RBAR 01

Chapter 1

“This should be enough.”

The long-awaited day had finally arrived.

Looking at the bundles of cash in my bag, I smiled in satisfaction.
And this wasn’t even all I had.

Compared to what I had stored in the bank, this was only a portion.

‘Shall I go waste some money now?’

Everything was perfectly prepared. It was time to stop being the pitiful heroine of a regret story.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Still pleased as I zipped up my bag, I answered:

“Come in.”

Bang.

The maid who entered looked at me as if I were the most shameless person in the world and spoke sharply:

“The Duke and Madam are calling for you, so come out immediately.”

Her tone was far too disrespectful for addressing her superior.

But I didn’t bother pointing out her rudeness and simply stood up.

‘It’s not like this is anything new.’

I had already grown completely disgusted with this household—too much to care about trivial things like that.

“Alright, tell them to wait a moment.”

“…Don’t be late.”

Perhaps surprised by my unusually compliant attitude, the maid hesitated briefly before leaving.

I let out a small sigh and shrugged.

‘Here we go again with the same boring routine.’

As you can see, my situation wasn’t great.

The members of the ducal family firmly believed that I was a fake who had conspired with my nanny to impersonate the real daughter.

And I was utterly exhausted from the endless interrogations that followed every single day.

‘I was dying of boredom.’

But today would be different.

Without bothering to hide my bag anymore, I held it in my hand and left the room.

My steps were light as I walked down the stairs. My mind was filled with anticipation for what was about to happen.

When I reached the drawing room on the first floor, as expected, everyone was glaring at me.

“So even more evidence has surfaced this time! Are you still going to deny it?”

The moment I sat down, Duke Adelheit slammed a letter onto the table.

I opened it and read carefully.

It claimed that the nanny had swapped the Duke’s real daughter with her own child, and that I—her daughter—had conspired with her to deceive the family all this time.

It even detailed how the switch happened on the day the real daughter was born and how everything had been manipulated to keep it hidden.

“Well, I told you—I don’t know anything about this.”

“With evidence like this, how can you still be so shameless!”

But what kind of idiot would leave such sloppy “evidence” lying around?

It was absurd.

At my response, Duke Adelheit glared at me fiercely.

Judging by their expressions, I must have looked like the most brazen person in the world.

“You truly have no shame or conscience to the very end.”

“Yes, it seems you’ve judged correctly.”

“Ha…!”

Now that even denying it felt like a chore, I replied lazily. Everyone stared at me in disbelief.

“You committed such a despicable act with that woman, and now that the truth is revealed, you claim ignorance?!”

My attitude only fueled his anger. Veins bulging, he lashed out at me.

The young woman beside him intervened.

“Please stop, Father. Edit already understands…”

She was Elisa—once my maid, now the “real daughter” of the Adelheit family.

The only thing we shared was silver hair.

Nothing else about us was alike, but the golden divine power unique to the Adelheit family clearly proved she was the Duke’s true daughter.

‘Well, that’s probably fabricated too.’

And that wasn’t all.

To firmly establish her position, they had no hesitation in forging even this kind of story to paint me as a complete fraud.

‘You’ve really made it big.’

I almost wanted to applaud her and congratulate her.

“Elisa, do not even speak her name. That woman will take nothing from this house.”

With an elegant tone, the Duchess glared at me coldly.

“Not even her name.”

I kept my mouth shut.

What was there left to say to people who were so firmly convinced that the nanny had swapped me with Elisa?

Perhaps thinking my silence meant I was cornered, Caleb curled his lips into a smirk.

“Don’t think we kept you here out of affection.”

His gaze toward me was like one reserved for an insect.

It was hard to believe we had once lived as siblings.

‘We were never close to begin with.’

I didn’t feel hurt.

He walked up and shoved my shoulder.

“We just didn’t know who a dog without a leash might bite.”

The Duke snorted at his words.

“Caleb, there’s no point in speaking with a fraud. It only dirties our mouths.”

That was my line.

Suppressing a sigh, I looked at him as if he were pathetic.

‘Your family is going to collapse anyway because of Elisa’s business ventures.’

