Translator: Jis...o...b..>Proofreader: Arie Bee

Chapter 9

Aria went out to the city in Mielle's simple but extremely luxurious dress, with two bodyguards, and her maid Jessie. It was unusual for a child of n.o.bility to go out without their parents, but Aria was different.

She had gone out by herself when she was younger than Mielle, and the Countess did not feel any threat at a child doing things by herself.

There was no foolish kidnapper who would've kidnapped a commoner anyways and now she worried even less since there were two bodyguards with Aria now after their status had risen.

On the other hand, Mielle never went out by herself. She always went out with the Count, and with her own mother in the past, and did not go at all if things did not work out.

She went out with Kain sometimes as well but this was only if their destination was decided.

For example, another n.o.ble's house or an event where only a few people would attend.

She did not attend if the number of people attending the event was not clear. The concerns of the people around her played a role in this.

Aria made fun of her, saying that she really did seem like the precious, loving daughter of the Count's family.

Jessie, who had been shaking in fear, lifted her gaze at the wind sound from Aria's lips as she laughed. Pretending not to see, Aria turned her gaze towards the window.

The fresh gra.s.s, trees, flowers, and busy people.

She became a bit annoyed that the scene pa.s.sing by the window was the same as before.

It was because, despite the fact that Aria sometimes silently screamed as she dreamt of her neck being chopped off, this world was as peaceful as ever.

Aria rubbed her soft, clean neck. She could imagine death surrounding her scarless, thin, neck.

She felt like it would drop to the ground this instant and roll in the mud and dust.

'……It's okay. Nothing has happened yet.'

She touched her neck with her slightly trembling hands. Then she saw a yellow leaf, one that had completed its lifetime, fall to the ground.

The leaf felt just like her head rolling around in front of the audience, and she felt chills went down her spine.

'I definitely won't leave them be. I will let those siblings experience their necks falling off as well.'

Since the miracle of the hourgla.s.s won't happen again, their deaths will be final. Aria calmed her heart and body by thinking of the siblings' death.

A moment later, the carriage arrived at a cheap boutique that many commoners visited. It was a place where even wealthy commoners would not buy from.

When Aria had told them the destination, the coachman and Jessie had both simply blinked at her, thinking they had heard the wrong thing.

But this was definitely the place Aria had planned on going to. A boutique that only sold cheap clothing.

If she wanted to wash off the image of being an evil girl, she could not waste money. It was better to show that she was unexpectedly careful and frugal.

If she bought expensive clothing on top of burning all the clothes she already had, the rumors would spread like wildfire.

The goal was to slowly get rid of the rumors. There was a need to wear cheap clothing that did not fit a n.o.ble in front of the people. These people will probably cover their mouths with their fans and judge her appearance.

'Oh my, it was actually 'poor Aria', not 'poor Mielle', like the rumors said.'

Once they see that Aria is wearing such cheap clothing even after rising in status, the people who had been speaking ill of her will realize that the rumors are false.

Of course, there may be new rumors that Aria was being treated poorly by the Count, but this was the only way to get rid of her current image. It would be much more effective to show it once rather than explain and make up excuses a hundred times.

She would only do this for a short while and wear luxurious clothing again afterwards.

For example, she could appear at her coming of age party with a luxurious and dignified look. Then would everyone faint in shock? She had to be patient for the joy that would come in the future.

It would also be good to show the Count. He would definitely be mad that the person who helped raise his income was in such a poor state.

If she made a confession of repentance and apologized for playing such a dangerous joke and let out some tears, he may even cry for his savior's regretful appearance.

Her lips dried up at the exciting thought. Aria walked past the worn-out entrance and into the boutique after wetting her pink lips with her red tongue.

"Welc…… ome."

The owner dropped the bread she was chewing when she saw who the customer was. The little girl who had not one, but three servants was definitely a n.o.ble.

The owner greeted Aria with a friendly smile after quickly wiping the grease from the bread on her clothes. Her att.i.tude was normal since your whole life could be a mess if you angered a n.o.ble.

Aria looked inside the shop after half-ignoring the owner's greeting. The shop was full of clothing that ranged from cheap, worn-out clothes to dresses that were somewhat okay.

Aria picked a few that were alright and asked to have them all packed. She remembered that before coming into the Count's house, she could not even afford the cheapest clothing here even if she starved herself for three months to save money.

'I admired the clothing on the display window every time I pa.s.sed.'

But now she could buy the entire boutique and she would still have some money left over. It seems like it was a very long time for her, but in reality, it had only been 1 year since then.

Her entire life had changed because of her mother's marriage. Aria felt bitter for some reason.

Aria noticed that there were tea and cheap cookies prepared for her on the table in the corner. The owner carefully asked as she led Aria to the table.

"There are more luxurious clothing on the upper floor, are you not going to look?"

"It's fine. Just tell me the cost of the ones I chose."

"Yes, yes. I'll prepare it right away. Please wait a bit while enjoying the snacks."

She felt longing rather than hate even though the taste of cheap b.u.t.ter filled her mouth.

