Chapter 43
So this is that, huh.
“You’re not allowed to meet my son. So I’ll give you money—just go away.”
That kind of thing you’d only see in morning soap operas?
Of course, I’d fully expected a situation like this, so I just tilted my head at her.
“So you’re telling me to leave?”
“Of course.”
“With nothing in hand?”
“What?”
It must have been a completely unexpected response—her eyes wavered. She looked thoroughly flustered. After hesitating for a while, she flared her nostrils again. She’s really pretty, but she keeps ruining her own face like that.
I gripped the chair tightly with my arm and swung my leg.
Only then did she grind her teeth and glare at me.
“You’re asking for money?”
“I’m just saying I’d at least consider it if there were that much sincerity.”
“Hah… how impressive.”
“There’s nothing impressive about it.”
“So you really did come here expecting that, didn’t you? That’s why you should never associate with lowly mongrels like you.”
As if she’d finally figured out my intentions, she clicked her tongue.
“If I’d really come here expecting that, I would’ve told His Grace the Grand Duke what I needed when he asked me.”
“What?”
“Unfortunately, I was just speaking offhand. I don’t particularly need anything. If there’s something I need, it’s just to stay by the twins’ side.”
“Are you playing games with me right now? Ha. You really—!”
Watching her try to corner me somehow, I slowly shook my head.
“No. I’m just stating a fact. If you really didn’t want me here, you shouldn’t have let me in from the beginning.”
I have no intention of getting along with her.
She’s the one who tormented our twins.
“I’m here because I somehow managed to gain His Grace’s favor.”
“So what? In the end, you’re just someone with a one-month limit.”
But the situation soon reversed. She, who had been showing discomfort the whole time, clicked her tongue again, as if she’d finally found something to say.
“Ah. That’s right.”
“If you get kicked out after a month, you won’t receive anything. If the Grand Duke tries to give you something, I’ll block all of it.”
“Is that so.”
Thinking it was her own kind of threat, the Grand Duchess’s expression hardened even more.
“…You’ll be thrown out penniless.”
“That’s fine. I’ve never had anything that was truly mine in my life, so it doesn’t matter.”
“Hah…”
Her expression openly showed that she was fed up. Talking with children is tiring. They don’t have clear desires like adults, and they want things adults can’t understand.
As if she felt it too, she pressed her temples as though she had a headache.
“And don’t worry. I won’t be kicked out. If I fulfill what I promised His Grace, I’ll be able to stay here.”
“Do you really think Rohen would say such a thing?”
“Who knows? He might, he might not. But even if he doesn’t, my goal will still be achieved.”
“Your goal?”
I deliberately stopped mid-sentence to make her uneasy.
Whether Korean or from this country, everyone seems to get angry when you stop talking halfway through.
She ground her teeth and glared at me.
“Why did you stop talking?”
“There’s no reason to tell you my entire goal.”
“…You really—.”
I looked at the Grand Duchess with a broad grin. She must be furious. Things have never gone this far outside her control before. Her anger must be boiling over. That’s exactly what I want—and it’s going better than expected.
‘Because my target is you.’
Telling the children at least a little of the truth. What kind of place this family really is. Why they were abandoned and then brought back. Who is behind everything.
Once they gain even a bit of strength, once they gain the power to protect themselves, I’ll tell them everything. If I say it now, they might not believe me, and even if Rohen were to question things, without evidence nothing could be done.
‘You must be dying of curiosity about what I know and what I’m planning to do with the children.’
Just watching her be this anxious is enough. To her, I’m just an orphan. Someone she doesn’t even need to pay attention to, someone who’ll be kicked out soon, as she says.
But the fact that she summoned me like this proves how anxious she really is.
‘What is she so afraid of?’
Maybe it’s that Lari used to obey when she was alone, but lately she hasn’t been listening.
It’s not because Rohen came back—I told Lari not to be swayed even by the maids, and to say everything she needed to say as a Grand Duchess’s daughter. That must not have pleased the Grand Duchess at all.
‘Just as planned. I succeeded in provoking her.’
She can’t touch Rohen, so she’s going after me instead.
