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∼Chapter 5∼
Had I done something so shocking that I was seeing things?
I rubbed my eyes over and over, but the letters remained exactly where they were.
Once my surprise faded, I had no choice but to realize this wasn’t some hallucination.
Aftanes.
How could I ever forget that name?
It was the name of that demon bastard who scammed me into reincarnation!
[Don’t worry. Since we’re giving you such a special reincarnation, we’ll give you an ability, too.]
That irritating voice was still vivid in my memory even after all these years.
So when you said you’d give me an ability, you meant Rush & Cash?!
It was an ability with a name that sounded like it would make me take out a loan from a loan shark and ruin my life.
I had called him a scammer for not giving me an ability, but if this was the kind of ability I was getting, I would have been better off without one.
The letters continued appearing.
But I could no longer read them.
“Soft…… like a baby?”
Because Duke Phaeraton repeated those words in a very low voice.
D-Did I perhaps say that out loud?
Unable to ask, I trembled.
Ah, should I just bite my tongue and die here?
The Duke’s red eyes glared at me as though he were about to devour me.
Sob.
“Hmm……”
The Duke made a strange sound and lowered me onto his lap.
“……?”
I thought he was going to throw me away and send me to the afterlife right then and there.
It was a relief, but……
I cautiously watched his expression while clutching my anxiously pounding heart.
Then—
Squish.
The Duke poked my cheek.
……What?
Squish-squish.
He kept poking it.
I was skinny as a stick, but since I was still a baby, there was at least a trace of baby fat left in my cheeks.
I stared at the Duke as he fiddled with my cheek expressionlessly, then sucked in a startled breath.
Is this the beginning of the tyrant becoming a daughter-obsessed dad?!
My years of romance-fantasy experience told me so.
Every time a tyrant fondled a baby’s chubby cheeks, his affection increased.
Surely he must be starting to think I was at least a little cute—
“You look like an angry pufferfish.”
—Nope.
Damn it. I had gotten my hopes up for nothing.
The reader inside me shouted, This is the beginning of his denial phase!
But my instincts, with the Duke’s face right in front of me, screamed back.
Look at those murderous eyes. No way.
I could die if I make one wrong move, so hold on tight to your life.
At least pufferfish had poison.
All I could do was sit there with a sulky expression and obediently endure the Duke’s touch.
I had expected him to throw me out soon, but unexpectedly, the Duke continued keeping me on his lap.
Only after eating a dinner that felt like it was going to give me indigestion, alongside the Duke staring holes through me, was I finally able to be alone.
“Wash yourself.”
The Duke put me down in my room, said those words, and left.
Wait, but I’m already clean?!
I lifted my arm and sniffed it.
All I could smell was a pleasant fruity scent.
Then why did he keep me with him all this time?
“It’s because you’re unfamiliar to me. I haven’t been able to see Daddy all this time.”
“So I want to stay together now. You have to stay really close so you won’t feel unfamiliar anymore!”
Was it because of what I said?
No way.
I might get indigestion from getting my hopes up again.
I gave a little laugh and followed the maids into the bathroom.
There was something more important to me right now than figuring out what the Duke was thinking.
Chapter 2. A Romance-Fantasy Reader Favors a Fast Pace
After taking a clean bath and drying my hair until it was soft and fluffy, I huffed and puffed as I climbed onto the bed.
All right.
I was finally alone.
But why were the maids hesitating earlier?
Their behavior when they said goodbye to me had been bothering me.
Normally, I would have asked what was wrong or waited until they brought it up themselves, but—
There’s something more important right now!
The letters that had appeared before my eyes like a hologram.
Ugh, I didn’t get to read all of them.
As soon as I started paying attention to the Duke, the notification window containing the letters had disappeared.
Should I have read everything while it was there, no matter what the Duke said? Can’t I bring it back?
Just as I thought that, the notification window appeared again.
[You have unread notifications. Would you like to check them?]
Oh, can I just answer this?
“Yes.”
A window appeared.
[Trait <Rush & Cash> — Unavailable]
Reader! Here is the ability I promised you!
It took much longer than expected to fulfill the conditions.
They were easy conditions, though.
Surely you didn’t spend all this time cursing the innocent , calling him a scammer because you thought this was a fraudulent contract, did you?
For someone who had cursed that demon bastard as a scammer every single day, this message hit a little too close to home.
Well, the conditions didn’t exactly seem easy in the first place.
And I still didn’t know exactly what the condition was.
