Chapter 3

Whether he had gone gambling again or out drinking, my father did not return home the entire night.

Even though I wished he would never come back, I didn’t actually want him to die. If he died, all the debt in his name would be passed on to my mother.

I didn’t know exactly how much he owed, but I had seen my mother cry, saying she could never pay it off, not even in a lifetime.

There was only one way to make sure the debt would not be transferred to her if he died. She had to divorce him before that happened. It was also the only way to truly protect her from him.

The problem was figuring out how to make that divorce happen.

As I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling slowly changing color with the light of early dawn, I kept thinking. Then my mother, who had been sleeping beside me, started to stir.

I quickly closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep. She looked at me quietly for a moment, then slipped out of the room. I could hear soft clattering sounds coming from the kitchen. She was probably making breakfast.

I waited a little longer, then carefully got up and left the bedroom. My mother, who had been setting the table, looked at me in surprise.

“You’re already awake?”

I nodded and hugged her from behind.

“A sleepy girl like you getting up this early? The sun must be rising in the west today.”

She smiled warmly and gently brushed my messy hair back into place.

I stayed in her arms for a little while longer, enjoying the moment, then sat at the table.

While I ate the thin potato soup she had made, my mother busily prepared for work.

She worked as an accountant at the largest general store in the neighborhood. In this poor district, very few people could read or write, but my mother could do both. She was born a noblewoman, so she was educated and good with numbers.

Normally, women take their husband’s last name after marriage, but my mother was different.

My father had been a commoner who married into the Reynolds family as a son-in-law, so my mother kept her own surname even after they married.

But her life had changed completely.

Catherine Reynolds, once a noble young lady who wore beautiful dresses and lived with servants, ended up living worse than a beggar after marrying into the barony.

The one responsible for ruining her life was none other than my biological father, Charles Reynolds.

He was addicted to alcohol and gambling. He could never resist a woman, and on top of that, he was easily fooled by scammers. It was not even surprising anymore when he got cheated out of money.

He even had an affair. That part was so ridiculous it didn’t even make me angry. It just left me speechless.

I could never understand why my mother had married someone like him, or why she still stayed with him instead of running away.

If I were in her shoes, I would have left long ago.

Some people might say she stayed because she couldn’t leave her daughter behind. But even after placing me in an orphanage, she still stayed with him.

Why?

Could it be that she truly loved him? I hoped that wasn’t the reason. If she did, then there would be no way to separate them. I really hoped that wasn’t the case.

With that thought, I got up from my chair.

Back then, I used to stay home alone when my mother went to work. But after one terrible day when my father came home drunk and took his anger out on me, she began taking me with her.

The owner of the general store had been reluctant at first. But since my mother was the only person who could handle the accounts properly, he eventually gave in and allowed it.

When I stepped outside holding my mother’s hand, the street was still quiet. The early morning sunlight, still soft and sleepy, settled over the trash-covered road like a mist.

As we walked slowly through the gradually brightening street, we eventually arrived at the general store.

When we opened the thick wooden door, a small bell above it rang out with a clear sound.

“Good morning, Catherine.”

It was Mrs. Margaret, one of the store employees, who had arrived earlier. She greeted us with a cheerful voice.

“And Bella, you’re here too.”

“Good morning.”

I put my hands together and gave her a polite greeting.

She smiled happily and placed a round candy in my hand.

As the sweet and slightly bitter flavor melted in my mouth, I walked into the small room in the back of the store. It was where the employees took their breaks, and where I stayed until my mother’s shift ended.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been here.”

There was an old table stacked with outdated newspapers and worn-out books, a creaky chair that groaned when I sat on it, and even the doll I had brought with me to play with.

Everything was just as I remembered. As I looked around the room, memories of what had happened here naturally came back to me.

One in particular made me smile bitterly. I had thrown a tantrum, telling my mother that I felt cooped up and wanted to go outside and play.

“I really was such a child back then.”

Well, I had been a child, both in body and in heart.

