Chapter 8
(TL/N : this chapter reveals a lot about Rose and her true nature. And I’m starting to like her as well.)
-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-
(Hildea’s POV)
There are quite a lot of people who come into our mansion these days. Their intention is to see and discuss a lot of things with my father. And it seems like those people are the ones who I can hear talking outside of my room.
Perhaps I should have just let it slide, but that scratchy voice caught my attention.
“Was it really because of the oldest miss?”
What?
Aren’t I the oldest miss? What are they talking about? What did I do wrong?
My heart was pounding anxiously.
I quietly got out of bed and walked straight to the door.
I didn’t wanna hear it, but I needed to know what they were talking about.
Then maybe, I would have an idea about why the people in this mansion continue to look down on me.
Thinking about it tore my heart to pieces.
I hesitantly turned the doorknob, half with the desire to open the door, and half with reluctance.
AfterI heard a very small squeak, I saw two people standing outside through the crack in the door.
One was a servant who had been working in our mansion for quite some time, and the other had an unknown face.
It seemed to be a newly hired servant who had just started to work at our mansion.
“I’ve already heard of it.”
He looked down as if embarrassed by his unexpectedly high-pitched voice. Then he looked around to make sure that no one heard what he said, and confided in a low voice,
“Ever since then, the rumors are well known within the society. There aren’t just one or two people who are curious about the two ladies of the Hillington.”
“……….”
“That’s the reason why I heard a lot of rumors about the oldest miss.”
I have no idea what they’re talking about.
I haven’t been introduced to society yet, so why are there rumors about me?
“It’s certain that Miss Hildea is not a very affectionate person. She’s only eight years old and yet she hardly ever smiles. I also haven’t seen her treat anyone kindly. On the other hand, Miss Rose isa very cute and bubbly person.”
“…….”
That guy.
I wanted to go grab him by the collar and shake him, considering all the nonsense that he was spewing.
It’s okay for me to blame myself, but I didn’t want to hear it from another person, especially from a stranger!
However, my anger that almost erupted like an active volcano, suddenly hardened like cold wax.
“Did you just say that the Duchess died because of the first lady’s congratulatory remarks? Be honest with me, is that true?”
…….What?
‘Congratulatory remarks? My congratulations remarks?’
The moment I heard it, my lips trembled.
There was an uncontrollable sound of teeth grinding.
I felt like I was naked outside in the middle of winter without wearing anything at all.
‘Do I really have congratulatory remarks? But…’
(t/n I’ll be using the word Congratulatory Remarks or Sayings, but from what I understand is that once they were brought to the temple after they were born a prophet will gave a Congratulatory Remarks to the baby that was born, just like Rose who was given the remarks of likability.)
Because of me, my mother died?
“What on earth did they say to the extent that the Duchess died? What are Miss Hildea’s Sayings?”
The other servant who was being asked didn’t respond to the question, but his affirmative attitude struck my heart like an axe.
My mother died because of congratulatory remarks that I didn’t even know.
Then…. Was that the reason why everybody hates me? Really?
My heart was pounding like crazy and it hurt deeply. I was also aware that tears were flowing down my cheeks and I felt like a fool.
I closed the door carefully and took a deep breath.
“Ugh.”
My vision blurred.
My shoulders continued to tremble, and I couldn’t hold back the tears that were overflowing.
There was no such story like this in the original plot.
So I have congratulatory remarks.
What kind of sayings do I have?
And did all of this happen because of that?
Is that also the reason why my Father and everyone else were having a hard time being around me?
‘Why am I so sad? This is not even my real body.’
My face which was reflected inside the mirror hardened without any expression, just like the real me in the past.
I didn’t know what my ability was. I didn’t even know my name until I was 12 months old.
But a sudden fear gripped me.
If my mother died because of the sayings, does that mean that I really had no hope from the beginning?
Was I really just a spare, like a redundant foreign object?
