Chapter 4: I Want to Go to the Duke

The next day, after sleeping in late, I went down to the dining room just in time for lunch. Baron and Baroness Graham were already seated there.

They greeted me with smiles as bright as flowers, as if I were the most precious thing in the world.

Douglas Graham, who had sky-blue eyes just like Yuria, was the first to acknowledge me.

“Yuria, my daughter, come sit here!”

He seemed to be in high spirits. Joseph must have written a good ‘work report’ about me.

And there was Naomi Graham, the baroness, sitting across from me.

“Dear, come on over.”

‘Oh, my heart.’

The baroness, with her dark blonde hair and green eyes, had an elegant impression and a warm yet refreshing personality.

My heart couldn’t take it because she resembled my favorite actress. I sat down while sneaking glances at her, trying not to get caught.

‘It’s amazing every time I see her.’

Honestly, my mother, Baroness Naomi Graham, looks like Scarlett Johansson. She seems like she could wear a tight black suit and go ‘pow pow’ any moment.

‘I’m really a fan.’

I just want to call her ‘sister.’

To think that such a charming baroness is my mom!

Ah! I really like it, my cool sister!

‘Sister, sister, sister!’

I’ll just call her that in my head!

While I was timidly fangirling, the baroness’s green eyes sparkled as she looked down at me.

A warm, loving gaze. It was so different from that of my stepmother in Korea.

“Eat a lot.”

“Yes, Si… Mother.”

I almost called her sister.

At that moment, the maids came in with trays and started setting down new dishes.

‘Mother, I was going to eat a lot anyway.’

With dishes that seemed worthy of a five-star hotel being served one after another, how could I eat just a little?

Soft and savory white bread, creamy soup that went down smoothly. The cubed braised meat was sprinkled with pepper to stimulate the appetite… The chicken stew was so tender it disappeared as soon as it touched my tongue.

Despite my intention to eat elegantly, my spoon kept moving faster between the plate and my mouth.

The baron and baroness watched me with eyes dripping with honey.

“It’s nice to see our Yuria eating well these days, haha.”

“We used to worry when she wouldn’t eat, saying she needed to lose weight, and starved herself asking to marry the duke, but it’s a relief now.”

Both of them asked me simultaneously, as if they had planned it.

“Yuria, you won’t starve yourself anymore, right?”

“Of course not, Father, Mother. Why did I even do that?”

I smiled cutely like Yuria and popped the last piece of meat into my mouth.

Yuria, their late-blooming only daughter, had gone on a hunger strike for a week asking to marry Duke Xavier and fainted.

‘That’s when I came into this body.’

Before I possessed her, Yuria was 19 years old by Brillante Empire standards, but she was immature.

She only liked shopping and jewels, neglected her studies, and had to do things her own way. Everyone in the Pins region, where Baron Douglas was the lord, knew her, and her notoriety had spread to the capital.

She was called the little villainess.

Though she was short and looked cute, her personality was so nasty that she earned the nickname.

Perhaps because of her past, I was praised for eating well and speaking normally.

A life where you get praised even if you just play and eat!

I didn’t have to work myself to the bone with part-time jobs and substitute driving. Above all, this place, where I had kind parents who loved me, was heaven to me.

“But Yuria, how could you ruin the matchmaking like that?”

“Cough, cough.”

I choked on a piece of veal steak that had just been served. Mother glared at Father.

“Are you okay? Honey, why bring that up when she’s eating so well?”

“I-I’m sorry, Yuria. Are you alright?”

“Yes, yes. I’m fine.”

“Oh my, she’s not throwing a fit.”

“……”

Tears welled up in the bull-like big round eyes of Baron Douglas. He was truly a doting father and a kind man.

The baron and baroness never doubted that their ill-tempered and selfish daughter would change someday.

Even though I had caused a scene at the matchmaking, they sat side by side like a pair of golden retrievers, waiting for their daughter’s words.

They were incomparable to my parents from the other world, whether in character or financial capability.

‘The difference is so vast that they shouldn’t even be compared.’

When I had just entered middle school, I asked my stepmother for pocket money for the first time and got beaten badly with a shoehorn. Her sharp voice, screaming while wielding violence, still rings in my ears.

