The life of a wealthy unemployed person was beyond imagination.
There was no one nagging to wake up early even when oversleeping, clothes were not changed alone, and even washing oneself was never done with one’s own hands.
And that’s not all.
Food that appeared before one’s eyes at the right time and occasionally elaborate snacks.
The maids prepared everything I needed in front of me before I even wanted it.
If this wasn’t paradise, what was?
“It’s all good. Everything’s good, but…”
However, there was one problem that even she, who didn’t usually nitpick, simply couldn’t ignore.
And that was.
“Ugh.”
The fact that she couldn’t have a proper meal.
Dalia covered her mouth as nausea rose the moment food entered it.
Only after spitting the food into a napkin on the table could she barely calm her stomach.
“How many times is this now?”
Dalia frowned as she put down the fork she was holding, almost throwing it. The nicely made omelet was ruined miserably.
Dalia gulped down water to wash away the unpleasant taste lingering in her mouth.
Since being possessed here, she had never had a satisfying meal.
The meals brought by the maids only looked decent on the outside, but the taste was terribly disgusting.
She glared at the omelet that only looked appetizing.
“It’s hard to make an omelet taste this bad…”
It was incomprehensible why an omelet, which only needed eggs and salt, tasted like canned saury.
And it wasn’t just the omelet that was the problem.
Even the mushroom soup on the trolley with the omelet had a strong fishy taste.
“What exactly is wrong?”
At first, she thought it might have been a mistake by the chef. After all, anyone can make a mistake once in a while.
So Dalia asked the maid to bring new food, saying the seasoning seemed off, but the result was no different.
“Every new dish they bring consistently tastes like rotten fish.”
And this situation had been repeating for four days.
Dalia’s face grew serious as she finally noticed something was amiss today.
“Could it be…”
The Sayer ducal family was a house with power rivaling that of the empire’s emperor.
For such a ducal family, and for the food of the duchess to taste this terrible?
There was only one reason for this.
Perhaps this was…
“Pregnancy?”
Ah. Why hadn’t she thought of that?
Just a few days ago, she had been depressed about confirming her pregnancy!
With a short sigh, Dalia hit her forehead and her body went limp.
Most likely, the food not agreeing with her was due to morning sickness.
“I really did get pregnant…”
She had been holding onto a glimmer of hope, but unfortunately, she had really gotten pregnant after that night.
Just as she was feeling a bit depressed about this absurd reality of waking up to find herself pregnant, Dalia shook her head as if finally resigned.
Having been possessed as a pregnant female protagonist, pregnancy was an expected course. So being gloomy about it wouldn’t change anything.
Rather, there was something else she needed to pay attention to right now.
Dalia looked at the food spread out on the table.
“To think that food, the most important of food, clothing, and shelter, is in this state.”
It was truly terrible.
Dalia let out another sigh, genuinely distressed.
At this rate, she felt she might starve to death before giving birth to the child.
Unable to touch the food laid out before her, Dalia finally stood up.
“This is all good. It’s all good, but…”
There was only one thing left to do.
“I have no choice but to find food I can eat myself.”
With that resolution, Dalia quickly left the room.
[This is the timeline separator]“Where on earth is the kitchen?”
Dalia, wandering through the mansion, looked around trying to find her way.
On the first day of her possession, she had toured the house under the pretext of getting to know her new home, but other than that, she had never left her room.
As a result, it was inevitable that Dalia, who didn’t know where the kitchen was, would become lost in the mansion.
‘If only there was someone passing by.’
Somehow, there wasn’t a single person to be seen.
Just as she was starting to regret coming out, it happened.
Not far from a corner ahead, chattering voices could be heard.
‘People!’
Thinking she could finally find her way to the kitchen, Dalia was about to turn the corner when–
“She’s not asking for the food to be changed today?”
She froze at the sound of the ongoing conversation.
“Right? It seems she’s just eating it.”
‘Are they talking about me?’
Well, I guess I was a bit of a nuisance. Until yesterday, I kept asking for the food to be brought again until it suited my taste.
From the maids’ perspective, they probably thought I was being picky.
‘Well, that’s understandable.’
If it were the original female lead, she would have thought the maids disliked her just from hearing this conversation, due to her timid personality.
But one should always listen to the end of what people are saying. Surely, what follows will be concern about my health, given that I keep leaving food uneaten…
“Madam, isn’t it really annoying?”
…Or not.
“I know, right! It’s so irritating. She used to eat whatever food we gave her quietly, but suddenly she’s being so picky!”
“I know. I thought she knew we were messing with the food? But it seems she doesn’t?”
