I Thought It Was a Common Transmigration - Chapter 40

“Sophia, when you get to the Ludwig mansion, find out how Lizé Sinclair is doing, what she likes, anything in particular, and let me know in a letter. Don’t tell my father about this. Understood?”

Shane’s secret order to her rang in her head.

When the young master she’d longed for had said Lizé’s name with his earlobes flushed red, Sophia knew he had her in his heart.

At the time, all she wanted to do was rip that illegitimate Sinclair wench to shreds.

She didn’t dare covet the position as Shane’s wife, but she could not let an illegitimate child born from a maid’s belly seduce her master.

But now that she’s at the Ludwig mansion, Lizé is living beyond her wildest dreams, and her protection is impenetrable.

Of course, Sophia is not one to give up easily.

‘I’m not going to let this illegitimate bitch get away with this……’

Even as she sharpened her sword in her mind, Sophia gave Lizé a curt salute and stepped out of the way.

She passed a servant nonchalantly and quickly handed him a small note.

– Killian Ludwig is to receive the estate of Ryzen,

Whether he will take Edith with him is unknown.

Another mercenary secretly assigned to the Ludwig mansion was earning his keep.

‘Even a worm like this pays the food, and Edith is still so useless that she doesn’t even deserve to eat, much less be favored by her husband.’

How pathetic.

I’m sure I could have done much better if I were the daughter of a Count.

Sophia pitied her plight of having to call a thing lesser than her a lady, and took Edith’s dinner for herself. She thought about how she would torture the starving Edith today.

***

After five days of starvation, all I could think about in the morning was food.

But I couldn’t even get refreshments because Renon was away on a business trip for a few days.

‘I’m hungry……’

Sophia took my meal and ate it in front of me.

That was enough to make me angry, but then she deliberately scratched my insides even more.

She threw a piece of bread from last night’s dinner on the floor and said,

“If you’re really hungry, you can eat that.”

Honestly, if Sophia hadn’t been watching, I might have actually picked it up and eaten it.

But I didn’t, not with my already shattered pride.

“How can a human eat what a dog eats?”

She burst out laughing at that, thinking I was just a stubborn, useless dog.

Anyway, if I had to suffer the same humiliation at lunch today, I would eat the bread without a second thought, so I ran out of the room while Sophia went to get her meal.

Everyone was busy preparing meals, and the smell of food wafted everywhere.

I looked for a place where I could avoid the smell as much as possible, and then I remembered the Great Hall and headed there.

‘I’m hungry…… I’m hungry……’

It’s not that I didn’t think of hiding somewhere else and having another servant bring me something to eat.

In fact, I had done just that on the first evening, laughing at Sophia.

But when I returned to my room, Sophia forced me to vomit it all out.

Poisonous bitch.

My stomach hurt so much after vomiting, it made me roll around all night, and the memory still traumatizes me to this day.

I felt much better when I went to the Great Hall, where the smell of grass and flowers masked the smell of food.

As I was walking along, something caught my eye.

‘Wow…… that pie looks delicious……’

There was a peach pie on a table that looked freshly baked.

It was beautifully baked with icing, and the surface was flaky, making it look even more appetizing.

“……Edith!”

I was staring at the pie when I heard someone call out to me.

“Edith, what are you doing?”

It was Lizé.

Just as I was thinking, “Why is she here?”, I realized that I was the one who approached her.

Lizé, Cliff, and Killian, who had had lunch earlier, were enjoying tea and dessert on the balcony of the Great Hall.

I stood in front of them like a fool, staring at the pie……

‘Maybe I can do a shameful act here before I get slit by Killian……?’

I hadn’t eaten, my brain wasn’t working, and I couldn’t think of anything to say to excuse my behavior.

“If you’ve eaten, would you like to join us for tea?”

Lizé asked sweetly, but I shook my head, remembering my nightmare of vomiting.

“I just saw you…… and thought, wow, it’s peach season already.”

“Oh, I see……”

I looked back at the pie and then made eye contact with Killian.

