Although the child’s appearance caused a fierce quarrel between the couple, the Baroness ultimately decided to register the child under her family line.
Of course, it was by no means out of goodwill.
“From now on, your name is Rosetta.”
The Baron and the Baroness gave the child the name ‘Rosetta Cliff’, a name that meant rose.
The moment she heard that name, the child remembered what role she had played in this novel.
‘Isn’t this the caretaker who bullies Clarissa, the Girl of the Moon!’
The child’s eyes widened.
From the far end of her memory, she recalled a certain character.
A character who wasn’t even a proper supporting role in the original novel, just an extra-level figure!
The reason she remembered that name, which had only appeared briefly in a few lines of description, was because Rosetta was a villain who bullied the second female lead.
‘Wait! Then what does that mean? Am I going to be abused by these people?’
The child stared in disbelief at the Baron and the Baroness, who were sitting there with airs as if they had bestowed a great favor upon her.
She had only stayed here for a few days, but yes. These were exactly the kind of people who wouldn’t hesitate to abuse her.
‘Damn it….’
In the original work, the extra’s past hadn’t been given many pages.
Because of that, the only things she knew about Rosetta Cliff were fragmentary pieces of information.
A beauty who had been abused by her parents during childhood and had grown up twisted.
Rosetta disliked Clarissa, who received everyone’s love, and after being hired as her caretaker, she secretly tormented, bullied, and abused her away from people’s eyes.
Rosetta’s misdeeds were eventually revealed to the public, and she was killed by Teren Asher Estes, the Duke of House Estes and Clarissa’s enraged older brother.
‘Of all things, why did I have to transmigrate into a villainess’s body?’
Rosetta felt a bitter taste in her mouth.
But what was done was already done.
Since things had already turned out like this, she thought it would be best to make survival her top priority.
Fortunately, the current time was still before the main story of the novel began.
‘If I just don’t apply to become Clarissa’s caretaker later, I should be able to survive.’
She still had plenty of time to change the future.
And as time passed, Rosetta came to understand why she had been given that name.
It was because her hair color was as red as a rose.
‘They really named me without putting any thought into it.’
Rosetta was one of several names commonly given to children with red hair, like ‘Ginger’ or ‘Rose.’
In the Wilsyus Kingdom, having red hair carried two meanings.
One was being a direct descendant of the House of Marquis Langwood, one of the Four Great Houses called the pillars of the Wilsyus Kingdom.
The other was being one of the barbarians who lived beyond the border.
The former were respected by the Kingdom’s people, but the latter received nothing but contempt and disdain.
Since it was common sense that Baron Cliff, a minor noble with unimpressive looks, couldn’t possibly have had an affair with the noble daughter of such a distinguished family, people assumed the Baron had slept with a barbarian woman.
So even though Rosetta carried the title of the Baron’s daughter, not a single person treated her as a noble.
“Ugh, you are in the way! Move aside, my Lady!”
“Hey, don’t be so harsh. She’s pitiful.”
The maids and servants mockingly addressed Rosetta as ‘my Lady’ every single time.
Rosetta was well aware that it was simply another form of contempt.
All of this treatment stemmed from the fact that she was believed to have inherited barbarian blood.
The Baroness, who had the duty to protect her, didn’t scold the maids for their behavior.
Yet whenever she gave Rosetta some shabby and unimpressive things, she never forgot to act as if she were doing her a great favor.
“Don’t forget the kindness of feeding you, giving you a place to sleep, and clothing you. Make sure you repay it.”
The reason the Baroness had accepted her was because she was a girl and quite pretty.
Rosetta was skinny because she hadn’t been properly fed, but she possessed an appearance that naturally drew people’s attention.
Her sparkling green eyes were large and almond-shaped, and her skin was as white as snow.
Her face was slender like an egg, her nose was high and straight, and her cheeks were flushed as if dyed with flower petals.
If she gained just a little more weight, her face would surely resemble that of a doll.
Even though she was still young, she was already quite pretty, and it seemed certain she would grow even more beautiful once she became an adult.
“If you grow up well like this, with that face of yours… you could probably bring in at least two thousand gold as a dowry.”
An illegitimate son would only interfere with the son she had given birth to inheriting the title, but a girl was different.
If she married Rosetta off to an influential family or a wealthy household like she was selling her off, she could receive a huge dowry, which she intended to use to secure the future of her own son, Ishik.
“If you want to eat, then find your own work to do.”
At the Baroness’s cold words, Rosetta had been doing the same work as the maids from the age of six until now.
She cleaned and did laundry, and sometimes carried fodder to the stables.
