“What nonsense are you talking about?”
Without a moment’s hesitation, I denied Levi’s words.
I jumped off the roof?
Impossible. In the first place, I had been unable to even move my body because of Petrification Syndrome.
“Hughes! Bring Hughes! My finger’s broken! Right now!”
But Levi ignored everything I said and went on ranting, shouting for someone.
In an instant, the mansion became chaotic.
The servants pretended not to look, but their eyes were fixed on the commotion.
Through the bustle, a short and plump man hurried in.
“Young Master! I heard you injured your hand?”
“That’s right! She dared to break my bone!”
“Excuse me for a moment.”
While Levi received treatment from the man—who appeared to be a physician—I quickly scanned my surroundings.
My eyes met those of a maid downstairs who had been pointing at me earlier. I didn’t recognize her face.
I turned my gaze elsewhere. A servant carrying luggage clicked his tongue at me.
Of course, I didn’t know him either.
I examined every servant within sight, but there was not a single familiar face among them.
In House Valentis, servants almost never changed, and their average tenure was long.
There was no way I wouldn’t recognize this many people if they truly were our staff.
‘Could it be that the time I was unconscious was far longer than I thought, and that something significant happened to the family during that time?’
I stared through the open doorway at the calendar, as if trying to bore a hole through it.
The black numbers printed on the date were large and clear, impossible to mistake.
<Daris Empire Calendar, Year 489, 23rd of the 3rd Month>
It was only ten days after my birthday this year—the day I thought I had died.
I narrowed my eyes.
Could the mansion’s staff really have changed this much in just ten days?
A vague premonition that something was wrong flitted through my mind.
“Fortunately, it’s not a fracture, only a strained muscle. You should recover shortly.”
“What? I got hurt and you call that fortunate?”
“That’s not what I meant…!”
Levi was nitpicking absurdly at the physician, but I had no room to care.
I needed to see my parents right away and find out what was happening here.
I was just about to steady myself to leave the corridor when—
“What’s with the commotion?”
With the clicking of high heels, someone approached from the opposite side. I reflexively turned my head.
“Levi, can’t you stop already? At this rate, the physician will quit again.”
“Mind your own business, Laila. If that happens, we can just bring in another one.”
“…Forget it. Talking to you is pointless.”
I was struck speechless, staring at the pretty girl in a sky-blue dress.
Scolding Levi with a look of disdain was my cousin, Laila Valentis.
Something was wrong—my earlier premonition now hardened into certainty.
Otherwise, how could she already be back in the Capital, when she had supposedly gone abroad for study earlier this year?
“Father will be here soon, so you’d better wrap this up. And—oh my, you?”
As she lowered her head slightly, her eyes happened to meet mine.
The moment she spotted me, she looked down with the clear gaze of someone addressing an inferior.
“Was it ten days ago you tried to throw yourself off a roof…? They said you were comatose, but I guess you woke sooner than expected. Since you’re awake, go get to work.”
I had never thrown myself off a roof.
It was she I wanted to question: when had she returned to the Empire, and why were she and her brother acting like Masters of our mansion?
But the first question that burst from my lips was entirely different.
“Laila, why are you wearing my Mom’s earrings?”
I stared fixedly at the blue rose earrings gleaming through her light brown hair.
Carved from blue coral, the rose earrings had been a gift from a renowned jeweler of the Capital to my mother, and were among her most cherished jewels.
Even when I begged to have them, she had firmly promised only to pass them down to me twenty years later.
“Head maid, what’s wrong with her?”
But instead of answering me, Laila spoke to the middle-aged woman walking behind her.
Naturally, my eyes turned toward the figure at her back.
‘Marilyn?’
I was completely struck dumb at the sight of the woman holding her head high.
She was the maid who had been caught stealing from the family and long ago expelled from the mansion.
And yet here was Laila, calling her not a mere servant, but the head maid.
“I’m not sure either. I hadn’t even heard the news that this girl had awakened…”
“I know. She’s out of her mind right now. She fell and hit her head.”