He furrowed his brows as if seeing something pathetic, adding to my embarrassment.

“I- I think I’ll go back now, I was just, uh, going for a walk.”

Starving alone is bad enough, but being treated like a beggar was enough to bring tears to my eyes, so I hurried back to my room.

At around three o’clock, a maid came to my room with a peach pie.

“Miss Lizé sent this.”

It was the same peach pie I’d been staring at earlier.

The sweet smell of peaches quickly filled my room.

‘I’ll eat it all by myself.’

When I thought so, Sophia, who was standing with her back to me, thinking about something, suddenly set out refreshments on the table.

She served hot tea and a slice of peach pie and told me to eat it.

“If you keep starving, there will definitely be suspicions, so I’ll let you eat this one.”

She casually told me to eat, then left my room.

“What’s wrong with her…… all of a sudden?”

At first, I was puzzled, but then I thought about it and realized that Sophia was using her head.

I felt very dizzy because I hadn’t eaten. My pride was still hurt, but I thought this was a mutually acceptable compromise, so I devoured the peach pie.

It was every bit as delicious as I’d imagined.

‘I think peaches will be my favorite fruit from now on.’

As I rubbed my stomach to satisfy my insatiable hunger, moments later, I felt an excruciating pain in my stomach.

“Ahh……! W- what is this…… ahh!”

It hurts.

It terribly hurts.

My stomach hurt so much, I broke out in a cold sweat, and my body trembled.

“Ahh……”

Unable to walk to my bed, I collapsed onto the floor, writhing in pain as if something sharp was stabbing my stomach.

As I lay there in a daze, I remembered a scene from the original story.

‘No way…… the poisoned cake incident……?’

It’s the one where Edith poisoned herself with something that gave her stomach pains in a cake Lizé sent as a gift.

‘I didn’t put any poison in it……’

But the mystery was quickly cleared.

In the distance of my darkening vision, the door opened and Sophia walked in, and she wasn’t at all surprised to see me lying on the floor.

‘It was you, damn it……’

I could vaguely hear Sophia shouting as my vision went pitch black.

“Ahh! Miss! Wake up, Miss!”

***

I slowly opened my eyes, sensing the hustle and bustle around me.

Sophia’s voice pierced my eardrums.

“How could you do that, Miss Lizé? Do you hate our young lady so much that you poisoned her?”

“Oh, no! I never did! I only sent it because I thought Edith would like it!”

“Yes, she did like it, and she told me how pleased she was that you sent it to her, but when I went out of her room for a while, the young lady was…… sob……”

As expected, Sophia framed Lizé as the culprit.

Yes, that’s the exact scene from the original story. The fact that Killian’s character was different from the original didn’t stop my horror.

But I couldn’t give up. I had just realized that the original could be changed, and I couldn’t take it back.

My stomach was still in knots, but I had to stop Sophia’s plan somehow.

“So…… phia……”

I barely managed to call Sophia, and everyone turned to me in surprise.

I was secretly happy to find Killian in the middle of it all. At least he came to see me.

No, is he here because Lizé’s been framed as the culprit……?

Either way, I had to defuse this situation quickly.

“Miss, are you awake? Are you in a lot of pain? Don’t try to force yourself to talk. Sob, my poor young lady……”

Sophia approached me with a tearful face, as if she couldn’t live without me.

But her gaze was clearly more of a ‘shut up!’ Not that I’m one to shut up.

“Lizé didn’t do…… anything wrong…… I just choked a little.”

“Yes? What do you mean you just choked a little? Miss, you vomited blood earlier!”

What?

Are you saying that you gave me poison to make me vomit blood?

Oh, I’m so pissed……

Even if I can’t escape the future of being beheaded by Killian, I will definitely kill you!

I clenched my teeth and said with the most pitiful expression I could muster.

“I was just, ugh, feeling nauseous, so don’t make a fuss……”

Then, without giving Sophia a chance to say anything, I turned to Lizé.