Chapter 02
The climate of Bruggen Castle, located on the highlands, was very mild.
Roana refused even lunch and spent the entire day lazily lying in an armchair.
From time to time, maids came to the separate residence to organize her luggage. Once they finished their work, they immediately returned to the main mansion without staying longer.
She heard that the maids would travel back and forth between the main mansion and the separate residence, and that only one maid would stay here full-time to personally serve her.
That alone could already be considered poor treatment.
‘Well, I prefer having fewer people around anyway.’
Roana thought calmly.
Around evening, the one and only maid finally appeared.
“H-Hello, my lady.”
The maid assigned to assist Roana was a young and very skinny girl with red hair.
The girl held a tray with dinner on it using both hands and greeted her nervously.
“My name is Isabella. You can call me Iz.”
Iz placed the tray onto the table in front of Roana. Warm steam rose from the freshly baked bread.
“Thank you, Iz.”
Roana smiled as she picked up the bread.
But Iz’s expression did not look good. Her body kept trembling.
“Are you afraid of me? I suppose silver hair still feels unsettling?”
As soon as Roana asked, Iz shook her head strongly.
“N-No! I do not think you are a witch, my lady!”
‘She definitely looks scared though.’
Roana put down the bread and quietly observed Iz. Iz kept nervously twisting the edge of her skirt while watching Roana carefully.
“Then did you not want to come here? Were you forced to?”
At Roana’s question, Iz’s face turned pale.
“That is not true!”
Iz shook her head once more.
“It is not that I did not want to come. It is just…”
“Just?”
“There was no one else willing to come.”
“Ah.”
With that one sentence, Roana could easily understand the situation.
‘I am an unwanted guest after all.’
Nobody probably wanted to stay beside someone disliked by both the elders and Klaus.
Most likely, the maids kept pushing the duty of serving Roana onto each other until timid and weak-hearted Iz ended up being chosen.
“What do people say about me?”
Roana suddenly asked out of curiosity.
At the Rius estate, Roana had basically been treated like she did not exist. But here, she was the center of attention.
‘Even if it is in a negative way.’
Still, she did not dislike finally having some kind of presence.
“Hm? Tell me.”
Caught off guard by Roana’s gentle encouragement, Iz answered honestly.
“They said you came from the north, so you would be cold-tempered and difficult… and that anyone serving you would end up being ignored too.”
After speaking, Iz carefully watched Roana’s reaction. Roana smiled gently to reassure her.
“I am sorry. I should not have repeated those things.”
Realizing her mistake, Iz became flustered. Her voice was full of worry that Roana might be hurt.
Roana liked Iz for that. She realized Iz was pure-hearted and kind.
“It is alright. Really, it is fine.”
Even after Roana repeated it several times, Iz still could not fully relax.
“U-Um, I will bring you a drink.”
Iz hurried out almost as if running away, then soon returned carrying a bottle filled with red liquid and a glass.
It was a light fruit wine often enjoyed by noble ladies.
‘Alcohol again.’
Roana quietly sighed.
Except for the existence of magic, this world was very similar to the modern era in many ways. But there was one major difference.
The drinking culture.
People in this world did not drink tea. Coffee did not exist either. Clean water was also not common, so most drinks were replaced with alcohol.
Aside from alcohol, the only other drinks were fruit juice and a few herbal teas. Even those were looked down on as childish drinks, so adults rarely drank them.
For Roana, who had once been a barista and café owner who enjoyed all kinds of beverages, this was truly disappointing.
‘Well, there is nothing I can do. Just because I miss coffee does not mean it will magically appear.’
Having more or less accepted reality, Roana reached out toward Iz to take the glass.
Iz was still trembling nervously as she poured the wine.
Then it happened.
Iz’s hand slipped, and the fragile glass fell from her grasp. A loud crashing sound echoed as the glass shattered into pieces.
“Ah!”
Iz screamed.
“I-I’m sorry!”
In panic, she reached down with her bare hands to clean up the broken shards.
“Iz, stop!”
Roana shouted loudly and quickly stopped her.
Iz looked up at Roana with confused eyes. Soon, fear filled her expression. She thought Roana was about to scold her.
‘What do I do? I upset a noble lady.’
But Roana’s actions were completely different from what Iz expected.
“You are bleeding!”
Roana knelt down in front of Iz and wrapped her injured finger with her own handkerchief.
