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[Episode 3] – Three daughters.

Trisha had ‘two’ ways to pay off her debt.

First, he sells one of his daughters to be a concubine or second wife of an old nobleman to pay off his debt.

This world is said to be polygamous. It is a world where old, rich nobles take concubines or second wives for fun. In particular, the hobbies of old nobles who try to buy second wives are mostly terrible.

If there were no rumors about how the ex-wife died, she was almost certainly used as a plaything and then died. From Trisha’s memory, it was known that girls who entered such places as second wives often committed suicide before that.

The concubine was relatively okay. She had to survive the harassment of her legal wife instead of the man. She was crazy with jealousy and poisoned. It is said that an assassination disguised as an accident was the best ending for the concubine. Is this the world of fairy tales?

Trisha wanted to send Elise, who was less sore, but because of her mean personality, she couldn’t do it because she only thought about selling Elise.

John was hateful, but Elise was innocent.

But I couldn’t help but hate her. Her father lied to her, made her get into debt, and eventually ran away to his death, leaving all the blame on me.

The Viscount who had forced her to marry did not help her either. He only provided a small amount of living expenses. Trisha felt disillusioned and contemptuous at the sight of Viscount Sergio running away, pretending not to know her.

Second, Trisha’s personal assets could be sold to pay off her debts.

Trisha, as befitting a noblewoman, has quite a bit of wealth. She has jewels that John and her ex-husband gave her, and several large buildings that are worth three thousand dollars. If she sells off a little over half of these, she should be able to pay off her debts.

However, if the property is sold, it will be difficult for the two daughters to get married. In this world, noble ladies who cannot get married will become a laughing stock in society. In order to avoid that, they must somehow get married…

It was not easy for a widow’s daughter to get married.

Originally, marriage was a union between families and also meant bringing in a strong ally. The places that widowed daughters without husbands or money could go to were ultimately limited to bad places.

That’s why she needed money. Trisha had to save money so that her daughters could get married off to better places. She wanted to sell it and give it as a dowry when Sylvia and Lily got married.

So after finding out that John owed her money, she fired all the maids and started making Cinderella work for her. Now I’m starting to get confused whether this is a fairy tale or a morning drama. It’s just too sweet…

“Mom. Do you have any concerns?”

“….No. There isn’t any.”

After seeing Elise pouring tea into a cup next to her, Trisha hid the debt collection notice in a drawer so that Elise could not see it. Trisha did not tell Elise that she had a debt. There was no good that could come of telling her…

I quietly sipped my teacup and looked at Elise standing next to me. The sunlight streaming in diagonally through the window made Elise’s hair look bright yellow rather than golden.

In her slightly open blue eyes, there was no sign of disgust, as if she didn’t hate Trisha, who hated her. Instead, when our eyes met, she looked at me and smiled coquettishly.

…I thought I knew why Trisha was worried about Elise. Elise was a ‘good girl’. She followed her stepmother well like her own mother, and even when she pushed her away, she came to her, so she couldn’t hate her even if she wanted to.

That’s why Trisha’s feelings for Elise were clearly ‘love and hate’.

Although she was hated as the daughter of a hateful man, Elise was a lovable child.

Trisha knew the uncomfortable truth that if just one person, Elise, disappeared from her life, she would quickly find peace, but she also knew that if she did, she would be heartbroken and sad.

Trisha already loved Elise like her own daughter. I also felt complicated whenever I saw Elise’s face, wondering if she was possessing this body and sharing emotions.

“Hoo…”

I sighed without realizing it.

The answer to this ‘homework’ that Trisha left behind was nowhere to be seen.

If this world were the world of ‘Cinderella’, Elise would marry the prince. So, Elise’s marriage might not be a concern. And the prince might pay off her debt instead.

But… I’m not sure if this world is really Cinderella’s world. Maybe it’s because it’s the stepmother’s perspective. There are a few things that are different from the fairy tale. In the first place, didn’t Cinderella follow her stepmother too well..?

What if this situation is just like Cinderella’s? What if she goes to the ball and doesn’t meet the prince? Where I am now is ‘reality’, not a ‘fairy tale’. I shouldn’t expect the uncertainty of a prince.

“Mom…are you very tired? Are you still feeling…”

“…It’s okay. Don’t worry too much.”

“But…”

Elise looked at me with eyes that seemed genuinely worried about me. I smiled slightly and held Elise’s hand. Was it because I was doing the maid’s job? Elise’s hand was a little rough, not typical of a girl.

“Stop worrying. You can eat with me at the upcoming mealtime.”

“Me too..?”

“Yeah. I have something to talk about… I think it would be nice to eat together from now on.”

