“Young lady. It’s past time to wake up.”

Bitty’s voice could be heard. She kept shaking my body beneath the blanket.

“…I want to sleep a little longer.”

“No, you can’t. You have to eat breakfast.”

“I don’t want to eat.”

“Oh dear. Everyone is waiting for you. Madam said to come out quickly.”

At the mention of Isabel, my eyes flickered open. Taking advantage of that moment, Bitty threw the blanket I was tightly clutching to the corner.

My face was exposed along with my sleepwear. I tried to hide my face in the pillow, but Bitty caught me.

“…You didn’t sleep?”

“I’ll be out soon. So please leave for a moment.”

My voice came out hoarse. Bitty didn’t wake me further and picked up the blanket from the corner.

As Bitty said, I spent the night wide awake. Even while thinking all sorts of thoughts, I bit my lip tightly to keep from crying, tearing them up.

I raised my body with difficulty. I had many things I wanted to ask Isabel. Despite fearing facing the woman, my feet moved slowly. I changed into comfortable clothes and looked in the mirror to fix my tangled hair.

‘I want to dye it…’

Since dyeing is impossible in this world, should I wear a wig?

Silver hair like Yurik and Yune would be nice, and black hair like Roger would be good too. Or how about blonde like the other brothers? Anything is fine as long as it’s not red.

Mumbling, I came down the stairs and didn’t go straight to the dining room, only peeking my head out slightly.

Fortunately, the woman wasn’t there, and as usual, the twins, Felicia, and Bernard were seated. In the middle seat, Father, who didn’t go to work due to the holiday, looked over a newspaper article.

“What are you doing here, Lize?”

“Playing hide-and-seek alone?”

As if they had also overslept, Swel and Silke finally came down the stairs. They looked at me suspiciously as I hesitated in the foyer and went straight into the dining room.

With the twins having caught me, fidgeting at the foyer was pointless.

Entering the dining room, no one paid attention to me. Even Isabel didn’t give me a single glance and gulped down water. It was a normal breakfast. The food came out and everyone silently picked up their forks.

No conversation took place and everyone quietly emptied their plates.

However, I couldn’t taste anything. I couldn’t tell if it was passing through my mouth or throat, the food had no aroma at all. Unlike me, my siblings spread jam thickly on the bread that was baked today, finding it delicious as they put it in their mouths.

‘Where did that woman go?’

Did Isabel send her away at dawn?

I was listening intently all night, afraid the woman would come to my room. But I didn’t hear her footsteps or the front door opening all night.

“It was a bit noisy last night.”

As soon as Father opened his mouth, my heart sank.

“A guest came to visit.”

“A guest?”

“Yes, she wanted to see you, Baron.”

Isabel spoke with a nonchalant face.

“Me? Who would come looking for me at dawn?”

“You’ll know who it is when you see her face too. She’s an important guest. It was strange to just turn her away when she came in the middle of the night, so I let her sleep in the guest room.”

I knew it! The fork in my hand stopped. The tip of the fork trembled, unable to pierce the food.

At the mention of a guest staying at the mansion, Father looked up. Before I had time to prepare myself, someone was coming down the stairs.

At the unfamiliar footsteps, everyone at the dining table turned their gaze outside the room.

“…!”

My breath caught in my throat. The woman appeared.

Unlike her filthy appearance yesterday, she was wearing a clean pink dress and shoes. Her face and hair, which had been a mess, were tidied up, further highlighting her beauty. She was a beauty surpassing Isabel at a glance, but I wasn’t happy to see her.

Putting her beauty aside, she resembled me. The hair color too… Even the appearance.

“…You.”

Father couldn’t close his mouth upon seeing the woman.

Even though she was a woman from a pleasure quarter whom he had spent the night with, he seemed unable to forget that exceptional beauty. Father’s face was not just pale, but ashen, as if recalling that night.

I turned my head to look at the woman this time. I thought she would naturally be staring at Father, but her gaze was directed at me. Tears welled up in her eyes.

“What is this place!”

As Father raised his voice at the woman, all the siblings stopped their forks. The atmosphere instantly turned hostile, causing the timid Bernard’s body to tremble.

Only Isabel at this table was calmly cutting meat with a comfortable expression.

“Did you bring that woman here?”

“Of course not. As I just said, that woman came to the mansion herself.”

“So you just let her in? Even giving her clothes and shoes?”

“I couldn’t turn her away, could I? Her situation was quite desperate.”

As Isabel and Father’s words went back and forth, the woman’s gaze never left me. My head was frozen and I couldn’t avoid her gaze. Terribly, I had to watch as tears dripped down the woman’s face.

She seemed to want to hold my hand right then and there.

‘No. I don’t want to.’

I dropped the fork I was tightly gripping. As the fork hit the floor with a sharp sound, the strength left my body. I immediately lowered my head.