No sooner had Marilyn finished speaking than Levi butted in boastfully.
They were all talking about me, but to me—the very subject—their words made no sense at all.
At this point, there was no reason to remain in the corridor. I moved to leave.
But Levi seized my wrist roughly, forcing me to stop in my tracks.
“What kind of insolence is this? Can’t you see I’m talking right now?”
“Then stop blocking me and let go. I’m going to see my parents.”
It was something I said just to shake Levi off.
But the three of them widened their eyes all at once, as if they had just heard something outrageous.
“Did she just… say parents?”
That lasted only a moment, before Laila started laughing, and the others followed.
Levi even pointed at me, doubling over and choking with laughter as if he might run out of breath.
It was deeply insulting and unpleasant.
I glared at them in silence, my eyes cold.
But the three of them ignored my reaction, laughing on as though it was the funniest thing in the world.
“Oh no, I think she really did hit her head like you said. Hughes!”
“Yes, Lady Laila.”
“As a physician, what’s your opinion of this situation?”
“My guess would be a mental disorder or memory loss caused by external trauma. Considering how little external injury there was compared to the height of the fall, it seems the shock must have gone inward instead…”
The physician’s calm voice carried with it a faint trace of pity.
But contrary to his diagnosis, my memory and mental state were completely normal.
Yet Laila, as if she understood everything from that explanation, placed her hand on my shoulder.
“I see. Then for poor you, I’ll kindly explain everything, bit by bit.”
“What exactly?”
“Nelia.”
Laila’s face drew close, until she was right before me. Speaking in a haughty tone, as though passing judgment on a criminal, she said:
“Your parents died eight years ago.”
“What nonsense are you spouting?”
Her absurd claim was enough to make me worry for her sanity.
But she went on speaking with a serious expression.
“Uncle Carter passed away, and the one who succeeded him as Count Valentis was my father.”
“What…?”
“I believe that my father only belatedly reclaimed the position that should have been his from the start. The same goes for Levi and me.”
She added that the title should have belonged to her father, the elder son, from the very beginning.
“And one more thing, I’m afraid. Your late mother, Aunt Rose—she committed adultery with a commoner man during her life. You probably didn’t know, did you?”
“…”
“The fact that you’re her illegitimate child came to light afterward. In other words, you’re not Uncle Carter’s real daughter.”
Things went from bad to worse.
I had nothing to say in response to Laila’s claims.
So my parents had supposedly died eight years ago, the current Head of the House was her father, and I was the child of my mother’s affair?
There was a limit to nonsense—at least enough that a person could play along.
“No wonder you never resembled Uncle Carter at all. Poor man. To think he raised a commoner’s child as his own daughter for nine years.”
“Laila, that’s enough. Your joke has gone too far.”
If this was supposed to be teasing, it was excessively malicious.
Even though Levi’s grip on my wrist kept me stuck in the corridor, I no longer felt there was any value in dealing with them further.
Thinking I had wasted my time with them, I broke free and ran down the corridor.
Behind me, I heard Laila’s voice say, “Just leave her alone.”
‘And if you don’t leave me alone, then what?’
Grumbling inwardly, I didn’t stop my steps, and as I turned a corner, I passed by a large mirror.
It was then that the sense of wrongness struck me again, making me stop and turn my head.
Yes, there had always been an old but well-kept full-length mirror there.
But—
“Who are you?”
A ragged maid stood in the mirror.
On closer look, it was me.
After all, in the Capital, only two people had pink eyes: me and my mother, Rose Valentis.
Yet for a moment, I hadn’t even recognized myself. The girl in front of me looked so filthy and shabby.
The long golden hair that had always rippled like sunlight was now tangled wildly, a disheveled mess.
On top of that, her face was smeared with soot, leaving no trace of the beauty once praised as the Empire’s greatest.
Even during the long time I had been bedridden with illness, the maids had helped me remain clean.
So why was I in such a state? Denying the image in the mirror, I stumbled back.
