I Don’t Want to Be a Lady

Luxurious cotton curtains decorated with colorful decoration and gold thread. In addition, the owner of this room, which is full of luxury with a fest of gold here and there, was none other than an 11-year-old girl.

Today, as always, I skipped breakfast and lunch.

Still, it’s my birthday…

They will give me dinner.

I was sitting alone in a dark room without a single candlelit. After a while, Madrenne and other maids came in with something.

“Lady, have you waited long? Look what we brought.”

My eyes widened, when I had turned my gaze away with a sullen look.

There was a thing on my maid’s hand with their bright smile I had never seen before…

Cake?

Eleven candles were stuck on the cake covered with white cream, and the yellow light from the candle lit up the darkroom.

So pretty…

The lights were really beautiful and warm.

I unknowingly moved my steps as if led by the light.

There was a small ripple as a drop of warmth fell in my heart, which was as dark and calm as a cold lake.

“This… What is this for?”

“Today is Lady’s eleventh birthday. It’s our little present for Lady.”

A present.

As I was about to burst into tears, I held it back and stared at the cake. It was because I’m a child who shouldn’t cry.

“Hey… Thank you…”

I tried not to show it, but my hoarse voice came out.

Arianne was thrilled. She thought it was okay to forgive all the things they had tormented and ignored her for all this time. To be honest, she was that thirsty for affection, to the point of being shaken with only a cake.

“Now, Lady, you have to blow out the candles.”

“Ah, that’s right. How should I do it?”

“Put your lips near the candle and then blow it out with huu~”

“Huu~”

After blowing out the candles, they put a fork in my hand, telling my to try the cake right away.

“Don’t I have to sit down to eat it?”

The maid said to me, who hesitated, “Eii~ Lady, it’s just us. Try it right away~ We prepared it with all our heart.”

“Ah… yes.”

I nodded.

It was only a cake. Not wanting to ignore their sincerity, I immediately took a large piece of cake with a fork and put it in my mouth.

The taste of a cake that I ate for the first time in my life…

“Uuurgh!!”

Made me feel nauseous.

What? This… What the hell did they put in it?

The disgusting smell that I could feel without chewing it immediately made me nauseous. My eyes turned to the cake. I could see something black inside the spot I had just scooped out with a fork.

Rotten food? No… trash?

Then, as if waiting, they burst out laughing.

“Hahaha.”

“Hahaha~ Oh my god, look at that. I guess she was really touched by the cake. Does she know how to be touched when she belongs to the Bornes’s family, which is said to have blue blood?”

“Lady! How does the cake taste?”

I stared blankly at them, who were laughing as if they were dying of fun.

Did… Did they just do this to make fun of me?

It was the first birthday cake of my life.

I have never been so moved in my life that my heart trembled. It was also the first time I ever received something from someone…

Disappointment, sadness, and anger engulfed me. Then.

“Huh, what’s the use of being a noble? We can do what Lady does too! Lady is going to live like this for the rest of your life and be sold to an old nobleman. Do you know about it?”

I’m… being sold?

Snap.

My reasoning was cut off by someone’s last words. And the nature that I had tried to press and endure opened my eyes.

Tug.

“Kya! What! What is this! Let go of my hair!”

I grabbed Madrenne’s hair, who closest to me and shook it.

I had endured it so far because being ignored and neglected was a daily routine for me. No, it would be right to say that I had been through it since I was so young that I didn’t even think of revolting.

But giving and taking away was a completely different matter.

No matter how much I endured abuse and neglect because I feared my father, I was not weak enough to endure such things. It rather made her feel terrible to think I had endured it until now. In any case, i had to pay for everyone who hurt my soft heart.

I was smaller and thinner than Madrenne, but my anger was more than enough to overcome the difference.

“Agh! Lady! Let go of this! What are you doing! Keep up your dignity!”

“You should also keep your dignity. You’re all dead today!”

After pulling out a handful of Madrenne’s hair, I grabbed the hair of the maid next to Madrenne.

No matter how much they ignore me, I’m still the eldest daughter of Count Bornes. I’m still a noble, and my father could never tolerate my beautiful appearance being damaged.

“Argh! Let go of this!”

So, while I tore them apart, they could only scream but couldn’t touch my body. At that moment, the three maids left the room and ran somewhere.

“Master! Lady pulled out our hair and made a fuss!”

Count Bornes’s cold purple eyes turned to the maid, who confessed his daughter’s guilt. The maid seemed to have no doubts that he would punish his own daughter.

“You dare to blame your master and even tell me about it. Cut her tongue off now and kick her out.”

“Pardon?”

The maid’s face turned white at her master’s sudden command.

Count Bornes glared at the maids behind her with a warning glance with the meaning of knowing what would happen if they ran wild without knowing their subject again.

The other maids who came together bowed their heads in fear the same things would happen to them.

In fact, for Count Borne, I only had to maintain my image of a beautiful angle. He didn’t care what I did in the house as long as I obeyed him.

