Chapter 12. Regina’s Life Turnaround
2023.10.12.
“What? What is it?”
Priscilla, who had much to hide, deliberately widened her eyes and pretended ignorance.
“The gaps in the middle—was it because money was spent? Are the profits from selling medicine not included?”
“How should I know! I just organized everything based on the receipts sent from the merchant house! Do you think I embezzled the money or something?!”
“…….”
“What are you glaring at Mom like that for…?”
Frustrated by Regina’s suspicious gaze, Priscilla snatched the ledger away.
Already overwhelmed managing the household accounts, suddenly being saddled with the ledger for medicine deliveries was just as burdensome for Priscilla.
Previously, she had always relied on Yuan’s help to perfectly organize the books, then boasted to her husband that this was all thanks to Priscilla Pelliese, daughter of the Pelt Merchant House. Because of that, she couldn’t now complain about being unable to manage.
“Ugh. Fine. If that wench Yuan were still here, she’d have figured out the problem right away.”
Regina felt her breath catch at the name “Yuan,” shot Priscilla a cold look, and walked away.
‘Yuan. Yuan. Father might have taken something from Yuan, but why Mother too?’
To Regina, Yuan leaving was no different than one of the household maids simply departing.
That was exactly how she saw it.
Her father, Gerret Pelliese, had left a perfectly sound noble family in his youth after meeting Priscilla, his mother, and marrying her.
Naively believing the title “second son of the famous Pelliese family,” Priscilla had spent the night with him thinking, “What a lucky break,” only to suddenly find herself pregnant with Frederic.
At the time, the maternal Pelt Merchant House was newly established in the capital and lacked information. The Pelliese family, though prestigious, had always been a minor noble house with no significant inheritance, and their closed-off nature remained unchanged.
The Pelt family only realized Gerret Pelliese was a nobleman with nothing to offer when Priscilla’s pregnancy became evident.
Later, when they learned Gerret Pelliese had neither a minor title, land, nor even personal wealth to inherit, the Pelt family was furious. Had it not been for Priscilla’s pregnancy, Gerret Pelliese would have faced fraud charges for a sham marriage.
After much deliberation, the Pelt Merchant House chose financial support over legal action.
They didn’t want their daughter raising a child without a father, nor did they want her living in poverty.
The Pelt family provided Gerret Pelliese with business capital under the guise of a dowry. But Gerret, inexperienced in commerce, was swindled outright and lost all the money.
Twice more after that.
By the time Frederic and later Regina were born, the count had squandered every bit of business funding provided by his wife’s family, and his authority as head of household had completely collapsed.
Worse, due to his in-laws’ cold indifference, the family moved from one modest平民-like home to another, scraping by in poverty while Gerret, a noble in name only, did no work.
Throughout this, only Priscilla shuttled between her parents’ home, borrowing living expenses to feed her children. As the borrowed money dwindled, the number of times her husband and children glared at Gerret with resentment only grew.
The turning point in his life came when Igor, then the Northern Grand Duke, suddenly ascended the throne.
On the very day news spread nationwide of Emperor Alexei’s funeral and Crown Prince Clade Euphris voluntarily renouncing his title to seek refuge with his maternal family—
Gerret Pelliese was saved by a visit from the family lawyer.
The death of his elder brother, Philip Pelliese.
The joyful news: the heirs were too young, so as the closest blood relative, Gerret was to inherit the title.
At that moment, Regina’s life changed completely.
Her resentment toward her father vanished like a feather in the wind. The moment she stepped out of their rat-infested home and into a noble family’s grand mansion, her heart was utterly captivated.
Even if it was a minor noble house, a noble was still a noble. The plain, unadorned dresses she now found dull had once completely enchanted her.
Everything in Yuan’s room—every item placed or hung—seemed precious and beautiful. The moment she could freely try them on and walk around, she felt as if she owned the entire world.
Regina, who once had to bow her head every time a four-horse carriage passed by, now felt her chest swell with pride knowing she could meet and greet beautiful girls her age inside those carriages as equals.
But the noble society she had dreamed of was not so kind.
To the proud nobles, Priscilla and Regina were nothing but “half-breeds.”
While Yuan Pelliese was accepted as a perfect noble lady—her mother coming from a long line of scholars—Regina, with half her blood from a merchant family, was subtly excluded among her peers.
Her interactions became no different from friendships with mere maids bearing the title of “friend.”
Naturally, Regina’s anger turned toward Yuan, who, though a perfect noble, had fallen to the status of a worthless maid.
At home, Regina freely bossed Yuan around, venting her frustrations, and took everything that belonged to her.
What twisted her even further was when, from one day onward, her father Gerret Pelliese began involving Yuan—the “crow” girl—instead of his own daughter, as his assistant in research.
Regina interpreted her father’s incomprehensible favoritism as “noble thinking.”
A narrow-minded mindset that ruthlessly judged even one’s own child by bloodline, rigidly separating what a noble should or shouldn’t do.
Regina absolutely refused to let anything be taken from her.
She never wanted to envy nobles again, nor did she want to think refined things weren’t meant for her.
