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∼Chapter 8∼
‘What should I do?’
Wouldn’t it be a little strange for a baby to have figured this out?
“Uncle told me!”
I quickly blurted out.
“…Do you mean Marquis Tarenka?”
“Yes! I saw Uncle telling a man wearing really, really nice clothes that Daddy had invested!”
It wasn’t a lie.
At the time, I hadn’t known the word “investment” in this world, so I hadn’t understood exactly what they were talking about.
But after seeing the same kind of situation several times, I had naturally figured it out.
“Uncle showed him something and said it was proof…”
In case they didn’t believe me or simply brushed off what I was saying because I was a child, I chattered on.
Even a child’s words could sound more credible if they were specific.
“Proof?”
“An incredibly, incredibly pretty card! It was super black, but it sparkled… Ah, it looked like that!”
As luck would have it, I spotted a card on the aide’s desk.
“This…”
The aide picked up the card.
“Did Marquis Tarenka really show him this card and say that?”
“Yes, this is it!”
I nodded as I looked at the card the aide held out.
It was my first time seeing it this close, but I was certain.
The pitch-black card shimmered with strange patterns depending on how the light struck it, and a simplified crest glowing red was engraved upon it.
‘Let’s see. Issuer… House Phaeraton. Huh?’
As I followed the writing on the card, my eyes widened.
‘This is like a check?!’
There wasn’t an amount written on it yet since it hadn’t been issued, but it was definitely a check issued under the name of House Phaeraton.
‘Then did the Duke give money to Marquis Tarenka? Or… could it be a forged check?’
While I was still shocked, the vassals began murmuring among themselves.
“To claim this as proof of an investment!”
“He must be insane to dare do something like this!”
“It wouldn’t matter if genuine mana stones were found in the vein, but if there aren’t any, this could become a serious problem.”
“Yes. There would be rumors that House Phaeraton was involved in fraud!”
The office became noisy in an instant.
Yet Duke Phaeraton was strangely quiet.
‘…?’
I found it a little odd and slowly raised my head.
The moment I did, my eyes met the Duke’s.
He was looking down at me in the exact same position, his chin resting on his hand.
‘Has he been watching me this whole time?’
The Duke’s red eyes darkly shimmered.
Unable to even turn my head away, I shrank my neck.
His lips parted.
“How did you come to hear such a thing?”
His voice was low and cold.
It sounded more like an interrogation.
Huh? An interrogation?
‘Gasp!’
A realization flashed through my mind.
‘Is this one of those situations where the tyrant father interrogates and suspects his daughter?!’
My romance-fantasy instincts were telling me.
This was a very important moment.
Usually, romance-fantasy heroines managed to get through situations like this and survive.
But people who weren’t heroines?
‘You have to clear his suspicions. Otherwise—’
The original character before the heroine possessed her body.
Or the heroine before she regressed.
They failed to deal with the tyrant’s suspicions properly, and as a result, their—
‘—heads got chopped off…!’
A chill ran down my spine.
‘I absolutely cannot be misunderstood. I have to prove my innocence! The moment he suspects I’m some strange child, I’m dead!’
Cruel and merciless tyrants from novels.
I trembled violently.
I hurriedly opened my mouth.
“W-When Uncle was meeting that man, I was polishing Uncle’s shoes. So, so that’s how I heard it.”
Since I had only been doing odd jobs at House Tarenka, all the guests who came and went thought I was a slave.
Most of the servants thought the same.
Only a very small number of Marquis Tarenka’s closest confidants knew that I was actually the daughter of Duke Phaeraton.
“You heard it while polishing his shoes…?”
At one vassal’s question, I clenched my fists.
‘Of course they don’t believe me. Why would anyone believe that he would commit such a fraudulent act in front of someone else?’
The Marquis enjoyed watching me, the daughter of a duke, crawl around like a slave in front of others.
That was why he often called for me whenever he met someone at the mansion.
‘I had never received any education, and I was young, so he probably thought that even if I heard something, I wouldn’t understand any of it.’
“Good heavens! Marquis Tarenka actually did such a thing…!”
“As far as I know, all the checks House Phaeraton issued to Marquis Tarenka over the past few years…”
“Yes. They were child-rearing expenses.”
My eyes widened.
“Child-rearing expenses?”
“Yes. Expenses for raising the youngest young lady.”
I stared blankly with my mouth open before hurriedly shouting.
“No, no! I’ve never received any child-rearing expenses!”
The vassals frowned.
“What do you mean? The ducal household sent an astronomical sum every month!”
“Did Marquis Tarenka not tell you? That the money was actually an investment Your Grace made in his mines…”
“It’s true!”
I was so flustered that my lips trembled.
“He said there was no money, so I ate just a little and worked really hard washing dishes and cleaning. I did everything Uncle told me to do. That’s why Uncle let me sleep there and gave me food.”
The vassals were stunned by my words, their expressions becoming even more troubled.
“No matter what, making a child do all that…? I simply cannot believe it.”
“Isn’t Marquis Tarenka particularly famous for being a doting father?”
