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Chapter 2
We never even kissed at our wedding, so I was surprised, thinking maybe we would kiss before the divorce.
But Noah just tilted his head a bit. He didn’t kiss me.
He always showed perfect patience.
Like a pure priest who tried to live clean, even though he didn’t believe in God.
After he became an adult, he always wore black gloves when he touched my cheek.
It was as if touching his wife was a sin.
“I can’t give you a goodbye kiss. Now, I’m your ex-husband.”
Noah said lazily, then stepped on the leather case lying in the street.
Crunch.
The leather case, crushed under his black boots, looked just like my fate.
That was my last memory. I divorced Noah Lenister.
After the divorce, I thought everything was finally over.
But…
The naïve one wasn’t Noah—it was me.
A heavy silence was broken by the merchant’s carriage arriving.
By chance, it stopped right in front of my ex-husband, Noah.
‘Why, of all places…!’
With shaking hands, I picked up my luggage and sat inside the carriage.
“Please leave right away.”
Before the driver could close the door, Noah quickly walked up to the carriage.
“Solia, I won’t be able to see you anymore, but…”
Standing in the pouring rain, Noah opened his mouth.
Even though it must have been hard to see, he kept staring at me.
He looked like a black panther who never lets go of its prey.
Right before the door closed, a twisted smile appeared on Noah’s lips.
The moment I saw that smile, I held my breath.
I had a feeling Noah, who agreed to the divorce so easily, would never really let me go.
Bang!
Noah suddenly pulled open the door, bent down, and whispered in my ear.
“I forgot… you like playing hide and seek.”
Rattle.
I leaned back on the hard seat and closed my eyes.
It was over now. I was divorced from Noah Lenister.
I was worried he might be hurt, but I could never go back.
‘I should have been even colder, so he wouldn’t have any hope left…’
But that was the best I could do.
I just couldn’t be more cruel to a husband who was always afraid I’d leave.
I thought of Noah, left alone in that cold mansion after all the servants were gone.
My heart felt heavy.
I pressed my aching chest and looked out the window.
The carriage went fast, heading for the capital.
The poor estate got further and further away.
The old, gloomy Lenister mansion got smaller and smaller, like it had lost all its light.
Solia Rotten was the daughter of a poor sailor.
Her father, Rotten, worked as a low-rank sailor on a trade ship, doing any job to earn money.
Even after losing a leg falling from a mast, his dream to be rich didn’t stop.
He had a wife dying of a fever and a pretty daughter, Solia, who looked just like her mother.
But Rotten didn’t work hard for his wife or daughter.
“Filthy poverty!”
Rotten hated poverty as if it was a disease.
He blamed his own father for selling him to work on a ship, hated his sick wife who couldn’t work,
and saw Solia as just a burden.
He was almost never in a good mood and always made Solia do chores just to take out his anger.
Even if Solia finished her chores, he would say she must have had help, or scold her for something small.
He was angry that his hard-earned money had to be spent on his sick wife and young daughter.
But he never gave them enough to live on.
At least Rotten only came home once a year. Never twice.
He hated spending money on his family, but spent freely for fun.
The women at Leona Port’s bars rolled their eyes when they saw him coming.
Rotten would yell,
“I worked like a dog for this money, and I’ll spend it like a dog! How dare these cheap women judge me?”
Whenever he was thrown out of a bar, he came home and acted like a tyrant.
Once a year, Solia had to take his anger for no reason.
Her sick mother couldn’t stop him.
Solia lived busily, taking care of her mother and watching her father’s mood.
She couldn’t act like a normal child or complain.
If there was nothing to eat, she had to find it herself.
She went to neighbors, begging for leftovers.
Even porridge meant for a neighbor’s dog was sometimes given to Solia.
If not, she had to go hungry all day, so she worked hard.
When she turned seven, she earned a little money pulling weeds at a small farm.
Solia grew up not even knowing she was suffering.
She never complained. Even as a child, she grew up too fast.
