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Episode 1
└[I'm dropping this.]
What?
The calm voice, so out of place for the situation, made me lift my head and look around.
'Am I hallucinating?'
What was I expecting? There's no one else here but me.
I'm in a prison for nobles.
But the reason there's no one around isn't because this is a solitary cell...
"Ugh!"
One side of the ceiling collapsed with a cracking sound, and a wave of heat washed over me.
That's right. This noble prison, the entire building, is engulfed in flames.
Everyone else seemed to have escaped long ago, except for me, who was unconscious and asleep.
'Damn it. Did he put sleeping pills in the water too?'
Father.
To be precise, the face of Count Torto, my non-blood-related adoptive father, came to mind.
Even in my dazed state, his face was chillingly clear.
Because just a few minutes ago, I clearly saw him standing in front of this noble prison.
-Father! Help me! There's a fire... Cough, if you could set up a support so I can get out through the window...!
Knowing that the person outside the window was my father, I felt relieved and asked for help.
It was night, but the flames engulfing the entire building created light, allowing me to see his expression clearly.
-Fath...er?
He, Count Torto, had the same face I had always seen.
Yes. That was the problem.
Even seeing me trapped in this fire, he stood there with the same indifferent expression as always.
The man I thought had come to save me was actually-.
'He came to see if I died properly.'
Watching him turn his back and leave indifferently, I realized why I had to die.
Because I had helped him with so many things to gain his approval.
Which meant I knew too much about the family's corruption.
He probably wanted to destroy the evidence, like burning a few documents, in case I leaked information to the outside.
'From the start, I was just a tool to be used and discarded, not a daughter.'
No tears came.
I was just angry at myself for craving affection from such a person.
'I'm not going to die quietly.'
If he's so afraid of the corruption being exposed, I'll leave evidence myself.
Since sharp objects were forbidden to prevent self-harm, and there was no pen or ink, I tore the pillowcase and bit my fingers to draw blood.
'Torto, slush fund, lock...'
I didn't have much time, so I had to write it like a code, but if someone found it, they would find it suspicious and investigate. This was my will.
Just as I was racking my brain to include as much evidence of corruption as possible.
└[I've seen people drop after the prologue, but dropping after the first chapter is a first lol]
└[Dropping after the first chapter is called "dipping your toes in," not dropping~]
The voice I heard earlier came again.
'Am I going crazy because I'm about to die?'
It didn't feel like I was hearing someone's voice with my ears.
It was a monotonous sound that seemed to seep directly into my head, a combination of incomprehensible words.
No matter how I thought about it, it could only be a hallucination, so I focused on what I was doing.
'The secret ledger is in the fountain in the garden...'
└[I'm from the advance party who read up to the latest chapter uploaded today. I thought it was the familiar taste of kimchi stew, but it has a subtle tom yum flavor. Still, if you like clichés, I recommend it.]
"This hallucination is damn long!"
I stuffed the piece of cloth into a wooden cup and threw it out the window, making sure it wouldn't flutter back into the flames.
Even as I gasped for breath, this hallucination continued to say its piece in a corner of my mind.
It wasn't so distracting that it took my attention away, so I tried to ignore it.
└[The beginning is close to a female lead's growth story, and I liked that Rose knew how to handle things on her own. There are a few male lead candidates, but I think my stock is ruined...]
One word I couldn't ignore came up.
"Rose?"
Rose. My name.
The name I had before Count Torto gave me the name "Violetta."
To be called by my original name again.
I chuckled, not like someone facing death.
'At least I'm Rose, not Violetta Torto, when I die.'
This is a pretty good ending in its own way.
I closed my eyes, surrendering myself to the approaching flames.
Contrary to my expectation of pain, I felt a strangely warm peace coming over me.
* * *
The mind engulfed in flames awoke again in the flames.
It wasn't the reality of my body burning, but in my memories of when I was very young.
'Is this my life flashing before my eyes?'
The day the orphanage I was staying at caught fire.
My friends died, and I had to continue living in the place where the accident site was roughly repaired and covered up.
It was Count Torto who took me out of that terrible place.
-Am I... your daughter, Count?
-Yes. I've come to take you.
He had the same blonde hair and blue eyes as me.
Not only the appearance but also the age, region, and circumstances up to entering the orphanage were enough to see me as the Count's illegitimate child.
Dreamlike days followed, living as a noble lady with a new name, Violetta, in a new home that I arrived at in a beautiful carriage.
But that dream didn't last long.
Orange hair, which couldn't appear if I was a true Torto, began to appear little by little.
-What about the orphanage director who introduced the child?
-That's... we've lost contact with them.
I, who had suddenly become an accomplice in an adoption scam, had to live on my wits from then on.
The only reason Count Torto didn't immediately disown me was that he needed a daughter.
A daughter to use for political marriages.
'If a real daughter doesn't appear, I can stay here.'
I lived a nervous cuckoo-child life for several years.
-This is a ring my mother left me.
Betraying my wishes, the Count's real daughter appeared.
-Oh my, how could this happen?
-Lady Violetta was a distant relative, right? They adopted her instead because they thought Lady Riley had passed away.
-If Lady Violetta hadn't been there, we might have found Lady Riley sooner. Heaven is so heartless.
That's when it started. I began to gather helpful rumors from women's social gatherings.
The Count's family didn't have a mistress, and Riley wasn't yet familiar with noble society, so that was something only I could do.
Thanks to that, the Count didn't send me to a distant family with an excuse, nor did he marry me off as soon as I came of age.
That's how I lived, dedicating myself to the Count's family, and then I found someone I connected with.
-Violetta, you're the only one who truly understands me.
The Second Prince, overshadowed by his older brother, the Crown Prince, and me, like the shadow of the Count's real daughter, Riley.
We felt a sense of kinship with each other and quickly became good friends.
The friendly relationship between a man and a woman quickly blurred the boundaries of lovers.
Soon after, an engagement ring sent by the Second Prince arrived at the Torto estate.
-Oh my, Lady Violetta is really going to the Imperial Family-.
Everything shattered with the words the butler uttered after confirming the letter.
-This... is for Lady Riley.
After that, Riley, who had a tea time alone with the Second Prince, collapsed after drinking poison from the cup.
Everyone thought that I, her former lover, was holding a grudge. For some reason, I was really pointed out as the culprit, imprisoned in a noble prison, and... this ending.
'It's a mess.'
It was a life that didn't need to be looked back on with a life flashing before my eyes.
Wasn't my life only happy until right before the fire at the orphanage when I was young?
└[Another regression.. The reason for the regression also seems familiar. Dropping this.]
└[This person left another drop comment]
'What is this I've been hearing since earlier?'
I frowned and opened my eyes.
'...Huh?'
Why am I opening my eyes?
...Why am I alive?
└[I woke up and it was an unfamiliar ceiling.]
Unlike the situation expressed arbitrarily by the voice in my head, it wasn't an unfamiliar ceiling.
'This is...'
It's the orphanage. The one Rose lived in when she was young.
'This room was definitely burned down.'
As I wiggled my small body, the situation became clearer as if I had woken up from a dream.
A dim interior with blue moonlight coming in through the window. I was in bed, and I could hear the colorful breathing of the sleeping children next to me.
And what I heard next was-.
└[I'm cheering you on]
└[Keep up the good work.]
└[I'm cheering you on]
└[Stop cheering so much, you guys]
└[I saw it for the first time through a review event, and the story is unique and fun. Recommended ^^]
└[Wow~ Congratulations on the author's launch. Clap clap clap! Review event]
└[We're not doing a review event]
└[Review event. I'm cheering you on.]
It was a barrage of countless cheers.