PONPO Chapter 4

After saying that, she tossed a few portraits and several sheets of paper with brief personal information written on them in front of her.

Rosetta looked down at the portrait and the papers that had fallen at her feet with a contemptuous gaze.

As if she didn’t even want to touch them, she didn’t move a single finger. Seeing that, the Baroness urged her in a cold voice tinged with laughter.

“What are you doing? Pick them up already.”

Rosetta, who had been pressing her lips tightly together, slowly bent down and gathered the scattered papers at her feet roughly into her hand.

“Take a look.”

Suppressing the sigh that threatened to escape, Rosetta flipped through the papers halfheartedly.

The more she looked, the more absurd the situation felt—an unwanted bonus.

“You should know well that every one of them is far beyond your station.”

Ha. A hollow laugh almost escaped her.

‘Beyond my station, my foot.’

Every man the Baroness had brought as a supposed husband for her had some kind of defect.

The position of the third wife of a Marquis who looked at least fifty years older than Rosetta.

The fourth son of a Viscount rumored to have violent tendencies.

Even the second son of a Count who relied only on his family’s wealth, did no work, and lived his life entirely at gambling tables.

‘How did she manage to gather such a collection? It’s almost impressive.’

The one obvious thing they all had in common was that their families were wealthy.

That was also their only advantage.

The hand holding the papers dropped weakly to her side.

Pretending to be benevolent, the Baroness smiled and asked as if urging her along.

“Well then, Rosetta. Who would you like to meet first for a marriage interview?”

Rosetta couldn’t answer.

No, she didn’t want to.

She clenched the frayed hem of her shabby dress tightly in one hand, desperately trying to swallow the emotions welling up inside her.

‘So she really intends to sell me off like this.’

Despair surged endlessly.

“Rosetta. Hurry and answer. Which gentleman shall I arrange a meeting with first?”

“Madam.”

When she spoke quietly in a low voice, the Baroness silently urged her to go on.

After swallowing once, Rosetta continued in a cracked voice with difficulty.

“Could you give me just a little time to think?”

Displeasure flickered across the Baroness’s face.

But soon she nodded, as if fully absorbed in the role of a generous adoptive mother.

“Very well. You must be troubled.”

Then she continued, lifting the corners of her lips in an annoyingly high smile.

“But they are all distinguished gentlemen, so I can’t give you much time. Rosetta, you understand what I mean, don’t you?”

“Of course, Madam.”

Rosetta hid the despair rotting inside her and tried her best to appear calm.

At her obedient answer, the Baroness puffed herself up as if doing her a favor and said,

“Good. Then go back up to your room.”

The moment she finished speaking, the Baroness pulled the bell rope.

It seemed she intended to call the maids to order them around again.

“Have a pleasant afternoon, Madam. I will take my leave now.”

Rosetta, who had been biting her lower lip so hard that it had turned white, barely managed to greet the Baroness before turning away.

Then she spoke quietly.

The Baroness had begun humming in such a good mood that she seemed not to notice Rosetta muttering to herself.

“Sylph. Come out for a moment. I need your help.”

To call Sylph, she had to speak out loud.

Except for the first time they met, when Sylph had appeared on her own, it had always been like that.

At that moment, with the familiar Ping—! sound, the wind spirit Sylph appeared, a finger-sized being with shimmering silver wings.

‘It’s fortunate that Sylph is simple-minded.’

Judging by the look of it, Sylph had already forgotten the last quarrel and her sulking afterward.

Even when she got upset, she quickly calmed down if a little time passed or if Rosetta promised her sweets as payment.

Sylph, who had been called out after a long time, seemed excited and flew around Rosetta with a cheerful buzz.

— You called me, Rosetta? What should I do for you?

Now that she had appeared, Rosetta no longer needed to speak aloud.

She thought to herself.

‘Go tangle that woman’s hair up real badly.’

She heard the spirit burst into laughter.

— Why? Did that lady bully you again?

Rosetta nodded slightly.

‘She only picks the nastiest things to say. So I should pay her back.’

— What a bad person! She’s really awful!

As if reacting to Rosetta’s feelings, Sylph flew into a rage.

‘So punish her for me.’

— Okay! Just leave it to me!

After all, no one except Rosetta could see the spirit’s existence.

By then, Rosetta had already reached close to the room’s door.

Sylph, who had fluttered along beside her, twisted her body as if she wanted something and asked slyly,

— But Rosetta, if I mess up that lady’s hair, what will you give me?

A contract with a spirit followed the principle of ‘equivalent exchange.’

If Sylph granted the wish Rosetta asked for, Rosetta had to give a suitable reward in return.

The greater the power the spirit used, the greater the offering the contractor had to give. Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—Sylph was the lowest-ranking among the wind spirits, so she couldn’t use great power to begin with.

