I Thought It Was a Common Transmigration

‘This is my last chance. If this incident goes wrong, I…’

 

One day in the fourth year of her marriage to Cliff. Even though Lise felt like she was going crazy, she had been waiting for this day. The final episode of the original, where Lise wins the favor of her imperial family, the day on which that episode takes place.

 

“Where are you going?”

 

“Didn’t you decide not to care where I go?”

 

She was also sick of Cliff’s expressionless face and his mechanically asking questions. He seemed to only fulfill the few obligations left for him in the prenuptial agreement. As if to erase the dry look on Cliff’s face, Lise closed the carriage door and ordered departure.

 

‘A month before the founding of the nation, a slave auction house outside the capital…’

 

In the original story, Lise tried to give a gift to the Duke and his wife to celebrate the founding of the nation, but mistakenly thinks it was a store and ends up at a slave auction house, where she finds the missing bloodline of the imperial family. Of course, she didn’t go there knowingly. She just impulsively brought him here because she felt sorry for the boy who seemed to have a strong self-esteem and was being treated harshly. Although the boy says he couldn’t remember his past, he was surprisingly smart and knowledgeable about aristocratic etiquette. Lise was so impressed by such a boy that she hired him as her errand boy, but Princess Catherine, who comes to visit his mansion, was surprised to see the boy.

 

‘The fact that the emperor’s nephew was kidnapped was a top secret.’

 

Catherine, who recognizes her cousin at a glance, invites Lise and the boy to the palace together, and the boy’s biological mother, whom Catherine called in advance, has a touching reunion with her lost son on the spot. The ending of the original story was that Lise, who found the lost bloodline of the imperial family, immediately gained the royal family’s favor, and that she lived happily ever after with Cliff.

 

‘I don’t want to lose any more. I must succeed this time.’

 

Even though the weather was still hot, Lise’s shoulders trembled. When she thought about all the things she had lost over the past few years, she felt like she wouldn’t feel better even if she killed Edith. It was only after completely losing the affection of the Duke and his wife, which she thought she no longer needed, that she realized how warm and comfortable it was, and the love of Cliff, which she thought was boring, could not be replaced by anyone else’s love. There were many men who confessed their love to Lise, but they all coveted Lise’s appearance and her position as ‘Duchess Ludwig.’ The more Lise heard other people’s confessions of love, the more empty her heart became.

 

‘If I win the royal family’s favor, everyone will love me again. It has to be like that.’

 

Lise headed to the outskirts of the capital, squeezing her hand, which was shaking slightly with anxiety. She then put on the hooded cloak she had prepared in advance, covered her face with a fan, and waited for the boy’s turn at the slave auction house she entered. Even though it had happened several times in her life as Lise, she was nervous as if it was the first time.

 

‘It’s the last auction. Will he show up this time?’

 

Lise held her bidding board tightly in her hand and never took her eyes off her stage.

 

“Now, the last auction of the day! This time it’s a rare handsome boy! I’m thirteen! I have never seen such a pretty guy in my 15 years of slave auctioneering!”

 

The comment from the man conducting the auction was the same as the original. However, Lise’s hands, which were in a hurry to raise the bidding board, became stiff.

 

‘W-what!’

 

The boy who came on stage was just like the original, a handsome boy with white skin and dazzling blonde hair. However, he was a different child from the Emperor’s nephew. Even at a young age, he was not a boy with his head held high and his teeth clenched out of pride, but a boy standing there trembling with fear and looking anxiously at his surroundings.

 

Lise suddenly relaxed.

 

‘The original… There is nothing left anywhere.’

 

She felt like her life was over.

 

‘Are you going to grow old like this, a mere Duchess who can’t even be loved by her husband?’

 

That was terrible. Wasn’t this the life of an extra whose name would not be mentioned in a novel? Just as Lise was about to panic, she suddenly heard the auctioneer’s voice.

 

“5 million senas! It reached 5 million senas! Hehe, if it has this much beauty, it must have a lot of uses. Isn’t there anyone who would be more considerate?”

 

At the word ‘use,’ a plan quickly flashed through Lise’s mind. And Lise hurriedly lifted up the bidding board.

 

“8 million senas has arrived! 8 million! Are there any more?”

 

Funnily enough, like the original work that no longer survives, Lise was able to win the bid for the boy for 8 million senas.

 

* * *

 

“Name is?”

 

“It was called Peril, master.”

 

“No, from now on your name is John.”

 

“Yo, yo, John?”

 

Lise frowned at the boy who kept staring and stuttering.

 

“Yes, John. Change your stuttering habit quickly.”

 

“Sorry.”

 

“And you don’t remember anything before last year. Do you understand? You only remember your name, John.”

 

Peril, no, the boy who was now John, widened his eyes at the sudden request.

 

“No matter what anyone asks, say you don’t remember anything. It’s not difficult, right?”

 

“Yes, that… I will do it this way.”

