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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: A Rotten Meal
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I am alive.
I'd been perched on the chair for hours, my feet dangling, too short to touch the floor, yet the absurdity wouldn't fade.
I'd struggled my whole life just to survive, only to be granted a new one the moment I gave up completely.
'So, do I have to die again?'
I don't want to. Just because I accepted death in my first life doesn't mean I want to keep dying repeatedly.
But if I'd truly regressed to the past, the fact that Callista was targeting me wouldn't have changed. How many assassination attempts would I have to endure this time?
Meeting Calein again is even worse. And Father won't protect me anyway...
Suddenly, I looked out the window and saw the exterior of Luperne Mansion, with its magnificent gardens stretching endlessly. Golden statues, jewel-encrusted fountains, and countless busy servants bustled about.
Perhaps because it had been so long, the sheer wealth and grandeur of the Luperne Ducal Family permeated my being.
'No.'
I shook my head vigorously.
I don't want to die this time. I never even got to properly enjoy these beautiful sights in my past life.
"Oh, Lady?"
I was lost in thought when Jena called out to me, flustered.
"Lady, it's almost time for your meal. We should bring it in..."
I nodded, and Jena gestured outside. Soon, a tray with my lunch was brought in, and I continued to ponder while seated at the table.
Perhaps because I was younger, or simply tired, my mind wasn't working as quickly as I wanted.
'I think I spent my eighth birthday alone.'
Around this time, Callista wasn't in the Duchy. She would have been finishing her last semester at the Imperial Academy, and Father had departed on a journey to a distant principality.
Of course, it wasn't as if Father treated me with affection normally either.
'My family was quite a mess, wasn't it?'
The Luperne Ducal Family, renowned as the Empire's foremost house, one that even the Emperor couldn't easily trifle with, had two children.
One was Callista, the daughter of Lucille Litra, whom he had married in a political arrangement.
With her innate beauty, genius in swordsmanship, politics, economics, art, and even magic, any ordinary father would have been overjoyed and designated her as his successor early on.
However, my father, Albrain Luperne, specifically disliked Callista.
It was unclear whether this was because his relationship with the Litra Ducal Family had soured after his divorce from Lucille, or if his initial relationship with Lucille hadn't been smooth, leading him to dislike the daughter who resembled her.
That's why I was born. I am the daughter of a maid whom my drunken father took as a one-night stand.
'We cannot acknowledge the illegitimate child born of a maid as a Duchess...'
'What if I marry her?'
It seemed some vassals had opposed it at the time, but Father, annoyed by my sister who had already begun to show prominence at eight years old, readily took my mother as his wife.
Of course, he also acknowledged me, still in her womb, as his legitimate child.
The cold Duke of the East, who married a lowly maid just to acknowledge his daughter as his own.
Anyone hearing this might think he was a kind man, warm to his daughter and his woman, but they would be wrong. At that time, Father was only focused on keeping Callista and her maternal family, the Litra Ducal Family, in check.
'Tsk, how could this one also resemble her mother so much? And a woman of such low status.'
He quickly lost interest in me, as I only barely inherited the ducal family's characteristic blue eyes and didn't resemble my father at all.
Considering he couldn't even remember the name of my mother, who died in childbirth after he took his third wife, his relationship with my mother must have been far from true love.
The problem was that even though Father grew tired of me, he never explicitly excluded me from the list of potential successors.
He probably intended to subtly use my existence to suppress Callista, while also trying to have another child in the meantime.
It was entirely predictable that I would be targeted by Callista. I was in a position that was bothersome enough.
Even after Father's downfall in my previous life, some elders, unwilling to acknowledge Callista, argued that I was the successor Father truly desired, intending to push her aside.
That ultimately led to Calein's involvement... though, at this point in time, that's a distant future.
So, what kind of life did I lead in the Ducal Family?
I vigorously massaged my forehead with my small hands, trying to recall my memories. Perhaps it was a side effect of the regression, but not everything came back to me at once.
"Lady, your meal is served. Are you not going to eat to-"
"Yes, yes, I'll eat."
My mind had been working so hard that I was hungry. At Jena's words that the meal was ready, I unthinkingly picked up the bread in front of me and brought it to my mouth.
"Oh, Lady?"
"...Ugh!"
The moment I bit into the bread I'd carelessly put in my mouth, a vile taste rose, bringing with it a wave of nausea. I spat out the piece of bread and gagged.
"Lady, quick, spit it all out!"
"Ugh... Ptooey!"
Jena patted my back as I choked. After spitting everything out, I saw that the bread was moldy, and the soup smelled rotten.
"Why on earth did you just eat that?!"
Oh, right.
As Jena scolded me, I finally remembered what my meals were like when I was eight. The filthy, spoiled food that appeared at every sitting.
With no maternal relatives and practically abandoned by my father, I was easy to take advantage of, and even easier to torment.
Not only did my belongings frequently go missing, but the meals brought from the kitchen were almost never edible.
"If you were so hungry, you should have said something. If you'd waited a little, I could have brought you some edible bread..."
Jena poured me some water and clicked her tongue.
Jena, who had at least tried to look after me, had no power to question the quality of the food brought to my room. Afraid of offending the cooks, she couldn't simply send the food back, so she would serve it and then discreetly dispose of it.
A few loaves of decent bread she'd secretly snuck from the kitchen after meal times were all I ever truly ate.
I had grown accustomed to that method as well.
