I knew it would come to this.

“Oh my, too cute. Don’t you think?”

“Absolutely. Like a little angel sent from heaven!”

“Though he’s our son, I must say, he’s just so lovable. Shall we try on something else?”

“I’ll bring it immediately.”

The attendants at the boutique scurried to fetch every piece of boys’ clothing they had. The Marchioness Lindsay beamed with joy as she tried one outfit after another on her young son.

“Who does Cary get his good looks from to be this pretty!”

Cary, short for Carrian Lindsay, is the younger son of the Lindsay family and the only child born to the Marquis and the current Marchioness, a cherished latecomer.

Now six years old, Cary was the darling of the household, hogging all the affection. And so, I knew this would be the case.

“Charlotte, Charlotte! What do you think? Which outfit suits Cary the best?”

To the Marchioness’s question, I slowly rose from my chair and replied.

“They all suit him well.”

My spiritless response made the Marchioness’s eyebrows shoot up.

“Isn’t this your brother we’re talking about? Don’t you care?”

“Mother, wasn’t today supposed to be for me?”

Caught off guard, the Marchioness signaled a maid to bring over a handbag. From it, she pulled out a silk pouch and handed it to me.

“It seems you’re not interested in clothes, for some reason. Why don’t you look around other shops? If something catches your eye, buy it with this.”

The luxurious silk pouch was brimming with glittering gold coins. Talk about a windfall.

“I’ll stay and finish looking at Cary’s clothes.”

“Understood! I’ll remember that.”

“Don’t even think about straying from this street. I’ll send Sir George with you.”

One of the three knights who accompanied us for protection, a knight named George, stepped up to follow me.

“See you later then!”

Finally freed from the tedious task of watching someone else’s shopping spree, I stepped out energetically like I had a spring in my foot.

Hehehe, I chuckled to myself, tempted to splurge the money I had just received, but I had no intention of spending it. Every penny was destined for my emergency fund.

Of course, my top future plan is to live a cozy life in a villa with the courtesy of the Marquis’s family allowance. But I can’t be too naive and not prepare for the worst-case scenario.

‘If I end up like the original Charlotte in the story, thrown out with nothing, I’d be a beggar in no time.’

So, since the moment I found myself in Charlotte’s shoes, I’ve been squirreling away an emergency fund. It may sound easy, but it wasn’t easy at all.

Charlotte didn’t get pocket money; she would simply indulge in luxuries on credit and the Marquis’s household would settle the bills later.

Asking for money outright would just breed suspicion. They might think I was plotting some sinister scheme.

‘After all, Charlotte did bribe someone to sabotage Aila….’

She bribed Archduke’s residence’s maid to rip Aila’s dress which she was going to wear at her debutante ball.

As expected, the heroine Aila managed to outsmart her, securing an even more stunning dress and catching the culprit. The Marquis’s family was left with no choice but to apologize to Aila and the powerful Archduke Hyclide.

Because of that, I’ve had to secretly sell off Charlotte’s jewelry and clothes to scrape together some funds. It was a slow process, making sure it went unnoticed.

But after half a year of collecting bits and pieces, my purse had grown significantly. Even if I were to be cast out tomorrow, I’d have enough to survive for quite a while.

‘And after that, I’ll live off through business!’

Just so you know, the business is run by Aila. According to the novel, like many heroines in romance fantasy stories, she eventually makes a name for herself in business.

All I have to do is invest every last penny of my emergency fund, after setting aside just enough to live on, and then enjoy the substantial returns. With the protagonist’s buff and Cedric’s help, Aila’s bound to keep on winning, which means my dream of living off passive income for life isn’t too far-fetched.

It’s perfect. Truly a flawless life plan.

“Haaaaa…”

But then, a weary sigh from somewhere close by grated on my ears. It came from Sir George, trailing behind me.

He sighed over and over as if to make sure I heard, no – to make certain of it.

I ignored him and headed for a shop selling luxury goods. Not that I planned to spend any money, but I needed to at least pretend to shop.

“I’ll stay out here and keep watch,” George claimed.

Yet when I glanced outside after browsing for a bit, not a hair of his was in sight.

‘He’s blatantly skiving off.’

It’s clear he finds the task of escorting someone like me utterly distasteful.

The reason is obvious. Not only knights but even the common servants at the Lindsay household generally despise Charlotte.

Those who serve prestigious noble families often take pride in it. To them, a superior who tarnishes the family’s honor is anything but welcome.

And Charlotte? She would lash out at her subordinates at the drop of a hat. It would be more surprising if they actually liked her.

‘But it’s not just because of that.’

Are Charlotte’s poor manners and behavior unique among the nobility? Not all servants act like George does.

