“You dare to add to my words. Ratchet, what insolent act are you doing now?”

I was so flustered that even through the Belinda translator, a disgruntled voice leaked out.

For a moment, I thought the translator might not be working for Leo.

Despite my fierce question, Leo answered cheerfully with a clear face.

“I’ll assist Belinda as a provisional servant to ensure people don’t misunderstand her words!”

Leo, who had clenched his fist determinedly, added, ‘Please scold me if I convey any words incorrectly!’

Faced with that enthusiastic expression, I couldn’t bring myself to say that he didn’t need to go that far.

So I silently patted Leo’s head.

Unlike before, Leo received my touch familiarly and smiled somewhat triumphantly.

Seeing that face, a question suddenly occurred to me.

In Belinda’s past, which I glimpsed through the ‘second memory fragment’, there were people who understood Belinda’s heart even without speaking like Leo.

The nanny, the personal maid, and the butler and employees who had served the Blanche family for generations.

But when I woke up possessing Belinda’s body, all those people had disappeared.

What happened could only be known through the ‘third memory fragment’.

Late at night.

After composing myself for a moment lying in bed, I carefully summoned the quest window.

[Quest] Where am I? Who am I?

▼[new] Obtain intermediate reward

Looking at the system window glowing softly in the darkness, I muttered with a heavy heart.

“Obtain.”

Soon, my consciousness faded to black as if my body was sinking beneath the bed.

***

It started with the nanny.

“The nanny… stole mother’s keepsake?”

Belinda thought it couldn’t be possible.

However, there was no clearer evidence than the late Marchioness’s jewelry found in the nanny’s room.

“Young miss! How could I dare to lay hands on the late mistress’s belongings! Young miss, it wasn’t me!”

The nanny shouted her innocence until her voice was hoarse from outside the door.

But Belinda, though shedding tears of betrayal, never allowed the nanny to set foot inside her room.

“I can’t forgive you.”

If she had stolen Belinda’s own jewels, she might have overlooked it.

‘But to steal mother’s things.’

Stealing the master’s belongings was the greatest crime an employee could commit.

Her uncle immediately grasped the situation and tried to investigate the incident, but Belinda had already lost trust in her nanny.

In the end, after that incident, the nanny was never allowed to set foot in the Blanche mansion again.

Next was the butler.

His embezzlement was revealed by someone’s accusation.

Faced with her unusually angry uncle, the butler stammered out excuses.

“B-but, th-this much is what everyone…”

“And you call that an excuse!”

Bang!

The sound of her uncle slamming the desk reached Belinda, who was standing outside the office door.

Soon after, he sighed and continued in a very tired tone.

“Yes, I admit your words are right. But Butler, you know we can’t cover up this issue.”

The money the butler had pocketed was actually so trivial it was embarrassing to call it embezzlement.

It was just keeping the change left over from buying ingredients for the mansion, which most nobles would generously overlook as compensation for hard work.

But the problem was that for a household the size of the Blanche family, that leftover amount was quite substantial, and the fact that this embezzlement was known to everyone in the mansion.

If they covered this up now, it was obvious that the collateral branches, who were always looking for opportunities, wouldn’t miss the chance to find fault.

To avoid showing any weakness, he had to be a more perfect and competent head of the family than anyone else.

“I’m sorry for being a powerless master. I’ll provide you with a generous retirement fund.”

“…Thank you, Master.”

Sybel gently grasped Belinda’s shoulders as she watched the whole situation through the slightly open door.

“Belinda, can you guess who might have reported the butler’s embezzlement?”

Sybel’s low question planted a seed of doubt in Belinda’s mind.

After being lost in thought for a moment, Belinda slowly opened her mouth.

“A spy sent by the collateral branch… Probably an employee working in the kitchen.”

“Indeed, you’re clever, Bel.”

Even the exact amount the butler had embezzled was accurately disclosed within the mansion.

It couldn’t be seen as the work of an outsider.

Someone in this house, probably one of the employees who had worked in this mansion for a long time, must be the culprit.

Sybel whispered softly to Belinda, who was worriedly watching her uncle who seemed to have fallen into a light sleep, covering his eyes as if tired.

“Don’t worry, Belinda. I’ll take care of this. For father’s sake.”

For father’s sake.

Belinda willingly nodded.

And so, one by one, familiar faces disappeared under the pretext of rooting out spies from the collateral branches.

An uneasy atmosphere pervaded the mansion, but Belinda tried not to pay attention to it.

