Chapter 1
There is a saying: If life feels boring, raise a son.
It was a saying that applied to me as well.
“Our Lucian, why are you so quiet today…?”
People say the time you have to be most careful while raising a six-year-old is when the child suddenly becomes quiet.
Feeling uneasy, I opened the door to his room.
“Lucian!”
I froze in horror.
Flour was scattered everywhere.
Covered from head to toe in white flour, Lucian completely ignored my shocked voice and kept smearing flour all over the wall.
I rushed inside and picked up the flour-covered child.
As soon as I lifted him, clouds of white flour fell from his body.
“This is driving me crazy. Where did you even get all this flour?”
There was no way such a small child had gone all the way to the kitchen, found the flour, and carried it back by himself.
And the kitchen servants would never have simply stood by and watched.
“Where’s your nanny? Where’s Grace?”
“The nanny went out. I pretended to be asleep!”
“What?”
Lucian puffed out his little chest proudly, as if he had done something impressive.
I was speechless.
“You pretended to be asleep?”
“Yep.”
“But why?”
“So I could surprise Auntie!”
He smiled brightly.
Looking at his innocent face, I no longer had the heart to scold him.
“I see… Our Lucian is such a thoughtful boy… You wanted to train Auntie’s heart to make it stronger…”
“Huh?”
Lucian looked at me as if he didn’t like my response.
But I wasn’t in a position to worry about his feelings.
As I stood up, I accidentally stepped on a sack of flour lying on the floor.
“Ah!”
With a short scream, a dull impact echoed through my head.
“Hahaha! Auntie, you’re so silly! Watching you fall is so funny!”
Lucian laughed while clutching his stomach.
His cheerful voice gradually faded farther and farther away.
“Lady Ruchella!”
Before long, the maids, having heard the commotion, rushed into the room.
And I lost consciousness.
While I was unconscious, countless scenes flashed through my mind.
A woman with black hair lying on a bed reading a book.
The same woman crying as she closed the book.
People say that, just before death, memories flash before your eyes.
But after thinking carefully, I realized…
I had never lived those memories.
Only then did I understand.
They were memories from my previous life.
And this world was the setting of the novel I had once read.
<From Bastard to Family Head>.
The novel’s protagonist, Edwin, was the illegitimate son of Duke Bellomon, head of the greatest noble family in the Roberta Empire.
After suffering through countless hardships while moving from one orphanage to another, he entered Bellomon Duchy at the age of nine—the place where he truly belonged.
But life there was far from easy.
Lucian, the duke’s legitimate son, bullied Edwin every single day.
The family’s retainers also disliked Edwin, who had suddenly become a new candidate for heir.
Eventually, Edwin entered the Academy almost as if he had been driven away from the mansion.
There, he met the heroine, Violetta.
With her help, Edwin defeated every villain standing in his way and eventually became the head of House Bellomon.
And among those villains who were punished by Edwin…
“…Auntie sure sleeps a lot. How can someone sleep all day?”
…was my nephew.
The only family I had left.
Lucian Bellomon.
I blinked several times until my blurry vision finally focused.
Lucian’s bright little face came into view.
“Lady Ruchella! You’re awake!”
“Are you feeling alright?”
The worried maids immediately rushed to my bedside.
“What happened?”
I rubbed the back of my aching head.
“You stepped on the flour sack and slipped.”
“And there happened to be a toy where you fell…”
“You hit the back of your head on it.”
“You were unconscious for half a day.”
“So that’s why my head hurts this much.”
When I touched the back of my head, I felt a lump as big as my fist.
It was amazing I hadn’t suffered a serious concussion.
“Do you feel nauseous?”
“No.”
“Are you dizzy?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“More importantly… where’s Lucian?”
“He’s over there.”
I turned toward where the maid pointed.
There was Lucian happily pulling the stuffing out of a cushion.
Just a moment ago, he had been sitting beside me.
He really was everywhere at once.
“Lucian.”
I called softly.
The little villain walked over, pouting.
“You’re going to lecture me again, aren’t you?”
Yes.
Normally, I would have told him that flour was for cooking, not for playing.
That he shouldn’t pull the stuffing out of cushions either.
I would have scolded him.
Instead—
I wrapped my arms around him.
“Huh?”
Without saying a word, I hugged him tightly.
“W-What’s wrong, Auntie?”
Apparently, he hadn’t expected this.
Lucian struggled to escape my embrace.
