I Will Live for Your Death (20 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 80

Alan, who had just come out of the newspaper office, immediately headed for the bookbinding shop where he had once worked. Passing through alleyways crowded with people looking for jobs, he made his way toward the district where bookbinders, used bookstores, and printing houses clustered together.

It was a neighborhood saturated with the scent of old ink and aged paper—a place overflowing with books, proportional to the accumulated history of the Empire.

Large buildings, including publishing houses, stood near the front, but the further inward one went, the more tightly packed the small printing shops became.

It was a place utterly unsuited for a noble lady, yet Alice moved about as if she knew every corner of the area.

Back when Count Diobe was still a viscount—and before Celina had become a “Shadow”—House Diobe had been on the verge of ruin.

She had been determined to prevent the family’s complete collapse at all costs. Alice had taken on any job she could find.

She had worked as a governess and taken on every simple home-based side job imaginable. Without doing so, she wouldn’t have been able to afford even basic living expenses, let alone pay her servants’ wages.

Was this nobility or commoner life? She had muttered that question to herself countless times whenever frustration boiled over inside her.

Well, someone had once said labor was sacred. It wasn’t ill-gotten money—so what was wrong with it? Nothing could be more valuable than money earned through honest sweat and blood.

Yet the worth of Alice’s efforts collapsed instantly before her father and younger sister.

Her family immediately criticized the money the eldest daughter brought home—complaining it wasn’t enough to buy jewelry for a dress or to rent a carriage for a ball.

Sometimes, offhand remarks pierced her like daggers. Was it really so difficult to say even a simple “Thank you” or “You’ve worked hard”?

After walking for a while, Alice entered a bookbinding shop marked only by a small signboard.

“Boss! I’m here!”

“Well, who’s this? Alice… or should I call you Alan now, given how you look?”

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