In the meantime, the maids understood the situation and took the siblings out of the dining room.

Bitty also grabbed my hand, but my body absolutely refused to move.

“Why! Why did you do that? Knowing what that woman had done!”

“The child that woman gave birth to is staying at this mansion, isn’t that right?”

My shoulders trembled.

“Isabel…! It was all resolved, wasn’t it? Wasn’t it settled?”

“It was only ten years ago. It would be a lie to say there’s no resentment. But more than anything, that woman’s situation was desperate.”

“Desperate, my foot! That woman tried to bring down our Marsen family with her tricks!”

“…It seems she was subjected to a witch hunt. She gave birth to a child, but the child suddenly disappeared. Because of that, people set fire to the woman’s house, and the woman, who barely survived, lost her memory and developed a stutter due to the aftereffects.”

Isabel was misinformed.

That woman wasn’t miserable. Her situation wasn’t desperate. No matter how unfortunate a life she lived, the fact that she abandoned me at the Marsen mansion and left remains unchanged. The one who should receive consolation for an unfortunate life was me, not that woman.

But now Isabel is trying to hand me over to that woman out of spite for me. Not giving sympathy for my unfortunate life, but pushing me into an even greater misfortune.

A bad person. A bad person!

“So? What do you want me to do?”

Father asked with a deep sigh.

“She hasn’t regained her memory yet, but it seems she accidentally met an acquaintance and heard about you. So she came to regain her memory.”

“…What?”

“How about it? Why don’t you talk kindly with her this time, like ten years ago?”

“Isabel!”

Father, his face reddened, couldn’t hide his anger as he huffed. Isabel got up from her seat without even glancing at Father’s face.

“Lize.”

She called out to me as I sat there in a daze.

“…”

“Won’t you greet her too? You’ve met your birth mother after so long.”

Is that something to say right now?

“…Why should I?”

I bit my already torn lips again. As soon as the metallic scent was felt, indignation rose. Even if Isabel isn’t my birth mother, I thought there would be some emotion between us.

Love and hate. If not that, then sympathy.

Isabel was a cold woman. She didn’t give me the affection she gave to my siblings. She always watched me, as if I would do something strange. In other words, she never acted like a mother to me.

Nevertheless, she was the only person in this mansion who treated me as family. Even without giving her heart, she quickly understood my feelings in a frightening way.

So sometimes I thought she was a terrible person, and other times I thought she was still a kind person. I even pitied her, despite my own circumstances.

I hoped that only she would understand me.

“…I don’t want to. I don’t want to.”

I wanted to say more, but my throat was blocked and no sound came out. I tried to escape this situation by moving my legs to the chair.

As I got down from the chair and took steps towards the foyer, the woman grabbed my wrist. Before I could even shake her off in surprise, the woman pulled me into her arms and hugged me tightly.

“…Let go, let me go!”

I spoke urgently. It was suffocating and painful. The scent emanating from the woman’s body made me dizzy as it was the same as mine.

I pushed her chest with all my might to break free from the woman, but her strength was far greater.

“What are you doing? Let the child go!”

As I cried and suffered, Isabel couldn’t bear it and scolded her. The woman whimpered for a while before opening her mouth.

“This, this, this child…”

“…”

“My, my, child…”

Even though she said she lost her memory, she knew well that I was her child.

“Let me go! I said let go! Let go!”

I struggled to escape her embrace.

“I, I, changed my mind.”

“What?”

“The child. This child, give, give back.”

What is this woman saying now? Silence enveloped us.

“Give, give her back.”

The woman spoke more clearly than ever.

What does that mean? When she abandoned me like a piece of luggage at this Marsen mansion, and now she suddenly wants me back? I pushed her chest with all my might.

“No! I don’t know someone like you!”

I swatted away the arm of the woman reaching out to me.

“You said you lost your memory! I’m not your daughter!”

“…”

“Please… go, go away!”

Before the woman could grab me, I escaped the dining room and met eyes with my siblings who were standing still at the foyer. I thought they had gone to their rooms.

“…Li, Lize.”

They seemed to have been peeking to see the situation in the dining room, startled by my appearance.

I felt the same way. There has never been a more humiliating and embarrassing moment. Even though my siblings know I’m a bastard child, this is the first time they’ve witnessed it so blatantly.

“Lize!”

Even at my siblings’ call, I hid my heated face and ran up the stairs. The only place I could flee to was my room at the end of the second floor.

Tears welled up. It hurts. It hurts.

Since that woman said she would take me herself, it was obvious what would happen to me after this. From now on, I am no longer the youngest daughter of the Marsen family.

“Damn it! Damn it!”

Even in this moment, Isabel’s face came to mind. I shouldn’t have trusted her.