Chapter 10
When the children arrived in front of the carriage, hesitating with dark expressions, another loud commotion came from deeper within the forest. It seemed the guards were bringing back the culprit.
Raondelf hurriedly pushed the children into the carriage.
“Do not open the window shades. That’s an order.”
Without waiting for an answer, Raondelf personally shut the carriage door and assigned several guards to stay beside the children.
“Head off first.”
Watching the carriage carrying the children roll away, Raondelf turned back toward the young girl and the culprit.
✿ ✿ ✿
Pollet usually lasted for several consecutive days. But this time, because the children had witnessed such a shocking scene, they were given several days off.
Three days later, Pollet resumed at a salon in the capital. As soon as she stepped inside, Ellen looked around at the other children, worried they might have been too shaken.
Fortunately, everyone’s faces were bright, and Ellen felt relieved.
Trauma is a scary thing.
As usual, Erica was stuck to Roil’s side, while Santuk was busy trying to win her attention with a ribbon decoration he had brought as a gift.
On the sofa opposite, Serel and Adrian were leaning back, watching them and whispering to each other.
“Bring me tea too.”
Sitting next to Serel, Ellen addressed the attendant standing nearby.
Roil, who had been indulging Erica’s chatter, greeted Ellen.
“You came?”
“Yeah. Is everyone okay?”
“Seems so.”
Erica, waving at Ellen, asked,
“What happened to that girl?”
“Oh, she’s recovering. Luckily, her injuries weren’t too serious, so they say she’ll heal quickly.”
Roil answered.
“And what’s going to happen to her and that bad person? What’s going on now?”
Adrian, who had been listening quietly, joined in.
“They finished investigating the bad guy. Turns out the girl had come to the capital to stay with her cousin, and the culprit was her cousin’s half-brother.”
“Hah, so he did that to his cousin’s cousin?”
Ellen let out an incredulous breath at Roil’s words.
“Yeah. The bad guy will be punished soon, and the girl said she couldn’t live here anymore and was going back to her hometown.”
The children fell silent. Aside from the rustle of Santuk munching cookies, there was no sound. Each wore a serious expression, lost in thought.
Ellen thought, People are the same everywhere.
Trash exists in every world.
It saddened her to realize that even in this fairytale-like world, such filthy things happened.
Before long, as they all sat in a daze, someone started moving around, shifting the atmosphere.
Serel began teaching Adrian how to play chess. Erica started telling Roil how she was definitely going to become a Grand Elementalist one day, and Santuk kept trying to catch her attention from beside her.
Santuk declared boldly that when she became a Grand Elementalist, he would gift her the most lavish gold-embroidered robe in history.
✿ ✿ ✿
After that salon gathering, Ellen returned to Quinter territory. Normally, Pollet would have lasted longer, but given the unpleasant incident, the adults decided it was best to end it there.
Because of what had happened, Ellen had been under her parents’ overprotective care in recent days. They were convinced their young daughter must have been deeply traumatized. They were on edge, afraid she might recall that terrible scene.
All the tapestries and paintings in the mansion depicting scenes like Imperial hero Radel Baltz raising the severed head of an enemy commander on his sword were taken down and stuffed into storage. Books in Ellen’s study containing violent scenes were also removed.
So Ellen returned to Quinter Manor and spent her time idly, smothered in overprotection. She had prepared herself for a boring life after realizing this wasn’t Earth, but this place turned out to be even more boring than she’d imagined.
There was no internet, no smartphone, too many unfamiliar characters for her to read books easily, and the playroom full of dolls didn’t hold much appeal.
Lying sprawled on the playroom sofa, wondering what to do, Ellen decided to do something suitably childish for once.
In short—she planned to cause trouble.
At this hour, Father should be at the knights’ training ground, so his office should be empty, right?
Peeking her head out the door to make sure the hallway was empty, she dashed straight to Gerald’s office.
She hadn’t decided exactly what kind of trouble to cause, but curiosity about the place was reason enough to go.
Short legs pumping, she reached the office door and knocked.
Knock knock.
After listening for a moment and hearing no answer, she grinned and slipped inside.
Like everywhere else in the mansion, Gerald’s office looked as though it belonged in a movie.
They could use this as a set just as it is.
Ellen wandered around, careful not to disturb the mountain of neatly stacked documents.
On one wall hung small portraits of Gloria and Elenoa. In the painting, Gloria sat on a sofa reading aloud, while Elenoa sat at her feet, holding a doll and looking at her mother. It was a gentle afternoon scene of mother and daughter.
It must have been painted shortly before Ellen took over Elenoa’s body.
I wonder what happened to that baby?
She’d heard that before she arrived, Elenoa had been suffering from Roland’s disease—a sickness that sometimes claimed children’s lives.
