episode_0075

[Episode 75] – Once upon a time, in a certain world (2)

Catherine followed the blonde woman and arrived at a large mansion. Catherine’s body shrank at the sight of a huge mansion that looked like something out of a fairy tale, something she had never seen before in her life.

“Here…”

“I will be staying here from now on. It is a store run by ‘Godmother’ and also a place for kids like you who have no place to go to stay. For the time being, I will be staying here and learning about cortisane.”

As the door to the huge mansion opened, a woman with half-updo brown hair stood there, frowning. With an expression that seemed to indicate something was offending her, she frowned strongly at Catherine.

“Lucia.”

“Hey, hey…godmother…I’m here…”

“…Didn’t I tell you? Stop picking up children like they’re stray cats.”

“But, but…”

The blonde woman’s name was ‘Lucia’. Lucia smiled bashfully and approached the woman called ‘godmother’ as if wagging her tail.

“You said last time that we were short on people..? I told you that I’m not just bringing people in, right?”

“Stop making ridiculous excuses. When I said I was lacking, I meant that there was a lack of capable courtisans, not kids who don’t know anything. ”

“, hehe…”

The woman with her eyebrows furrowed deeply and sighed deeply. Then she looked down at Lucia and began to shout at her in an irritated tone.

“……Haa, I wasn’t supposed to pick you up. Just because someone I know is more like you, how long do I have to put up with this jerk who leaves all the kids like you to me?”

“Oh, come on, sis. Don’t say that. I’ll earn some money and bring it to you.”

“I told you not to call me unnie in front of the kids. This is your problem. You earn so much money and don’t even save it, but spend it on the kids. Do you even plan on getting married? You have to save money and get married so I can feel at ease-”

“Ah-! Ah-! I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you!”

Lucia covered her ears with both hands and screamed as if she didn’t want to hear her godmother’s story. The woman called the godmother struck Lucia’s head with her fist as if she was annoyed.

“It hurts-!”

“Don’t be annoying and come in quickly. You take care of the baby for the time being.”

The godmother sighed, turned her head, and entered the mansion. Catherine hesitated for a moment, then followed Lucia into the mansion at a brisk pace.

Catherine couldn’t close her mouth as she looked up at the ceiling and the hallway, which was wider than the house she had lived in back home.

As she was blankly looking around the front door of the mansion, Lucia tapped Catherine on the back. Startled, Catherine raised her head and looked at Lucia.

“Come on in quickly. My godmother may look a bit prickly, but she’s a good person. She’s the one who raised me instead of my parents when I was wandering around like you.”

“Yes…”

Lucia shrugged her shoulders and smiled as she took Catherine’s hand. Catherine’s eyes turned red, perhaps because she felt the warmth of someone she hadn’t felt in a long time. Lucia was the first person who had treated her so well since she came to the capital.

“Please take care of me from now on, Catherine. As promised, I will teach you how to live in the capital.”

*

Life in the mansion was very different from his previous life. There were many children in the mansion who were similar to him in age. Many of them ran away from the village and lived with him doing odd jobs.

With a group of like-minded children, Catherine was able to quickly bond with her peers. She made her first friends and learned how to play with them for the first time.

As time went by, Catherine first picked up a quill and learned how to write. When she first wrote her own name, she cried, overcome with emotion that she could not express in words.

The first thing Catherine wrote after she learned to read was a letter. She wrote a thank you note to Lucia and her godmother, and sent it to them, expressing her gratitude for taking care of her.

When Catherine received a thank-you letter filled with crooked handwriting and awkward sentences, her godmother scolded her, telling her not to write such letters. However, Lucia later told her that her godmother treasured the letter and kept it as if it were a precious treasure.

As the seasons changed, Catherine changed from when she first came to the mansion. Her once dull hair and rough skin began to shine, and her once dull eyes became brighter and more lively.

A year has passed since we arrived at the mansion.

Catherine began to study the courtiers. Of course, there were other ways to work without becoming a courtier. Lucia and her godmother also suggested other paths for Catherine, but Catherine wanted to become a courtier.

“I want to be a woman like my sister Lucia and my godmother. Pretty like my sister, kind like my godmother… And someday, I want to be someone who helps girls like me. To do that… I’ll need a lot of money, right?”

“Catherine…..”

“And if I take over here after I become a courtesan, would you like it too?”

“That can’t be true. You are-”

“Sister, I know why you don’t get married and live here. Is it because I live in the village and just watch out for others? It’s easy to notice things like that.”

“Huh..? What did you say?”

Catherine smiled and looked at Lucia, then glanced at her godmother behind her. Then she smiled again and looked at Lucia, and Luisa’s face turned bright red.

“Sister’s love. I’ll support you.”

“……Is it that obvious?”

“No, I’m just a little perceptive. It’s just that sometimes, your eyes turn to your godmother..? And even if there are only women in the mansion, it would be better to lock the door and do it alone. If someone passes by your room… they’ll get caught right away, right?”

Lucia’s face turned bright red, almost white. Catherine giggled and laughed mischievously as she couldn’t close her mouth. Lucia covered her face with both hands in embarrassment and whispered to Catherine in a shrill voice.

“Ah, you won’t tell anyone, right? Right? Catherine? Huh?”

“Hehe, of course. I love you so much. I wouldn’t do anything that would make you hate me. Instead, I wish you would help me out a little bit…”

Lucia nodded vigorously to Catherine’s words. She couldn’t let her godmother know her feelings. She would confess her feelings someday, but now was not the time.

