Chapter 1.3

Lucia had once tried thinking from her parents’ perspective.  

What if Lucia were the parent and her parents were her children?  

She would find it difficult to deal with them because they were so different from her.  

If they disobeyed her and lived contrary to her wishes, she might even dislike them.  

But she wouldn’t resort to violence.  

Lucia lay facedown on her bed as Sara treated her wounds.  

The cool, grapevine-embroidered blanket soothed her feverish body, heated from the pain.  

Sara placed herbal poultices wrapped in damp cloth on Lucia’s calves and back.  

The stinging sensation was so sharp that Lucia almost groaned, but she suppressed it to avoid worrying Sara.  

“Mr. Marino seemed decent today, though.”  

Sara said tentatively.  

“Do you want me to get married too?”  

“Wouldn’t it be better than living like this?”  

Lucia didn’t answer, instead counting the embroidered grapes on the blanket.  

“Serves you right.”  

A sudden clicking of the tongue interrupted them.  

Lucia’s older brother, Ferris, stood at the doorway.  

“You only have one job as a woman, and you can’t even do that? Stupid. I’ve already secured a beneficial engagement for our family.”  

Ferris’ fiancée was the daughter of a prestigious merchant family, and the Bianchis were waiting for her to turn eighteen.  

“Hey. Are you deaf?”  

When Lucia ignored him, Ferris took a threatening step forward.  

Sara quickly blocked his path.  

Just as Ferris tried to push her aside, his friend called to him from downstairs.  

Ferris hesitated for a moment before spitting at Lucia and leaving the room.  

As soon as he left, Sara apologized softly.  

“I’m sorry, Miss. I forgot to block the door with a chair.”  

She was referring to the fact that Lucia’s door had no lock.  

“It’s fine. You’d just get scolded if you got caught anyway.”  

Sara resumed applying the herbal poultices to Lucia’s calves.  

“Why don’t you leave?”  

Sara suddenly whispered.  

Lucia didn’t reply.  

Even long after Sara left, the question echoed in the room like a haunting refrain.  

‘Why don’t I leave?’  

***

The next day, Lucia headed to Saper Bookstore.  

The glass door, decorated with soldered patterns, rang with a clear chime as she opened it.  

“I’m here, Uncle.”  

“Lucia! Did you know? Turkeys blush like humans when they see someone they like! Isn’t that fascinating—”  

Mr. Saper, who had been aimlessly organizing scattered books in the corner, stopped smiling when he noticed Lucia’s split lip.  

Adjusting his glasses, he finally spoke.  

“Lucia, my offer still stands.”  

“If I need a place to stay, I’ll live here like you said. But for now, I’m fine.”  

He took a trembling breath.  

“You don’t know the value of something until you lose it.”  

He muttered, staring at the portrait on the counter.  

The girl in the painting would forever remain eight years old.  

“…I’ll get to work.”  

“Don’t overdo it.”  

Lucia went to the workshop and resumed yesterday’s task.  

She attached a round, flat piece of metal to a long metal tube, then put on earmuffs.  

Pressing the round metal against the wall, she amplified the faint sound of Mr. Saper flipping pages behind the wall until it felt as if he were right next to her.  

Lucia began jotting notes furiously in her notebook.  

***

Lucia leaned against the windowsill of the invention shop, jotting down budget calculations in her notebook.  

Sometimes, she did this “for fun,” estimating how much money she would need if she ran away.  

The money she had earned from selling inventions was nowhere near enough.  

“Hah…”  

Lucia lightly tapped the tail of a wind-up cat figurine.  

The only items that sold were toys.  

No matter how precise her thermometer, efficient her sewing machine, or revolutionary her water purifier, no one even glanced at them.  

Even when guild researchers or wealthy merchants showed brief interest in Lucia’s high-quality inventions, they inevitably walked away upon discovering that they were made by a woman.  

The income from selling toys barely covered the cost of materials for her unsold inventions.  

Once a week, a regular customer would come and buy everything in the shop.  

If Lucia truly wanted to increase her profits, she could sell her unsold inventions to this regular customer at higher prices.  

The quality was excellent, and her inventive creations deserved to be sold at premium rates.  

But it felt wrong.  

