Chapter 12
Regina's Life Reversal
"Wh-What?"
Priscilla, feeling guilty about many things, widened her eyes on purpose, pretending not to know.
"The parts you left blank in the middle, is that because you spent the money, or is it because the profits from selling the medicine aren't included?"
"How would I know that! I just organized the receipts as the trading company sent them! Do you think I embezzled money or something?!"
"......"
"Why are you interrogating your mother like that..."
Priscilla snatched the ledger away, irritated by Regina's suspicious gaze.
She was already overwhelmed with the household ledger, and now she had to take on the medicine supply ledger as well, so Priscilla was just as burdened.
She had always perfectly organized the ledgers with Yuan's help, boasting to her husband that this was the ability of Priscilla Felt, the daughter of the Felt Trading Company owner, so she couldn't complain about not being able to do it.
"Ugh. Never mind. If that little bitch Yuan were here, she would have quickly figured out what the problem was."
Regina felt suffocated at the name 'Yuan', glared at Priscilla, and left her side.
'Yuan. Yuan. I can understand why Father is like that because Yuan stole something, but why even Mother?'
Yuan leaving was no different from a maid who used to work at the house leaving.
Regina thought so without hesitation.
Her father, Geret Pellieresse, left a decent noble family in his youth to meet and marry her mother, Priscilla.
Her mother, being naive, spent the night with him, thinking, "What luck!" at the mention of being the second son of the famous Pellieresse family, without realizing that he wouldn't inherit a title, and Frederick was conceived.
Her maternal family, Felt Trading Company, was a newcomer to the capital at the time and lacked information. Pellieresse was a minor noble family with only prestige even back then, and their closed-off family nature remained the same.
Her maternal family only found out that Geret Pellieresse was a noble man with nothing to offer when Priscilla was pregnant.
Later, while preparing for the wedding, it became clear that Geret Pellieresse had no small title, no land, and not even any property to inherit, so it was natural that her maternal family was turned upside down. If it weren't for Priscilla's pregnancy, Geret Pellieresse would have been put on trial for fraudulent marriage.
After much deliberation, Felt Trading Company chose to provide support instead of going to trial.
They didn't want to leave their daughter raising a child without a father, nor could they let her live in poverty.
Felt Trading Company supported Geret Pellieresse with business funds in the name of a dowry. However, Geret Pellieresse, who was new to business, was neatly scammed and blew all the money.
And then twice more.
The Count, who had squandered all the business funds provided by his in-laws until Regina was born as well as Frederick, had his authority as a father fall to the ground.
In addition, due to the cold shoulder from his in-laws, he moved from house to house where commoners would live, maintaining a poor life without working, as befitting a noble.
Only Priscilla went back and forth to her parents' house to borrow living expenses to feed her children. The borrowed money gradually decreased, but the number of times his wife and children glared at Geret Pellieresse with resentment increased.
The day his life was reversed was when Igor, the current Emperor, who was then the Grand Duke of the North, suddenly ascended to the throne.
That day, news spread throughout the country that the 1st Imperial Prince, Claude Euphris, had voluntarily become the Deposed Emperor along with the funeral of the late Emperor Alexei, and was entrusting himself to his maternal family.
Geret Pellieresse was saved by the words of the family's lawyer who came to find him.
The death of his older brother, Phillip Pellieresse.
It was welcome news that he, as a direct relative, had to inherit the title because the children who would inherit the title were too young.
At this time, Regina's life was also completely reversed.
The resentment she had for her father flew away like a feather, and the moment she escaped the house where rats roamed and saw the mansion of a noble family, her heart was completely captivated.
Even if it was a minor noble family, a noble family was still a noble family. Regina was fascinated by the simple dresses that she wouldn't even look at now, calling them old-fashioned.
Everything placed and hung in Yuan's room looked precious and beautiful. In the moment she could try them on and wear them as she pleased, she felt like she had the whole world.
Regina, who had to bow her head every time a four-wheeled carriage passed by, was overwhelmed by the fact that she had become someone who could confidently face and greet the beautiful girls of her age who were riding inside.
But the noble society she had dreamed of was not so easy.
To the high-nosed nobles, Priscilla and Regina were half-baked.
Yuan Pellieresse was recognized as a perfect noble lady because her mother was also from a family of scholars with a long history, while Regina was subtly ostracized among her peers because she had half the blood of a merchant.
Meetings that were no different from maids under the name of friends continued.
Naturally, Regina's anger turned to Yuan, who was a perfect noble but had fallen to the status of a worthless maid.
