Please let me rest in peace

Chapter 5

Words of Lady Farah breaking off her betrothal with Lord Henry spread soon after that.

"Rose, how could Lady Farah break off her betrothal with Lord Henry?" Lily complained with anger. "Lord Henry is such a nice gentleman! He is a powerful sorcerer, but yet he's so kind to the weak! Lord Henry is so devastated by the news! He was so sad when we met yesterday."

I just continued reading the book on my lap while nodding noncommittally. In my note, I told Farah about how Lord Henry

Offered to take Lily around town. I asked her to observe in the dark with her own eyes. It's totally up to her to decide if she still wishes to proceed with the betrothal or if it's better to break everything off before it turns into a huge scandal.

From what I knew, what hurt Farah so badly in my previous lives was because her opponent had goaded her about her fiancé's new love just before their duel. Telling her no wonder her fiancé chose a beauty like Rachelle instead of her. Her opponent had told her it had been a known secret among the aristocrats except her because her family blocked the news from her to avoid distracting her. At that exact moment, as if it was a scheduled plan, Lord Henry's servant had brought her a letter from Lord Henry about the broken betrothal. There was not an ounce of respect for her nor her family.

Farah was a girl known for her sensibility. If she had the chance to see how Lord Henry treated Lily and compared that to how he treated her, she would know how to react. All of Lily's suitors looked at her in similar ways; the doting look, the honey-dripping glance. It's very easy to distinguish the difference between you and Lily. There's no chance of getting in between them. The best way was to break off everything before gossip broke.

"Oh poor Lord Henry!" Lily sobbed. "How I wish I could comfort him."

Lord Henry was one hundred percent pretending in front of Lily so that she could go and comfort him.

"I can comfort him! He has been so nice to me, now it's the time I repaid him!" Lily clapped her hands excitedly. "Rose, I'm sorry I have to leave now."

I gave her an elegant smile and waved my hand. I was trying hard to suppress my urge to shout 'Just leave! Do you think I want to hear about your love life?' at her.

She rushed out of the room soon after that. As soon as she left the room, I rolled my eyes and flopped down on the armchair, covering my face with the book I was reading.

Now what comes next? I thought. There are some events that have always happened in all of my previous lives. Let's call them cornerstones. Meeting Lord Henry at the tea party was one of them. In this life I intervened a bit, but fate still drew the two of them together. Now what's the next cornerstone?

"Ah! Must be the meeting with my stupid fiancé!" I sat up, the book placed over my face fell to my lap. With the golden black crow feather I tucked in the book also fluttered to my lap. "I should have burnt this." As I muttered beneath my breath, I slipped the feather back into my leather-bound book.

It's about time Father sent me back to the temple. Originally, sending Lily to the wind temple was not even on Father's mind. But then Father's new wife stepped in and said Lily had dreamed of becoming a priestess ever since she was small. She believed that was a prophecy of some kind. Or else why would Lily keep having the same dream ever since she was four? Father was totally convinced. If Rose had little hope of becoming a priestess, what about Lily?

So Lily will follow me back to the temple in a few weeks. My fiancé, Ryle, came from a family also serving the god of wind. That's where Lily met him. I didn't know about Lily, but that's where Ryle fell in love with her. Lily could not catch up with her studies, so she asked for my help. In my first life, being the evil stepsister I was, I of course kicked her away after some sort of humiliation. In the end, it was Ryle tutoring her. And then Ryle told me he had to break off our betrothal as he fell deeply in love with Lily.

See the pattern here! Lily met a guy. That guy fell deeply in love and then broke off the betrothal. Wherever Lily went, she left behind a string of broken hearts. Broken hearts of girls.

After burning to death in my first life, I have reflected. Did I really like Ryle that much? Had he really been worth it? Or had I been so fixated on him just because Lily once again stole something from me and I had just been jealous? Had it all been because of my silly pride?

When I saw Ryle for the first time in my second life, I realized I really felt nothing for him except for the anger and hatred for plotting my death with the other suitors. I felt not an ounce of jealousy when he was with Lily. Even when they were flirting around. That's when I realized I really didn't like Ryle as much as I had thought. It's all my silly pride.

"Thank god I don't like him!" I rolled my eyes as I muttered beneath my breath. "How can my taste be this bad?"

In my previous life, in which I pretended to be the best sister alive. Whatever Lily wanted, I gave it to her. That's why when Ryle announced that he was going to break off our betrothal in a family gathering with both of our families all seated around a table, I had acted like a heart broken yet understanding ex-fiance and then accepted the sad truth that Ryle wanted to marry Lily instead of graciously. This had earned me an approving nod from Father. But the fact that Ryle had dumped me in front of everyone and then declared he would marry my stepsister instead was a huge insult to me.

No wonder I lashed out in my first life when I was still childish and spoiled. Now that I thought of it, anger seemed to build up in my body. Do you know how insulting that was? How humiliating when your supposed acquaintance all silently pointed their fingers behind your back and mocked you?

No, I won't let that happen to me again! I swore to the gods internally. Then how about we speed things up?

My lips could not help but to quirk up for this upcoming drama.