One day... My slave merchant mother brought in the female protagonist of this world.
"I'm really lucky today. I found a crashed wagon because of an accident on the way from the auction house when it slipped from the rain. Melody, look at this."
In addition to the girl, her mother also showed off various jewelry and dresses from the carriage.
"It's the belongings from the nobility in the capital, right? Right!"
Her mother was so excited when she asked, but Melody couldn't relate to her joy.
No, she is feeling rather desperate. It's the 11th spring since Melody was born as the daughter of a slave merchant in the world of the original novel.
The first chapter of the original, which she had hoped would never begin, started just like this. The beginning of the first chapter is as follows.
The five-year-old female protagonist lost her mother in a carriage accident and was taken away by a vicious slave merchant.
A vicious slave merchant and her daughter were the first villains to appear in the original, and their roles were simple. They caused anger and sympathy from readers by thoroughly harassing Loretta, the young female lead. At the end of the first chapter, the duke no longer appears after being perfectly punished. However, he could not have reappeared. The man who planned to kidnap the aristocrats and sell them as slaves was executed without trial.
"...….That is."
Melody opened her mouth carefully, thinking of giving her mother some advice.
Although she is a villain, she is the only one for Melody.
"Is it not dangerous to bring things from the capital's aristocrats?"
Melody's words gradually subsided as she went back. It was because she is slightly frightened by the fact that her mother might get beaten for this. Still, the worries contained in her words were sincere.
…even though she's faithful to the original, she's just a little snorty.
"I'm sure they have plenty of things like these just up on the ceiling."
"But the daughter."
Melody began to persuade her again by looking at the small heroine who held her mother's hand.
"I'm sure they have only one daughter."
First of all, the title of the original novel is [The duke has three sons and one daughter.] It is clear considering that fans called it [Duke's Four Children] for short.
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"I don't know."
However, her mother is a villain again. She gave her answer to Melody.
"That's the only thing nobles do, and they've got enough children to build up on the ceiling."
Not only is it inappropriate to do it in front of children, but it is not funny at all. However, her mother fixed her stature and laughed at what she liked so much.
******
It was around the age of five that Melody remembered her past life.
At first, she didn't know it was her previous life, but she was scared and cried. Because she is standing alone in a world where no one smiles. Once, she couldn't stand it at all, she grabbed her mother's clothes and stuttered and talked about scary memories.
「You're a busy, but annoying baby.」
Melody didn't talk anymore about this memory because she would be scolded greatly if she bothered her mother.
And unfortunately, Melody began to adjust little by little. It is because she realized one thing. The world that comes to mind is just the 'past' Melody. A few more years later, when Melody was about ten years old, the fragmented scenes scattered in her head, began to connect the concrete situations.
Melody skimmed through her memories every night as if she was reading a story. Melody in her memory is not an adult. Even when she grew up to be the tallest, she said she is only a fifteen-year-old girl. The girl is very troubled by money. Maybe that's why, even in front of her peers, adults. Her old, wrinkled shoes that she saw when she looked down at the view in her memory often appeared. Melody wanted anyone to pat her on the back. But it never happened.
Perhaps there is no one to do that. She is always alone.
Even on her sick days, on nights when thunder strikes. The girl is often angry about this situation, and the way to release anger was mostly in the air.
"I'm sick and tired of it!"
Those were the remnants of her anger that lingered after she had been swallowed up with it, but the young Melody did not know that. She feels lonely whenever she cries alone. She thought. Still, the girl in her memory had one pleasure. It's reading a book.
Melody naturally learned about the girl's favorite book.
『The Duke has three sons and one daughter.』
For some reason, she is able to recall the story of the strange title more specifically than her memories. From the beginning of the story to the end of the crisis, to the beautiful end. Melody soon fell in love with the story. With exactly the same memories and emotions she had in her previous life.
'Maybe in my past life, I wanted to tell this story to me now?'
Sometimes she thought like that. Without any reason.
"Or the villain with the same name as mine came out at first, so it might be because it's interesting and my memory became clearer.'
Melody giggled by herself because it is an interesting imagination. However, it did not take long to enjoy reading interesting novels. One day, Melody picked up a piece of newspaper at the entrance of a village. She saw some of the same names in the novel on that small piece of paper.
"How could they be the same?'