Why wouldn’t they believe me?!
“Uncle told me every single day. He said Daddy didn’t give him any money and had abandoned me. That I was… abandoned…”
As I spoke, I became sad.
My eyes began to sting with tears, so I forced them wide open.
You were abandoned even by your parents.
Those were the first words I had heard after becoming old enough to understand what people were saying.
He had probably been telling me that even before I could properly understand him.
After being reborn, my entire life had been like that.
No matter how much I had endured it, saying out loud what kind of treatment I had received…
Saying with my own mouth that I had been abandoned…
It was really—
“But when we received reports from House Tarenka, it was definitely… They sent us records of the child-rearing expenses every month.”
“No! I only got a tiny amount of food because I couldn’t work very much! I was only given two meals a day. There were lots of times when I only ate one meal because I hadn’t finished all my work. There were even days when I didn’t eat at all…”
I was frustrated by how everyone kept insisting that there was no way that could have happened.
I didn’t dare look directly at the Duke.
What if this really was a situation where the tyrant father suspected me?
‘I spoke way too much like an adult earlier! And I even interrupted the Duke…!’
I knew it seemed unlikely that he would suspect a child like this, but this wasn’t just any world.
It was a romance-fantasy world.
So it was entirely possible.
‘I have to make myself seem as harmless as possible and speak according to my age.’
I clasped my hands tightly together.
“Uncle told me I had to be grateful to him. He said that even if I woke up every day before the sun rose and did everything he ordered until the moon was at the highest roof, I could never repay the debt I owed him.”
I glanced at the Duke.
His bright red eyes were shining more fiercely than ever as he stared at me.
Oh, no.
I felt like I was going to cry.
‘I don’t want to die…’
How hard had I worked to survive?!
And now I was going to die because I said one wrong thing?!
“I-It’s true!”
I hurriedly climbed down and began wiping the Duke’s shoes with my sleeve.
The foot inside his shoe flinched.
“Like this, like this… I was polishing his shoes when Uncle told that man, sniff, that this card was proof of the investment. He told another old man and a red-haired man too! It’s true, I swear! Waaah…”
Overcome by all the sadness, I finally burst into tears.
Startled by my own crying, I covered my mouth with my other hand and lowered my head.
Nobody liked a crying child.
The surroundings became deathly silent.
Drip.
Drip.
Drops of tears spread across the Duke’s black, polished shoes.
My chin trembled.
I bit my lips tightly and clenched my hand so that even the faintest sob wouldn’t escape.
I couldn’t bring myself to raise my head.
I simply kept scrubbing his shoes.
As if they were my lifeline.
No matter how many drops I wiped away, new ones appeared and refused to disappear.
Then a low, deep voice quietly descended from above my head.
“That’s enough.”
His voice sent a chill down my spine.
I blankly raised my head.
Duke Phaeraton was looking at me with an indescribable expression.
“Who do you think you are to interrogate her?”
Those words weren’t directed at me.
They were directed at the vassals.
For a moment, I couldn’t understand.
Wasn’t the Duke the one who had interrogated me first?
He had asked me how I knew.
“Your Grace? We weren’t interrogating her. We were merely…”
The vassals couldn’t finish their sentence.
A pitch-black, dense aura, dark enough to block out every trace of light, violently swept through the office.
And yet, it was eerily quiet.
‘What is that…?’
It was similar to the black energy that had surrounded the Sealing Book.
But it was different.
Back then, I hadn’t felt this overwhelmingly oppressed.
Thud.
Before I knew it, I had fallen on my bottom.
At that very moment, the black aura disappeared as if it had never existed.
The vassals, who had gone pale and were too terrified to even breathe carelessly, finally let out the breaths they had been holding.
“There is no need to say anything more.”
The Duke spoke to me.
When I looked up, he was reaching out his hand toward me.
But then he hesitated and pulled it back.
Without thinking, I grabbed his hand.
Flinch.
The Duke’s body stiffened slightly before he firmly lifted me up.
Until I was at eye level with him.
“You remembered something you had no need to remember.”
The Duke clicked his tongue quietly.
For some reason, those displeased words sounded like he was telling me not to remember unpleasant things.
Maybe the Duke hadn’t been interrogating me from the beginning—
‘Was he… worried?’
The Duke’s eyes moved away from my face and down to my wrist.
When he saw my heavily wrinkled sleeve, his brows furrowed.
“Call the tailor.”
While everyone was caught off guard by the unexpected order, the head butler professionally bowed his head.
“Understood, Your Grace.”
The Duke lowered me onto his lap.
As I raised my head, the Duke’s hand pressed down on my hair.
‘Aaah! It’s heavy when you press down like that!’
It was a rough and clumsy gesture, hardly something I could call patting.
His touch was so heavy that, as a child, I could barely keep my head upright.
But it was warm.
“Mm…”
I tossed and turned before opening my eyes.
Huh? Had I fallen asleep?
My last memory was being in the Duke’s office, but I was lying on my bed.
And someone had even tucked me neatly beneath the blankets.
‘Did Anna carry me here?’
