Chapter 3

Mini Things to Note:

* * – Sound effects

” ” – Dialog

‘ ‘ – Thoughts

Italics – Flashbacks/ A memory of the past

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Chapter 3

– – –

A quavering voice leaked out.

It was sad.

It was sad and depressing.

I feel like I’m alone in the world.

The Duke’s cold voice came above my head.

“You’re full of energy.”

Hic.

“It’s Dad!” I shouted and raised my head.

To be honest, when the Duke appeared, you couldn’t tell he was my father right away. So perhaps it was due to how the child looked that it was abandoned by it’s real father.

“Heug…”

I tried not to cry, but it seemed that tears came out of my eyes anyways.

The Duke’s face quickly became blurred.

Soon, I was courageous again, because I couldn’t see his cold and hardened face with the blurry vision.

“It’s my dad!”

Just as Clatier has the Marquis, I have you.

“I want to go home!”

Thick tears continued dripping down endlessly without fail. My nose became sour again.

I clenched my two small fists and hugged the Duke’s legs tightly.

I won’t miss this opportunity to leave.

“Dad, take me away—!”

【???? • ???? • ????】

“…”

“…”

It was too quiet. At first glance, it seemed that I could even hear the sound of swallowing around me.

I quietly opened my eyes.

At the same time as the tears that had formed fell, the face of Duke Paeraton was seen.

It was a terrifying face.

It wasn’t that he had a harsh expression or distorted his eyes. Rather, he had a face that was infinitely close to expressionless.

Still, I felt his blood colored eyes on me.

*Hiccup.*

Hiccups came out without realizing.

The Duke reached his hand out to me.

‘No! I won’t let go!’

I was desperately hanging on to his leg.

Although I was clutching his leg with all my might, Duke Paeraton easily grabbed me with one hand.

Contrary to expectations, he didn’t throw me away or yell at me to get lost at all. Instead, he raised me to his eye level and stared.

His red eyes and my eyes met at a distance.

At first, it was a look that I didn’t like.

Oh, what do you even like about me?

If I live continued to here, I would die, so I can’t help it!

*Hiccup.*

Unlike the bold (inwardly) shout, small hiccups kept leaking out.

The Duke raised one eyebrow at me before beginning to move, with me still picked up.

“Your Excellency.” The aide who was guarding his back like a shadow, called the Duke of Paeraton as if he was under a lot of pressure.

“Go back.”

However, the Duke left only those words and continued to step forward.

I wondered in the Duke’s arms every time he took another step.

‘If I really go back with him like this… will they take me in?’

My heart was pounding.

Finally, finally I escaped from this terrible place!

It was when I was looking at the door that was getting closer, step by step, without blinking my eyes.

“Ah.”

Suddenly, the Duke of Paeraton stood tall.

‘Why did you stop?’

I glanced up at him, but I couldn’t read anything from his expressionless face. Somehow, smoldering anxiety clawed up my insides.

With the exit close at hand, he turned around.

I, who was lifted up in the Duke’s arms, had no choice but to turn my back at the door as well.

‘Well, no way…’

My heart dropped all the way to the floor. I held the Duke as if I was holding my lifeline.

‘No! Don’t throw me away!’

That was the moment.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!”

A loud, terrifying scream rang through the hall.

‘What…?’

I held onto the Duke’s chest and stared at the source of the sound.

“It, it’s Tie!”

“Miss!”

“Oh what the hell is going on…”

The shape of Clatier was seen through the crowds of people.

Even without a dress, the cost of embroidered diamonds alone would cost billions.

“My, my dress! My dress is…….!”

Clatier sat down and gripped the tattered dress.

“Duke Paeraton!”

The Marquis covered Clatier’s shoulders and called the Duke with a deep blue face.

‘There’s no way that’s what the Duke did?’

The Duke didn’t even pull his sword out, and he wasn’t close enough to Clatier. But when I looked at the timing and the attitude of the Marquis, it seemed he did.

