she’d learned the reason why the duchess, whom she’d always struggled to see as a mother, despised her so.

Adele was the duke’s bastard child.

She hadn’t known, but even so, she had worked herself to the bone, hoping to receive some modicum of love and affection, only to be abandoned in return. What little attention she had gained was taken away once the duke and duchess welcomed a new daughter into the world.

The duke’s household already had its fair share of enemies, and with no escorts and no one in the family looking after her, Adele’s eventual fate had been so predictable it was almost laughable.

Abandoned by the duke’s household to which she had devoted her life to and killed by some nameless thug… Adele would never forget the moment she was dragged out of the upturned carriage and forced to meet a painful death. Her only consolation was that she had been killed in one clean stroke. Her pain had not been unnecessarily drawn out.

Can I rest now? That’s what Adele had thought right at the moment of her death.

Knock, knock.

Adele slowly turned her head toward the sound, her eyebrows pulling together in confusion.

Were there visitors in the afterlife? Could it be the Grim Reaper?

The afterworld was truly a strange place.

She’d heard that as long as you didn’t commit any sins in your lifetime, the afterworld would be a pleasant place to live...

But I never expected that it would look exactly like my old bedroom… Seeing how grandly furnished it was, Adele deduced that it was most likely the room she’d stayed in right after she was adopted.

It didn’t matter; she’d take anything. All she wanted was to fall into a deep sleep.

Knock, knock.

That knocking sound again. Adele raised her head and finally opened her mouth. Whatever she needed to do, she wanted to get it over with so she could sleep.

“Yes?” she called out.

“Lady Karena, it’s Bella.”

“…?”

Bella had been one of Adele’s maids from back when Adele was pretending to be Karena. Was this some sort of theme in the afterworld, recreating one’s past lives?

Who knew? Adele glanced indifferently at the door as it opened.

Once she had realized she would never be loved nor would she ever get anything from the duchess, Adele had decided to let go of everything. After all, Adele was no longer needed to play the role of Karena Viphta. The duke’s newborn daughter had become the center of everyone’s attention.

“My lady, today is the day of the tea party,” Bella said.

“What do you mean...?” Adele asked, baffled.

She had no idea what was going on. She was dead, so this had to mean Bella was the Grim Reaper. Why? Because Adele herself was dead!

Did I somehow get lucky and come back to life? Adele thought to herself. But even if that were true, Bella’s reaction was lackluster; not that anyone had ever really cared about her in the first place.

Still, it seemed seriously problematic to impose a tea party on someone who’d just barely escaped death on her way to an arranged marriage. She had expected to at least be questioned about everything that had happened first. Along with perhaps an eye roll, as well.

“I beg your pardon?” Bella said. “Today you are scheduled to attend Lady Eucli’s tea party, my lady.”

Adele frowned.

Hadn’t Lady Eucli been the one who got caught up in that accident and died? She had been denied a funeral while Marquess Eucli had been stripped of his title and exiled to the outskirts of his territory. The noblewoman’s death had been proclaimed an accident, but the marquess’s sudden disgrace and the lack of even a simple funeral for Lady Eucli had sparked rumors within high society that the lady might have died from Callot.

Even among the ladies at court, talk of Marquess Eucli was shushed.

And now Adele was being invited to the tea party of the lady who had died a year ago. Either she had returned from the dead or Bella had gone insane because nothing made sense.

“…”

Adele firmly pinched her thigh. She had barely applied any pressure, but the pain was sharp enough to make her quickly let go.

“Is this a dream?” she whispered to herself.

“My lady...?”

“Or perhaps have I gone insane?”

“I… beg your pardon?”

“Bella, what is today’s date?” Adele asked, her voice heavy with exhaustion.

“It is March 31st in the imperial year of 475, my lady,” Bella replied without hesitation, looking bewildered.

“Imperial year of... 475? I’ve not gone mad, have I, Bella?”

“Huh...? I’m sure the date is correct, my lady. I saw it in the papers today.”

Only then did Adele truly take in her surroundings. Her gaze landed on a snow-white pen.

That pen broke two years ago. I threw it away.

She had truly loved that pen. It had been that same pen that Quaren Viphta, the second rascal son of the Viphta household, had broken.

“Is this your pen? Looks disgusting.”

“Give it back,” Adele begged.

“I don’t think I will.”

She still remembered the way he had snapped it in half with his bare hands, an evil smirk spreading across his face.

Wait… is Bella wearing her old uniform?

She recalled that about a year ago, the staff uniforms at the estate had all been redesigned. She remembered it very clearly because Bella had been in an exceptionally good mood that day and had treated Adele with unusual kindness.

Her head started to ache once she pieced together the turn of events.

Adele rubbed her forehead wearily. Did I really go back in time...?

She let out a soft chuckle. She was so sure that nothing could surprise her anymore but going back in time was difficult to wrap her head around. Yet here she was, in the time when she’d been most deprived of love, no less.

March 31st of the imperial year 475... That’s exactly three years ago. I know because I left home to get married on March 31st.

They say people who are dead inside eventually become incapable of showing strong reactions to even the wildest of events. So when she realized she wasn’t as shocked as she probably should have been, Adele had to fight back a laugh.

This means little Selena will be born a year from now.

And Adele would still be thirsty for the slightest word of encouragement.