After a brief confusion, Melody began to compare the world of 『 Duke's Four Children』 with her reality one by one. And at the end, one short assumption has reached.
'Melody, the daughter of the first slave merchant, is it me?'
She is a light villain who ends up being punished for bullying the female protagonist. Her mind went blank for a moment. In fact, there's a similarity between the lonely memories of the past and the present life.
She had been thinking about it...… not really.
'…to live in an even worse situation.'
For some reason, her heart was aching. It is both unfair and sad. But there is nothing she could do.
It's just spitting out the remnants of anger in the air all alone.
「…I'm sick and tired of it.」
This moment of shouting the same thing alone is as lonely in her previous life.
******
Still, Melody could have a small hope.
'Cause I have memories of my past life.'
Melody knows why she is punished.
This means, 'If you get away with it, your life will be safe'. She ran to her mother right away.
"Mother, you have to stop working as a slave merchant! Otherwise, you'll be in trouble!"
It is the advice given in preparation for punishment. Of course, I was scolded as expected.
"There's nothing you can't say to a hard-earned man! Get out of my house right now if you're going to say that stupid thing!"
Melody gave up the first plan just like that. So a year later, my mother brought the heroine.
From then on, Melody's second operation began.
"If you're kind to the heroine, you might at least be able to save your life.'
However, there were two obstacles to the goal. First, her mother. Her mother has the mindset of a professional villain. Otherwise, she couldn't be too harsh.
"Melody! I told you to keep it reasonable so it's not noisy, when did you ask me to serve you like you did before?"
I swear I didn't do that to serve you like a lord. It can't be possible in the first place because of this poor situation.
Melody is just taking care of the child's meal and handing her a blanket she needed for bed. Despite this explanation, however, her mother is generous with the evil spirit of the villain.
"You'll be worse than this if you go somewhere else. Be thankful that you can get a smelly blanket."
Amid the mother's breathtaking misdeeds, Melody somehow tried to show kindness to the female protagonist.
However, apart from being kind, it is very difficult to build a good bond together. If she thinks about it, isn't it necessary to have a "communication" between the person who gives, and accepts kindness?
'But Loretta and I are so different...'
Melody is the daughter of a scary slave merchant, who grew up almost like a slave.
Loretta grew up being cute, under a kind mother. Even if everyone in the world shared a connection, these two seemed impossible. In addition, Loretta, who came to a strange place, is very scared of Melody's mother, who was an old merchant, as well as Melody.
"Hey, Loretta."
When Melody called out her name, the child ran to the corner and hid, horrified.
"Oh, there she is."
I even added a useless explanation in case the child was surprised.
"I saw the name engraved on the small necklace you were wearing."
Melody drew a round necklace with her fingers.
"It says Loretta. That's your name, right?"
Alhough she already knew her name from the original plot because she had already read it, she said it because she wanted to have a short conversation with her.
Of course it didn't work. The child was crouching as much as she could while facing the wall. Melody felt a little sorry for her as if she was very scared. She had decided to stop here for today.
"You're hungry, aren't you? I'll put bread and milk here, so eat it when you're comfortable. This is yours."
She slipped out of the door, pushing the basket near the child.
'I hope you eat well.'
The worried Melody looked slightly through the door and observed Loretta's behavior.
The child continued to be wary of her surroundings even after she moved away.
It was only after a long period of silence that she turned her head carefully to see if her anxiety had subsided. Loretta quickly found the basket of bread. As Melody said, she is hungry, so she started eating the bread right away.
Thank God.
Melody sighed with relief. However, the scene seems to have entered Loretta's vision while eating bread.
The child hid herself in the corner again with the bread in her hand. Like she was running away from Melody's eyes.
'As expected, it's too much.'
Melody's efforts continued in the evening.
In the original story, Loretta would barely fall asleep in the old, hard chair in her mother's room. Melody thought it is heartbreaking for a child to suffer such discomfort.
So she thought she would wait for her mother to sleep and bring Loretta to her room.
"You are sleeping in my bed again today. Okay?"
Although it is shabby for a noble lady, it would be much better than sleeping in that chair. The child looked at Melody and went up to the bed in her room. She wondered if she was sad. She always rolls her body in a circle and cries a little bit.
She began to curl, unable to cry her heart out, holding her breath.
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