‘I’ll give you some honey later.’

— Honey! Honey! I love honey! I really love it!

As if thrilled by the word honey, the lower wind spirit spun rapidly around Rosetta’s head several times.

Grasping the doorknob and opening the door, Rosetta gave Sylph one last instruction.

‘Mess her hair up really badly. So badly that she can’t untangle it unless she cuts it off. Or make it get stuck on a nail or in some crack somewhere.’

As she said this, Rosetta stretched her right hand slightly forward.

Then she made a gesture as if pulling someone’s hair.

‘You understand what I mean, right?’

— Got it! Ah! This will be fun!

Sylph, extremely excited, burst into cheerful laughter.

Rosetta smiled as well.

Whispering and secretly plotting with Sylph made her mood lift, even if only a little.

— I’ll go do it!

‘Okay. Good luck, Sylph.’

Nodding solemnly, the wind spirit flew past Rosetta.

Soon afterward, a loud scream from the Baroness rang out.

“Aaaah! What is this? My hair! Hey! Is anyone there? Someone untangle my hair!”

Rosetta lifted the corner of her lips slightly and closed the door to the room.

Across the corridor, she could see two maids who had been coming in response to the Baroness’s call.

“Aaaah! Someone hurry and come!”

The Baroness’s screams continued, and only then did the maids exchange glances before quickly running over.

“What is it, Madam? Oh my goodness! What happened to your hair?”

“Oh my, Madam! Just a moment, please. Just a moment.”

“Aaah! You wretched woman! That hurts! Be gentler!”

“I am sorry, Madam. But it is tangled too tightly.”

“Aaah! It hurts, I said it hurts! Can’t you be more careful?!”

Hearing the commotion behind her, Rosetta lifted the corners of her lips even higher.

‘Serves you right.’

She twisted her lips, but fearing that the trouble might somehow fall on her, she quickly withdrew her gaze and headed straight to the small room she used.

The heart that had felt a little lighter while plotting with Sylph sank heavily again once she was alone.

Climbing the stairs quickly and reaching her room, Rosetta shut the door so hard that it slammed loudly.

Then she leaned against the door and slowly slid down to the floor.

A deep and heavy sigh escaped her lips, and in her eyes—greener than the lushness of May—clear tears gathered before she could even steady herself and soon flowed down.

“Hic… sob.”

As if afraid that the sound of her crying might leak out, she bit her lips several times, but her strength kept giving way, and she eventually began to sob.

Still sitting on the floor, Rosetta squeezed her eyes shut and wept bitterly, her frail body shaking. She truly didn’t want to be sold off.

“…Let’s run away now.”

After quite some time, she stopped crying. Wiping the tears spread across her cheeks with her palm, she muttered with a determined voice.

“I’m an adult now, so Baron Cliff and his wife can’t claim ownership over me anymore.”

Rosetta resolved to run away as soon as that very night.

Frankly speaking, as long as she could find a job, she would have no problem living on her own.

That very afternoon, on the day Rosetta secretly decided to leave, an invitation arrived at the Cliff mansion.

It would become a lifeline for Rosetta, who had been driven to the edge of a cliff.

***

“Rosetta! Rosetta! Come down here at once!”

The Baroness’s excited voice could be heard from outside.

Rosetta, who had been hurriedly packing her things after deciding to run away, quickly shoved her bag under the bed, which looked as if it might collapse at any moment.

“Rosetta! Can’t you hear me?”

But when she neither came down nor answered, the Baroness couldn’t endure even that brief moment and climbed the stairs herself.

She stomped her feet so rudely that it sounded as if her heels were pounding throughout the entire mansion.

“What does she want now?”

Rosetta muttered irritably as she was just getting to her feet.

At that very moment, the door burst open without even a knock.

“Rosetta! You need to go to Estes Parkel!”

She looked just as excited as her voice sounded.

The Baroness, whose nostrils had even flared wider with excitement, held out a white envelope in front of Rosetta.

“Madam, what do you mean all of a sudden?”

“An invitation has come for you! I heard that the Lady of House Estes had come down to the territory to recover her health, and it seems she has gotten better now, because she is finally holding the social gathering she had postponed!”

Perhaps she had opened it beforehand, because the seal that had been attached to the envelope had already been broken and the opening fluttered loosely.

From the moment the name Estes was mentioned, Rosetta felt her heart drop.

Because the young lady of House Estes was the secondary female lead in this novel, and also the person the original Rosetta abused.

‘So this was when I first got involved with Clarissa and started working as her caretaker in the original story.’

It was called an invitation, but in reality it was a notice for an interview to select a caretaker for Lady Clarissa Marianne Estes, who had come down to the territory to recuperate.