After fidgeting with my fluffy purple hair, I thought it wasn't time to do that and took out all of my luggage.
It was all useless.
"…There really is nothing for me."
The state gave the nursery a room, some clothes, old shoes, and one or two hair ties.
"There was no reason for me to live like this. Why did I try to accept it unconditionally?"
I should have run away a long time ago. No, if I had run away, I wouldn't have seen my mom's last figure.
The old clothes in front of me were crumpled as I tried to cool down my anger.
My mother, a villainess died, and her daughter, I will die tomorrow.
And as time goes by, a new story will begin.
A story of the first part main character's cute daughter growing up happily. The story will start when she suddenly run away from home and venture to travel to neighboring empires, make precious friends, and even make loved ones and live happily ever after.
"… They will end the story with a happy ending."
After that, I felt sick as if the miserable death of my mother and mine were natural consequences.
I didn't want to stand by and watch the happy moment.
If I twist the story a little or even a lot, will the story continue to flow the same way? I burst out laughing at the sudden curiosity.
If it goes the way it is, it's my fate, and if it changes, I'll succeed. Let's not think about the consequences without even trying.
As I listened to the noise outside, I took out one of my three clothes and began wiping out my wounds with water. After fixing my right ankle that may have sprained when I fell, with clothes, I pushed the bed slightly to find a small door.
"I'm glad the room was used as a warehouse."
Unlike other children, I was not allowed to stay in a room with several people. It was obvious, they would make a fuss if they were with me but …
The real reason seemed to be to abuse me quietly and neglect me. So, I stayed alone in the room which they used to use as a warehouse.
"It's like a wall. I'm glad no one recognized it." This door was connected to a large warehouse right next door.
You can get out through here.
"But wouldn't it be too reckless? No, there's nowhere else to back down."
I retraced the contents of the second part and came up with some useful information that might help me.
After the death of the evil woman and her daughter, the male protagonist in Part 2 tries to find and kill the top-ranking merchant in his childhood.
The scheme failed, however, and he was captured straight away. The head of the merchant had made him the successor because of his youthful look.
Then starts the story of the male protagonist, who later becomes the merchant's head and meets the female protagonist and finds love and joy in the midst of adventure, adversity, and hardship.
"First of all, the male protagonist shouldn't be there."
Otherwise, he will meet their daughter later and eventually fall in love with her. I had to keep them from seeing each other as much as I could.
And I needed another place where I could trust myself to twist the story.
'There's only one way.' Even if I were the daughter of a wicked woman, there was only one person who could protect me for a moment if my worth were proven.
Chloe Benedito, head of the group of merchants of Benedito (1*), who will be male lead's adoptive mother.
The reason why she took the male lead as her foster son was because of his ambitious spirit. She thought she could use the male lead for her revenge, so she adopted him as her son.
Chloe Benedito.
A woman who was formerly a child at this nursery and was sold by her friend, the nursery director, to the back world when she became an adult.
She overcame all the hardships to sit at the top of Benedito and was a woman who burned the sword of vengeance against the nursery and those behind them.
'According to the novel, the head of the nursery keeps books related to the outside world in his office. He said he was careless and left it in the drawer, which led to the main characters breaking into the nursery to find it later.'
I guess people who always told me that, if I have sinned then I should be punished for my crimes, should be able to bear this much of punishment.
Tonight, when everyone was asleep, I had to steal the document and get out of here and make a deal with the head of the merchant.
'At least I have to finish everything before tomorrow.'
I waited for everyone to go to sleep, enduring a great deal of pain in my throbbing body. Since I was more tired than usual, my body demanded rest, but my mind was especially clear.
Is it natural that I only feel that I have to get out of this place and survive safely?
The sounds that filled the nursery started to disappear. I already knew that both the nursery director and the other staff were going back to their rooms before midnight.
No one was on duty at night for the nursery.
'I hope nothing special happens.' I tried to put my pounding heart to ease and waited for time to pass.
Soon the bell rang from the capital's high clock tower. It was a midnight bell. Following the sound, I slowly rose from my seat.
I opened the small door behind the bed, and instead of my shoes, I wrapped my torn clothes around my feet to prepare if something happened and came out.
It was much quieter than wearing old shoes. I followed the darkness and slowly headed towards the nursery director's office.
After midnight, the nursery was calm and quiet. I could only hear my breath as if I were the only one living and breathing here. It was comforting to think that the silence would give me hope that I would live in the future.
The cold, which felt even colder than usual, could not break my will to stay alive. Swallowing white breath as much as possible, I slowly moved my feet. After a long walk, I was able to arrive at the director's office, which was located far away from the warehouse.
