It Was My Mistake (1)

It was a few days ago.

‘Huh?’

While I’m in deep slumber, I suddenly felt something strange, like a chill running down my back. Then, I slowly opened my eyes.

‘I feel something weird.’

And I realized that it was not a day when the sun was shining strong, but it was still dawn that gave off a blue light energy.

I tried to look at Lira, who was always on standby at the rumbling sound of my stomach, but I was alone in my room.

‘What? There’s no one here?’

Maybe it was because of the kidnapping, but someone was always there when I opened my eyes, day and night.

It’s either Lira or another maid.

But this was the first time that no one looked after me.

‘Why? Why is it so quiet?’

My heart was pounding strangely. Just as I felt something ominous.

I pushed myself up using my buttocks, and slowly went down from my bed. As I finally touched the floor with my little feet.

Thud, thud.

I staggered a little, while I tried to reach and pressed my hands against the wall, then finally pushed the door in which I have never done before.

“Ooops!”

The door that had been gently pushed was opened with the power of a baby, and a very long and quiet hallway of the mansion was now visible.

I wonder what happened?

I can feel that I would regret it, If I ever leave my bedroom. But I really need to know what’s happening.

“Tsk!”

Okay. I’ll go now!

I walked out of the door with an adventurous spirit.

Will never know what I’ll see outside this door.

****

(MC’s POV)

Yesterday, Lira said “Tomorrow is your birthday!”

‘But then, where did everyone go? Even Lira, where is she?’

My heart was pounding.

Even though I walked that far, the hallway was quite long, for my little feet and I already felt dizzy.

I even thought about going back for a while.

“Oops.”

It was a structure where there was no fear of getting lost, but it’s the path that was making it difficult to walk on with short legs.

That’s when I decided to go back and try to sleep again, if I couldn’t see anything unusual, once I turned around this corner.

I could hear someone, raising his voice as if they were fighting.

As I turned around the corner, a scene completely different from the quiet hallway filled my eyes.

‘!’

I couldn’t make a sound.

I just stood there like a statue.

In the dark and gloomy atmosphere, people are holding back their screams.  Maids move in a hurry with anxious faces and a sound of a baby crying.

Everything was so confusing.

“Your Excellency, I have brought the second Miss.”

Second, Miss?

She was holding the child with a face that looked kind of sweet and tender, unlike me.

‘Huh.’

And what caught my attention was the child’s fluffy hair.

It was bright pink.

A dense and clear facial features.

A sweet little baby that would surely grow up into a cute and adorable one. Although it seems like we’re about the same age, I definitely heard them said ‘Second’

A second child.

At Hillington…… There is no such thing as a second child, then who the hell is that baby?

The atmosphere of the people who had been calmed down changed abruptly the moment they looked at the bed of the mistress.

“Your Excellency, Madame is breathing…… !”

“No! Bring me the holy water, now!”

“Holy water doesn’t work anymore….”

There is no more hope.

My heart sank as I heard those murmurs.

This is not a part of the original story, But I remembered what the doctor said, when she was about to die.

No, no. This can’t be true.

My legs started to tremble.

‘Madame?’

It wasn’t just because of the shocking circumstances of someone’s death.

It was because I now realized that a certain hope that I had firmly believed in, was actually a thin glass that could collapse right away.

‘Who am I?’

No one has ever called me by my first name. That’s why I didn’t know.

‘I hadn’t thought……’

My hair isn’t like Rosériel’s sweet pink hair.

‘Am I Rosé…….?’

In the original story, the Duchess gave birth to Rose and died shortly after giving birth to a worsening postpartum disease. So, now, that scene.

‘I wasn’t Rosé.’

While Rosé’s, or my dad in this life, never smiled like that.

The father hugged the unfamiliar baby dearly and whispered with tears in his eyes.

“Rosé, baby……. Please see off your mother’s last path….”

“My Lord, should I bring the Oldest Miss here?”

“Yeah, she may be very surprised, but she’ll have to see her too…….”

His soft, trembling hands touched the baby’s fluffy hair and gently caressed her as if it would break.

And the beautiful handsome man shed tears like beads, while holding the child in his arms, he immediately approached the pale woman and knelt down.

“Honey, come and see our Rosé’s face for the last time. You need to see our children before you go…..”

“Fortunately, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…… You…… .”

“Honey? Elizabeth?”

“…….”

“Elizabeth. Please, please don’t go like this…….”

Everyone in the room mourned.

Their tears, frustration, and sadness were all very clear.

I was also afraid of witnessing someone’s death. But that feeling soon disappears.

Like a perfect masterpiece, their appearance was terribly beautiful.

I held my breath like a frozen statue.

‘Ah.’

I felt a sudden pain slowly prickling my heart, and a sad reality came in.

There seemed to be no place for me.

Like I’m just a bonus.

In this world only for Rosé, it’s as if someone was whispering that it had become an uncomfortable lump.

***

(3rd Person POV)

The thunder rumbled and lightning flickered, as if someone’s crying.

Employers watched desperately at the misery that befell this picturesque family.

Sears von Hillington.

He was given congratulatory remarks of “Finding the perfect love” which was announced at his Duke’s inauguration.

(t/n I’ll be using the word Congratulatory Remarks or Sayings, but from what I understand is that once they were brought to the temple after they were born a prophet will gave a Congratulatory Remarks to the baby that was born, just like Rose who was given the remarks of Likability.)

At first, he thought that it was an inappropriate saying for a cold-blooded man.

Far from loving anyone, he was a man who would have lived his life by lashing out at himself.

Until he met Elizabeth.

