Chapter 6
Reinhardt took the child and went directly into the bathroom. She naturally tried to steer his hand.
The old lady had tried to stop her from using Luden Castle’s bathroom because it had been a while since it had been used by its owner, but Reinhardt shook her head. The maids boiled hot water and poured it, smelling Reinhardt and the dirty child in underwear as they did.
The story of the servants who tried to wash the child being scratched had already spread all throughout the small castle.
Reinhardt tried to put the child in warm water but he didn’t listen. The child’s power was enormous, which she’d already known well, and she could not move him even when she used her whole body.
After much thought, she embraced the child. The child stiffened from the unexpected body contact.
She crept her arms around the child’s body. The child looked uncomfortable at first, but soon the warm water relaxed his body and he seemed as if he were in a good mood.
“Hey, you’re handsome.”
Reinhardt didn’t care about the water getting dirty. She took the expensive soap and started intensely washing the child’s hair. Her actions were rough because she had never washed a person, but the child gently put himself in her hands. And what was revealed was, unexpectedly, the cold face of a boy.
“I thought you were a boy.”
His body was revealed when his giant dirty clothes and other stuff was removed, he could hardly function due to it. She could barely remove them, they were so dry.
When she washed him with water, she found some big wounds on his body. She had expected it. They were obvious signs of abuse by someone.
“Bur…”
It was only now that Reinhardt saw the boy’s appearance in front of her that she understood why he’d first appeared in front of her.
After he killed the mercenary she had said, “Bastard….”
There must have been a time when someone called the boy a fucking bastard. So the child, who couldn’t tell the difference between them, would have appeared before her like a well-behaved dog when he heard it.
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.”
How much abuse had to have been inflicted for the child to answer to that name?
She felt a little sick knowing that she thought he had already worn out with it.
Reinhardt turned the child’s back on purpose and wiped his back. The child shrugged his shoulders but did not run away. To change out the dirty water, the maids had to go in and out of the bathroom dozens of times.
“What’s this?”
While washing the boy, Reinhardt found a ring on his finger. It was a copper ring with a missing stone. The ring was all messed up and it had quite a few scratches. She wondered if this was the reason why her fingers hurt when she held the boy’s hand.
“Can I have a look?”
That’s what she said as she took the ring off of his finger. The boy just stared at her. He didn’t even know what it was.
‘Is it family insignia?’
In case the child could be identified because of it, she decided to put the ring away separately. After washing the child, Reinhardt began to wash herself too.
The wounds that she had suffered from for a long time in prison still lingered and bothered her.
That’s why her knees and elbows hurt. The wound that she got when she was tortured at first didn’t heal even during the journey.
She paused for a moment when the hot water splashed on her. The leg that had been bitten by the mercenary was almost in the same condition.
It was healing, but it was still a bit painful due to the water splashing on that area. When the water touched it the pain was just terrible, and the scar was enormous.
“Oh, my God. This is really…”
She casually looked down at wounds and laughed out loud. A collection of poetry is not a collection of poems after all.
[T/n: This phrase means that it is different when you experience it first-hand rather than just seeing it from other people. I guess she is really pampered knowing that she is duke’s daughter.]
It was at that moment that something warm touched her legs. The child sitting next to her, naked, put his palm on the wound on her leg.
The maid repeatedly tried to persuade him to leave with her, but he stayed there without wearing anything and had been drying off.
The child squatted and patted her wound gently.
Tap-Tap
As she looked at the child patting on her wound silently, Reinhardt’s eyes grew sour.
-“Good night, sweet apple pie.”
This hot and sleepless night and him patting her with his palm reminded her of the warmth she’d felt when her father patted her shoulder.
It was fortunate that the steam was rising thanks to the hot water.
Reinhardt cried, sinking her head into the water. The child just stared at her and patted Reinhardt on the shoulder again.
After washing up, she took the child to the dining area, her eyes barely open because of fatigue. She pushed a pile of white and wheat bread towards the child, and then dropped her head on the table and fell asleep.
* * *
Her eyes glistened.
There was a mild, slightly dusty scent of straw in the air.
Reinhardt, with her eyes wide awake, smiled while lying down when she saw the food in front of her.
There was white bread on the bed, it was obvious who left it there.
It had already been two months since she came to Luden Castle.
The child became accustomed to life in Luden Castle. So did she.
The child, who blindly follows Reinhardt, was just barely convinced not long ago that he should stay away from her at night. One time the whole city stayed up all night because he cried so hard trying to stay with her.
It was only after Reinhardt’s repeated hip-hitting and tightening that he was convinced, though his strong disapproval was obvious on his face.
After that, he slept calmly in the room she’d given him. But he couldn’t stop himself from leaving white bread on her bed when he would come over to her window.
The maids said that the child doesn’t always eat the white bread that’s given in the evening and just carries it with him.
This bread is probably that bread.
Reinhardt squirmed, bread in her mouth.
Winter in Luden had already begun.
Thanksgiving was just around the corner. There was already a pile of straw in front of the castle. Workers who had been carrying straw since dawn ran around busily in the garden. After looking at them from the window, Reinhardt lowered her curtain.
The tapestry she was looking at last night was rolled up on one side of her room. Reinhardt tried not to offend the old lady as much as possible and just focused on figuring out the castle’s living conditions.
Of course, her revenge wasn’t over yet.
‘I have to make money somehow.’
It’s time her father gets everything back once again.
She hoped that revenge in this precious life wouldn’t end with only taming the Crown Prince.
In her previous life, Mikhail climbed up smoothly and comfortably to the throne of the Emperor. Princess Canaria became the Empress and had three children. Reinhardt couldn’t bear to see it happen again.
