I Thought It Was a Common Transmigration - Chapter 112

“No, they’re already coming this way. Don’t take my words lightly, if you want to save your life, please run. I’m telling you this for your brothers, who are counting on you. Cliff Ludwig won’t spare…… anyone here, not even you.”

“But we don’t get paid until the job is done. We’ve only gotten a down payment.”

My impatience ran out. At this rate, even those who have done me small favors would fall under Cliff’s brutal blade.

There were so few people who did me favors in this life or my previous one, and I wanted to make sure they were spared.

‘Is there anything I can give to them now……?’

It wasn’t a jeweled dress I was wearing, and the hair ornaments were a corsage and ribbons, so it couldn’t possibly be money.

I looked at what I wore and paused. I remembered the ruby necklace around my neck.

It hadn’t been taken from me yet, thanks to the dress that covered my neck.

It was a shame, since Killian had bought it for me. But if I blacked out, Sophia might take it.

Better to give it to these people than to that bitch.

“Hey, I have this…… necklace around my neck.”

“Huh?”

“It’s a good quality ruby and gold chain, it’ll be worth a lot of money if you sell it, so take it and run.”

The two men looked at each other again and hesitated.

“It’s over when Sophia gets here, come on!”

At my urging, the man who had tied me up carefully lowered the neck of my dress and pulled out the necklace.

“Take that and run right away. I don’t want the people who did me a favor to die, so just go. And don’t argue over who gets what!”

They nodded stiffly and put the necklace into one of the mercenaries’ pockets.

Before they left the basement, they glanced back at me.

“E- excuse me……”

“What?”

“Um…… good luck.”

I smiled weakly at the awkward goodbye.

Nameless extras who wouldn’t even be mentioned in the original story.

But I know they have siblings they get along with, and I’ve just received a favor that might just save my life.

“Good luck to you two.”

And as soon as they left, I heard another voice in the distance.

Unfortunately, it was a woman’s voice.

“What the hell took you so long?”

Sophia’s voice, openly disparaging of the mercenary, made me realize why the two men had taken such a liking to me earlier.

‘It’s easy to build empathy when you have a shared enemy.’

I guess I should thank Sophia for that.

“Ah, haha. Don’t be too hard on me, I was just admiring the noble lady’s beauty.”

“Why are you, a hillbilly, fussing over how beautiful such a woman is?”

If I were that mercenary, I would feel bad hearing that.

In any case, the two men thought of me, and quickly disappeared without incurring Sophia’s wrath.

I prayed they’d run straight without hesitation.

A few moments later, the wooden door swung open.

“Whoa, whoa. You look like shit. You should have taken it when Young Master Shane gave you your last chance. Stupid wench.”

Perhaps because of Shane’s orders to treat me as less than a laundry maid, Sophia had no respect for me, even in jest.

‘Anyway, I need to stall for time as long as I can.’

Cliff will be here soon. So if I stalled until then, I could end up without much of a beating.

I chewed my lip, took a small deep breath, and said, “Since this has come to this, let me ask you something.”

“What?”

“Why do you hate me…… so much?”

Sophia’s face hardened at my question. I brought it up to soften the blow, but had I offended her?

But then she snorted and laughed.

“I mean, I grew up with nothing but compliments.”

Ugh. Suddenly, Sophia’s narrative has begun, and I’m not so sure I want to know……

“I was the fifth child in a commoner family of three boys and four girls, and I was the favorite of my parents.”

Why are you suddenly sharing your past……?

“I thought I could achieve anything if I put my mind to it. They say money can buy a noble title, so I was going to be a noble one day and live a lavish life. I was confident.”

This is the kind of passionate, enterprising person that 21st-century South Korea would love to have.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, that’s enough……

“But as I grew up, I realized that there are more important factors to success than being talented.”

I just asked her to tell me why she hates me, but how long do I have to listen to this? Sure, it’s serving the purpose of stalling, but it’s not really necessary.

Then, as if she noticed my distraction, Sophia pointed a finger at me and asked, “Do you know what that is?”