 

“Good. Then, starting tomorrow, I will give you a teacher so you can learn noble etiquette and speaking style. Even the smallest action must be perfect, giving off a hint of nobility.”

 

John seemed unsure, but Lise knew well that when humans were pushed to their limits, they could do anything. If you think about what the last 12 Ediths did until the end. 

 

Lise called her servant and told her to wash the child well, giving her a secret command.

 

“Put a sleeping pill in the child’s dinner. And while he’s asleep, tattoo a butterfly on his collarbone.”

 

The red butterfly-shaped mole on his collarbone was conclusive evidence that he was the Emperor’s nephew. It had already been five years since the child had been kidnapped, so if there were so many similarities to the lost child, the Emperor or the child’s biological family would have been fooled.

 

‘Okay, if the original work doesn’t help, I can pioneer it myself.’

 

From that day on, Lise managed John’s every move and thoroughly transformed him into the ‘Emperor’s lost nephew.’ Because of that, she got into a big fight with Cliff again.

 

“What are you planning to do this time by buying slaves?”

 

“I need an errand boy for me.”

 

“Why would you need an errand boy? The maids do everything.”

 

“What do you know?”

 

“Is it because you’re still young and don’t know what kind of backstory will come out if you let a pretty boy be your starter?”

 

“Just take care of yourself!”

 

After that big fight, she locked the door. Although she was irritated and angry, Lise worked hard to regain her senses. She couldn’t afford to be angry like this.

 

‘I have to strike first before Edith comes to the capital.’

 

To celebrate the National Foundation Day, Killian and Edith were planning to come to the capital with their child. Before that, she had to regain her place as the protagonist.

 

* * *

 

“It’s been a while, Lise.”

 

“Thank you for having me, Your Majesty.”

 

Lise politely greeted Catherine, who had invited her to the palace for the first time in a long time. Catherine, who used to send invitations every single day, also stopped looking for her after some time. However, perhaps because she was better at managing her connections outside of Duke Ludwig’s household than inside, Catherine welcomed Lise without much difference from before. She then turned her gaze to Lise’s assistant, just as Lise intended.

 

“Who is he?”

 

“Ah, this is the child I am taking with me as my errand-boy. I took him because I felt sorry for him, but surprisingly, he knew noble etiquette well and was very smart.”

 

“Okay?”

 

Catherine frowned as she looked closely at the neatly dressed boy. Then she suddenly got up and walked in front of the boy.

 

“What’s your name?”

 

“My name is John.”

 

“John?”

 

Catherine’s expression became more serious after hearing his name. At that time, Lise came forward.

 

“Princess, is there a problem? I rescued this child from a slave auction, and unfortunately he doesn’t remember much of his past.”

 

“No, slave? Oh my god…!”

 

“He just remembered a few things, John, but what were they?”

 

John answered Lise’s question by bowing his head.

 

“When I was young… I remember living in a very large and nice house. I don’t know what I was doing in that house. I remember that the house had something like a rug with the sun in the middle hanging on the wall.”

 

“And?”

 

Catherine asked, even her hands shaking.

 

“I remember that a beautiful person with the same hair color as me called me “John,” and that I had a dog with black spots on a white background at the time, and that the dog’s name was Othello.”

 

Catherine was now pale, as if she were about to faint, and hurriedly called her maid and ordered her to come.

 

“Sierra, get my aunt here! Hurry! Tell her I think I’ve found John!”

 

Her maid busied herself with Catherine’s hasty orders, and Lise looked at Catherine with a bewildered expression.

 

“Highness…? Suddenly, what is this…”

 

“Lise! Where did you find this kid?”

 

“A slave auction house outside the capital. I entered the store after mistaking it… By the way, why are you doing this?”

 

Catherine held Lise’s hands tightly and her eyes filled with tears.

 

“You saved John.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“I guess this kid looks like my cousin John, who I lost five years ago.”

 

“Yes?”

 

Lise pretended to be surprised and opened her eyes wide. But part of her heart was thankful to heaven.

 

‘It’s okay! It’s rewarding to have pleased Catherine.’

 

It felt like all the pain she had gone through was compensated all at once. A moment later, Catherine’s door burst open without knocking, and a woman who looked devastated came running in. Behind her, the Emperor and the Marquis of Theroux, the Emperor’s younger brother and the woman’s husband, followed.

 

“John!”

 

As soon as the woman ran into the room and saw the boy, she stood tall and slowly walked in front of the boy and knelt down on her knees. She then studied the boy’s face as if she was trying to find something. Her face was already covered in tears.

 

“John. Do you recognize who I am?”

 

The boy glanced at Lise and then shook his head awkwardly.

 

“He says he doesn’t remember the past very well. But he remembered the tapestry hanging in the writer’s room and the dog Othello that he had raised as a child. It’s something that anyone but John would ever remember.”

 

Catherine’s explanation made the woman shed tears again.

 

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Translator Note:

Last week of this novel. Edith is comming soon!!