Even if the sky were to fall,
There’s always a way out.
It was a few days after returning from the Central Library. Seraphie spent two days bedridden, exhausted from her outing. For the first time, she worried that she might have some chronic illness.
“Am I terminally ill?”
She asked, swallowing tears of frustration.
“No, you’re not!”
Fortunately, the visiting doctor was startled and quickly denied it. He explained that Seraphie’s body was simply in a state of extreme physical weakness and scolded her for even thinking such a thing. However, he did praise her for going outside.
Apparently, it had been three years since Seraphie had last left the mansion.
“Move around as much as you can without overexerting yourself. Building up your stamina is most important.”
With her current physical condition, everything seemed like overexertion to Seraphie, or so she thought.
Barely recovering from the muscle pain, Seraphie prepared for another outing. Unfortunately, today’s plans would also strain her body. But she had to go out.
“Milady.”
A servant knocked on the door.
“The carriage has arrived.”
Hearing that the carriage she had pre-ordered was ready, Seraphie glanced at the newspaper on the table.
The finances of the Count’s estate were, to put it mildly, not good. Taxes collected from the estate were spent on Count Vallidus’s drinking and entertainment, with the leftovers barely maintaining the household. Thus, receiving the daily newspaper was somewhat of a luxury. Still, it was an indispensable source of information, and Seraphie always carefully read through it.
The Magic Tower caught fire.
There had been a fire at the Magic Tower, which had taken all night to extinguish. Fortunately, there were no casualties, and the cause was reported to be an experiment conducted by Lady Peonia Felicia.
A fire, huh.
With a light touch of her fingers on the newspaper, Seraphie left her room.
“Milady.”
The butler, who was to accompany her on the outing, was waiting at the entrance. Seraphie took his hand. Being escorted made her feel like a real noble for the first time since arriving in this world. She felt unexpectedly cheerful. However, the butler’s expression was filled with unease.
“Are you sure you want to go out?” He was worried about Seraphie leaving the mansion for various reasons.
“The doctor did say I should move around more.”
“The garden should suffice for that…”
“That gloomy place would be a blow to my mental health,” Seraphie spoke in a refined manner. To put it more bluntly, the garden, untended by gardeners, was filled with rotting and withered plants that looked as if they could come alive and kill someone.
In the Ortus Empire, where flowers and plants were beloved, a poorly maintained garden was nothing but a disgrace.
“But…”
Recently, the butler had been surprised every day. After Seraphie was hit on the head with the bottle by the count, she had completely changed. It was as if she had forgotten her past of being timid and confined to her room like a mouse. She even dared to go out alone and defied the violent count.
Everyone was shocked at that time. The butler, who had witnessed it, had nearly fainted. But Seraphie had remained calm. Occasionally, she would mutter things like, ‘Maybe I should slip a sleeping pill into his drink,’ or ‘The garden is big enough for a secret burial….’
“Hurry up, we don’t have much time.”
“Pardon?”
“I mean, let’s go.”
And sometimes, she would even speak politely to the servants like that.
In any case, the butler had no choice. The two of them boarded the carriage. As it started moving, Seraphie hummed a tune while gazing out the window.
What on earth is going on…? The Seraphie that butler knew wasn’t someone who would show her feelings in front of others like this.
Going out with his now seemingly transformed young lady felt awkward. But the butler hid his discomfort as best he could. After all, he was still the butler of a noble family.
“Butler.”
“Yes, Milady.”
“Where can I buy lottery tickets?”
“…Pardon?”
“I also want to do some horse betting today.”
“Yes?” The startled butler nearly jumped out of his seat.
Seraphie gave him a meaningful look. “Fufu, look at this.”
Seraphie pulled something out of her pocket. She proudly showed the butler a pouch full of money. It was heavy enough that her arm trembled as she held it up.
“W-Where did you get that money?”
“From my father’s pocket.”
She had sneaked into the count’s room like a butterfly and swiftly stolen it like a bee while he slept off his morning’s drinking.
The butler was horrified. “Master will be furious when he wakes up!”
To which Seraphie gave an unexpected reply. “I gave him sleeping pills.”
“…What?”
“I slipped him some sleeping pills with the head maid earlier. Don’t worry. I even made sure to gently rub his throat so he wouldn’t choke on the pill.”
With the combination of the pill and alcohol, Seraphie assured the butler that the count wouldn’t wake up for the rest of the day.
“By the way, can I actually bet on horses?”
The butler felt as if the world was spinning. However, the carriage continued to roll smoothly, oblivious to his inner turmoil.
* * *
In the capital of the empire, there was only one place where lottery tickets were sold. When Seraphie stepped out there, she immediately drew the attention of passersby.
“How do I buy the lottery?”
“Are you really going to do this?” The butler swallowed a sigh and asked again. He had already told her multiple times in the carriage not to buy a lottery ticket, but Seraphie had ignored him.
“Do I just write here?”