A woman with pink hair that is rich and sweet like cherry blossoms in bloom, and her red eyes are sweet as sugar.

Sears was engrossed as if he had changed as soon as he met Elizabeth.

That’s how their love began.

It was the romance of the century.

Everyone that was employed at Hillington loved this young aristocratic couple.

That they may become happy, and love each other forever.

But then this happened.

An iron-blooded man who would have lived without any setbacks.

But now he was shedding tears, as he lost the woman who was like his own heart. And he doesn’t care, even if he lost his face and dignity as a nobleman.

‘After all he couldn’t stand losing his wife, who means the world to him.’ 

It was when everyone was wet with tears, unable to hide their sadness.

Those people who were distracted by the situation, suddenly realized that there was someone else in their space besides them.

“Don’t tell me, My Lady…..?”

The eyes of the employees followed the gaze of the handmaiden, Lira, who muttered in despair.

And then she saw it. A little baby with sad eyes that doesn’t look like a child.

It was then that she realized that she forgot about the oldest miss, after she found out about what happened to the Duchess.

At the same time, Lira blamed herself.

Thinking that the little lady would become like this once she saw the Duchess.

That’s the reason why she bought Rose, to the Duke first.

Standing up against the wall, the oldest miss looked as if she was about to collapse.

(T/N I’ll be using “Oldest Miss” for our MC, whenever she will be addressed by the maids.)

Those who saw her all felt that their hearts were beating with an unknown emotion.

“Miss?”

The maid, Lira, approached her with a bewildered look on her face, and quickly held the baby in her arms.

Everyone was thinking the same thing.

‘When did you come here? Did you walk on your own all the way from your room?”

Everyone was astonished. There’s no way a child could have felt something and came here.

‘I’m sure she came here out of curiosity.’

Even so, the gaze she was looking at was directly towards her father, who was crying all this time, and her mother, who had her eyes closed.

‘She seems to understand death.’

Even though the baby couldn’t understand death, strangely, she couldn’t take her eyes off the scene.

Ordinary maids who normally have no expression on their faces, rubbed their eyes together at the sorrow of the baby.

Even though the baby didn’t shed a single tear.

It was even sadder to see the baby standing there like a statue, who seemed to be unable to show her emotions, without crying.

“Lira, what are you doing? Hurry up, bring the oldest miss ….”

Take her.

One of the maids, who was whimpering, urged the little lady’s dedicated maid.

Lira, who was holding the baby with an expressionless face, blinked and quickly walked towards the Duke.

“Your Excellency. The oldest miss is here.”

Everyone watched as the baby hid her face in Lira’s arms as if terrified.

Everyone felt sad seeing the reaction of the oldest miss.

Considering that the Duke, who was always by the side of his fallen wife, that’s the reason why she didn’t know that this person was her Father.

Because she’s unfamiliar to him.

The baby slowly turned her face that was buried in Lira’s arms, and looked at Duke once, then to her sister and finally to her Mother who was lying on the bed with her eyes closed.

Looking at her mother with a pained expression.

“Ma …..”

‘How come that little babble sounds like a mother?’

Eventually, the Duke, who’s mourning, finally reached out his hand.

“Hildea.”

Hildea.

It was a name that no one had ever mentioned in this mansion since the time that the Oldest Miss was kidnapped from the temple.

“Your Excellency. I’ll keep holding the Oldest Miss ….”

“No. Hill, come here.”

The baby was startled by the sudden action and closed her eyes tightly, but soon the Duke held Rose in his other arms and Hildea, who was slumped in the other side.

And the beautiful Duchess, Elizabeth, who was a mother and a wife, lay on the bed peacefully. While everyone stays in the room mourning.

But people wouldn’t know.

The terrible shock the child received at that moment.

Her pain.

* * *

The news that the Duchess of Hillington had passed away soon went viral.

The story of the Duke of Hillington, Sears and how he proposed to an ordinary lady Elizabeth was a famous romance novel that was read countless times by the people in the Empire.

People felt sad.

It is because the happy ending that should have ended with the female protagonist and the male protagonist getting married and having a son and daughter and living happily ever after was broken.

But it was the reality, and people, especially the aristocrats, began to think differently.

When referring to the Emperor’s strong right and left arms, they all refer to Hillington and Belfius.

However, the majority of the Belfius blood relatives were all murdered, while Duke Sears, who was born with a blessing of “Finding the perfect love”, lost his most important love.

Because everyone knows how impactful this would be to the Mielle Empire.

The Emperor’s power will definitely decline.

“His Majesty must be in trouble.”

“There’s also a rumor saying that the successor of the Belfius Family, suddenly became crazy.”

“The Empress faction will prevail.”

“But will the Hilington collapse like this?”

“Everyone knows how much they love each other, to the point that the Duke also wants to die with her.”

“They say that the children born are twins, right?”

“Oh, we don’t know the mind of a person who’s blinded by love, I bet that it would be very difficult for the Kids, since they just lost their mother. I feel so sorry for the kids.”

“Besides, there are stories that the cause of the Duchess’s death was because of a saying that was given to the eldest of the twins. The congratulatory remarks can only be known if the person in charge of the temple has said it officially, but how serious was it that such rumors circulated? And look at what they did in the temple.”

“Oh, is it? What kind of sayings are you talking about? So you’re telling us that she died because of the first daughter?”

The aristocrats were constantly talking about the topic loudly.

And some of them ridiculed the tragedy of Hillington and Belfius.

To be honest, the hardships they suffered were also enjoyable.

That’s what most of them wondered about.

“So what happened to the daughter who killed her mother?”

TO BE CONTINUED….