Chapter 2

Doha knew well who he was.

The second son of the Kredel family, Salvador Kredel.

Looking at his face, a certain memory briefly crossed her mind.

– Hey, you scoundrel.

– Try mimicking Ophelia like that one more time.

– You touched Ophelia’s belongings again. I’ll tear you apart!

Salvador, as seen in Bunny’s memories, glared at Doha with the same expression. His blue eyes were burning with an intense gaze, almost appearing pitch black.

For a timid child, his imposing demeanor would be enough to make them kneel in fear.

However, Doha, without batting an eye, nonchalantly retorted, “What did I steal?”

“Well, even imitating Ophelia has become a decent act now.”

Salvador let out a dry laugh, sneering low as if he were playing with her.

“Who else besides you would dare touch Ophelia’s brooch?”

Brooch? Did Bunny steal a brooch?

Doha quickly sifted through Bunny’s memories, but she soon shook her head.

“I didn’t steal anything.”

“Oh, really?”

Salvador lowered his head with a tone that showed he didn’t believe her at all, chuckling mockingly.

And then, he abruptly stopped laughing.

Lifting his head again, he muttered in a low, sardonic voice, as if growling, “Hey, didn’t you hear me say I’ll tear you apart with your earlobe?”

With one hand gripping the nape and the other clutching the hilt of a sword, he gradually tightened the noose like a predatory beast, chewing and spitting out each word as if closing the net.

“Just one day. Just one day, that’s all I’ll give you.”

“…”

“Listen obediently before I engrave the slave’s mark on your neck.”

Salvador tossed Doha aside.

As she tried to get up, he added, stomping on her shoulders with his boot, “Do you know what I’ll do if I have to do it?”

It was the final warning.

His blue gaze, looking down at her, was filled with disgust and contempt.

* * *

Doha belatedly realized what Salvador was talking about regarding the brooch.

It was the brooch he always carried with him, the one he holds dear.

‘I heard that he personally handed it to him before Ophelia left.’

How precious it must have been.

She remembered how he cherished the brooch as if it were a clone of his younger sister before she left.

Of course, one might wonder, ‘How could she possibly steal something he keeps close to him?’

‘In fact, it’s suspicious enough to be suspected.’

Bunny’s theft was of a decent level.

In her hometown, the garbage dump, she received praise for her devilish talent.

‘Not something to be proud of, though.’

She had even infiltrated what was known as the “secret passage of the main palace, known only to the direct relatives,” sneaking into Ophelia’s room.

At that time, Bunny was merely eight years old.

At the tender age of eight, she managed to bypass the security of the Ducal House.

They say if the tail is long, it will be stepped on. She repeatedly entered rooms, stealing items until she was eventually caught.

‘Moreover, the brooch is the only thing trapped Bunny can steal from Ophelia.’

Salvador always circled around Bunny, monitoring her like a vigilant prison guard.

It had been that way for a very long time.

Therefore, when the nimble-handed Bunny managed to steal the brooch from him, one might think it was during a moment when Salvador wasn’t paying attention.

‘The real culprit… is someone who understands the relationship between Bunny and Salvador well.’

Perhaps one of them.

‘I need to see exactly who it is.’

From a very young age, Doha had accepted that she was nothing more than a tool.

Unlike Bunny, she never harbored the futile desire to become a real family, coveting the position of the youngest miss.

She acted without ever offending the Park family’s sensibilities, always thoroughly adapting to their tastes.

Thanks to that, aside from playing the role of the youngest miss or serving as an exclamation, she lived doing what she wanted.

That was when she learned Chinese physiognomy and fortune-telling.

Doha’s mentor and spiritual guide during that time was an elderly fortune-teller.

– Doha, physiognomy is not just some street fortune-telling. It’s a statistical and deeply rooted discipline. It used to be one of the subjects in the civil service exams during the Joseon Dynasty, along with traditional medicine.

– But it’s not the Joseon Dynasty now.

– No matter how much the world changes, there is something that does not change, tsk tsk.

Grandmother said the roots of physiognomy lay in the universe and energy.

She explained that in a dimension completely different from Earth, there is spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

There will be a sun, a moon, and planets forming the five elements.

This means that the universe, which makes up this world, endlessly circulates and creates all things, much like the Earth.

Each person is their own universe.

The birth and death of humans are similar to the cyclical nature of the universe.

So, as Grandmother said,

– No matter how much the world changes, even if it’s in a different dimension, the principles of the universe remain the same.

Physiognomy was no exception.

The arrangement of energies engraved in the human body is revealed on the face, and reading this is called physiognomy.

What appears in physiognomy also appears in Chinese physiognomy, and what appears in Chinese physiognomy also appears in physiognomy.

Therefore, what Doha has learned so far may not be meaningless.

Tick-tock.

