#03. You Just Won’t Get Out of My Life, Will You

 She ignored it regardless. Who was yelling at her right now wasn’t what mattered.

 The scenery that appeared as the letters of light faded was problematically familiar.

 ‘This is…… the Blue Brick Castle, the main castle of Dragonia?’

 Even though she had already lived another life reincarnated in a different world, the Dragonia emblems embedded throughout the bluish castle were something she could never forget.

 ‘But, how?’

 Partanie, the Grand Duke’s daughter of Dragonia, had died. She had been reincarnated as Yeon Bora in a completely different world.

 ‘I was just healing until a moment ago.’

 She returned here in the blink of an eye?

 It was impossible. She only exhaled after unconsciously feeling her fingers and confirming her ring.

 ‘This is an item that only Yeon Bora, not Partanie, possessed.’

 The fact that it was here meant that this situation must be some unpleasant hallucination or poor anomaly.

 ‘Or perhaps a nightmare.’

 She had experienced nightmares before. Dreams where her life as ‘Yeon Bora’ was just a fleeting spring dream, and actually, her life as ‘Partanie of Dragonia’ was real and she had returned again…… such terrible dreams.

 But, she had always woken up and returned to reality. So she tried to calm herself thinking this time would be the same, but…….

 “Really, I don’t understand.”

 Something was strange.

 Among all the past life nightmares she had experienced until now, that woman before her eyes was rarely the main character.

 ‘Penelope Barshava.’

 She recognized her immediately.

 The woman who claimed to be the fourth wife of her father, the Grand Duke of Dragonia.

 And the blood aunt of her second brother, Taran.

 She was someone who had made ‘Partanie’s’ life a nightmare no less than her terrible brothers.

 “To think that such a half-wit would emerge from the great House Dragonia…… It’s an insult itself. Shameful.”

 “!”

 Her eyes widened. Not because of Penelope’s crude words.

 But because she remembered. The moment when she first heard the insult that she was ‘Dragonia’s shame’.

 “So tell me.”

 Penelope shouted while looking down at her.

 “Where have you hidden it? Confess immediately! How dare you steal Dragonia’s sacred treasure without knowing your place!”

 Ah, that incident.

 The ‘Divine Beast’s egg’ — the most precious sacred treasure among Dragonia’s numerous treasures.

 The loss of that sacred treasure occurred when I was not yet sixteen.

 Although they say the Divine Beast hadn’t awakened for a long time, and because of that no one held any more expectations for the Divine Beast’s egg…… Still, the Divine Beast’s egg was one of the most precious treasures even in Dragonia, famous for its wealth.

 When that Divine Beast’s egg disappeared, the Grand Duke of Dragonia was away from the Blue Brick Castle, the main castle.

 ‘The first brother Siyeref, who was called the heir of the family, was also away.’

 Naturally, Taran, the second son, became the chief administrator.

 ‘But that madman wouldn’t care about such things.’

 Perhaps that’s why? At some point, the position of administrator had passed to Penelope, Taran’s aunt and guardian figure.

 As the chief administrator, Penelope searched the Blue Brick Castle thoroughly.

 ‘Partanie, why did you do it!’

 And she pointed to me as the culprit who stole the sacred treasure.

 ‘And to make matters worse, you lost it……!’

 Even now, I can clearly recall that moment. When Penelope pointed at me and screamed with tears in her eyes.

 Of course, I was innocent and wronged. Both then and now, I didn’t even know what the Divine Beast’s egg looked like.

 But…

 ‘Partanie, that half-breed Grand Duke’s daughter?’

 Unfortunately, people truly believed that nonsense. Irrational criticism and anger poured down on me.

 ‘She’s not even one of the three brothers of Dragonia, just a lowborn who doesn’t even know her mother!’

 ‘How dare she lay hands on Dragonia’s sacred treasure?’

 ‘She should be disinherited immediately!’

 Under the bombardment of insults and contempt, my young and ignorant self was torn to pieces.

 ‘No, no. I didn’t steal it. I don’t even know where it is!’

 No matter how desperately I spoke, how much I cried and begged, my voice didn’t reach anywhere.

 And finally, that story reached the ears of the Grand Duke of Dragonia.

 ‘Are you trying to let outsiders know of Dragonia’s scandal?’

 That’s how Father buried the incident.

 My innocence wasn’t clearly proven externally. People just whispered behind my back.

 ‘Father, I really didn’t do it! It’s unfair……’

 ‘You say you’re wronged, yet can’t prove yourself, and instead you let servants back you into a corner while you just cry — do you think that’s behavior befitting a Grand Ducal daughter of Dragonia?’

 Father spoke coldly without even looking at me.

 ‘How disappointing.’

 Struck by those words, I couldn’t say anything more.

 ‘In the end, that incident became the starting point for me being called the shame of the Grand Duke’s family.’

