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Translator: Wjin
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Mount Hua Sect's Ducal Daughter (4)
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"Hng... aaah."
Charlotte's tears lasted quite a while.
Joseph stood there like a dry tree for a long time, only rummaging through his pockets once her sobs finally began to subside.
"...Filthy."
"Sniff... hic... Me?"
"Not that..."
Even as she wailed her heart out, Charlotte clearly saw Joseph staring blankly down at his handkerchief.
She quickly snatched the dust-covered handkerchief from his hand and dabbed at her tears.
A soft floral scent wafted from the handkerchief.
"Still... sniff... you carry something like this around."
"That's the funny part. I have to keep up with etiquette, and my schedule of getting beaten."
For some reason, Joseph's quiet mutter sounded like it was meant to comfort her, even though it held no such intention.
Charlotte steadied her breathing as she listened to that gentle voice. Then she pressed the tears from her eyes and jumped to her feet.
She held out her hand to Joseph.
"Come with me."
"...What?"
"I might look like this, but in my past life... well, anyway, I was a pretty amazing master. Protecting one guy like you should be easy, right?"
"...Pfft."
In that moment, Charlotte forgot she had even said anything.
The instant Joseph covered his mouth and let out a small laugh, as if he'd heard something utterly ridiculous and absurd.
Was this what a novel's protagonist was like?
Did smiles exist that could make the whole world seem dozens of times brighter?
Even after Joseph's smile flashed briefly and faded, Charlotte stared at him in a daze for a long while.
Now that she knew how beautiful his smile was, his usual stern face seemed all the more heartbreaking.
Joseph glanced around before sternly warning her.
"I'm saying this one more time: don't do anything stupid. Your reputation's already in the gutter. If you get on my eldest brother's bad side too, you won't even want to live."
"But...!"
"I've warned you."
The moment Joseph snapped that, the low sound of footsteps approached from afar—people returning.
And right after,
"Whoa! Charlotte and Prince Joseph are just standing there!"
"What? Who let her out?"
"How many people does that crybaby beat in a day?"
The children's boisterous shouts rang out too.
Without thinking, Charlotte stepped in front of Joseph, but at that moment, two servants and one woman approached, trampling through the grass.
"Miss Charlotte, the Minor House Lord is looking for you."
"No, wait. I have some business to attend to."
"He said to bring you right now."
"...No, let go of me!"
But that was all Charlotte could manage.
Because she was always causing trouble and running off, her father Jerome strictly disciplined his youngest daughter. The servants knew this, so they ignored whatever she said.
Charlotte was practically dragged away by both arms.
"...Joseph! Wait! I'll... come find you again! I'll figure something out somehow!"
Joseph watched her retreating figure as she was pulled away.
As he gazed at her flailing and yelling even while being dragged, Lancelot's voice began whispering in his ear once more.
Joseph's dark eyes clouded over again.
'That garden earlier must've been the Setia House one near the hunting grounds.'
If not for the awful events, the garden itself had been surprisingly spacious and beautiful. It even had a massive fountain big enough to drown in without anyone noticing.
Charlotte looked around with such thoughts in mind.
With the two servants watching her intently, escaping the carriage seemed impossible.
'I wonder what happened to Joseph.'
Her insides burned with worry, but with nothing she could do right now, she pushed the thought aside.
Suddenly, the scenery outside the window caught her eye.
A landscape she'd never seen before—one utterly unlike the martial world—whizzed past.
The sight of Setia House workers bustling about, cleaning roof gutters and chimneys, tending the gardens—it all drew her gaze.
She'd thought people living their lives would be similar everywhere, but having spent her whole life in Mount Hua Sect with barely any view of the outside world, everything here felt novel to her.
And even within the same house, the ducal estate was so vast that they needed a carriage just to get around—that alone was astonishing.
It was a family that had amassed truly enormous wealth.
The people in Mount Hua Sect lived almost like hermits.
They secluded themselves in caves munching on fasting pills for cultivation, endlessly drilled forms every day, or sparred with each other—that was their entire routine.
And yet the outside world brimmed with such vibrant life.
'Come to think of it, maybe martial artists are the real fools obsessed with martial arts.'
Charlotte chuckled inwardly at the thought, even as excitement bubbled up at the prospect of training martial arts in this body right away.
'I was too flustered earlier to think straight, but if I'm really the Charlotte from that book, what happens from here?'
Feeling the breeze brush her face, she recalled the story once more.