With the butler silent, Seraphie began marking numbers on the paper by herself.
Lottery is just a lottery. The lottery was identical to the draw-style lotteries that were popular in her original world. Seraphie filled out ten tickets with the same sequence of numbers.
The butler was on the verge of fainting upon seeing this. He wanted nothing more than to throw Seraphie back into the carriage and return to the mansion. His face had been burning with shame ever since Seraphie first mentioned the word ‘lottery.’
A noble buying a lottery ticket? It was a disgraceful act.
Lottery tickets were for poor commoners who dreamed of a miraculous windfall, not for the daughter of a count. Even if the count’s family was short on money, it was disgraceful for the count’s daughter to be buying lottery tickets in the street.
At least Seraphie had the good sense to cover her face with a wide-brimmed bonnet. Still, her light blue hair peeking out from under the bonnet bothered him. In fact, a few nobles passing by the lottery booth had already stopped to watch.
“Butler, I’m done.”
Just then, Seraphie called out to the butler. He quickly paid for the tickets before more attention could be drawn to them. The lottery tickets, now officially stamped and punched with several small holes, were handed over.
“Good grief.”
Pulled half against her will into the carriage by the butler, Seraphie frowned. But looking at the tickets in her hand cheered her up again.
“Why did you buy lottery tickets?”
“Because I need money.”
“But why the lottery…?”
The question of why she would waste money on such nonsense, especially when they were already struggling, hung in the air. But the butler, mustering his last bit of loyalty, held his tongue. Seraphie, on the other hand, simply smiled as if she were unaware of his inner turmoil.
“The lottery is a one-shot deal.”
The butler despaired. It seemed that when Seraphie had injured her head, she had developed a taste for gambling. His heart sank, fearing she was following in the footsteps of Count Vallidus.
Their next stop was the racetrack. It was the same story here. After briefly checking the information on the horses, Seraphie proceeded to bet all the money she had, placing it on the two most unlikely win bets. The worst bet was predicting 1st and 2nd place in exact order. The even worse bet predicting 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in exact order.
“Milady.” The butler clutched his neck.
Seraphie held the betting slips.
“The odds are way too high!” The butler finally raised his voice, though it was still calm and composed to everyone else. “High odds mean not many people are betting on these horses. And apparently, this horse has been performing poorly lately.”
If she was going to bet, she should have bet on the ones with a better chance of winning. But Seraphie chose the ones with sky-high odds and wagered all her money. Her money pouch was now nearly empty. The butler’s face was also drained of color.
I’m sorry… Seraphie felt a pang of guilt. But I don’t have a choice.
In the original novel, the first sentence of the prologue was about the lottery and horse racing.
That day…
Seraphie recalled the first sentence that stood out so vividly in her memory.
That day, luck was peculiar.
A series of numbers, considered unlucky, recorded as the highest lottery winnings in history, and in horse racing, the rainbow-colored underdogs, expected to come last, consecutively took the top spots.
But for Lady Peonia Felicia, it was a day of misfortune.
Seraphie thought of the newspaper article she had read that morning. The front-page story was about the fire at the Magic Tower. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but since the cause was linked to a prominent figure, it was given prominent coverage.
The cause of the fire was an experiment by Lady Peonia Felicia. The novel’s prologue begins with stories about the lottery and horse racing to indirectly foreshadow the impending downfall of the villainess, Peonia.
She wasn’t really a villainess, though.
But what did that matter now? Thanks to it, Seraphie could get her hands on some money much sooner than expected.
Though I’m not entirely sure.
Would things proceed according to the original story? That was Seraphie’s biggest worry. Although she acted confident in front of the butler, she was just as anxious. If something went wrong here, secretly burying Count Vallidus might turn out to be the quickest and most efficient solution.
That was something she absolutely could not let happen. Her goal was to return to her original world by legally becoming a scoundrel. That was Seraphie’s plan.
Puuuuu—! Lost in thought, Seraphie was jolted back to reality by the starting signal for the horse race.
In the general seating area, commoners huddled together in tight spaces, while the nobles gathered in relatively spacious sections on the opposite side. The atmosphere differed by section. The commoners in general seating were desperate, as if their lives depended on winning money, while the nobles laughed and watched the horses with a sense of camaraderie.
Naturally, Seraphie and the butler stood in a corner of the general seating area, overlooking the racetrack. Soon, the race began. Amidst the loud cheers, the experienced jockeys urged their horses forward.
“Butler.”
Blue, navy, and purple.
“Do you have a favorite suit brand?”
The three horses, trailing at the back, suddenly surged forward at the corner.
“Cuffs, ties, shoes—anything at all.”
The purple horse crossed the finish line first. The navy and blue horses followed closely behind.
The butler’s eyes widened in shock as he looked at the race results. His already graying hair seemed to turn even whiter.
Seraphie flashed a triumphant smile at the butler, though her heart was pounding like it had just survived a near-death experience. “I’ll buy you everything.”
