I Thought It Was a Common Transmigration - Chapter 46
Most of them hurriedly lowered their heads as if they had seen something they shouldn’t have.
I wasn’t pleased with the obvious rejection, but I forced a smile for the sake of the storyline change, not forgetting to repeat the mantra “choose and focus” in my mind.
And the effort was not in vain.
“Hello!”
“O- oh! H- hello.”
“Thank you for your hard work.”
“Ah…… yes, you- you are welcome.”
A young freckled maid and a middle-aged servant tending to a worn railing returned my greeting.
‘Yes, one by one, one by one……’
In fact, I didn’t even need them to do much for me, I just needed confirmation that I wasn’t a ghost.
With that, I went back to my room, feeling a little warmer. It was a mistake to get carried away and not pay attention to my surroundings.
“You’re here, miss.”
Sophia’s voice sent a chill down my spine, and I heard the door close behind me before she wrapped her arms around my neck and pushed me against the wall.
“Ugh!”
“How dare you have the audacity to betray your master in an arrogant way?”
Somehow, it was only Sophia in my room.
After days of being teased by me, she seemed angry to the top of her head.
I could tell by the strength of her grip on my neck, which was much stronger than usual.
When I couldn’t even groan because I was being choked so hard, she threatened me eerily.
“I’ll give you one last chance: steal the tax records of the duchy’s major estates from where you work now.”
She loosened her grip slightly as if to give me a chance to answer.
I coughed and coughed to stall for time, but Anna showed no sign of returning.
“Cough…… if I refuse…… what happens?”
“You die, and I have the master’s permission.”
Sophia smirked, as if she wanted me to be shocked.
But I wasn’t, as I’d known her intentions ever since she’d arrived here.
“If you kill me here and now, they’ll know you’re the one who did it.”
“Don’t think I’m as stupid as you are. I’ll make sure to kill you in a way that makes it look like the Ludwigs did it.”
So you’re not going to kill me right here and now?
“Sophia, I’m going to give you one last chance. Please get your shit together. You’ve been here enough to know, the Ludwigs isn’t that easy.”
“Well. It seems to be a bunch of idiots, and the two young masters only have eyes for that illegitimate bitch.”
“So…… you poisoned Lizé’s embroidery thread?”
“What? Isn’t that what you did?”
As expected, Sophia thought it was me. It was also clear that she never had the chance to even reach for the embroidery thread.
I took the opportunity when her grip loosened and struggled with all my might, barely able to break free from her arms.
But Sophia just stared at me like it didn’t affect her.
“I…… have no intention of stealing any documents.”
“Why are you so desperate to die?”
“May I make a prediction: even with my help, the Riegelhoff family will be destroyed. Including my brother whom you love so much.”
Sophia’s eyes flared as she lunged at me.
I know she’s in love with Shane because I saw her kiss his letter affectionately.
I was stunned.
I mean, they seem like such a good match……
Anyway, none of that mattered at this point because I was getting beat up.
Of course, the constraint of not showing signs of being hit to others kept it from becoming a dangerous assault, but the longer it went on, the worse it got.
“I’m going to tell everyone you hit me!”
“Ha! If you could, you would have already, do you think I don’t know why you can’t?”
Sophia continued as she crushed my head into the pillow again, smothering me, “You know that you’re a discarded pawn in the Riegelhoff, and the only thing left for you is to be discarded here as well. Killian Ludwig would be more than happy to throw you away.”
I felt a chill in the pit of my stomach as I heard the reasons I’d been avoiding thinking about.
“And my master will make useless pawn like you worthless, and you can imagine what a horrible life that would be.”
Then she lifted my face.
I couldn’t help but pant like a dog at a sprint.
“So think carefully. There’s only one place that will take you in, and that’s your family, and if you do succeed in stealing the documents, I’ll send a revised evaluation of you to Young Master Shane.”
Sophia whispered temptingly, then rolled me over and laid me right down, quickly fixing my tousled hair.
As soon as she took a few steps away, the door opened and Anna walked in.
‘You have the hearing of an animal.’
To Anna, it would be an innocuous enough sight.
“You’re back early, I was summoned by the Duchess for a while.”
“Uh huh…… I just came too……”
Anna nodded slightly, then turned to Sophia and ordered her to fetch the meal.
Sophia bowed slightly at the knees in an abominably polite manner and walked out.
But she didn’t forget to send me a look that said, “Think carefully.”
***
Of course, I had no intention of following Sophia’s orders.
But what she said was enough to cause me a little hurt.
“You know that you’re a discarded pawn in the Riegelhoff, and the only thing left for you is to be discarded here as well.”
Sophia was making that threat because she didn’t realize that I’d get my head cut off before I was thrown out of this house, but at least she knew I couldn’t turn to anyone in this house for help.
“Killian Ludwig would be more than happy to throw you away.”
It was true enough.
I’ve managed to stay as inconspicuous as possible and keep my ego to a minimum, but to everyone else, I’m just a hostage to the Riegelhoffs’ treachery, someone they don’t want to have anything to do with.
The same would be true of Killian.
He may have spent the night with me or kissed me, but it was a physical impulse, not because he felt anything else for me.
I could tell by the fact that he still spent time with Lizé whenever he could.
His attitude towards me was a little better than before, but I wasn’t sure if it was enough to make him want to help me in my time of need.
‘Edith must have grown up with this kind of verbal abuse, and if it hurts me as an adult to hear it, how hard must it have been for her?’
I genuinely sympathized with the character of Edith, even if it came across as self-pity.
In the original story, she would have crawled through this despair and died a miserable death at the hands of the man she loved, with no understanding from anyone.
I felt tears welling up in my eyes, even though it wasn’t my story.
As I was lying in bed in a daze, someone knocked on my door.
It was too late for anyone to come.
Anna, who sleeps in my room to keep an eye on me, got up and quietly went outside.
But soon after, I heard a voice I didn’t expect at all.
“Everyone out.”
It was Killian, looking very upset for some reason.
“Killian, what are you doing here at this hour?”
As I scrambled to my feet, Killian shooed Anna and Sophia out, slammed the door, and stalked over to me.
He pushed my shoulders back down onto the bed.
“Killian……?”
“If your probation is over, why aren’t you crawling into my room this time?”
“What?”
Killian’s eyes morphed into a kind of anger as he spoke words I couldn’t understand at all.
“Did I…… promise to come to your room when my probation was over?” I asked.
I don’t think I’d ever made such a promise, but Killian smirked.
There was a definite hint of mockery in his voice.
“That’s your way, isn’t it?”
“My way?”
“The way you claim your innocence, and then when you feel uneasy about something, you seduce me with your body.”
“W- what?”
“And it works pretty well. Because I’m an asshole.”
I hadn’t often understood Killian’s words, but this time, I couldn’t put them into context, but this time I couldn’t put them into context without wondering if we were on a different dimension.
“Killian, have you been drinking?”
“I’ll get someone to bring me a drink if that’s more your thing.”
“No, it’s not that…… you sound a little drunk right now, and I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about.”
“You don’t know……? You don’t know……?”
“Yeah.”
A crooked smile tugged at the corner of Killian’s mouth.
Even though he was smiling, I could tell he was on the verge of exploding.
But I couldn’t let this unfair and insulting remark get to me.
“First of all, I was always innocent, you just didn’t believe it.”
“Ha……!”
“And I never seduced you with my body, so that whole…… thing was technically…… your misunderstanding?”
“Are you saying what we did that night was just my unilateral wish?”
“No, it was a misunderstanding, but I’m not going to deny that…… I liked it too.”
I tried to sound confident, but the memory of that night made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.