TDRDH:2

CHAPTER:02

It was my mom, her eyebrows raised sky-high.

“Good grief, the sun is already high in the sky and you’re still in bed? Get up this instant!”

Her voice boomed through the room.

“You’ll be the death of me, honestly.”

Grumbling under her breath, my mom approached as if she would snatch my blanket away at any moment.

Normally, we would have bickered back and forth over the blanket for quite some time.

But today was different.

I hugged my mom with all my might.

“Mooom!”

Startled by this, Mom, who had been about to unleash a furious scolding, instantly froze in bewilderment.

“Oh, my. What is wrong with you first thing in the morning? Did you have a nightmare or something?”

On the verge of tears, I could only nod.

In the end, Milena reaps what she sows in the original story.

After being kicked out of the ducal house, Cecilia works herself to the bone to re-enter high society.

From then on, Milena goes through absolute hell.

She suffers humiliating public embarrassment in society, and her attempts to bully Cecilia backfire miserably.

Falling into Cecilia’s meticulous traps of revenge, she slowly but surely spirals down into the abyss.

And to think that’s the future waiting for *me*—oh my god!

Besides, there was one more thing weighing on my mind.

‘In the original story… my mom isn’t mentioned at all.’

Although she seemed blunt on the outside, my mom was actually incredibly warm-hearted.

She told me she had lost her husband a very long time ago.

Despondent, she had climbed a mountain with dark thoughts in her mind, only to find a crying child there.

She named the child ‘Milena,’ and that was how we became a family.

‘How on earth did the Milena in the novel end up leaving my mom’s side?’

Since it was never mentioned in the original work, I had no way of knowing.

But one thing was certain.

‘I can’t imagine living without my mom.’

I buried my face deep in her embrace and mumbled.

“Hey, Mom… what if, by some crazy chance… I turned out to be the daughter of a super wealthy and powerful family?”

“Then you should absolutely go back to them.”

It was a resolute answer without a single second of hesitation.

Startled, I lifted my messy head to look at her.

“……Mom?”

“You’re my daughter, but you’re far too beautiful and talented to waste away in a tiny village like this.”

Mom cupped my cheeks and offered me a warm grin.

“But in return, if you ever go back to such a prestigious family, you must never forget how hard your mother worked to raise you. You’d better squeeze a massive child support fee out of them.”

“Oh, Mom!”

As I whined in frustration, Mom burst into laughter.

“Stop talking nonsense and get up. You’ve only just started working at the Baron’s castle, you can’t be late already.”

At that moment, my face went pale.

“……Mom, what time is it?”

“It’s time for my dear daughter to run for her life.”

I-I’m doomed!

* * *

Reincarnation or whatever, as a regular citizen living in this world, I needed to make a living.

And so, here I was.

Sweeping the floor diligently at my workplace, Baron Trancier’s castle, I was lost in deep thought.

‘In the original novel, Milena was the one who went looking for the Duke’s family, right?’

Which meant…

As long as I didn’t take the initiative to contact the Lucert Ducal House, everything would remain peaceful.

‘Right, let’s just forget about the novel and everything else.’

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t be happy without my mom.

Sure, I was human, so the wealth and prestige of a ducal house were tempting.

But they weren’t worth trading for the happiness I shared with my mom right now.

Of course, maybe she was just omitted from the original story and was actually living perfectly fine.

But…

‘How could I gamble with my mom’s life?’

If I got greedy for the title of Lady and went back, who knows what kind of butterfly effect it might trigger?

And what if, by some chance, something bad happened to my mom because of that…?

‘No way. Absolutely not.’

My mom, whose words might be rough, but whose eyes were always full of love when she looked at me.

She could tell exactly how I was feeling with just a single glance at my face.

The mom who would pick out the best cuts of food and pop them into my mouth whenever we ate together.

I could never be happy without her.

Plus, there was one thing I realized while living as her adopted daughter.

‘No matter how I look at it, I can’t feel any affection for that ducal family. They were so cruel to Cecilia!’

When I read the original novel, I felt so incredibly sorry for Cecilia.

Because those around Cecilia used ‘Milena’ as an excuse to inflict all kinds of abuse on her.

“Can you not even endure that much? If it were the real Lady, she would have smiled and brushed off such minor pain without even batting an eye.”

They would force her to practice dancing in high heels all day, leaving her heels bloody.

Starving her or depriving her of sleep was an everyday occurrence.

Oh, and why didn’t the family stop Cecilia from being bullied all that time, you ask?

‘Because they didn’t know!’

Also, I absolutely detested how the people of the ducal house treated Cecilia.

What, did they think she should just be grateful for food and shelter because she was adopted?

Though I was also an adopted daughter, my mom and I were a real family who genuinely cherished each other.

But looking at the Lucert family…

It reminded me of the people who used to point fingers at my mom and me, saying, “They’re not even real family anyway!” and it…

‘…makes me sick.’

Not to mention, they had been so indifferent to Cecilia, yet the moment Milena appeared, they coddled and doted on her like she was made of gold.

‘I can actually understand why Cecilia lost her mind whenever she saw Milena.’

Of course, the ducal family eventually found out about the abuse Cecilia had suffered and regretted it deeply, but…

‘Why on earth would I go back to that house just to be hated by Cecilia?’

Sure, I felt really sorry for the hardships Cecilia would face in the future.

But my mom was far more important to me.

In other words, I wanted to protect the life I had now.

I had no intention of getting dragged down into a ruinous ending alongside that family.

‘Yep. I’m definitely not going back.’

But that very afternoon…

I had to pay a steep price for underestimating the force of the original plot.

“H-Head Maid… what did you just say…?”

I stiffly looked up at the Head Maid.

Pushing up the glasses perched on the tip of her nose, the Head Maid announced in a stern voice,

“The VIPs visiting us today are the Lucert Ducal Family. Therefore, everyone must be on their best behavior.”

In that instant…

The events of the past week flashed through my mind like a panorama.

The Barony of Trancier, famous for its high-quality hot spring waters.

And the Head Maid, who had been riding our backs to polish and scrub every nook and cranny of the Baron’s castle.

“Clean thoroughly. If I find even a single speck of dust, there will be hell to pay.”

She hadn’t even told us who was visiting, claiming it was top secret.

I had wondered just how great these nobles were to warrant such a fuss…

‘But why them of all people?! Why does it have to be the Lucert Ducal Family?!’

But before I could even find a place to hide, they arrived.

“Head Maid, the Duke’s family has arrived.”

“Understood.”

With a nod, the Head Maid left the room.

I scrambled over to the window and craned my neck to look outside.

In the distance, a luxurious carriage was slowly coming to a halt.

The moment I spotted the large golden hawk crest engraved on the carriage…

My eyes shook violently.

‘The Lucert… Ducal House.’

And then, the carriage door opened.