Chapter 2
A week.
It had been a week since I woke up in the body of a scruffy, unknown child.
I had spent that entire week trying to understand—and accept—this absurd situation.
‘I thought it was a dream…’
But this place was real.
Only after accepting that fact did I step outside the room.
For reference, there was no heating, and the so-called meals consisted of soup that was cold and on the verge of rotting, and hard, musty bread delivered once every two days.
Every three steps.
A spider hanging from a long thread stretched down from the ceiling greeted me like, “Hello there.”
“F… fuck…”
The curse escaped my lips involuntarily.
Not because I saw bugs scuttling away with every step or rats energetically carrying food through the cracks.
It was the interior of the miserable mansion that left me speechless.
Watching insects lying around using dusty corners as blankets made the back of my neck stiffen.
There were no gold ornaments, no decorative swords, not even patterned vases you’d normally find in any noble household.
It was just disgustingly spacious. Honestly, worse than a shantytown shack in the slums.
“Aaargh!”
I screamed as I flailed my short limbs around while looking through the mansion.
How could there be nothing of value in the entire estate?
Not even one of the black lion ornaments that symbolized the family?!
I couldn’t even begin to imagine how much of the estate’s wealth had been confiscated.
Thud.
My legs gave out, and I collapsed, the already unfamiliar low view sinking even lower.
“Oh god…”
I remembered the many lavish decorations that used to be in the Grand Duke Altard’s mansion before I died.
I imagined them laughing “Haha!” as they sprouted angel wings and fluttered off into the sky.
‘What the hell happened?’
Why do I look like a kid, and why is the mansion in this state?
‘There aren’t even many servants.’
I’d wandered around this huge mansion for ages, and I could count the number of servants I’d seen on one hand.
After staggering like a ghost through the estate for quite some time, I figured out a few things.
First.
I possessed the body of a child 30 years in the future.
Second.
This is Rogas, a forsaken land in the far north of the Empire.
Third.
The owner of this body seems to be a distant descendant of mine.
Fourth.
My name is Eve Altard. I’m seven years old.
Lastly…
I am the head of this ruined household.
My chest felt tight.
I looked up at the sky.
The sky was blue, the clouds were white, and the sunlight was warm.
Whoooosh—
And fitting for the far north, the wind was chillingly cold.
“This can’t be real!”
Summer…
No, screw that.
I twisted my whole body in frustration, sitting in the dusty corridor.
After flailing for a while, I finally forced myself up.
The estate’s situation was just as grim as the crumbling mansion.
Even the previous duke had reportedly died while subjugating monsters.
The few remaining retainers were barely keeping the family line going by hunting barbarians and selling monster parts in Rogas’s borderlands for bounties.
“First, I need to check the financial state.”
Most of it had probably been confiscated by the imperial capital, but since the title remained, surely not everything was taken.
“Alright, let’s go.”
With a decision made, I sneaked into the office.
No guards, and the office was completely empty. It was sad—but also convenient.
Thinking this was my chance, I quickly rifled through the stacked documents.
And then—
“M-My moneeeyyy!!! Gah!”
I screamed and passed out.
And for good reason: the Altard duchy had no finances left.
Because the only things left were a mountain of debt and dozens of IOUs.
When I opened my eyes, I was sprawled on the floor.
I rolled around in the dust-filled room, lying flat.
While I was unconscious, I had a dream.
A dream of Eve Altard’s seven years of life.
I saw her short and tragic life.
It was truly unfortunate.
Eve Altard was a commoner girl adopted by the previous duke as a child.
‘I thought she was my descendant… maybe not?’
Although—her childhood did resemble mine a bit.
‘No, that’s not what’s important right now.’
Anyway!
The former duke had been a distant branch of the Altard line, living almost like a commoner.
Still, blood is blood.
He was a man with a sense of duty.
So he spent most of the year at the front lines, participating in border battles, selling monster parts, and taking barbarian-hunting commissions to protect the family.
Then, on an ill-fated day, he was ambushed by monsters and returned as a corpse.
Sigh.
What a tragic life.
And that’s not all.
In that dream, I also saw a familiar face.
‘My uncle…’
So he was still alive.
He seemed to have supported the former duke—a commoner who suddenly became a noble—after the Grand Duke Altard’s downfall for treason.
The duke fought at the borders every day.
The uncle who helped him eventually fell ill and became bedridden.
With things like this, the mansion’s hierarchy was a mess, and Eve Altard, left without adults around, was continually abused by the servants.
And in that freezing room without heating, she eventually starved to death.
‘Rogas, of all places…!’
Aaaaaargh!
I rolled around the floor in agony.
The only territory without a proper lord.
A vast land in the far north where the ground is frozen stiff all year round.
Farming was nearly impossible. And whenever it got quiet, barbarians or monsters would invade, so most taxes had to be poured into military funds.
Naturally, the tax revenue was pitifully low.
What kind of noble would want to govern a land that brings nothing but hardship and guaranteed losses?
No one had governed this place for a long time, hence it became known as the forsaken land.
Thanks to that, local sentiment toward nobles in Rogas wasn’t just bad—it was the worst.
And now, that forsaken land was the Altard territory.
‘So the southern lands we originally owned were confiscated.’
That place was a gold mine.
My head throbbed.
“And then there’s the mountain of debt…”
Debt.
Rounded up to 83.3 billion Rads.
That was the amount that knocked me unconscious yesterday when I tried to calculate it.
Even now, the number 83,258,412,566 floated in front of my eyes.
I rolled around in the dusty floor a few more times.
“First, pay off the debt.”
That was the simple conclusion I reached while rolling on the ground.
First thing’s first: deal with that damn mountain of debt.
Thankfully, I had read the novel Arphedis all the way to the end of Part 3.
Not just once, but twice—reading that massive epic from beginning to end.
A ruined family?
I saved it once. Why not save it again?
‘This time, I’ll rise so high they can’t accuse me of treason even if they want to.’
I gritted my teeth in fury.
“My bastard of a brother is so dead.”
If he’s still alive, I’ll personally slam his face into the dirt for the rest of his miserable life.
