Chapter 3

“Young Master Cedric is eight years old, and Young Lady Cecilia is five. Would you need anything more than that?”

Javier said this with a gentle smile.

It had already been two weeks since the previous governess was fired by the duchess. That also meant Cedric and Cecilia had been without a teacher for two weeks.

Because of the duchess’s sharp personality, all kinds of rumors had spread, so they could no longer find anyone willing to work in the capital.

And then Estella appeared like a savior.

Javier had no intention of letting her go.

In fact, by his standards, even that question had been fairly difficult. The education level in the Kingdom of Mesquida was not very high.

Estella’s quick answer more than satisfied his requirements.

For Estella, though, there could not have been an easier way to pass.

She had never been bad at multiplication, but thanks to remembering her previous life, her calculating speed had clearly improved. In her past life, she had memorized the multiplication table in kindergarten from a poster her mother had put on the wall.

There was no way it would not be ingrained in her body.

‘I can become a teacher without even taking a certification exam.’

Estella smiled faintly.

She had discovered one more good thing about this world.

Javier looked at her as if asking whether she had any more questions. Instead of asking anything else, Estella obediently followed him.

As he guided her, Javier explained various things.

“In truth, your lessons with Young Lady Cecilia will be closer to being her playmate. Her language development is a little slow, so it is difficult for her to follow ordinary lessons.”

“She cannot speak well?”

“She can only say simple words like meals, bathroom, and names.”

“Young Master Cedric is all right, isn’t he?”

“He is healthy, except for being a troublemaker. In fact, he is the more difficult one to handle.”

Javier smiled as he said that.

Then he suddenly began praising the young master.

“He is not quite as brilliant as Young Duke Diego, the eldest son, but Young Master Cedric is also very clever. I doubt his lessons will fall behind.”

‘He has no idea.’

Estella’s brows slowly narrowed.

The hardest children to teach were young boys. They were quite strong, and the scale of trouble they caused was different from girls. If he already had a reputation as a troublemaker, that made it even worse.

When she had worked as an elementary school teacher in her previous life, there had once been a young student who played while hanging from a second-floor window and then fell outside.

Even though that was now a long-ago event from a completely different world, remembering it still made her heart turn cold.

A disobedient boy and a girl with a speech delay…

They were fairly difficult students.

Estella had been excited by the high salary the ducal house offered.

If there was one unchanging truth in a capitalist society, it was that money never came without a reason.

‘No, since there are social ranks here, maybe this isn’t exactly a capitalist society?’

While smiling to herself, she suddenly felt a strange sense of déjà vu and scratched near her neck.

After hearing about the two children, an inexplicable feeling of familiarity rose inside her.

It was similar to how she had felt when she first heard their names.

“First, I will introduce you to the people you will be teaching.”

Though Estella felt uneasy for some reason, she quietly followed Javier.

His steps were so long that keeping up with him felt a little difficult. They moved from place to place, and his explanations continued without stopping, so she felt somewhat dazed.

There was no way she had time to properly process the impossible thing that had happened to her.

Just then, Javier stopped in place.

“This is Young Master Cedric’s room. The room at the far end is Young Lady Cecilia’s room.”

Estella roughly memorized the places Javier pointed to. Since they were at opposite ends of the hallway, it seemed unlikely she would forget.

Javier turned to Estella, who was nodding.

Then he spoke in a more serious tone than before.

“There is one thing I must warn you about before you meet them. You must make sure the two children do not run into Lord Diego. It would also be best for you to avoid the Young Duke as much as possible, Miss Margaret.”

“What?”

When she looked confused, Javier smiled awkwardly.

Estella felt even more puzzled.

Earlier, when he mentioned “Young Duke Diego,” there had been warmth in his voice. So why was he now describing him like someone dangerous?

Javier explained in a reluctant tone.

“Lord Diego is a gentleman, and Young Master Cedric and Young Lady Cecilia are both truly lovely children, but… everywhere, there are adult circumstances. Young Lady Cecilia and Young Master Cedric have a different mother from Lord Diego, so they are not exactly comfortable with each other.”

Again.

That strange sense of déjà vu settled over her chest.

Diego, Cedric, Cecilia, half-siblings…

Her face stiffened for a moment.

“Wait a minute.”

“Yes?”

“…The Young Duke’s name is Diego?”

The butler nodded with a puzzled face.

Estella’s voice became lower and more careful.

“And Young Master Cedric and Young Lady Cecilia, whom I will teach… have a different mother from him?”