But I simply held his tiny head close and refused to let go.
Because now…
I knew the terrible future waiting for my little villain.
I was born into House Lilfrey and enjoyed a happy childhood without lacking anything.
My family was wealthy.
My parents were loving.
My older sister, who was five years older than me, was kind.
Compared to the exhausting life I had lived before reincarnation, this life had been unbelievably happy.
But happiness didn’t last long.
When I was twelve, both of my parents died in a carriage accident.
Since neither my sister nor I had come of age, our title naturally passed to our father’s younger brother, Adolf Lilfrey.
After becoming Count Lilfrey, our uncle treated us terribly.
Seeing us as nothing more than thorns in his side, he arranged my sister’s marriage the moment she became an adult.
Marriage was the perfect legal way to get rid of relatives he didn’t want.
And so…
My sister was practically driven out and married into House Bellomon.
My uncle proudly bragged about becoming relatives with the Bellomon Ducal House.
But my sister could never feel the same.
Because Duke Bellomon already loved another woman.
Having nowhere else to rely on, my sister one day made me an offer.
“Ruchella, come live with me.
If you stay in House Lilfrey, you’ll end up trapped in an unhappy marriage just like I was.
I don’t want you to be sold off into marriage like I was.
I want you to meet someone good and live a truly happy life.”
She wanted to protect me until I became old enough to stand on my own.
“But I’m not a member of House Bellomon.
I still carry the Lilfrey name.
I can’t just keep living with you.”
“I’ll talk to Dehart.”
Dehart Bellomon.
Master of House Bellomon.
My sister’s husband.
I never imagined that cold-hearted man would allow another dependent to live in his mansion.
“Fine.”
His permission came far more easily than expected.
“But from now on…
Whatever I do or wherever I go…
Don’t concern yourself with it.”
There was one condition attached.
His words were hurtful.
Yet my sister showed no reaction.
She was simply happy that we could live together.
But I knew.
She was hiding the pain in her heart.
So I always tried to make her smile.
The only people we could rely on were each other.
When I heard she was pregnant, I was overjoyed.
Someone besides me would finally love my sister.
There would be someone who could return all the love she had given me.
Just thinking about it made me happy.
But before I could ever repay my sister for everything…
She was diagnosed with an incurable illness.
“Ruchella…
Please protect my child.”
“I will.
I’ll protect Lucian no matter what.”
“Thank you…
And I’m sorry for asking this of you.”
Those were her final words.
She passed away at only twenty-three years old.
I was just eighteen.
Left alone in the world with my two-year-old nephew.
To give Lucian all the love my sister never had the chance to give him…
I devoted myself completely to raising him.
Some people mocked me for shamelessly staying in the ducal mansion despite not sharing a single drop of Bellomon blood.
I pretended not to hear them.
No matter what happened…
I had to keep my promise to my sister.
But raising Lucian wasn’t easy.
Even with the help of his nanny and the maids.
He was far more mischievous and stronger than other children his age.
Sometimes I cried quietly by myself after exhausting days of looking after him.
But more often than not…
Lucian made me smile.
Raising a child—
Especially one who looked exactly like my sister—
Was an incredibly joyful and rewarding experience.
Watching him grow filled me with a pride unlike anything I had ever experienced before.
“And yet…”
“Lucian is supposed to become a villain.”
Not only that—
He was destined to be punished by the protagonist after Edwin became the head of House Bellomon.
“How can this be?”
Lucian had lost his mother when he was only two.
His father had never truly loved him.
And the ending waiting for such a child…
Was death.
Isn’t that far too cruel?
Of course, Lucian really did bully Edwin…
Lucian’s troublesome personality showed itself most clearly whenever he tormented the protagonist.
He mixed earthworms into Edwin’s pasta.
He locked Edwin inside his room.
As he grew older, he even began excluding him in more calculated ways.
I understand why Lucian hated Edwin.
Edwin was an illegitimate son who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
Yet he received all the affection from the duke that Lucian himself had never once received.
But even so…
That doesn’t make bullying acceptable.
No matter the circumstances…
Bullying and violence can never be justified.
I have to raise Lucian into a good person.
To Lucian…
I was practically his parent.
And no parent wishes for their child to grow into someone evil.
More importantly…
If I wanted to prevent the tragic ending of his death…
Then no matter what happened…
I had to raise him properly.
“Please protect my child.”
For the sake of fulfilling my sister’s final wish… no matter what.
