Chapter 2
꒦︶꒷‧₊★₊‧꒷︶꒷‧₊ଓ₊‧꒷︶꒷‧₊★₊‧꒷︶꒦
· · ୨୧ · ·
(3rd PERSON POV)
Eisel stared at Karl intently as she relaxed her expression and slowly got up from her seat. She took the business card she was carrying and handed it over to him.
“I am well aware of Archduke Byron’s place in the Empire. His Majesty’s younger sister is the former Grand Duchess of Byron. In other words, the Archduke Byron who’s right in front of me right now is the Emperor’s nephew. In addition to that, you are the commander of the entire army as well as the Imperial Knights.”
“……”
“I’m also aware that you have the highest decision-making power other than His Majesty the Emperor for any wartime situation that might be situated in the empire. Which is why, the only person I can ask for help is the Archduke.”
“…. How far have you researched? No, who are you? Even your family name that I’ve never heard before. Only a few know that secret but you still dare offer such ridiculous conditions.”
Karl followed her and stood up, the latter stared at the former’s eyes. He, who was one head higher than herself.
His eyes rolled, demanding an answer but she ended up reminiscing about her distant past.
“I lived in poverty, but I never thought that money was the best. I knew that there were a lot of things that money couldn’t get. Things like friends, honor, power, and even love?”
Eisel, who was speaking calmly, smiled at Karl beginly.
“But, you’re right! Money can buy everything. Taking control of the Empire’s intelligence network, buying high-ranked archmage, or even hundreds of thousands of mercenaries to deal with monsters and ….”
Eisel paused, then stretched out her fore finger and pointed to Karl, who was staring blankly at her.
“And…to buy the man in front of me, the most influential person in the empire.”
“What the ……”
“I don’t have that much time. I have enough money to rot, but not enough time. If you’re not satisfied with my proposal, tell me immediately. By then, you wouldn’t have to waste your precious time with me since you need to get out and see His Majesty the Emperor.”
Did she send someone to the emperor as well? Eisel’s eyes,who was looking intently at the hardened Karl, smiled deeply.
“Now, choose, Archduke Karl Beorg Byron.”
-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚ🌸ɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-
(3rd PERSON POV)
“Thank you so much for making a quick decision.”
Thin and long fingers that were organizing thick documents moved gently as if playing a piano. Karl, who was currently watching as the papers put together with a crackling sound was seated crookedly and staring intently at the mysterious woman in front of him.
‘Aspenser.’
Obviously, it was the first time he had heard of it. He couldn’t name all the nobles in the empire, but for someone with a huge fortune, he might have probably heard of it at least once.
Karl, was staring intently cross-legged as he identified her identity. He removed his hand that was gently pressing onto his hip bone and then placed it on his thigh. Seeing Eisel was preparing to get up from her seat made him lean his upper body forward.
“Have we ever met before?”
After tidying the documents in her bag, Eisel smiled brightly at Karl’s question. ‘Before?’ Karl nodded his head briefly and leaned back to his chair.
“I’m not completely sure, but didn’t you say that we’ve already met before?”
“Um. I did, didn’t I?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“It literally means what it means.”
“Then we’ve already met?”
Instead of answering, Eisel then pouted her lips with an ambiguous face. Karl’s forehead narrowed at her lack of response. He didn’t really remember all the people that he had met before, so it’s possible that he unintentionally forgot about her.
However, he was really bothered. She seemed to be someone he had known for a long time.
“When did we first meet?”
“Um, a long time ago?”
“How long has it been?”
“Well. Let’s just say it’s been like over 10 to 15 years ago?”
Eisel tilted her head with her chin on her palm and shrugged.
‘At least 10 to 15 years. That means we met when I was just over 10 years old.’
“Well l, I do understand if you don’t remember me. Adults tend to forget events that happened when they’re still young. Besides, we haven’t seen each other ever since then and I haven’t had any public appearances as well.”
“How did we meet? No, how did you know all those things about me?”
“Are you that curious?”
‘Is it because I’m fascinated about your laid-back attitude as you asked me with a faint smile on your face?’ Karl, who would normally ignore those gestures, nodded his head without hesitation.
Eisel smiled deeply at Karl’s immediate response, then she lowered her bag and opened her fingers.
“At that time you are still a coward.”
“What, when did that…..”
“Besides, you were crying at that time. And His Excellency grabbed my hand as I was about to go home and said.”
Eisel’s voice rang slowly, as if drunk from her memories. Then she came closer while smiling softly and extended her long fingers.
Karl, who had no intention of resisting even though he was aware of the hand that was approaching him, had his eyes widened when the tip of her fingers pushed his chin up.
“Later, when you grow up, you and I-”
‘I really had no intention of making such a big deal from the very beginning. I just wanted to be rich and live a little longer, but when a sudden realization came to me, I just ran out of control.’
“Let’s get married.”
Eisel smiled brightly.
-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚ🌸ɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-
(Eisel’s 3rd PERSON POV)
“I’m sorry I didn’t prepare anything today.”