Elise wiggled her fingers while she was held in my hand. When I looked up at Elise, who was standing there, I saw her eyes that were tearful as if she was about to cry.

Since Johan died, Elise had never eaten with Trisha or the other sisters. Trisha hated it. But now that I am Trisha, I have decided to stop harassing Elise.

Because I really don’t want to end up like the bad stepmother in ‘Fairy Tale’…

*

“From now on, it would be better to share the management of the mansion.”

I declared this in front of the children gathered in the restaurant. I thought there would be more rebellion than I thought, but it wasn’t like that at all. Rather, Sylvia, the eldest, nodded as if she understood.

“I think that’s definitely a good idea. If you’re not going to hire a maid, we should do something ourselves.”

Sylvia, who had answered the same question, smiled at me as if to say that it was a good idea.

Then, he poked Lily’s side with his elbow, who was sitting next to him and concentrating on eating. Lily let out an ‘Ah!’ sound, then read the mood and raised her hand in the air.

“I think that’s a good idea, too. Mom!”

“Yeah. Thanks for saying that.”

“Then let’s divide up the work from now on. Elise. Can you tell me where we need help?”

Under the leadership of the sharp-witted Sylvia, the work of the mansion began to be divided up in an instant.

At first, Elise was at a loss, but she followed Sylvia’s words and began explaining the areas where manpower was needed. Sylvia was to clean the mansion, Lily was to clean the garden, and they decided to do all the heavy-duty laundry together. The tasks were quickly divided, so I had nothing to say…

“…Aren’t you going to tell me what to do?”

“Huh?!”

Sylvia and Elise looked at me in surprise. Did they really think I wouldn’t do any work? Well… Trisha had never shown the kids how to do housework, so it was understandable for them to be worried.

And… that worry was correct. ‘Tricia’ didn’t know how to do any housework. She was a true noblewoman who only knew how to order her maids around, so she lived her entire life without ever getting her hands wet.

As Sylvia and Elise exchanged glances, sweating profusely, not knowing what to say to each other, the oblivious and cute Lily took the initiative and asked me a favor.

“I want to try the food that my mom made!”

“Lily?!”

“Okay. I know it’s hard to do it every day, but sometimes I’ll cook for you.”

“Mother?!”

Sylvia and Elise looked back and forth between me and Lily, embarrassed. Cooking… I cooked at the daycare in my previous life, and the first qualification I got was a cooking qualification. Once I got used to the tools, it was easy to cook for four people.

“Sylvia, you don’t want to eat the food I made for you?”

“Oh, no! That’s not it! I want to try it too!”

“What about Elise? Do you not like her?”

“Oh, no..! I also want to try the food my mother made..!”

“Then it’s decided. Mom will be in charge of cooking.”

Although it was a bit coercive, I was able to take on one of the household chores. I couldn’t just leave the kids to do the work…

I prided myself on having some knowledge of housework. In fact, I may have a lot to teach my children.

While we were having a meal and chatting with the children, Lily, who had her ears perked up, suddenly got up and ran out of the restaurant. Sylvia shouted at her for being rude, but Lily ran over and was holding two envelopes in her hands.

“Mom! I got a letter!”

Running down the hallway was something a lady would do… I wanted to explain, but today I didn’t do that and just quietly accepted the envelope Lily handed me and checked who sent it.

I looked at the wax seal on the envelope Lily had handed me and I frowned involuntarily. If only there had been a debt collection notice, I would have burned it in the fireplace…

“Mom? What’s going on?”

“Mom?”

Sylvia and Lily, who had read my expression, looked at me with concern. Elise, who was a step behind me, also looked at me with concern.

“It’s okay. It’s a letter for me.”

“Where are you?”

Lily asked curiously, but Sylvia soon gave her a look as if telling her to stop asking. She looked at Lily, who had her snout slightly sticking out and a pouty expression on her face, and told her the name of the person who had opened the letter.

“It’s from Lady Catherine. She’s inviting me to the ladies’ tea party that they sometimes have.”

A ladies’ tea party.

The children’s eyes lit up at the mention of a tea party, but a tea party attended only by noble ladies was not as wonderful as the children had imagined.

A place where people who were impatient to put each other down wore the masks of noblewomen. It was a place where they exchanged social gossip and also a place to spread gossip.

‘Come to think of it, Trisha has been away from the social scene for a long time…’

Trisha hasn’t been out on social events for a year since she married John. It was partly because she had a commoner son-in-law, John… and partly because she was busy taking care of the children after John died.

‘…Yeah. I should go there at least once.’

I needed to find out what rumors were going around and what the ladies were talking about. It was a garbage can of rumors, but sometimes you could get something valuable there.