TCL 01

chapter 1

└[I’m getting off.]

What?

The calm voice, completely out of place for the situation, made me lift my head and look around.

‘Is this an auditory hallucination?’

What was I expecting? There couldn’t possibly be anyone else here besides me.

The place I was in was a prison for nobles.

But the absence of people wasn’t because it was a solitary cell…

“Ugh!”

One side of the ceiling collapsed with a cracking sound, and a wave of scorching heat hit me.

That’s right. This noble prison—the entire building was engulfed in flames.

Everyone else had long since escaped, leaving me unconscious and asleep.

‘Damn it. Was it him who spiked the water with a sedative too?’

My father.

To be precise, my stepfather with not a drop of blood in common, Count Torto’s face came to mind.

Even in my daze, his face was vivid enough to give me goosebumps.

No wonder—just a few minutes ago, I had seen him clearly standing in front of this noble prison.

• Father! Please help! The fire… cough, if you could just prop open the window…!

Relieved to see that it was my father outside the window, I called for help.

It was nighttime, but the fire consuming the building created enough light to clearly see his expression.

• Fath…er?

Count Torto’s face was exactly as I had always known it.

Yes. That was the problem.

Even seeing me trapped in the flames, he stood still with his usual indifferent expression.

The man I thought had come to save me had actually…

‘…come to see me die.’

Watching his back as he turned away without a second thought, I realized why I was meant to die.

I had helped him so much, hoping for his recognition.

That meant I knew too much about the family’s corruption.

He probably wanted to destroy the evidence, just like burning a few documents, fearing I might leak information outside.

‘To him, I was a tool to use and discard from the start, not a daughter.’

I didn’t cry.

I was just angry at how pathetic I had been, seeking affection from someone like him.

‘I won’t die quietly.’

If he’s so afraid of the corruption being exposed, I’ll leave the evidence myself.

Since sharp objects were prohibited to prevent self-harm, there were no pens or ink, so I tore open the pillowcase and bit a few of my fingers to draw blood.

‘Torto, slush fund, lock…’

I had to write like a code because there wasn’t much time, but if someone found it, they’d probably investigate. This was my last will.

I was racking my brain to include as much evidence of corruption as possible when—

└[I’ve seen Episode 1, but this is the first time I see someone leaving Episode 1 lol]
└[Leaving Episode 1 isn’t leaving, it’s just a teaser~]

The voice I heard earlier spoke again.

‘Am I going crazy because it’s almost my time?’

It didn’t feel like the voice was coming from someone nearby.

It was a monotonous sound that seemed to seep directly into my head, combining words I couldn’t quite understand.

No matter how I thought about it, I could only call it a hallucination, so I focused on what I was doing.

‘The secret ledger is in the garden fountain…’

└[This is the advance team who’ve seen the latest chapter. I thought it’d be familiar like kimchi stew, but it has a subtle tom yum soup vibe. Still, recommended if you like clichés.]

“This hallucination is annoyingly long!”

I stuffed pieces of cloth into a wooden cup and threw it out the window to prevent it from fluttering back into the fire.

Even while gasping for breath, the hallucination continued speaking in a corner of my mind.

It wasn’t loud enough to pull my attention entirely, so I tried to ignore it.

└[The beginning is close to a heroine growth story, and I liked how Rose managed everything well. There are a few male leads, but my stocks seem ruined…]

Then one word came through that I couldn’t ignore.

“Rose?”

Rose. My name.

Before the Count gave me the name Beletta.

To be called by my original name again… I, on the brink of death, snickered.

‘At least at the moment of death, I’m not Beletta Torto, I’m Rose.’

This was, in its way, a satisfying ending.

I let my body succumb to the approaching flames and closed my eyes.

Contrary to expectations of pain, I felt a strangely warm sense of rest.

Enveloped in flames, my consciousness awakened again—not in the burning reality, but in a memory from my very early childhood.

‘Is this a life review?’

The day a fire broke out at the orphanage where I lived.

My friends died, and I had to stay in the damaged, barely repaired building.

It was Count Torto who pulled me out of that terrible place.

• Am I… your daughter, Count?

• Yes. I’ve come to take you.

He had blonde hair and blue eyes, just like me.

Not just his appearance, but his age, region, and the circumstances of my arrival at the orphanage made me suitable as his illegitimate child.

In the new house I arrived at by a fancy carriage, I received the new name Beletta and lived dreamlike days as a noble girl.

But that dream didn’t last long.

A strand of orange hair began to appear—something impossible for the Count’s bloodline.

• What about the director of the orphanage who introduced me?

• Well… they’ve lost contact.

Suddenly an accomplice in an adoption scam, I had to live carefully from then on.

The only reason Count Torto didn’t immediately send me away was that he needed a daughter—a daughter he could use strategically.

‘If a real daughter doesn’t appear, I can stay here.’

I lived as a cautious “cuckoo child” for a few years.

• This is a ring my mother left me.

Then the Count’s real daughter appeared, betraying my hopes.

• How could this happen…

• Isn’t Miss Beletta a distant relative? They adopted her thinking Miss Reilly had passed.

• If Miss Beletta hadn’t been here, we could have found Miss Reilly sooner. Even heaven is indifferent.

That was when I began gathering useful rumors from women’s social gatherings.

The Count had no lady of the house, and Reilly wasn’t familiar with noble society, so it was a role only I could fulfill.

Thanks to that, the Count neither sent me to a collateral branch nor married me off at adulthood.

Eventually, someone appeared who truly understood me.

• Beletta, you’re the only one who truly understands me.

The second prince, shadowed by the crown prince, and I, like the shadow of Reilly, the Count’s real daughter.

We felt a kinship and quickly became good friends.

Our close relationship soon blurred the line to romance.

Later, the engagement ring sent by the second prince arrived at the Torto household.

• Oh my, Miss Beletta is really…-

The butler’s next words shattered everything.

• This is… for Miss Reilly.

After that, Reilly drank poisoned tea alone with the second prince.

Everyone thought her ex-lover—me—was holding a grudge. Somehow, I was accused, locked in a noble prison, and then… this ending.

‘What a mess.’

No need to dwell on my life in a life-review sense.

Perhaps my life was only truly happy until just before the orphanage fire.

└[Another regression… the reason feels familiar. I’m getting off.]
└[This commenter left another exit comment.]

‘What’s been going on with this voice?’

I frowned and opened my eyes.

‘…Huh?’

Why am I opening my eyes?

…Why am I alive?

└[I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.]

Contrary to the scenario my mind’s voice had depicted, it wasn’t an unfamiliar ceiling.

‘This is…’

The orphanage. The one I, Rose, had lived in as a child.

‘This room should have collapsed in the fire.’

As I wiggled my small body, I began to clearly perceive the situation as if waking from sleep.

Blue moonlight streamed through the window into the dim room. I was in a bed, and beside me, I could hear the colorful breathing of sleeping children.

And then, what reached my ears was—

└[Cheering you on]
└[Wishing you success]
└[Cheering you on]
└[Stop cheering already, guys]
└[I first saw it through a review event; the story is unique and fun. Recommended^^]
└[Wow~ Congratulations on your launch, author. Clap clap clap! Review event]
└[I’m not doing a review event]
└[Review event. Cheering you on.]

Countless cheers washed over me.