As soon as they arrived at the Count’s residence, they told Hess:

“From now on, you’re a Rainweed. That means we’re family. Do you understand? So you need to behave well from now on. We don’t need someone who moves sluggishly.”

Hess couldn’t fully understand what they meant, but she answered that she would do her best. Whatever it takes, I’ll do my best as your daughter, Mother and Father. I’ll be a good daughter.

They gave Hess a room at the very end of the top floor of the mansion. The bed wasn’t as soft as she had imagined, and the room wasn’t as warm as she had expected, but Hess thought it was fine.

‘I expected too much. Maybe they don’t know better. That must be it.’

That night, Hess developed a fever from the cold and unfamiliar sleeping arrangements. Since at the orphanage she had to solve such problems herself by finding expired cold medicine in the kitchen drawer or applying cold compresses, Hess wandered the hallway looking for medicine.

It would have been nice if they had shown her where the kitchen was or how many rooms there were. Hess secretly hoped the couple would find her and come to help. At the same time, she was confused about whether she was asking for too much.

Just then, a maid who had woken up to use the bathroom approached her. With sleep still clinging to her face, the maid irritably told Hess to go back to her room with an obviously annoyed expression.

“The Count and Countess really hate noisy sounds when they’re sleeping.”

The maid said this while hastily pushing her back into her room.

Hess’s question about what to do about her fever disappeared into the dark air along with the maid’s response that a good night’s sleep would cure it completely.

The next day, when a maid mentioned that Hess seemed to have a slight fever, Count Rainweed, who was reading a newspaper, muttered, “I wonder if we’ve brought home a troublemaker,” before returning his gaze to the newspaper he had been reading.

Since Hess was only eight years old, the couple didn’t immediately demand anything significant from her. Hess had to spend her time idly in the cold room at the end of the corridor.

Simply breathing was the extent of her duties. Having never received proper education at the orphanage, Hess had no way of knowing about appropriate learning periods.

There was nothing to play with in the attic-like room. As a result, days passed where she didn’t speak a single word until Aisa, the maid who brought meals twice a day for lunch and dinner, arrived.

Aisa was relatively the kindest person to Hess among everyone in the mansion. When she came to bring meals, she always asked Hess what she had been doing, and when Hess said she couldn’t read, Aisa brought her fairy tale books, saying they were ones her younger sibling used to read.

With nothing to do, Hess always gave the same answer whenever Aisa asked what she had been doing.

“I was waiting for you, Aisa!”

Waiting was all Hess did. Sometimes, when no maids were nearby, the couple would call for Hess. All they asked her to do were trivial tasks like fetching water, but Hess was happy they hadn’t forgotten about her.

Not all nobles were wealthy. The Count and Countess—her father and mother—always complained about not having money and constantly criticized each other.

Nevertheless, their meals, unlike hers, looked warm and greasy. Their bed, though old, appeared very soft. All these large and small things that weren’t given to Hess floated around in her mind.

I now have a family and home. I have a bed that doesn’t smell of mold, and I don’t have to eat thin white porridge anymore. And yet.

Why am I not happy at all? Why am I not even a little bit happy? While staying at the Count’s residence, Hess always had to find the answer to that question.

As she grew a little older and the elderly couple’s health didn’t improve, and after the few remaining maids, including Aisa, left the mansion one by one due to unpaid wages, Hess finally understood why she had been brought there.

From then on, her entire day revolved around the couple.

She alone had to prepare their meals, attend to their baths, nurse them, and run all their errands. Occasionally, Mrs. Miriam, an old friend of the Countess, would visit and help with some necessities and nursing care, but that didn’t happen often.

Even the strongest bonds of old friendship seemed to fade at the doorstep of the damp mansion with its sickly atmosphere.

On days when they were too ill to move comfortably, Hess had to wipe their bodies one by one with wet towels.

During those times, they never stayed quiet but constantly complained to Hess, who could only nod her head and listen to everything they said.

If not complaints, their stories were full of longing and regret for their family’s past glory.

This kind of thing, this kind of life.

It wasn’t happy at all. It wasn’t enjoyable in the slightest.

‘But family means not abandoning each other even in the worst moments.’

Constantly reminding herself of her increasingly distorted values, Hess kept telling herself it was fine.

Naturally, she began to think about what would happen after the couple died. Their health was deteriorating day by day. They would surely die someday.

Then what could she do? The couple hadn’t given her a proper education. Hess had never attended social gatherings or even met other ladies her age.

Even though she now had a noble name attached to hers, her life wasn’t much different from the orphanage.

Hess taught herself to read by collecting discarded newspapers the Count had finished reading, learning the bare minimum of literacy. But since it was truly minimal, she always carried anxiety in one corner of her heart, not knowing how cultured her noble peers were or how they conversed.

Just once, not long after being adopted into the Count’s family, the couple took Hess to a noble’s party.

At first, the couple seemed to introduce Hess to several people as their daughter, but soon they appeared to grow tired of it and forgot about her existence, desperately trying to borrow money while inserting themselves into conversations here and there.

Hess got lost and wandered around until she finally grew tired and spent time sitting under a fence, waiting endlessly for the party to end.

That’s when she met a boy. As time passed, she couldn’t clearly remember his face or name, but the weather, scenery, and pleasant conversation with the boy remained as a vague sensation that made her smile for a long time.

When she felt extremely lonely, recalling that memory brought her joy.

Perhaps the couple had been mocked by the nobles at that party, as they never attended any party afterward. Because of this, that memory became one of the few precious things Hess “truly” possessed.

In this way, Hess passed through a long period of time. Some days, it felt like the future would never come. The couple seemed like they would live forever, and she felt she might have to live like this for her entire life.

Even though all of this would eventually end, she couldn’t imagine when or how that end would come.

But when they tried to sell her off without blinking an eye by arranging a marriage with some unknown Duke, Hess finally realized the end had come.

Except that end wasn’t for them, but for her.

※※※

Someone seemed to be desperately calling for Hess from a very distant place. That very familiar voice tirelessly, loudly, and strongly continued to search for her.

Hess wondered whose voice it was.

‘Why are you looking for me so desperately?’

No matter how much she thought about it, there was no one waiting for her. Theo never replied to her letters after sending a few, and Aisa, though kind, became cold at certain moments as if it was just part of her job. Moreover, she left the mansion without even saying goodbye to her.

It wouldn’t be Mrs. Miriam either, and definitely not her mother or father……

Hess opened her eyes with these thoughts. Soon after, a fit of coughing continued for quite some time, as if trying to expel everything inside her body.

“I, this place, cough……!”

As consciousness gradually returned, her vision slowly began to clear. The coldness of the ground crept up through her hands. Hess barely managed to raise herself.

“What is… this situation right now?”

After uttering these words, Hess finally began to notice a man sitting beside her.