Chapter 6

Talli had a long dream.

In the dream, she sat by the bedside curtain.

The argument outside the bedroom was as noisy and indistinct as the static from a snow-filled television screen.

The floor was cold.

It was a gloomy, rainy day, and the air carried the damp scent of churned-up soil. The gray-white bed curtains billowed in the wind.

Talli held a small mortise-and-tenon puzzle in her hands. She had bought it with her mother during the Lantern Festival while they were strolling through the lantern fair.

Scattered across the floor were various intricate toys, either mechanical or wooden, waiting to be assembled.

She tried to focus on the voices outside, to hear what they were arguing about, but her hands moved on their own, reaching for the tiny toy.

The overcast sky darkened further, and soon, a small, swirling black hole formed on the floor. As Talli extended her hand, she fell into it.

Then, the scene changed.

Pure white sheets of paper fluttered around her. Talli stood dazed in the midst of them and quickly realized—she was no longer the lonely six-year-old who had been sitting on the floor.

Voices spoke loudly in the distance, but the drifting papers obscured her view, making it impossible to see their faces.

“…I told you long ago, she’s a monster. How could she still see me as her mother?!”

“She has no empathy… Sure, we owed her when she was little, but that was her father! How could she skip his funeral just for some trivial competition?!”

“She hardly speaks, isn’t she just an outcast in class? Always ignoring the rules, following her own ways… Anyway, none of us want to get close to her.”

“She changed the university I picked for her and applied to a science and technology school in the capital instead. Such a disobedient student. Without a single cent, is she planning to take out a student loan on her own?”

—

The words reached Talli’s ears.

They stung, but she could ignore them. What truly pulled her into the abyss was the crumpled piece of paper she had randomly grabbed—

—A critical illness notice for her mother.

The black ink of the words “critical condition” twisted and writhed into a jagged, gaping vortex, dragging her inside once more.

This time, she was sitting beside a hospital bed.

A woman lay there, her aged, rough hands grasping hers.

Talli’s gaze was downcast, so she couldn’t see the woman’s face.

Perhaps she was unconscious. Perhaps she was awake but unable to speak.

Talli simply let her hand rest in the woman’s palm, sitting there in silence for a long time.

It had been so long since they had been this close.

Before long, the doctor came for rounds. Talli gathered her things and bid farewell to her mother.

Just moments ago, the sun had been shining brightly outside the window. But the moment Talli stepped out of the hospital doors, a torrential downpour began.

She stood at the top of the steps, gazing up at the endless curtain of rain. Water pooled on the steps, flowing down in rivulets like tiny streams.

After graduating, Talli worked several part-time jobs to pay off her student loans and eventually landed her ideal job.

She hadn’t returned home for years, but a single urgent phone call and a critical illness notice brought her back through that familiar doorway once more.

The strained relationship with her mother eased with the news of her discharge from the hospital.

She thought that everything had finally turned around after this storm.

What she didn’t know was that everything had only shifted to drag her into an even deeper abyss.

—Coming to this foreign world, facing repeated threats to her life, neglect, and unfair treatment.

For many, crossing into another world meant learning to adapt. Or perhaps they struggled, protested, but ultimately resigned themselves to reality.

But Talli was different.

In her original world, she had started from less than nothing.

Talli, who had clawed her way out of a small town despite countless prejudices. Talli, who had worked tirelessly to pay off her student loans. Talli, who had finally received an offer for a job she truly loved. Talli, whose mother had only just been discharged from the hospital…

Her life had only just clawed its way back from negative numbers to zero.

Her youth was only just beginning.

She had been so close to reconciling with her mother.

Even if she woke up a thousand times, she would never accept that she had suddenly been transported to another world.

She only wanted to survive—then go back.

That was all.

—

The sound of a door closing. Footsteps fading into the distance.

Muffled arguing.

“Tell me, what the hell happened that made her do something like that in the washroom, huh?!”

“Y-Young Master, we don’t know either! The door just suddenly opened, and she ran out covered in blood… Everyone was terrified because no one heard anything from inside! How could we have known she was hurting herself in the bathtub?!”

“Damn it… What kind of state must she have been in to lose all hope like that…?”

“Enough, Carl.”

“…Father!”

“Go check on her in her room.”

“But this time…”

“When she wakes up, I’ll talk to her myself. No matter what, if something like this truly happened in the Fred house, it would be a huge stain on our family’s reputation. I will not allow such a thing to happen.”

“……”

Carl turned around. “Then I’ll go check on her.”

Footsteps echoed a few times before the door was pushed open.

The girl lying on the bed was pale and frail, resting quietly under the covers. Her arms lay on top of the sheets, wrapped in white bandages, with bruises still healing on her arms and neck.

Like a specimen butterfly.

At the sound of movement, Talli’s eyelashes trembled slightly, and she slowly lifted her eyelids.

Seeing the boy with light golden hair standing by her bedside, she closed her eyes again.

Carl: “……”

“I was the one who saved you… Hey, do you really hate me that much?”

