**Prologue**
“Throw the baby away! Just throw it!”
The man shouted angrily at the woman. Through the heavy rain, a carriage rattled dangerously across the streets of Londinium.
“It’s a child that’s going to die anyway! What they want is the baby!”
“No, please, at least stop in front of an orphanage.”
Behind the man holding the reins, a terrified woman hugged a bundle of cloth tightly to her chest. Her black hair, soaked with rain, clung darkly to her forehead.
“Give it here!”
The man reached out roughly to snatch the baby, and the woman screamed.
“No, don’t! The baby!”
The man yanked the reins and stopped the carriage harshly. The woman held the baby close.
“If we leave it here, it will die.”
“Worry about yourself. If we keep the child, we’re finished too.”
Crying, the woman placed the baby down in front of the convent door. The man tried to force the weeping woman back into the carriage.
“Wait. A letter…”
The woman pulled a sealed letter from her clothes and placed it in the baby’s hand. When the baby met her eyes, it smiled brightly.
The pouring rain soaked the letter, and the blue ink spread onto the baby’s tiny pink hand.
“Hurry and get in!”
The woman fumbled in her pocket and placed a necklace around the baby’s neck. Then she kissed the baby’s forehead.
“Elisabeth, my dear child, you must survive. God, hear my prayer…”
Before she could finish the short prayer, loud hoofbeats thundered behind them.
“Martha!”
The man shouted. The woman quickly picked up a stone from the flowerbed and threw it at the convent window. Something shattered inside, and in a rush she climbed back into the carriage.
“Hear us, Lord.”
**Episode 1.
The Hotel Next to the Convent**
It was a high, clear day.
Liri walked along the road and looked at the hotel under construction.
Workers were scrubbing the dirt off the outer walls. Skilled carpenters were planing the floors and carrying bags of sawdust outside.
In the garden, there were iron tables and chairs shaped with lace-like patterns, and a bright red canopy hung over the entrance.
It seemed that the gas lamps on the outer wall would be lit very soon.
『Belmore Hotel』
Liri glanced at the hotel, snorted, and walked away with sharp steps.
The Belmore Hotel stood right next to St. Margarita Convent where Liri lived. To exaggerate a little, it was close enough that someone could climb through a window from one building to the other.
In short, it looked like a shabby beggar clinging to a fine, handsome gentleman.
“Brigida Sister! Bolina Sister! Oliver Uncle! I’m back!”
Because of the hotel, sunlight could not reach the convent even in the middle of the day. The place was quiet. Liri tilted her head, went straight down to the basement, and began arranging canned food. Her hands moved quickly, and the cans neatly returned to their places.
It was time to prepare snacks. Liri picked up the empty basket and started climbing the stairs, but then stopped.
‘Who is that?’
A strange man was blocking the entrance of the basement, looking down at her.
From the steep basement stairs, she could only see his silhouette against the sunlight.
Between his tall top hat, his neatly combed hair shone like golden threads.
When the shadow of the man’s long figure stretched to her toes, Liri stepped back in surprise. She was about to ask who he was when Brigida Sister’s sharp voice echoed down the stairs.
“I know this land belongs to the Belmore family. But how can you tell us to move the convent overnight? Do you mean to destroy the mural too?”
It was rare for Brigida Sister to be so upset.
The gentleman said nothing, and an old priest beside him looked troubled, trying to calm her.
“Brigida, don’t get too excited. Lord Belmore says he’ll move the convent for us.”
“Father, you’re being unfair. Didn’t you say the most beautiful holy painting in this country is in our convent? We can’t leave here.”
“Ah, but… he said he would find a way to preserve it…”
Liri squatted on the basement stairs, scribbling random words she overheard onto the dusty steps.
Threat, Archangel Gabriel, Preservation, Settlement Money.
She circled the word “Settlement Money” a few times, her hand now smudged black.
Then suddenly, both the priest’s calm words and Brigida Sister’s sharp voice stopped at once.
In the strange silence, Liri looked up and met the man’s eyes. He was still staring down at her. She tried to look back, but the sunlight was too strong, making her squint. Surely, this must be the one causing all this trouble—Lord Belmore himself.
“Um… would you mind stepping aside?”
Liri gathered her courage and spoke to him. As soon as her voice was heard, the whole place went quiet.
“Oh my goodness, Elizabeth! How long have you been there?”
The nun cried out in surprise, calling her name. Liri stood up quickly, wiping the soot from her hands onto her apron.
“Please leave. The convent’s decision hasn’t changed.”
With a voice almost choking with anger, Brigida Sister pushed the unwelcome guests away.
Finally, the man turned his gaze aside, said nothing, and disappeared into the sunlight like a shadow.
The sound of the door closing echoed as Liri ran up the stairs.
