The voice of an unfamiliar man instantly chased away her sleep.

“What’s this, don’t tell me you spent the night here?”

Eloise’s startled eyes snapped open. Morning had already dawned without her realizing, and a long shadow stretching from the square opening of the warehouse entrance fell across her face.

She couldn’t properly see his face due to the dazzling sunlight behind the man’s back, but it wasn’t difficult to tell that he was an elderly gentleman dressed in a silk hat and coat.

“Who are you, and why were you hiding in my factory warehouse?”

The gentleman with a slightly hoarse voice asked incredulously.

Realizing that he was the owner of the Old Bridge Bead Factory, Eloise hastily tidied her hair and clothes. She was about to explain the circumstances that forced her to spend the night here, when…

“If you’re trying to buy my sympathy, you should have snuck into the mansion instead.”

The factory owner, after thoroughly looking over the woman sitting before him in a disheveled and defenseless state, muttered under his breath.

“There are too many prying eyes here.”

“…Oh!”

At that moment, a face with a chubby chin suddenly popped out from behind the factory owner’s back.

It was Mrs. Dunn, the financial manager of the factory who had received Eloise’s application. Without a chance to greet her, the woman began to speak.

“This is the woman I mentioned before, sir!”

“Before? What was it about?”

“The troublemaker. There was already a lot of talk about her attendance issues, and in the end, she greatly disrupted the atmosphere of the workshop with her unauthorized absences.”

Mrs. Dunn delivered a swift report, her sharp gaze fixed on the woman before her eyes.

At the words “troublemaker,” Eloise suddenly felt a sense of injustice. During her time working at the factory, she may have been a little clumsy, but she was a silent and diligent worker.

However, it was true that she couldn’t readily object to those words as her current self.

Eloise’s face burned like freshly baked bread due to the stark contrast between the two well-dressed people looking down at her and her own appearance, like a rat hiding in a warehouse looking up at them.

“Isn’t that right, Ms. Taylor? If you have a mouth, try answering.”

“……”

Eloise hesitated, not knowing what to say first.

It was extremely unfortunate to encounter the factory owner, whom she had never met before, at this very moment.

But for now, an apology came first.

“I’m truly sorry. And… my name is not Taylor, it’s Bailey.”

“Ha, is that important right now?”

Perhaps embarrassed at being corrected in front of the factory owner, Mrs. Dunn abruptly raised her voice.

In the meantime, Eloise swiftly wiped her face. Of course, there was nothing she could do about her thoroughly disheveled hair and wrinkled clothes.

Eloise staggered to her feet and faced the two, and Mrs. Dunn snapped at her in an icy tone.

“I won’t listen to excuses. Ms. Bailey, you’re fired. To be precise, your position was given to someone else on the third day of your unauthorized absence.”

“I’m… What?”

Eloise swayed slightly at the sudden announcement. The sentences floating in her mind instantly turned into white ashes and scattered.

“But Mrs. Dunn….”

“I don’t even remember the last time you showed up at the factory! Isn’t there no room for excuses after being absent for over a month without permission?”

The fair brown eyebrows drooped at the harsh reprimand.

Eloise moved her lips, thinking she had to say something, but all that came out was a powerless sigh.

‘I loved my elder sister’s fiancé, so I came to the capital to forget him, but he found me here, confessed his love to me, and overturned the marriage that my family’s future depended on. So I had no choice but to return home immediately….’

Of course, she couldn’t answer like that.

With a distressed face, Eloise only fidgeted with the hem of her innocent dress as Mrs. Dunn’s sharp voice continued in her ears.

“I must have already told you, right? There’s a line of people wanting to enter this place. I gave you an opportunity that was nothing short of a godsend, but you not only coaxed the manager to gain unfair benefits….”

“Mrs. Dunn, I have nothing to say except that I’m sorry. But the part about me coaxing Mr. Woodley….”

Strength quietly entered Eloise’s eyes. Coaxing the manager? Eloise had never made any effort to gain his favor.

Of course, it was true that he had done her a few favors, so it was possible that someone who disliked her had exaggerated the situation while she was away….

But in the end, it was obvious that it would lead to an embarrassing discussion, so Eloise decided to hold her tongue.

That thought solidified a little more the moment she saw the factory owner’s grizzled eyebrows twitch as if intrigued.

Then Mrs. Dunn waved her hand.

“No, never mind. It’s a clear fact that there was a loss in production due to the sudden vacancy. You were fired long ago, so you should leave now.”

“Loss in production? Wasn’t the vacancy quickly filled as usual?”