Just like my feet, I carefully grasped the doorknob with my hand wrapped in old clothes.
The door was open as if it had never been closed as if he were the head of the nursery with insensitivity to safety.
As I slowly opened the door to make no sound, the room was dark, as if no one was there.
I listened carefully and confirmed that I could not hear any sound and closed the door quietly.
"Hooo"
I looked around the room with a little sigh, but unlike nursery school, there was a lot of fancy stuff in there.
'Are there any sponsorships behind the back, in addition to the money provided by the country?'
He's an extravagant man.
Once again, after speaking ill of the director, I began to quickly search his drawers, thinking that this was not the right time.
The first drawer had nothing special, and the second drawer had nothing special too.
What was left was a large, third drawer, locked with a key. Yet it was locked when I tried to open it, and I could hear only the rattling sound.
"…You need a key."
I didn't think there would be a problem like this. Well, they said the male protagonist was very strong, so I guess he just blew it open.
I was impatient, so I tried to open the drawer a few more times, but I immediately turned my head to another place with a sense of aphorism.
'Let's think slowly. The director is more clumsy than a horseman, so he could hide his keys here for some possible circumstances.'
I stood up and headed toward the center of the room.
A wall filled with expensive-looking books.
A desk made of solid wood and two large flowerpots next to it.
A thick carpet on the floor and a large sofa on it.
'He's a person who's too lazy to move, so if he thinks he's minimizing the flow of movement, it's a nearby flowerpot, and if you think about the director being left-handed then…'
I walked to the flowerpot on the left side of his desk and looked inside, and there was a little key twinkling in it as I expected.
'Found it!'
The key that I found was, fortunately, the key to the drawer.
I put the key in the keyhole and turned it around, and then the drawer opened with a click and a cheerful sound.
Unfortunately, it was difficult to grasp the contents of the document because I did not learn the letters of this world properly.
'Okay, I'd be happy if I had enough documents to trade.'
I took all the documents out of the drawer and put it in my bag one by one.
'But what is this?'
In addition to the documents, there was a unique-looking stamp.
'If it's kept in a place like this, then it's important. I'm going to take this, too.'
No one is watching, but just in case, I will hide the seal in the pocket next to my bag and now, I have taken everything I need.
Click.
I closed the drawer, locked it back with a key, and put it back in the pot.
All I had to do was carry my bag properly and walk out, but I could hear footsteps outside at that moment.
The clatter of footsteps somehow seemed to be more than one.
'Oh no, what should I do?'
This room was at the end of the building's hall. So, it was clear that the footsteps were heading to this room.
If you go out now, you'll get caught.
'I might be beaten to death here.'
The director was much more hot-tempered than other employees, and sometimes he was very violent towards the children who did wrong. If he knew that I was trying to take this and get away, he could kill me on this spot.
'You're doing this so you won't die. You need to wake up, Daphne!'
Taking control of my confused mind, I hurriedly looked around the room again.
Jumping from the second floor with this body would lead me to death.
There was only one place where I could hide in this place where there was not even a wardrobe, and I didn't have time to hesitate.
I wiped the sweat off my forehead and crumpled myself under the sofa, holding my bag dearly.
I couldn't even eat properly, so, fortunately, my small and soft body was able to get under it when I put a little effort.
The door opened as soon as I hid perfectly, covering my front with a descending cloth.
I held my bag in my arms and covered my mouth with my other hand to make sure my breath sound wouldn't be heard and to swallow it as much as possible.
Immediately, the voice of the room's owner, the director's voice was heard.
"So you're taking Daphne there tomorrow?"
"Yeah, she's been a little cheeky since I was a little nice to her so I need to give her some scolding."
The voice of Ulinee followed.
"Oh, my God. Look at you saying that now your plans are messed up. There are so many people who hate her mother. You might get beaten to death if you go there. Do you think purple hair is common?"
"Why would she die? All I have to do is make her scared and act properly."
"Do as you please. The Duke doesn't seem to care about her anyway, and seeing that we haven't heard from her mother's side too, she's completely abandoned. She's pathetic, too."
"Do you feel sorry for her?"
A giggle followed a playful voice.
However, after a while, the conversation between those two was interrupted.
" …Come here for a moment."
And it seemed that a slow movement of footsteps was coming towards the sofa.
'Did I get caught?'
I held my breath as much as I could, shut my mouth tightly, and pushed my body further inside.
With the slowly approaching sound, the footsteps stopped in front of the sofa I was hiding.
'No, please…'
I closed my eyes and hoped the two wouldn't know.