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“AMARYLLIS, you cannot adopt a commoner while keeping it secret from me, the master of the house.”
The day I signed the contract with Rick, Art came back to the mansion for the first time in a long time. I could hear him in the drawing room.
Art is my father in this world.
He had gray hair and eyes, and attractive features that sent female hearts racing. His voice and demeanor were both gentle, meaning a steady stream of women fell for him despite his being married to Amaryllis.
“Father, you hate me, don’t you?” accused Rosemary with a sniff.
Apparently, she was in the drawing room as well.
“Rosemary, was it?” said Art. “I’m speaking with Amaryllis at the moment. Can you please not interrupt?”
He might have said it gently, but his voice was coldly distant.
It didn’t seem he thought very highly of Rosemary, but abandoning a girl they’d adopted would damage the family’s reputation too much. That meant there was no way he could send her back to being a commoner. All he could do now was provide the bare minimum of education and then marry her off to a branch of the family or into a lower noble house.
“Y-You do hate me, Father. Because I’m a commoner!” Rosemary burst into tears. Amaryllis took her into her arms and consoled her.
“Howard, remove her from the room,” ordered Art.
I heard steps moving toward the door and Rosemary shrieking, “How horrible!” so I hid myself from their sight.
Rosemary came out of the room with a stern-looking man with silver hair and blue eyes. That must be Howard. I’d never met him, but I did remember Art had an advisor named Howard who accompanied him on his travels abroad. I heard the servants say Howard was a commoner, but Art was so impressed by his skills he made him his advisor.
“How horrible! I’m the daughter of a duke,” whined Rosemary.
“If you want to be treated as the daughter of a duke, then you must educate yourself as such. At the moment, you are nothing more than a commoner unaware of her place with good enough luck to stumble into this station, though you are now drowning there. It’s unpleasant to observe.”
Howard seemed disgusted by Rosemary. Maybe she rubbed him the wrong way even more than usual because he was also a commoner.
One incredible thing about Rosemary was that she didn’t get angry just then. She doesn’t get angry. She cries. Most people back off when someone starts crying, and anyone who doesn’t know the situation assumes she’s the victim.
It didn’t work on Howard, though. The most important thing to him was his orders from Art, the man who acknowledged his skills. He pulled Rosemary from the room as she sobbed. He may be a commoner, but he was Art’s advisor. Even the nearby servants were uncertain if they should go to Rosemary’s aid and watched as Howard dragged her away.
“The poor girl,” came Amaryllis’s voice from inside the room.
“Amaryllis, I don’t know what about her made you take pity on her, but I can’t do anything about it now that you’ve adopted her. I can’t send her back to being a commoner. I will do my best to treat her as my daughter, but do not be mistaken; your true daughter is Selena. Not that girl.”
The servants admired Amaryllis for showing nothing but sympathy for Rosemary and called her a kind mistress. Art was probably the first person to criticize her for it. She never would have imagined her actions could draw criticism. Even from the other side of the door, I could tell she was confused.
“Amaryllis, our daughter is Selena. You know that, right?” Art pressed. “And that Rosemary girl doesn’t seem as deserving of pity as you say she is. Yes, it is sad she has lost her parents, but she met you immediately afterward. Normally, she would have ended up in the slums. She avoided that future. Isn’t that alone good fortune enough? Though, perhaps this isn’t something a noble like myself is in a position to say.”
Amaryllis didn’t say anything.
“Amaryllis,” Art continued, “I think it’s wonderful that you want to help others, but perhaps you should focus your attention inside the mansion before looking outside. Have you even spoken to Selena recently?”
Is that important? I don’t think there’s a problem just because we haven’t spoken. That’s actually better for me.
“Art, is Selena really my daughter?”
“What do you mean?”
“I can never understand what she’s thinking. And she’s…somewhat frightening.”
She’s right. But also not. Amaryllis did indeed give birth to me. I am her real daughter, as unpleasant as it is to think I came from that blithe woman. But it is true. However, inside, I am also a slum child of no one knows who. I was an assassin. Maybe someone as twisted as me could never fully turn into a noble girl who knows nothing of the filth of the world.
“Selena is our daughter. Girls her age can be difficult. I’m sure that’s all it is,” said Art.
“Maybe…”
“It’s my fault for being away from home for so long on business. I’ll make every attempt to come home as often as possible. I’ll write letters when I’m away. I will try to stay engaged with both of you, so please consult me before making any decisions.”
“Yes, Art. I apologize for doing this without speaking to you first.”
Their conversation seemed to pause. They started telling each other what they had been doing, so I returned to my room and lay on the bed.
“This has turned into a hassle.”
I was glad Amaryllis had been avoiding me. And it was also likely better for Amaryllis, the blithe woman who doesn’t think deeply about anything. I hadn’t spent much time with Art, so I couldn’t say much about him since I lacked information. Based on his conversation with Amaryllis, though, he seemed like he had things together.
That’s inconvenient for me.
“If he finds out, do I kill him?”
No, I can’t do that. I’m too young to become the head of the family. I don’t think Amaryllis can handle it. If it comes to that, there’s too high a chance someone from the extended family will step in to take over.
“How annoying.”
I didn’t have parents in my previous world. I never once felt jealous of people with parents, nor did I ever think I was better off without them. I just never knew what it felt like to have parents.
Having parents means having restrictions. I never imagined it would be this annoying. The only thing in my favor was that Art interacted with Selena so few times I could count the number on one hand. That lets me gloss over a lot of things.
Sia should be able to get through this when transformed into me. She just needed to avoid interacting with them the same way I did. There shouldn’t be any issues if she limited the time they were in contact.
I’m not getting anywhere worrying about it now. Let’s wait and see what happens.