Having lived at the bottom of South Korea, a place teeming with capitalist monsters, starving for ‘money’ and ‘parental love,’ this life was another chance for me.

Unlike other transmigrator girls, I had no buffs, no abilities, and couldn’t command spirits, but I had ‘money in my bank account that I couldn’t spend in a lifetime and a father with much more money than that.’

When I first saw the hundreds of billions in pocket money in my account, I made a decision.

Yes, I’ll live and die here.

From now on, this is my home, this town is my hometown, and those people are my parents. I’ll eat well, play well, and live until I grow old and die, buried in this land.

‘Parental buffs are the best. God has given me a chance to eat well and live well!’

To seize this opportunity and live comfortably for the rest of my life, I must overcome this trial.

I dabbed my mouth with a napkin and looked at the blond baron and baroness sitting in their chairs.

“I have something to tell you both.”

As my voice gently filled the dining room, Father signaled the maids and servants to leave. Only my parents and I remained in the spacious dining room.

Father looked at me with a serious face.

“I’ll hear about the matchmaking later. What is it you want to say?”

“I’ll learn the trading business.”

“What?”

My parents’ eyes widened.

“Are you serious?”

“It’s true what you said before. I’m the only bloodline of the Graham family, so I’ll start learning.”

The baron’s eyes grew as big as saucers. His mouth stretched into a huge grin.

“Actually, I was surprised when I received Joseph’s report this morning. You organized the double-entry bookkeeping so well and even hired a water spiritist?”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t realize your abilities until now.”

“No, I was just immature. I seem to have come to my senses after collapsing.”

At my answer, the clear and kind eyes of the man in his late fifties softened. Mother also seemed touched.

However, what I was about to say was just the beginning. I clenched my fist.

“Instead, I’ll personally take the military supplies to the Bern Mountains where the war has broken out.”

The baroness’s shoulders shook as she gasped, and the baron stared blankly at my face, stammering.

“D-Don’t say such nonsense. You can just send the military supplies; why would a girl go to the battlefield?”

“That’s right, Yuria. It’s dangerous there.”

Who doesn’t know that? I don’t want to go either.

But above all, for my plan to succeed, I had to go alone with the baron’s permission.

I laid out the envelope of documents I had prepared in front of my parents. A small tower was built on the table.

Using my years of part-time job and office experience, I had neatly organized the trading company’s goods by category.

“You’ll understand when you see Joseph’s report and these materials. I didn’t bring this up lightly. I genuinely want to work in the trading business.”

The baron and baroness looked at me with wide eyes, then flipped through the documents I handed over.

“Of course, as Father said, there might not be any major problems if we just send the military supplies. But is it enough to just supply goods without knowing what’s really needed? I want to see the situation on the battlefield and check with my own eyes what they need.”

Father, frowning as he looked through the documents, spoke with difficulty.

“You’re not doing this because you can’t forget Duke Auguste, are you?”

I flinched. Although the reasons were different, the goal was the same, so it was half true.

The older Douglas Graham wanted to marry Yuria off and bring in a son-in-law within the year. According to imperial law, to pass on the territory and title, a daughter or son must be married. Besides, he probably felt sorry for his daughter, who even starved herself because she couldn’t forget Xavier.

But if I did nothing and got married as Father wished?

My parents and I would surely die at Xavier’s hands within a year. Moreover, if caught in the war, the people of Pins would also perish.

So, to ruin the matchmaking, I behaved rudely, using the duke as an excuse, just like Yuria did before.

Unable to answer readily, the baroness spoke kindly to me.

“Father is worried about you, so please understand.”

They probably thought I couldn’t forget my unrequited love. I expected to be scolded, but her warm words comforted me instead, piercing my heart more.

Still, if I want to live, I have to do what needs to be done. I decided to appeal emotionally.

“It’s true I haven’t completely forgotten the duke.”

At those words, Baron Graham’s shoulders flinched. Was he lamenting over his foolish daughter?

“But I can separate public from private matters, Father. This time, I’m not going to see the duke; I’m going to see the situation of the duke’s unit.”

According to the original story, if not now, there would be no more perfect opportunity for me. A chance to create a reason he couldn’t refuse my ‘introduction request.’

“So please let me go.”