 Perhaps that’s why. Even after such a long time that crossed over one life and death, I couldn’t forget.

 The sorrow of no one listening to me, the frustration of my voice not reaching anywhere. The misery of no one understanding any of it.

 Before my eyes stood Penelope, the person who had engraved all of that clearly into me.

 To make me that way once again.

 “Well, blood will tell. No matter how much a girl who doesn’t even know her mother tries to learn, she can’t hide her lowborn nature.”

 “……”

 A girl who doesn’t even know her mother.

 That too was a reason for contempt toward me. Because I was born outside, not in Dragonia’s main castle.

 A child of the outer chambers was originally a bastard.

 Then one day, the Grand Duke brought me to the Blue Brick Castle, Dragonia’s main castle, and declared:

 ‘This child is my daughter.’

 Yet he never mentioned a single word about my birth mother.

 Naturally, I was degraded to being of humble birth, born from a woman ‘whose origins couldn’t even be spoken of.’

 Usually such births aren’t even registered as family members, but through Father’s power, I finally succeeded in becoming Dragonia’s legitimate daughter.

 ‘Even so, the hierarchy among half-siblings is naturally determined by the mother’s origins.’

 Thus, while being a member of the noble Dragonia, I fell to being a Grand Duke’s daughter openly called ‘half-breed’.

 “How right you are, madam.”

 “The nobility of blood truly cannot be hidden.”

 The maid beside Penelope sneered while looking at me. The other maids also laughed at me together while bowing to Penelope.

 “Especially those who can’t even remember the mother who bore them — calling them idiots would be too kind, wouldn’t it?”

 “That’s right. A child who doesn’t even know the mother who carried them for ten months……”

 “How ungrateful!”

 When I first faced this situation, young and ignorant as I was, I froze completely.

 Scared and terrified, my hands and feet stiffened and my trembling lips couldn’t properly refute anything.

 ‘Why, why are you being so mean to me……?’

 Because my status was so much lower than my brothers?

 Or because I fundamentally lacked qualifications?

 Because I had some fundamental flaw that I couldn’t even recognize?

 That’s how young and ignorant I was, endlessly examining myself.

 Believing there must be a reason they tormented me, despised me and looked down on me as a half-breed,

 That if I just fixed that reason, it would be fine. That then I would be accepted…….

 Believing that, I kept looking for and ruminating on my flaws that could be the reason.

 The conclusion was always the same.

 ‘I must become a useful member of Dragonia.’

 Then I wouldn’t receive such mistreatment.

 I wouldn’t be pointed at as a half-breed.

 I would become Dragonia’s beloved youngest, no longer shameful or dishonorable.

 ……There was a time I believed that.

 ‘How foolish.’

 I sneered.

 The result of that foolish belief was only a painful life with a death sentence and a miserable death.

 I forgot.

 Dismissed it as a past life.

 Tried not to cling to a past life.

 But to have that cursed life replay as a nightmare again…

 The resentment and hatred I thought I had forgotten with time rose up from deep within me at that moment—

 [Quest Generated! <Avoid being framed for the theft of the ‘Divine Beast’s egg’>

 *Reward: Fragment of □□]

 When those pathetic letters appeared before my eyes.

 ‘……Quest?’

 I opened my mouth in momentary bewilderment.

 No, I haven’t entered a dungeon or anything, so why is a quest appearing here?

 ‘Well, what can you expect from a nightmare.’

 Realizing that, the emotions boiling inside subsided all at once and a hollow laugh came out. Now even having this kind of stupid dream…….

 As if displeased with me, Penelope’s expression twisted.

 “How dare you show such insolent……”

 “Superior?”

 I laughed mockingly.

 “You’re my superior? Haha!”

 It was ridiculous.

 Both me for getting emotionally worked up over a mere dream, and Penelope and the maids who rushed to torment me.

 ‘I’m sick of this.’

 You really just won’t get out of my life, will you.

 “This is really something else.”

 “Wh…… What did you say?”

 Perhaps because they were used to me always trembling in fear, Penelope hesitated for a moment and the maids’ eyes grew wide.

 I giggled at their reaction.

 “I said this bullshit is really something else.”

 “What did you just……”

 An enraged Penelope grabbed my shoulder and raised her hand. A hand rushing to slap my cheek.

 ‘Yes, that’s how it should be.’

 This is exactly what I was waiting for. The moment I raised my head.

 “……What’s this.”

 A languid young voice was heard.

 “Why is it so noisy?”

 That voice, neither too loud nor too soft, instantly froze Penelope’s grip.

 “Ta…… Taran?”

 A trembling voice of surprise. The strength instantly drained from Penelope’s hand that had been gripping me.

 At the same time, a beautiful young man with light blue-green hair walked out while yawning widely.