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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: A Vicious Thing
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“Vicious thing.”
A middle-aged woman slandered the girl in a cold voice, then struck her across the cheek.
Slap—.
With a harsh sound, the small girl’s head snapped to the side.
The girl, no older than twelve, was so gaunt she inspired a natural pity.
Furthermore, with her innocent expression, the woman's accusation of being ‘vicious’ seemed utterly misplaced just by looking at her.
“Isn’t that Mrs. Valles? What did that little girl do to deserve that?”
Oh, my.
A startled woman asked, covering her mouth with her hand. A casual reply came back.
“Who knows. But just leave it be. That child, she's Lanshuss's first daughter, you know.”
“Ah. That child. I see.”
As soon as she heard the girl was Lanshuss's first daughter, the questioner immediately withdrew her sympathy.
Lumina Lanshuss.
The eldest daughter of the House of Count Lanshuss.
The daughter of the Count's first wife, and…
‘The byproduct of a loveless, arranged marriage.’
So, it was only natural that she became an outcast after her mother's death.
Her father brought in a stepmother as if he had been waiting for the chance, and Lumina was naturally treated as if she didn't exist in the family.
And that remained the same even after her father also died.
“She'll probably end up crying and running away. She's still just a child.”
As they said, Lumina was a child.
She had neither the spirit nor the worldly wisdom to confront the middle-aged woman.
Everyone thought it would end as a brief disturbance.
After all, tears were already welling up in Lumina's eyes.
“I knew it from your mother's funeral, but you, child, are utterly wicked. Just like your mother.”
The middle-aged woman seemed to interpret the crowd's inaction as tacit approval.
Emboldened, she spewed out venomous words.
As the intensity escalated, voices of concern began to rise from the crowd.
Of course, they weren't voices of concern for Lumina.
“Still, isn't this too much during a funeral?”
“Such a lack of dignity at what should be a solemn funeral.”
Count Lanshuss and his second wife.
The funeral was for them—Lumina's father and stepmother—who had passed away in an unexpected accident.
The ceremony should have been proceeding in a quiet and solemn atmosphere.
This scene, like something out of a cheap novel for commoners, was unsettling the nobles.
Yet, not wanting to miss the spectacle, they kept their eyes fixed on Lumina and the middle-aged woman.
Lumina's eyelashes trembled as she kept her gaze slightly lowered.
The corners of her tear-filled eyes were red, and a bright red handprint marked her pale cheek.
She looked as if she might cry out about the injustice at any moment.
Everyone assumed she wanted to say she had done nothing wrong but couldn't because she was too timid.
But that wasn't it.
‘I accidentally bit the inside of my cheek. How can someone her age be so strong?’
Lumina was letting the middle-aged woman's words go in one ear and out the other.
“Hey! Are you even listening to me?”
Lost in her own thoughts, Lumina looked straight at the woman after hearing the ear-splitting shout.
‘She was my aunt, wasn't she.’
The woman was the deceased Count Lanshuss's older sister.
Since she was from the paternal side, that would be correct.
“Madame. It's the middle of a funeral, perhaps you should refrain from causing a scene…”
Unable to watch any longer, a man cautiously stepped forward.
Hearing the man's words, the aunt snapped back.
“Did you not hear what this child said? She said it's a good thing her parents are dead. A brat like this needs to be hit to come to her senses.”
A good thing they're dead.
She had said those words.
But she hadn't been talking about her parents. She'd been talking about herself.
With a blank expression, Lumina stroked her stinging cheek.
The aunt's shock therapy was half successful and half a failure.
It was true that the slap had jolted her to her senses.
She had wondered if it was a dream, but now she clearly realized it was reality.
However, if one were to ask if she had become submissive as the woman wanted, the answer was not at all.
‘If a slap could change a person, would getting hit on the right cheek make you a good person, and the left a bad one?’
It would be so convenient if you could reform people like that.
As she was calmly having such thoughts, Lumina's and her aunt's eyes met.
The woman glared at Lumina as if she wanted to tear her to shreds.
It was then.
Lumina took a bold step toward her.
And…
Slap—.
This time, it was the aunt's head that snapped to the side.
Lumina had slapped her without hesitation.
