episode_0013

[Episode 13] – Trisha’s Wish

“Lily? Why are you sleeping in a place like this?”

“Huh..? Huh.”

A uselessly large garden in a large mansion. In the center of the unkempt garden was a table for enjoying tea parties. Lily, who was sleeping there with a broom in her arms, yawned heavily and rubbed her eyes.

“The sunlight…is warm…”

“Really… It’s already night? How long have you been sleeping?”

Sylvia saw Lily dozing off with a languid expression like a full cat, so she sat down at Lily’s bedside and stroked her round head. Then Lily looked at Sylvia with her eyes narrowed like a cat purring happily and smiled.

“If you come into my room again at night because you can’t sleep, I’ll scold you.”

“Ugh…”

On days when Lily couldn’t sleep because she had taken a long nap, she would always sneak into Sylvia’s room. On those days, Lily would crawl under the blanket where Sylvia was sleeping, hug Sylvia, and go to sleep. It was a habit that Lily had never gotten rid of since she was a child.

‘Honestly… I still can’t shake off my youngest brother mentality.’

She was no longer the youngest, so she should have grown up a bit, but Lily was still the same. She was free-spirited, bright, and always followed Sylvia around like a baby. Sylvia didn’t hate Lily like that.

“Seriously, how old are you and you still need your sister to take care of you? Get up quickly. It’s almost time for your mother to come home.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the sound of Elise running with urgent steps could be heard from the garden entrance. Sylvia and Lily waved their hands at Elise as she approached them, calling their names, “Sister Sylvia. Sister Lily.”

“Elise. What’s going on?”

“Sisters. Mother is back. But…”

Elise let out a small sigh, trailing off her words. Sylvia opened her eyes wide in surprise as she saw Elise’s face furrowing as if she was dissatisfied. It seemed to be the first time she had seen Elise with such a dissatisfied expression.

“A guest…has arrived. I think I should go quickly.”

*

When Trisha returned to the mansion, the first one to greet her was Elise. She stopped what she was doing and ran over like a dog to greet its owner, but at the front door, there was a stranger’s face besides her mother’s.

Unfazed by the sight of a stranger, Elise approached the front door to greet her mother, but the closer she got to the front door, the less able she was to control her expression. What on earth was going on?

“Mom. Are you here?”

“Yeah, yeah. Was everything okay?”

The smell of my mother’s perfume has changed.

And it smelled like a perfume he didn’t know about.

It wasn’t just the smell of perfume. Her clothes were disheveled, her hair and even her makeup had changed. It was as if she had gone somewhere and taken off her clothes. Her mother looked completely different from when she left in the morning. And the thing I couldn’t believe the most was this.

“This is…Lady Catherine. She will be staying here from now on.”

“Ah… you’re Trisha’s ‘new kid’?”

It was the fact that her mother’s body smelled like this woman’s perfume. As Catherine took a step closer, an unpleasant sensation prickled Elise’s nose and ran down her spine. The fact that her mother smelled like the woman in front of her made her feel uncomfortable.

One more step.

Catherine took another step toward Elise. They were so close that they could hear each other’s breathing, and Catherine looked at Elise from head to toe with a glare.

“Is this kid ‘that guy’s’ kid?”

“…Catherine. ‘My child’.”

“Ha…”

Catherine bit her lower lip at the sound and glared at Trisha. She looked at her as if to ask if she was serious, then turned her head again and glared at Elise. Catherine couldn’t understand why Trisha cared for Elise at all.

‘Yeah. If that’s what Trisha is like, then that’s what it’s like. I don’t want to look bad to Trisha because of that kid.’

Catherine sighed in frustration and glanced at Elise again. Catherine still had the habit of judging people’s appearances from when she was a courtier, right from the first time they met.

‘…She is pretty. At this level, even if she becomes a concubine, she will still be loved by her wife.’

Her blond hair was as clean as if it had been spun out of gold thread, and her eyes were deep and clear, a deep blue that was different from her own. Even without makeup, the lines that formed her face on her clean skin looked delicate and pretty to Catherine.

Elise, who had come to her senses in a flash, straightened her clothes and bowed her head politely in the old-fashioned manner she had learned from her mother. When Elise bowed her head, Catherine also greeted her gently.

“, my name is Elise Sergio.”

“Hello. My name is Catherine Salisbury. I look forward to working with you.”

After the awkward greeting between the two, Trisha coughed briefly and called out to Elise. Then Elise’s expression changed in an instant, turned her head away from Catherine, and looked at Trisha. Catherine, who saw that expression, snorted in bewilderment and frowned.

‘under.’

How could she not recognize that expression? As a courtier, Catherine had met countless women and countless people, but she could not help but recognize that expression. How could she look at her mother like that? For a moment, Catherine doubted her own eyes.

Elise, who was holding the hem of her apron with one hand, looked down at Trisha with her eyes sparkling like morning stars. Elise’s face, smiling brightly, was overflowing with coquetry. Looking at Elise’s actions, gestures, and expressions, she was exactly the girl who was so in love that she didn’t know what to do with herself.

“Elise. Call the kids. I need to gather them at the restaurant and introduce them to my wife.”

“Yes. I’ll call you right away.”

