🔊 TTS Settings
Episode 5
“I lost something earlier… I’ve checked everywhere it might be, but I still can’t find it, so I was asking the maids too.”
It seemed that while he was rushing around because of that, he’d suddenly been called away due to Serge’s situation.
“Oh no. What did you lose?”
“A keychain. The keys are still there, so I think the connector loosened and only the ring fell off.”
If he still had the keys, losing just the keychain wouldn’t usually make someone react like that.
“Is the keychain important to you? Like something you got as a gift…?”
“Yes. Something like that.”
“Should I help you look for it?”
“It’s fine. I can’t trouble the young madam over something so trivial.”
“I don’t mind, but… if I happen to see something that looks like a keychain, I’ll let you know.”
“Thank you.”
After politely thanking her, Yuan turned away, his steps looking hurried.
He’d called it trivial, but it clearly meant a lot to him.
If it got thrown out with the trash, that would be a problem, so it made sense he was in a rush.
“…Hmm.”
After thinking for a moment, Rayleigh headed straight out to the garden through the terrace.
The garden, now moving from spring toward summer, was full of colorful flowers in bloom.
It was beautiful scenery, but Rayleigh hadn’t come out alone just to enjoy it.
There was something she wanted to test, and since Yuan’s issue came up, she figured she’d check that too.
After making sure no one was around, Rayleigh crouched down in a quiet corner of the garden.
“…Hey, are you guys here right now?”
Her voice was barely above a whisper, soft and mixed with her breath.
But in response to that tiny voice, something strange happened in her field of vision.
Several tiny humanoid spirits appeared, each with beautiful wings like butterflies, no bigger than the palm of her hand.
They looked exactly like what people imagined when they thought of “fairies.”
“So you really are here.”
When Rayleigh smiled, the fairies rushed toward her all at once, scattering their thoughts wildly.
[Hi, hi!]
[Let’s play, let’s play, let’s play!]
She watched the fairies fluttering around her.
“So I really can see them clearly…”
When she was younger, Rayleigh had mentioned fairies to her family more than once.
But no one except her could see them. They scolded her harshly for lying and brushed it off.
They treated it like an imaginary friend children made up.
But even now, with her mental age raised thanks to memories of her past life, the fairies still clearly appeared before her.
“Why can only I see you? The original story never mentioned fairies.”
For a while, Rayleigh wondered if she had some special ability.
But that hope didn’t last long.
According to the tests done at the mage tower and the temple, which nobles routinely went through, Rayleigh had no magic power or divine power at all. She was just an ordinary person.
She couldn’t do anything special through the fairies either.
She couldn’t even communicate with them properly.
When she called them, they appeared like this, but it was rare for them to respond clearly to what she said.
The thoughts they sent were more like emotional waves dumped onto her all at once.
Still, Rayleigh treated the fairies like lucky charms or quiet friends.
As someone who had always been alone, beings that constantly showed her affection were precious.
“I feel a bit calmer knowing you’re here. You see, I suddenly found out about a really unhappy future, and it made me anxious…”
[Let’s play, let’s play!]
[Happy, happy, happy!]
As usual, there was no proper reply, but that familiarity made her smile anyway.
“Someday I’ll leave this place… but until then, I hope I can get along well with the duke and the young duke.”
Even as she said it, Rayleigh felt sad about how powerless she was.
In so many novels, if the reincarnated protagonist had amazing abilities, they could completely twist the original story.
But she didn’t.
“You’re useless! What do you think you can even do?”
“You’re so slow, you can’t understand a single thing!”
Her parents’ constant verbal abuse echoed in her mind.
Unfortunately, they weren’t wrong.
Even knowing the future, all Rayleigh could do was prepare to run away and, with a shred of conscience, leave behind a bit of information to help the Elestine family face their destruction.
[Cheer up, cheer up!]
[Let’s play, let’s play, let’s play!]
As if sensing her sadness, the fairies sent waves of encouragement.
Rayleigh lifted her head and smiled.
“Thanks. For now, I’ll focus on adjusting to life in the ducal castle. I wonder what the duke likes…”
She hadn’t meant anything by it. It was just a random thought about wanting to make a good impression on the head of the family.
But unexpectedly, the fairies responded.
[Rima, Rima!]
[Duke, Rima, love!]
Rayleigh’s eyes widened.
“Rima… that’s the late duchess’s name, right?”
She’d guessed it already from the fact that the duke hadn’t remarried after his wife’s death, but it seemed he had loved her deeply.
[Rima also love duke!]
[Both love each other!]
So it wasn’t one-sided. They had loved each other passionately.
Losing someone he loved that much must have left a deep wound in Walter’s heart.
“Yeah… I really shouldn’t bring up the duchess in front of him carelessly.”
Locking that information firmly into her mind, Rayleigh moved on to the main point.
“Hey, about the duke’s aide, Yuan.”
[Let’s play, let’s play!]
“He lost a keychain. Do you know where it fell?”
She asked without really expecting a proper answer.
From what they’d shown with the duke, fairies seemed to know things as if they could see everything.
But their communication was always unpredictable.
Most of the time, they just sent random thoughts and disappeared.
But today, maybe she was lucky. One of the fairies fluttered around excitedly and shouted:
[Keychain, follow me! Keychain, follow me!]
“Whoa! Thank you!”
Rayleigh hurried after the fairy.
It led her to a corridor in one of the annex buildings.
Landing lightly on the floor, the fairy sent its thoughts proudly.
[Here! It’s here!]
Rayleigh let out a sigh when she saw where the keychain was.
“No wonder he couldn’t find it.”
The corridor had several side tables displaying antiques, and the keychain had slipped into a blind spot underneath one of them.
It must have fallen out of his pocket while he was rushing around and slid under the table.
“But this… really doesn’t match Yuan’s image at all.”
She expected Yuan to use simple, practical accessories.
But the keychain was the complete opposite.
It was decorated with colorful gemstones arranged into flowers and butterflies, giving it a cute, almost whimsical feel.
From the way he’d spoken earlier, it was clearly a gift, so it probably wasn’t something he chose himself.
[I did good, right?]
“Yeah. Thank you.”
When Rayleigh smiled brightly, the fairy spun around happily, then disappeared.
To Rayleigh, who had been treated coldly even by her own family, the fairies were always a great comfort.
Feeling grateful once again, she went to find Yuan.
“I picked up something that looks like a keychain. Is this yours, by any chance?”
Rayleigh already knew it belonged to Yuan since fairies only told the truth, but she asked anyway, just to be sure.
The moment Yuan saw what she was holding, his eyes went wide.
“Ah…! Yes, that’s it!”
“I was worried it might not be, so I’m relieved. It’s a really pretty keychain.”
“You must’ve thought it didn’t suit me.”
“That’s not what I meant…!”
“No, it’s fine.”
He replied with a faint smile.
“My younger sister made it and gave it to me as a gift.”
At that moment, realization hit Rayleigh.
Now she understood why the name “Yuan” had felt familiar the moment she heard it.
“In the original story, I’m sure…”
