Chapter 22

“Miss on the second floor. Are you inside?”

The next morning, Elina, who had fallen asleep after talking to a small kitten all night, was startled awake by the sound of knocking on the door.

She slowly got up from the soft bed. The texture of the blanket felt different than usual, making her oddly not want to stay under it any longer.

The Rennes Grand Ducal residence must have been nice. As soon as she woke up, she thought of the place she had stayed for only a few weeks.

Knock. Knock. When there was no response from inside, the person outside began knocking harder. 

This won’t do… 

They muttered.

Even though the room she was sleeping in was quite far from the front door, the noise was tremendous.

What on earth could it be?

Elina guessed who might be outside the shaking front door.

Perhaps it as someone living on the first floor?

Sleepiness overcame her, perhaps because she hadn’t slept properly. 

Should I just go back to her bedroom and sleep?

But in the end, Elina gently stroked the head of the kitten who had stayed up with her all night, then slowly opened the door.

“Are you the owner of the first floor…?”

She opened the door just enough to see each other’s faces, with the latch still on.

This was one of the reasons she liked this house. The front door itself wasn’t as sturdy as the one at the Rennes Grand Ducal residence, but it had many safety features.

And it was so new that it gleamed. She felt a bit proud to have found such a nice house at an affordable price.

“Ah, yes. That’s right.”

It was indeed the wife of the former landlord who lived on the first floor. Elina finally relaxed and unlocked the latch, opening the door wide.

She had been told that the wife of the man who sold the house lived on the first floor. They had said they would help if anything was needed….

But why had she come today without being asked for help?

Elina looked at her with wide eyes, trying to shake off her sleepiness.

As soon as she opened the door, she saw the enormous basket the elderly woman was holding. 

Was it a gesture to greet the neighbors since I had moved in?

“Oh dear, it looks like you haven’t settled in yet. Have you had breakfast? I came to say to call if you need help. My husband is here, so he can help.”

She handed over the enormous basket, saying it was a moving-in gift. 

Wasn’t the moving-in gift usually given by the one who moved in…? 

Elina nodded awkwardly as she received it.

New environment, new people. It seemed like it would take time to adjust to this. She really missed Bianca, who always accommodated her.

“Thank you for… whatever it is… Ah, excuse me for a moment.”

Hearing the small meow of the kitten waking up on the bed, Elina rushed inside, leaving the guest at the front door, and cradled the kitten in her arms.

At that moment, she craved the presence of someone who would be on her side, like the baby in her womb.

“Um… hello. I’m Elina Valois… Elina, living on the second floor.”

“My name is Marsha. Um… I must have surprised you by coming suddenly. It seems you were sleeping….”

People outside the Grand Ducal residence might have heard rumors, but they wouldn’t know her face. Still, she didn’t want to reveal personal things, so she acted as she did when she first met Floyd.

The grandmother, whose name was Marsha, seemed to have come on purpose to give her breakfast. She must have known that Elina had just moved in and went straight to bed last night.

She was curious about what was in the basket, which felt warm. The smell of food wafting out didn’t seem like something the baby in her womb would dislike.

But why was she being so kind to me?

She was actually quite taken aback. She was still trembling in fear of meeting others.

Gathering all her rationality, Elina sent the grandmother living on the first floor away and sat down on the soft bed.

Her original plan was to leave the Rennes Grand Ducal residence and just sleep deeply without leaving the bed for a while. But who would make meals or clean the bedroom if no one took care of her?

From the moment Floyd knelt before her and sincerely apologized… and finally said he would let her go, she tried to refrain from thinking about the future.

She thought she should just live as if she were dead. Avoid appearing in front of people. Those were her thoughts.

But there was a huge contradiction in the idea of living as if dead.

Even if she lived avoiding people’s eyes, she was undoubtedly alive and moving. She had to care for the baby to be born and the kitten, so she had to move diligently again.

Though bewildered, thanks to the visit from the grandmother on the first floor, her mind seemed to have cleared a little. If no one had come to find her, she might have done nothing and stayed buried under the covers.

“I ended up sleeping without eating anything last night… I’m sorry, baby.”

At the same time, she realized she was hungry. She had fed the kitten last night but hadn’t even tasted the chocolate she had promised herself.

Rubbing her lightly growling stomach, Elina opened the cover of the large basket the first-floor grandmother had brought.

Inside were small sandwiches with various ingredients and small fruit tarts that glittered as if coated with sugar syrup.

As she took out the beautifully wrapped items one by one, she found a small note at the bottom of the basket.

「Make sure to eat well and take care of your meals.」

The handwriting was so elegant that it was hard to believe it was from the grandmother who had given her the meal basket. It was similar to the handwriting of a high-ranking noble, like Floyd.

