Charloff sensed death approaching.

‘I’m going to die soon.’

Death met with helplessness felt lonely.

Does it hurt? She had long forgotten even the pain of suffering.

Her senses had already dulled. Only a cool chill remained.

Her breath, which had continued like a thin thread, slowly stopped.

It was agonizing. Her throat felt torn, like someone had clawed it with needles.

Charloff gasped for air.

Her lungs seemed to be constricting. She had faced her final moments alone on her sickbed, she was certain of it…

“Stop crying already!”

Charloff opened her eyes in confusion.

Am I crying right now? Why am I crying…? This is strange. What’s happening…? The tears falling beneath her palms were thin and hot.

“The mistress has passed away and the young lady has lost her mind.”

“She cries too much! I’m sick and tired of hearing that crying!”

“Be quiet. The young lady can hear you.”

“I feel like I’m going crazy! When did the mistress die, and she still can’t get away from that thing!”

Charloff lowered her hand and wiped her eyes. A hot fever had built up in her head, making her feel dizzy.

“Where is this…?”

She knew where this was. She definitely knew. But it didn’t feel real.

Before her eyes hung a framed portrait of her dead mother. It was the portrait of her mother who had died decades ago.

“She’s dead. Why?”

“Yes. Lady Tutor has passed away. Miss, isn’t it time you accepted that fact!”

That’s not the death she’s talking about.

“I died.”

Charloff had already died.

If she had to recall, there weren’t any good memories anyway.

She had been abandoned twice and died. First, she was abandoned by her family.

‘Haven’t you already grown up? Don’t the living have to keep living?’

Her mother’s grave was trampled and defiled by her father’s mistress, and her father started a new family.

With those same hands, he erased all traces of mother and daughter.

After that, she was pushed into marriage. Forced into an arranged marriage by the family, she was abandoned once again.

Half her face was scarred by burns, making her existence a source of shame.

And at her final moment, she died when her lungs hardened from Lupetic disease.

She was abandoned twice. Yes. That was the end. That breath had already stopped.

“Miss?”

And she had returned to that day when she was nineteen, the day she lost her birth mother.

Charloff urgently tried to raise her staggering body. Her legs gave out weakly. All her senses had stiffened.

“Miss, what’s wrong? You’re okay, right? Yes, Miss? Hey, this is going to get someone in trouble when the head of the family isn’t even here! Hey, do something!”

“Why, why are you like this! Miss? Someone, someone call for help!”

The maids cried out and avoided her.

Charloff crawled across the floor on her knees.

“What is this now?”

Charloff’s eyes trembled finely.

Her mother in the portrait was smiling. In front of the frame were several white chrysanthemums. Everything felt awkward. A sense of disconnect flowed through her.

It seemed like she was saying, ‘Don’t worry, my daughter.’

Only then did Charloff stop crying.

She was dead. Her breath had stopped and everything had ended.

But now, she had been brought back into this hell?

Charloff was about to burst with anger when her gaze landed somewhere else.

‘Ah.’

She could never be angry. How could she be angry after seeing that sight? Her mother in the photo was smiling too clearly.

“…Really.”

“What?”

“I’ve returned.”

Charloff fumbled at her cheek and crawled toward the mirror.

A familiar woman was reflected in the mirror. Her eyes, darkly sunken, were soaked in sadness, but her reddish-brown pupils were deep and clear. She looked like a child tired from crying, yet weary like an adult who had escaped harsh reality.

“You all.”

Charloff gathered herself and stood up.

“Where is this?”

“Miss, are you hurt somewhere?”

“I’m asking you now. Where is this?”

“It’s your house, Miss? The Tutor Marquis house.”

“Where is Father?”

“He’s out right now. He said he won’t be back for several days. Didn’t he tell you that too, Miss?”

Her birth father had left his daughter alone, not even a week after she lost her birth mother.

Charloff lowered her head and cupped her cheeks in her hands. Every time she caressed her cheeks with her soft fingertips, laughter burst out.

Am I happy right now? Or sad? I don’t even know this emotion.

Ah… Still, I hate it. I’ve come back to this wretched moment?

Charloff touched her throat. The aura of death was still vivid.

They brought her back here again?

Her life had already been thrown into the mud. Emptiness and relief came together.

“Miss, are you alright?”

Charloff whispered with reddened eyes.

“I’m fine.”

I don’t know what’s what. Everything feels empty. And yet, miserable feelings are washing over me.

Her long hair flowed down to her waist. Charloff felt along the wall and went to the sliding door.

Wind brushed against her body. Green light was visible through the crack of the closed door. She sat down in front of the door and opened it. Then a warm wind blew in.

A green lawn and flower garden spread out before her eyes.

‘I thought I’d never see this again.’

