SWGMBWD CH 09

“Ah, I’m exhausted.”

She had accomplished something truly enormous today.

After getting out of the carriage, Bella entered the estate with a heavy, weary body. If she went through the main entrance, the foxes would surely have something to say again, so she used the back door instead.

“I’m home—”

As soon as she opened the kitchen door and stepped inside, the servants, who seemed to be busy preparing dinner, greeted her warmly.

“Miss, did you enjoy the festival?”

“Well, it was all right.”

“So you didn’t enjoy it very much.”

The head cook, who was stirring a pot with a ladle in the corner, chuckled cheerfully.

The other maids nearby nodded knowingly and smiled as well.

Seeing them, Bella smiled faintly too.

‘If they heard where I went and what I did today, they’d probably faint from shock.’

She wanted to see their surprised faces, but she couldn’t tell them just yet.

So Bella barely managed to keep her itching mouth shut.

“It’ll be time for dinner soon, so go get some rest. I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

“All right.”

Bella nodded and naturally headed toward the passage leading to the attic.

Normally, she was supposed to help with the cooking in the kitchen as well, but the festival period was an exception.

—During the Founding Festival, don’t even go near the kitchen. If your clothes happen to pick up the smell of oil or anything like that, you’ll only bring shame to the Etten family name.

The moment she remembered the squawking fox’s warning, a sigh escaped her.

Honestly, that woman cared about other people’s opinions to a ridiculous degree.

“Oh, right. The shawl belongs to Cecil. If I don’t put it back where it was…”

Bella stopped just as she was about to climb the stairs.

The outer garment she had worn today belonged to Cecil.

It was for the same reason she had been exempted from kitchen duties during the festival.

Perhaps the big fox was worried that if Bella went around looking shabby, their abuse of her would become obvious. So during the festival period, she lent Bella some of Cecil’s clothes.

Of course, most of them were clothes the little fox had thrown away because they were out of fashion…

“But if I take it to my room, she’ll make a huge fuss again.”

Bella sighed softly.

Once before, she had taken one of the clothes that had been put out to be thrown away, repaired it, and worn it.

She had been slapped for it.

Just thinking about that moment made her cheek feel hot, and she rubbed it lightly with the back of her hand.

“No, but she was throwing it away because she wasn’t going to wear it anyway. Why be so greedy over something she wasn’t even using?”

Thanks to that, all the decent-looking clothes that had remained in Bella’s wardrobe had been turned into scraps of cloth by Cecil’s insane scissors.

She could speak about it calmly now, but back then, it had been terribly heartbreaking.

She remembered sitting there all night, hugging the pieces of her ruined clothes and quietly sobbing.

Feeling her mood sink again, Bella quickly walked down the corridor toward the laundry room.

Normally, because the foxes couldn’t stand seeing her wandering around the estate, she was supposed to use the servants’ private passage.

But after all the trouble she had gone through since morning, she was simply too tired.

“Let’s just make it quick.”

Cecil would probably be out at the festival today as well, so if she was lucky, she might be able to go there and back without being noticed.

With that in mind, Bella crossed the carpeted lobby at a brisk pace.

That was when—

“Father!”

At the tremendous shout coming from nearby, Bella stopped.

Startled, she turned her head and noticed the reception room door was slightly ajar.

‘What? Is she already back?’

During the festival, the little fox usually didn’t return until after sunrise.

Did the sun rise in the west today?

Bella hurried her steps.

But only for a moment.

“You know my friend Cynthia, right? That bastard’s daughter from that pathetic baron family. She went to the Duke’s residence today too. And that’s not all! Most of the young ladies in the capital are proposing to His Grace the Duke!”

‘Huh? His Grace the Duke?’

Unable to ignore such a conversation, Bella came to an abrupt stop.

Before she knew it, her feet had carried her toward the reception room.

If she were caught eavesdropping, a beating would surely come her way.

But there was no way she could ignore this.

Fortunately, they hadn’t noticed her presence.

Through the crack in the door, Bella could see the mother-and-daughter foxes making a huge commotion, stamping their feet in frustration.

“This is not the time to be sitting around like this!”

“That’s right, dear. What does our Cecil lack compared to some poor baron’s daughter? She’s the eldest daughter of the prestigious Etten Count family!”

The big fox’s face was flushed as she spoke.

The way she spoke so confidently about someone else’s possessions as though they belonged to her was shameless.

It was almost enough to make Bella shudder.

Meanwhile, Cecil, who had been screaming and complaining just moments ago, suddenly acted as though none of that had happened.

With a sweet smile plastered across her face, she approached the Count and began acting coy.

“Father~ You’d like me to become the Duchess too, wouldn’t you? Hmm? They say the Duke of Avalan is incredibly wealthy, even by Imperial standards. Our whole family could live in luxury!”

“That’s right, dear. You know how much people in high society look down on us. If our daughter—our Cecil—becomes the Duchess, we’ll be able to crush those people’s arrogance!”

