‘Did I touch on something I shouldn’t have?’

The woman who brought her young daughter trembled at the sight of the furniture and decorations she had never seen before in her life.

Unlike their own shabby clothes, everything here was covered in precious and valuable items.

Her young daughter looked around anxiously as if she knew something.

Regardless of her child’s behavior, the woman tightly grasped the ring she had brought.

‘They said it was definitely the duke’s seal.’

It was a ring that had been carelessly left at home because it had no jewels embedded in it.

She had almost thrown it away, thinking it wouldn’t be worth much, but she had no idea it belonged to such a prominent family.

‘There’s nothing to be afraid of. The duke won’t be able to say anything when he sees this, right?’

The woman’s gaze slightly shifted to the child beside her.

Fortunately, her daughter’s hair was also black.

It was completely unlike her own bright yellow-brown hair.

“Is that the woman who brought the ring?”

The man sitting in front pointed at the woman with an arrogant attitude.

At his gesture, the child noticeably flinched.

The woman pressed her child’s hand with her sharp nails. It meant to behave discreetly.

The man’s gaze briefly swept over the child and returned to the woman.

“The ring?”

“He-here it is!”

The woman immediately held out the ring she had been tightly grasping with both hands.

When the man slightly nodded, a servant approached and took the ring from the woman’s hand.

“It’s difficult to verify immediately. However, upon visual inspection, there are no signs of it being a fake.”

At the servant’s words, the woman secretly smiled.

The man’s gaze casually swept over the woman.

The woman glanced up, met the man’s eyes, and hurriedly lowered her gaze.

She didn’t find the man’s gaze, which thoroughly scrutinized her, unpleasant.

Rather, she felt good, as if that gaze showed he was interested in her.

“Th-that ring… The duke personally gave it to me…”

The woman carefully dropped a hint.

“A-a few years ago, he spent the night with me while heavily drunk… And I became pregnant with the duke’s child.”

The sound of a servant standing beside them gasping in shock could be heard.

The woman paid no attention and forcibly pulled her daughter, who was sitting next to her, in front of the duke.

“Th-this child is the duke’s child!”

At the woman’s words, the man chuckled.

“Is that so?”

At the man’s light acknowledgment, the woman let out a sigh of relief. But that was it.

The man coldly continued.

“I have absolutely no memory of it.”

“Y-you were he-heavily drunk at that time…”

“No matter how drunk I was, how could I not remember the face of the woman I held?”

The atmosphere in the room instantly sank.

Growing desperate, the woman, unaware of the situation, struggled to continue speaking.

“B-but please check! It’s the proof you gave me back then!”

“Even so, how does that prove you bore my child?”

“Th-that’s obvious!”

“What if you stole this?”

At the man’s words, the woman dumbly opened and closed her mouth repeatedly.

Meanwhile, the man’s gaze fixed on the child’s hair.

“Well, looking closely, I think I might remember.”

“!”

At the man’s reaction, the woman abruptly raised her head. One of the servants standing beside the man asked, covering his mouth with his hand.

“What will you do?”

“Well.”

At that question, the gaze that had shown interest until just now disappeared, and a toneless voice echoed in the surroundings.

“I’m not interested at the moment.”

At the man’s words, the servant briefly gestured to the other knights. Taking that as a signal, one of the knights dragged the child and woman out.

“Y-your grace! Your grace!”

Even as her child was being taken away, the woman stayed in place without blinking an eye.

In the end, the other knights had to grab and drag her out.

The woman called out desperately, but the duke never once lifted his gaze fixed on the ring.

‘My child.’

Only one scene was strongly etched in his mind.

The image of the child who, despite being frightened, didn’t avoid his eyes.

* * *

It was a day when it rained noisily since morning.

Not a single person could be seen on the streets.

So even if a young child was dragged by the hair, there was no one to ask for help.

“Can’t you follow quickly?!”

The woman screaming in exasperation was my biological mother, Rebecca.

‘I knew this would happen.’

As soon as I got home, I hid in the closet.

But Rebecca, who had been drinking all night, finally found me.

“You wretched girl!”

Rebecca grabbed my hair and dragged me outside.

She didn’t seem to care whether it was raining or not.

This time, Rebecca’s anger didn’t seem like it would easily subside. I sighed and looked up at the sky. The sky was filled with dark clouds, and the future looked bleak.

“It’s all because of you, it’s all your fault!”

A passerby who spotted Rebecca muttering like a half-crazed woman turned around. It was clear he didn’t want to get involved in a complicated situation.

I kept my mouth shut and let Rebecca’s words go in one ear and out the other.

The reason Rebecca was angry was all because of what happened yesterday.

The day before, Rebecca had tried to pull off an absurd scam. Claiming that I was the duke’s daughter.

Naturally, that scam ended in failure. The duke only had three sons. And they were all adopted sons.

Claiming he had a biological daughter was a story that not even a passing dog would believe.