“…You’re the one who hates me.”

Her voice was soft, so light it seemed like a breath of wind could scatter it into the air.

“……”

Carl had no choice but to say, “Why would you do something like this? Even if you’re not fully accepted yet, your situation is still much better than before, isn’t it?”

Talli couldn’t be bothered to explain that things weren’t as he thought.

From their perspective, Kristen’s body must have been taken away by that voice even before she entered the room.

“And in the end, you still did everything you could to leave the room and call for help… That means you still wanted to live, right?”

“…If that’s the case, then why do something like this in the first place, idiot!”

“……”

Talli still didn’t answer.

She remembered that in the original story, Carl and Theresa’s mother—the lady of the house—had died just like this, locked inside her own room one night.

After finishing his words, the boy turned his head away, biting his teeth, as if trying to hide something.

“If a person dies, then that’s it—everything is over! That’s why anyone who does something this stupid is just a brainless idiot!”

“……”

“Why do you think my life must be better than before?”

Talli spoke softly.

After coming to this place, wasn’t death just a matter of time?

“The first rule to follow is that you are not allowed to disclose anything about the sacrifice to anyone—especially not to the younger members of the Fred family.”

That was the first and most important rule written on the paper that the head of the Fred family had handed her at the time.

“Isn’t that obvious? This is the imperial capital. And look at your injuries… You must have been bullied a lot before, right? But now that you’re here, who would dare to bully you?”

“Aren’t you?”

Talli countered.

“I…”

He seemed to want to argue.

But she cut him off.

“You once warned me that, in the end, we are not family.”

“—”

Silence.

A long silence.

Talli turned over in bed.

“I’m tired. If there’s nothing else, please leave my room.” she said.

There were faint rustling footsteps behind her. A long pause. Then, the sound of the door closing.

The footsteps gradually faded away.

—

Talli had always been in good health. Back in the countryside, she had never been seriously ill. But this time, perhaps due to the mental shock caused by that voice, she was surprised to learn that she had been bedridden for two whole days.

Fortunately, no one had come to trouble her during that time.

That voice hadn’t appeared again either. As for what had happened that night, she could only recall the general outline. Whenever she tried to remember the details, a sharp pain would shoot through her head.

Talli decided to set the matter aside for now.

As soon as she woke up, the head of the family had sent someone to summon her to his study.

She stood before the mirror and unwrapped the bandages around her hands. Her palms were still marred with pink, unsightly scars that had yet to heal.

Skillfully, she treated her wounds herself, rewrapped them with fresh bandages, pulled her hair free from her collar, smoothed it neatly, and only then did she leave her room at an unhurried pace.

The butler led her to the study door and knocked respectfully. “Master, I have brought her.”

Talli pressed down on the doorknob and stepped into the room.

“You’re here.”

The head of the family didn’t even look up from the documents he was reading at his desk. “Now, let’s talk about what happened that night.”

—

“So you’re saying that it was Kristen who hurt you?”

The head of the family seemed somewhat shocked.

“Yes. After I hit him, he jumped out of the window and ran away,” Talli replied. “It’s not surprising that the maids didn’t hear anything. I didn’t even notice when he snuck up on me… He’s very skilled.”

As she spoke, she glanced up at the Fred family head.

…Judging by his expression, he clearly didn’t fully believe her.

Leaving aside the fact that Kristen had no personal grudge against her—why would he try to kill her in the first place?

More importantly, if Kristen had truly intended to kill her, then in their eyes, there was no way she could have survived.

And if they pursued this line of questioning further, it would inevitably lead to that voice…

Forget it. Talli hadn’t expected him to believe her completely anyway.

This was just an excuse.

She spoke again. “So, I didn’t actually violate the agreement we signed.”

Clause Two: Before the sacrificial ceremony, no attempts to escape, self-harm, or actions that would bring disgrace to the family name are allowed.

“…I understand.”

The head of the family coughed twice. “But that’s not the only reason I called you here today.”

“Since I agreed to give you the Fred family name and—after… your time comes—write your name into the family records, you are, in a sense, still a young lady of the Fred family.”

“I assume you’re aware of the Fred family’s century-old history. As the daughter of a witch lineage, after the holidays, I will be sending you and Theresa to the Imperial Academy to study. You won’t be required to achieve any academic excellence—just spend a month experiencing the empire’s customs, culture, and heritage…”

…Ah, what a lofty and benevolent tone.

Was this meant to show how the family graciously extended generosity and kindness to an illegitimate child?

How disgustingly hypocritical and cheap.

“Are you listening, Talli?”

“Yes, I’m listening.”

“Good,” the head of the family set down his pen and clasped his fingers together. “Besides, as a lady of the family, you can no longer act as wild as you did in the countryside. So, Talli, I will assign you a few personal maids and a knight.”

Talli paused. “Personal…?”

“Yes. The maids will take care of your daily needs. As for the knight…” The head of the family continued, “Just like Theresa has her personal knight—Kristen.”

“All noble young ladies in the city have their own personal knights before they come of age. What do you think?”