“Uh…… I- I don’t know…… I guess, luck or background?”

I don’t think the questioner was looking for a textbook answer, so I blurted out a 21st-century Korean self-deprecating answer.

The hard worker can’t beat the enjoyer, the enjoyer can’t beat the lucky, and the lucky can’t beat the good.

“Ha! I guess this dumb bitch can still think, huh?”

Huh? Is that the right answer?

“Exactly. Luck, background, or blood. I’m so much better than you, but I’m just your maid, and you’re so much dumber and more useless than me, but you’re lucky enough to be a daughter of a Count.”

“What am I supposed to do for being born like this?”

“No. You were meant to be abandoned. You’re an illegitimate child and an orphan.”

“……what?” I asked, wondering if I’d misheard.

“Oh, by the way, you didn’t know, did you? Your mother is Count Riegelhoff’s dead sister, and we don’t even know who your father is.”

Sophia looked quite happy, as if she thought I was mentally shocked to learn such a brutal fact.

But I was just relieved to learn a little more about why Edith had been abused.

‘I am not Count Riegelhoff’s illegitimate child, but his sister’s. That explains why he treated me so badly!’

That’s why they could say I lived because of “family favor,” because they had graciously accepted a “family disgrace” into the Riegelhoff family who, in their view, deserved to be discarded.

In any case, there’s no point in Sophia knowing I am fine with this fact.

I put on my best shocked face.

“S- so that’s why my father and brother were always beating me…… and why my mother was so indifferent to me?”

“You can’t blame the Count and Young Master Shane, they’re the ones who made you the daughter of a noble family when you should have been abandoned in an orphanage. You were only beaten because you were incompetent. Do you understand?”

“I’ve been beaten since before I was fifteen! What kind of competence did they expect from such a child?”

“Well, maybe it was because they thought of your mother who died giving birth to you.”

Sophia giggled in amusement, then suddenly stiffened, and the temperature drop was so great that I wondered if she was going to beat me madly again.

“If I were Young Lady of Riegelhoff, I could be of much more benefit to Count Riegelhoff than you, who can barely understand a word I say.”

“It wasn’t my decision that I became Young Lady of Riegelhoff, and that’s no reason to hate me, it’s not my fault!”

At those words, Sophia, who had been glaring at me, slapped me across the face.

She slapped me so hard that the corsage on my head fell off.

“If you were competent, I wouldn’t have to feel this way, would I?”

I laughed weakly as I turned my head back toward her.

“Don’t be ridiculous. If that’s the case, you have no reason to hate Lizé. You were just in need of someone to take your anger out on for what you don’t have, so why are you rationalizing it now?”

Sophia gritted her teeth, not realizing I’d caught her hating Lizé.

“You and that girl deserve to be hated for sitting on seats you are not meant for! You’re both filthy-born bitches!”

A searing pain shot through my cheek again, probably from being hit in the same place over and over again, my nose was bleeding and I could taste blood in my mouth.

‘Shit, at least slap my cheeks in turn.’

My ears were ringing and my eyes were filled with tears.

But I could tell that the real beating was about to begin now.

Sure enough, Sophia rolled up her sleeves and picked up a horsewhip.

“Young Master Shane doesn’t deserve a lowly slut like that, a whore who lures men in with her pretty face……!”

“Then…… who do you think suits him?” I asked nasally, lifting my tear-soaked eyelashes.

I continued, “You know all the noble ladies, would you approve of any of them becoming Shane’s bride?”

Sophia’s hand holding the horsewhip trembled.

“If you can’t decide on one, at least call for a candidate.”

“Shut up!”

The whip swung and struck my forearm.

It hurt like hell, but I gritted my teeth. If I screamed out here that it hurt and stopped talking, I’d only get whipped endlessly from then on.

“There’s no way you can do that. That’s what love is all about, isn’t it? No matter how bad you are, you don’t want to see someone else take the person you love, do you?”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, you filthy bitch……!”

“You don’t love Shane? Can you swear to God that you’re okay with him being completely someone else’s?”

Even in the darkness of the room, I could see Sophia’s glare.