The incomprehensible events simply wouldn’t end. So I ran through the corridor with all my strength.
‘I have to see Mother, quickly.’
The sound of my footsteps was so loud it felt like the floor might collapse, but I didn’t stop running.
It didn’t take long to reach my mother’s room. Without even wasting time to knock, I flung the door open without her permission.
“Mother!”
“Madam, you’re back ea—wait, you’re not the Madam, you’re Nelia?”
Inside, I met the eyes of a maid who had been tidying the bedding.
“How dare a lowly maid barge into the Madam’s room without permission?!”
The maid I didn’t know pointed and raised her voice at me, but I ignored her and looked around inside.
My mother, true to her name Rose, loved roses so much that she always kept her room adorned with them throughout all four seasons.
But now, the only flower in the room was a single tulip placed on the table beside the bed.
“There’s no scent of roses…”
I muttered in a hollow voice. This wasn’t my mother’s room.
“What are you doing without apologizing? Until you repent, you won’t be given any meals!”
The maid shouted, but I ignored her and hurried away in a daze.
The next place I headed for was Father’s office.
The office door was locked, but I kept turning the handle while knocking with my other hand.
“Father, it’s me, Nelia.”
I kept knocking, calling for him. But there was no response from inside, as if the room had been empty all along.
“Did both of them go out? With Rui as well?”
That was what I was thinking when, turning back absentmindedly, I spotted something unnatural in the mansion once again.
“Huh?”
Along the corridor where my father’s office was located, the portraits of the Heads of House Valentis were displayed in order.
But now there was one more portrait than I remembered.
“Why…?”
To confirm more clearly, I walked up to the painting.
And then I blinked in disbelief.
Next to my father’s portrait hung my uncle’s.
Ten days.
It had only been ten days since I lost consciousness.
And in that short span, the Head of the House had changed to my uncle?
Whether I believed it or not, such a thing wasn’t even institutionally possible.
As I stood there staring at my uncle’s portrait with bewildered eyes, Laila suddenly appeared beside me, waving her fan.
“Did you see everything? Do you get a sense now of what your situation is?”
I stood motionless as though I hadn’t heard her, but Laila kept talking, undeterred.
“You know what kind of treatment an illegitimate child receives in the Empire, don’t you? Out of generosity, we took you in as a maid when you became an orphan.”
I turned my head silently and met her face.
“So you’d better always carry gratitude in your heart and conduct yourself properly. The excuse of having hit your head only covers you this far.”
“…”
“If you overstep again after this, I won’t let it slide.”
Her face was filled with contempt and scorn as she looked down at me.
***
Of course, I couldn’t meekly accept her words, and I raged, insisting on finding my parents.
But in the end, the servants seized me and forced me to kneel before Laila.
“I’m not a maid, and I am certainly not a bastard! How many times must I say it?”
“You’d better realize your place quickly. Unless you want to be thrown out like a beggar.”
After that, I was dragged away by the scruff of my neck by the servants.
When I came to my senses, I was back in the shabby annex room where I had first awakened.
Sitting on the hard bed, I blinked with a vacant expression.
“It seems certain that I didn’t die, at least.”
But even after searching the mansion thoroughly, I couldn’t find the slightest trace of my parents or Ruik.
“Fine. Let’s assume, even if I can’t believe it at all, that this is reality.”
Suddenly, one possibility flashed through my mind.
Perhaps this wasn’t the world I had lived in, but a place where another version of me existed.
“Isn’t this the kind of thing novels call a parallel world…?”
The ‘me’ I knew had grown up cherished by her parents as a noble daughter, but in this parallel world, I hadn’t.
Here, I had lost my parents at a young age, was branded an illegitimate child, and reduced to the status of a commoner maid.
And right now, I had become that Nelia.
“This must all be… just a dream, right?”
I muttered absurdly and slapped my cheek hard enough to make a loud smack.
“…It hurts.”
A burning pain spread across my cheek, proving all too clearly that this wasn’t a dream.