At that moment, the sound of keys jingling and the turning of the lock echoed.

‘He’s here.’

Doha, who was lying on the floor replenishing her strength, jumped to her feet.

Dirty dishes, whose last washing was unknown, were brought in through the slightly opened door, clanging everywhere.

‘I wonder if this time they are just leaving the dishes behind?’

It couldn’t be that simple.

While the opponent was off guard, Doha slipped through the gap in the door and entered.

Then, with all her might, she charged like a bull.

“Ah!”

The maid in a servant’s dress rolled on the floor.

The dish she held flew through the air and landed with a thud on her brown hair.

Simultaneously, the pungent, sticky soup wafted through the air, completely covering the tempting hair.

“You… are you crazy?”

With Doha’s sudden actions, other maids were also startled and screamed.

“Oh my, Melissa. Are you okay?”

“Does this seem okay to you?”

Melissa, the servant addressed as such, shot back with a snap.

She forcefully threw the dish to the floor, took a deep breath with a gruff sound, then, after calming down, wiped her face with a handkerchief and sharply exclaimed,

“You’re like a crazy demon. I told you to stay put!”

‘The maids dedicated to Ophelia.’

The maids surrounding Doha now were the closest aides who had guarded the side of the ‘real Ophelia.’ Except for the ghosts buried in the Kredel family and the heads of each department, these were the servants who knew that Bunny was a fake.

Other servants had been rotated to maintain the secret.

Because there was a risk of Bunny’s existence being revealed to the world.

‘Even knights and wizards who couldn’t be fired are living in the castle, having sworn a vow of silence.’

But the three maids who Ophelia cherished the most were not forced to leave even without taking the vow of silence.

‘Kredel Duke did not send them away for Ophelia’s return.’

He left everything as it was to make sure the Grand Duchy didn’t feel unfamiliar.

It couldn’t be anything other than extreme daughterly love.

‘Thanks to that, Bunny received all sorts of disdain and persecution from those maids.’

Their subtle disdain and subtle torment became more overt when Bunny was cast out of Kredel’s sight.

And now, trapped in the tower, they reached the point where they didn’t care whose eyes they were under.

“Do you still not understand your position?”

That’s when it happened.

The handkerchief Melissa threw hit Doha’s cheek and fell to the floor with a thud.

“….”

Doha stood still without a reaction, then slowly wiped her sticky cheek with her fingers and looked up.

And she carefully observed them.

With a gaze that saw through all life and death.

“Well, what is it?”

Melissa, momentarily subdued by Doha’s sudden change in demeanor, hesitated for a moment, but soon raised her eyebrows fiercely with a reddened face.

It was embarrassing to flinch in front of a child.

“If it weren’t for us, you’d be starving to death by now. You don’t even know how grateful you should be, acting all arrogant.”

Indeed, the maids took care of Bunny’s meals.

It was a soup made with a rag and dirty water.

It was only natural for Bunny, who was already lacking in nutrition, to become even skinnier as the days passed.

“Surely you won’t throw a tantrum about the food? It should be a much fancier cuisine than what you had in your hometown.”

Melissa and the maid standing next to her chuckled, patting each other’s shoulders as if they had just made a great joke.

“We’ve poured our hearts into making the soup, so what should we do now, Sara?”

“What can we do? Starve.”

“You reap what you sow. Don’t feel sorry for her.”

Sara, who had been emitting a malicious laugh, pointed at Doha’s spine with her finger.

“But tomorrow, I won’t just give it to you. If you want to eat, try begging, the thing you’re best at.”

Doha stared at Sara’s face, shaking violently as Sara prodded her with her finger.

At the same time, an eerie feeling of an unknown identity passed through her entire body.

Sara shivered for a moment, then folded her fingers and frowned with a puzzled expression.

“What’s with that creepy look you’ve had since earlier? Do you want to try something with me?”

It was when Sara approached her threateningly.

“Stop it.”

A maid hid Doha behind her.

“Emma, who are you protecting?”

Emma, looking frightened but speaking with a steady rhythm, said,

“I-I mean, what if Bunny tries to escape like this?”

“Run away to avoid Kredel’s pursuit? Ridiculous.”

Melissa chuckled.

“But you never know. Bunny is an essential child for our young lady. If something big happens to Bunny, and, considering how weak our young lady is, if she is affected by the curse…”

Emma spoke with a muffled voice at the end.

Upon hearing that, Melissa sighed with a somewhat deflated expression.

While reluctantly agreeing with the other two maids and trying to mediate when they were about to go too far, Emma met Doha’s gaze with a sad expression and secretly pursed her lips.

‘Sorry I couldn’t help you.’

It seemed like they were saying that.

Doha was trapped again.

“Hmm….”

However, the original purpose had already been accomplished.

Since she had thoroughly observed the fortunes of all the maids.

“…It’s you.”