Chapter 002
Just because you’ve been reincarnated into a novel doesn’t mean your life changes dramatically.
The Harbel family she was born into was a mere barony never even mentioned in the book, and Ponia herself didn’t exist in the original plot either.
But, so what? I’m a noble!
Unlike the modern world where one must labor to earn money, the life of a noble—running an estate while collecting taxes—was beyond satisfying.
Especially for her, who had experienced the life of a college student working five part-time jobs just to shoulder her family’s debts and pay off student loans because of her naive parents who got scammed day in and day out!
“We are bankrupt.”
And yet, bankruptcy?
The toneless voice echoed in her ears. Since it was spoken with a flat delivery, much like saying “It is morning,” Ponia couldn’t even react to the speaker immediately.
As if pronouncing a sentence upon her silence, Kirsten, the butler of the Harbel Barony, delivered more precise words.
“Let me correct that. We are on the brink of bankruptcy.”
“…”
“If we cannot pay back 20,000 gold within six months, the Barony will go bankrupt.”
What changed from what you said earlier?
“Sir, is this a dream?”
“Do you have a preference for calling me ‘Sir’ in your dreams?”
Ah, a cruel reality indeed.
Instead of asking Kirsten for further explanation, Ponia turned around.
A man caught her eye, standing awkwardly with an expression that looked like he desperately needed to use the restroom.
“Viscount?”
Flinch.
His blatant shock told her with his entire body that he was, by all accounts, involved in this situation.
“Care to explain?”
“I think hearing the details from Kirsten would be most accurate…”
“Viscount.”
“My lovely daughter. How cold of you to call me ‘Viscount.’ You should call me Father.”
Her patience dropped sharply at his attempts to stall and sneak away.
Ponia took a slow, deep breath to save up enough strength. And then.
“Yes, Father! Where did you get scammed this time?!”
“Go, Gordon! Gordon brought a truly wonderful business idea! Even I thought it was sure to succeed this time!”
“And yet you blew it!”
“Ah! That’s not it. He said he would double the investment and return it.”
I bet the family estate that he ran off with all that money.
Oh, wait, the family is on the verge of bankruptcy, right? Then I’ll bet my last name. Wait, that’s disappearing soon too?
‘Gordon, that damn Gordon!’
Gordon was the second son of Baron Lambo and had been with her father since their teenage years. He called himself a businessman, but he was a swindler who sucked her father dry every time with nonsensical talk.
Though she lived in an environment completely different from her past life, some things remained the same.
A father who was gullible and only got scammed, and me, the one who had to clean up the mess.
Some things really don’t need to stay the same.
“Listen to me, he had so many innovative ideas!”
“Oh, is that so.”
Seeing Ponia’s lukewarm reaction, the Viscount hurriedly pulled a red egg from his robe.
“He said it was a dragon egg barely obtained from the rugged northern mountains. If you keep it in your arms for 100 days…”
“That’s just a chicken egg…”
There was even a red stain on his hand.
“Th-Then, this thing that turns water into gold…”
“Crazy alchemy!”
It would be one thing if iron or copper turned into gold. But water? Water?!
There wasn’t even any effort put into the deception!
“Ponia, how can a noble lady scream like that?”
“Mother, please stay out of this!”
“Sister, you’re being too much. Father is doing this with good intentions…”
“You’re dead!”
Albio, who had jumped in without knowing any better, immediately lost his nerve and backed away.
‘No one understands the gravity of the situation; they all just shield Father!’
“It’s all over…”
Ponia slumped right where she stood.
There was no one here who could understand her feelings.
“My Lady, please calm down.”
At that moment, a shadow fell over her head. When she looked up, a man with an indifferent face was looking down at her.
“…Kirsten?”
Kirsten knelt to match her eye level and took Ponia’s hand to help her up.
Kirsten was a young butler who had entered the family three years ago. He was a talented individual Ponia had personally scouted after kicking out the previous butler, who had been embezzling family funds.
He had handled much of the family’s administrative work in place of her father, who had zero practical ability. The only reason he hadn’t been picked up by other families in the first place was that he was too young.
“Do you want to have our family…?”
“I refuse. A family like this is just pouring water into a cracked pot.”
Maybe he wasn’t picked because of his foul personality.
“Do not speak so weakly. It is not all over yet.”
Why was he saying something positive for once?
Usually, that blunt face only delivered bad news, so she was usually busy avoiding him the moment she saw his wheat-colored hair.
Come to think of it, despite the numerous accidents her family caused over the last three years, Kirsten hadn’t left the family and had helped clean up the mess.