Iz stared blankly at Roana while she treated her wound.
“My lady…?”
“I will call others to clean this up, so sit down and calm yourself first. You might get hurt again.”
Roana practically dragged the frozen Iz to the armchair and sat her down. Then she rang the bell connected to the main mansion to call the servants.
Soon, one senior maid and several younger maids arrived.
“What happened?”
“The glass broke. Could you clean it up?”
“You can order your personal maid Isabella to do such things. That is why she was assigned to you.”
The maid standing in front answered rudely, clearly unhappy about taking orders from Roana.
For a moment, Roana’s face hardened.
‘I do not want pointless power struggles… but I cannot live while being ignored either.’
Roana wanted a quiet and peaceful life, not a life where people looked down on her.
It seemed she needed to establish at least a little authority.
“I know that. But Iz is not in a condition to work right now. She is injured.”
“How badly could she possibly be hurt—”
“I will decide the condition of my maid after seeing it myself. Or are you suggesting that I should clean it myself?”
At Roana’s cold tone, the maids immediately became tense.
“Will you clean the broken glass?”
Roana asked once more.
This time, none of them could say anything back. They silently cleaned the shards and wiped the floor.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”
Throughout the cleaning, Iz kept apologizing quietly.
After everyone finished and left, Roana sat facing Iz and spoke.
“Iz, you are my maid. You do not need to apologize to anyone over something like this.”
Roana said firmly.
“I know my position in this household is weak. But even so, I still have enough power to protect at least one person. No… even if I do not, I will gain that much power.”
Iz lowered her head. She seemed deeply moved by Roana’s words.
A moment later, Iz lifted her head again. Her eyes were filled with emotion and confusion.
“Why are you so kind to me?”
Roana paused at the question.
Why was she kind to her?
Honestly, even Roana herself did not expect to grow attached to Iz so quickly. Even getting angry at the servants for Iz’s sake was unusual for her.
‘Why did I do that?’
Roana quietly asked herself.
Soon, she found the answer.
At the Rius estate, Roana had lived as if she were invisible. Especially the maids and servants completely ignored her.
Iz was the very first person who approached Roana first and sincerely worried about her.
Even though Roana still remembered her past life, her current life had left her emotionally exhausted. That small bit of kindness Iz gave her carried special meaning.
“You are my person now.”
At those words, Iz flinched greatly.
“My lady…”
Soon, tears filled her eyes.
After that, Roana and Iz ate dinner together while talking about many things.
Iz said she was the eldest daughter of the fallen noble Peynan Viscount family. She came to work at Bruggen Castle to support her family financially, but because her family was poor and insignificant, the other maids often looked down on her.
“But if I can send money home, this much is fine. And now I will be serving you, my lady…”
The two of them had both grown up in difficult environments, so they understood each other well.
“You do not feel like someone from the north, my lady. You are warm and gentle… honestly, you feel even more southern than southern people.”
Iz truly began to like Roana. Roana felt the same way.
“I’m glad you were assigned as my maid, Iz.”
At those words, Iz blushed.
“It is getting late. You should rest now. I will prepare your bed.”
Iz helped Roana change into her nightclothes and prepared her bed.
“If you need me at any time, just pull the bell rope.”
Iz said this before heading downstairs to the servants’ quarters.
‘Today was not bad.’
For the first time in a long while, Roana was able to lie comfortably in a soft and spacious bed and fall asleep peacefully.
From that day onward, Roana began spending happy days pursuing small but certain happiness.
She would wake up late, eat sweet bread and jam prepared by Iz for breakfast, lazily read books until the afternoon, then take walks around the separate residence with Iz. In the evening, she would eat delicious food before going to bed comfortably.
Klaus truly seemed serious when he said he expected nothing from her as a wife and wanted her to live quietly. Even after a month of marriage, he never once came looking for Roana.
‘This feels like heaven. Except for the fact that alcohol is the only drink here…’
But perhaps when people become too happy, they start becoming greedy.
As her body relaxed and her mind became peaceful, Roana slowly began missing the conveniences of her previous modern life.
And among all those things, the one she missed most was definitely coffee.
‘At moments like this, a single cup of coffee would be perfect.’
As usual, she was enjoying the afternoon sunlight while reading when that thought suddenly crossed her mind.
The miraculous moment Roana encountered coffee in this world happened the very next day.
