CHAPTER 28: OFFER

The village forester thought he had misheard.

"You... You want to make me an aristocrat?"

As soon as Enoch arrived at my estate, I tried to give him a warm welcome. The man was served a cup of strong tea and invited into my office. An ordinary commoner did not expect to be treated so kindly.

Fidgeting nervously in his chair, Enoch was only interested in the question of where his daughter was. I briefly told him what had happened to Angela.

"...when I was returning from a walk, I accidentally saw your daughter lost in the city. Poor little thing... My heart couldn’t take it, so I decided to bring her here. I hope you’re not angry with me for that?"

"O-of course not...! Thank you so much for taking care of my daughter!!!"

The forester felt guilty that his carelessness had led to such a mistake. A little longer, and he could have lost his only daughter forever. But fortunately, a kind lady from the Weinstein family was nearby.

"While I was here, I tried to create all the necessary conditions for Angela. But I didn’t expect an accident to happen and for her to fall down the stairs... I’m so sorry!"

When Enoch learned that his daughter was unconscious at that very moment, he almost had a heart attack. I informed him in time that she was all right.

"Please don’t worry. The doctor said it’s nothing serious."

"Really?"

"Yes. You’ll be able to talk to her tomorrow morning."

After hearing this news, the forester felt much better. I even showed him the girl sleeping peacefully in my room. That finally calmed him down. We returned to my office, where I was going to continue our important conversation.

"I understand that my apologies don’t make up for much... So I want to offer you my help."

"What?" the man asked in surprise.

"Have you ever thought about improving your status in society?"

The forester stared at me in bewilderment. And as soon as I revealed the full meaning of my proposal, he was completely shocked.

"Y-you... You want to make me an aristocrat?"

I smiled.

"Exactly."

While Enoch struggled to digest my words, I eagerly awaited his response. Either way, I was going to see this through to the end. The forester’s fate was already in my hands.

It so happened that the heroine’s adoptive father had to die in eight years. This is where the main plot begins and Angela’s path of revenge against the Weinstein family starts. The life of the daughter of an ordinary village forester will forever be divided into "before" and "after."

Without this "start," the game would become meaningless. Romantic interests should help the heroine uncover the crime and the death of her father. In other words, the main villain is simply necessary here.

And here the question arose.

Since I decided to spare the Weinstein family and the original antagonist, Rubella, from this fate, I needed a backup plan. Eight years later, I was going to arrange Enoch’s death myself and frame someone else for it. Someone who would agree to play this role for a fee. The heroine would take revenge on this person.

This way, the main plot of the game would remain intact. The heroine would defeat the villain and live happily ever after with one of her love interests. The Weinstein family would also remain unaffected. Wouldn’t that be a win-win ending for everyone?

And to achieve it, the sacrifice of one person didn’t seem like such a big deal. Unfortunately, Enoch is forced to be a pawn one way or another. In the original scenario of the game. However, it’s good that now it will be in my hands. At least I wasn’t so ungrateful.

In gratitude for the fact that this man would save us all with his life, I was going to give him a nice gift. Eight years of life as an aristocrat sounded pretty good. Before Enoch died, he would live a dignified life.

Since that was how things turned out, I had no choice but to do it.

"Are you serious...?? Why would you do that??"

However, in the eyes of the forester, who was completely ignorant of these matters, I was an extremely strange woman. Anyone would think that I was simply trying to deceive the poor commoner in order to sell him on the black market. My main task was to dispel his doubts.

"It’s all because of your daughter," I explained briefly.

The man was stunned.

"Angela...? What does she have to do with it?"

"I already told you that..."

"N-no, don’t!" Realizing what I was talking about, Enoch waved his hands frantically. "I don’t need any compensation! It’s enough for me that my daughter is fine now."

It was obvious that he didn’t trust such a dubious offer. Well, I understood him perfectly.

"It’s not just about compensation."

"What?"

"I... Ahem... I think Angela is a very gifted child," I quickly realized. "That’s why I would like to invest in her future."

"Gifted? What are you talking about?"

"Her appearance and all her talents," this time I didn’t even lie. "In the future, she has every chance of becoming an excellent socialite." It would be a shame if such a natural talent went to waste.

Enoch sat in front of me with his mouth open. Fortunately, the commoner was too naive to draw any serious conclusions.

"I don’t understand..." he said uncertainly, "The world is full of talented children. Why do you need my daughter in particular...?"

"There may be many talented children," I agreed, "but I assure you, there is only one like Angela."

"......"

A minute of silence, during which the forester thought. Perhaps at that moment, he was faced with one of the most difficult choices in his life.

"Should I trust this unfamiliar lady who guarantees a bright future for my child?"

For the forester, who had no other family members left, his adopted daughter was everything. He couldn’t entrust her fate to just anyone. And yet... This young aristocrat didn’t seem hostile.

Enoch looked at me closely once more.

"All right..." he finally said hoarsely, "What are your terms?"

I smiled contentedly.

"I assure you. Today you have made the best decision of your life."

***

Towards evening, I felt like I was about to collapse from exhaustion. We had been talking to the heroine’s father in his office for several hours. Finally, we came to a mutual decision.

So far, everything was going exactly as I wanted.

Enoch and Angela would stay at my estate for a while. It would probably take a couple of days for Edison to finish sorting out the paperwork. Enoch’s new identity as an aristocrat would be ready very soon.

For the time being, we would have to squeeze into one house. Fortunately, there were more than enough spare rooms.

Due to her injury, Angela stayed in my room for the night. Of course, it would be silly to move her somewhere else so late at night. So today I decided to rest somewhere else. After that night, Ruby and I started a tradition of sometimes falling asleep together.

I didn’t see anything wrong with it — we are aunt and niece, after all. Besides, while Ruby is still little, I should give her as much of my attention as possible. The girl should remember that she always has a family she can rely on.

I didn’t knock on the door, thinking that Rubiella was already asleep. After all, it was quite late.

But...

"I don’t want to! Don’t do it!!!"

I quietly walked into the room and saw that the girl was again tormented by nightmares. It seemed like she had the same dream every night.

I sighed heavily.

"It hurts!"

At times like this, it was extremely difficult to wake Ruby up. So I lay down next to her and just waited for her to calm down on her own. I gently took her hand in mine.

"Ruby, it’s okay... Auntie is here."

Gradually, the girl’s breathing began to even out.

Ruby was a perfectly normal child for her age. However... Sometimes, certain oddities in her behavior made me nervous. The girl was afraid of strangers touching her and always flinched, even if it was me.

I couldn’t understand what could be causing this peculiar behavior. After all, that terrible aunt from the original game, who had made her life a living hell, was no longer there. From the very beginning, I had treated Ruby well.

However, somehow, she had already suffered psychological trauma. I think I had long suspected what it might be related to. And now... I just felt angry.

I whispered soothing words into Ruby’s ear and stroked her hair. So far, I found this to be the only way to deal with her attacks. The girl calmed down, but not for long.

In fact, there was another reason I wanted to visit the imperial palace. It was an opportunity to meet my older sister.

That bitch turned out to be even worse than I had imagined. When I thought about it, anger bubbled up inside me involuntarily.

I had to find out what Magrit had done to Ruby.