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Chapter – 09
Part – 01 Hell
Chapter – 02 Family (1)
Helen made a fuss as if me stepping outside the mansion alone was some kind of suicide attempt.
“You just woke up yesterday after ten days unconscious, and you’re already saying you’re going out alone!”
“I’m not going far.”
“You can’t even put on a dress by yourself. How are you going to fasten all the buttons…?”
I should have said something like, there are plenty of maids who can help even if it’s not you. But my throat felt blocked, and I couldn’t say anything. Instead, I stared out the carriage window. Helen, noticing my dark expression, said,
“…Did you fight with the master?”
“…No, that’s not it…”
“You don’t have to say anything. I already know everything.”
Know what, exactly? I lowered my head to hide the sneer on my face.
“Whenever Lady Florence gets gloomy, it’s always after a fight with the master. Actually, even going back to your parents’ house must mean you’re upset with him. Still, if the master comes to apologize, please accept it then. Staying angry all the time must be exhausting.”
“….”
“Alright? Lady Florence.”
“…Yes…”
If Linus truly came to apologize to me, then—
I could not forgive him, but I could accept the apology. In exchange for accepting it, I could demand a divorce and ask him to let me go.
Even if Linus refused to give up this body, divorce might still be possible.
To obtain a divorce, the support of one’s natal family was most important. Just as marriage was not decided by one person alone, divorce required the agreement and cooperation of many people.
In my memories, my father acted as if he loved me dearly. He didn’t even seem to like Linus much. He had even said things like I could leave him anytime I wanted.
If one party in a marriage was firm enough, then for the sake of appearances, a divorce request could not simply be ignored.
If I can secure their cooperation without being exposed…
Maybe I could actually get a divorce.
Last night, I had avoided Linus’s assault by mimicking Jang Hyeonji. I chewed over my own helplessness. How was I supposed to escape a man who could kill me—or violate me—whenever he wished?
Divorce, or escape, disappearance.
But within this country, I could not escape Linus’s grasp. If he issued a warrant for me, I would be caught before I even crossed the border.
I had no money. The small inheritance left by my grandmother was deposited under the name Florence Love Seymour, so I could not use it if I ran away. I couldn’t touch it at all.
Even if I forced a divorce, I wasn’t sure I could fully escape Linus—but at least it would make running away easier.
Above all, this name was unbearable. Florence Love Lindquist—who decided that?
I had to reclaim my name. It was the only thing my grandmother had given me that was truly mine.
“…Yes. You’re Florence. You are my daughter.”
“And also our younger sister.”
I decided to imitate Jang Hyeonji again. One foolish act was enough. My wound ached so much it reacted like a scream, but I had to endure it. And if they didn’t know I was me, then maybe they would—
Maybe…
“Lady Florence?”
“I’m going to rest my eyes for a bit, Helen. Wake me when we arrive.”
“Yes, Lady Florence.”
It angered me that I was expecting even a fake smile from them.
Jang Hyeonji had once said that a side character possessed by the “main character” is always an unhappy, twisted person.
The more miserable the original character is, the more brilliant the life after possession appears. The more distorted they are, the more even the smallest kindness shines. It was all just a device to make the “main character” stand out.
In that sense, I was born with the perfect conditions for Jang Hyeonji to possess me. Not that I was anything more than a side character, but whether this was a world where Rila Green was the protagonist or Jang Hyeonji was, my circumstances wouldn’t change.
What conditions are needed for a person to become unhappy? The author of the novel that made Rila Green the protagonist wasn’t particularly talented. He simply piled on cliché, overused setups onto the miserable characters.
First: absence of parents, or family conflict.
Misfortune is not special. It is as common as fairy tale settings. A perfect mother who died giving birth, an incompetent daughter, and resulting family neglect. There was no abuse. Nothing that would make outsiders point fingers.
My father loved my older brother and sister sincerely. He was not a man who didn’t know how to love. Rather, he was someone who loved only my dead mother so much that he never remarried. He would have done anything for his children—but…
I alone was not part of that family.
Like a vase placed in a hallway, or a painting hung on a wall—something like that. Something present but unnecessary. Something irritating but impossible to remove. And I would occasionally throw tantrums and ruin things… how much must they have hated me?
Yet outwardly, the Seymour Marquis family looked warm and harmonious. They played the part of a generous family embracing a flawed child and forgiving her. No one cared what the truth was, and even if some did know, they didn’t mind.
They would say I should be grateful—that despite having so many reasons to hate me, they still didn’t cast me out.
Second: incompetence.
Born after killing a mother who had been a talented spirit mage, and I turned out to be a failure like this.
No magic, no spirit arts—useless in every way.
Unlike family neglect, which at least had someone to blame, incompetence turned into endless self-loathing. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t use even basic magic. And if everyone in my family was talented except me, then it naturally became a flaw worth condemning.
Not only that, this body had been frail since childhood. There was no specific illness to treat. I would frequently collapse, suffer fevers, and get injured easily.
Third… maybe personality defects?
I ticked them off on my fingers and laughed.
This was exactly what Jang Hyeonji had found pathetic. She said that if I had just begged to be loved in a pretty way, maybe I would have been loved a little.
If only I had simply accepted how worthless I was. But I couldn’t. I envied those who had what I did not. Even if I screamed and begged to be noticed, it never erased my resentment.
But a miserable person’s unhappiness was only ever seen as something they deserved—something to laugh at.
A life where no one responded, like shouting at a wall.
“Florence!”
As soon as the carriage stopped, the door flew open.
The person who pulled it open was my older brother, Blake. He smiled brightly, extended his arms, and lifted me up in one motion. I was so shocked I couldn’t even scream.
“I heard you woke up, Florence. I wanted to run to you immediately, but I couldn’t find the time—please forgive me.”
“…Ah…”
“Goodness, look at how thin your cheeks are. Ten days unconscious will do that, I suppose. You little heartless thing—did you miss your big brother at all in those ten days?”
His large hand gently brushed my cheek.
Ah.
The smiling face I had longed for all my life was looking at me.