Regina vented her anger by freely bossing Yuan around at home and taking whatever was Yuan's.
What made her even more twisted was that, one day, her father, Geret Pellieresse, instead of valuing his daughter who had become a noble, began to involve the crow Yuan Pellieresse in his research as his assistant.
Regina thought that her father's incomprehensible favoritism was a 'noble's way of thinking'.
A narrow-minded way of thinking that mercilessly judged bloodlines even to his own children, distinguishing between what a noble should and should not do.
Regina never wanted to have her things taken away again.
She never wanted to envy nobles again and think that elegance was not hers.
'Now that crow Yuan is not in the house. Now everything is really mine.'
If her status in the family is high, her father won't look for a marriage partner for her in a way that says, "If you can bring back some land, I don't care if they're a fallen noble."
When winter passes, the dream of all Euphris girls.
The Imperial Palace debutante ball, which can only be attended if you have ties to the Imperial Family, begins.
It was a stage that Regina had dreamed of since she was a child living as a commoner, not even treated as a noble outside the mansion.
A stage that could change her life.
To do so, she had to raise her value by bringing a plausible partner who could shine the most on that stage.
For example, a man from the Trelawney Count family with vast lands.
Regina happened to see a letter with the Trelawney Count family crest in the letter basket that the maid was carrying in and quickly hid it.
Regina, pacing anxiously in the drawing room, glared at the wall of the drawing room where the portraits of the previous Pellieresse Counts were hung. It had been bothering her for a while.
'Damn crows.'
Whenever she invited young ladies of her age, they looked back and forth between those portraits with black hair and black eyes and Regina.
Regina, with her red hair and green eyes, felt like an alien simply because she wasn't the same color as them.
Regina, avoiding the faces of her ancestors who seemed to be looking down on her, hugged the letter tightly and ran to her room.
Then she crawled under the bed and took out a box.
The box was filled with letters of various sizes.
The letters, full of inquiries about Yuan's well-being, were sent by Louise Pellieresse to this mansion regularly for the past year.
Regina picked up a random letter from the pile and shone it under the chandelier light.
Louise's letters had nothing suspicious other than the detailed inquiries.
She had been secretly stealing the letters for the past year, but Yuan was no different from usual at the time.
She seemed to be waiting for the letters sporadically, but if she really longed for her sister's letters, she would have searched the servants' quarters to find them.
'In the end, she didn't care about what happened to Louise either.'
Otherwise, how could she have followed Marquis Kompani so quickly as if she had been waiting for it!
She acted like a victim and only poured out criticism on the family that had taken her in, but when you think about it, Yuan was a heartless woman who didn't shed a single tear at her sister's death.
Regina roughly folded the letter, threw it back into the box carelessly, and secretly opened the letter from the Trelawney Count family that she had hidden in her arms.
The letter was densely filled with the handwriting of Dreikup Trelawney, the third son of the Trelawney Count family.
He seemed to have a lot to say about her quick rejection of the marriage proposal he had sent recently.
It was a letter of persuasion that his heart to marry the Pellieresse Count's daughter was sincere, and that the family was willing to divide even the tail end of the territory if he really wanted it, so please reconsider.
'A marriage proposal? I almost messed up?'
He didn't just like Yuan, but even sent a marriage proposal?
If Yuan hadn't left this mansion, it was a proposal that would have made Priscilla's eyes turn upside down.
Her father, Geret Pellieresse, also had a desire for land, so there was no need to mention it.
A girl who receives marriage proposals even before her debutante is naturally bound to attract attention.
Especially if rumors spread that the daughter of the Pellieresse Count family, who is not even a great noble, received a marriage proposal before her debutante?
If Regina was the main character, it was obvious that she would be the most noticed at the debutante!
Regina's green eyes lingered on the words 'Pellieresse Count's daughter' for a long time.
A young noble who has just been knighted.
The recklessness of saying that he wants to marry even if he has to bring land, even to someone he hasn't even talked to.
Dreikup Trelawney must have fallen in love at first sight without even knowing Yuan's name.
She was also worried about who to take as a partner to the debutante ball held at the Imperial Palace.
It wouldn't look good to have her fat father next to her, and it wouldn't be good to have her brother Frederick, who is also 'half-baked', by her side.
Besides, Regina grew up as a commoner in her childhood, so she didn't have any noble young men who were close enough to ask for a favor.
'Dreikup Trelawney is perfect.'
In terms of beauty, she was much better than the gloomy crow Yuan Pellieresse.
Regina was convinced that Dreikup Trelawney would definitely fall in love with her when he saw her, and began to write a reply to his letter.
