Chapter 8

Our conversation stalled as my stomach made a loud rumbling noise. Between the poisoning and the assassination attempt, I hadn’t eaten at all that morning. I glared at my stomach for its loud gurgling.

There’s a time and a place for this, and now is definitely not that time!

My stomach refused to comply and rumbled loudly again.

“Is there anything you’d like to eat?” Claudia asked as she pinched my cheeks.

Of course, there was.

I licked my lips and said without hesitation, “Meat.”

Soon after, various cuts of meat and meat dishes were laid out on the table. I asked how we were supposed to eat it all and was told that whatever we didn’t finish, the servants would split and eat the rest. That put me at ease. I hated wasting food.

“Thank you for this delicious feast!”

The meat tasted so good I could cry. As I shoveled food into my mouth, Claudia watched me with her head tilted and her chin propped up.

She smiled and asked, “So, Rene, am I your ideal type? Since I have a lot of money and I’m pretty?”

Claudia blinked slowly as she confidently declared herself a beauty. Her eyelashes were so long, it seemed like every time she blinked, a butterfly was flapping its wings.

“Claud, you’re a one-of-a-kind beauty—the likes of which will never again be seen in this world.”

Her looks were simply out of this world. I took a pause from eating as I admired her stunning face and nodded in agreement. Claudia took the snow-white locks that came down to her waist and twisted a handful around her finger. Then she looked straight into my eyes and smiled.

Ah, my heart.

I instinctively grabbed a fistful of my dress right where my heart was located. If the male leads of the novel saw this, they would have died of envy.

Yes, yes! They should all just die like that! Let them incinerate with jealousy!

“Following that logic, wouldn’t that also mean I’m her type as well?” Felix said as he laughed, clearly enjoying himself.

It was an innocent smile, devoid of any ulterior motive. He had a fine head of hair. Similar to Claudia’s, it was light and fluffy, like cotton candy that would melt in your mouth. Beyond that was where the siblings differed. Claudia had a round face while his was more sharp. I suppose he was right. He was like an aloof but glamorous crane, simply beautiful. When I nodded in response, Claudia glared at him.

“Rene, you only like him because he’s pretending to look like me. Don’t fall for it. Though he might look like that, he’s sharp with scary eyes, unlike me. He and I don’t look alike at all.”

Claudia reached out and tried to snatch Felix’s gold-rimmed spectacles off his face. He easily evaded her attempts to steal his glasses and stroked her hair as if he found her cute, which only made her even angrier. The two of them bickering was like a scene straight out of a movie. I was completely sucked in and watched them as I stuffed my face. Pretty people were the most entertaining. Watching the two of them, I came to the realization that it was heaven on earth, and I was in it.

* * *

“So you’re going to stay there?”

I could hear the bewildered voice of my brother of one year, Liam Amber, through the communication device. I understood where he was coming from. After being confessed to by my friend, the most popular woman in the empire, I had become the ultimate love rival for all guys, which made me a target for assassins and poisoners. Spectacular, wasn’t it? If it wasn’t something that was happening to me personally, I would have reacted the same way after hearing the whole story. In fact, I’d probably stare at the person like they were delusional.

I tossed the grapefruit tart I was holding into my mouth.

Gah, it really just melts away!

I heard Claudia had lured this pâtissier away from the imperial palace just for me. The harmony between the grapefruit and the tart dough was simply perfect.

“Yeah... Probably forever.”

Though that would depend entirely on the assumption that Claudia would not get sick of me. After all, it wasn’t guaranteed she was going to like me forever. Who could say? Maybe in a few years, or maybe even in a few months, she might decide she had temporarily lost her mind. By then, she could kick me to the curb and look for a new friend.

If she did say she was sick of me, I’d be willing to tearfully let her go. I wouldn’t be like the type of sad ex-boyfriend who calls at two o’clock in the morning. I’d be willing to step aside for her happiness. Besides, we should take the shots we’re given in life. Who could say when I would get offed by the male leads anyway? I decided to just consider those luxuries as the price for my life and to enjoy them while they lasted.

Liam sighed as he said, “How old are you? You can’t just leave without saying anything.”

“I didn’t leave. I’m moving on. I’m never going back to my mundane life.”

Have you ever even heard of paradise?

As soon as I finished swallowing the tart, Claudia sliced a bit of the strawberry roll cake with her fork and told me to try it. I happily accepted the bit of cake like a baby bird being fed by its mama. It was just as delicious! I shook my shoulders and lightly tapped my feet. I hadn’t had a single thing that didn’t taste amazing since I arrived.

