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Chapter 5
Back when Nadia had been Libenya, Conrad had been her secret subordinate.
Sold to an illegal gambling den at a young age, Conrad had worked there day and night until Libenya took him in. To repay that kindness, Conrad devoted his loyalty to her.
Libenya had relied on Conrad for many things. He was especially skilled at obtaining information that others could not easily access.
He was a clever man, so even from that short letter, he must have realized many things.
After all, the handwriting closely resembled Libenya’s, and there had also been mention of the “key.”
Of course, he could never have imagined that the dead Libenya had come back to life. Most likely, he believed someone was impersonating her.
“How dare you impersonate my master.”
Just as Nadia expected, Conrad’s face was filled with fury.
“I don’t care how you copied my master’s handwriting or how you learned about the key. You dared to tarnish her honor, so I’ll kill you immediately.”
No—he was even worse than Nadia had anticipated.
The Conrad she remembered had certainly possessed a negative streak, but he had also been diligent and meticulous. He was not someone who would recklessly declare he would kill a person outright.
‘Have ten years really been that long?’
Thinking that Conrad’s face looked thinner than before, Nadia calmly placed her index finger against the blade aimed at her.
“How insolent of you to point a sword at your master, Conrad.”
Conrad’s brows instantly furrowed. Curling one corner of his mouth in mockery, he narrowed his eyes sharply.
His ash-gray gaze glared viciously at Nadia.
He looked ready to slit her throat at any moment, yet Nadia continued speaking calmly.
“You were sold to a gambling house at the age of five to pay off your father’s debts. You worked there like a slave day and night, and when you turned fifteen, you lost your mind trying to save your younger sister and joined a gambling table yourself. You lost an eye and nearly died that day. But someone saved you, didn’t they?”
Rising from the bedside, Conrad stared at Nadia. His gaze, once purely hostile, shifted slightly.
Now it was sharper. More suspicious.
“I never told anyone such humiliating memories.”
“No. You told one person.”
Recalling the past, Nadia spoke softly.
“‘You have to tell me. Why are you in that filthy pit? Was it because of greed, or just one moment of foolishness?’”
Conrad’s lips trembled in disbelief. Seeing him rendered speechless, Nadia continued for him.
“You said it was greed. That even though your life was as worthless as a worm’s, you still wanted to try living at least once.”
“…Impossible.”
“It is possible. If I’m Libenya.”
Conrad’s pupils shook violently.
“Lady Libenya died ten years ago. I saw the body myself…”
“That’s right. I died. And somehow, I came back to life. Even calling it reincarnation feels strange. I only have memories starting from the age of ten.”
A soul moving into another body.
And retaining all the memories of a previous life.
It was an utterly unbelievable story.
And yet, Nadia’s calm attitude—speaking of something enormous as though it were nothing at all—reminded him unmistakably of Libenya.
Not to mention, she knew information that only he and Libenya could possibly know.
Weakly, Conrad muttered,
“You really are Lady Libenya…”
“I’m not Libenya anymore. I became Nadia. Since I came back from the dead, I thought I’d try living a new life.”
As Nadia said it as casually as though it were nothing significant, Conrad let out a hollow laugh.
“Now I’m certain. You truly are Lady Libenya. It’s absurd, but still.”
“Now?”
Blinking in confusion, Nadia tilted her head slightly. She had expected she would need to persuade him much longer, so what clue had convinced him?
“If you were merely someone pretending to be Lady Libenya, you would have tried to use me to become Duchess again. There’s no other reason someone would impersonate her.”
“Hm, I suppose that’s true.”
“But you didn’t. You never had any attachment to the position of Duchess in the first place. So naturally, you wouldn’t.”
Conrad fully lowered his sword and dropped to one knee before Nadia.
“It is truly an honor to meet you again, Lady Nadia.”
“You’re already calling me Nadia?”
“Your name is unimportant. What matters is that you are the person I serve. If you wish to be Nadia, then naturally I should call you Nadia.”
As expected, Conrad did not care whether she was Nadia or Libenya.
Smiling softly, Nadia helped him back to his feet.
“I called you because I have a favor to ask.”
