Chapter 18: Personal Circumstances (3)

Chapter 18: Personal Circumstances (3)

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“How peaceful.”

I murmured as I sprawled across the study sofa. I’d even turned down a walk, lazing away the day like a waste of time. After breakfast, I had finally ordered a camera, so my shopping urge was sated too. If any of the staff saw me like this, they’d probably faint but thankfully, this wasn’t their usual time to come to the study.

As I aimlessly kicked my skirt into the air, I mumbled with a dazed expression.

“Maybe I’ll read a novel or something.”

Honestly, ever since I realized I was inside a romance fantasy story, the love stories in this town felt too tame to catch my interest.

So something I can read without thinking too much… Hmm, maybe a fairy tale book after all. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to brush up on local fairy tales. After all, this morning, the ‘Rose fairy gardener’ theory had gained a bit more traction.

Right after breakfast, as soon as my fiancé left, I summoned the butler to the drawing room. While we chatted about the camera, I casually brought up the matter of the boy gardener who worked at night.

“There are gardeners, of course. But they only work early in the morning. And we don’t hire such young ones.”

“…I see.”

So he’s been working here without permission?!

No wonder it felt strange. I mean, what kind of kid sneaks into a garden at night to work like some graffiti artist painting under a bridge? Next time I see him, I should say something, either scold him and send him off or try to talk to someone about hiring him properly. It’s just too weird that anyone would approve of a kid working here at night.

Wait. But would a normal boy really be able to sneak into someone else’s garden night after night and go unnoticed? Could he actually be a fairy, using some special ability to stay hidden? Maybe I was just lucky enough to meet him because I’m the protagonist!

Nodding at the plausibility of my theory, I picked up a fairy tale book. I figured that if I read a few, I might find clues about how to raise my favorability with the gardener-fairy or something like that. 

I gathered five or six books, carried them to the desk, and sat down. Just as I reached for the first fairy tale, I noticed a book beside it that I hadn’t brought.

“Huh?”

What’s this? Must’ve already been on the desk. It was bound in old, worn leather, glossy with age, and about the thickness of two fairy tale books stacked together.

In romance fantasy stories, old books found by coincidence are usually full of forgotten magic or secret mining rights left behind by ancestors. Excited, I picked it up. The spine was blank, but the cover bore a bold black title:

‘The Former Lords.’

Oho, maybe it really is a land deed from long ago!

Land deeds are great. There’s no asset quite like real estate. A title like ‘The Former Lords’ could hint at properties secretly seized by the local lords of old. Heart racing, I opened the book. The first thing I saw was a sharp, ornate script.

The first page read:

[Do not wager your present. Close this book now.]

A blatant threat. Must’ve been written by someone with serious power, probably worried that a servant might stumble across this book and discover their hidden assets. I turned the page with the giddy thrill of eating popcorn.

[The Former Lords. That’s what we used to call them. That indescribable horror that still lingers, crushing the standards of reason and morality, clinging to our community as taboo and ritual… whenever I feel that presence, I wonder if I am witnessing the futility of human civilization…]

I fRose in shock. This was…

An enlightenment essay. I half-expected a line like: ‘The time has come to erase the injustices of the old regime and build new values for the people!’

This totally felt like something we’d cover in a required course that everyone fails. I flipped through the pages, recalling half-asleep lectures on Russian lit and philosophy.

The book was packed with dense text describing barbaric, irrational rulers of the past, often portrayed as monsters. I broke into a cold sweat at the author’s dedication to illustrating a ruler as a melting giant squid. They must’ve been seriously committed to their cause.

No wonder there was a warning at the front. Judging by the era of this world, the book had probably been banned for seditious content. The warning was likely written out of concern for any reader’s safety. Sure enough, the handwriting on the warning was different from the body text.

I debated whether to actually read the whole thing when I noticed some pages had been torn out. Wow, even physical censorship? That must’ve been the core content. I flipped back to skim the preceding page.

As expected, it was grimly serious.

[Because of the former lord of that place, whose cruelty defies both memory and forgetting, a fear that can’t be spoken lingers only in custom and habit. Even now, it haunts the region of Vern.]

…Wait, Vern?

That’s the name of the town this estate is in.

So the next page must have contained a scathing denunciation of this region’s former ruler, and someone ripped it out in fear of repercussions. Or maybe they’re keeping it in a more secret place. Anyway, this clearly wasn’t a book with hidden land deed hints. More like a book that harshly criticized the very existence of such land grabs.

Well… that’s true. Embezzling land and funds is definitely bad. I clutched my chest, feeling the pang of a modern conscience.

In any case, I’d found this book a little too early in the game. The immersive isekai vibe inside me was beginning to crumble. I set the book down with a deflated look. But the vibration of setting the book down caused some pages to flip on their own.

There were more torn pages. But these weren’t neatly removed. These were shredded like someone had crumpled and ripped them apart with their fists. A few words at the jagged edge were still legible, and one made my heart skip a beat.

[…the wickedness of the Moore family…]

Wait, what? Moore family?

“…”

Wasn’t my fiancé’s surname Moore? That’s why people call him Lord Moore, right? I tried to make out more, but two or three pages had been torn out together. No continuity remained. Swallowing hard, I closed the book.

He said he was the heir to a large landowning family… Could it be that his ancestors were once the lords of this area?

Then that would make the Moore family some kind of feudal overlords, like the corrupt noble clans of the Joseon Dynasty, hoarding wealth through ruthless exploitation…

Whoever owned this book probably tore those pages out in a panic after becoming engaged to a Moore heir. I shoved the book into a drawer, overwhelmed by the sudden hit of reality.

That beautiful-faced fiancé of mine… maybe he’s only so dazzling because he’s been pampered by wealth wrung from the people…

Let’s just stop thinking about it. Time for a fairy tale. A fairy tale.

I spent the rest of the morning reading fairy tales until lunchtime.

But kindergarten-level picture books weren’t enough to restore my mental state. My thoughts kept spinning through a modern ethical lens. I even started wondering whether fairies, living in hiding, were properly registered as residents or paying taxes.

And so, I ended up sitting across from my fiancé at lunch with completely dead eyes.

“Are you alright?”

He seemed startled. That handsome man, carrying a large white envelope with a triumphant air, suddenly looked anxious when I entered the drawing room. I must’ve looked obviously drained.

“You’re very pale.”

The moment I sat at the table, he reached out with a gloved hand and gently took mine. It must’ve been the third time he’d done this, but who am I kidding? That face is just… unreal.

A wave of peace washed over me.

Yes, that face is a natural gift. No amount of money could ever buy it.

Besides, it’s not like we can believe everything written in that book, right? Maybe it’s even meant to stir up some conflict, spark misunderstandings, and lead us into a frustrating slow-burn plot just for the drama.

……

T/N: For real, Lord Moore is too gentle that it makes him suspicious 🤨