'Wow, what a life this is.'
How could I have lived like such a pushover? Assassination attempts aside, I couldn't even eat a proper meal.
*Clink*
I set down the fork I had been holding. Jena's eyes widened.
"Just a moment, Lady. There's some dark bread I brought yesterday in the drawer..."
"I don't like dark bread."
I shook my head sharply, cutting Jena off, then took a mouthful of water to rinse away the lingering breadcrumbs.
This was no time to get lost in admiration of the garden. I'd forgotten, but the Luperne Ducal Family was a lion's den for me.
I'd lived my whole life being pushed around, then ran away at fourteen.
I can't go through that twice.
"...Bring the chef."
At my resolute words, Jena's eyes grew wide.
"Oh, Lady... just endure it."
"Hmm, he probably won't come if Jena calls him, will he?"
Instead of waiting for an answer, I picked up a large loaf of bread where the mold was most visible. I also stuffed a few cakes and muffins, which reeked of spoilage, into my pocket.
"Then I'll go myself."
I hopped off the chair and left the room, not looking back even when I heard Jena calling from behind me.
*Thump, thump, thump.*
As I ran down the stairs, my mind raced.
'Who exactly was it that tormented me?'
In my past life, even when I suffered such things, I never properly identified the main culprits. When I was young, I vaguely thought it was just because Callista disliked me.
But not anymore.
I knew well that Callista was the type to sever a person's neck with a single strike rather than stoop to tormenting them with food, and that she wasn't the only one in this mansion who bothered me, the weakest.
The complex web of power dynamics within the ducal family flashed through my mind.
*Click*
When I opened the kitchen door, several pairs of eyes stared at me with puzzled expressions.
"Lady Harper?"
"I have something to say to Leroy."
I held my head high, looking up at them, and brazenly stated the Head Chef's name. I was clutching the loaf of bread I'd brought down.
By all principles, the Head Chef of the ducal family was a highly respected position, and bursting into the kitchen to summon him while he was working was a grave breach of etiquette.
But I didn't care. A child could act that way, after all.
"Please call Leroy."
The moment I spoke again, a large, mustachioed man emerged from the back of the kitchen.
It was Leroy Brown, the Head Chef of the Luperne Ducal Family.
The one who had tampered with my bread.
If my memory served me right, at this point in time, he was embezzling small amounts of the ducal family's assets each month to pay off his massive gambling debts.
His methods of embezzlement were varied. He would order ingredients and record the food costs as higher than they actually were, pocketing the difference, or he would pilfer small items and sell them off.
Among these, his most favored method was swapping out my food with spoiled ingredients.
This allowed him to reduce the ordered quantity of expensive ingredients, pocketing the difference between the official ledger and the actual expenditure, thus making a tidy profit.
The risk of being caught or fired wasn't high. This was because he was a distant relative of Clarissa, Father's second wife.
"What is it?"
He merely asked haughtily instead of greeting me, even upon seeing me. Then again, not many servants greeted me at all.
"The bread is spoiled."
I held up the bread I'd brought, showing it to him, and stated bluntly. He scowled fiercely.
"The bread Leroy made."
When I specifically named him, a few of the assistants watching gasped. Leroy's mustache trembled.
"Who on earth told you such nonsense?"
As expected, he feigned ignorance, clearly displeased.
In my past life, he had successfully embezzled a significant amount of money for a long period.
Although, several years from now, during the conflict between Callista and Clarissa, he would choose the wrong side, have all his past corruption exposed, and disappear without a trace.
"Jena said this fuzzy stuff here is mold. Please give me different bread."
I explained, standing on tiptoes.
A chef with a conscience would have mumbled something about a mistake and simply offered another loaf. But Leroy, with an exaggerated snort, took the bread.
"The Lady clearly knows nothing."
He replied in a booming voice, taking the bread and turning it over in his hands. Then he chuckled and said,
"This bread is supposed to be like this."
"What?"
"It's bread that's green in the middle, you see. Quite rare. People outside would call you ignorant if you didn't know that."
He brazenly pointed at the mold in the middle of the bread and spoke. The kitchen assistants looked at me with pity, but no one dared to intervene.
"...Ignorant, you say?"
"Well, considering your mother's lineage, I suppose I understand."
The assistants gasped a little louder.
Though I wasn't treated with respect, I was still a legitimate daughter of the ducal family, and my mother had died as the Duchess.
For Leroy, a servant of the ducal family, to utter words like 'your mother's lineage' was an outrage.
"But..."
"There are no 'buts'."
He cut me off with a patronizing air. He was clearly enjoying this situation, where I, a person of higher status, seemed to be at his mercy.
"You shouldn't complain about bread that even His Imperial Majesty would enjoy. It's Leroy's masterpiece, so you should eat it quietly."
He sneered, forcefully pressing the bread back into my hands. I silently took the bread again.
"...Are you sure? That it's bread His Imperial Majesty would enjoy?"
"Yes. And by the way, I am a busy man, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't come bothering me with such matters again."
Leroy answered, openly dismissing me. Then he added, in a voice only I could hear,
"So get used to it, Lady. Today, tomorrow, the day after, and for the rest of your life, that's the only bread you'll get."
Seeing my eyes widen, he chuckled contentedly, pushed me out of the kitchen, and slammed the door shut.
Without seeing the small smile playing on my lips.
'Perfect.'
Because Leroy had just said exactly what I wanted to hear, in front of several witnesses.