“That is correct.”

Estella’s face turned pale.

Until that morning, she had been confused about why she had remembered her previous life only now.

But at this moment, she felt as if she understood the reason.

It was not a pleasant reason. It was frightening.

If what she had just heard was true, and if her judgment was correct, then this place was…

‘Was the title Contract Marriage with a Dangerous Duke?’

Estella pulled out the memory of a novel she had read before dying in her previous life.

The night before the accident, she had stayed up all night reading it, so there was no way she could not remember.

Especially if this was the world that had now become her reality.

If only the family name had felt familiar, Estella might have dismissed it as needless worry.

But the children’s ages, genders, and family relationships all matched.

She could no longer deny reality.

Even her own title had appeared in that novel.

The governess who looked after the children in the book was called “Miss Margaret,” which was the exact title Estella would now have.

Estella desperately tried to organize the contents of the book in her mind.

Whether the title had been “Dangerous Duke” or “Evil Duke,” one thing was certain: the male lead entered a contract marriage.

As one might guess from its ordinary title, the story itself was also common.

The female lead, Adriana, was a pitiful woman who was about to be sold off to an old, ugly, powerful man.

To escape that situation, she proposed a contract marriage to a young nobleman.

That man was Diego, the master of the House of Berta and the male lead of the novel.

Adriana had nothing valuable to offer him in exchange, but by chance, she knew one secret that Diego hid behind his kind face.

That secret was…

Diego was a murderer who had killed his father and his half-siblings!

So what did the memory she had just recalled mean?

Her current residence, the House of Berta, was unfortunately a family full of immoral acts.

And soon, it was scheduled to be massacred by the greatest sinner of them all.

“Miss Margaret?”

“……”

“Miss Margaret!”

“Yes?”

Only then did she hear Javier calling her.

When she looked back in surprise, Javier asked worriedly,

“Is something wrong?”

“Ah, no… I was just worried about how I should behave.”

Estella answered hesitantly.

She had not fully recovered from the confusion, but she had regained more judgment than before.

In any case, the fact that she could still breathe and walk helped calm her anxiety.

At least her current self still had a head that could think.

“You do not need to worry about that. Miss Margaret’s role is only to teach the children.”

“…Yes, I understand.”

“We have been delayed a little. Let us go inside first.”

Following Javier’s guidance, Estella was led into the room where the young master was waiting.

For a moment, she felt the urge to turn around and run away.

But as if telling her there was nowhere to escape, the wooden door closed behind her with a cold sound.

Even so, Estella could not easily look at the child who would become the cause of her death.

Javier stepped forward first and approached Cedric.

“Young Master, where is Young Lady Cecilia?”

“She was here until just now, but she left because she wanted to go to the bathroom. You should have come earlier.”

A young voice answered irritably.

As if possessed, Estella walked forward.

Cedric, who had been hidden behind the butler, slowly came into view.

For a while, Estella looked at Cedric’s face.

He was quite cute, probably because he resembled his mother, who was famous for her beauty. But his face was filled with all kinds of mischief.

He looked very similar to how she had imagined him while reading the novel.

Just looking at the bandage wrapped around his knee, which seemed to have been badly injured, she could guess how much he ran around.

No, even based on the novel alone, Cedric was an absolute troublemaker.

‘It’s real. This is really real.’

Estella closed her eyes.

Could all of this be a nightmare?

Perhaps before leaving her hometown, she had simply had a terrible dream because she was anxious about the long journey.

But she had never experienced a dream where every object felt this clear.

This space felt far too real.

So real that she could not deny it as reality.

Estella quietly clenched her fist.

She clearly remembered how the governess called “Miss Margaret” had been dealt with in the novel.

The supporting character “Miss Margaret” had very little screen time, but her death remained memorable because it happened together with Diego’s half-siblings.

“Miss Margaret” died after being stabbed while trying to protect Cedric and Cecilia from an attack.

If that was not a pointless death, then what was?

‘I died, and now I’m supposed to die again?’

Faced with that dark future, she instinctively clenched her fist tighter.

Or maybe, the moment she died in this world, she would return to the crushed car body from her previous life.

As if this long hallucination had finally ended.

But then…

She suddenly thought:

If this is real, if this ridiculous thing of being reborn inside a novel has truly happened…

If I abandon that child and run away, I will survive.

“What’s with that stupid-looking face?”

As if he had read her thoughts, the first thing Cedric said to her was an insult.