Because there is no other child in the original story of <Young Miss is Sweet>.
If that’s the case, does that mean that the real Hildea may have died on the day she was kidnapped?
Then I really don’t deserve to be here…
Isn’t that the case?
-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-
“Sister.”
“!”
If it hadn’t been for those little arms gently hugging me from behind, I would have drowned in my melancholy thoughts.
“What are you doing?”
I quickly wiped away my tears. Rosé, who’s standing behind me, is an eight-year-old girl who didn’t know anything yet.
Depression and sadness are contagious.
“Nothing.”
“Sister, why are you crying? Who did this to you?”
When I looked back, I saw her red eyes with tears overflowing as well.
Fine wrinkles gathered atop Rose’s nose, which increased her sniffling.
“But why are you crying?”
“No, (Sniff) the reason I cried is because I heard some bad words.”Th.ê most uptod/at𝓮 n𝒐vels a/re published on n(0)velbj)n(.)c/o/m
“It was nothing, Rosé. You should sleep more. Why are you awake already?”
“Oh! Then we should sleep together in bed. Don’t listen to them.”
Rose gradually approached me and covered my ears with her warm hands, rubbing them soothingly.
It felt like she was blocking out all of the sound that reached my ears. That was why I couldn’t help but laugh. Oh, so lovely.
When I looked at her, she deliberately blinked her cute eyes slowly, as if saying “Rather than being clever, I just wanna be affectionate .”
PR Note: Think puss in boots from Shrek? lol
“I’m still sleepy. Come to bed with me, sister.”
That’s weird. I thought I just heard someone grinding their teeth.
But in front of me, I could only see sweet Rosé who was smiling brightly.
Okay, but there’s no way that a rabbit-like kid would have been that angry, to the point of grinding her teeth.
“……Shall we?”
“Yes, just a little more. You’re going to sleep with me a little longer too. They said sleep is the best medicine.”
“Ha ha, and where did you hear that?”
“Your sister is smart. Hehe.”
A small hand suddenly grabbed mine. I couldn’t resist her warmth, and laid down beneath a soft blanket.
Rosé wiped the tears that had flowed down her cheeks with her wiggling hands as if trying to make them evaporate faster.
After I cleaned my runny nose, I immediately shut my eyes.
The sadness lingered, but anger flared towards those servants who spoke badly of me.
See you later.
I’m going to pluck out all those nasty nose hairs.
(T/N she’s implying about dealing with those servants who say bad things about her.)
I’m not going to let the roots grow as if they were sprayed with herbicides!
‘Wait. What the hell am I thinking?’
Pat pat. I held back my tears which were about to come out again, as Rose continued to pat my shoulder and all the while she hugged me tightly.
Like an animal that hibernates while leaning in the warmth of its child’s body, I fell into a deep sleep, avoiding my problems.
Like I could forget everything.
However, anxiety pricked my heart like a thorn.
I didn’t want to be hated by my Father nor Rosé.
Please. I hope my Mother didn’t die because of me.
Please…
-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-
After a while,a shuffling sound was heard under the blanket.
“Sister, are you already asleep?”
Tear marks had formed on the cheeks of the silver-haired girl who must have been tired and fell asleep right away.
“Those bad guys. I can’t forgive them.”
Unexpectedly harsh words came out of the mouth of the pink-haired girl who was looking affectionately at her sister.
“I’m going to destroy them.”
The girl stood up, clenching her fists as if she had made up her mind.
Then she pulled up a pen from her pocket, ripped a piece of paper from her sister’s desk and went back to the bed.
But something strange happened.
As if by magic, something that looked like a box appeared out of nowhere from the piece of paper.
Ting!
“It’s so frustrating that I can’t talk to her directly, and it feels like I’m going crazy. And how dare someone like that hurt my sister!”
And so the girl, Rosériel, began to write with her eyes blazing.
-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-
(Chris’ POV)
‘What? Why isn’t he answering me?’