Starting with the family’s Lohart Coffee House, Elisa would gradually expand her business—eventually embezzling more than half of the family’s wealth.

‘That was her plan from the start.’

Perhaps sensing my disdain, the Duke’s face flushed red.

“Edit! You are no longer a member of the Adelheit family. Get out at once!”

‘Finally!’

The words I had been waiting for.

I cheered inwardly and answered:

“Yes!”

My immediate acceptance shocked them all.

Leaving behind the Duke shouting angrily, the Duchess scoffing, and Caleb yelling, “Hey! Are you insane?!”

I placed down the document severing my family registry and walked out of the mansion with light steps, bag in hand.

Fresh air filled my lungs.

“Ah… that feels refreshing.”

Now, all I had to do was wait.

For the day that trashy ducal family would collapse.

For now, I’d comfort myself with money.

* * *

This happened about 11 years ago.

The worst nightmare of my life.

“Stella… won’t make it past a few years?”

It was the winter when my fraternal twin sister Stella and I turned nine.

When Stella, bedridden with a severe cold, showed no signs of improvement, Mother summoned a high priest she was acquainted with.

His diagnosis was:

‘Divine Power Overload.’

The only treatment was for a sibling to act as a vessel and absorb the excess divine power.

But the condition was:

‘A sibling of the same gender who possesses divine power.’

The problem?

The Pope had determined that I had no divine power at all.

Not even a trace.

‘In reality, it wasn’t that I had none—it was just sealed.’

But at the time, I didn’t know that.

Neither did the Adelheit family.

They could only trust the judgment of the Pope, the highest authority of the Holy Empire.

“…I regret to say this, but you should prepare yourselves.”

At this devastating news, the already frail Duchess collapsed.

From that day on, the entire family grew increasingly tense.

‘What was I doing back then?’

Probably hiding quietly in my room.

Because Stella’s illness was something that could have been easily cured—if only I had divine power.

No one openly blamed me.

But every glance they gave me carried quiet accusation.

Meanwhile, Stella was endlessly kind.

“Stella, are you feeling better?”

“Yeah, I feel great.”

She clearly didn’t look well at all.

But she smiled just to reassure me.

‘My kind, gentle sister…’

Her brilliant golden eyes curved warmly as she looked at me.

I wished desperately for that smile to last forever.

But it didn’t.

On a cold winter day when she was thirteen, she failed to overcome her illness and became a star in the night sky—just like her name.

“Make sure you’re happy, Edit.”

Leaving behind words far too warm for a child, she ended her short life.

The day Stella died, I was slapped for the first time.

—Smack!

“It’s because of you! She died because of you!”

The quiet blame turned into blatant hatred in an instant.

After that, it only got worse.

The Duke began calling me a useless insect.

To him, usefulness meant divine power.

The Adelheit family had long prospered by producing saints.

Now Stella—the only one with divine power—was gone.

Which meant:

‘A decline in power.’

For different reasons, everyone in the family blamed me.

“She should have lived instead of you!”

As if they had forgotten I was also their daughter.

As if I wasn’t Stella’s twin sister.

As the hatred grew more vivid and direct, I became more and more isolated in my room.

Two years passed.

‘How long do I have to live like this?’

The suffocating despair.

I thought it would end someday.

But it didn’t.

And when I began to lose hope entirely—

A single thought filled my mind.

‘Should I just die?’

There was no hope.

It all felt like a misfortune caused by my very existence.

So I decided.

On my 15th birthday, at dawn.

I had a dream.

In it, I was someone else—a woman with black hair and black eyes.

And I realized:

‘This is my past life.’

It was too vivid to dismiss as just a dream.

That woman’s life was harsh, but unlike me, she wasn’t helpless.

She was full of energy.

Nothing like my pathetic self.

Then the scene changed.

She had succeeded in the clothing business and was enjoying a rare moment of leisure, reading a novel.

‘That…’

A strong instinct told me:

That novel held something important.

The moment I read it—

I opened my eyes.

All the memories of my past life came flooding back.

‘Stella… the Adelheit family… and Edit!’

And then I realized:

<I Will Disappear, Now That the Fake Is Gone>

I had been reincarnated as the heroine of that cursed regret novel.