“Could it really be Floyd…?”

Elina spoke meaninglessly to the kitten circling the sandwiches, asking for some food.

It couldn’t be. It seemed she had a bad habit of trying to relate everything to Floyd.

He had let her go, and she had decided to forget him, so it would be better not to think about him anymore….

She felt like she would never forget Floyd until she died. That fleeting thought quickly shifted when she tasted the first strawberry sandwich, which was so delicious.

The colorful sandwiches included not only the usual ones with vegetables or ham but also many with unique ingredients.

After giving the kitten snacks she had bought with the coachman yesterday, Elina leisurely enjoyed her meal alone for the first time in a while.

If she were at the Rennes Grand Ducal residence, Bianca would have begged her to eat just one more piece of bread. She already missed that.

A good house, delicious food, and even good neighbors. It seemed like she was destined to encounter only good things this time.

She thought everything happening was just a series of fortunate events.

***

Over several days, she moved the gold coins piled up in the cozy living room compared to the Rennes Grand Ducal residence into an empty room and arranged the items Floyd had given her around the house.

Among the things he gave her were ornate jewelry pieces that would fetch a good price if sold, but there were also purely decorative items like tapestries.

From simple decorations to dresses… everything was so beautiful that Elina was satisfied.

She also took out the keepsakes of her late parents from the Valois estate, including a delicately crafted diamond necklace, and placed them by the bedside.

Excluding what she received from Floyd, it was the most precious and expensive thing she owned.

She had heard that her parents’ jewelry business was popular both inside and outside the Koseli Empire… If only they hadn’t died in simultaneous accidents in the Engkal Empire during a business trip, it might have been better not to have done it.

“Oh… I miss Mom and Dad so much.”

For the past few days, she had been holed up inside, spending her time decorating the house.

As a child, living in an attic was a dream, but now as an adult, she preferred using the living room, bedroom, and quite a spacious area alone.

“The attic I used before wasn’t great… yeah. Floyd doesn’t know. Only you know.”

Elina smiled as she watched the kitten repeatedly biting and scratching Floyd’s coat lying on the floor.

To avoid straining the baby in her belly, she was careful when moving heavy gold coins, even if decorating the rooms was fine.

Today, Elina grabbed a handful of gold coins and pushed them into one of the rooms. This room was filled from top to bottom with gold coins and various ornaments.

She decided to use one room for herself and another for the baby.

She must have been resting too much at the Rennes Grand Ducal residence. She was usually not one to stay still even for a moment.

If she kept moving, complicated thoughts would be forgotten one by one. Hoping for that, Elina continued tidying up the rooms without avoiding hard work.

Knock, knock. When she heard the regular knock that came once a day, she went outside the front door. The grandmother on the first floor always left a large basket of well-made food, saying she had leftovers.

She seemed too busy to even greet her, leaving the basket at the front door and disappearing after knocking.

Elina was grateful yet felt burdened. She felt like she should reciprocate somehow, but didn’t know what to give, and it was hard to refuse since she said she had leftovers….

“Wow, baby. You even have snacks. Lucky you.”

The food the grandmother gave was always delicious. She didn’t want to compare anymore, but it was as pretty as the food she had at the Rennes Grand Ducal residence.

After boiling and finely grinding carrots and cabbage, she gave it to the kitten, and Elina picked up the paper laid at the bottom of the large basket. As always, there was a short greeting written in elegant handwriting.

「If there’s anything you want to eat, let me know.」

She said she was giving leftovers, yet asked what she wanted to eat… For whatever reason, it was clear the grandmother was very concerned about her.

Didn’t she even write a letter every day in elegant handwriting?

Every day, she returned the basket, sincerely thanking her, but each time, the grandmother waved her hands excessively, repeating that one should eat whatever they want during pregnancy to avoid regrets later.

She had vaguely mentioned she was pregnant, and it seemed the grandmother was concerned about that.

Typically, grandmothers are said to care for their young grandchildren. 

Had I become like a young granddaughter to the first-floor grandmother?

She hadn’t received familial affection since childhood, so it was hard to gauge.

Still, thanks to it, she was able to eat meals regularly, sleep adequately, and wake up to a routine. She felt truly lucky to have met such good neighbors.

“I told you not to be so affectionate….”

The kitten burrowed into Elina’s arms, who had been lounging in comfortable pajamas for days without leaving the house.

As she stroked its black fur, the kitten, seemingly displeased, ran far away without finishing its snack.

“Tomorrow, let’s go outside. We’ll buy snacks, clothes to wear, and something to thank the grandmother….”

Being alone was too lonely.