บท 9: Chapter 9: Watchman's Rules IV
"You don't look surprised?"
After saying this, Ingrid waited for Herbert's response but she only received the same look on his face. This brought her immense pressure as she felt that her every action was being judged, it was like he was just bidding his time waiting for her to make even the slightest mistake before he decides to immediately pounce on her.
As she was thinking this, Herbert felt pleased as he now strongly felt how hurried and rushed Ingrid was. The more that she was like this, the more she would make mistakes, and the more mistakes that she made, the more Herbert could take advantage of her. To prevent himself from being overconfident, he quickly brushed up on Ingrid's information that he could still remember from reading the book.
Ingrid Rozenblood was another pitiful villain whose death signified the end of the book. She was originally just another typical noble lady until her parents together with her eldest brother suddenly died. Because of their unexpected death, she had been left in the care of her uncle Cloven who quickly took hold of the Rozenblood Duchy as she was still too young to inherit the position due to her young age. During her stay with them, she had been treated in a lukewarm manner which she thought was normal.
The original book did not mention much about what happened to her as it only showed flashbacks of what happened during the important moments like when she had found out the use of the bracelet that her late family had once given her. The unassuming bracelet was the key to finding the treasure that the ancestor of the Rozenblood family has hidden for generations and was only meant to be known to those who would succeed the family line.
Due to her promise to her father, she had only been able to use it when she had reached 18 years old, unfortunately, it was already too late as her uncle had achieved full control over the territory. As such, she had decided to tell her secret to the person that she was closest to the most and had even considered her sister, Helene, which immediately told her father. When the duke found out, he immediately set out for an expedition and brought Ingrid with him. Due to the nature of the treasure, it needed the fresh blood of someone from the family to completely be utilized to which Ingrid was sacrificed to do so.
The next thing that she knew, she had turned back in time and had decided to live a low-key life in her second life after thanking god for another chance. After much preparation, she had instead slowly built up her power but realized that her uncle would never let her accumulate power enough to the point that she could overthrow him so she decided to look for a foreign power to come into play and it came in the form of a religious order that helped her overthrow the duke and secure the territory for herself.
Naturally, as a form of revenge, she decided to sacrifice her foster family to use the treasure for herself. But the series of unfortunate events did not cease as the religious order that she had invited into her territory soon made a move against her and even went as far as to hypnotize her into an ardent believer to essentially have her as a puppet. While she had been brainwashed, she told them of the treasure and they soon decided to make use of her. It was during that point that she had been used as a weapon for the religious order to grow and by the last half of the novel she had to fight against the protagonist.
Just like cliché, her death soon signaled the end of the story. Her life was pathetic and pitiful, it was to the point that the author received comments about her death being unnecessary as many viewers seemed to like her character. This soon gave them the idea that a petition would change the mind of the author to undo her death but this didn't work as the author officially announced the end of the story.
As Herbert continued to remain immersed in his thoughts, Ingrid felt uncomfortable with the lingering silence and decided to compose herself. She knew that since she had already come so far, she needed to have something to show for it, she had to at least test the waters.
"Since it appears that Sir Herbert is not in the mood for a chat, I suppose that I have to make do with just talking out loud to myself. However, since it also seems that you still have the time, please, feel free to listen.
As she said those words, she felt pleased that her voice did not crack. At the very least, she could still save herself some dignity in the face of someone that she perceives as strong. This had brought her enough confidence in herself to continue pushing through with what she wanted.
"Once upon a time, there once was a little caged bird. This bird had long felt jealous of the others that could fully stretch their wings and fly under the bright blue sky. Occasionally, it would often have the thought of escaping the cage every time the owner came to open the cage to feed it. However, due to the owner's care and attention, it had convinced itself that being in the cage was all it ever needed in its life. That was until one day when the owner suddenly decided to buy a pet cat. After being doted over for so long, the little bird felt betrayed but it didn't do anything as it still felt affection for its owner. But the pet cat wasn't satisfied with it and wanted to get rid of the little bird to monopolize the owner all to itself. As such, one day the cat decided to manipulate the owner into letting it dine on the bird."
Once she had finished her short story, she drank a sip of her tea to moisturize her mouth which had just been talking before she decided to continue.
"As the little bird felt the end of its life nearing, it began to feel immense regret and died with its heart full of resentment. But that isn't the end, the little bird suddenly found itself still alive and well. The owner still doted on it and there were no cats that the owner had decided to keep as a pet. After a couple of days spent in confusion, it started to wonder if it was all just a dream or if the history that it knew was just an illusion, the little caged bird soon decided to become free. It told itself that it would rather fly in the sky by itself rather than be with its heartless owner that could just replace it with another. So, when the owner opened the cage to feed the bird, the little bird bit at its owner's hand and flew away from the tiny gap to reach the blue sky. Would you like to take a guess at what happened next?"
Originally, Ingrid had expected to continue talking to herself, but to her surprise, Herbert had decided to answer her question.
"It got out and got to experience firsthand what freedom is truly like, is what you would expect me to say, right? My guess is that the little bird soon went back and continued to peck at her owner, perhaps it went straight for the eyes in an attempt to kill it. If that didn't work, then she would probably call out to the other birds to attack those that had imprisoned it.
Ingrid furrowed her bows. Herbert's answer had exceeded her expectations but this should be a positive sign that he was also a regressor just like her. With a sigh, she soon placed the cup of tea down on the table and sat up straight.
"I'm sure that you already know why I am here today."
"No. I'm not quite sure as to what you mean by that. Would you care to elaborate?"
As Herbert said those words, he praised her in his mind for being creative with her words yet at the same time, he also smiled seeing that Ingrid had failed to hide the trembling in her fingers. His sudden playful attitude had taken Ingrid by surprise; however, she took this as a positive sign since Herbert had finally started talking himself. She thought to herself that Herbert must surely be just playing dumb, as such she continued to probe him.
"You also remember it, right? The history that is yet to happen, the memories of the future's past."
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