If someone genuinely admired the quality of her inventions and voluntarily bought them, then she wouldn’t mind charging more.  

However, selling them at high prices to this… let’s call him a “naïve” customer felt like fraud.  

Her pride wouldn’t allow it.  

So, she sold all her inventions to the regular customer at rock-bottom prices.  

With her toy sales alone, she barely earned enough to buy a loaf of bread each week.  

‘Maybe I should stop making inventions that no one appreciates and just focus on toys…’  

If she did that, perhaps she could save enough money to run away in five years.  

“Miss Bianchi!”  

Her regular customer greeted her cheerfully as he entered the shop.  

“What fascinating items will you show me today?”  

He had buttoned his black hooded coat all the way up to his neck.  

“You came yesterday. I haven’t had the chance to create anything new since then…”  

The man’s eyes drooped in disappointment.  

“…I do have something that’s still a work in progress. Would you like to see it?”  

If he had a tail, it would be wagging furiously.  

Lucia reached for a heavy wooden device on the shelf but gasped sharply as a stabbing pain shot through her chest.  

The spot where her father had struck her was clearly inflamed.  

She quickly spoke to distract him, trying to mask her discomfort.  

“I tripped on my way here.”  

Fortunately, the man seemed too engrossed in the toys on the shelf to notice.  

Lucia moved the wooden device to the table and took an ear of corn from the basket beside her.  

As she endured the persistent pain and tried to turn the crank—  

The man’s hand reached for the crank first.  

Had he noticed my injury and was trying to help?  

“Miss Bianchi, may I turn this for you?”  

Perhaps it was just her imagination.  

When she looked up, the man’s expression resembled that of a child excitedly looking at candy.  

His innocent gaze made Lucia nod, and he eagerly began turning the crank.  

The wooden device roared to life, shaking violently as it devoured the corn.  

It spat out kernels through the front and ejected the empty cob through the back.  

“It’s a corn-shelling machine!”  

Lucia shouted over the noise of the device.  

“Right now, it can only shell one ear of corn at a time, but if I make it bigger, it could shell multiple ears at once!”  

After finishing the single ear of corn, the wooden device sighed and fell silent, as if it had gone to sleep.  

The man clapped enthusiastically, as if he had just watched a magnificent performance.  

“Bravo! Bravissimo!”  

Lucia stared at him blankly.  

He often reacted this way to her inventions, but she still didn’t know how to respond.  

Trying to hide her embarrassment, Lucia swept the empty corn cob into the trash bin.  

At that moment, the man spoke.  

“Miss Bianchi.”  

Lucia turned and froze.  

The man’s hood had slipped halfway off, likely from his vigorous cranking.  

His sharp facial features and strong jawline were clearly visible.  

The man’s eyes, usually curved like crescent moons, now resembled a deep, unfathomable ocean.  

His gaze weighed heavily on Lucia, as if probing every corner of her soul.  

It seemed cold at first glance, yet there was an inexplicable warmth to it.  

Looking directly at her, he spoke.  

“When the day comes that the world is captivated by your inventions…”  

Lucia found herself drawn to his voice, which was unusually gentle and firm, carrying a sense of certainty.  

“…Wait, that means I won’t be able to see them up close like this anymore!”  

What had started as a serious statement ended with the man’s startled realization.  

Released from the brief spell, Lucia hesitated for a moment before asking.  

“Will that day ever come?”  

A smile spread across the man’s face, only to be obscured by shadows.  

“I guarantee it.”  

His deep, pleasant voice resonated again.  

Lucia blinked, still unaccustomed to the man’s sudden shifts in demeanor.  

But the moment quickly passed.  

The man scooped up a handful of corn kernels from the device and popped them into his mouth.  

“Ah! That’s—!”  

Before she could stop him, he swallowed the kernels without even chewing.  

‘They’re rotten…’  

The man seemed completely oblivious, still brimming with excitement.  

“Thank you, Miss Bianchi! I’ll just take this today!”  

He grabbed a ladybug toy climbing up the wall, paid for it, and left.  

As Lucia counted the coins to record today’s earnings, she gasped in shock.  

“What is this!”  

The man had given her gold coins instead of copper ones.  

He had paid one hundred times the listed price!  

Three hundred banon…  

It was enough to leave home.