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∼Chapter 2∼
“Tie, what brings you all the way here?”
The Marquis asked in a completely different voice from the one he had used when speaking to me.
Clatie, who had entered the hall, placed both hands firmly on her waist and raised her eyebrows.
“Dad, you shouldn’t be stepping on a child like that.”
The Marquis removed his foot from my shoulder and let out a hearty laugh.
“Our Tie is such a kind girl. You’re even worried about a child like this.”
“Hmph.”
Clatie pursed her lips. A shy blush rose across her cheeks.
“My birthday is coming up soon, after all.”
“Yes, which is why I’m having the hall cleaned.”
“You don’t have to hold the party in such a huge hall.”
Even as she said that, her eyes sparkled like stars with joy, clearly excited about the grand birthday party.
“How could I hold my daughter’s birthday party carelessly?”
“Dad, you’re so silly.”
A pair of pale pink shoes stopped in front of me.
“Are you all right?”
Her gentle voice settled over me like flower petals.
I raised my upper body and nodded.
“Then hang in there.”
With a bright smile, Clatie linked her arm through the Marquis’s.
The Marquis affectionately stroked her hair.
The loving father and daughter began walking toward the door.
“Eee, Daaad—my shoes got wet from that dirty soapy water.”
“Don’t worry. Your father will buy you a new pair.”
“Yay! Dad, you’re the best!”
I was left standing there alone, staring at them.
The soapy water was soaking my entire body.
Thud.
The door closed.
I stared blankly at the firmly shut door for a while before lowering my head.
‘……Let’s hurry and finish cleaning.’
I had no idea what punishment I would receive if I couldn’t finish it.
Grrrrrrr.
My stomach rumbled like thunder.
I curled myself up as tightly as I could, but it didn’t help.
My stomach clock was still desperately demanding food.
Because I hadn’t managed to finish cleaning the hall, the Marquis had punished me.
He had struck my calves thirty times with a thin cane, like a whip.
As I groaned, unable to even stand properly because of the pain, he told me,
“You will have no dinner for the next week.”
In other words, I was supposed to survive on one meal a day.
Normally, I was only allowed to eat twice a day, breakfast and dinner.
And even those weren’t proper meals. They consisted of nothing more than hard bread and watery soup without a single piece of anything in it.
After the Marquis left, Clatie came in.
“Oh my, how pitiful.”
Clatie clicked her tongue sympathetically as she looked at my bruised calves.
“Don’t be too upset. It’s because Dad is such a fair and just person. Wouldn’t it be unfair to everyone else if he gave you food for free just because you’re my cousin?”
Even if we’re cousins, you’re different from me.
Her eyes seemed to say exactly that.
“Work hard from now on. You have to finish your work properly. Dad said that people who don’t work shouldn’t eat, either.”
Perhaps proud of herself for having encouraged me, Clatie gave me a sweet smile before leaving the room.
Remembering that made anger surge through me.
‘As if I need that stupid food……!’
Grrrrrrr.
I wanted to say that I didn’t need such a thing as food, but I was so, so hungry.
‘It hurts.’
My empty stomach hurt from having nothing to eat, and my calves hurt from the heat of the fresh injuries.
My breathing was labored.
The air I exhaled was hot.
My head felt hazy.
‘It hurts so much.’
I had simply kept wearing my cold, wet clothes until they dried, and now I felt like I was going to catch a cold.
I crawled under an old blanket, but the chill of the winter night froze my body to the bone.
Dazed from the fever and cold, I heard the Marquis’s voice ringing in my ears.
“You should be grateful to me.”
“Your father irresponsibly left you here without even giving me any money for your upbringing.”
“So you should at least earn your keep, shouldn’t you? Do you know how much you eat? Do you know how much money it costs to raise you?”
“In the end, you couldn’t even earn your food again! You’re so damn lazy! Be grateful for my mercy in giving something as useless as you food and a place to sleep.”
I covered my ears.
But the Marquis’s voice didn’t stop.
By now, I couldn’t feel the hunger or the pain in my calves anymore.
Clutching my chest tightly, I gasped for breath.
“It hurts so much…….”
It felt as though my chest were being torn apart.
I tried not to, but my heart kept breaking.
Whenever I stood in front of the Marquis, my entire body trembled and I couldn’t even speak properly.
To my young eyes, he was enormous.
“You shouldn’t forget that even though your own biological father abandoned you, I took you in and raised you, should you?”
“Ah, although we’ll have to see whether he’s really your biological father. You can’t even use magic, can you?”
I tightly gripped the blanket.
‘Did he really abandon me?’
At first, I had thought, No way.
No matter if the other party was a demon, a contract was a contract.
But the result was this.