As Elise disappeared, running back and forth, Catherine looked at Trisha in disbelief. Trisha looked at Elise’s back with the face of a proud parent who was listening to her.

‘I knew you were insensitive, but I didn’t know you could be this insensitive. No wonder you’re rejecting my advances. You crazy bitch…’

Should she be annoyed by the sudden rivalry, or should she feel sorry for Elise, who was anxiously waiting under the same roof, under such indifference? Catherine slapped Trisha’s butt with a ‘slap-!’ sound out of annoyance.

“Whoa?!”

“You crazy bitch…”

“What, what is it? All of a sudden?!”

“Nothing. There’s no maid here? Why is my daughter coming out to greet me?”

“……”

“…Really not there?”

Trisha tried to control her expression by coughing loudly, but she couldn’t help but blush slightly in embarrassment and shame, and her breathing became slightly ragged. Then she lowered her head in shame and started making excuses that weren’t really excuses.

“Rain, I have a bit of debt… I’m trying to save as much as possible… Well, I can cook by myself… I know it’s embarrassing not to have a servant in a noble’s mansion… But it’s all for the sake of my daughters.”

“Haa…”

A sigh escaped her lips. Catherine felt the words, “I owe you money,” rise to the tip of her tongue, but she forced herself to swallow them. She had tried to make Trisha rely on her while she was exhausted from debt, but seeing her like that, she knew it wouldn’t be easy.

‘What kind of nobleman cooks and does housework alone…’

For any nobleman, it was natural to have servants or maids rather than to move around on his own. To cut off a maid in order to reduce his outgoings even a little was like a nobleman cutting off his own hands and feet.

‘…Really. She’s not an easy woman.’

What can I do if it isn’t easy? I’ve already fallen in love with her, just like I did then and now. Catherine knew better than anyone that love is a game in which the person who falls in love first is the one who loses. She even knew that she was the loser of that game.

*

““Bride class?””

“Yes. Lady Catherine will tell you many things from now on.”

I introduced Catherine to the whole family. Catherine began to talk about what she would teach her daughters in the future. Most of it was about the girls’ manners and etiquette.

Originally, the basic course for a bride was to take about two years. It seemed too slow to start bride lessons now for my daughters who were already adults, but Catherine explained that she would only teach the essential parts.

‘…Isn’t it really too late?’

It’s been a while since I’ve been a Trisha, but because of my thinking as a man, I never thought of my daughters having to take bridal classes. If it weren’t for Catherine, I probably wouldn’t have been able to teach them anything by the time the ball came.

Catherine started by telling the worst case scenario.

A realistic yet worst story.

He explained that if she did not properly attend his lessons in the future, she would become the second wife of a middle-aged nobleman or be sold as the concubine of a pervert nobleman. So, he said that she had to use her own power to capture a good man before that happened, and that he was teaching her how to do it.

Turning her head to look at the children, Sylvia was listening to the story with a tense expression, perhaps because she was nervous, and Lily seemed to have no thoughts. Elise’s brows were slightly furrowed. Could it be that she still thought they would sell her?

After Catherine’s short and concise explanation, a heavy silence fell over the restaurant. Suddenly, reality struck, and Sylvia’s shoulders trembled slightly. But there was nothing she could do. She said she would somehow get the money, but the children’s manners and education were a different matter.

“…Always review and preview repeatedly. If there is anything you do not know, come to Mrs. Catherine or me and ask.”

It’s all for you.

The words were about to come out, but for some reason they stopped at the tip of my throat and wouldn’t come out. It was because I wasn’t sure if this was really for the children. It seemed like there was a part where my common sense, which had lived in the modern era, and Trisha’s common sense, which had lived in this world, didn’t mesh.

‘…I don’t know. I wonder if forcing her children to get married was the right thing to do. But it was Trisha’s wish for her children to have good marriages and live happily.’

Why did I come here?

Why did I end up possessing Trisha’s body?

Did you come here to grant Trisha’s wish?

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t figure it out. Why had they called me here, an orphan? Why on earth had they made me possess Trisha’s body? What on earth were they expecting from me? I had no way of knowing.

So, for now, we decided to aim for Trisha’s ‘wish’.

If I send my children off to get married and am left alone.

I guess I won’t be able to go back.

And then Trisha comes back.

Trisha might run away from her most important responsibilities and only covet the results I achieved. Thinking about that made me feel irritated and sick. I couldn’t help but scream, “What a bitch, what a bitch.” After all, whether Trisha really returns or I return is just a “hypothesis.”

After the explanation was over and everyone dispersed, I went into my room and buried my face in my pillow.

There are still four months left until the end of the year when the ball will be held.

Please, if this world is really Cinderella, I wish the Fairy Godmother would come. She would help Elise, the Cinderella, with magic and help me as a bonus. She would pay off the debt, and Cinderella would marry the prince, and I would also have a place in the palace.

I curled up and shut my eyes tightly, trying to get rid of my anxiety, thinking of vain and pitiful fantasies. Even though I tried not to think negative thoughts, the fact that all of this was real and that a person who could not even take responsibility for his own life was now responsible for the lives of three daughters was too heavy.

It was heavy, so heavy that I felt like I would collapse at any moment.

Unable to bear the weight, I curled up in bed and fell asleep in anxiety.