~Chapter 2~

Why did my memories have to return now? Knowing the original story and still getting hit by it made me feel even worse.

“Suddenly I’m a commoner. Kicked out with nothing. How am I supposed to live?”

Should I cling to the door and beg them not to throw me out?

While I was thinking that, a small voice called me from the corner.

“Come this way, my lady.”

“Nanny!”

The nanny who raised me was waiting. When I followed her, a carriage was already open as if it had been prepared just for me.

“Where are we going? Did Father prepare a place for me?”

Maybe my tears softened his heart?

“No…”

…They did not.

With a bowed head, my nanny answered.

“The master ordered us to drive you out. But how could I send you away like this? Let’s go to my hometown first. The lord there is kind and the town is safe.”

“Nanny…”

I knew she was doing her very best, but my heart still felt empty. I climbed into the carriage and sighed. With a clouded face, she said:

“Please don’t lose hope. The master knows it isn’t your fault. I think he wants you to wait until rumors calm down.”

I doubt that.

While my nanny tried to comfort me, I thought:

In the later parts of the novel, Riena Pond never appears again. This is the end for her.

Maybe she just died of illness on the street. In this world, if you don’t have money, only the strong survive.

Inside the carriage, I dug my fingers into my hair.

Argh, if only my memories had come back a bit earlier. If I had known in time, I could have changed things.

“Changed,” meaning I would not have been thrown away by Crown Prince David like old trash.

But that guy is the very picture of selfishness.

David never thought of others. He was arrogant and stubborn. That kind of man falls hard for an otherworld girl like Kang Sena who talks about equality. It’s basically the same as, “You’re the first woman who ever hit me.”

Even if he hadn’t dumped me, would life with him have been happy?

Men like him are only fun inside a novel. In real life, living with him would give you stones in your stomach.

The memories I shared with the original Riena were not happy either. People thought her life was shiny and rich, but it wasn’t.

Fine. Let’s say I gained freedom instead. Now I’ll live my real life.

Thinking that, I crossed my arms and closed my eyes. Maybe because the tension left me, sleep crept in. I must have dozed off, leaning against the carriage door.

When I opened my eyes again, we had stopped in a quiet country village. My nanny hugged me and cried.

“This is as far as I can take you. I’m sorry, my lady.”

Why should she be sorry? If anyone should be, it’s Crown Prince David, who tossed away his fiancée because a new otherworld girl felt fresh and exciting.

I patted my nanny’s shoulder.

“It’s okay, Nanny. Bringing me this far was already a big risk. You might face Father’s anger.”

“My lady…”

“Go safely, Nanny. If we meet again, I’ll repay this favor.”

“Don’t worry, my lady. We’ll meet again next time.” Then she added in a tone that made me uneasy:

“When you become… ‘useful,’ the duke will look for you again.”

“…”

The word “useful” stung. I frowned.

Surely they aren’t placing me somewhere they can easily find later, just in case?

No, not my nanny. She wouldn’t.

Maybe I was just sensitive after the broken engagement. I shook my head, saw her off, and opened the door of the old house.

A damp, earthy smell poured out—also from the straw mattress soaked with moisture.

Normally, I wouldn’t be able to sleep, but I was so tired that my eyes kept closing.

At least I’m not sleeping on the bare floor, I thought, and drifted off.

The next day.

When I woke, the future looked hopeless.

I look like a beggar.

Born with a golden spoon, yet pushed out so fast.

Now I have the muddiest spoon of all.

I knew Nanny had tried her best, but the house was terrible. The roof leaked rain, the wind slipped through the walls—which weren’t even brick, just rotten wood stuck together. Empty jars lined the wall—probably once used for grain. The only drinkable thing was rainwater.

So this is real life, I told myself. Life is a battlefield.

It seemed no one had lived here for a long time, and the house was in bad shape. Luckily, in my past life I had volunteered for housing repairs, so a house shared by stink bugs and termites didn’t shock me.

I can fix it. Maybe not as well as before, and I don’t have proper tools… but I can at least stop bugs from crawling into my mouth while I sleep.

More importantly, if I did nothing, I’d starve.

All I had was a week’s worth of dry bread Nanny left behind. When that was gone, there’d be no food.

Dragged into a gas explosion after working late at the office pantry, and in the next life I starve? No way.

I jumped up with resolve. Thankfully, the Empire where Riena lived had a climate similar to Korea’s.

That meant the plants were similar too!

I climbed the back hill. Edible plants were growing everywhere. It looked like abandoned farmland—roots had survived and sprouted again.

This is edible. That isn’t. Rice… I don’t know. But Koreans live on rice…

I picked what I could eat and managed to fill my stomach.

After escaping death by hunger, I used what I’d learned.

First, plant staples—potatoes, sweet potatoes, barley.

There was plenty of land—empty fields everywhere.

In Korea, no way. People would already be planting lettuce on any free patch of dirt.

For me, though, this was good news.

Like a Stone Age farmer, I made a stone hoe and tilled the ground. I found vines of sweet potato shoots and planted sweet potatoes.

The house was shabby, but the rainwater jar was huge—five of me could fit inside—so using water wasn’t a problem.

By the time I got used to this Bear Grylls lifestyle, villagers came to check on me. They’d heard from Nanny that someone had moved in, but no one had seen me, so they came to see whether I was alive.

“Mom! There’s someone there!!”

“Is that really the young lady? She looks so shabby.”

“She’s even keeping a hen?”

“Wait, isn’t that our chicken?”

Your chicken? If it’s on my land, it’s mine.

I had rescued a hen that got tangled in bushes. It must have run away from the village.

No way I’m returning it. That’s my only protein source.

Without eggs, I’d live like a monk on vegetables alone. I could not give that up.

If they ask for the hen, I’ll chase them off!

With that thought, I greeted the villagers. I had just finished roasting sweet potatoes, so I held some out.

“Would you like a roasted sweet potato?”

Oops—haven’t talked to people in a while; my words sounded a bit funny.

But the sweet potatoes were delicious, and the villagers—who didn’t know such a tasty emergency crop—were moved to tears and begged me to sell them some.

“How much are apples here?”

“Three apples for one donghwa coin.”

So fruit costs that much. Then…

“Six sweet potatoes for one donghwa coin.”

Nothing in this world is free. I sold the sweet potatoes for money.

When the villagers saw the neat, straight rows of my fields, they soon forgot I was the “duke’s daughter who suddenly became a commoner,” as Nanny had told them.

Honestly, I wouldn’t guess I was the same person either.

Instead, they started calling me “Riena of the Red Roof.” They were teasing my bright red hair.

But I didn’t mind. When I finally bought the house I live in now, I painted the roof red on purpose.

Isn’t that a great achievement?

That’s right—don’t look down on me. I own a house now. I’m a homeowner!

Even snails have homes; I didn’t for so long. But now I do!

I painted the door under the red roof green.

A farmer’s color.

And it wasn’t just the house. I now had wide fields, an orchard, and workers who helped me.

It took only three years to reach this point.

When I think about it, my adaptation was amazing.

Of course, it wasn’t as easy as it sounds.

I started with sweet potatoes, but you can’t rely on one crop forever.

Sweet potatoes were common here—so common I could dig shoots from bare ground. After a while, villagers learned from me and grew them themselves instead of buying.

Still, until they could do that, I saved money.

So the next step is a new crop.

I picked apples as my target.

With the money I earned from sweet potatoes, I bought a small house with one apple tree.

Watching the town, I noticed: people sold apples the moment they ripened.

But anyone who’s farmed even a little knows the truth: making pretty apples without worm bites takes tears and hard work.