The Tutor family’s flower bed spread out before her eyes.

Charloff swallowed her sobs with difficulty. Her mother in the portrait was still smiling. That sight was ridiculous.

“Why are you smiling?”

‘What’s so good that you’re smiling? We couldn’t even die like human beings. These trash are living well and prosperously, but only we died unjustly. What’s so good that you’re smiling, Mother?’

“How long has it been since Mother’s funeral?”

Charloff brought up the story she had buried first. She needed to confirm specifically when this point in time was.

“Funeral?”

“How long has it been since Mother’s funeral?”

“It’s been a week.”

“Where are Mother’s ashes?”

“Why are you asking such things?”

When Charloff swept back her curly red hair, one of the maids flinched and answered.

“We buried them in the ground.”

“Where?”

“In the cemetery over there…”

Charloff staggered outside. She stepped barefoot on the flower bed. The sensation on her soles felt strange.

“Miss, you’re alright, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Should I call the family doctor?”

“I’m fine. I’m better now.”

How long had it been since she could stand on the ground with her own legs?

What could be the reason? What brought her here?

Anger? Resentment? Bitterness? She still wasn’t sure.

Still, she knew her mood was absolutely terrible right now.

Charloff laughed with difficulty. After forcibly swallowing what might have been crying or laughing, her mouth felt dry.

‘Bastards. I curse this household. I curse your future.’

‘Let’s leave.’

Why here of all places? Why at this time? She doesn’t know that either.

What sent her back here? This is still unclear.

But she knows one thing. This is not where she belongs.

It doesn’t matter why she returned. Now it’s time to leave this place.

‘I’ll get you out.’

Yes.

Now let’s leave this house with me.

I’ll get you out of this trash.

* * *

Late at night.

Charloff came out of her bedroom.

‘Charloff Tutor.’

She was the only daughter of Marquis Tutor, but because she nursed her sickly birth mother and was herself frail, she was mistreated by the family.

That was Charloff.

The mother and daughter who were mistreated by the family.

Thanks to everyone conspiring to neglect them, there was no one who would notice even when Charloff came out alone late at night.

“How can not a single person notice one girl slipping out…”

Charloff came out wearing light clothes with just a shawl layered over them.

The urn was placed in one corner of the cemetery. The area in front of the cemetery was empty and quiet.

She fumbled with her lips. All of this felt alien.

“Let’s go. Anywhere would be better than here.”

Charloff dug out the dirt with her bare hands. Her skin scraped and her nails broke.

When she pulled the urn from the dirt, coldness clawed at her hands. She knelt down in front of the urn.

“Ah… Why are you buried here alone?”

I’m sorry for letting you die alone and lonely.

The white jade urn was cold. Charloff pulled the urn that sat there forlornly into her embrace.

Mother is dead and gone. Now she must be buried, but at least this isn’t where Mother should be buried.

‘Let’s go now.’

Charloff took her mother’s urn. And late at night, she left that house.

This sensation,

This sorrow,

Even this resentment.

I’ll definitely come back to repay all of it. Wait. I won’t forget. It won’t take long.

Charloff held her mother’s urn in her arms and hired a carriage.

“Take me to the Windsor Duke’s house.”

Charloff told the coachman her destination and leaned back against the carriage.

She had no special connection with her maternal family. For some reason, that tie had been severed.

‘Still, I have to go back.’

Charloff held the urn close. The urn smelled of earth. It was cold.

There’s no way warmth could be felt. It’s just traces of someone who’s dead and gone. But she wanted to feel warmth even from this.

Charloff wept silently.

* * *

The carriage stopped.

Charloff paid the coachman and got out of the carriage. The coachman looked at her with concern.

“But isn’t it too late to be visiting?”

Charloff looked up at the Windsor family’s gate and answered.

“If it’s late, I can just wait.”

The coachman left the Windsor house. Charloff was also uncertain.

Even in her previous life, she had no particular connection with the Windsor family.

If it weren’t for her mother’s urn, she wouldn’t have visited the Windsor house directly either.

‘Would they remember my face at this point in time?’

Charloff smiled bitterly. Look how she had come to visit. She held the urn and knocked on the gate.

“Is anyone there!”

Then some carriage approached quickly. A black carriage with the family crest prominently displayed.

It was the Windsor family’s carriage. The carriage window opened and some middle-aged man stuck his head out.

“Who is it?”

She doesn’t know who this man is. But she doesn’t need to know.

His red hair tells her whose bloodline he belongs to.

“I’m Charloff, daughter of Cosette Windsor.”

Then the man in front of her made a strange expression.

“Cosette?”

“Yes. She’s my mother.”

Mother.

Now it’s time to go home.

And…

Her consciousness began to fade intermittently.