TCSMETMEB 01

Chapter 1

< Celebrity Mary Blind’s Return! But…? >

[ Earlier this year, Mary Blinn disappeared.
And not long after, through a tip-off from a maid, it was revealed that she had broken up with her lover, Lancel Arbiente.
However, on the 5th of last month, Lady Mary returned to the capital holding a baby.
An unwed pregnancy for the daughter of a celebrity count’s family. Society is in an uproar.
According to the Count’s family’s statement, the child is Lady Mary’s illegitimate child.
They will not reveal the biological father, and have requested that people refrain from speculating about him.
But what the public is most curious about is something else.
Just how far will the reputation of the colonel, who left the woman he broke up with to give birth alone, fall?
With Lady Mary bringing back an illegitimate child, Colonel Lancel Arbiente of the naval base is receiving a lot of attention.
However, Colonel Lancel, who left the capital around the same time as Lady Mary, has not yet returned, so his exact position is unknown.
Some speculate that Lady Mary broke up with the colonel to protect the child in her womb.
Lancel Arbiente. Are they saying he’s a cold-blooded man who cast aside his own child because he has a trace of humble blood mixed in?
Contrary to his public image, rumors that he is called a demonic officer in the demon world for brutally killing sea demons are gaining credibility.
Also, after the Count’s family’s statement was released, the novel He’s Not Our Child is said to have achieved tremendous sales, ranking first for several months.
(Interview with the author of said work omitted…)
Meanwhile, Lady Mary’s twin sister, Marie, and her husband were victims of the Eagle serial murders that occurred on the 4th.

• The Unbelievable Times, Reporter Allen. ]

“……”

Is she insane?

The article, which had suddenly made me a tragic heroine and my ex-boyfriend a world-class scumbag, was absurd.

‘And that child is actually….’

My nephew.

I swallowed the truth I couldn’t bring myself to reveal.

So, this is how things turned out….

People often say that a breakup comes when the weight of a single sheet of paper is placed on top of a long-accumulated patience.

I found a letter I thought I had thrown away and froze.

[ Fine, let’s break up. ]

For a moment, my mind went cold at the words I was seeing again after a month.

But then, the maid Martha, who had run over from somewhere, quickly snatched the letter away.

“I-I’ll burn it right now!”

Then she tore it to shreds and scattered them into the fireplace.

I didn’t feel much emotion even as the last letter I received from my ex-boyfriend burned.

‘How did it come to this?’

First, I should talk about myself.

Mary Blinn. Owner of a famous boutique, and a celebrity whose private life was splashed across the headlines every day. That was me.

‘It started when I opened the boutique to save my family, which had been ruined by fraud.’

Piazza Lux, the boutique I succeeded with using my memories of my previous life—modern times—which I’d been aware of since I was six.

‘Of course, the decisive reason for the success was probably my hard work.’

From the early days of the business, even after its success, I lived busily without a single holiday.

And I thought that as a reward for living so diligently, I’d gained a handsome lover, but….

“We’ve already been here for a year, haven’t we?”

Martha, who had brought lemon tea, sat across from me.

“Indeed.”

I sipped my tea and looked around the small room.

Why was that celebrity living in such a shabby villa?

To explain the circumstances, I have to go back a year.

Lancel Idiz Arbiente.

An officer leading the West port Line, a symbol of the maritime power, and heir to a duke. He was my lover.

‘We dated for about two years, I think.’

At some point, I noticed that Lancel no longer loved me.

There was no affection in his eyes, and there were certain events that confirmed it for me.

For example, the last conversation Lancel and I had was….

“You’re just too much for me.”
“……”
“Because of you, I’m struggling.”

The moment I heard that, I shot up from my seat.

‘I intended to calm my mind and then meet him again…’

By the time I came to my senses, the Demon Realm had declared war, and Lancel had urgently set sail.

Hearing that news, I did something impulsive.

I thought I’d use this chance to organize my thoughts in a quiet place too.