Charlotte was truly a minor side character with barely any lines.
The main storyline was always the romance between the grown-up Third Prince Joseph and the foreign princess Shales who loved him.
'In the original, the point where Charlotte dies has already passed. Let's think about what might happen if she somehow survives.'
Just from what she'd experienced earlier, it was hard to imagine a smooth path ahead for Charlotte.
For starters, there was the gang of kids tormenting her—that was a given.
And then her father, the Setia House's Minor House Lord, along with the rest of the Setia people completely ignoring her—that was a huge problem too.
'Cheiker Kingdom is sandwiched right in the middle between enemy states, so I get that everyone's obsessed with swordsmanship and strength. Up to that point, it's no different from the martial world.'
But to ignore her this thoroughly was basically declaring they were done with her completely.
She was someone who would disappear from Setia House anyway, so no need to treat her well.
No point overthinking all the way to Cheiker Kingdom's downfall.
'Before the Second Prince ascends the throne and dooms the country, I'll probably get chased out and ruin myself first.'
When the Setia House Lord stepped down, they gathered the entire clan, including all side branches, for a test.
The single person selected that way inherited all the power, while the rest bowed their heads under the new lord.
This time, it would be Isaac Setia—the eldest direct descendant.
Isaac was a complete madman.
Even in a romance novel, the brief background description alone proved his cruelty in endlessly slaughtering people. That said it all.
'When that bastard became House Lord, a bloody purge swept through Setia House. "Kill all the useless ones," or something like that.'
It gave her a splitting headache just thinking about it.
'I barely survived, and now my life is like a candle in the wind.'
Charlotte tapped her small forehead with her tiny hand.
And after that, the brutal Second Prince becoming emperor and plunging Cheiker Kingdom into darkness was a problem for later.
Charlotte gave a wry smile.
She herself was someone who yearned for strength.
Someone who valued power more than anyone.
But she also knew that strength shouldn't exist just to trample the weak. She'd realized that fully after losing everything and lying bedridden for a year. Any martial artist yearned for strength, but they also learned to respect the weak.
'Does this world not have Confucian ideals?'
The Setia House, tasked with defending the kingdom's eastern border regions and the north, had traditionally served as proud knights and frontline commanders.
As one of Cheiker Kingdom's two prestigious knight houses, they were one of the three pillars upholding the nation alongside the royal knights.
But even a prestigious knight house had its limits—if they sacrificed too much in the name of protecting the country, were they still knights at all?
Charlotte let out a deep sigh and tapped the carriage floor with her tiny shoes.
She'd blustered about saving Joseph when she could barely save herself.
How pathetic and laughable must that have sounded to him?
She clenched her tiny fists a few times, then nodded.
'First things first, I need to get strong. That's the only way I'll be recognized... and it's the only thing I'm good at anyway.'
Hiiing-!
As Charlotte's thoughts settled, the carriage slowed to a stop.
Clack.
The door opened, but no one was there to greet her.
She climbed down with the servants' help.
The carriage was still quite tall for her young body.
'...Where's my room?'
Charlotte looked around after dismounting.
'They summon me but don't even come to meet me...'
She sighed inwardly, not that she'd expected otherwise.
No one coming out was fine, but she had no idea where to go.
'Can't just grab someone and ask where my room is—they'd think it's weird.'
Feeling her soaked clothes start to shiver against her skin, she started walking wherever her feet took her.
Contrary to her thoughts, she was wandering deeper into the gardens, not toward any building.
'Why'd they make the garden like this...?'
Being so short, even the bushes felt like a maze.
Charlotte hugged her arms as chills began to set in from getting lost.
'This body really isn't suited for proper swordsmanship. Any overexertion would bring on a full fever, not just muscle aches. First, I need a place and time to train, and somewhere to cultivate inner energy.'
Habitually picking up a twig, Charlotte used it to probe her way before stopping in place.
There wasn't a single pine tree like those gracefully perched on Lianhua Peak's summit, nor even a common chrysanthemum. Instead, rows of strikingly beautiful trees lined up, heavy with intensely fragrant red blossoms.
'...They look like plum blossoms. So pretty.'
As she instinctively reached out toward the red flowers, beads of blood welled up on her finger.
Thorns, huh. She stared blankly at her finger with that realization.
Then, she sensed footsteps behind her.
Without thinking, Charlotte reflexively thrust out the twig in her hand like a sword.
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