While she was looking at me, the Grand Duchess suddenly changed her expression, as if she’d thought of something else. Just as I was thinking how wildly her expressions were shifting, she slowly nodded, as if she’d reached a conclusion.
‘Now she finally looks a bit like the Grand Duchess.’
The Grand Duchess I remembered from the novel wasn’t this foolish.
She was easily swayed by emotion—that much is true. That’s why she tried to kill the twins, sent them to an orphanage to be locked away, and even after that continued to torment them.
The Grand Duchess who regularly ordered the orphanage director to abuse them. In the end, unable to overcome her jealousy, she revealed everything in the novel and was caught by the Grand Duke.
‘But this time, she’s hiding her expression pretty well. Like she’s come up with a good idea.’
“It seems I’ll have to change my approach.”
“Change what?”
“You want to know about your parents, don’t you?”
Oh. I never expected this. For something that came from the Grand Duchess’s head, it was surprisingly sharp. I looked at her with widened eyes.
“I’ve seen someone with the same unusual hair and eye color as yours. Black hair and cherry blossom–pink eyes—that’s a very rare combination. So the person I saw was probably your mother. I’ll look into her for you.”
I tilted my head at her sudden change of topic.
“Out of nowhere? Ah. Are you trying to use that to kick me out?”
“No. I’ll tell you that, so how about you do as I wish?”
Her tone suddenly changed.
“What are you going to make me do?”
“Hmm… As a mother, I want to raise my children properly. I want to get along with them. But perhaps because the twins grew up outside, I just can’t understand what they’re thinking or what they want.”
Get along? That’s laughable.
Does she really think she can sway me with words like that?
“Well. You look like you don’t believe me at all, but either way, that’s how I feel. So I’d like your help.”
“My help with what?”
“It’s very simple. Find out what the children like—what food they like, what games they like, what gifts they like. That’s all.”
“Hmm.”
A normal child might have fallen for this.
But after everything she’s said, she really thinks she can take me lightly? That I’d fall for something like this? I tilted my head again.
“Also, what they do all day. That’s enough. I don’t ask for anything else. You said you’re close with them, so you’d know things others don’t. Just find that out for me.”
If I brought her detailed reports on the children’s every move…
‘She’d tell the children that I’m reporting everything they do. She’d go to them, pretend to be sympathetic, and say I’m acting as a spy. She’s changing her strategy—she wants to get information from me and drive a wedge between me and the children.’
When I stared at her silently, the Grand Duchess seemed to think it was working and stared back at me.
“Don’t you want to see the one who gave birth to you?”
“Hmm…”
“If you want, I’ll find your mother and ask her to take you back.”
I slowly nodded while looking at her.
“Mother… I was curious about family. I was abandoned at birth and grew up in an orphanage.”
The Grand Duchess’s face gradually brightened.
‘Even in my past life, I never managed to learn anything about my mother.’
The words that had slipped out suddenly made my face stiffen.
‘Past life…?’
A memory that surfaced naturally. Words that came out naturally. I tried to focus again, but nothing else followed.
‘It’s like there’s… someone else inside me… what is this?’
I froze in a daze. Could it be that this body… I’m the original owner of Aisha?
Since I became Aisha, has the original consciousness been hiding somewhere inside and popping out from time to time?
‘But that makes no sense. This body is… just a character in a novel. How could there be a past life…?’
An old memory surfaced. Me in a dream, grown up. Someone shouting at me in anger…
‘The orphanage director. Then… that wasn’t a dream, but this body’s original memory. This body… Aisha… wasn’t just a character in a novel? Was it something that actually happened, and maybe… she even regressed?’
Just then, because I’d gone blank from the sudden memory, the Grand Duchess, thinking her words had worked, gave a smug smile.
“Children are naturally curious about their parents. I understand. You’re still just a child, after all. An age where you long for your parents’ embrace and their love.”
That’s not it at all. But seeing how completely she misunderstood, I nodded vigorously.
“So my mother must have given birth to me without being married.”
“Huh?”
“If I’d been born through a normal process within marriage, you wouldn’t only mention my mother—you’d mention my father too. But since you keep talking only about my mother… there must clearly be some kind of problem, right?”
