I Just Raised Men for Revenge - Chapter 16

Fearing that she would be caught, she shouted furiously, but the emperor remained resolute.

“So… you should have been a little more careful, Elzere. If you hadn’t killed the Marquis so hastily, then I wouldn’t have had to investigate like this. And I wouldn’t have had to send you to the execution ground. You were… a very stupid woman.”

“Execution ground? Are you saying you’re going to kill me now?”

“Of course. But don’t worry. I’ll kill my brother who had an affair with you together.”

“W-wait, are you really going to kill me?”

But words didn’t get through. No matter how much Elzere denied it, the emperor wouldn’t believe her. The more she made a fuss, the more he just laughed as if it was amusing.

“For the crime of poisoning your own relative, for the crime of framing Sesenia to bring disgrace upon me, the emperor, I will sentence you to death for all of that.”

That was the last of it. Elzere’s execution was carried out even faster than Sesenia’s. There was no chance for rebuttal. The emperor cut out Elzere’s tongue before the execution so she couldn’t even open her mouth. She was killed together with Ian.

And when she opened her eyes again, she had returned to this time.

“I can… start over.”

Elzere rejoiced, thinking that God had finally given her a chance.

Now she could turn everything around. When Elzere thought about what had gone wrong, only one thought came to mind. This happened because she didn’t take over the Marquis family from the beginning.

The Marquis family was hers from the start. So if she took what was originally hers, everything would be resolved.

So she bought up Hephria cotton, just as Sesenia had done in the past.]

“But, but… why is Sesenia here too.”

Everything was perfect. God had finally given her a chance. A chance to create a perfect future again. But Sesenia was here too.

“No. This time… I just need to kill her quickly. No, I don’t even need to kill her. I just need to do exactly what she did and take everything. I’m smarter than Sesenia, and Father loves me more. So there’s nothing to worry about.”

Elzere forced a smile and shook off her anxiety.

“Everything will be fine. First… I just need to find all the things I had one by one.”

Elzere stood up again and twisted her lips into an ominous expression.

“In the end, everyone will love me. Unlike you, Sesenia. I… was born to be loved.”

As if she had finally regained her strength, she immediately stepped outside.

**

Time passed quickly.

Two weeks had passed since that day. The atmosphere in the empire was unsettling due to the sudden cold that had come a few days ago. Lizbeth draped a shawl over Sesenia’s shoulders as she looked out the window. The weather was cold enough to see one’s breath.

“It seems the time has come.”

“Now people will start looking for Hephria cotton, right?”

“Yes. Elder sister Elzere will probably make her move first, even without us doing anything.”

“What kind of move?”

Lizbeth, who had filled the stove with firewood due to the sudden cold weather, asked while moving the logs around with a poker.

“She’ll probably heavily promote how good Hephria cotton is.”

In the past, Sesenia hadn’t done such things. Even without doing so, the number of people secretly looking for Hephria cotton had increased rapidly. There were more than enough customers overflowing without having to make such an effort.

But Elzere was already spreading rumors that people should use Hephria cotton to prepare for the cold.

Since she had a tight grip on all the Hephria cotton that Sesenia couldn’t buy, it was obvious how much she would want to spread rumors.

Through this, she intended to make the family prosper just as Sesenia had done in the past. Because of that, she planned to completely take over the Marquis family for herself. These were moves that were too obvious to see.

Knowing this, Sesenia quietly gazed out the window.

Frost was settling on the windowpane.

Seeing that, Sesenia sat quietly waiting to hear other news. And as expected, Elzere began spreading stories about Hephria cotton all over the empire.

Thanks to this, the demand for Hephria cotton increased rapidly. Since people couldn’t buy everything available in the market, they started hurriedly buying up Hephria cotton.

But with the supply blocked, it was no longer possible to purchase more.

And exactly one week later.

Elzere came looking for Sesenia. Utterly furious.

“You did this!!”

Sesenia, who was sitting at the table drinking tea, tilted her head and looked at her.

“Elder sister. What’s wrong? Why did you come running here so angrily?”

“You did this, didn’t you!? Admit it!”

“What did I do? Did something happen?”

“Look at you pretending not to know. You did this! You messed with my cotton!!”

At those words, Sesenia shrugged with an expression of genuine ignorance.

“Messed with? I didn’t do anything though? Did something happen? Ah, did it get moldy or something?”

“See? You did do it. That’s why you know!”

Sesenia clicked her tongue as she watched Elzere shouting loudly enough to hurt her ears.

“That’s not why I know. Anyone who knows a little about Hephria cotton could predict this.”

“What?”

