Chapter 3 – I reincarnated, now what? (3)
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Family problems; the bane of all story plots, something required to give a justification for the character’s actions - whether they grow evil, spoilt, or twisted. 

“Your mother is Madam Dianne, currently living in the Duke’s mansion located in the capital city. She’s a beautiful woman holding a powerful position in the noble’s society. She was previously a Count’s daughter, and wed into your father’s house by a political marriage.”

It’s a loveless marriage. 

But kids aren’t supposed to know what political marriages are. 

So let’s act stupid.

“Political marriage?”

The maid paused, thinking if she should further explain things truthfully to a child who has been abandoned by both parents or make something up to make her lady happy. 

With a short sigh, she decided to tell the truth. It was more or less an open secret which everyone in the mansion knew and the child before the memory loss would’ve known these facts too. 

“Young Duke Theodore loved a commoner who was working in his mansion. When his father, the previous Duke and your grandfather, knew of this affair, he was opposed to it. 

At this time, Count Banner pushed for his daughter to get married. Young Madam Dianne was beautiful girl, well-mannered and with enough status. 

The previous Duke did not have a reason to reject and therefore went along with the proposal and the commoner was driven away to a faraway place.

But your father couldn’t get over his love and despite being married, he avoided Madam Dianne unless required for his duties. He would constantly search for his lover despite being in marriage, which brought Madam Dianne much sorrow.

When Madam gave birth to you, she almost died from childbirth. But the Duke never once visited.

You look very much like the Duke, so she came to….”

Despise me.

The maid paused before saying the words, but she could already imagine how Rosette’s life must have been.

The Duke, who did not have any feelings, but would’ve slept together with his wife on the first night of the marriage due to his husband duties. The woman who was pitifully ignored, despite having done no sin.

A child born from loveless marriage. Abandoned and lonely, a strong yearning for familial love. 

From the conversation with the maid, it was said the child was a gentle and reserved person, a bit too mature for her age. She constantly sought for perfection - from reading books to etiquette and noble manners - to gain approval from her family who wouldn’t look at her?

Hey DUKE, if you did the deed, then shouldn’t you take responsibility for your child who grew from your sperm, hmm?

WHAT DID THE CHILD DO SO WRONG THAT SHE DESERVES BEING IGNORED? HMM?

After finishing the bath, the girl looked at her mirage in the bronze mirror to determine her appearance.

Her wavy hair, dark-red in shade slowly descended beyond her shoulders and fell at chest-length. Her figure was small and frail, and according to the maid, is very sickly. Her sharp pointed eyes glowing a crimson hue stared back at her with a mean look. 

When the maid Theresa finished preparing her hair into vertical rolls, Rosette just wanted to faint back to sleep.

Rule #15 of isekai: DRILL HAIR EQUALS VILLAINESS [A/N: Again, the rules are not numbered in order or whatsoever]

Look at that face and those pointed eyes! It just spells villainess doesn’t it? Might as well write “villainess” on her forehead and announce it to the world.

‘UUuuuuuuuu’

Rosette grimaced at the thought. 

When maid Theresa started taking out cosmetics to put on a seven years old child, she put her hand to stop her.

What are you doing, Theresa?!

You’re going to ruin the skin of the child if you put on heavy make up! All I have going for me despite such a harsh look is my innocent child-like face ok?

“Let’s not put any cosmetics from now on. I don’t like it.”

“I understand. The previous miss liked to appear more mature so I assumed it would be the same.”

When I walked to the dining room to eat breakfast, I passed along the overly grand empty corridors which echoed of my footsteps.

When I looked out from windows, a large garden entered my views. Green hedges spotted with brown leaves, vines which crawled all over the stone lime statues and wilting flowers not pruned regularly.

“Do we have a gardener?”

“We only have few staff members to uphold the mansion. I’ll call the head butler to discuss about this. Previous young miss never paid much attention to the garden.”

“I’ll talk to him.”

“Yes?”

“Can I meet the head butler after my meal?”

“I understand, my lady.”

A long table enough to host 20 people stretched in the dining room, yet a lone child sat at one end. Small clanking of cutlery echoed in the large room.

It feels… a bit lonely.

Eating the greasy chicken seasoned only with salt and pepper, she started to miss the diversity of spices she had in previous world.

Chewing on a gummy and bland chicken, she started to poke the food around with her fork.

I really don’t want to continue eating this…. Should I start introducing new recipes? 

Won’t that make this fall into those ‘cooking slice of life’ isekai stories?

They always have some extremely delicious food introduced into the new world… but I was just a university student, okay? 

I’d eat french fries for all three meals for three days straight if someone didn’t stop me, okay? 

My neighbour’s dog probably had a better balanced diet than me, okay?

But even meals I cooked from scratch with my measly university student budget are better than this. May be I’ll do something about it later…

Rosette made a mental note to do something about her tasteless meals. Methods, still unsure.


I've been using the names "May" and "Rosette" interchangeably because technically, they're now the same person(?). Later on, as she becomes more comfortable and settles down in this world, she'll gradually let go of her identity as "May" and lean more into "Rosette"

So in later chapters, you'll see the main character written more as "Rosette", than "May".

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