Since she was little, Solia rarely cried.
No matter how hard or painful things were, she never cried.
“She’s so tough.”
Even when people called her that, she would clench her teeth and keep her head high,
refusing to cry.
When taking care of her sick mother, she acted like an adult.
Even as a child, she was the head of the house.
‘Wake up! I have to protect Mom!’
If she cried like a child, her mother’s sickness would only get worse.
With chapped hands, she would slap her own cheek to wake herself up.
Even though she was hungry every day, Solia could eat a little on the country’s founding day.
On that day, a big full moon would rise.
Solia wished for her mother’s thin hand to get round and full like the moon.
Lying weakly, her mother stroked Solia’s hair and asked:
“What did you wish for, Solia?”
“I want Mom to get better! I hope you get well soon, so we can go to the market together and visit the Salt Lake!”
Solia smiled, holding her mother’s hand tight.
Her mother just smiled quietly, not saying her wish out loud.
She wished for something different than Solia.
That night, her mother’s wish came true.
Not wanting to be a burden, she left Solia alone and passed away.
“Tsk, poor thing. Her dad’s crazy about drinking and women. Her mom died of sickness. I heard she had an older brother, but he ran off to the capital, leaving her alone.”
Solia held the funeral alone.
Her guilt over not being able to care for her sick mother followed her even after the funeral.
She survived alone in the ruined house—
Until her father, who threw her away for his own fun, came back as Baron Rotten.
“From now on, you’re a baron’s daughter.”
Solia looked at her father, now wearing fancy clothes.
The man who only visited once a year now spoke and acted like a noble.
To become a noble, a commoner needed to give huge donations to the royal family or have connections.
One day, a duke named Benjo, close to the emperor, happened to be on his ship.
Rotten impressed him and learned how to run a business.
With the duke’s help, Rotten started an arboretum business and a merchant company.
He even got a baron’s title from the emperor.
Even after making a fortune, Baron Rotten ignored his daughter for years—
until he needed her for a political marriage.
“Tsk, if you were a son, I would’ve gotten you a knight’s title! But you’re just a useless daughter. If you marry a ruined but famous noble, our baron family will never be laughed at again.”
So, just like her father wanted, Solia became a baron’s daughter overnight.
Five years passed.
The baron’s business grew, and he got a small land and some mercenary knights.
Solia had to take strict etiquette lessons to be used for a political marriage.
If she didn’t want to get hit, she had to talk and smile like a real noble.
But one day, the obedient Solia changed.
Someone else’s memories came into her body.
By her sixth time being possessed, Yoo Chae-hwa’s memories, who had suffered a lot, returned.
She remembered only after marrying Count Lenister, so she was confused at first.
But after trying hard, Yoo Chae-hwa got used to living as Solia.
Yoo Chae-hwa and all six unwanted possessions became her memories.
Tired of being possessed, she made a new plan.
She would divorce her sick husband, make a lot of money in the food business, and become a landlord!
She didn’t know she would die in a carriage accident and start her seventh possession.
‘I don’t care anymore! I’ll just live recklessly.’
So, seventeen-year-old Solia changed like a different person.
Many deaths and possessions made her soul tougher, forged like a sword in fire.
Her thoughts, values, and the way she talked all changed—almost like she woke up inside.
Her father, Rotten, was actually happy with her change.
The stupid, timid daughter finally became useful.
“You’ve finally come to your senses! Stop hiding in your room and crying all day. It’s time you pay your father back.”
Solia smiled at her ambitious father.
“Dear father, I’ll marry for you.”
She held her dress lightly and whispered to herself:
‘Trust me, Father.’
Your precious family.
The gold and treasures hidden in the warehouse. The hard-won noble title.
‘I’ll waste it all, just like eating a big bowl of soup.’
“Please give me a chance, Father. I won’t disappoint you.”
Solia bowed her head slightly to Baron Rotten with an elegant smile—
But with her middle finger stretched out, not fitting for a noble.