Surely it wasn’t poking the Duke’s cheek and doing something cute.
It’s an ability perfectly suited to you, Reader, so please use it well!
-Trait Grade: F
-Trait Effect: You can summon romance-fantasy novels you have previously read by using Cash.
You can extract and use the abilities of the female protagonists from the summoned novels.
*Extraction is random.
!Warning: You currently have no , so this ability cannot be used.
“What the……”
So, basically, I could summon novels I had read and use the abilities of their female protagonists?
“That’s amazing!”
Countless abilities from romance-fantasy heroines flashed through my mind.
If I could use all those abilities, survival would no longer be a problem.
I could conquer the world!
“Waaaah!”
Goodbye, miserable days of my past!
I threw both hands into the air and hopped around on the bed.
But what are Cash and a Summoning Medium?
I suddenly became anxious.
The name of this ability was ‘Rush & Cash.’
Honestly, it wasn’t exactly a name that inspired thoughts of a joyful and beautiful future.
[A new quest has arrived.]
Just then, another new window appeared along with a notification.
Reader, are you perhaps celebrating your new ability with a toast?
How innocent and naive!
This world—the world of romance fantasy—is not so easy!
This is common knowledge that every romance-fantasy reader should know.
Haven’t you already been disappointed and discouraged many times?
Watch your back at all times!
Never forget!
Your ability is incomplete.
A true romance-fantasy reader should suspect that anything someone else feeds you may contain poison.
Complete your ability through your own efforts and prove your worth.
-Condition: Obtain
-Reward: 500 Cash
“What is with this wording?”
Are you taking shots at me right now?
I was dumbfounded.
Especially because I had just gotten ahead of myself, thinking the tyrant was going to become a daughter-obsessed dad just because he had poked my cheek a few times today.
Hmph.
“Anyway, I have to do this even if it kills me!”
[Quest accepted.]
“Okay. But where do I get a Summoning Medium?”
An object that could serve as a connection point for summoning something.
Usually, things like this in romance-fantasy novels are incredibly, incredibly precious.
The national treasure of the Empire.
A holy relic of the temple.
A treasure of the Magic Tower.
Or perhaps a family heirloom passed down through generations of a noble family.
Hmm. For now, the only thing I can immediately investigate is a family heirloom of House Phaeraton.
It would be difficult for me to search elsewhere while I was still a young child, so it would be nice if there was something here.
……But even if there is one, that’s a problem.
Could I really ask Duke Phaeraton to give me one of the family’s treasures?
I remembered the Duke glaring at me with that cold, emotionless face, and my body trembled.
Mm-hmm. It’s not like I even know whether one of the family heirlooms is a Summoning Medium.
I comforted myself like that.
I’m not scared.
First, I should look into the family heirlooms of the ducal house.
After waking up in the morning……
Hwaaahaaaam—.
I let out such a huge yawn that it felt like my mouth was splitting apart.
Hmm. I need to make a plan, but—.
I rubbed the corners of my eyes, but everything in front of me was blurry.
At Marquis Tarenka’s residence, I had barely slept and worked constantly.
But now I had taken a bath, so my body was warm, the bed was soft, and my stomach was full.
There was no way I could fight off sleep.
Before I even realized when I had fallen asleep, I was fast asleep in the middle of the enormous bed.
Chirp, chirp.
Birds were singing.
Is it morning?
Once again, an astonishingly extravagant ceiling greeted me.
As I yawned and stretched out while still lying down, the door opened and the maids entered.
“Did you sleep well, youngest young lady?”
“Yes.”
I sat up, and the blanket slipped down.
Huh?
I thought I had fallen asleep in the middle of the bed yesterday without even covering myself with the blanket.
But now I was lying at the head of the bed.
Apparently, sometime during the night, I had somehow gotten under the pillow properly and tucked myself snugly beneath the blanket.
“Did Anna cover me with the blanket?”
At my question, Anna looked puzzled but answered obediently.
“No. We do not enter while the youngest young lady is sleeping. It is the same when His Grace or the other young masters are sleeping.”
Hmm.
I must have crawled there myself while half-asleep.
It was embarrassing, but I had terrible sleeping habits, so I had naturally assumed the maids had covered me.
I hopped down from the bed.
I was about to head straight to the dressing room when I suddenly stopped.
“Ah! Good morning, everyone!”
When I called out to the maids, their expressions softened.
“Good morning, youngest young lady.”
“Hehe. Let me brush your hair.”
Good, good.