‘Three plates were placed on the old wooden table, which was too difficult to put on a tablecloth. While the food was too watery to be called a soup, the color itself was too dark to be called a water. Still, when I placed my nose into it, it smelled quite plausible and had a tinge of corn into it although the taste was close to water.’
A silver-haired woman who wiped the only three spoons in a cloth and placed it on the table. Lily Aspenser let out a small sigh. The man who was sitting on the other side with his long hair hanging down. It was Beorick, Lily’s husband. He impressive glasses that are larger than the size of an egg.
“What do you mean that you didn’t prepare anything? It’s better than any other feast for me. I’ll eat it with gusto madame.”
With a soft voice befitting his appearance, Beorick, while holding a spoon, kissed Lily’s cheek and glanced at the little girl who looked at him with a smirk.
“Let’s eat, Eisel.”
Beorick and Lily’s daughter, Eisel. She, who was about to celebrate her eighth birthday, answered with a bright smile at Beorick and then raised her spoon.
“I will eat well!”
Unlike the dark dining table where one candle was lit because there was not enough money to buy oil, Eisel’s voice was bright and clear. After kissing her daughter’s head, Lily went back to her seat and slowly picked up the porridge near the water.
‘We’re terribly poor.’
Eisel shoved the porridge into her mouth and sighed inwardly. ‘How did this ever happen? Growing up as an orphan, then reborn again this time as a daughter of an aristocratic family, out of the days of eating rice only, I was so delighted by the fact that I had become a daughter of a golden spoon, which I had dreamed of.’
‘Finally, the time has come for me too!’
[The adoptive parents who raised me for 20 years vs the birth parents of a chaebol family suddenly appeared after 20 years! Who would I choose?]
Eisel of course would choose her birth parents of a chaebol family if people would discuss this topic.
‘Although I am grateful to my adoptive parents who raised me for 20 years, it was thanks to them that from a young age, I learned the fact that money is everything in this world and without money, happiness cannot be found. They taught me that simple truth.’
She was adopted because they had no children at that time, but then Eisel was treated poorly because twins were born from her adoptive parents later on. As soon as she became an adult, she chose to leave their home and when she came out of the world without money, that’s when she realized that she had to work hard.
When Eisel was born again, she couldn’t help herself but be happy about it and understand the word ‘Reincarnation’ and plan up her life for this second life that she had.
‘I am now a daughter of an aristocratic family? And also the eldest daughter? That means I would live my life without worrying about food, clothes or even monthly rent!’
‘I didn’t know where this was or what world it was, but it didn’t matter.’
‘It’s actually perfect!’
‘Cause now I’m finally! Since I became a noble woman now! But somehow, the name of the Emperor or the high-ranking nobles and even the name of this country were somewhat familia, but it didn’t really matter.’
‘Whether it’s a novel, a manhwa, or even the past? The important thing for me is that I became a rich noble woman.’
However, everything did not come so easy.
‘…… We….We are bankrupt.’
One day, five businesses run by the Aspenser family went bankrupt and the land was secured by debt. Eisel, who was still three years old, only blended with the background, not knowing what was going on. When she finally came to her senses, she saw a lot of foreclosure tickets stuck to their four-storey house.
‘No, this can’t be true, any noble family couldn’t be this ruined. Can they really put in a foreclosure ticket just because they go bankrupt? Isn’t this a medieval society? Even if a rich family becomes doomed, it will go on for like, three generations. How come it happened for a fast three days?’
Easel stared blankly at her fallen family, and in the end all that was left was just a four-storey mansion that could neither be sold nor left and since no one is managing it, the mansion became won-out like this.
‘If they’re going to take everything, they should have taken this mansion too. But then why didn’t they?’
Eisel thought that everything would be resolved if they sold the mansion, unfortunately, this mansion was owned by the Imperial family that’s why it was impossible to sell it. In other words, unless they return their noble status, the mansion belongs to them and cannot be negotiated.
‘I’m not sure If I should be happy or sad, but thanks to the grace of the royal family, we were able to stay at our mansion, while eating a watery porridge that smelled like corn.’
“Yesterday, I met Lord Whitenburg.”
“Oh my, your old friend…..”
It was Beorick’s voice that broke the rattling sound within the gloomy atmosphere during their meal time. Lily’s eyes widened in surprise at the news that was delivered by Beorick while eating a tasteless porridge.
“That’s right, he said that he came right away after hearing the news about our family. He also added that he would find ways helping me with anything.”
“That’s great. But…..”
Lily, who was delighted as she clasped her palms, immediately changed her expression and narrowed her eyes. Her smiling face changed to a worried expression.
“You’re not thinking of getting into a strange business again, aren’t you?”
“It’s not like that? We just had a normal conversation.”
“Really?”
“I’m telling the truth. Trust me, madame.”
Lily, unable to easily trust Beorick since he already had a criminal record, looked at him coldly. Beorick just smiled awkwardly without saying anything.