When the factory owner slyly interjected, Mrs. Dunn frowned deeply.

“Oh, sir!”

“It seems she has a pitiful situation….”

“Have you forgotten that the mayor is keeping an eye on our factory? How many times have you found yourself in trouble after showing favor to a young female worker?”

The factory owner cleared his throat and averted his gaze at Mrs. Dunn’s sharp glare.

“We can’t keep such a delinquent young lady. We need to nip it in the bud.”

“……”

Eloise Bailey, the second daughter of the Bailey family, grew up in an abundance of love throughout her life.

From the moment she was born, she was surrounded by people who were as warm as sunshine. So naturally, she had no wrinkles, no immunity to misunderstandings or sly words.

But after coming to the capital, there were countless moments when her heart crumbled like sand.

Each time, she comforted herself and endured, and in fact, she had adapted quite well to the ecology of this city. Even at the cost of giving away her own sparkle.

But no matter what, it was hard to remain calm in the face of being mercilessly driven out.

‘It hasn’t even been a day since I was kicked out of Mrs. Mullitch’s house….’

If she was driven out of here as well, Eloise would have nowhere else to go.

She also lacked the confidence to immediately find a new job and adapt in her current disastrous state. As her thoughts reached that point, her heart pounded again with desperation.

“…I’m truly sorry.”

Eloise hurriedly bowed her head.

“I left the village of Mayvery alone. I started working with a firm determination to do well on my own, but an unavoidable situation arose and I had to briefly return to my family. I can assure you that this will never happen again. If you give me one more chance, I will never again….”

“Why should we do that?”

Mrs. Dunn’s icy voice cut off her words and painfully pierced her tender heart.

“Wake up, young lady. This isn’t a fairy tale world.”

“……”

As she lifted her trembling gaze, she saw Mrs. Dunn with her arms crossed, looking down at her with a condescending gaze as if pitying her.

The factory owner averted his gaze the moment their eyes met, whistling.

“Hmph, we wasted time for nothing. You need to check the wage records quickly.”

“Ah, right. We should.”

That was the end of it. The two turned around as if nothing had happened.

Then, with the busy gait typical of the people of the capital, they walked away and disappeared from sight.

Eloise, who was shaking her shoulders with a shabby feeling, shouted with her eyes tightly closed.

“Wait a moment!”

“Ha, what is it?”

Mrs. Dunn turned around with a face full of irritation. Her fierce glare contained a hint of contempt.

“If you don’t leave here right away, I will call someone, Ms. Bailey.”

“Give me what I worked for.”

“What did you say?”

“Not yet….”

For a moment, it felt as if she had swallowed a flame, and her throat was hot.

She felt something surging in her chest, but Eloise answered in the calmest voice she could muster at the moment.

“I haven’t received my wages yet. I apologize, but please pay me for the work I’ve done.”

“Ha, this is really unbelievable.”

“…I’m in a desperate situation right now. Please, I beg you.”

However, she couldn’t hide the desperate look in her eyes.

Passing through the familiar workshop, Eloise went to Mrs. Dunn’s office and checked the records of her attendance and daily work output.

Although she hadn’t been in Brightenham for long before starting work and had been going in and out of this place almost every day since then, her total working days were less than a month.

Nevertheless, her records generally showed a respectable amount of work.

It was minimal in the beginning, but after more than a fortnight, there was little difference from the fastest worker in the factory.

However, the money Eloise received was less than half of what the records indicated.

When she immediately asked the reason, the answer was that the amount took into account the damage she had caused to the factory.

Eloise had nothing more to say to Mrs. Dunn, who glared at her, saying she would call the police if she took any more time and disrupted the work.

Eloise put the unexpectedly small amount of money into a small pouch and had no choice but to leave the factory.

Now she had nowhere else to go, but she couldn’t stand idly in front of the factory either, so she just walked aimlessly.

Perhaps because she had spent the night crumpled up in a cold, windy corner of the warehouse, her body ached all over as if it had been shattered.

But what really hurt was her heart.

If one could see her wounded heart with their eyes, it would surely be full of red scratches.

Eloise, who arrived at the central square out of habit, trudged over to an empty bench placed on one side of the square.

Pigeons flew up noisily with each step of her tired feet, but Eloise didn’t even have the energy to scream.

“Phew….”

Eloise placed her heavy bag, which felt like a punishment, on the chair and let out a deep sigh.

There was no sense of reality as extreme fatigue and hopelessness mixed together.

With an empty heart, Eloise plopped down next to the old bag.

It felt just like a miserable fall. She felt like disappearing right then and there.