SMTD 01

Chapter 1 …

Elena’s life was like a wheel spinning endlessly—always the same.

A father who worked himself to death and a mother consumed by vanity.
She was the only sane person in this shabby little house.

“Elena!! Come here and fix my hair!”

The house was so small that when her mother shouted from her room, Elena could hear her clearly from her own. Her mother’s vanity—wearing expensive dresses and piling jewels on her head even in such a place—was one of the many things that gnawed away at Elena.

Elena set down the glasses she was wearing and closed the book she’d been reading.
She also made sure to seal the ink bottle. In their poverty, letting even a little ink dry up was a serious loss. Elena was the only one in the house earning money, while three people spent it. She had to save even the smallest things just to survive day by day.

“Elena!! Didn’t I tell you to come here!!”

The floor shook with her mother’s voice. No doubt she was stomping her feet again because things weren’t going her way. Elena let out a small sigh.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.”

Elena opened the door to Cecile’s room—it was only about ten steps away from her own. Even when they had been thrown out of the grand mansion that had always smelled sweet, her mother had clung desperately to her luxury items. The room was now littered with those unnecessary things.

“They don’t match this place at all.”

The floorboards were rotting, and yet she kept such luxury goods here. If they sold those things, they could live comfortably for at least three months—certainly a whole month—but Cecile paid no mind to such matters. Satisfying her vanity was what mattered most to her.

Elena glanced at the things strewn across the bed, then began fixing Cecile’s hair.

“Why are you so slow? When I call you, you should come right away!”

“I’m sorry, Mother.”

It had been years since Elena decided to keep her mouth shut. Arguing only made her more tired.

Five years had already passed since her father died, her mother squandered the family fortune, and they were driven to this place. It had taken Cecile less than a year to waste all that wealth.

Truly remarkable.
Part of it had gone to support her maternal relatives, part had been spent on luxury goods, and the rest on throwing parties. While Elena grew from a little girl into a twenty-year-old young woman, her mother hadn’t changed at all.

Cecile still thought of herself as a noble lady living in a grand mansion. She puffed out her cheeks and patted them.

“Don’t you have any money? Look at my face, it’s a mess from using cheap cosmetics. I need to buy new ones…”

Even now, she complained about expensive cosmetics. Did she even realize that the money for that makeup was equivalent to a year’s worth of Reana’s medicine?

Cecile looked at Elena through the mirror. Their eyes met, and Elena quickly spoke:

“We don’t have any money, Mother. We don’t even have soup for tomorrow’s meal…”

“Do you think food is more important than this?! What matters is that I’ve been invited to the ball hosted by Countess Presto in a week! How long are you going to live like this? Do you think I’m doing this for myself? I’m doing it all for you! Reana’s hopeless for marriage, so at least you should marry into a good family! How long will you cling to those pieces of paper and live miserably?”

Cecile’s voice grew louder and louder.

The fact that she prioritized cosmetics for a ball a week away over soup for tomorrow—her selfishness gnawed at Elena.

“But, Mother… we don’t even have enough for Reana’s medicine. So the cosmetics will have to—”

Slap!

Cecile rose from her vanity chair and struck Elena across the cheek.

“You—you! Do you even know how embarrassed and upset I am? And you dare talk back to me?”

Elena was the one who wanted to cry, but Cecile was the one shedding tears. Black streaks ran down her perfectly made-up face. Elena stared at her blankly.

“Last month, and the month before that—there wasn’t a single invitation for me! And now I finally get one, and I have to wear some outdated dress—do you know how humiliating that is? And now you’re acting like this? I’m not asking for a new dress or jewels! It’s just cosmetics!”

Cecile huffed and stomped out of the room, her hair still messy.

“No!”

Elena tried to follow her, but her body, weakened from two days without food, couldn’t stop Cecile’s force. Cecile shoved her aside roughly and searched Elena’s room.

She eventually found a small pouch containing money.

“You sly girl. Hiding money from your own mother?”

Elena trembled with despair.

“You can’t take that, Mother! Without that money, we can’t buy Reana’s medicine!”

She clung to Cecile desperately, but Cecile shoved her down again. Elena’s thin body hit the floor with a thud.

“Missing one month of medicine won’t kill her,” Cecile said coldly.
“Just wait. I’ll find you a wonderful match. All you have to do is obey me. What other mother would go this far for her daughter?”

Elena let out a bitter laugh.

Please, if there’s a God, please!!

She wished someone—anyone—would save her from this hell.

Even a rotting rope would do.
Even if grabbing it would eventually drag her to hell too.

If she could escape now—if she could just breathe freely once, she’d take it.

Elena burst out of the house and ran. She didn’t even have proper shoes on as she dashed through the streets under the setting sun.

“Father… I miss you.”

She whispered forlornly.

Maxim lazily closed and opened his eyes.

If it hadn’t been for the invitation from the Presto Countess, he never would have set foot here.

It had been almost five years since Maxim had come down to the Lebunto region. Thanks to his eccentric aunt, he’d spent hours traveling here by carriage. The Countess Presto loved gathering people for socializing. He had avoided her invitations with countless excuses over the years, but with her boasting about her 60th birthday, he couldn’t refuse anymore.

His family elders had pushed him, and here he was in the end.

[“Don’t you know how much your aunt cherishes you? Can’t you grant her this one wish?”]
[“Your aunt is right. Why don’t you use this opportunity to clear your head?”]

Their words repeated like a broken record, irritating him.

If they wanted to be filial so badly, they should do it themselves—why use him? Maxim clicked his tongue coldly. It was one of those moments when he craved the cigarettes he’d quit the moment he left the army in a rush.

Aunt Presto believed in strange superstitions. A fortune-teller had read her tarot cards and said Maxim’s destined match was in the Lebunto region. Because of that, the entire Presto family had come to their villa here.

She had even declared that she would find his future wife herself.

“If I ever find out who that fortune-teller is…”
He wouldn’t let them off easily.

Maxim pressed his tired eyes. He didn’t have time to waste in places like this. How many matters were awaiting his approval back in the capital? The Countess Presto needed to see the pale faces of his secretaries, who were probably running around frantically in his absence.

She needed to realize he was no longer the frail boy of his childhood. Maxim rubbed his dry lips with his fingers.

“What a pointless waste of time and manpower.”

He grumbled discontentedly, leaning back against the carriage. He just wanted to get this nuisance over with, prove his aunt’s hopes were groundless, and return to the capital. He had recently purchased new land on Kengershi Island, a newly popular resort destination.

He was busy building a Rostein Department Store branch there. He didn’t have time for this—he didn’t even have two bodies to handle it all.

“Marriage? Ridiculous.”

He had no interest in women, and even less in marriage. Maxim didn’t trust any woman. He couldn’t understand why everyone was so desperate to push a marriage-averse man like him into wedlock.

“Busybody meddlers.”

He bit back a curse and leaned his head against the chair with a thud.