‘At first, I just planned to cool my head.’

The place I arrived at, Langhilden, was a small village with a villa owned by my aunt.

And here….

‘We broke up before we could even reunite.’

With just two letters I received here.

‘Although I was the one who said let’s break up first.’

Lancel must have been waiting for it too.

Because this breakup had been set in stone for a long time.

I stopped reminiscing there and squeezed my eyes shut to shake it off.

“Oh dear, Miss…”

To Martha, it must have looked like I was holding back tears.

“You still haven’t gotten over the pain of your broken heart… The swelling in your eyes never seems to go down.”

“It’s just swollen from sleeping all day.”

Of course, I cried a lot at first.

It wasn’t because I had lingering feelings. If a reply like ‘You can never escape me’ had come, I would have been disgusted.

It was just that the first love I’d ever had in both my previous and current life not being particularly beautiful made me feel miserable.

And now….

“Well, it’s true I still feel bad. I’m just furious thinking about all my precious time wasted on some weird guy.”

“Wasting time here is even worse!”

Martha jumped up.

You scared me.

“You’re always just in your room, and you don’t eat properly!”

“What’s with you all of a sudden?”

“Because I’m so upset about it. It’s been a whole year, a year!”

Martha thumped her chest as if frustrated.

“How about raising something as a change of pace? I hear raising pet rocks is trendy in the capital these days.”

“People raise the strangest things.”

“Or take a walk, or go see a play!”

“Martha, do you think I’m some kind of grandma?”

When I asked, exasperated, Martha pouted.

“I can’t help but worry.”

“What worry? Just eating and sleeping here, if anything, I’ve gotten healthier.”

It was Martha making a fuss. I really hadn’t been living listlessly.

While here, I made crochet dolls that looked like us with Martha. (Martha made me a hamster doll that looked like it had a bad personality.)

I also tried making that coffee you have to stir a thousand times, which was trendy in the capital.

Then I ended up learning to cook, and Martha complimented me, saying, “Compared to someone who thought ’20 minutes on low heat and 5 minutes on high heat’ were the same thing, you’ve made tremendous progress.”

Martha hadn’t forgotten that either, and asked with a slightly dubious expression.

“…Really?”

“Uh, perfectly healthy. I’m so healthy, I’m considering enlisting in the Oberon Navy.”

“Chee…”

When I muddied the point with silly talk, Martha’s momentum subsided a bit.

Not missing the opportunity, I stood Martha up.

“I was thinking of returning to the capital soon anyway. Stop worrying and go to bed quickly.”

Then Martha, who had been opening and closing her mouth, reluctantly stepped towards the door.

“You’ll really go back, right? I’ll start packing your things little by little, okay?”

Sending me such a suspicious glare, she quietly closed the door.

I sighed and lay down on the bed.

‘Now that it’s come up, I really should go back.’

Since breaking up with Lancel, there was nothing left to organize or think about.

I rubbed my tired eyes, then suddenly bit my lip.

‘I really just want to hit him once. Hard enough to kill.’

Then, as if the pillow were Lancel, I started pounding it, thump, thump.

‘I’m going to live alone for the rest of my life, so you can go date the ocean or whatever. Do as you please.’

Really, for the last time, I poured out all my remaining feelings and fell asleep.

And what roused my sleep-heavy body was…

…Bang!

A loud noise from downstairs.

Startled, I sat up.

‘What on earth…’

A chilly dawn.

Through the window, the rain poured down fiercely, swoosh-

Bang, bang, bang!

The sound of knocking on the door continued.

I found my slippers and went down the stairs.

At first, I planned to just check who it was and send them away, but….

The moment I reached the first floor.

Bang, Crash!

“……”

Facing the door shaking precariously, my body froze.

‘I don’t think it’s safe to open it.’

Instead of opening the door, I cautiously brought my eye to the peephole.

The person in front of the door was….

‘…Sister?’

It was none other than my twin sister, Marie.

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