In her previous life, it took her three years to come to her senses in the Helka estate.
Hu Linke’s death and her divorce were a big blow to her.
No matter how much she drank, she couldn’t sleep, so she fell asleep while drunk. Even after she decided to take revenge, she did not know how to do it so she learned about Helka’s work poorly.
There was no one to help the woman who had lived a beautiful life as a princess to control an estate. There were dozens of dogs flocking to the wealthy Helka estate for food.
‘It’s a good thing there aren’t any dogs here.’
She spread the jam, chewed, and swallowed the bread.
Six months of snow a year in the Luden Estate.
Their main products are potatoes.
It used to be corn and barley but they were only consumed within the territory. This is because there were many mountains and not enough land to reclaim.
The number of young people is also unclear. Most of them fled to the mountains and worked in the capital, rather than renting the land to the lord because they were so poor.
There’s a large lake, but it is also frozen for half the year.
To sum it all up, there was little room to make money.
This was a big problem.
She needed money to get revenge.
She suddenly missed the soldiers in the Helka estate.
She had secretly collected 3,000 soldiers. She has to make a fortune to roll in such an army here. The food consumed by 3,000 people every day would be enormous. Helka was only rich enough to pay for it because it’s the most abundant territory in the Allanquez Empire.
But there Luden has no chance.
‘I should think hard. There’s got to be something if I think hard.’
Reinhardt tried to recall her previous life. By the time she’d had the Helka estate in her hands for about five years, she was able to grasp its money flow.
About 10 years later, she read things like what was popular in the capital, what was lacking in the area, and which place was the most advanced and which was the most behind.
But that was when she was 34 years old. Right now, Reinhardt is 24.
‘I should’ve drunk less.’
When she had a hangover Reinhardt would put her forehead on the table and regret drinking so heavily.
The Helka estate had enough money to buy a mountain of alcohol, and she drank mountains of it every day. It was usual for her to lose a day to her hangover. Later on, she’d said, “Since I drank too much my drinking capacity increased, so I felt full when I drank less alcohol.”
She was drunk all day, drinking solo was enough to burn her throat.
“….Hold on.”
She raised one eyebrow.
She felt like she was close to remembering something and catching the thought in her head.
What…what…what…what…what?
Knock-Knock
“Ah!”
Just as she was about to think of it, someone knocked on the door. Reinhardt fell back on the table with a one-word scream.
Who is it!
Her resentful gaze landed on Sarah who had just entered.
“….Oh, ma’am.”
“Did you sleep well?”
“Thanks to you, the yard has been noisy since morning…”
“I have to stock up on straw for the horses in advance. I’m begging you to deal with it a little longer.”
She never said, “I’m sorry.” It’s the old lady’s pride. However, Reinhardt did not mind and shook her head.
“It’s okay, I can’t starve horses all winter just to get some sleep.”
“Yes, and uh…”
“Speak.”
“I mean the boy.”
She meant the child Reinhardt picked up on her way to Luden.
Thanks to the kid who left the white bread behind today Reinhardt, who had filled her stomach, disappeared in the morning.
Sarah hated him very much and rarely mentioned him before Reinhardt. The reason was that he didn’t speak very well.
It’s because he has no name. Now that she mentioned him, perhaps it’s due to the stuff he had left for Reinhardt.
“Have you got anything?”
“Yeah, well, a worker carrying straw in this morning recognized him.”
“Really?”
Her eyes glistened, interested in what she had to say.
Sarah hesitated.
“Does he have parents? How old is he? What’s his name?”
Reinhardt went on talking, venting her anger and surprise.
“If he has parents, I would have to call them and give them a beating! Oh, my God, they left such a child in the mountains like that! When I first saw him, I thought he was a beast!”
Sarah’s gaze brought Reinhardt to her senses.
“….Anyways, just tell me.”
“Well, it’s a bit of a story.”
“Well, he was walking around the mountain like that, so he can’t be from a decent house. Especially in this place.”
In a harsh land like Luden, children are like property to their families. Even if they were only five or six years old, they have to pull grass and help them work. The child she picked up had to be twelve, or four years old at the very least. Plus, he was extremely strong and powerful.
A family that neglects such a good worker should have a lot of problems.
“….Surprisingly, he’s not a commoner’s child.”
“Hmm?”
Sarah sighed.
“The worker who recognized him lives in a village that is about a week away from here. The worker said he was Corona’s son.”
Corona…I’ve heard that name a lot before.
She once memorized the list of the nobles of Allanquez as the Crown Princess.
Are they a fallen noble family somewhere?
Sarah continued explaining in front of her as she tilted her head.
“Corona is a family that was attacked and destroyed by barbarians. They used to be a member of the Feyldon family.”
“Oh, my.”
“They just barely survived, but then they died ten months later.”
Reinhardt’s face hardened.
The meaning of the statement, that a woman died ten months later, was obvious.
Sarah sighed and continued.
“She gave birth to that child and hung herself in disgrace.”
At that moment, Reinhardt jumped up as if she had been struck by lightning.
Corona, she knew the name.
“His name is Bill. The worker said that he doesn’t know who started calling him that, but that eventually, that was what everyone called him.”
Bill Corona.
The man who suddenly appeared one day and became a war hero for Allanquez.
He was known to be of mixed barbarian descent and stood in front of Michel Allanquez, who had chosen him, and became the first loyal dog of the Crown Prince.
But she knows his real origin.
He isn’t of mixed barbarian blood.
He’s the Emperor’s illegitimate son.