All of this was for her uncle’s sake.

No, it was also for the sake of the Blanche family.

Belinda realized, by watching her uncle, that her father and mother weren’t such good heads of the family.

Her father was a casino operator and a severe gambling addict.

His incompetence in neglecting the business while shuffling cards every day attracted con artists who targeted the Blanche family’s money.

Under her mother’s extravagance and indifference, who was only interested in choosing jewels as if selecting the evening menu, the mansion’s employees became extremely lazy and disloyal.

So what her uncle was doing was no different from cutting out rotten flesh to allow new flesh to grow.

However, the slight uneasiness Belinda felt spread through the mansion like a plague.

“Young miss… Is the master really doing all this for your sake?”

“Jenny! Don’t speak so carelessly!”

Belinda glared fiercely at Jenny, her personal maid who had been by her side since childhood.

Jenny, only five years older than Belinda, reluctantly spoke her mind with a frightened face.

“But… I’m scared, young miss. Since the nanny was driven out, somehow the mansion’s atmosphere has changed… Now there are only a few faces I recognize among the maids.”

Her words were right.

When Belinda came to her senses, the only familiar faces left by her side were Jenny and her Doberman, Mikha.

Nevertheless, Belinda never doubted for a moment that her uncle had any ill intentions.

All this purging must be to pass on to her the most pure and upright Blanche family.

And as if to prove her belief, her uncle, despite being tired and exhausted, visited her room every evening to check on his niece’s condition.

“Bel, I heard from Jenny that you’ve been feeling weak every morning lately. I’ll find a good doctor for you.”

“Yes, find me the most famous doctor in the world. Then I think I’ll be fine.”

Her uncle, who had been smiling gently at young Belinda lying in bed and rubbing her cheek against his hand, suddenly changed his expression and spoke gravely.

“Bel, actually, I have to go down south on business this autumn…”

“The South? Where in the South? How long does it take from here? How long do you have to stay?”

Belinda suddenly sat up in bed and clung to her uncle’s sleeve.

Her uncle answered each of her questions one by one.

What schedule he was going south on, why he was going, how long he would be staying.

And finally, he added very carefully.

“Bel, your health hasn’t been good lately. So, for the sake of recuperation, if it’s alright with you, with this uncle…”

“I want to go! I’ll definitely go! Even if you say no, I’ll go!”

Belinda, immediately grasping what her uncle was about to say, quickly clung to his arm and shouted with a fierce expression that she wouldn’t let go if he tried to leave her behind.

Her uncle burst into laughter and thoroughly messed up Belinda’s hair.

The half-year spent in the South afterward was the happiest and most fulfilling time in Belinda’s life.

There, Belinda learned everything from her uncle to become the heir of the Blanche family.

Not only did she learn how to read and write contracts, but she also gained practical experience by following her uncle to meet business associates closely tied to the Blanche family and observing how deals were conducted.

Rather than the education of a noble lady, she acquired the etiquette and knowledge needed as a family head and built connections that would be helpful in the future.

She felt quite regretful when the day came to return to the royal capital.

“Young miss, then I’ll go to the mansion first and prepare for your arrival.”

Jenny, who had gone down south with Belinda, headed to the royal capital a step ahead of her mistress.

When Belinda, who had returned home by carriage without rest, arrived, the first to welcome her was Sybel.

“Brother? Isn’t this the time you should be at the academy?”

“Bel, I came to welcome you. It’s the day my sister finally returns home. And I’ve changed to commuting instead of staying in the dormitory now.”

“Without my permission?”

Her uncle, who belatedly joined the conversation, asked as if something was bothering him.

Sybel nodded with his usual kind smile.

“I sent a letter asking for permission, but it seems it was lost on the way. If you disapprove, Father, I’ll go back to the dormitory.”

“…Bel must be tired, let’s go inside and talk first.”

And the moment Belinda stepped into the mansion, she felt as if the Blanche house where she had lived all her life was a strange place.

Belinda easily realized the reason.

There wasn’t a single familiar face.

“Jenny? Where’s Jenny?”

“Young miss, who is Jenny?”

“My personal maid!”

Belinda answered irritably to the unfamiliar maid and ran up to her room.

“Jenny, where are you!”

But there was no trace of Jenny anywhere.

Behind her, as she felt an ominous premonition, the always gentle voice gave her an answer.

“Jenny didn’t come. Didn’t she go down south with you?”

It was Sybel, smiling at her with his lips gently curved upwards.