Idle Translation

Click.

Countless scenes rewound in my mind like a fast-reversing film. Time surged backward in an instant.

The moment I took a deep breath—

“Gasp!”

My vision had already changed.

“Haa… Haa…”

A lavish dining hall. A table overflowing with food. Maids rushing toward me in a panic as I suddenly convulsed.

“Lady Vania! Are you all right?”

“Oh my, what on earth just happened?!”

There was no pain.

I was simply shocked by my first experience of regression.

“I’m fine…”

This place—

‘Windsor Castle?’

The castle where my father gathered and raised his illegitimate children.

The place where I had spent my childhood.

‘I’ve regressed far too much… How many years did I go back?’

As I tried to gauge the situation, I grabbed the hand of a familiar maid.

“…Maria?”

“Yes, my lady. Are you feeling well?”

“Yeah. By the way, when can I see my father?”

It wasn’t a strange question. Around this time, I had been endlessly curious about it.

As expected, Maria responded without suspicion, only looking at me with pity.

“If you awaken your ability, you could meet the Duke even now.”

“What if I can’t?”

In my family, anyone who fails to manifest an ability by the age of twelve is deemed ‘powerless’ and cast out.

To meet my father, I had two options: awaken an ability or be confirmed as powerless and see him for the first and last time at age twelve.

“…A birthday party?”

Maria hesitated for a long moment, seemingly feeling sorry for me, before finally speaking.

“If you celebrate two more birthdays, the Duke will come to see you.”

“I see.”

Even if I didn’t manifest an ability, I could meet my father after two more birthdays.

‘That means I’m ten years old now.’

I opened my hand. It was undeniably mine, yet so small that it felt unfamiliar.

‘I’ve traveled back ten years.’

Ten years.

Just moments ago, standing on the brink of death, I had regressed a full decade.

The House of Vasenberg

A family so powerful that even the Emperor of the Empire bowed his head.

Vania was the favored child of such a household.

She was the most beloved daughter of Duke Bassenberg and the heir to the family’s power.

Because she possessed an unprecedented ability.

“Vania, you have to run.”

Yet, the seemingly invincible family collapsed overnight. Her father and all her siblings perished.

On that horrific dawn—

At the hands of a single person.

“He’s going to kill you too.”

Her lover gripped her hand and ran, dragging her away. As they fled, Vania saw the corpses scattered across the mansion.

Her half-siblings.

The eldest. The second eldest brother…

Her sisters. And even… her father.

It was unbelievable.

How had someone slaughtered them so easily—these people, the strongest ability wielders of all?

“Are you Vania Vasenberg?”

Then, she came face-to-face with him.

The man who had been cast out from the family as a powerless failure.

Yet, despite that, he had carried out this massacre.

Ryan Vasenberg.

“Tch, what’s this? A prince? If you don’t want to die with her, let go of her hand and step aside.”

Ryan gestured dismissively toward her lover, looking thoroughly uninterested.

“Killing an innocent guy would just give me bad dreams.”

“Please, spare her.”

Her lover immediately begged for Vania’s life.

“She knew nothing of this. She’s still too young and innocent… Please, have mercy.”

“Pfft! Seriously?”

Ryan chuckled darkly before his eyes glinted with something terrifying.

“She really knew nothing? The great princess of Vasenberg? For a full twenty years?”

“……”

“The food you ate, the clothes you wore, the pleasures you indulged in… Did you truly not know what kind of filthy power was upholding all of it?”

There was no way she hadn’t known.

Vania knew it all too well.

Strength equaled power.

The Vasenberg family was the sole bloodline that produced ability wielders. Their dominance was a natural consequence.

And the corruption of unchecked power—

That, too, was only inevitable.

“Please, she had no way to escape the Duke’s grip or defy his orders. I beg you…”

Her lover pleaded once more in her place, as Vania couldn’t even make an excuse.

“Listen, Prince. I didn’t come here to sort through people’s sins and weigh their guilt. I don’t trust sob stories, and frankly, it’s not my job to judge them.”

However, the mass murderer remained cold.

“I’ll count to ten. After that, the prince will have a crime to his name as well—the crime of protecting that girl.”

“…….”

“I’m saying I’ll add a charge and send you off together, so you won’t have any regrets. You understand, right?”

Vania swallowed her fear.

She tried to let go of his hand, but instead, her lover gripped her even tighter.

“If you value your life, let go of her and step away before I finish counting. Ten… nine…”

Her mind went blank.

What should she do?

Vania was an ability user too. That meant she had ways to fight back.

But right now, she didn’t know what kind of ability Ryan possessed. Acting rashly could be dangerous.

Her father and siblings had all died, hadn’t they?

What power had Ryan been hiding, the man who was once deemed powerless?

He had burned, electrocuted, and torn apart storms of ability users. How had he massacred them all in such a short time?

“If you don’t want to die with her, let go and step away.”

“If you value your life, let go before I finish counting.”

Ryan didn’t seem interested in taking her lover’s life. That’s why he kept insisting Vania step away.

‘If staying close means getting caught in it too, then… it must be an area-based ability.’

Vania forced herself to think calmly.

She pictured the corpses of her father and siblings.

No visible wounds.

No stab marks. No punctures from spears.

No signs of resistance. They had simply stopped breathing, their eyes still open—

“…Ah.”

At that moment, Vania realized.

And as soon as she did, despair set in.

‘We’re going to die.’

If Ryan’s ability was what she suspected, there was no way to survive.

“Six… five…”

Then, as if wanting to say a final goodbye, her lover cupped her cheek and locked eyes with her.

“Listen carefully.”

But what he whispered wasn’t a farewell.

“When you go back, stop him from taking revenge, Vania.”

“…!”

Vania’s eyes widened. She knew what he was about to do.

“N-No… If you do that—”

He smiled, tears brimming in his eyes, and rested his forehead against hers.

“And… don’t look for me. Because I’ll only… ruin you again.”

“…….”

“Let’s never meet again.”

His desperate plea left Vania speechless. Tears streamed down her face.

“Three! Two!”

As Ryan’s voice, laced with mockery, drew closer—

Her lover smiled one last time, sorrowfully.

“Let’s Never love again.”

“My lady?”

“Ah.”

“Do you not have an appetite?”

She looked down at her hand, gripping a fork absentmindedly.

“You must not be feeling well. I’ll call the physician.”

“No, really. I’m fine.”

Vania shook her head, her thoughts drifting elsewhere.

Ryan Vasenberg.

The half-brother she first met at the brink of death.

He was the legitimate heir of their family, the Duke’s fifth son—but he was born powerless.

At twelve, he was cast out. As if that wasn’t enough, their father falsely accused his own child of murder and had him imprisoned in the empire’s detention center.

All of this happened before Vania was even born.

‘So… it really was revenge.’

Ryan must have resented their father for abandoning him and branding him a criminal.

“Sigh…”

Vania quietly set her utensils down.

“My lady?”

“Sorry, I don’t have an appetite. I’ll eat later if I get hungry.”

Right now, Ryan is still imprisoned under false charges.

No one knew what happened to him after his release. If she wanted to find him, the best time would be right after he got out.

‘He would have received the highest legal sentence at twelve.’

Calculating the timeline, Vania suddenly shot up and ran out of the dining hall.

‘Two years until his release.’

There was no time to waste.

She was the only one who knew the massacre Ryan would unleash ten years from now.

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