Yes, maybe she could overcome this bankruptcy crisis if she was with Kirsten.
‘First, after paying a tiny portion with the 1,000 gold I personally saved up…’
Tap.
“Huh?”
She felt a piece of paper in the hand Kirsten was holding.
“It is a dress invoice sent from the boutique.”
She frowned at the densely packed letters for a moment, but a number written in bold at the bottom stood out exceptionally well.
1,000 Gold
Naturally, her head snapped up. Kirsten was simply pressing his tired eyes as usual.
“When you said it wasn’t all over yet…”
“I meant the debt calculations weren’t over yet.”
“…”
“It is the cost of the dresses the Viscountess put on credit. They asked for immediate payment.”
“…How did I not know about this?”
Since the boutiques her mother visited in their small estate were predictable, she had made sure they would contact her if her mother ever went there.
“I suspect the Young Master might have intercepted the letters addressed to you, My Lady.”
Ponia’s head creaked toward her family like a wooden doll that hadn’t been oiled properly.
With faces pale as if they had seen a ghost, they began to speak one by one.
“I felt so sorry for Mother, who lives such a restrained life…”
Who lives a restrained life…?
“I really wasn’t going to buy anything for a long time after this one purchase!”
How many times have I heard that?
“If we help each other, it will all come back to us later.”
When exactly is “later”?
Since she was listening without responding, Albio finally added one more comment.
“You didn’t use to be like this, Sister!”
“…”
“Just a few years ago, you believed in Father’s abilities, you loved shopping with Mother, and you were so kind to me.”
“…”
“Honestly, I think I liked those times better!”
“Albio, what kind of manners are those to your sister?”
Her mother immediately pointed out Albio’s etiquette, but empathy was visible on her face. And on her father’s face beside her.
Snap.
She felt something inside her break.
What have I been doing all this for…
“I’m done.”
“Ponia?”
“I said I’m dooooone!”
A lion’s roar shook the hall. A familiar terror filled the family’s eyes.
“Fine! Let’s all just go bankrupt together!”
“Si… Sister.”
“Shut up! Don’t follow me!”
Slam!
The storm swept through the hall in an instant.
Someone leaned a hand against a pillar, someone else felt a chill, and another took a step back.
Kirsten was the only one left standing perfectly fine.
That was because he had plugged rubber stoppers into his ears in advance, right from the moment Ponia stood still without replying.
As he was about to leave as well, Viscount Harbel grabbed his arm.
“Kirsten. Ponia seems very angry this time…”
“Is there anyone who wouldn’t be angry upon hearing the word ‘bankruptcy’? Ah, let’s exclude the people in this house. There doesn’t seem to be a sane person here except for the Young Lady.”
It was an overstepping remark, but the Viscount, who had steadily lost his authority as the head of the household over a long time, didn’t find it strange.
“…Ponia will come back, right?”
This time, perhaps quite shocked, the Viscount asked with a dazed look.
Kirsten brushed the Viscount’s hand off his shoulder.
His main duty was administrative and financial management. He refused to handle the mental care of a feeble-minded patriarch.
To ask a butler of only three years about the heart of his own daughter, whom he had seen her whole life.
If Kirsten were a child of this family, he would have left long ago, back when the Viscount blew two-thirds of the estate’s assets two years prior.
“The Young Lady will return.”
However, the Young Lady, who didn’t know how to give up on her family even after being treated like that, would return this time as well.
“So please, just stay still and don’t cause any more trouble. I beg of you.”
In this house where everyone saw the world as a field of flowers, the Young Lady was the only one struggling.
Leaving those words of warning, Kirsten climbed the stairs.
There was only one thing he had to do.
Work as much as his salary dictated.
“I’m doomed…”
Kirsten’s prediction was exactly right.
After storming out of the mansion, Ponia had been staring intensely at the recruitment board in the plaza for thirty minutes.
‘It would be nice if there was a transcription job I could do while sitting down like last time.’
Whenever she needed money, she would borrow a servant’s clothes and find work in the village within the estate.
She had done everything from being a daily sales clerk to a clinic assistant and cleaning inns.
Ponia, who had regained her sense of reality along with her past-life memories, soon discovered the Barony’s serious financial problems and realized how much money her parents had been throwing away.
‘And so my path of suffering began.’
Thanks to that, the ambition she had to definitely confess again in three years had been folded away long ago.
While she was gathering flyers that didn’t have bad conditions, a loud voice was heard from the center of the plaza.
“Extra! Extra! Shocking news regarding Young Lord Davenham!”