“Sister! What on earth is going on?”
She clutched the locket around her neck tightly. Blue veins stood out against her white wrist.
“A hotel that’s not even a year old wants to destroy a mural that’s lasted for centuries? No matter how powerful Belmore is, this is wrong. Completely wrong.”
The holy painting was of the golden-winged angel Gabriel bringing a lily to Mary to announce the birth of baby Jesus. Mary’s shoulder was badly damaged, but her graceful and beautiful face was still vivid.
“Where are they telling us to move the convent?”
“To East Longfell.”
At the sister’s answer, Liri groaned. Belmore planned to send the convent far away to a coastal town, far from the capital.
“That’s impossible. Then my parents won’t be able to find me. This is impossible.”
She had to stay here. Only here could she meet her family if they ever came back for her.
“I’ll help you, Sister. Belmore won’t get his way!”
Brigida Sister watched Liri storm off, her voice sharp as thunder, but her steps full of determination. Worry clouded her eyes.
“She’s sharper and calmer than we thought. Don’t worry too much, Brigida,” Bolina Sister said, patting her shoulder.
“That girl is like fried beans sometimes. You never know what she’ll do.”
At that, Bolina laughed in agreement.
—
—
From that day, Liri practically lived in the library. She wrote down every detail she could find about Belmore Hotel and the Belmore family. She even forced herself to study thick law books.
Without realizing it, ink stained her nose as she buried her face in a pile of papers.
“Archibald Neil Belmore controls the Empire’s economy?”
The man’s face in an old newspaper photo was blurry, but his arrogant expression was clear.
[Through investments in insurance, shipping, and money orders, he gained enormous wealth… now a ‘big player’ of the Empire, investing in newspapers, shipping companies, and artworks… has a son, Luwary Belmore, and a newborn grandson, Archie.]
[Money order—fraud or business? The Vanderwoods family and the Belmore family in a court battle.]
It was a long, two-page article. The Belmore family photo looked dazzling. At the center stood Archibald N. Belmore, beside him his wife, his son Luwary C. Belmore, and a delicate noblewoman holding a tiny baby. If not for the context, it would have seemed like a normal aristocratic family photo.
But who gave this man the right to seize a convent?
It seemed nobles only thought of God when they were near death, and pushed Him away the rest of the time.
By then, the sun was slanting through the library windows, turning her face red. It was time to go home. Liri packed up her scrapbook and left the library.
—
—
The Belmore Hotel opened its doors that day. The entrance was crowded with people invited to the event, but the owner himself—Lord Belmore—sat in his penthouse office at the top, avoiding the crowd.
“Lord Belmore, everyone is asking when the host will appear.”
“I have no hobby of holding scissors and cutting ribbons.”
He replied without even lifting his head at the words of his secretary and lawyer, Rufus Ollivander.
“You’re looking more and more like your grandfather, you know? Working even on a day like this?”
Rufus tilted his chin toward the large portrait on the wall.
But really, the resemblance wasn’t strong. The man in the painting and the one before him only shared black hair and bluish-gray eyes.
The young master was a striking figure, with deep eyes, a straight nose, and sharply defined lips—like a sculpture.
“I wish I had even half of my grandfather’s ability.”
“Well, there is one area where you’ve surpassed him. That handsome face of yours—”
“I know what you’re about to say. Stop there.”
He cut the joke short in an instant. Rufus just shook his head knowingly.
“It wasn’t me, it was Lady Noma who said it. Anyway, don’t just work. Take a break. You don’t even know what rest is. Keep this up and you’ll work yourself to death.”
“Not until the groundbreaking ceremony for the annex is done.”
“I only say this because it looks like the convent will stay as it is today. Why don’t you at least go to the greenhouse? Or take a walk by the hotel pond?”
“……”
“You need to rest, my lord.”
At Rufus’s endless nagging, Christopher finally raised his head and put down his pen. The pond didn’t sound appealing, but the greenhouse would be a good place to avoid the bothersome guests and curious onlookers.
“Fine. But while I rest, you’ll do the work. Don’t think about running away.”
Rufus started to leave happily, then sighed deeply. Seeing that, Christopher lifted an eyebrow in warning.
“Of course, my lord.”
“The convent will be moved as we planned. Persuading the nuns is only for show.”
He handed Rufus a stack of documents while putting on his jacket. The well-fitted clothes made his solid figure stand out even more.
“But you must come to the banquet later.”
Instead of answering, he tapped the papers on his desk.
Rufus looked through the documents that should have been Christopher’s job, then grumbled at his back as he left.
“Honestly, isn’t this too much work? You’ve got no blood, no tears. A genius, sure… but only in the worst way.”
—
Would you like me to keep going with **Episode 2** in the same style (simple English, same names, quotes added)?