“You’re really stupid. That’s why just copying isn’t enough. You should have at least looked into what it was. Stupidly focused only on buying exactly as I did, and this is the result.”

Elzere’s face turned red. Already on that day when she heard that Elzere had bought Hephria cotton, no, on the day she realized that Elzere had turned back time like herself and was trying to copy everything Sesenia had done in the past to make it her own, Sesenia had already anticipated this.

That something like this would surely happen. That she would be so eager to just copy without properly looking into it.

That she would focus only on buying. The Elzere that Sesenia had seen was always like this. She had a good reputation because people around her helped, but in reality, she was a fool. It was the same now.

‘As expected, she neglected it.’

Hephria cotton was a bit special. That job that Teddy does, hitting the cotton once in a while, is needed to create space between the fibers to prevent mold from growing. If it’s not kept in a warm place or not managed, it eventually becomes unusable.

Moreover, after mold has taken over, it absorbs a lot of moisture, making it heavy and truly troublesome garbage to dispose of.

And everything was as Sesenia had predicted.

Lizbeth, standing behind Elzere, smiled slightly with a somewhat satisfying expression.

On that day when Lizbeth was particularly worried about Sesenia, she told Lizbeth about this fact. That if it was Elzere, Elzere who would be busy just copying what she did, she wouldn’t manage the cotton properly and mold would grow. So there was nothing to worry about.

“What to do. You won’t be able to use that. It probably has no product value at all… That’s unfortunate.”

“You should have told me about that!!”

“Why should I? I thought you knew since you were copying everything I did. Who knew you’d only copy what you could see?”

“Hey!”

“What. You should have done it moderately. You acted like you would win everything before. What a shame. You must have suffered a huge loss.”

Sesenia picked up the teacup beside her and drank the tea, making an exaggerated slurping sound. Seeing this, Elzere trembled. Making noise while drinking tea was a sign of disrespect towards the other person, completely against etiquette.

But Elzere was in no position to point that out.

“You really… really…!”

“It must be hard to recover from this. You said you’d take over the Marquis family, but how can you do that like this? The family fortune is already declining… such a big loss, what will you do?”

“…”

“Did you at least buy some firewood? If the cotton failed, you should have at least bought firewood.”

“That, that…”

“Why. Did you hear rumors that I bought firewood, and deliberately not buy firewood to release the cotton first, even more ostentatiously?”

Her complexion turned pale white again. How could Elzere move exactly within the range of Sesenia’s predictions?

‘How foolish and amusing.’

Last time, after learning that Elzere had turned back time, Sesenia went to see the Marquis. To ask for more support. Then she purchased additional firewood. And she asked the Marquis for a favor. To make sure to tell Elzere that she had bought firewood.

Then Elzere would use her brain a bit. The longer you hold onto Hephria cotton, the more the price of firewood rises. Conversely, if you release the cotton early, the price of firewood will fall.

[Sesenia, who has bought a large quantity of firewood like in the past, will hold onto the cotton. Then the profits from firewood will rise, and Sesenia’s cotton will also increase in value several times.]

Elzere, who made this assumption, decided to act differently from the past.

If she releases her cotton quickly at a reasonable price, the price of firewood that Sesenia bought by asking her father will drop sharply from its original price.

The price of firewood is highest before winter comes. So she would surely try to release her cotton quickly to dominate the market over Sesenia, and lower the price of firewood to increase Sesenia’s losses.

Knowing this, Sesenia had asked her father to make sure to mention that she had bought firewood. Because she would surely use such an obvious tactic.

And indeed, she moved exactly as Sesenia had predicted.

“…How… how could this happen…!”

“That’s why you should think with your head. Not by copying others. You didn’t use your brain and only thought about copying others, and on top of that, you only tried to ruin me somehow, so this is how you ended up ruining yourself.”

Male lead reborn without memories — but he still falls for her.

The person he finds displeasing in this life turns out to be his cherished wife-master in previous life…

Xie Zhi and Fang Xianxing who had known each other for less than three days through a blind date sat in the same car in front of the civil affairs bureau. They had a disagreement and failed to get married.

Xie Zhi immediately took out his phone, slid through his contacts, and randomly selected the next marriage candidate.

The woman snatched his phone and hung up. Looking at his phone wallpaper, she awkwardly changed the subject: “An ancient painting, eh? It looks pretty good, it’s just that the person in the painting looks a bit like me.”

When he heard this, he sarcastically mocked her for being so delusional, completely unaware that, the person in front of him was the reincarnation of Wen Ru, the famous prime minister of Yuan Shun whom he most admired…

The female CEO who doesn’t want to get married with a divorce agreement in hand × The male archaeological researcher who will only get married if he’s sure he can get divorced