Felix was walking by at that moment and paused when he saw me. He smiled softly as I looked up at him with wide eyes.

“Here,” he said, reaching over to wipe my lips with his thumb.

He showed me the cream on his thumb, then went merrily on his way.

I was shook. It felt like something had just punched me in the heart and whizzed away. With a dazed look on my face, I looked toward the direction he had disappeared in. But then Liam’s voice snapped me back to reality.

“Yeah, right. You’ve just put yourself at the center of the world.”

That was the conclusion he drew after hearing everything.

Hey! Whether it’s paradise or an orgy, heaven is heaven!

He looked up and down at me through the device at the dress and jewelry Claudia had bought for me with mixed emotions. I could see that he thought of me as someone who preyed on her friend in order to live a life of luxury, but I could also see that he was a little worried too.

“Did the Chamberlains wrong you in some way? I mean, I expected it to happen at some point, but...”

I heard him faintly mutter under his breath that he never imagined I would end up seducing both siblings.

“Apparently, they like me because I’m cute.”

He was not having that.

“Uh-oh... I think you’ve finally lost it. I knew there was something wrong with you.”

To my chagrin, he pointed out the conclusion I had also come to.

They brainwashed me into thinking this, okay? I am well aware that people wouldn’t normally say things like that!

I grumbled that internally to myself and then said what I had been wanting to say for a while.

“Something wrong with me? Our father’s the one who’s lost it... He tried to sell us off to pay back his debt.”

If it weren’t for Claudia, I would have been married off to some old man, or I would have had to go on the run and work like a dog, just to get by. Though I wasn’t sure if running away from the city of chaos Carlisle was even possible.

“That’s why I figured this was my chance to cut him out of my life.”

Besides, that deadbeat wasn’t even my real dad. Viscount Amber was someone I didn’t want to deal with as a human, let alone as family. He was a terrible businessman. He had gambling and drug addictions, and, as the cherry on top, he was willing to sell off his family to save himself. To be fair, I was obsessed with money too, but not to that extent.

I looked at Liam through the communication device and continued, “Come live with us after you graduate. Claud said you could.”

“...”

Liam was smack-dab in the middle of puberty. He was a teenager turning fifteen that year. I then thought about the first time I met him. It was just after I had transmigrated into Irene’s body, so I was still getting my bearings. To make matters worse, Irene’s father, the father of this character, tried to sell me off by telling me it was better to be a slave than to do sex work. Liam, who was fourteen at the time, yelled at the viscount upon hearing that.

“Just what are we to you? Are we livestock to be sold whenever you need money? If you need something to sell, then sell yourself!”

The viscount’s face reddened with rage, and he got physically violent with Liam for what he said.

After he stormed out to get a drink, I approached Liam with a smooth stone in place of an egg and said, “Who would buy a man like that?”

Liam looked flabbergasted at my words, then burst into laughter. He took the stone I offered and rolled it over his bruised eye. After that incident, he and I quickly became very close. Technically, he and I weren’t even related. And he was a boy. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve always had trouble talking to them. However, he was such an affable kid that I ended up treating him like my younger brother for real. Sure, at one point we did fight every day like actual siblings. But since we were apart, I felt a sense of fondness for him, so I just pretended those days had never happened.

Anyway, I heard that Liam never got to set foot inside the academy. He was a kid who reminded me of my pitiful school days, and it hit a little too close to home. A year wasn’t exactly a long period of time, but I tried to be the best older sister I could be to him. That was how he got sponsored by the Chamberlain family and began attending the academy about six months ago. Now he was winning scholarships on his own and living in the dorms. I was so glad he was there at that moment. If not, he might have gotten swept up in that mess with me.

When Liam had gone home for vacation, he was startled to find out that I had disappeared. He had gathered all the money he had to go to the communication center to make that call. He knew exactly where I’d be as soon as he heard I had disappeared. I took some time to lament over how much I lacked in the relationship department. Well, I guess having Claudia was like having the equivalent of ten friends.

“I’ll think about it.”

That was how Liam responded to my advice on why he should run away and cut off all ties with the viscount. No matter how bad it got with family, it wasn’t easy to cut off all ties and go cold turkey. Until you make that decision, and even after you do, it still hurts because you can’t let go of those happy memories. Of course, it was easier for me to say since Viscount Amber wasn’t my real father.

I feel for you, kid, I thought to myself as I patted the communication device as if I were comforting him in person.

Then I added, “Felix said that a prodigy like you was always welcome here.”

“I have to give it to you, Irene. You’re very resourceful,” Liam chuckled as he shook his head.