Dalia’s eyes widened as she listened to the maids’ conversation.
‘Messing with the food?’
Good heavens.
She let out a silent sigh, as if just realizing an important fact.
‘So the reason the food tasted strange all this time was because of the maids’ mischief. Then all that dry heaving wasn’t morning sickness?’
Dalia’s face brightened as she realized that those situations weren’t due to morning sickness, but because there was actually a problem with the food.
Just as a small spark of hope rekindled that she might not be pregnant after all.
Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind and she raised her head.
No, more than that.
‘Was I being disliked by the maids?’
She was shocked for a moment at the fact that she hadn’t even noticed she was being bullied.
The following conversation drove home the reality that they were disrespecting the duchess.
“Everyone hates talking to the duchess so much that they don’t even speak to her.”
I actually loved that no one talked to me.
“Since we don’t dress her, she can’t even wear a corset.”
I was extremely comfortable not wearing a corset.
Among all the actions the maids had taken to torment her, the only thing that had bothered her was the food.
It was shocking in many ways.
But that shock soon passed.
‘Well, who in this world lives without being criticized?’
Besides, in an employer-employee relationship, it’s possible to dislike your boss a bit.
‘If they keep messing with the food, I’ll just keep asking for it to be changed until they give me proper food. They’ll get tired and stop on their own, I guess.’
Thinking that way made her feel at ease.
It was bothersome to deliver comeuppance to the servants who had disrespected the female lead, like in other possession novels.
Moreover.
“Even at the party last time, you know? She just stood there silently while being insulted by other nobles. It was really embarrassing. Is our Sayer ducal family one to be disrespected like that?”
The more she listened, the more she felt the maid was only speaking the truth, and she had nothing to say in response.
‘Come to think of it, about that tea party…’
The maid’s words reminded her of the tea party episode from the beginning of the book.
The episode where Duchess Borsen, who attended the tea party, looked down on the female lead who came from a declining baronial family.
But the female lead couldn’t make any retorts to the duchess, who was of lower rank than herself, and just endured it, right?
Later, when the male lead learns of this, he takes revenge by ruining the Borsen duchy’s business, but that was far in the future.
‘I guess I was frustrated then too. If it were me, I would have grabbed her hair…’
“Ugh! If it were me, I would have grabbed that woman’s hair!”
Dalia nodded in agreement with the maid’s words that expressed her inner thoughts.
But perhaps because she was too engrossed in their conversation? Dalia failed to notice that someone else was approaching from right behind her.
“My lady? What are you doing here? Do you need anything?”
Only when a servant who spotted Dalia called out to her did the chattering voices abruptly stop.
“M-My lady…! Since when…!”
The maids’ faces turned pale as they realized Dalia had been behind the wall.
The two seemed flustered, not knowing how much of their conversation Dalia had overheard.
“From when you said the madam was annoying?”
“Eek!”
At those words, the two prostrated themselves before Dalia.
“We-we’re sorry, my lady! We were just…”
No matter how much they looked down on the duchess, they had never openly criticized her like this, so they seemed afraid of the consequences.
‘Ah, they’re worried I might punish them for gossiping.’
I’m really fine with it.
It was quite entertaining, actually.
So, with the intention of easing the maids’ tension, Dalia answered with a bright smile.
“No, the conversation was interesting. Please continue.”
But for some reason, the maids’ complexions turned from pale to blue.
It seemed they had misunderstood her words.
______
In This Life, I Won’t Be Foolish To Lose You Again (Female-dominant)
When Shen Yuan encountered Su Jin again in his previous life, she had already become the Prime Minister of the current dynasty. As for him, the former top young master of the capital, he had long since fallen into the abyss, becoming a singer on a pleasure boat.
After a song ended, he was redeemed and sent to the Su Residence.
Su Jin respected and cherished him, gave him a roof over his head, and bestowed him with warmth. Shen Yuan fell deeper and deeper, but before he could express his feelings, Su Jin passed away.
Shen Yuan died to follow her in death, but instead, he returned to when he was fifteen years old.
At that time, he was not yet engaged, and Su Jin was just a poor scholar.
Shen Yuan gritted his teeth, casting aside all his pride, and thought of ways to coax and entice her every day.
The colder and more indifferent Su Jin was towards him, the more proactive Shen Yuan became.
He was not afraid of being mocked by the world, only wanting to marry his Wife-master early, to hold her hand and never let go for a lifetime.
[Note: This story will not specifically point out the male lead’s reincarnation time point; it’s all in the details. Whenever you feel that the male lead is acting strangely, he has most likely been reincarnated.]