Episode 2
Knock knock.
After knocking, Marin opened the door and entered the room carrying a tray with both hands.
Her mother, Roanna, was lying weakly in bed.
Her once-beautiful blonde hair was now streaked with gray, and her cheeks had become hollow. Anyone could tell she was seriously ill.
Hiding her sadness, Marin spoke brightly.
“Mom.”
Roanna’s eyelids fluttered open weakly.
“Marin.”
Slowly, Roanna sat up and leaned against the headboard.
“You look healthier today. I think you’ll get better soon.”
Roanna smiled faintly at Marin’s playful encouragement.
“Thank you. But you’re old enough to get married. How long are you going to keep calling me ‘Mom’?”
“What? Even when I’m your age, I’ll still call you Mom!”
Marin widened her eyes dramatically before breaking into a grin.
“Oh, dear. Nobody can win against you. Your brother was the same.”
Roanna’s smile suddenly froze, and she couldn’t finish her sentence.
“Mom! Your impossible-to-control daughter has brought some terrible-tasting medicine and soup!”
Pretending she hadn’t heard, Marin proudly showed the tray.
Roanna looked down at the soup and medicine, then back up with a dark expression.
“Have you eaten?”
“Of course! I just had two bowls.”
It was a lie.
She hadn’t eaten since yesterday.
Still, Marin puffed out her stomach and acted full.
Roanna looked at her sadly, then turned away and lay back down.
“I don’t have any appetite. You should eat my portion too.”
The soup had been made by scraping together the last remaining ingredients in the house.
There was no way Marin could eat it instead of her sick mother.
“Mom…”
“I really don’t feel like eating.”
Her voice was firm.
Maybe she had seen through Marin’s lie.
And once Roanna got stubborn, nobody could change her mind.
“Mom, should I read you a book?”
This was the method that worked best whenever she wanted to cheer her mother up.
“Aren’t you busy today? Actually… I haven’t been sleeping well lately. When you read to me, it helps me fall asleep.”
Hope appeared on Roanna’s face.
“You should’ve told me sooner.”
“I didn’t want to bother you.”
“I’ll read to you. But only if you eat the soup.”
Roanna weakly shook her head.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Just as Marin was about to continue persuading her, someone knocked loudly on the cabin door.
“Mom, someone must be here. I’ll read it to you later. I’ll leave the soup on the table, so eat it if you get hungry, okay?”
Leaving her silent mother behind, Marin left the room.
She crossed the tiny kitchen and opened the front door.
Standing outside was Jorno, the landlord.
He was middle-aged, with a belly so large he looked almost pregnant.
Seeing Marin, he smiled broadly.
“Marin.”
“Hello, Mr. Jorno.”
Marin hid her displeasure and greeted him politely.
“Of course I’m doing well. What about you?”
“I’m fine. What brings you here?”
Jorno burst out laughing, as if she’d told a joke.
“What brings me here? Between us?”
His eyes slowly traveled over her body.
Marin clenched her fists.
The man was married, yet he always looked at her like that.
Should I punch him?
Maybe punch him and run?
But then she remembered her sick mother inside.
Trembling with anger, she hid her hands behind her back.
“If you don’t have business here, I’m busy.”
She spoke coldly and started closing the door.
Jorno immediately grabbed it.
“Starting this month, your rent is tripling.”
“W-What?”
Marin stared at him in disbelief.
“You’ve always paid on time, so I never raised it. But everyone else’s rent went up long ago.”
He grinned.
“Rent is due in five days, right? I’ll come collect it personally. If you don’t have the money, you’ll have to leave.”
He glared at her threateningly.
“How am I supposed to suddenly come up with three times the rent? Couldn’t you give me more time?”
Marin lowered her head and begged.
Winter was coming.
If she and her sick mother got thrown out now, it would be disastrous.
Jorno smirked as if he’d been waiting for this.
“Well, there might be another way…”
Before he could finish his disgusting suggestion.
SLAM!
Marin slammed the door directly in his face.
“AAAGH! MY NOSE!”
Serves you right.
She quickly locked the door and pressed her back against it.
Rattle! Rattle!
Jorno shook the doorknob violently.
“Hey! Open up! You think I’ll keep helping you? You dried-up broomstick! Tch!”
After shouting a few more insults, he finally left.
Marin let out a long sigh.
She looked toward her mother’s room.
Roanna had definitely heard everything.
Marin worried it would only make her mother’s already fragile heart worse.
She walked toward the room and raised her hand to knock.
Then lowered it.
Could she really comfort her mother?
Could she honestly tell her everything would be okay?
Marin lowered her head and entered her own room instead.
The door hinge squealed loudly.
She frowned at it.
The rusted hinge should have been replaced ages ago.
The room contained almost nothing.
Just a shabby bed and an antique dressing table.
The dressing table was the only piece of furniture brought from their old mansion.
Her father had treasured it because it had belonged to her grandmother.
Marin could never bring herself to throw it away.
“I need money.”
She muttered quietly.
She desperately needed money.
Every time she had to feed her sick mother watery soup with almost no ingredients, it felt like her heart was breaking.
Now the rent had tripled.
Things just kept getting worse.
“Damn landlord.”
She sat heavily in a chair and carefully pulled out a piece of paper hidden in the back of the dressing table drawer.
The page was filled with writing that only she could read in this world.
Her gaze stopped at the title.
“The Bluebird of the Western Duke Does Not Cry”
She realized she was living inside this novel after the carriage accident.
She had been on the verge of death for over a month.
When she finally woke up, she suddenly remembered.
This world was the setting of a novel she had read in her previous life.
Was it because she was the heroine?
No.
It was because she had been born and raised in the western region where the story took place.
No one from the West knew about the Vines Ducal Family.
The story of The Bluebird of the Western Duke Does Not Cry was simple.
The male lead, the Duke of the West, lost his eyesight after a monster attack and gradually fell into despair.
Then he met the female lead, a genius herbalist.
She cured his eyes.
They fell in love.
And lived happily ever after.
Marin had picked up the book simply because she’d read too many stories about Northern Dukes and thought a Western Duke sounded refreshing.
Who would’ve thought she’d be reincarnated into that world?
“Unbelievable…”
She wasn’t even a side character.
She wasn’t mentioned once in the novel.
She was just an extra.
Background scenery.
If she stayed out of everything, she’d probably hear about the duke’s happy ending someday.
His wedding would surely become the biggest event in the empire.
But there was one problem.
Money.
“I need money.”
She didn’t have time to be confused about reincarnation.
Her family went bankrupt almost immediately afterward.
The Schubenz Viscount family had once been wealthy, with large lands and generations of accumulated wealth.
But after the carriage accident, it was revealed that her father had been drowning in debt.
Their land, mansion, and assets were all seized.
Even their jewelry and dresses had been sold.
The last expensive dress they owned paid for the tiny two-room cabin near the mountain.
After that disaster, Roanna became bedridden.
At least Marin had to do something.
Being a viscount’s daughter who never even had a debutante ball was completely useless now.
“I need money.”
She repeated the words.
Like a spell.
Otherwise, she felt her determination would waver.
She had spent years desperately trying not to get involved with the protagonists of the novel.
But she’d reached her limit.
Her pale green eyes focused intensely on the paper in her hand.
It was covered with notes about important events from the novel.
She knew things related to the duke—the male lead of this world—that nobody else knew.
And now…
It was finally time to use the only weapon she had.