She’d been assassinated on her way to marry a man she’d never met, used as a pawn for a marriage of convenience, and escorted by only a meager handful of guards. It was only on the verge of death that Adele had understood just how futile her life had once been. In that moment, she’d understood she’d been chasing after something untouchable and unattainable—a phantom of love and affection.

“Bella, I’m not feeling well today,” she declared.

“Oh, really?”

“I have a fever and I’m dizzy. Please send word that I won’t be able to make it to the tea party today.”

At Adele’s request, Bella hesitated, looking troubled.

“But my lady...”

“I can’t help that I am sick. If you get in trouble with the duke and duchess, I’ll take the scolding on your behalf. Now go send word to Lady Eucli.”

“Yes, my lady. Shall I call for the physician?”

Call for the physician? After you go ask the duke for permission, you mean? Just how long do you plan on making me wait this time?

Adele fought back a sneer. She’d once suffered from a severe fever before. Typically she would have endured her illness and kept to herself, but Adele had been in so much pain that day that she’d eventually asked Bella for help.

“His Grace is not home at the moment, so I am not authorized...”

“Then ask Mother, please.”

“I’ll try, my lady.”

Understanding the relationship between Adele and the duchess all too well, Bella had made a troubled face, but she didn’t refuse.

Unsurprisingly, the duchess had chosen not to respond to Adele’s request.

“I’m sorry, my lady. I’ll ask His Grace once he comes home,” Bella said. “Could you hold on for a little longer?”

“But...”

“Your fever doesn’t look that serious anyway. It’ll just be a short while, you won’t have to wait long.”

The finality in Bella’s voice made it clear that there was nothing more Adele could say to change her mind.

She had not been able to see the physician that day. The duke had returned later that afternoon, but Bella didn’t ask about calling the physician. She’d told Adele the next day that she had forgotten, but now it was hard to tell whether Bella had truly just made an honest mistake.

In the end, Adele had spent three full days bedridden before gradually recovering.

Hypocrite.

With great difficulty, Adele swallowed back her insult. She pressed down the laughter threatening to escape her throat.

“No, forget it. I should be better after a day of sleep.”

“Yes, my lady. I’ll send word then.”

Bella bowed and retreated from the room, not looking particularly worried.

Adele turned her head away, her face indifferent.

Long-time servants of the duke’s household understood that Karena Viphta had fallen critically ill, but then after some time spent away, had returned to the estate fully recuperated and well. However, there were a handful of them who had been wary of the recently recovered Karena Viphta.

The dying lady, who’d been no better than a corpse, had reappeared within a few years looking far too healthy. Once they had witnessed the duchess’s manic hatred toward her own daughter, most of the servants had begun avoiding Adele.

Only the most devoted servants like Bella, who had been loyal to the duke for many years, knew that the real Karena Viphta had died from Callot disease. Those servants all neglected and made light of Adele’s situation.

They will never love me as their real daughter, Adele thought to herself bitterly.

If only she had admitted this to herself sooner, she could have at least enjoyed the life she’d been given.

Was she feeling regretful after all this time because she’d been given a second chance?

Once Bella closed the door behind her, Adele laid back down on the bed. No matter how hard she tried, nobody would ever recognize her efforts. So this time, she would stop trying altogether.

“They’ll throw me out once Selena is born anyway,” Adele mumbled to herself.

Honestly, she hoped that was the case. Even if she were subject to disgrace, she wouldn’t mind so long as she could get out of this house. Maybe there was something she’d learned in her previous life that she could use to her advantage.

If nothing else, going on a long trip doesn’t sound like a bad idea either.

The only reason they had brought in Adele as a stand-in was to cover up the fact that their daughter had died from Callot, a hereditary and incurable disease.

Untreatable and deadly, Callot was infamously known as “the devil’s disease.” Nobody knew how it was started, whom it affected, nor how it was spread; it was a disease shrouded entirely in mystery. Since there were no causes or precursors to the disease, one scholar concluded that it was a hereditary illness. However, those in the know were well aware that Callot was not carried through family lines. Those people simply kept quiet about it because the empire had proclaimed otherwise.

Symptoms of Callot included bumps that erupted all over the body before hardening over time. A person’s skin would slowly drain of color, eventually turning gray. Then at some point, the skin would become so rough it hardly seemed human. It was almost as if the skin was slowly turning into stone.

The symptoms were so bizarre that it was hard to believe they were real without witnessing it in person. “Terrible” did not even come close to accurately describing it.

Of course, this was not the only reason the illness was nicknamed “the devil’s disease.” The symptoms would start on a small patch of skin before eventually spreading throughout a person’s whole body, even moving to the organs. Once that happened the person would be unable to survive—their organs shutting down one by one before eventually succumbing. Upon death, the patient would immediately stiffen up like stone and would crumble away at just the slightest touch.

Due to its unusual symptoms, Callot disease was subject to many strange rumors. The most convincing of them all was that making a deal with the devil would cause one to come down with Callot.

There were records showing that one family had conspired to commit treason against the holy emperor himself and had chosen to seek help from the devil. As a result, the entire family fell ill, stricken with Callot, and their bloodline went extinct. If pressed for evidence, people often said that traces of shrines and demon-summoning rituals had been found at that family’s estate.

If word got out that someone had Callot, a family’s very existence, not just its foundation, could be at risk. It’s for this reason that the duke needed a stand-in for his daughter.

The chosen one was none other than Adele, whose hair and eyes made her so closely resemble Karena Viphta.