“Is your discernment lost? You shouldn’t be this greedy to point fingers.”

At the cold words of Duke Paeraton, the Marquis was bewildered.

I was amazed at his action of ignoring the Marquis, as if turning away without being punished immediately was completely normal.

The Marquis, who was so big that I couldn’t rebel, lowered his posture so easily now, but–.

‘He seemed like a person who had been stabbed.’

That was the most amazing thing.

“Oh, Dad!”

Clatier called the Marquis with a crying face, but the Marquis was currently overwhelmed by the Duke and could not pay attention to her.

The Duke turned around as if there was nothing else left to see.

I sighed with relief, still hanging on to his chest.

‘It’s a good thing, because you’re not leaving me.’

By the way, what was the Marquis stabbed by?

Leaving that question behind, I left this hellish place owned by the Marquis and headed for the home of the Duke of Paeraton.

【???? • ???? • ????】

‘The ceiling of the bed is so beautiful.’

I had seen it every day during my ten days or so at the mansion of the Duke of Paeraton, but I still haven’t gotten used to it.

As soon as I opened my eyes, I was surprised again, and I stretched out.

Ahhhh…

Even though I slept so comfortably like that, my eyeslids still felt quite heavy.

‘What time is it?’

The people here don’t wake me up no matter how much I oversleep. Thanks to this, I was able to sleep as much as I wanted.

When I wake up, I’m not unnoticed like a ghost, and people often enter the room like this.

“Did you just cough, young miss?”

“Yes, good morning.”

At my words, the maids and the other servants became silent.

I dipped my hands in the water and glanced at the maids and servants who stood like interior decorations.

‘They still have no expressions today.’

It’s been quite a while since I came here, but I have never even seen a smile from them. Only the necessary words and responses were exchanged.

‘At least they don’t seem to hate me…’

After washing my face, I came down from the bed.

The bed here was bigger than the beds I had commonly seen in my previous life, so it was difficult for me to get up and down with a small body.

Well, even in my previous life, the expensive beds were big because…

I’ve never had a bed.

After successfully landing on the rug with two feet, I tried to walk around.

‘Okay, my legs don’t hurt now either.’

There used to be a lot of pain when the muscle in the calf was used due to the wounds, but now there isn’t any pain at all.

It’s also been a long time since the cold went away. After coming to Paeraton’s residence, my health recovered rapidly.

Ever since I escaped the old days and slept in a warm blanket every night, I was in a better condition than before I got sick.

‘The Duke never comes to see me.’

Even if he was working at a slow pace, more than ten days passed.

In the mean time, I guess I can’t see the Duke.

‘I don’t really want you to come, though.’

When I first met him, it seemed that he didn’t think of me as a daughter.

I was a little ashamed to think about it then.

As an orphan in my previous life, I never had a family.

Uh, it was embarrassing.

‘No, this is a situation I can deal with because I am satisfied and I can protect myself.’

The feelings of shame or embarrassment were a luxury in the face of pain and hunger. Those emotions were easier to deal with.

“…”

‘I want to stay here forever.’

The thought swelled like a balloon in my heart.

I haven’t been told that I can continue to stay here.

‘But, before focusing on that, we should first figure out who the Duke is.’

The Duke seemed far from good words such as justice, guardianship, and peace.

‘He’s rather like a villain.’

From my long experience in romance fantasy, villains tend to fall into two main categories.

1. A villain who must be defeated like Marquis of Tarenka.

2. A villain, a tyrant, and a black curtain, but actually a good person.

Number 2 is my favorite character attribute. And due to the flow of things right now, the Duke must be No. 2! This life, I was successful!

Finally, the day it will be sunlit even in the mouse hole……!

[TL Note: I think this is a way of saying that she’s finally getting something good after experiencing a harsh life for so long.]

—Is what I’d love to say, but after I was reincarnated, I’ve lived in the house of a devil all my life.

Last time, when I signed a reincarnation contract saying that I would get something good out of it, it was way worse than my previous life.