All she was given in return was hard bread, a few shriveled pieces of meat, and thin soup.
Sometimes even that food was spoiled, so she often suffered stomachaches.
The clothes she received were always worn-out things that looked as if someone had discarded them after wearing them.
To be honest, she could have run away at any time, but Rosetta endured stubbornly.
If she recklessly entered society with the body of a child, her life wouldn’t change.
If anything, there was a higher chance that things would become even worse than they were now.
It had been the same when she lived as Hong Jangmi, who had become the head of her household at fourteen, so how much worse would it be now?
In the Wilsyus Kingdom, minors could become engaged, but child marriage was legally forbidden.
‘That means I’ve bought time until I become an adult.’
No matter how exhausting or filthy it was, Rosetta firmly resolved to endure in the Cliff household until she came of age.
Even if she was mistreated, the Baron’s mansion was currently the safest place she could stay.
Every day, after doing menial labor and before falling asleep in the shabby attic, she made plans for the future.
She was different from the Rosetta in the original story, so even if she happened to become the caretaker of the secondary female lead, Clarissa, she wouldn’t abuse her.
‘But I don’t want to get involved.’
She wanted to reduce even one more possibility of dying in the future.
So she thought hard about it.
How could she escape from this wretched House without interfering with the original story?
There was always only one answer.
‘I need money.’
The moment she reached that answer, another problem immediately followed.
‘Where am I supposed to get money?’
This was quite a difficult problem.
Because there was absolutely no gold or jewelry in this mansion that Rosetta could secretly take.
If such things had existed, Ishik or the Baron would have taken them before Rosetta ever could.
‘Something that could make money, something that could make money…. Ah! That!’
Rosetta’s eyes sparkled.
***
At some point, Rosetta began stealing ‘chips’ from the rooms of the Baron and Ishik.
In this miserable mansion, that was the only thing that could be turned into money.
Since the two of them enjoyed gambling, they always carried chips that were used instead of cash at gambling houses.
Of course, they were the kind of people who only lost, so the chips they brought home were always very small amounts.
But that was good news for Rosetta.
Because they were such trivial sums that no one would notice if they disappeared, making them perfect to steal.
‘It’s a long-term plan anyway!’
Since it was money she would collect over at least ten years, it didn’t matter if it was only small change for now.
‘Once I’m a little older, I’ll be able to go to the village alone.’
Then she planned to lie that she was running an errand for the Baron and exchange the chips she had gathered for cash.
The plan went smoothly, and Rosetta managed to turn tiny grains into a small mound.
Of course, she didn’t think of it as stealing.
How much had she been worked like a slave in this damn household?
She thought of those chips as the rightful payment for her labor that they had never properly given her.
But sometimes she wanted to give up everything and run away.
Whenever that happened, Rosetta clenched her teeth and calmed herself down.
‘Let’s endure until I become an adult. Just a little longer.’
And so she endured fifteen years of neglect and humiliation.
She hadn’t been properly cared for and hadn’t been properly fed, but Rosetta grew up beautifully, as if to spite those who had abused her.
Like a fully blooming rose living up to her name, radiant and splendid.
The Baroness both welcomed and envied the beauty of her adopted daughter, who blossomed as she herself gradually aged.
At last, she thought, the time had come.
A few days after Rosetta reached adulthood, the Baroness summoned her.
“Rosetta. You remember what I repeatedly told you while raising you, don’t you?”
“Yes, Madam.”
Rosetta didn’t call Lady Cliff ‘Mother.’
Partly because the Baroness had never allowed it, but also because she herself simply didn’t want to.
At Rosetta’s reply, the corners of the Baroness’s mouth twisted unpleasantly.
Her gaze toward Rosetta was full of displeasure.
Even when she was young, Rosetta hadn’t seemed like a typical child, which the Baroness had disliked. Now that she had grown up, she disliked her even more because she couldn’t read her at all.
‘How creepy.’
Moreover, strangely enough, whenever she bothered or bullied Rosetta, something bad would always happen to her afterward.
A decoration that had been hanging perfectly still in the room suddenly falling down.
A maid bringing her food stumbling and falling, and the food somehow flying the distance and pouring right over her head.
Things like that—mostly small incidents, but ones that certainly ruined her mood.
And sometimes Rosetta even seemed to be looking at her with quiet disregard, which made her feelings twice as unpleasant.
‘Hoo. Endure it. Soon I’ll be able to get rid of that wretched thing.’
The Baroness looked at Rosetta proudly with a rotten smile.
“Now the time has come for you to repay the kindness I have shown you. Marry for the sake of your brother.”
