“Brighton, we will be stopping soon.”

When did she fall asleep? Eloise, who woke up at the conductor’s loud voice, slowly yawned and stretched.

“Finally… here.”

Eloise, who covered her mouth with a startled face, blinked blankly. As the drowsiness slowly receded, reality gradually became clearer.

Her shoulders slumped lifelessly.

‘Ah, even if I yawn like this, there’s no mother to nag me.’

I’ve come so far alone. That thought came belatedly.

She couldn’t even remember how many times the carriage had stopped on the way here.

She woke up whenever passengers got on and off, but she was in a hurry to close her eyes again.

That’s because when she was awake, there was surprisingly nothing to do.

The scenery outside the window, which was getting busier, soon became boring, and it was agonizing every moment to realize that her sister was not by her side to have trivial conversations with.

When the stopping time overlapped with mealtime, she had a simple meal at a nearby restaurant, but each meal was surprisingly tasteless because she was alone.

Of course, it couldn’t compare to the warm meals made by the cook, Mr. Mitchell, but even the clumsy sandwiches she made herself would have been better than that.

Still, if someone had been by her side, they would have laughed about the terrible food.

‘Being alone is a lonely thing.’

Loneliness. It was a fresh and unfamiliar emotion to Eloise.

It was also the emotion she felt the moment she heard the news of her sister’s marriage. But anyway, she had to get used to it now. That’s why she came all the way here.

At that moment, the voice of a middle-aged gentleman penetrated her ears.

“Oh, look over there.”

To be precise, it was the word that followed.

“They’re cadets.”

“Ah! The Royal Military Academy is around here, right? The army?”

“Yes. It’s in Chatham. It’ll be about an hour from here.”

“The uniforms are neat. It’s still midsummer, is the summer vacation already over?”

Eloise raised her head as if possessed and looked out the window, which was half open with the curtain.

Outside was a different world.

The scenery of a main street packed with tall buildings, dyed in the glory of a scarlet sunset, was so beautiful that it left her speechless.

However, the sight of the cadets mentioned by the couple was no longer visible as the carriage was still moving.

A sense of helpless regret rushed in. Even though there was no chance that Ansel would be among them anyway.

‘…Wait a minute. Why am I feeling regretful?’

When her thoughts reached that point, she felt like banging her head against the window.

But since she couldn’t actually do that, Eloise closed her eyes again while adjusting the handbag in her arms.

It wasn’t long before the carriage stopped.

“Oh, it finally stopped!”

“We’ve arrived at last.”

The two men spoke in excited voices. Other than them and Eloise, no other passengers had changed on the way from Longfield to here.

With a thud, the conductor opened the carriage door, quickly jumped out, and announced that they had reached the final destination.

“Brighton, Brighton!”

A slightly cool breeze and the bustling noise of the street flowed into the carriage.

A dozen or so passengers were busy stretching, gathering their belongings, and sharing their thoughts on the long journey.

In the midst of that, Eloise, who was sitting calmly, waited for people to get off first with a face like a frightened child.

“Please get off, young lady.”

“Thank you.”

Eloise, who was now alone, got off the carriage with the help of the conductor. The luggage bag was already placed in front of the carriage.

The carriage that had dropped off all the passengers left without looking back.

Eloise stood there with a dazed expression, fully exposed to the dust raised by the carriage.

Half of it was exhaustion that felt like her whole body would break, and the other half was vague fear. A hollow laugh escaped involuntarily.

‘I really came to Brighton. Alone…’

Eloise, who rubbed her sore eyelids, took a deep breath and slowly opened her eyes. The scenery of the street she properly looked at for the first time was… quite shocking.

“Huh?”

Unlike the scenery she had seen from inside the carriage, the street was completely messy and dirty.

Due to the adjacent market, it was not desolate, but all kinds of garbage and animal excrement were rolling under her feet, and even beggars and vagrants covered in soot were gathered here and there, making the atmosphere extremely ominous.

‘How did this happen…’

As Eloise hesitated, unable to take a step, a voice was heard behind her.

“It seems to be the Longfield lady’s first time in the capital?”

“…Pardon?”

The ones who spoke to her were the men who had been on the same carriage.

It was unknown why they were still here, but she wasn’t particularly curious about the reason.

If there was something she wanted to ask, it was something else.

“Well, it’s my first time, but it’s completely different from the scenery I saw earlier…”

“Even if it’s the same capital-bound route, the routes differ for each omnibus. Didn’t you check the route map?”

“I checked and took that carriage. My relative’s address is around here.”