‘There wasn’t anything that he said was going to happen. I have to be vigilant.’

So, how do you know this?

‘I had to pay for the meal once.’

I said to the Duke, I can pay for the meal, so ask me to do it.

Like the Marquis, I can tolerate certain people, unless I was forced to do something unreasonable from the beginning.

I’ve been working since I was a baby, even in cold weather.

So let’s pay for the meal and see the reaction of the Duke.

If the Duke is No. 1, I’ll have to lay low and prepare to escape, and if he’s No. 2, then my life will be blooming with success!

I clenched my little fist.

‘Okay, let’s get to work!’

【???? • ???? • ????】

“May, the young miss……”

“This is what we…”

The employees of the Duke of Paeraton were always cold.

There were no missteps in the motions that seemed to be measured with a ruler, so I didn’t even know if they were there unless I checked it with my own eyes.

But now, they were embarrassed with a rare expression.

“Once you have it in your mind, you give the order to us.”

“I have to do it.” I responded simply and then wiped the window frame with great effort.

“But…”

“I was the one that decided to work like this and that’s why I came here.”

“Yes?”

At my words, the maids and servants were much more embarrassed than before. They exchanged their gazes for a moment, and then opened their mouths as if they were determined.

“There seems to be some sort of misunderstanding.”

“My lady is the youngest daughter of the Duke of Paeraton, she shouldn’t have come to work.”

“If I could have lived here because I was the young miss in this house, then I would have stayed here earlier.”

Not the Marquis of Tarenka.

“The illegitimate b*tch, who was abandoned by her own father, doesn’t even know her subject!”

The words of the Marquis were still stinging in my heart.

I denied it many times since it couldn’t possibly be right, but I knew the truth.

I was abandoned.

—I’ve never seen a parent who said that they’d return.

Moreover, the Duke of Paeraton made no promises to me.

‘An abandoned child can never truly become a child again.’

The iron door that had been coldly closed in front of my eyes in my previous life was reflected in the window.

“Young lady, that is…”

The maid opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but held her tongue as if it had dried up.

I continued to wipe the top of the frame as if trying to erase the illusion from the window would work.

【???? • ???? • ????】

“What are you doing here?”

At the sound of the cool voice from behind my back, I stopped washing the windows and turned around.

Under the afternoon sun, I saw a handsome man that looked as if he belonged in a picture.

It was the Duke of Paeraton, my father by paper.

‘It’s rare, but it looks like he came back early today.’

I asked him where he was many times while staying here, but every time, I was only given the answer that he was absent.

“I’m good at cleaning.”

Although it was originally clean, it is so transparent now that it seems as if the glass window did not exist.

I was confident.

But the Duke’s eyes were sharpened

“Who told you to do this useless thing.”

Useless?

“I said, I’ll pay for the meal— ack!”

“You’re still struggling.”

The Duke of Paeraton lifted me up before I even finished speaking.

He looked at me as if he was actually facing a decent thing, and then took a few steps with it.

I got nervous almost immediately.

No way, just because it’s useless, you’re trying to throw me out like this!?

But instead, where I arrived was at a dining hall.

“Eat.”

If I don’t eat, I will be killed.

It was definitely a tone that seemed to sound such a threat.

My stomach became as small as a bean, but I stretched my hand toward the plate anyways.

The Duke was staring at me while I was eating—it felt like a struggle to keep living.

His eyes are so sharp, ‘If I don’t eat, he might really kill me!’ That’s what I was thinking in that moment.

I wanted to put the bread in my mouth without care of where it would end up later.

But I also had my limitations.

“Can you eat all that?” The Duke asked, as soon as my hands stopped.

It was such a cold voice that even my bones were freezing.

I once again, stretched out my hand to the plate, but couldn’t put any food into my mouth.

It’s not a lie, it really seemed like I was going to burst because of how full I was.

“Would you be able to eat more?”

Is it intimidation?

Are you thinking of killing me by making my stomach burst!

‘This, this devil……!’

《Chapter 3 – End》