Chris swallowed his irritation while glaring at the senior servant, who was staring at a piece of paper without saying a word.
‘Why aren’t you saying anything?’
This mansion was really strange.
At first, I thought that the oldest miss, Hildea, was being harassed by the Duke and her family.
But as I observed more, it didn’t seem like that was the case.
So I asked if there was really a hidden inside story, and the laid-back and slow servant who was called senior servant here in the mansion, didn’t say anything and just looked at the paper.
What’s on that piece of paper, you idiot?
‘Are you sleeping? Don’t tell me that you can sleep while standing up?’
In fact, Chris was a spy.
He secretly infiltrated the aristocratic family to obtain their family secrets and sold them to important people for money.
Every noble family had a lot to hide in order for them to live, so even if they only disclosed one secret, money still flowed from it.
Now the most well sought information, which would make the nobles of the Imperial capital salivate and run like a flock of dogs, was by far about the Belfius and Hillington families.
‘Because I couldn’t touch the Belfius family.’
Considering that a 12-year-old kid, who will be known as the future tyrant of the Empire, became the immediate head of his family, Dukedom definitely stopped me from going there.
And I knew that the Hillington family was more relaxed than before. That’s why I thought that it would be okay, or so I believed..
But then.
“You.”
The senior servant, who I thought was sleeping while standing, slowly raised his head.
I’m not sure why, but suddenly I felt chills going down my spine.
“Yes?”
“What were you talking about regarding the congratulatory remarks of the oldest miss?
The scariest part was when I saw how the senior servant looked at me, as if he was going to rip me to pieces.
And
‘Gasp!’
I never thought that this would happen.
“When I saw you earlier, shit was coming out of your mouth, wasn’t it?.”
(TL/N: the senior servant pertains to Chris spreading lies.)
My body stiffened, and my heart started to throb, as if it were being squished.
I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t even do that. It felt like my body was not mine.
“How dare you say bad things about our oldest miss?”
As a servant of an aristocratic family and for the information to be delivered, Chris had to have enough skills to protect himself.
But this servant was on another level.
‘Damn it! I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe!’
(3rd Person POV)
“You crazy bastard. Talking shit inside the residence of the Hillingtons?”
Not only that, but before he realized what was going on, Chris was caught in the hands of the senior servant.
Seeing his face gradually turning red, the senior only smiled fiercely.
‘This crazy bastard!’
“”Ugh, ugh, ugh!”
“It wouldn’t be difficult to talk with a piercing in your mouth.”
There was something written on the paper that the servant threw away.
Of course, the soft handwriting slowly disappeared,ensuring that there would be no evidence left.
[Ting!]
[It’s me, the observer.]
[I want someone to get rid of that rookie who made Hildea-nim cry.]
[He’s talking nonsense.]
[A thorough punishment is needed.]
[His name is Chris and he is likely a spy.]
(TL/N: I was confused about this part from chapter 7, but now it seems to be another ability that Roselia has, and she’s using it to help Hidea, to communicate with the servants inside the mansion.)
“You are going to die today.”
“Ugh…. No!”
The senior servant whispered “Shh….”
“You might wake up our Ladies. So you have to be quiet, you punk!”
Soon, Chris deeply regretted the decision to come here.
-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-
(Rose’s POV)
“This time I’ll be telling you ladies the detailed story about the families of Belfius and the Hillington. Do you have any further questions before we begin? Young ladies.”
I was dozing off with my chin resting on my hand, when I suddenly opened my eyes and raised my hand eagerly.
“Yes!”
I smiled when I saw the marquis’ troubled face. I thought that I should give him a bit of encouragement, but maybe not.
Give up, Marquis.
My sister is a child who can’t be bothered by anything.
“Rosé, young lady. What are you curious about?”
“About the wedding. What if my sister and I both sayno?”
I rolled my eyes.
TO BE CONTINUED….
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