The aunt's lips parted slightly. For a moment, she seemed unable to process the situation.
“You, you… what is the meaning of this…!”
Her eyes wide, the aunt raised her voice.
With her deceptively meek face, Lumina replied without a hint of intimidation.
“You said one needs to be hit to come to their senses. I thought you might need to come to your senses too, Aunt.”
“Are you mad? You've truly lost your mind!”
Assuming Lumina would just take the abuse meekly, she flew into a rage.
In contrast to her frantic aunt, Lumina was composed.
“I'm perfectly sane, but it seems you haven't come to your senses yet, Aunt. Shall I hit you again?”
The question almost sounded gentle.
The aunt's face turned deathly pale.
“You crazy bitch!”
“Wow, how did you know? That ‘crazy bitch’ is my nickname.”
Lumina said without blinking an eye.
“If you knew I was a crazy bitch, you should have known better than to mess with me.”
An innocent twelve-year-old would have been unable to utter a peep and would have just endured the abuse from a relative several times her age.
‘That's what actually happened.’
But not anymore.
‘In a household with no one on my side, being obedient will only get me looked down upon.’
Lumina recalled her first life, which had been so vivid until just a moment ago.
It was a life of being used by her relatives before being forced to marry a man she had never even seen.
‘It was a marriage of convenience, purely for money. And that money went straight into my relatives' pockets.’
Her relatives had slowly tamed Lumina so she couldn't defy them.
Just thinking about it again gave her chills.
‘My aunt married early and is no longer part of the family register, but she always coveted the family's wealth. She must have been involved in my death, too.’
All the adults here were blinded by greed.
Enough to think nothing of sending a twelve-year-old girl's life into the abyss.
So she felt no guilt. Besides, wasn't her aunt the one who slapped her first?
Steeling her resolve, Lumina clenched her fists as if ready to throw a punch at any moment.
‘One such miserable life is enough.’
She couldn't let the opportunity that came after one tragic death slip away in vain.
***
Lumina was the legitimate bloodline and rightful heir of the House of Count Lanshuss, but she was treated worse than an illegitimate child.
The start of her misfortune was heralded by her mother's death.
Count Lanshuss remarried as soon as his wife died.
The stepmother came with a younger brother, two years Lumina's junior, a boy who resembled the Count so much you'd believe he was a younger version of the man.
Her younger brother, Endymion, was proof that the Count had been unfaithful during his previous marriage.
But they acted more brazenly than anyone.
If Endymion's mother hadn't been a commoner. If Lumina's mother hadn't forced the marriage using money as leverage.
If that had been the case, Count Lanshuss would never have married Lumina's mother.
Everyone said it in unison.
Lumina's mother had been an obstacle to love, and not a good person at all.
According to them, the villain was Lumina's mother.
And for Lumina, the daughter of such a villain, to try to be happy with her new family was a shameless act.
Her life as an outcast, which seemed like it would never end unless she married out of the family, came to a surprisingly early end.
Five years after Count Lanshuss remarried, when Lumina was twelve.
The Count and Countess Lanshuss died in an unexpected carriage accident. The only one in the carriage to survive was Endymion.
“…Have mercy on this endlessly fragile life. We are gathered here today to conduct the funeral for Count and Countess Lanshuss, who have departed into the arms of God.”
It was a funeral attended by all their relatives.
Lumina stood there, wishing for the ceremony to end quickly.
And just as the funeral was about to conclude…
“Lumina. You've grown so much since I last saw you!”
A man, with an emotional expression as if he'd found a long-lost daughter, suddenly pulled her into an embrace.
“…Who are you?”
“Ah, you don't recognize me because we lost touch after your mother, Chloe, passed away. I'm your maternal uncle. I saw you briefly when you were just born, but I suppose you've forgotten!”
It was common sense that she wouldn't remember someone she'd only seen briefly as a newborn.
And yet, the man claiming to be her maternal uncle muttered in an exaggerated tone.
“Oh, dear. Seeing how haggard you are, you must have been through a lot. Well, it's only natural for a child whose parents have died to be distressed.”
He spoke as if he understood everything.
“Shall we move somewhere else to talk for a moment?”
Lumina nodded, and then received an unexpected proposal.
“Lumina, I think you should become the head of the family.”