“Master! Just once! Please forgive me just this once! Please!”

The maid cried loudly as she was dragged away, but that would soon be her last cry.

It was the result of forgetting no matter how much the Count was disinterested in his daughter, he was not the one to pass on the presumptuous behavior of the servants.

After that day, the servants could no longer treat me carelessly.

I thought as I soaked myself in a warm bath for the first time in 11 years.

I should’ve plucked their hair out earlier.

I realized that if I felt patient again about it, I would be the only one who felt wronged and unfair.

In any case, with this, the rank within her family was newly established. Her position was only below Count Bornes.

It was time for me to teach those arrogant servants. I had to clearly tell who I am and what I could do.

“Everyone, get down on your knees.”

So I brought some servants to their knees, and since then, my choice have not been a matter of right or wrong. I decided and acted whether they liked it or not, and no one dared go against her except her father.

I only obeyed my father and lived while pretending not to know how to think, just like a doll. But it was only my outer appearance.

In a few days, I will become an adult as I reach 18 years old.

* * *

“Thank you very much for attending in person today, Lady Arianne.”

I was staring indifferently at the man in front of me, who was rubbing my hand with the pretext of a kiss on the back of my hand.

“Director, wait a minute. There’s someone who wants to talk to you.”

The orphanage staff found him. The man, who had been rubbing my hand for too long for a greeting, smacked his lips as if it was a pity and finally let go of my hand.

The staff, who was scanning the woman in front of him, said, “Please come again next week, my Lady.”

I turned around without answering and left the orphanage. As I reached the carriage parked at the entrance, I nervously handed my gloves off to the maid and said, “Burn it up.”

The maid picked up the gloves as if she were familiar with this scene.

“Huu, how long do I have to do this?”

Then, a group of women who found me began to make a fuss over.

“Oh my, look over there. It’s the lady of the rumor. The angelic lady from the Count Bornes’s family.”

“I heard she volunteers at the orphanage every weekend, and it seems like she is here to do it today.”

My mood subsided even more at the words from the ladies.

“What the heck do they mean by an angel?”

Arianne Bornes. I was known for my beautiful appearance and angelic heart, but it was limited only in to my appearance in reality.

I had no intention of doing any volunteer work, such as stepping up to help or raising money to build a hospital for the slums as the rumors spread. All of that was what my father told me to do. I was just doing what he commanded.

My father, Count Bornes, was the second son of a powerless baron family. However, he was full of ambition, and with his handsome appearance, he seduced my mother, Princess Heilin. Grand Duke Federut made rumors of a romance between his daughter and a handsome man of the century, then married them to cover his family’s shame.

However, the marriage life didn’t go smoothly. Count Bornes began to treat Princess Heilin coldly after being granted the title. Princess Heilin, who thought they were in love, realized that she had been tricked into marrying him and was pregnant while trying to apply for divorce.

Thinking that if a child was born the Count would look after her and her child, she endured it and gave birth to me. But Count Borness was not swayed even by his own blood.

“Our daughter, I will use her for a political marriage.”

That’s all he said about it. After saying that word, he didn’t even come back to see her.

Then… the Countess left.

After that, Grand Duke Federut locked the gates of his castle and didn’t appear outside. The Grand Duke, who was said to be the pilar of the Empire, disappeared like that, and Count Bornes’s power began to spread out.

Count Bornes was a famous villain of the Empire. Not only doing a loan business, but there were no crimes he didn’t do, such as kidnapping, intimidation, and human trafficking.

However, he also knew his flaws. So, he tried to make me look pure and noble.

Someone said he did it because he loves his daughter?

No way, it’s just his way to use her for a political marriage.

Who would want to become son-in-law with Count Bornes?

I considered all of this useless and a waste of time and money. Of course, the donations for the orphanage were going to go back to my father’s safe.

No one would believe that the orphanage director is one of his trafficking people.

The director is a business partner of my father.

As soon as I was about to get on my carriage, the ladies who gathered on the side of the road began to make a fuss again.

“Oh my god! It’s Duke Kaien’s carriage!”

“Really? Where? If only he showed his face out of the window…”

“If I could make eye contact once with him, I wouldn’t wish for anything more…”

I turned my head unknowingly after the ladies’ eyes. Shortly after, a black antique carriage passed by. My fine brows narrowed.

“There are luxurious carriages like ours, but what the hell is that?”

I sighed as I looked at the luxurious carriage, which stood out in contrast to the Duke’s carriage. Thanks to my father, who liked expensive and flashy things, I had to ride this carriage. His taste was so firm that anyone in the capital recognized Count Borne’s carriage.

I spoke to the coachman, “I feel shy to meet anyone, so let’s go back.”

I used that reason to go home quickly, even though it was the only time I was allowed to go outside.

That evening.

As usual, I was returning to my room after finishing my meal alone. The sound of my footsteps stopped at the sound coming from my father’s study.

“I finally found a good marriage partner for her.”

It was the voice of my father.