The atmosphere was definitely much softer than before.
I put on the clothes Nancy had chosen for me and left my hair in Anna’s hands while pretending to be completely unaware of everything.
“Waaah, this thing here is so pretty! It’s all sparkly!”
I pointed at the brooch attached to the chest of my dress, and the maids smiled warmly.
“It is pretty, isn’t it? It goes very well with the color of the youngest young lady’s eyes.”
“Would you like a similar pin for your hair? You would surely look adorable.”
“Mm…… But it looks so expensive.”
I fiddled with my fingers with a dejected expression.
“Oh my……”
Anna covered her mouth with an awkward expression.
Then Nancy clenched her fists and cried out indignantly,
“What do you mean? The youngest young lady is the only daughter of House Phaeraton! You can have things like this as much as you want!”
“You can even have more precious things if you like. But those are heavy, so……”
I glanced at the maids comforting me and casually asked,
“By the wayyy, does the Duke’s residence have a room where they keep lots of sparkly things like this?”
I tried my best not to look like a thief targeting the family treasure room—
Even though that was exactly what I was doing.
“Of course. There are so many rooms like that. There are even more at the ducal castle in the territory.”
Oh, there are a lot.
Come to think of it, the Duke was rich.
I wanted to beg them to let me have a look, but what should I do?
I needed to go to the room containing the family heirlooms, not some other room full of luxury goods……
“Would you like to have a look?”
“Umm, when I was at Tie’s place, I would get beaten just for going near places like that……. Is it really okay for me to look at such pretty things?”
I mumbled and glanced at the maids.
If I appealed like this, maybe they would show me the best room.
Well, it wasn’t exactly a lie.
“This filthy little thief……! Why are you lurking around here?! What are you trying to steal this time?! Someone with sticky fingers like you needs a beating to learn her lesson!”
Once, while cleaning the hallway, I had gotten close to the treasure room at Marquis Tarenka’s residence.
The Marquis had whipped me across the back with his belt right there on the spot.
And he had been the one who ordered me to clean that hallway in the first place. I hadn’t even known there was a treasure room there.
No, no. Don’t think depressing thoughts. I got out of Marquis Tarenka’s residence, and there’s no one here who will hit me!
When I lifted my head, the maids were looking at me with expressions that were half about to cry and half about to explode.
Why were they making those faces?
“Don’t make faces like that.”
Wait, what kind of expression had I been making?
Their expressions were even stranger than mine……
Anna reached a hand toward me, then hesitated and pulled it back.
I was wondering what that was about when Nancy suddenly pulled me into a tight hug.
“Nancy, what are you doing? That’s rude—”
“Our youngest young lady is so small and young……. She’s still just a baby……”
Anna’s horrified exclamation was drowned out by Nancy’s tearful voice.
I gently patted Nancy’s back.
“I’m okay! I have you sisters who worry about me like this!”
When I said it with a bright smile, the other maids cried, “Youngest young lady!” and hugged me too.
This was the first time in all my lives that something like this had ever happened to me……
Hmm.
It wasn’t a bad feeling.
Hehe.
Anna looked at me laughing while surrounded by the other maids, then suddenly stopped.
And as if she had made up her mind, she reached a hand toward me.
Her warm palm gently stroked down my hair.
Mmm.
That feels nice.
A faint smile spread across Anna’s face as well.
“The first thing the young lady sees should be the finest thing in the entire ducal residence! If you’re going to look around anyway, let’s go to the Holy War Room.”
At Nancy’s declaration, the other maids nodded enthusiastically.
“There are far more valuable things there than at Marquis Tarenka’s residence! Compared to the Duke’s residence, the Marquis’s treasure room is nothing!”
“Can I really just go?”
“Yes. It is the room where the family heirlooms of House Phaeraton are kept, and as a direct member of the ducal family, the youngest young lady naturally has permission to enter.”
“You would need His Grace’s permission to take any of the heirlooms out, though.”
Ugh.
Of course.
I couldn’t just take one whenever I wanted.
Well, that’s still fine.
At least I could check whether there was a Summoning Medium among the heirlooms in Duke Phaeraton’s residence.
Then there’s no need to waste time. I’ll just eat breakfast quickly and go take a look.
That was when—
Knock, knock.
The butler entered along with the sound of a knock.
The only time the butler had come to my room was on my first day here, so I was a little surprised.
What was going on?
“Youngest young lady, His Grace has asked that you join him for breakfast.”
Have breakfast together?
All of a sudden?