Catherine asked Lucia for ‘two things’ that she would need in the future. She needed what Lucia had in order to quickly establish herself in society as a courtier.

The first one was ‘Lucia’s Network’.

Catherine needed the connections Lucia had built up in society by now. She needed to be introduced to small tea parties in society and show off.

The second was ‘education’.

Lucia was more popular in the social circle than one might expect. Lucia, who was impeccable in both her speech and appearance, needed the opportunity to receive proper training as a courtesan.

By utilizing Lucia’s connections and learning everything about courtesans from Lucia, Catherine was able to quickly establish herself in high society.

But what was a little unusual was that, unlike most courtiers who dealt with male nobles, Catherine was adept at dealing with female nobles.

She listened to the worries of noblewomen, grasped their problems with insight, and solved their problems with her speaking skills. Word of mouth spread among the noblewomen who had solved their problems in this way, and more and more noblewomen came to seek out Catherine.

The social world is a world of women. Catherine, who captured the hearts of women, quickly became the center of society. Catherine’s value soared through the roof, to the point where just talking to her cost tens of gold coins.

So Catherine got the magical money she had been longing for. Now Catherine can turn pumpkins into carriages and old clothes into dresses with just a wave of her hand.

With the money came status. A perverted count who looked like he was going to die followed him around, claiming to be in love with him. It was a well-known fact among everyone in high society that the perverted count had an incurable disease.

He had great wealth and a high position as a count. But the one thing he didn’t have was health. Everyone whispered to Catherine to marry him.

‘He’s going to die soon anyway. He’s a human who can’t even lift a spoon by himself, so why would he need someone to take care of him at night? Will he be able to stand there?’

‘Isn’t the law of the country ridiculous? When a count dies, his property and position go to his wife. Of course, there would be debts and such, but the count doesn’t have any debts. He doesn’t have any other siblings. So all the property and position are yours?’

As if succumbing to such sweet temptation, Catherine accepted the Count’s marriage. Contrary to the whispers that she would soon die and then be free, the Count’s lifeline was far too long.

Was he being punished for marrying only for status? The count began to become obsessed with Catherine. He would not even allow his servants to talk to him, and he hated having anyone touch her.

The servant who spoke to Catherine was whipped, and the butler who taught her the housework of the mansion was beaten with a club. As time went by, the people of the mansion treated Catherine as a ‘non-existent person’.

When spoken to, they ignored her, and the maids did not even serve Catherine breakfast. The Count’s violence did not distinguish between men and women.

As Catherine continued to live a life where she could not talk to anyone in the mansion and could not communicate with anyone, one thought came to Catherine’s mind, as if she was going crazy.

‘I wish I had a concubine. Then… at least we could talk here.’

However, there was no way that the old and dying count, who was obsessed with himself and tortured others, would take a concubine. So Catherine, like a bird in a cage, quietly waited for the count to die.

As time passed, the count eventually lost consciousness and began to go back and forth between life and death. He had more days with his eyes closed than with his eyes open. Catherine finally regained her freedom from this hellish count’s house.

After breaking out of her cage and spreading her wings, Catherine’s first destination was a ball. In order to meet the noble ladies she had met while attending the court, Catherine ran to the ball that was currently being held without even an invitation.

Although it was only after arriving at the ballroom that Catherine realized she had no invitation, her title as Countess allowed her easy entry into the ballroom.

Catherine first went to find the noble ladies she had met as ‘guests’. She went to find the noble ladies with reddened eyes, wanting to talk to anyone.

All that came back to Catherine was a cold stare.

“Oh my… It’s been a while. How have you been, Countess of Salisbury?”

“Ah…? Yes… Have you been well…?”

“Yes, thanks. But Countess Salisbury… You are a countess now. You are not the vulgar person you used to be. So please refrain from such vulgar behavior in the ballroom.”

“Ah…yes…advice…thank you…”

The same was true of the other noblewomen. No one called her ‘Catherine’. There was not a single person in this vast ballroom with whom she could speak so freely as she did then.

Eventually, Catherine hid in a corner of the ballroom and stared at the ceiling with red eyes. The chandelier was so bright that it hurt her eyes, the girls’ dresses looked like they had stars engraved on them, and the famous paintings on the walls were showing off their wealth.

The musicians and the young ladies dancing to the music were all beautiful.

It must be a freedom you only dream of.

Everything in the ballroom would be beautiful.

To Catherine’s eyes, it appeared only as gray.

‘Ah… I’m alone here.’

A guest who wasn’t invited to the ball, a guest who barged in without an invitation and caused trouble, a bit player who was stuck to the wall and only decorated the ballroom. That was Catherine now.

There were people who came by occasionally, but they came to look for ‘The Countess of Salisbury’, not ‘Catherine’. So Catherine ran out onto the terrace, the door open, as if she was running away.

Catherine regretted her choice.

Everything she had built up came crashing down because of her marriage. She wanted to scream for it back right away, but she was the one who chose all of this.

Catherine looked up at the sky, crying like crazy, laughing like crazy, and letting out the lump inside her. If the Count doesn’t die like this, if he gets better, what will happen to her? Just thinking about it made her cry and laugh.

So we spent our time on the terrace like that.

A voice came from behind Catherine.

“The wind is cold. Young lady.”

“….Young lady… Are you talking about me?”

“Who else would be there besides you?”

The woman with sharp eyes and crescent-shaped face smiled proudly. Even the way she gently brushed back her hair that had been tossed about by the autumn wind was full of elegance.

The season when late autumn begins.

Catherine met Trisha.