I looked around the room a bit more, then picked up a newspaper from the table. I had never been to school, but I had learned to read thanks to my mother and the director of the orphanage.

The newspapers that made it to this part of town were mostly filled with gossip, so the words were not too difficult.

“May 7th, Imperial Year 1533.”

I already knew that my grandfather’s Memorial Day was on May 9th, so I had an idea of the date, but this was the first time I knew the year.

1. That would make me ten years old.

Just as I began thinking about what had happened when I was that age, a memory came to me. My mother had taken my hand and brought me to the orphanage.

It was still a painful memory, one that made my bones ache just thinking about it, but I no longer resented her. I had come to understand that she had no other choice.

At least I had been cared for by the warm and kind staff at the orphanage. My mother, on the other hand, had stayed with that man and continued to suffer.

In the end, she died by his hand.

Thinking about how she must have worried about me even in her final moments made my eyes sting. A tear slipped down my cheek before I even noticed.

Then suddenly, the door burst open.

Startled, my heart jumped, but at least the tears quickly stopped. I wiped away the last trace with the back of my hand and turned my head.

Standing at the door was a boy with dark brown hair and a freckled face. It was Kai, the son of the general store owner.

We were never that close, but seeing him after so long made me unexpectedly happy.

“Hi, Kai.”

I smiled brightly and greeted him. Kai squinted one eye and frowned.

“You should call me young master.”

“Why would I?”

“Because your mom calls me that.”

“My mom works here. I don’t.”

Kai seemed at a loss for words. He pressed his lips together and glared at me. His grumpy face looked like it was about to explode.

Seeing that sulky expression reminded me of a time in the past when he had glared at me just like that. It was right after he had failed a school test and been scolded by his parents.

Kai was one of the few children in the neighborhood who had the privilege of attending school, but he was terrible at studying.

“Did you fail another test?”

“It wasn’t a test. It was a spelling quiz. And I didn’t fail. I got thirty points.”

“Zero or thirty. Not much of a difference, really.”

I let out a short laugh and teased him. His face turned red like a tomato.

“Shut up. You’ve never even been to school. What do you know?”

“I haven’t been to school, but I’ve done plenty of spelling quizzes with my mom. I always got perfect scores.”

“Yeah right. That’s the worst lie I’ve ever heard.”

“It’s not a lie. If you don’t believe me, you can test me.”

There were boys like Kai at the orphanage too, so I knew exactly how to handle him.

“You think I can’t? Just wait.”

Kai stormed off and came back a few moments later with a dull pencil and a piece of yellow paper.

“If you get even one wrong, you have to call me young master from now on.”

“And if I get them all right, you have to call me young lady.”

“Deal.”

Interesting. I held back a satisfied grin and took the pencil from him.

“Say any word you want.”

Kai stood with his arms crossed, deep in thought. From the look on his face, he was clearly trying to come up with something difficult. He must have wanted to challenge me. But in the end, he was still just a kid. Besides, with the kind of vocabulary that scored only thirty points on a spelling quiz, there was no way he would know a word I didn’t.

As I expected, I wrote down every word he gave me without hesitation.

“Here you go.”

Kai’s eyes widened as he looked at my answers. His hand, still holding the paper, began to tremble. He looked completely shocked.

“See? I got them all right, didn’t I?”

“This… this doesn’t make sense. How can someone who’s never even been to school…”

“You mean, how can a young lady who’s never been to school do this well.”

I smiled confidently and looked him straight in the eyes. Kai began trembling all over, like a tree in the wind. He stared at me with a look full of frustration, then turned and rushed out of the room without another word.

“I knew it.”

I hadn’t expected him to keep his promise anyway, so I wasn’t disappointed. The only reason I made that suggestion was to get rid of him without causing a scene.

Maybe a small part of me also wanted to get back at him for how he had treated me in the past.

“Revenge on a kid. How childish.”

I let out a quiet sigh. Maybe turning into a child again had made my mind start acting like one too.

I shook my head, folded the spelling quiz into a paper airplane, and sent it flying across the room.