‘I was an idiot for trusting that demon’s contract.’
I didn’t even know how many times I had been disappointed by now.
Promises that were never kept.
I had stopped expecting them a long time ago.
So there was no reason to be disappointed anymore.
Sniff.
The tip of my nose stung.
Tears trickled down one after another.
It wasn’t anything worth crying over.
Why was I crying?
It must be because I was still young.
Hmph!
Sniff, sniff.
‘That damn demon.’
He said I’d be a rich heiress.
He said he’d give me an ability.
He said I’d have a father and brothers.
‘……I thought I was going to have a family.’
“Achoo!”
My entire body jerked with the sneeze.
I sniffled and pulled the blanket tightly around myself.
It had absolutely no insulation, but I supposed it was better than nothing.
‘There isn’t even cold medicine here, and this little body is so weak.’
I’d nearly died more times than I could count.
Today was no different.
……Maybe it would be easier to just die.
‘No, no! I can’t become weak!’
I couldn’t die like this, if only because it was so unfair.
In this world that deserved zero stars, I would survive no matter what.
“Tie, happy birthday!”
“My goodness, you’re still so young, yet you’re already dazzlingly beautiful.”
“When you grow up, every man in the Empire will fall head over heels for our Tie.”
Surrounded by her family, Clatie smiled brightly.
Even I had to admit that she was as cute and lovable as an angel.
Today, she was wearing a pale pink dress so luxurious and extravagant that it was hard to believe it was meant for a child.
The adorable, ankle-length, voluminous skirt was decorated with layer upon layer of lace, and tiny diamonds were embroidered into the lace.
No matter how wealthy someone was, they normally wouldn’t go to such extravagant lengths for a child’s clothing when she wouldn’t even be able to wear it for a year.
But that was how much the Marquis loved Clatie.
Around the time of her birthday, an expensive dress like this always arrived at the mansion.
It was so beautiful, on an entirely different level from the clothes she normally wore, that Clatie always looked forward to seeing what kind of dress she would receive.
‘The Marquis never told her what kind of dress it would be, though.’
No matter how many times Clatie begged or asked him to give her even the slightest hint, it was useless.
He must have kept it a secret so that she would be even happier when she received it.
‘She really is loved…….’
I turned my gaze toward the beautifully decorated party hall.
As expected, the hall had been thoroughly cleaned and decorated until it sparkled.
The Marquis probably hadn’t expected me to be able to clean the entire thing in the first place.
‘He only wanted to torment me.’
I stood pressed tightly against a wall in the corner, staring down at my toes.
The shabby shoes on my tiny feet looked completely out of place here.
Even the servants and maids who were serving the guests wore better-quality shoes and clothes than I did.
‘Pathetic.’
Even though I was standing silently in the corner like a mouse afraid to make a sound, I could feel the mocking gazes directed at me.
It was a cozy birthday celebration among family, but I couldn’t be part of it.
Well, who would look at me like this and think I was a member of the Marquis’s family?
In reality, I hadn’t attended the birthday party as Phaeraton’s daughter or as Clatie’s cousin.
“Oh my!”
Clatie’s surprised voice rang out loudly.
Apparently, while cutting the cake, some whipped cream had fallen onto her shoe.
Her lovely face crumpled with worry at the thought of ruining her new shoes.
“What are you standing there staring at?!”
Just then, the Marquis’s angry shout sharply struck my back.
“Hurry up and wipe it!”
Right.
I hadn’t been invited here as her cousin.
‘I came here as Clatie’s servant…… to wait on her.’
If I delayed any longer, the Marquis would punish me again.
I quickly approached Clatie and spoke to one of the maids nearby.
“I-I need something to wipe it with…….”
Before I could even finish speaking, she turned away awkwardly.
I knew exactly why.
‘It must be the Marquis’s order.’
Without asking anything further, I went in front of Clatie and knelt down.
I rolled up my short, tattered sleeve and began rubbing the shoe clean.
The sensation of the greasy cream smearing beneath my fingers was unpleasant.
But there was something far more unpleasant than that.
The countless gazes of the Marquis’s family pressing down on my back as I knelt there.
When I raised my head, I immediately met the Marquis’s eyes.
His gaze was intoxicated with contempt, delight, and the thrill of victory.
“Is that all? You need to polish it until it shines!”
The Marquis urged me on.
My tiny hand tightened around the sleeve.
“You’re disobeying me again! Was a week without food not enough? Or do you need more punishment?!”
I bit my lip tightly.
I wanted to spring to my feet and scream back at that abuser.
But this tiny body trembled uncontrollably and refused to move.
I was scared.
Terrified.
Frightened.
Against my will, my body creaked as it moved.