It all comes down to calculation. If the Marquis and Marchioness of Lindsay had to choose whom to trust between a troublemaker who had made trouble just yesterday and a knight who has served loyally for years, who would they believe?

If I were to go home and complain about George’s lack of diligence, there’s a 100% chance they’d see it as me picking on another servant for no good reason.

Ugh…

Charlotte’s reflection caught my eye in the shop window—a face that seemed resigned to its own gloom.

‘I can kind of see why Charlotte turned out the way she did.’

This wasn’t just a recent development. From the moment she entered the Lindsay household, Charlotte must have always been the unwanted guest.

A child brought in by the commoner-turned-Marchioness, without a drop of Lindsay blood in her veins, who, despite a rather unsavory temperament, had lucked into the status of nobility.

While the Marchioness, who had tended the house with wisdom and even bore Lindsay heirs, might be overlooked, Charlotte was never truly seen as their lady to serve.

I reckon she’s been on the receiving end of such blatant disregard for quite some time. That probably worsened her disposition over the years, and as she grew more vicious, the servants only despised and ignored her more…

It was a vicious cycle, through and through.

And then, if I sift through Charlotte’s sporadic memories, the servants were always polite in front of other family members. So, it seems Charlotte often suffered in silence alone.

I tried winding up a music box among the displayed goods. Listening to the quaint melody, I tried to lift the spirits that threatened to droop.

‘Well, what can I do?’

The servants’ rudeness was mildly irritating, but it wasn’t enough to disrupt life significantly. After all, there were a few who treated me decently enough.

‘Just let it go! It’s not like we’ll be in each other’s lives for long.’

Considering the Marquis Lindsay’s attitude I had seen in the morning, it seemed I wouldn’t be far off from being sent away to a country estate.

I left the shop, leaving the downcast store manager behind. He must have expected that the infamous Charlotte Lindsay would scatter money around.

Sorry, I’m pinching pennies for my emergency fund, too. I thought about buying the music box, but it was just too pricey. Honestly, it was a rip-off.

“What’s the matter, didn’t find anything to your liking today?”

George, who had been lingering outside, started a conversation, feigning as if he had diligently stayed in his spot the whole time.

“That’s how it turned out. Shopping’s done, so now it’s time to head back to Mother…”

Thump. Just then, as I moved in the opposite direction, my body lightly bumped into a passerby. It seemed like a common enough occurrence on a busy street, but…

‘Huh? This familiar feeling?’

It conjured up a memory from before I was possessed; sweating through part-time jobs, I’d saved up to travel abroad, only to get pickpocketed on the first day, leaving me penniless.

Instinctively, I checked my belongings and realized it. Gone. The silk pouch with my gold coins was gone.

“That bastard’s a thief! My pouch!”

Right then, a sound as if someone was clicking their tongue was heard and then the pickpocket who had been ahead started to sprint. He was too fast for my legs to catch up.

“George!”

“Yes, yes!”

George scrambled after the thief.

This crook picked the wrong target. No matter how fast his legs were, he was no match for a formally trained knight. He’d be caught soon—huh?

Suddenly, George veered and started running back towards me.

“Why aren’t you catching him?!”

“I’m sorry. I cannot fulfill that command.”

“Why not!”

“My most important duty is to escort the young lady. If I stray any further from you, I cannot perform my duty.”

“No, I’m fine, just go after him!”

“I apologize. Your safety is a hundred times more important than the money. We should return and report the theft to the guards.”

Since when did you care so much about my safety? Just earlier, you weren’t doing your job, just slacking off!

Oh no, my precious money, what do I do now? If I had known this would happen, I would have spent it all back at the store.

‘Wait, at that time, I was sure…’

A thread of suspicion flickered through my mind when—

“Aaaack!”

From somewhere, a cry as gut-wrenching as a death scream pierced the air.

Then, with a thud! a body dropped right in front of us, kicking up a cloud of dust from the ground.

“What the—?!”

I thought a fight had broken out nearby, but then I recognized the clothes of the fallen person—it was that pickpocket.

Thud, thud. The exaggeratedly loud footsteps followed, and through the swirling dust, a figure appeared.

Black helm, black armor, black cloak, and finally, a sword in a black scabbard. He was clad entirely in black.

In this bustling area, not a battlefield, the man fully outfitted for war attracted all the stares, marching up to me.

“W-Who are you?!”

Ignoring George, who belatedly reacted to him, he extended a hand towards me.

“…Yours.”

Resting atop his black gauntlet was my lost silk purse.

Despite his daunting appearance, his voice was unexpectedly youthful. With a thought that felt out of place in the situation, I looked up at Lord Mont, the man before me.