I tilted my head in confusion and sat up.
The maids, who normally sensed the moment I woke up as if they had some supernatural ability, were nowhere to be seen.
They must have been busy with something else.
If so…
‘This is my chance!’
I pulled aside the canopy and jumped off the bed.
‘My book!’
I looked around and saw the Sealing Book sitting neatly on the bedside table.
I quickly picked it up and examined it carefully.
A book that had shared in the history of House Phaeraton.
It was elegant and obviously no ordinary object—
Or at least, that was what I wanted to say.
‘It’s way too old!’
Honestly, it just looked like trash.
If I opened it carelessly, the pages might fall right out.
‘I’m a little worried, but things like this need to be checked quickly.’
I had complained to the quest window about wanting faster progress and faster developments, but I was a romance-fantasy reader.
Of course I loved fast-paced developments.
Without hesitation, I opened the book.
And then—
Fwoooooosh—!
The pages began turning on their own, and starlight poured out.
“Wow…”
I couldn’t help but gasp in admiration.
A river of stars flowed from the book, spreading in waves and enveloping me.
A wind began to blow, sending my hair fluttering through the air.
The starlight gradually rose higher, becoming brighter and more dazzling.
Entranced, I reached out to touch it—
Whoooosh!
Bursts of light exploded from the stars, flooding the world in white.
Unable to withstand the intensity, I squeezed my eyes shut.
The book clutched tightly in my hands shook endlessly as its pages continued turning.
Flip, flip—
Until finally, it reached the last page.
Snap.
The moment the book closed, the light and wind disappeared.
I cautiously opened my eyes.
And there, in my hands—
“T-This…”
The old, crumbling book from before was nowhere to be found.
Instead, I was holding a book that glittered brilliantly.
Soft leather that fit perfectly in my hands, golden ornaments protecting the corners of the book.
Sparkling fragments of stars were embedded in the cover, along with delicately polished gemstones cut into beautiful heart shapes.
As if it had shed its old skin, the book that had once looked ready to crumble had completely transformed.
They had called it a summoning medium, a Sealing Book, and the treasured heirloom of the first Duke of Phaeraton.
It really was no ordinary book.
‘…It didn’t break or anything. It just got cleaned up, so it should be fine, right?’
I shuddered as I remembered the Duke’s cold face.
‘Whatever! It already happened. I’ll worry about it later!’
What on earth could be written inside?
Forbidden magic?
A way to borrow the power of a god?
They called it a Sealing Book, so maybe it contained instructions for sealing demons.
‘…It wouldn’t happen to be instructions for summoning demons, would it?’
I ran my fingers over the cover, swallowed nervously, and opened the book.
And then—
There was nothing written inside.
Staring at the completely blank white pages, I frowned bitterly in disappointment.
“What is this?!”
At that very moment, a notification appeared.
[The seal on has been released.]
[The usage restriction on the Trait has been lifted.]
At the same time, the Trait window appeared.
The “Unavailable” 표시 I had seen before, along with the warning section, had disappeared.
‘Wow! I can use it now! My ability! Finally!’
[A new quest has arrived.]
<The Path of a Good Reader (1)>
Congratulations, Reader!
Reader! You have finally obtained the !
As a reader, you should fulfill your duty and diligently read books from now on.
A reader is only truly a reader because they read books.
A reader who does not read books is a bad reader.
Become a good reader.
Condition: Use Cash to summon a novel and extract and use its ability.
Reward: 1,000 Cash
‘Oh, what a surprise. For once, they gave me exactly the quest I wanted.’
Of course, the wording was still incredibly annoying.
‘Whatever. Accept.’
[You have accepted the quest.]
“Hmm, but how do I summon it? Come forth, be summoned, abracadabra? Or maybe something more fantasy-like…”
I rolled my eyes around before clearing my throat.
‘It’s a little embarrassing, but there’s no one here.’
I checked the firmly closed door, then struck a pose.
And, as if I had been possessed by the heroine of a fantasy novel who was also a mage, I began chanting.
“Those with the blood of cold cider, I beseech you. Appear before me now and grant me the power to defeat the sweet-potato…”
[Please state the you wish to summon.]
A notification appeared as if interrupting me.
Huh? Why did it feel like I could sense emotion in those words?
It seemed like the notification was looking down on me…
‘So embarrassing.’
I covered my bright-red cheeks with both hands and checked the next notification that appeared.
[With your current rank, you can summon romance-fantasy novels that you have read.]
“Hmm, then…! <I’ll Run Away, Even Though I’m a Rich Heiress>.”
I’ll obtain that heroine’s taming skill and take over this ducal household!
With this one skill, I’ll never again have to tremble in fear over when I might be killed or thrown out!
I stared confidently ahead.
But then—
[Insufficient Cash.]
Sobbing internally.
Somehow, a familiar notification had appeared.
‘Even here, I don’t have enough Cash…!’
A new notification appeared before my despairing eyes.
[You currently possess 1,000 Cash and one 5,000 Cash Draw Ticket.]
[Would you like to use the 5,000 Cash Draw Ticket?]