At the mother and daughter’s cries, the Count let out a troubled groan and fell into thought.

But it didn’t last long.

The prospect of becoming the father-in-law of the Duke of Avalan seemed rather tempting after all, because his eyes began to sparkle.

“All right. I’ll make the necessary preparations.”

“Thank you, Father! I knew you were the only one I could count on!”

At the Count’s permission, Cecil’s whining face immediately brightened.

She threw her arms around his neck and began making a fuss.

The big fox was no different.

“You have to prepare something extremely expensive and valuable. You understand?”

“Wait, a gift?”

The Count, who was particularly sensitive whenever money was involved, raised an eyebrow.

The foxes, who had been squealing excitedly among themselves, suddenly became serious.

“You don’t expect me to go there empty-handed, do you, Father? I have my reputation to consider!”

“That’s right, dear. I heard Countess Milo sent her daughter off with jewelry she had obtained from a foreign country as a gift. We need to prepare something comparable! Do you want Cecil to be looked down on?!”

“Ah, all right. I understand. I’ll somehow find something by tomorrow.”

Sweating nervously under the two foxes’ demands, the Count nodded.

He was already wondering where he could possibly get the money.

Bella could practically see his eyes darting around.

She noticed him subtly glancing at the paintings hanging on the reception room walls, but she ignored it.

The reception room was filled with expensive masterpieces, chosen according to her father’s taste because he had loved paintings.

Of course, more than half of them were gone now.

‘At this rate, nothing but an empty shell will be left.’

Bella sighed softly.

Given the foxes’ personalities, they were the kind of people who would eventually sell even the very name of their nobility.

‘And in the end, nothing will remain.’

Not even a trace that she had once been there.

Nor a trace that her parents had once lived in this place.

After leaving the shawl in the laundry room, Bella hurried toward her own room.

Every time she climbed the wooden stairs, they creaked beneath her feet.

For some reason, the sound felt strangely comforting today.

“Ah, I’m tired.”

As soon as Bella entered her room, she collapsed onto the old bed and pulled the blanket over herself.

Because her feet would stick out from underneath if she lay flat, she curled herself up tightly instead.

With her eyes closed in that position, she suddenly noticed it.

Thump, thump.

Her heartbeat.

A pulse she normally never noticed was suddenly so clear.

‘Huh? Has my heartbeat always been this loud?’

Bella placed a hand over the left side of her chest and tilted her head in confusion.

Usually, she could barely hear it.

There had even been moments when she wondered if she was already dead.

And yet, now…

Only after deciding that she wanted to die had she realized that she was actually still alive.

What a strange and absurd situation.

“It’s okay, Bella.”

She whispered softly to herself.

“Don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”

Yes.

Everything would definitely be fine.

She decided to believe that.

“What do you think?”

At the man’s question, the butler standing near the desk glanced cautiously at someone.

A mountain of documents lay scattered before his master.

But most of them failed to capture his attention.

Except for one.

“What exactly are you referring to?”

Although he already knew, the butler cautiously probed anyway.

Perhaps there was still a chance that his master might change his mind.

“This woman.”

But his master gave him no room to escape.

Instead, he pointed directly at a particular document.

A woman’s name was written on it.

“Bella Etten…”

The man murmured the name absentmindedly.

There was something strange about the way his expression changed.

For some reason, the name felt oddly unfamiliar yet strangely captivating as he rolled it around in his mind.

The butler, unaware of what was going through his master’s head, simply watched him with concern.

He had no interest in the woman in the document.

“She’s a fraud.”

“……”

“I’m certain she’s a fraud.”

Another man in the room suddenly interrupted.

The red-haired man, who had been sitting crookedly in his chair, sprang to his feet.

The sword hanging at his waist struck against his armor with a metallic clink.

“She’s definitely a fraud!”

“Kyle.”

The Duke warned the knight who was practically fuming.

He was telling him to calm down.

But the man’s golden eyes were flashing, and he didn’t seem inclined to do so.

“No, it doesn’t make sense from the beginning! She says she doesn’t have much time left to live. How can she possibly be certain of that? And what are you going to do if she doesn’t die after all?”

“Indeed.”

The butler, who had been subtly trying to restrain the knight, nodded reluctantly.

“This is something worth considering. She lost everything to relatives she didn’t even know. Who knows how desperate she must be? When a person is desperate enough, an extreme lie like that…”

“Greg, you also think it doesn’t make sense?”

The butler, suddenly addressed by name, hesitated before answering.

“Ehem. I only mean that it would be the logical conclusion.”

At those words, the Duke fell into thought.

Indeed.

A woman asking him to marry her because she supposedly didn’t have much time left to live was certainly abnormal.

“But strange, unreasonable things do happen in this world from time to time.”

He gave a faint chuckle as he said it.

The fuming knight and the butler who had been trying to stop him both flinched.

The atmosphere in the room suddenly became solemn.

Ray looked at them and muttered softly,

“Oh.”