TBVP 06
Chapter 6
I’ll Get My Revenge!
“W-What do you mean, the house… no, what?!”
“Garen!”
Janice was stunned by Garen’s outrageous statement that this was his house and she should leave. The old couple and Fernando were even more shocked and called out his name.
Garen continued.
“Mother, Father, you should leave too. Fernando, you too. What are you all doing in someone else’s house?”
Garen shooed away the old couple, Fernando, and Janice as if he were chasing flies away.
Then, right in front of them, he slammed the door shut.
Only after being thrown outside did Janice regain her senses from the shock.
“O-Our house… our house…”
Janice was beyond bewildered. She was dumbfounded, and then resentful, causing the same words to spill out repeatedly.
She stamped her feet and ran to the door.
“Please open the door! This is our house!”
“Garen! Open the door! You’re not a three-year-old child, so what on earth are you doing?”
The old lady shouted as well.
“Should I break it down?”
The old general repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fists while staring at the door.
He no longer had the strength of his prime, but a simple wooden door was something he could easily smash.
Just as the old general’s eyes flashed toward the door, Janice ran over and blocked it.
“No! It’s our house! You can’t break it!”
It was a house filled with memories of her parents.
More importantly, replacing the door would be expensive.
Janice had no money.
“Well then, what should we do?”
The old lady spoke sorrowfully.
Janice pressed her lips together tightly.
People always said that hateful people only did hateful things.
Garen was exactly that kind of person.
When he said he was buying the house, she thought he was doing it for her sake.
Janice had been naïve.
You jerk! Some father you are!
Grinding her teeth, Janice glared at the tightly closed door.
* * *
The noise outside lasted for quite a while before finally becoming quiet.
They had probably taken Janice away.
To their house.
“So their hearts are black after all.”
Garen muttered as he thought about his parents, who could probably hide several snakes in their hearts.
It was true that he had bought this house because of Janice.
As a father who had never done anything for her, he wanted to at least give her something that cost relatively little.
He also disliked seeing her cry because of this house.
When he bought it, his intentions had genuinely been good.
But the moment Janice bowed to him at a perfect ninety degrees, something stirred strangely in his chest.
And more importantly, he suddenly remembered how stubbornly she had insisted on living in this house.
If he gave her the house, that little brat would never enter the ducal estate.
“Get out. It’s my house.”
That part had definitely been petty.
But regardless, Garen firmly believed he had made the correct decision for Janice’s safety.
Judging by everything he had seen so far, if she owned the house, she would absolutely try to live there.
But a seven-year-old child without a guardian could not live alone.
And an even bigger problem existed.
Someone was targeting her.
The same people who had killed her adoptive parents.
The old couple clearly thought the same way.
If they truly wanted to enter the house, what could stop them?
If Janice objected to breaking the door, they could have destroyed the lock instead.
Or hired a locksmith.
Yet they only pretended to try.
They never actually attempted to get inside.
They did not want Janice staying there.
“So I’m the only villain.”
Garen grumbled.
Still, it was better for him to be the bad guy.
There was no reason for his parents—people Janice genuinely liked—to become villains as well.
That child needed someone she could rely on.
Fernando existed, but in the end, he was an outsider.
His parents would become good guardians for Janice, just as they had been for him.
…And honestly, they would be far better guardians than Garen himself, who had flaws in every direction.
As Garen looked around the house, his eyes landed on a family photograph.
A smiling couple sat with a tiny baby in the middle.
They did not look wealthy.
But they looked happy.
This was probably the family picture Janice had asked for earlier.
“…”
Garen picked up the photograph.
As he stared at it, a strange uneasiness filled his heart.
Was it envy?
Jealousy?
Loss?
Several thoughts crossed his mind.
If his life had never taken its twists and turns…
Perhaps he too might have possessed a family photograph like this.
“Was her name Chloe?”
Quietly, Garen spoke the name of the woman who had given birth to Janice.
No matter how much he thought about it, the name felt unfamiliar.
Yet somehow, it also felt strangely familiar on his tongue.
Suddenly, he became curious about that woman.
And curious about the memories he had lost.
But he soon shook his head.
If he hadn’t remembered anything in seven years, there was no chance he would remember after another seventy.
Rather than obsess over lost memories, it was better to focus on the life ahead.
Still…
“Ah, come on!”
For just a moment, hesitation filled his mind.
“I must be crazy.”
He had to be.
He was a firm believer in staying unmarried.
He disliked women.
He disliked children too.
Especially girls.
