TCL 07

Chapter 7

“Mom kept wearing it around her neck. She never showed it to anyone, only to me. That day, Mom gave this to me.”

If she had handed it to me in the chaos before hiding Leon in the wardrobe, it had to be something extremely important.

Something recognizable to those in the know, perhaps even a token to find a particular person.

“Can I take a quick look?”

“Yeah.”

If Leon were a little older, he probably wouldn’t have handed over something so important so easily. But now, he seemed to trust me completely.

I stood up and held the pendant up to the moonlight streaming through the window.

‘No letters on it…’

If a name had been engraved, Leon would’ve known whom to look for. Instead, the pendant bore a design, not text.

‘Wait a minute…’

I feel like I’ve seen this before.

As Leon and I whispered to each other, the usually quiet “comment fairies” suddenly started stirring up a commotion.

└[No way, no way.]
└[Huh?? Are they really going with that plot?]

‘Is this it? The cliché the comment fairies were talking about?!’

I looked at Leon in surprise.

His gray eyes, revealed as his bangs shifted while looking up at me, bore a faint but unmistakable resemblance to someone I remembered.

‘This is crazy. He’s really from the duke’s bloodline.’

After returning the real Leon to his room, I went back to bed, but the shocking realization kept me awake.

The design engraved on Leon’s necklace.

It was the crest of the Clark Ducal family, one of the dukedoms in the Debelloa Empire.

‘Not just any family crest, but the one only the direct line can use!’

How did I know this? Before my reincarnation, Count Torto had worked tirelessly to form an alliance with Duke Clark.

Among the noble faction led by Count Torto, there were many newly risen nobles but few prominent families. So they tried their best to recruit Duke Clark.

‘Clark definitely wasn’t with the royalist faction… Neutral, I guess?’

He didn’t seem opposed to aligning with a faction, since he exchanged letters with Count Torto a few times.

I had seen the crest firsthand on confidential documents he brought to me personally, without sending them through his secretary.

Moreover, there was another reason he left a strong impression on me.

‘His name came up often in high society.’

Even long after inheriting the dukedom, Duke Clark remained unmarried and had no heirs. Naturally, young ladies couldn’t stop talking about him.

• “Does Duke Clark have no interest in marriage? I heard he even refused a meeting with the young lady of Marquis Nayett recently.”

• “Oh my. That young lady must have been heartbroken. She must have summoned up quite a lot of courage.”

Being one of the few dukes in the country, unmarried, the notion of “marriageable age” didn’t apply to him.

Though he had a sharp look, his dignified demeanor always drew the attention of young ladies.

• “If he’s so uninterested in women… maybe he already has a lover?”

• “Then there’d be no reason not to marry her.”

• “Just my guess, but about that necklace…”

The necklace.

Clark sometimes wore an oddly-colored, blotchy necklace that didn’t match his attire.

For someone who always had to have the finest and most expensive items, wearing a worn-out necklace naturally drew attention. Rumors about it spread.

• “If he treasures it so much, might it belong to someone important?”

It would be the relic of someone’s loved one—perhaps a lover who passed away before they could marry. The story gained weight the more people discussed it.

The idea of a devoted lover commemorating their lost love especially captivated young ladies.

‘Is this paired with that necklace?’

Unlike the one the duke wore, Leon’s necklace remained smooth and silver, unlikely to tarnish easily.

└[Wasn’t it singed by fire?]

…That thought had crossed my mind too.

A duke without a son. A blackened necklace. A future orphanage fire.

The scattered puzzle pieces were beginning to form a complete picture.

‘So Leon was caught in the fire too?!’

The burned necklace must have somehow ended up in Duke Clark’s hands.

Perhaps he cherished the necklace, continuing to remember his deceased lover and son.

└[Wow, you could make an entire romance-noble story from this father’s backstory.]

Even the comment fairies who used to call Count Torto a “count bastard” now addressed the duke as “Father” with respect.

Yes. The duke was that remarkable.

‘That duke’s son is right here!’

Clichés are terrifying.

How did the comment fairies know all of this?

└[Finally seeing the value of all that reading.]
└[See? People really should read a lot of books.]

Apparently, books in the fairy world hold an immense amount of knowledge.

Regardless, the orphanage fire incident, which I had only vaguely thought about as “later,” suddenly hit me.

‘A future that hasn’t happened yet…’

I had thought about this before.

If avoiding Count Torto was all that mattered, I could have returned to just before he came. But why did I come back to this exact moment?

If it wasn’t a randomly chosen time, but I returned here because there was something I had to do now…

‘Leon’s family issues, and the orphanage fire.’

Now, I could change everything.

And perhaps that’s the path I must take to live as “Rose.”

While my second life’s goals became clearer, they also grew more daunting.

‘…Isn’t this way too much responsibility for a five-year-old body?’

Of course, I’m not an ordinary five-year-old—I have memories of the future.

└[Don’t forget the comment fairies.]

…Even though there were strange voices beside me urging me on.

I worried whether my body, which had already burned once, could survive another fire.

I had no special powers like divine magic or anything.

└[Foreshadowing!]
└[Saint route activated?]
└[Are you seriously going on the true saint path?]
└[They just mixed clichés like making a salad.]

Another cliché? First a princess, then a duchess, now a saint.

‘I’ve only ever seen the saint once, from really far away, since she rarely left the temple.’

└[That was a fake saint.]

…How blasphemous.

They got Leon’s birth secret right, but the comment fairies still threw around nonsense.

I regained a bit of trust, but not entirely, so I decided to only believe half of what they said.

By that half-and-half logic… I chose to ignore this blasphemous remark.

In just one night, my worries had multiplied.

‘I can’t avoid adoption through death.’

The orphanage fire threatened more than just the other children.

Back then, I too had been close enough to the flames to singe the tips of my hair.

Moreover, if the orphanage burned down, the stingy, unemployed director would roam outside, dragging Count Torto along!

“Phew…”

I sighed heavily from the weight on my shoulders, when someone took my hand.

“Rose.”

Sharing secrets with a child is a very serious matter.

It’s no different than acknowledging someone as your ally.

Perhaps that’s why Leon, who I met this morning, treated me warmly, completely different from the cold demeanor yesterday when the wind was biting.

“Leon, did you sleep well? You didn’t have another bad dream, right?”

“Yeah. I’m fine. How about you, Rose?”

“Me? Well…”

I had dreamed of falling into a sea of flames, probably because Leon’s nightmare had crossed over to me.

Still, it was a relief that Leon, who always kept his mouth shut, could now have normal conversations.

“Hey! Boys sticking to girls first thing in the morning… If that’s the case, why don’t you just stay in the girls’ room?”

“…….”

“Ugh! So frustrating!”

Hmm. He speaks according to who he’s addressing.

Meanwhile, Jeff, ignored by Leon, stomped off. He never seems to realize that the more he talks to Leon, the more he’s ignored.

Leon seemed to only see me, as if Jeff didn’t exist.

“When I leave…”

“Huh?”

Yesterday, I promised to help Leon as much as I could.

Knowing that Leon had died here before my reincarnation, how could I pretend otherwise?

Leon seemed hopeful when he heard me say that.

“Then Rose will come with me?”

“Mm. I’m planning to leave someday too.”

“Then let’s go together. With me.”

└[Is this a proposal?]
└[After reincarnation, I became the daughter-in-law of a duke?]