“You need only give the order.”
His loyalty had not changed at all.
Nadia sat comfortably on the edge of the bed and lit a candle. Immediately, Conrad groaned in disapproval.
“You’re using such low-quality candles?”
“Don’t say things like that. If Baron and Baroness Hess hadn’t adopted me, I’d probably be begging on the streets right now. I’m sincerely grateful to them.”
“I did not mean to belittle Baron and Baroness Hess. I apologize. If they are your benefactors, then they are benefactors to me as well.”
“I know. You just worry too much.”
“Now that I know of your situation, this cannot continue. Judging by what I’ve seen, you don’t even have a proper maid. I’ll send people tomorrow. I’ll also send mana lamps. It’s bad for your health to keep candles beside you like this.”
Conrad truly worried excessively.
Unable to argue with him, Nadia obediently nodded.
“But that’s not the most urgent matter. You still have my key, don’t you?”
Conrad nodded.
“Of course.”
“I want it back.”
The “key” Nadia referred to was not an actual key.
Back when she had been Duchess of Baldwin, she had been forced to deal with countless criminal organizations feeding upon Baldwin territory. Some had needed to be uprooted immediately, while others required observation before taking action.
To prepare for the day they would be destroyed, Nadia and Conrad had gathered enormous amounts of evidence against them.
They called those collections of evidence “keys.”
“It’s not difficult to return them to you, but since they’re evidence from ten years ago, many traces have already disappeared.”
“But not all of them.”
“Of course not all. But what exactly do you intend to do with the keys?”
At Conrad’s polite question, Nadia smiled leisurely.
“I’m going to capture criminals and earn bounty money.”
“…Money?”
“Yes. I’m no longer the Duchess of Baldwin, who has to worry about family honor. I’m merely the daughter of the Hess Baron family, a tiny territory with fewer than a hundred villagers. There’s no reputation important enough to be damaged by collecting government bounty money.”
“People who look down on capturing criminal organizations are fools. With enough evidence, arresting them won’t be difficult. But why do you need money? And how much?”
Rising from her seat, Nadia picked up the prescription lying on the tea table.
“A great deal. Mother—Baroness Hess—is very ill. And her medicine is extremely expensive.”
When Nadia handed him the prescription, Conrad examined it carefully.
“This is certainly far beyond what the Hess Baron family can afford.”
“It’s beyond merely expensive. If we continue as we have been, we’ll never manage it. We couldn’t even afford Mother’s immediate medicine, so I had to mine the mana stone deposit I’d secretly kept hidden in my previous life as an emergency reserve. There wasn’t as much as I expected, so it only solved the immediate crisis. A few days ago, I genuinely thought she was going to die.”
Sweeping her hair back, Nadia let out a deep sigh.
Watching her silently, Conrad hesitated before speaking.
“Conrad, you’re worrying about something unnecessary again, aren’t you?”
“Yes. My apologies.”
Though he immediately lowered his head, he continued speaking.
“I was worried you might be blaming yourself for Baroness Hess’s illness.”
Conrad was one of the few people who knew many things about Nadia—about Libenya.
He even knew about the nightmares she had never been able to escape, across both lives.
Nadia fell silent before laughing bitterly.
“If I returned to the Baldwin Ducal House and revealed that I was Libenya, this trivial medicine cost would become nothing. So yes, I did briefly think of myself as a beast who couldn’t even repay kindness.”
“Lady Nadia, that is absolutely not true.”
“I was only anxious for a moment. Look—I found another solution, didn’t I?”
Nadia gently squeezed Conrad’s shoulder before letting go.
“Check which of the keys are still useful. Preferably ones we can act on immediately.”
“Yes. I’ll prepare everything quickly.”
“Thank you, Conrad.”
“It is simply my duty.”
After bowing deeply, Conrad left through the same window he had entered from.
‘With this, Mother’s medicine costs will be covered.’
Nadia’s heart alternated between racing rapidly and beating as slowly as that of a dead person.
Wiping the sweat from her palms with a handkerchief, Nadia lay back down on the bed.
‘Everything will be alright now. Nothing will go wrong anymore.’