She thought that it may have been better to just not know anything and starve rather than living a life of luxury like now.

The knight received the package with ten outfits, and Jessie paid for them. The next stop was the tinker's shop where she had left the hourgla.s.s. Once she received the finished hourgla.s.s and returned home, her day would be over.

'It's too bad that the day is ending.'

When she looked back, she had no memories of going out and looking around like this. She remembered that she had always been in a hurry to buy something.

Before she received the help of the knight to get in the carriage, Aria watched the people pa.s.sing by the boutique.

Because it was a location where many commoners pa.s.sed by, she could see the children running around and yelling in their worn-out and worthless appearances.

The merchants who had a whole bunch of items in their stalls were screaming to get some attention, and some people who became interested would take a look.

Aria had also played around here before. She had only gone around here because she could not go far by herself.

There were more memories of her fighting with the kids who criticized her for having a prost.i.tute mother, but she had a few memories of playing happily.

But isn't it the same as now? She had to fight endlessly with those who were luxurious and elegant on the outside but struggling to keep up the image on the inside.

It was so terrible that Aria questioned how her past self had felt any happiness in this situation.

The knight escorting her asked carefully when Aria continued to watch the people.

"Is there somewhere else you plan on going?"

"No, it's not that."

It was useless to think of the past she could never go back to. As she turned to enter the carriage, Aria heard a very familiar voice.

"Newspaper for rent! 5 s.h.i.+llings for 10 minutes! Please check it since there is very important information on it! It's just 5 s.h.i.+llings!"

Aria stopped in her tracks and looked towards the direction the voice had come from. She could see a boy acting like an advertiser with a paper in his hands. Aria knew this boy, and he was a child she had often played with.

Hans, who rented out newspapers. He fed his entire family with one newspaper. He would buy a newspaper on the first day of the month and rent it out till 12 in the night to make money.

He always had blisters from going around so much, and she had heard he died from getting hit by a carriage while he was working when he was injured.

'Newspaper.'

Come to think of it, she did need the information. There were newspapers delivered to the Count's household every day, but information for the n.o.bles and information for the commoners were very different.

n.o.bles' newspaper was a list of information whereas commoners' newspaper had all sorts of rumors mixed into the information.

More than half of it was filled with lies, but she wouldn't be losing anything since there were some facts here and there.

Furthermore, Aria knew her future already so there was no way she would be influenced by rumors.

"Jessie, go buy the newspaper. Tell him we'll pay for the entire month's income so he'll sell the paper. And come out every time there's a new paper to buy it from now on."

"What? Ah, yes, milady."

The servants that had followed Aria began thinking negatively when Aria said she would buy a paper worth less than garbage. They thought that there was nothing you could do about lowly origins since she wanted to look at such a stimulating and dirty paper.

Aria slowly looked over the paper, ignoring their thoughts. She couldn't check thoroughly because the distance between the boutique and the tinker's shop wasn't far but she could tell there had been a big incident.

[Where did all the disappearing people go?]

She realized what the situation was as soon as she saw the huge t.i.tle.

This was the incident of human trafficking in the empire where there were no laws on slavery. There had been terrible things happening within the secret places in the fancy casino.

The people who had been kidnapped and trapped in the bas.e.m.e.nt cells of the casino could not even escape because they had been drugged, but the women had their organs damaged and were sold as s.e.x slaves, and the males were sold abroad and used to do harsh labor until they died.

The only reason Aria remembered it so clearly was because the crown prince had figured out the case and it had been presented everywhere and everyone had been talking about it for a long time.

'A case solved by the crown prince…….'

She read the newspaper and tried to remember if there was a relation, but she couldn't remember anything.

It was because she had been young and did not have any interest, so she simply acknowledged the fact that many people were talking about it and let it go.

It would probably be difficult to form a relations.h.i.+p with the crown prince even if she knew the future.

In the past, even when she had seduced many males in the empire with her enthralling beauty, she had never even seen the crown prince's shadow. There was probably no chance for them to meet since he lived in a world completely different from her.

Earning Sarah, who would become the Marquis' wife, was enough to secure Aria a safe future. And Oscar, who she would be meeting soon.

She may have a chance later on because of her different actions, but it wasn't now. There wasn't much she could do with her small, young body. The police may come to get her if she even hung around near the casino.

Aria erased the casino slavery incident from her head.

END OF CHAPTER 9.

h.e.l.lo, everyone! The reason why we didn't have any update for Hourgla.s.s and Villain's Sister last week is that I wanted for Grand Duke's Little Lady to catch up to both stories in terms of how many chapters we released. We're now on 8 chapters for all 3 novels!

Rest a.s.sured, we're back on schedule and we're releasing Hourgla.s.s and Villain's Sister on a weekly basis along with Grand Duke's Little Lady! However, of course, please do understand that there might be times where we couldn't release for that week.

Once again, this wouldn't have been possible without our monster translator Jisoo, so make sure to head on over our discord channel to give her a word of thanks!