“Were you surprised that the capital you saw for the first time was different from what you imagined? This area has always been like this. What the lady saw must have been the affluent neighborhood.”

“…I see.”

It seemed that this was the slum area of the capital.

Of course, Brighton was said to be so vast that it was called a small kingdom, and she didn’t think that such a large city would be full of roses and green fields like peaceful Maybury, but…

One of the men asked Eloise, who had become somewhat sullen.

“Shall I help you, young lady? Where does your relative live?”

“Well…”

Eloise stopped her hand as she was about to take out a note with the address written on it from her bag.

It was because she noticed that the man’s gaze was strangely sticky.

Come to think of it, their way of speaking and appearance were also not neat. They were men who could not be considered gentlemen trying to help a lady in distress, no matter how you looked at it.

As her thoughts were organized, her beautiful honey-colored eyebrows shot up.

Eloise, who closed her trembling lips so as not to be caught, showed wariness in her eyes, and the man raised both hands as if startled.

“I’m just trying to help! You said it’s your first time here. Going to find it alone…”

“Thank you for your words. But I can find my way by asking for directions, so there’s no problem.”

At the resolute answer, the man clicked his tongue regretfully and added.

“Be careful, young lady. The capital is a very scary place. Especially after sunset.”

“…”

“If you don’t want to be swallowed up in one bite, it’s best to stay alert.”

When Eloise sent a vigilant gaze again, the two men laughed hollowly.

“Then I wish you luck, Longfield lady.”

“…It’s Maybury.”

Eloise, who muttered in a small voice, turned her steps away, leaving behind the men who were disappearing into the shadowy darkness under the bridge.

No matter how lightly she packed, the luggage bag full of clothes and belongings could not be light.

The journey to find Uncle Simon’s house while carrying that heavy luggage was by no means easy.

To make matters worse, the sky was getting darker by the minute.

No matter how far north it was, even though it was the same kingdom, the air that had cooled down in the evening was even chilly.

‘It’s too hard…’

Needless to say, her whole body was screaming from traveling in the carriage for a long time, and the evening scenery of the capital, which was not as beautiful as she thought, further dampened her already depleted motivation.

Moreover, the people were very cold.

When she asked for directions, some ignored her and walked away as if they were busy, and even those who did answer showed obvious signs of annoyance.

Every time she felt like the vagrants lingering at the edge of the alley were watching her, she gripped the handle of the luggage bag tightly, making her palms numb.

“…Is this the place?”

Eloise raised her tired face in front of the main street where small two-story and three-story houses were clustered together.

Her dazed gaze stopped at a house beautifully covered with old vines among them.

“4 Northtown, the red brick house!”

As soon as she confirmed that she had found the right place, Eloise’s face brightened like a hibiscus flower.

Fortunately, this area seemed to be somewhere in between the slums and the affluent neighborhood.

There was no glamorous feeling, but at least there was no garbage lying around, and there were no homeless people with dirty appearances.

As if it had been a lie, the two legs that had been staggering as if they were about to collapse at any moment, Eloise crossed the street with a light, airy step.

A humming tune naturally came out with her joyful heart.

‘What should I say? Hello, I am the daughter of Catherine Fairban?’

She had been nervous the whole way here at the thought of leaving home without a plan and begging a distant relative she had never met before, but now she didn’t care.

Anyway, they must have received the letter, and she was told they were good people…

‘I want to wash up and lie down on the bed soon!’

The gate, with its paint peeling here and there, was at the top of a flight of at least ten stone steps.

Eloise, who led her numb legs to the front of the door, gently put the luggage bag on the floor and quickly tidied her appearance.

She also adjusted her disheveled hat and cleared her throat, finally gaining the courage to knock on the door.

Bang bang, she knocked on the door with all her might with a trembling hand, and after a while, the sound of footsteps approaching the front door was heard.

Soon the door opened, and Eloise spit out the words that had been lingering in her mouth as if she had been waiting.

“Hello, I’m… huh?”

But the person who opened the door was an elderly woman with grizzled hair.

A look of bewilderment naturally rose on Eloise’s face.

‘Uncle Simon was widowed a very long time ago. So he must be living alone.’

…Did he remarry in the meantime?

While various thoughts were trailing one after another in Eloise’s mind, the elderly woman, who also had a puzzled face, frowned and folded her arms.

A sharp gaze hidden behind glasses scanned the rustic-looking young lady up and down.

The elderly woman, who had roughly grasped the situation, was about to say something, when Eloise couldn’t contain her curiosity and asked.

“Who are you?”