Garen shook his head, forcing the thoughts away.
Then he carefully examined the house, searching for clues.
Yet despite his determination, there was nothing for his sharp eyes to uncover.
The couple who had inherited the house had dragged everything out and left the place in complete chaos, but aside from that, everything appeared ordinary.
Garen could not understand what the Bakers had done.
Nor what they had discovered.
Nor why they had been murdered.
On the surface, they looked like completely ordinary commoners.
“What a lot of work.”
He would have to investigate from now on.
Every book.
Every document.
Every corner of the house.
He intended to uncover the identity of the murderer.
And the secret hidden behind the Bakers’ deaths.
As the head of House Roman and a member of the Imperial Police Bureau, it was both Garen’s responsibility and his duty.
After one final glance around, he left the house.
In his hand was Janice’s family photograph.
Why did seeing that little brat cry bother me so much?
The question briefly crossed his mind.
But thoughts of his mountain of work soon pushed it away.
It was only a trivial question.
For now.
“Hmph!”
Garen still didn’t like Janice.
Quite a lot, in fact.
* * *
“Sniff… sob… hic…”
“Oh, my little skylark! Stop crying now. There, there. Grandma will take that house away from him and give it to you later. So don’t cry. Stay at our house for now, alright?”
“That’s right! I’ll give you that house. I won’t leave a single coin to that unfilial son. Please stop crying. It breaks this old man’s heart when our little skylark cries.”
The old lady and old general took turns comforting Janice.
Regardless of how they had met her, they truly cared for her.
Janice did not want to worry them.
But being driven out of her home—her sanctuary, the place she had shared with her parents—was too great a shock.
She had disliked Garen before.
Now she hated him even more.
More than the greedy couple who had inherited the house.
Janice had believed he bought the house to return it to her.
She must have been crazy.
She had even thanked him.
“Waaahhh!”
The more she thought about it, the harder she cried.
No matter how much she considered it, she simply could not forgive him.
He was worse than Min Kyung-tae, her biological father from her previous life.
I’ll get my revenge!
Janice made her decision.
At that very same moment—
“Achoo!”
Garen sneezed.
The investigator who had been briefing him on the Baker case looked at him strangely.
Garen waved dismissively.
“Just continue.”
“Are you catching a cold? You don’t look well.”
“It’s not a cold. Some little brat is probably badmouthing me right now. Definitely.”
The investigator blinked.
“…What little brat?”
“There’s one.”
Garen grumbled.
“A kid I don’t like. Extremely savage. Swears a lot too.”
The investigator tilted his head.
A man who hated women and children so much that he practically had a phobia of them was smiling while talking about a child.
What kind of situation was that?
And why had a man who normally showed no interest in fieldwork suddenly requested files from a case that had been closed six months ago?
The investigator stared at Garen suspiciously.
Only for a moment.
“What? Why did you stop? Continue the briefing.”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
No matter how talented he was—a top-class investigator who had graduated second in his class from the Imperial Academy—the Police Bureau was still a hierarchy.
Orders from superiors had to be obeyed.
The investigator resumed his report.
Eventually, he reached the section covering the scene analysis of the Bakers’ deaths.
“Wait. Let me see that.”
Something felt wrong.
It was a small detail.
But it was strange that the victims had left two handprints on the floor right before dying.
“They’re just handprints. We investigated them. There was no meaning behind them. The husband probably tried to force himself up because he was worried about his wife—”
“Investigate again.”
Garen cut him off.
The investigator froze.
“What?”
“It was murder. Those handprints could be a dying message.”
The investigator’s eyes widened.
Garen continued.
“Fernando told me they were being watched. You know who Fernando is, right? The youngest son of Marquis Verdo.”
The investigator nodded.
“Judging from the circumstances, the people watching them are almost certainly the same ones who killed the Bakers. And according to Fernando, even the guards sent by Marquis Verdo were nervous around them. Skilled individuals.”
The investigator’s face hardened immediately.
A highly skilled group had infiltrated the Empire unnoticed, murdered Imperial citizens, and remained undiscovered until now.
That was definitely alarming.
“I’ll order a reinvestigation.”
“Good work. Ah, and leave those documents here. There are a few things I want to examine myself.”
The investigator left the files behind and departed.
Garen immediately began reviewing them.
If one chose not to suspect anything, there was nothing suspicious.
But if one deliberately looked for inconsistencies, there were far too many.
What secret had the Bakers been hiding?
Who had killed them?
And who was threatening Janice?
As Garen continued reading, his expression grew increasingly grim.
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