However, Rebecca didn’t assert that I was the duke’s biological daughter without any evidence.

This all started a few days ago when she had a guest over at the house.

Usually, Rebecca goes on business trips to receive guests. But that day, the guest came to the house, and I was hiding in the corner as quiet as a mouse.

I heard the man say something about him having a baron title, so I knew he was a nobleman.

It was quite unfortunate for me that the nobleman discovered a ring lying around our house while drinking with Rebecca.

He said the pattern engraved on the ring was the duke’s family seal.

I couldn’t tell if it was true or not, but the next day, Rebecca said it was worth a try and dragged me to the duke’s residence.

Surprisingly, the ring seemed to indeed belong to the duke. Because the duke took the ring as it was.

We were able to reach the duke’s presence, but that was it. The duke was not someone who would fall for this scam with just that small ring.

Dismissing Rebecca’s words as nonsense, the duke immediately expelled us. The fortunate thing was that the duke let us go safely, with our limbs intact.

I guessed to myself that the duke must have been in a particularly good mood yesterday.

‘If he had been in a bad mood, we might have had our fingers cut off one by one.’

But Rebecca seemed completely unaware that we had faced tremendous luck yesterday.

“Damn it, I should throw you into this fire pit!”

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my head, and my legs gave out.

“Ugh!”

“You useless insect!”

As if more irritated by that, Rebecca threw me to the ground.

My knees and palms, which hit the ground, stung. As soon as I fell to the ground, Rebecca kicked my stomach roughly as if she had been waiting for it.

A suffocating pain arose, but I held back my scream.

“You vicious thing, you won’t even cry when your mother scolds you?”

What an indiscriminate use of violence she called scolding.

I just glared at her without saying a word.

‘If I cry, you’ll hit me more.’

It had been like that since I was young. If I cried because I was hungry, I got slapped. If I whimpered because I was scared, I got kicked.

Once, I was even hit on the head with an ashtray she threw.

At that time, I lost consciousness and collapsed.

After briefly collapsing and waking up, I couldn’t think of that incident as entirely unfortunate.

Because of the shock to my head, I recalled my past life memories.

This place was the world inside a novel I had read in my previous life.

And I knew the male lead and villains of this world.

I knew the duke I saw yesterday was a villain because of the memories that resurfaced at that time.

‘Even if I remember in this situation, it’s not helpful.’

Anyway, since then, I no longer clung to her.

I didn’t beg for love as if she were my everything.

Whether she beat me or starved me, I just lived like that.

The fortunate thing was that I was used to it because I had lived a similar life in my previous life.

“You burden! You’re like a useless insect that’s not helpful at all!”

I closed my eyes tightly and covered my head with both arms.

Knowing that the more I resist, the more violent it becomes, I decided to endure it quietly.

‘I don’t care if I die like this.’

Even if I die, a tiresome life will be waiting for me.

‘I wish it would end quickly.’

As I was thinking that, Rebecca stopped beating me.

‘What?’

I slowly lowered my arms and opened my eyes.

Rebecca was standing still with a dumbfounded expression on her face.

The hand she had been using to hit me was caught by an unfamiliar man.

He was very large and intimidating.

The first thought that came to mind was that it would really hurt to be hit by that person.

“Wh-what! Who are you!”

Rebecca, who had been momentarily stunned, screamed in exasperation. When she shook off his hand, the man willingly let go.

Perhaps gaining some courage from that, Rebecca straightened her body again and confronted him.

“Who are you to lay your hands on someone else’s body!”

“We have business with this child, not you.”

It was Rebecca who lifted me up from the ground where I had been lying face down. Rebecca grabbed my shoulder as if pinching it.

“Can’t you stand up straight?!”

Suddenly, the man’s gaze turned fierce. Observing his expression, I couldn’t help but flinch in fear.

At that moment, the man’s eyes, which met mine, softened very slightly. The man spoke again.

“Let the child go and let’s talk. She looks like she’s having a hard time.”

“What’s it to you? I’m going to scold my child!”

I slightly raised my head to look.

The man standing in front of us was a young man with a decent appearance.

Behind him stood several men of similar build.

It was then that I noticed the pattern on the expensive carriage visible behind them looked familiar.

“This is what you call scolding…”

The man muttered through clenched teeth.

I could see his gaze examining my face and body in turn.

‘He seems angry…’

“I asked what business you have with my child!”

I suddenly became curious.

Was Rebecca clueless or fearless?

‘Both?’

As I was pondering seriously by myself, the man took something out of his pocket.

It was covered in black leather in a circular shape, with a silver pattern engraved on it.

I immediately recognized what it was.

Rebecca was the same. Her hands began to tremble.

“We’re from the Levitze Knights.”

“Wh-why? Kn-knights…”

“We’ve come to find the duke’s biological daughter.”

As I stared at him blankly, the man bent his knee to meet my gaze.

“We’ve come to take you, young lady.”