My posture lowered even further, and my lips came close enough to touch the shoe Clatie was wearing.
Clatie impatiently shook her foot.
Because of that, my lips almost really did touch the shoe.
‘It’s okay. This isn’t a big deal.’
I am…… someone precious.
‘Really?’
A voice filled with doubt echoed from the bottom of my heart.
I desperately ignored it and was about to blow on the shoe with a warm breath when—
“Am I remembering incorrectly?”
A low but distinct voice cut through the hall.
“I don’t recall my daughter having blonde hair.”
I raised my head.
A tall man stood there with a cloak fastened over only one shoulder.
He was staring at Clatie with a frown.
Or, more precisely, at the pale pink dress Clatie was wearing.
“D-Duke Phaeraton?!”
The Marquis shouted in shock.
My heart jolted upward before settling again.
Duke Phaeraton?
That man?
My gaze trembled as I stared at him.
Duke Phaeraton.
He was my father—the father of Phaeraton’s daughter.
Even standing casually, the man had an overwhelming presence.
Broad shoulders and long limbs.
A tightly defined waist.
A stern face that looked as though not even a drop of blood would come out if you stabbed him.
An incredible aura radiating from his entire body.
And yet, none of that could hide how handsome he was.
‘Wow……. He looks like the male lead from a romance fantasy novel…….’
Hair darker than the deepest abyss.
Eyes redder than the blood of a pure white dove.
If a novel were describing him, there would undoubtedly be a sentence like that.
He looked even more like a protagonist than every male lead I had ever imagined.
“W-Weren’t you on the Western Front?”
The Western Front?
I frowned at the Marquis’s words.
‘Then the Duke had been away fighting a war?’
I hadn’t known that.
“It’s over.”
“What?”
“I said the war is over.”
The Marquis shook his head as though that couldn’t possibly be true.
“Over? Surely it hasn’t ended yet…….”
“Do I look like I have enough free time to personally deal with the stragglers?”
The Duke’s eyes became as sharp as a freshly honed blade.
He still stood at a crooked angle with a languid attitude, but even that alone was enough to change the atmosphere.
Clatie and the Marchioness struggled to draw breath as their bodies stiffened.
“H-Haha, surely not.”
The Marquis approached the Duke with a forced smile, his face gone deathly pale.
“By the way, what brings you here without even notifying us?”
“Isn’t it obvious why I came?”
Ignoring the Marquis, the Duke began walking.
Perhaps because his legs were so long, he reached Clatie in only a few leisurely steps.
His red eyes swept over Clatie.
Unable to withstand that cold, piercing gaze, Clatie lowered her head.
Her trembling body and pale face made her look as though she might faint at any moment.
The Duke’s eyes narrowed.
His blood-red gaze slowly moved.
‘Ah.’
Our eyes met.
The Duke’s eyes twitched.
“What is this emaciated little rat?”
“Th-That, she works in our household—”
“Don’t tell me someone in this state is the Phaeraton daughter.”
The Duke’s voice dropped dangerously low.
The Marquis, who had been trying to explain something beside him, froze completely and couldn’t continue.
Everyone around them, including the Marquis’s family and the servants, couldn’t even breathe easily.
A suffocating silence.
A dense, oppressive stillness so thick that not even a needle could have pierced it.
I lowered my head.
An emaciated little rat.
That was true.
Even to me, my appearance was shabby and pitiful.
‘He must hate the fact that someone like me is his daughter.’
He would want to deny it.
But.
“Th-Then still…… would you take me with you?”
I gathered every last bit of courage I had and looked up at the Duke.
I couldn’t live here anymore.
If I stayed like this, I would surely die.
The red eyes before me twisted ever so slightly.
“What?”
“I-I haven’t been able to wash…… that’s why I look like this.”
I tried my best to look presentable as I moistened my parched mouth.
“I won’t be a bother. I can wash myself by myself.”
Thump, thump.
My heart seemed to pound inside my ears.
“I-I can eat and clean well, too! I can earn my keep. I don’t eat much, either…….”
The Duke said nothing.
“I-I’ll polish your shoes every day, too! I can make them shine until they’re sparkling!”
My courage gradually faded.
I tried not to, but my head kept lowering until I could see nothing but the line of his jaw instead of his eyes.
“And, and also…….”
His jaw was rigidly clenched.
My head lowered completely toward the floor.
I could see Clatie’s shoe, still greasy from the cream.
I hate it here.
I wanted to live somewhere warm, cozy, and peaceful—a place where I could rest.
Now and in my previous life, I had always wanted—
“I…… want to go home…….”
I preserved all character names exactly as given and kept the emotional pacing and narration close to the original Korean.
