Chapter 3

‘Reality truly is cruel.’

Even more so for a poor, orphaned commoner.

To avoid being dragged into an orphanage, I worked myself to the bone during the day to earn living expenses and stabbed my thigh with a pin at night to stay awake and study.

After becoming an official, life improved slightly, but even then I never wasted a single coin.

Anyone watching would have clicked their tongue and called it miserly.

But that life was now over. All of Elicia’s enormous wealth belonged to me.

My heart felt like it would explode from excitement.

“I wonder if my parents’ graves are still there. I should replace the headstone with something big and beautiful and move the grave properly to a church inside the inner wall…”

My excited voice gradually faded.

I saw my reflection in the mirror.

A girl stood there, dazzling and beautiful beyond anything my past self could ever compare to.

If I ran to my parents’ graves looking like this people would think I was insane at best and send me straight to the Inquisition at worst.

“….”

I ran a hand over my face and plopped back down onto the sofa.

Something crinkled under me. I pulled it out and saw the document the steward had brought that morning.

[Lombard Population Census Report]

I blankly brushed my fingers over the cover, then suddenly flipped straight to the back.

I wanted to check the signature of the person in charge.

‘Originally my name should be written here…’

But instead of mine, an entirely different name was written. A bureaucrat from another department whom I only vaguely recognized.

‘Then where exactly am I?’

No, did I even exist in this world at all?

If I do exist then what happens to the me living inside Elicia’s body? Two of the same person cannot exist.

The questions tangled endlessly until my head felt like it would burst.

“Damn it.”

I cursed and stood up from the sofa.

I hated sitting around worrying over vague guesses. Overthinking with no action was not my style.

So I would confirm it myself with my own eyes.

When I opened the door, the maids waiting in the hallway all bowed deeply.

“Take me to the castle office.”

“…Excuse me?”

The sudden order left them blinking in confusion.

It was not a treasure vault nor anything a noble lady would ever care about, so being told to escort me to the administrative building clearly made no sense to them.

In that case I had to make them understand.

I kicked the bedroom door wide open and shouted.

“What, dare to question my command? I said take me to the castle office so I can meet the idiot who wrote this trash of a report!”

“Y, yes Madam!”

My toe felt like it shattered against the door, but seeing the maids pale and bow desperately told me my acting had worked.

‘Life really is tough.’

For someone who always thought of herself as smart to be doing something so stupid, it hit me with a strange emptiness.

Though imagining the enormous wealth waiting for me did make me feel better.

Well… a lot better.

‘Hmm.’

Correction. I wanted to keep doing these stupid things from now on.

* * *

I was now inside the administrative building.

Officials scrambled everywhere while I strutted ahead. When someone blocked my way, I kicked the wall next to them to intimidate them.

Finally I arrived at the administrative office where I used to work.

‘Sigh.’

It was lunchtime, just as expected. The room was empty. Even so, stepping inside made me feel a little tense.

What if I ran into the original ‘me’.

But when I checked the organization chart on the wall, my name was nowhere to be found. In this world, the ‘me’ did not seem to have become an official yet.

‘But I cannot give up here. Someone must know where I am…’

Thinking of how Lombard might start restricting my movements, today might be my only chance to enter the office freely.

Looking around, I grabbed the nearest passing official.

“Who wrote this garbage report?”

“Uh… excuse me?”

“If you question me again I will pluck out every hair on your beard. I said why was there not a single person who pointed out issues in this trash while it went up the chain!”

I slammed the census report onto the floor and stomped on it to assert dominance.

Seeing my fierce behavior, the official cautiously opened his mouth.

“Then who are you, my lady…”

“Who am I? You really do not know?”

I grabbed his elegant mustache tightly.

I knew this man.

He was Baron Conte. He excelled only at forming factions and flattering his superiors.

He stole credit, dumped all blame on his subordinates, constantly bullied anyone below him, and squeezed them dry like rags.

Every day I suffered from stress because of him, pounding my chest in frustration after endless overtime.

‘I always wanted to do this at least once.’

To rip out the mustache he treasured so dearly.

Actually doing what I used to fantasize about was extremely satisfying.

I felt like I had discovered the true joy of being a menace.

“A, ha ha! How could I not recognize you, Madam? You are so beautiful I lost myself and spoke nonsense, please forgive me!”

“Is that so?”

“Of course. You are like an angel descended to the mortal realm!”

He added that he had questioned me earlier only because he wondered whether I was human or a celestial being.

As expected, the master of flattery and bullying.

“Truth be told, w, we are severely understaffed. No matter how much we request more personnel, no one listens. We suffer chronic shortages. Do you see that empty spot over there?”

Just as I expected, he pointed to the desks my parents had used when they were alive.

He always blamed everything on staff shortages. I had expected the conversation to shift in that direction eventually.

“Those seats have been empty for a long time. The previous occupants were low-ranking officials named Theo and Daisy…”

“Low-ranking?”

“People who worked so diligently they had no time to gaze at the stars.”

He corrected himself quickly and continued.

He said Theo and Daisy had peculiar personalities, but under my sharp stare he immediately changed his words again, calling them as brilliant as stars.

I snorted and moved to the real question.

“Government officials hold lifetime positions. So why are those seats empty? Did they cause trouble?”

“Ah, that is…”

For the first time, Baron Conte looked troubled.

“They were killed instantly in a carriage accident. It was unfortunate, considering how young they were.”

“I see.”

I already knew this, yet hearing it from someone else made me feel strangely bitter.

In any case, it confirmed that my parents had died the same way as in my past life. Now it was time to check the most important thing.

I forced my expression to remain calm.

“If they died young, their child must have been very young too.”

“Theo and Daisy had no children.”

“…What?”

“I know that family’s history quite well. No matter how they tried, they never had a child. Eventually they gave up. Misfortune or blessing, depending on how one sees it.”

The realization struck like instinct.

I could not claim to understand the will of the divine, but there was no second version of me in this world.

‘Good. Things would have become complicated if another me existed.’

My business here was finished.

“Get lost.”

“If I could be of any help to someone as noble as you, it would be an honor passed down through generations in my family. If you ever need assistance, please remember Baron Conte…”

Letting his flattery wash over me, I glanced at the documents scattered across the desks.

Every single one was a disaster.

No, disaster was too kind. They were garbage.

Tax records were chaotic, land management was a mess, legal rulings looked like the judges and jury had all gone mad, and finances… I would rather not speak of them.

The suffering of the territory residents flashed vividly in my mind.

‘I want to fix this. I want to tear apart all this damn trash.’

I squeezed my eyes shut to resist the temptation.

I would do nothing now. No more stressful work. I would live peacefully and waste my days in luxury.

…Or so I told myself, yet my eyes naturally detected every flaw in each document.

‘Even if the body changed, my brilliant mind is still the same.’

For a moment, I felt proud. But no. I would not use my brain again.

I was overflowing with joy just imagining all the wealth I could waste without lifting a finger.

Then I heard sharp footsteps echoing through the hallway.

“What do you think you are doing here, my lady?”

A man approached with knights behind him.

Ah. That wretchedly familiar face.

The man I once trusted as a lifelong friend, yet the same man who allowed the former Elicia to torture and kill me.

The Duke of Lombard.

Edwin Nazar La Lombard.