CHAPTER 03
The path to the room I was to stay in led to the south-facing side of the mansion, the area that received the most sunlight.
It was also the space historically reserved for the children of the ducal family.
The top floor belonged to the sole daughter, April, while the second son used the floor below.
Only after climbing the stairs and reaching the third floor did I truly feel that their promise to treat me as a proper noblewoman wasn’t a lie.
The paintings on the walls, the vases lining the corridor, even the flowers—all of it was filled with things I had once loved.
Despite the years that had passed, someone still remembered me.
The butler noticed my gaze lingering on a vase of flowers and cleared his throat carefully before explaining:
“The hallway has been fully decorated with the flowers and paintings you like, Miss.”
“…They really remembered.”
“Pardon?”
“Nothing. Where is my room?”
“Ah, this is it.”
The butler strode forward, pointing to a room that had belonged to April Hill Rize.
So she truly wasn’t at the mansion for the past year?
Given her engagement to Crown Prince Perfone, it only seemed stranger.
Even if April hadn’t been home during that time, I couldn’t understand the reasoning behind leading me into the room of the real daughter.
Perhaps the relationship between the Duke and April wasn’t as perfect as it had been in the past.
I pushed open the door to the room I would be staying in, my mind filled with nothing but questions.
“…Hah.”
Sunlight poured warmly into the spacious room, revealing the furniture.
A bed large enough to fit three people, a small desk adorned with gold, and a delicate music box resting atop it.
The open music box continued to play a lullaby.
This was the very room I had used before April arrived, recreated exactly as it had been.
Seeing the room preserved as if someone had thought of me, remembered me, and cherished my memory made my stomach turn.
Now I understood why, after April had assumed her role as a proper noblewoman, the Duchess had made me stay in the utility room.
It wasn’t that I hated that room; it was the realization of my own position that I despised.
I was a rolling stone in the household, a presence that could neither fit in nor be ignored—a warning of my place in this family.
As if to emphasize this, the moment they misunderstood that I had pushed April, I had been confined to a separate building.
“Miss, Lian and the Duke have prepared this room for you.”
Hearing that it was prepared for me felt revolting. The words were meant to sound thankful, as if to resolve some lingering tension, but all I felt was nausea.
The dark, humid emotions that had plagued me for so long surged like waves once more.
I had to fight not to be consumed by them.
“Do you like it?”
“Very much.”
I nodded slightly, forcing myself to maintain composure despite the disgust threatening to overwhelm me.
“I like it very much. The room feels just…”
A cool summer breeze drifted through the open window, brushing against my cheek.
“Just…?” I silently followed the butler’s words with my gaze.
“It seems I’m not the only one reflecting on the past…”
Even after living three years as a commoner and forgetting all the etiquette of nobility, it seemed they hadn’t.
The fact that I could suppress the nausea and force a smile was proof enough.
“I’m very pleased, and I like it very much.”
At that, Patrick, the head butler, let out a small sigh of relief.
“I’m glad you like it, Miss.”
Patrick’s face now showed a warmth and gentleness that had deepened since I last saw him.
He had been the person I had followed most faithfully in the household, aside from the direct family.
Whenever Barak treated me coldly, Patrick would intervene—how could I not follow him?
As a child, I had called him like a grandfather, and though he had been embarrassed, he had smiled, happy I said it.
Those memories were now faded and distant, but still present.
“Miss….”
“Why have you returned?”
Patrick had started to speak, only to stop as the head maid, Kana, barged into the room with my luggage.
Her question was so blunt, so aggressive, that I wondered if I had made a misstep simply by entering.
Tilting my head slightly, Patrick shot Kana a stern glance, restraining her.
She didn’t seem to care at all.
Lian must have spent a week preparing for my arrival, so it was clear I hadn’t come willingly.
“You don’t need to pay attention to what Kana says, Miss.”
“No, the head maid would naturally be curious.”
It wasn’t just Kana—everyone in the mansion would be curious.
They would wonder about the Duke’s intentions and the reason I had returned.
“Even after what happened, I wanted to see why I came back.”
I looked at Kana with the gentlest, least threatening smile I could muster.
I wanted her to understand that I had no desire for anything here—no interest in the noblewoman’s status or the Rize family’s prestige.
“I was curious if everyone was doing well.”
It wasn’t a kind-hearted curiosity, but curiosity nonetheless.
Kana’s rigid expression cracked for a moment, and she sighed before replying:
“Even if you’ve returned, there’s nothing you can gain here.”
“Why wouldn’t there be?”
I took her bag that she had been holding stubbornly and smiled.
Our hands briefly brushed, and she flinched sharply.
“It’s nice to see the Duke, the princes, and all of you after so long.”
“You mean it?”
“Of course. I’m also curious how I might be rewarded.”
She seemed to think I was lying.
“Since you’re acting as Miss April’s stand-in, call me April for the year.”
Kana, who had been frowning slightly, crumpled at those words like a sheet of paper.
She looked as if she might explode with anger, but I had no intention of allowing that. It didn’t matter if she disliked me—the Duke had summoned me.
I tossed my unpacked bag onto the bed and sat on the white sheets.
Everyone, aside from Lian, was probably thinking similarly to Kana.
The servants were curious about the Duke’s plans, about why I was being made a stand-in—but they remained silent in their roles.
Patrick wore his usual friendly smile, though I could never know his true thoughts.
Considering that, I preferred Kana’s blunt display of disapproval—it made it easier to distinguish friend from foe.
Glancing at Patrick, who lingered in the room, I finally spoke:
“I understand you don’t like me, but there’s no reason to hate me, is there?”
“Pardon?”
“Three years ago, there were rumors that I pushed and threatened Miss April, but since she’s not here, there’s no reason for you to dislike me.”
I stared at the spinning music box for a long while. It had once been a sweet lullaby; now it was nothing but noise.
“The stand-in is necessary, after all.”
“You dislike her?”
I nodded at Patrick, who stammered as if hearing what he shouldn’t have.
It was natural for the household to dislike me. Like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, it was a truth as plain as day.
I had returned as a stand-in, while April was the daughter they had desperately sought.
“Even the head maid must dislike me.”
“Miss, Kana—”
Patrick tried to continue but sighed, adjusting his monocle.
He then lowered himself, kneeling on one knee to meet my gaze.
“Kana does not dislike you, Miss. And…”
“…”
“She understands both your feelings toward being a noblewoman and your feelings toward the Rize household.”
“She understands?”
“You were suddenly cast out, so it’s natural to feel resentment and anger.”
His shoulders stiffened for a moment. Resentment and anger? Could my feelings really be summed up in such simple words?
I heard my father’s voice from that winter when I was thirteen, just before entering the mansion, as clearly as if it had been yesterday:
“If I send you to the mansion, they will pay for your treatment.”
“So please, go to the mansion—for me.”
That one plea had forced me into a mansion I had no desire to enter.
And yet the Rize household never kept their promise to my father.
I had been foolish and naive enough to believe the Duchess’s words about the continued payment for my treatment.
Why had I never imagined they wouldn’t keep their promise?
I didn’t know Patrick’s understanding of words, but my feelings toward the Rize household could not be expressed in such simple terms.
