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Chapter 3
Could things really turn out like this?
Back in her room, Eleanor let out a troubled sigh.
She had enrolled in the Academy to escape the fate of the original story, and now, seven years later, she had finally returned home.
It had already been over a year since the original story’s starting point.
So she had assumed Charlotte must have somehow resolved things by now.
And technically… she had.
Though instead of ending up with the male lead, Charlotte had gotten together with the second male lead, Alexis Oben, become pregnant, given birth, and then run away in the dead of night.
Father, Mother… what on earth happened here?
To make matters worse, Charlotte had left the child she gave birth to behind at the estate.
Charlotte had a baby? You never told me anything about that!
Whenever Eleanor had asked about Charlotte’s whereabouts, her parents had simply said she was doing very well.
They told her Charlotte missed her dearly and urged her to write more often.
But Charlotte had never once replied to any of Eleanor’s letters.
Before, Eleanor had assumed it was because the original story had already begun and Charlotte was too busy falling in love with the male lead.
She’s a newborn baby. Since when was Charlotte even involved so deeply with Alexis Oben? No, forget that—how could you keep something this important from me?
And that wasn’t even the worst of it.
“Do you have any idea how humiliating this is?!”
“Father—”
“She hid her pregnancy until just before giving birth! And your mother knew the whole time and helped her keep it secret!”
“Mother, you knew?”
“I’m sorry, Ellie. But Charlotte begged me so desperately… And Charlotte is still an unmarried maiden, after all. We had to protect her honor.”
“Mother, how can someone who gave birth still be a maiden?”
“She is a maiden! She has to be, if she’s going to become a Saintess!”
Recalling that conversation, Eleanor pressed a hand to her throbbing forehead.
To sum it up, the situation was a complete disaster.
Charlotte falling for someone other than the male lead was one thing.
After all, Eleanor herself had already deviated from the original plot, so there was no rule saying Charlotte had to follow her predetermined path.
But abandoning her own child and eloping with a man was an entirely different matter.
What on earth is Charlotte thinking?
Count Winston was furious, calling Charlotte ungrateful.
Meanwhile, Countess Winston insisted they absolutely had to hide the truth and find Charlotte, because a woman who was no longer a virgin could never become a Saintess.
The reason none of the servants had been visible in the estate was because of the Countess’s doing.
She had sent nearly all of them away on extended leave around Charlotte’s due date, leaving only her most trusted attendants behind.
“Haah…”
A deep sigh escaped Eleanor’s lips.
Even the most difficult challenge she had solved after entering the Academy felt easier than this.
I only planned to greet everyone and leave quickly…
But things had become far too complicated.
Eleanor thought of the newborn she had seen earlier that day.
When the Count’s shouting startled the baby into crying, neither the Count nor the Countess had made any move to comfort her.
They hated the child.
To them, the baby was the source of every problem they faced.
“Oh, there, there… hush now, little one.”
If the wet nurse hadn’t rushed in belatedly to soothe the baby, she might have cried until she couldn’t breathe.
Slowly, Eleanor rose to her feet.
Click.
Late that night, she arrived at the baby’s room.
It was quiet inside.
The wet nurse seemed to have stepped out briefly.
Eleanor actually found that fortunate as she approached the crib.
“……”
It was so quiet she thought the baby was asleep.
But unexpectedly, the child was awake.
She lay there silently, not crying, all alone in the empty room.
When Eleanor appeared, the baby’s clear eyes rolled toward her.
Earlier, Eleanor hadn’t noticed—
The baby had vivid crimson eyes.
The same color as Eleanor’s.
They certainly hadn’t come from Charlotte’s green eyes.
The baby suddenly broke into a bright smile.
Standing over the crib, Eleanor asked softly,
“Where did your mother go, little one?”
Why didn’t she take you with her?
You’re her own child.
“Did she tell you where she was going?”
The baby opened her tiny mouth and let out an adorable yawn.
She looked like a little angel descended from heaven.
“I don’t think Charlotte abandoned you.”
Please… let that be true.
Because otherwise, it would be too heartbreaking.
“My brave little girl can do this, right? Just sleep for ten nights, and Mommy will come back for you. Promise.”
At that moment, Eleanor realized why she had come to see this child.
She was projecting her own past onto the baby.
The life she had lived before transmigrating into Eleanor.
When she was six years old, her mother had left her at an orphanage and disappeared.
She had promised she’d return after ten nights.
But she never came back.
Eventually, Eleanor understood.
Mom abandoned me.
By the time she realized it, even her tears had long since dried.
Her mother came back… twenty-five years later.
“I heard you have cancer. Make your dear mother the beneficiary of your insurance money, won’t you? It’ll all be useless once you’re dead anyway. Think of it as your final act of filial piety.”
That was when Eleanor had been terminally ill, waiting for death.
Silently, Eleanor stared down at the baby.
Then suddenly—
Footsteps echoed from the hallway.
Who is it?
Startled, Eleanor quickly hid behind a piece of furniture far from the crib.
Bang!
The ones who entered were the Count and Countess.
And in the Count’s hand was—
A leather sack?
“We need to kill this thing right now.”
The Count muttered menacingly.
“She was supposed to enter the temple as a Saintess, and instead she gave birth to a child. If this gets out, our family is finished.”
“Honey… but perhaps we could use this child to persuade Charlotte to come back…”
“Come back? Why would she?! She abandoned her own child and ran away! She’s so blinded by that man she doesn’t care about her family at all!”
Hearing those words, Eleanor’s heart pounded violently.
What… what are they saying?
Kill the baby?
“But Charlotte has to come back! What are we supposed to tell people?”
“We’ll say she’s ill. Just like we’ve been doing, we’ll delay sending her to the temple as long as possible. Before then, we’ll find Charlotte somehow.”
“I don’t think this is a good idea…”
“Steel yourself! Do you want everything exposed?!”
The Count roared angrily.
He glared at his wife and opened the leather sack.
“First, we get rid of this nuisance—”
Clatter.
A sudden noise interrupted him.
Both the Count and Countess whipped their heads toward the door.
A small case had rolled across the floor through the half-open doorway.
The Countess gasped and looked out into the hall.
“Who’s there?!”
“There’s no one!”
“If no one’s there, then what’s that?! If someone overheard us, we’re doomed! Go find out who it was—now!”
The two hurried out of the room.
Silence returned.
The empty case had been rolled there by Eleanor.
Successfully diverting their attention, she slowly rose from hiding.
They were going to kill her?
This baby had never existed in the original story.
Charlotte had secretly fled, leaving behind the child she gave birth to.
But setting all of that aside—
Does this baby deserve to die?
She was simply born.
She hadn’t asked to be alive.
Eleanor turned to look at the child.
The baby had already fallen asleep again, breathing softly, unaware of anything.
A moment later, Eleanor left the room.
And the sleeping baby disappeared with her.
* * *
Early dawn, just as the sun began to rise.
Eleanor groggily sat up in bed.
Had she slept three hours?
She had woken so many times that it hardly felt like sleep at all.
“Hoo…”
Letting out an exhausted sigh, she glanced at the small crib beside her.
The adorable baby was sleeping peacefully.
It had been exactly two months since Eleanor secretly fled the Winston Count’s estate with her niece.
