The Art of Reforming Villainous Men - Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Translator: Yonnee
—
The moment she faced him, her breath caught in her throat.
“…No.”
After throwing the Zeller family, her entire life, into the trash, now they wanted to explain?
Explain what, exactly?
Were they planning to spout hypocritical lies about how they destroyed the Zeller family for her own good?
‘Whatever that explanation is…’
She did not want to hear it.
Staggering, Adeline instinctively stepped backward toward the staircase.
But she didn’t realize just how unstable her weakened legs had made her steps.
Nor did she realize how dangerous it was to step onto the stairs without holding onto the railing.
The spot where Adeline took her backward step wasn’t the staircase—it was thin air.
By the time she realized her mistake, her body had already lost balance.
“ADELINE!”
As she fell, Adeline caught sight of the expressions on the faces of the three men.
Despite their differences in personality and appearance, they all wore the same expression.
Their faces were filled with shock and urgency, as if they were the ones falling instead of her.
Seeing that, Adeline let out an involuntary chuckle.
How ridiculous.
‘If I die, wouldn’t it actually work out well for them?’
They had destroyed the Zeller Duchy, her entire life, yet they had the audacity to show such expressions.
That expression was the last thing Adeline saw in her life.
With that thought, Adeline fell, and the next time she opened her eyes—
“…ady! Milady, did you have a terrible nightmare? Well, that’s not surprising, is it? After all, it’s only been a week since the Duke passed away…”
She had returned to three years ago, right after her father’s death.
To a time when the Zeller family had yet to fall.
* * *
As soon as she opened her eyes, she checked the calendar—and there was no mistake.
Adeline had returned to the day marking one week since her father’s death.
‘Everything is exactly as I remember.’
The black dress she had worn continuously since her father’s funeral, the mansion decorated with baby’s breath flowers for mourning—
Even the servants who had been dismissed due to the family’s inability to pay them were exactly as they had been.
When she realized this, she was so overwhelmed that she nearly burst into tears.
‘I don’t know why I’ve returned to the past…’
And if she could have returned to a time before her father’s death, that would have been even better, but no matter.
‘This is a chance.’
A chance to change the fate of the Zeller Duchy.
As soon as Adeline realized she had returned to the past, she quickly assessed her current situation.
It was one week after the death of Duke Diego Zeller.
“I graduated from the academy… just a little over a month ago.”
Most noble children attended the imperial boarding school, Froude Academy, as a rite of passage.
She had graduated from the academy earlier that year, and soon after, Diego had suddenly fallen ill and passed away in just over a month.
‘That’s when I found out.’
That the Zeller family was buried in debt.
Now that she would be inheriting the Zeller Duchy, she would naturally inherit everything that came with it.
Including the debt.
—I’m sorry, my daughter… I’ve left you with such a heavy burden.
At the time, she had thought her father’s final words were referring to the family and its legacy.
But in truth, he had been talking about the debt.
Now, she understood.
With the Zeller family’s current financial state, they couldn’t even afford the inheritance tax, let alone repay the debt.
‘We don’t even have enough money to pay the bank before the mansion is seized.’
The most urgent issue was the loan from the bank that had used the mansion as collateral.
If they didn’t repay the money within a month, House Zeller’s downfall would be imminent.
In her previous life, Adeline had frantically reached out to everyone.
She contacted families that had maintained long relationships with the Zeller Duchy, as well as friends she had made at the academy.
But all she received in return were words of sympathy and condolences.
It was only natural.
The Zeller Duchy had been left with nothing but a young, newly graduated heir.
And the amount of money she needed was massive—enough to be secured by the ducal mansion itself.
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