Did she… pass away then? And then I came into this body?
A picture of a time Ellen couldn’t remember, of a life Elenoa had lived. Gloria’s love, which Ellen now accepted as naturally as breathing, had once been directed to that Elenoa. And Elenoa herself—where had she gone?
With an indescribable feeling, Ellen stared at the painting for a long time.
Oh right. I came here to cause trouble.
After who knew how long, she shook herself and tried to think of mischief. Looking around, she sighed and sat in Gerald’s chair.
The only ideas she had were scribbling on the documents, making paper crafts out of them, or knocking over the stacks. But since she couldn’t read well yet, she couldn’t tell which were important or outdated documents, so she didn’t dare.
Knocking over the piles also felt wrong—she felt sorry for Lotz, the secretary who would have to sort them again. It was probably hard enough working under a scary boss like her father.
Causing trouble isn’t as easy as it sounds.
After all, trouble meant making a mess someone else had to clean up, tiring them out. And if you worried about the person cleaning it up, you couldn’t do it freely.
Giving up, she leaned back deeply in Gerald’s plush chair. She turned around to watch the clouds drift by outside the window… and dozed off.
✿ ✿ ✿
“Ellen!”
…Dad?
Ellen awoke to the sound of someone calling her. Rubbing her eyes and struggling to focus, she saw it really was her father. She grinned sleepily and held out her arms for him to pick her up.
He lifted her easily and strode out of the office, his pace more hurried than usual.
Sensing the unusual mood, she glanced up at his face. There was relief written there.
“Ria! I found Ellen!”
Hearing him shout that, Ellen blinked in confusion. Find me? Why were they looking for me?
Still clutching his cravat quietly, she tried to piece things together. Then he stopped a passing maid.
“You—tell Madam right away that I’ve found Ellen and am taking her to the playroom.”
The maid bowed and hurried off. Gerald continued on to the playroom with her in his arms.
She still didn’t understand what was going on. Before long, Gloria arrived, striding quickly toward them.
“Ellen!”
Seeing her mother rushing over, Ellen flinched and grabbed Gerald’s fingers. Gloria noticed her startle and lowered her voice slightly.
“Gerald, where did you find her? Ellen, where have you been? No one’s seen you for hours—everyone’s been looking for you!”
“She was sitting in my office chair, asleep.”
Gerald answered for her, while Ellen shrank her neck like a turtle.
“What were you doing there?”
“Just… I was curious. I went to look around…”
Her voice trailed off. She couldn’t very well say she’d gone to cause trouble.
Gloria let out a deep sigh. She started to say something, then changed her mind before speaking again.
“Ellen, from now on, if you’re apart from your father, mother, or Marsha, make sure you check in every two hours.”
“Yes…”
Ellen answered weakly.
Gerald, as if to comfort her, lifted her onto his knee, patted her soft cheek a few times, and stood up with her in his arms.
“It’s good nothing happened. Let’s go have dinner.”
Instead of answering, Gloria gently patted Ellen’s head and turned to leave. Gerald kissed Ellen’s cheek before following after her.
✿ ✿ ✿
From then on, Ellen dutifully showed her face to her parents or Marsha every two or three hours.
Even in Joseon times, children only greeted their parents morning and night, but I have to do it several times a day.
It was a bit of a hassle, but she understood how worried her parents must have been, so she decided to endure it.
She had expected Marsha to stick to her side constantly after that day, but surprisingly, that didn’t happen—something she was grateful for. Having someone follow her around all the time would be exhausting.
These days, Ellen spent her free time wandering around the mansion.
Her earlier resolve—I’ll learn to read quickly so I can enjoy books!—was fading. With Hye-seo’s memories, the local language still felt foreign, and studying letters wasn’t much fun.
Besides, the tutor gives me mountains of homework anyway. Kids should play.
So the moment her tutor left, she would quickly finish her homework and head out to the garden.
The Quinter family might be counts, but as border counts they had more independence than other houses, vast lands, and prestige rivaling marquessates. Their manor was correspondingly large—almost like a castle.
Ellen walked briskly toward the section of the garden she had decided to explore today.
“A bicycle would be nice. This place is so big you need one just for the front yard.”
She muttered as her short legs carried her along.
Today’s destination was the base of the outer wall, a little way from the manor.
“Phew. I’ll just look around a little today.”
The garden was large, but less interesting than the inside of the house. The landscaping was pretty, but in the end, it was all grass, flowers, and trees—less fun for scavenging new discoveries.
Still, she came out every day simply because she was bored.
After the walk, she sat against the wall to rest in the shade, stretching her legs and breathing in the smell of grass. Then, as she sprawled back on the lawn, she noticed something.
“Huh?”
Pushing aside some ivy with her hand, she found a small hole at the base of the wall—like an animal’s burrow.