‘Now Yuan the crow is gone. Everything is truly mine.’
The higher her status in the household, the less likely her father would carelessly find her a match with some fallen noble who “might at least bring a small territory.”
After winter passed, the dream of every young Euphris girl would begin—
The Royal Debutante Ball, held at the palace, accessible only to those connected to the royal family.
It was the stage Regina had dreamed of since childhood, when she lived outside the mansion, unrecognized as a noble.
A stage that could change her life.
To shine brightest there, she needed a suitable partner to raise her value.
For example, a man from the Treloni Count’s family, who owned vast territories.
Just then, as a maid entered with a basket of letters, Regina spotted a letter bearing the Treloni family crest and swiftly hid it.
Pacing anxiously in the parlor, Regina glared at the wall where portraits of the previous Pelliese counts hung prominently. They had been irritating her all along.
‘Damn crows.’
Whenever she invited girls her age, they would alternately glance at the portraits—black-haired, black-eyed—and then at her.
With red hair and green eyes, Regina felt like an outsider simply for not sharing their coloring.
Avoiding the ancestral faces that seemed to look down on her, Regina clutched the letter tightly and rushed to her room.
Then she crawled under the bed and pulled out a box.
Inside were stacks of letters, large and small.
Letters filled with inquiries about Yuan’s well-being—sent faithfully over the past year by Louise Pelliese to this mansion.
Regina picked a random letter from the pile and held it up to the chandelier light.
Louise’s letters contained nothing suspicious beyond detailed personal greetings.
She had secretly intercepted the letters for a year, yet during that time, Yuan had shown no unusual behavior.
Though she occasionally seemed to wait for letters, if she truly longed for her sister’s words, she surely would have searched the servants’ quarters no matter what.
‘In the end, she didn’t care about Louise either.’
Otherwise, how could she have so eagerly—
Rushed off with Marquis Companni like a fox?
Thinking back, though she played the victim and hurled accusations at the family who sheltered her, that wench Yuan hadn’t shed a single tear over her sister’s death. What else could she be but a heartless freak?
Regina roughly folded the letter and tossed it back into the box, then secretly opened the Treloni family letter she had hidden.
The letter was densely written in the neat handwriting of Dreykub Treloni, the third son of the Treloni Count’s family.
He seemed to have much to say regarding her swift rejection of his recent marriage proposal.
It was a persuasive letter, stating his sincere desire to marry the daughter of Count Pelliese, and that his family was even willing to grant him a minor territory if he truly wished it—urging her to reconsider.
“A marriage proposal? We nearly had a disaster!”
He hadn’t just taken a liking to Yuan—he’d actually sent a formal proposal?
Had Yuan not left this mansion, such an offer would have caused Priscilla to lose her mind.
And Gerret Pelliese, who longed for territory, would have been even more outraged.
A girl receiving marriage proposals before her debut ball would naturally draw attention.
Especially if rumors spread that the daughter of the Pelliese Count’s family—a house not even among the great nobles—had already received a proposal before her debut?
If the girl at the center of it all were Regina, then naturally, she would be the most talked-about at the debutante ball!
Regina’s green eyes lingered for a long moment on the words “Daughter of Count Pelliese.”
A young noble who had only just been knighted.
The recklessness of someone willing to offer territory just to marry a girl he hadn’t even spoken to.
Clearly, Dreykub Treloni had fallen for Yuan at first sight, without even knowing her name.
Now, the question of who to bring as her partner to the Royal Debutante Ball was troubling.
Having her fat father beside her didn’t look good, and bringing her equally “half-breed” older brother Frederic did nothing for her dignity.
Besides, having grown up among commoners, Regina had no close noble acquaintances to ask.
‘Dreykub Treloni is perfect.’
In beauty, she was far superior to the dull crow Yuan Pelliese.
Confident that Dreykub Treloni would fall in love with her the moment he saw her, Regina began writing her reply to his letter.
Male lead fell into her trap — and shattered when she walked away
This is also on my reread list!
This one is a slow burn, but when it burns, it burns hard.
Definitely worth a read, y’all!
The story follows a thousand-year-old seductive spirit who, on a bet, sets out to charm the male lead—a once-promising but unfortunate cultivator.
But just when she succeeds in making him fall for her, she heartlessly leaves, driving him to madness.
Determined to find her at all costs, he captures her, keeping her by his side no matter what, even if she hates him.
I love this kind of trope—I enjoy watching the male lead suffer in agony.
The ending drags a bit with unnecessary filler, but that’s fine.
As long as I enjoy the beginning, I’m good.
Intro
As an enchantress, Su Heng possesses captivating eyes and charming beauty, easily manipulating the joys and sorrows of living beings at her fingertips.
But to enchant a god, making him taste the bitterness of love’s separation, long-lasting resentment, unattainable desires, and inability to let go…
Do you dare?
Su Heng assists a divine lord in his cultivation, aiming to make him experience all the sufferings of love, so that he can attain the Great Dao.
Only after being chased down from the heavens by the divine lord, confined and completely possessed by him, does she realize how successful she has been.
The once gentle and polite youth has transformed into someone she no longer recognizes.
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