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Chapter 06
‘Where is this?’
I looked around.
A tiny window sat high above me, far beyond my height.
‘Ah, my laboratory.’
I pushed myself upright.
My feet touched the dusty wooden floorboards.
Checking the clock, I saw it was just before noon.
“…I’m thirsty.”
I turned my gaze toward one corner of the desk.
On a chipped tray sat some dry bread and a half-cold cup of coffee—for once.
“My goodness.”
Muttering under my breath, I quickly grabbed the bread and took a huge bite.
I drained the coffee in one gulp as well. It carried a faint acidity.
Only after my thirst eased did the other things on the desk come into focus.
The desk was a mess of medicine bottles, old books, and half-scribbled parchments.
Among them were several magic formulas I had been developing recently.
As I scanned them, my eyes suddenly froze.
In the upper-right corner of one formula—
there was a tiny note written in handwriting that wasn’t mine.
Sis, this is nice. Hiana’s taking this one. Thanks!
A bitter taste filled my mouth.
My trembling hand reached for the parchment.
Then—
THUD!
My heart suddenly slammed against my ribs.
I froze where I stood and blinked.
THUD!
At the same time, something surged up from deep in my throat.
“Mmgh—!”
I hurriedly covered my mouth.
But I couldn’t stop the liquid spilling through my fingers.
Slowly bending over, I pulled my hand away from my lips.
My palm was drenched in bright red blood.
“…What?”
Only then did the ominous sensation spreading through my body become clear.
Pain.
It was unmistakably pain.
“…Ha—ugh!”
As I tried to steady myself against the desk, I stumbled backward and crashed to the floor.
Several flasks fell and shattered into pieces.
“Urk—ugh…!”
Even then, the blood rising up my throat wouldn’t stop.
Struggling to hold onto my fading consciousness, I stared blankly at the coffee cup I had just emptied.
“…Poison?”
Perhaps because I had studied pharmacology so intensely, I recognized the symptoms immediately.
‘This is poison.’
More specifically, the deadly poison extracted from the Midia cactus.
The moment it’s ingested, it causes violent coughing of blood like this, followed by excruciating pain from within.
A few minutes later, the victim loses consciousness.
And after that—
“I’m going to die?”
I stared helplessly at the blood soaking my clothes.
An indescribable emotion washed over me.
‘Who…? Who would go this far?’
My lips trembled. My breathing grew ragged.
Everyone in the Longton estate hated me, so I had considered the possibility that someone might someday try to harm me.
But I never imagined it would happen like this.
Never this suddenly.
“Ha… haha…”
My body slowly tilted backward.
What a ridiculous end.
And yet, somehow, an ending that suited me perfectly.
My head hit the floor with a dull thud.
My hands and feet grew cold.
My thoughts dulled as though my body were sinking into deep water.
The ringing in my ears vanished, replaced by complete silence.
And just as even my vision faded to white—
someone violently threw open the door.
Though I could no longer see or hear, the vibration traveled through the floor into my back.
‘Someone’s coming.’
With sight and sound gone, my sense of touch sharpened unnaturally.
Someone was rushing toward me.
Fast.
Heavy footsteps.
Soon, warm hands grabbed my shoulders, arms, and back.
The hands gripped me tightly before shaking me roughly.
Even with my hearing gone, I could sense a desperate shout breaking apart against my dead ears.
“…Ria…! …No… you can’t!!”
And then—
everything ended.
“Gasp—!!”
I jolted upright and blinked blankly.
The room around me was decorated with luxurious furniture.
The polished wooden floor gleamed from careful maintenance, and a fur carpet spread across it.
“Looks like you had a nightmare.”
Across from me—
sat Sharon Abner, legs crossed in an armchair on top of the carpet.
“What kind of dream makes you toss and mumble so noisily?”
Breathing heavily, I covered my mouth with one hand.
‘It was a dream. Right… it was all a dream.’
Beside me, Wendel held out a glass of water.
But I couldn’t bring myself to accept it so easily.
Looking outside the window, I saw it was already late at night.
I was in an unfamiliar place.
Together with Sharon Abner.
As I finally grasped the situation, a frightened voice escaped me.
“I-Is it now…?”
One of Sharon Abner’s brows lifted slightly.
Wendel also looked down at me with confusion.
Stammering, I continued.
“T-that letter… at the orphanage… you didn’t ask anything….”
A few days ago, I had written a letter to Sharon Abner.
In it, I asked her to take me away, promising that I would become useful to the Abner family.
And Sharon Abner had accepted my request.
The proof was that I was here now, not in the Longton estate.
But there was still one unresolved issue between us.
“D-Duke.”
The moment I addressed Sharon Abner, her expression stiffened slightly.
I swallowed nervously.
From here on, I had to stay calm and composed.
“You… probably have a lot of questions for me. I-I know that.”
Sharon Abner frowned.
Still, she clasped her hands together and replied,
“Indeed.”
Then she leaned her slender upper body toward me.
“It would be stranger if I had none.”
As if expecting that answer, I nodded.
After taking a deep breath, I answered,
“But Ria already said beforehand.”
Wendel glanced at me once again.
I pointed toward the crumpled parchment in Sharon Abner’s hand.
The letter I had written.
If you promise not to ask me anything, I’ll become a great asset to House Abner.
At first, I struggled over what to write.
I already knew how to send the letter.
The problem was deciding what to say.
The biggest issue was that I was currently four years old.
There were severe limits to what a four-year-old child could say to the ruler of a territory.
But somehow, I absolutely had to make Sharon Abner come to Evehill Orphanage.
What should I write?
What words would interest Sharon Abner enough to make her come save me?
No matter how hard I thought, no good ideas came to mind.
So I reached a conclusion.
‘First of all, don’t lie.’
If I fabricated things recklessly, it would only come back to bite me later.
Worse, I could end up being mistaken for a spy planted by the Longtons.
‘Then there’s only one answer left.’
Become a child who willingly carries secrets.
It would be better than spinning elaborate lies.
I figured it would be easier if I simply drew a clean line from the beginning and said, “Don’t ask questions.”
“What exactly do you take me for?”
Sharon Abner’s rigid voice cut through the air.
“The Evehill Youth Research Society building. The fabric shop at the end of Alley Two. Even the fruit store.”
Her voice was low and icy.
“Every single place you mentioned in that letter was a contact point used by Longton spies. Even the worker at the fruit shop was directly dispatched by their upper ranks.”
“……”
“And the person who provided all this information is a four-year-old child from a rural orphanage. How could I not have questions?”
Cold sweat seeped from beneath my tightly clenched fists.
“B-but….”
The reason I remembered all this information was simple.
In my previous life, there had been one occasion when I crossed the territorial border and returned to the Evehill region.
At the time, I had accidentally discovered that a large number of Longton spies were stationed nearby.
‘Back then, I didn’t think much of it.’
But at this point in time, all that information was extremely valuable.
Especially to Sharon Abner, who stood in direct opposition to Lambert Longton.
‘And there was no better way to earn her trust in a short amount of time.’
Sharon Abner was a woman with overwhelming ambition.
She wanted to raise House Abner to the very pinnacle of the Empire.
To do that, she first had to crush her rival—the Longton family.
With a voice trembling like a frightened lamb, I spoke.
“B-but… a promise is a promise.”
Then, looking at Sharon Abner, who gave no reply, I forced myself to continue.
“I-if you throw me out, it’ll be bad for you too. I-I’m really smart. Everyone says I’m talented. Really.”
