Chapter 20

 

***

 

“Do you intend to tear apart a healthy mother and daughter, just to make that child a playmate for the young lady?”

The Duke could not respond immediately. He was concerned whether such a dreadful thought had indeed crossed his mind.

“There’s no need to worry. Children make friends easily. Once your daughter meets my granddaughter, she’ll soon forget about a child like a criminal.”

As the elder laughed heartily while saying this, a voice defiantly declaring ‘Loretta is here!’ came from the open door.

Without seeking permission, the child confidently walked between the Duke and the elder, lifting her head high with a stubborn look on her face.

“What in the world…?!” exclaimed the elder, surprised, while the maid following the child turned pale and pleaded, “Miss, you shouldn’t enter the Duke’s office without permission, you’ll get in trouble!”

However, she paid no heed to the maid. In fact, she acted even more assertively. She had a task to do.

Namely, to correct the elders’ misguided words as the smart young lady, Loretta.

“No, that’s not it!” she said firmly.

 

***

 

In the outskirts of the capital, the prison emitted a strange, foul smell. It didn’t seem due to neglect.

Melody wrinkled her nose slightly, and the elder accompanying her chuckled mockingly, remarking how amusing it was that even a criminal could detect the scent of sin.

Melody didn’t respond but followed the guard leading the way. The corridor became darker, the large windows shrinking until they were in a suffocating space without any.

They had to pass through doors locked with large keys twice.

Finally, they arrived at a space barred with large iron grills. The putrid smell faintly sensed in the corridor was much stronger here.

“Here we are,” announced the guard, pointing to a cell and placing a candle in front of it.

The small light crept along the uneven floor into the darkness. Melody followed the illuminated path with her eyes and spotted a small, round, black shape in a corner where the light couldn’t reach.

It was still, almost like a stone.

Tap, tap!

The guard knocked on the bars twice with his palm. Responding to this, the shadow moved.

Perhaps it lifted its head; two bright blue eyes seemed to face them.

“…!”

Feeling a gaze, Melody instinctively tried to step back, but the elder’s hand on her shoulder kept her in place.

Frozen, she stood still.

“You have a very good daughter. She even extorted money from the Duke’s house to save her mother,” the guard relayed.

Hearing this, her mother, who had been sitting far away, sprang up and began to approach Melody, limping.

The closer the limping sound, the more frightening it became.

“Melody, is that…”

Her voice, frail and tinged with a strange excitement, broke the silence.

“Is that true?”

Finally revealed, her mother’s appearance was dismal. Beyond the dirt from not bathing for a long time, deep wounds festered across her body, evidently untreated.

Melody’s brow furrowed naturally with pity. Although her mother hadn’t been a good one, seeing her in such a wretched state naturally elicited sympathy.

“Did you really get the money? Is it true?”

As the girl remained silent, her mother pressed again, clinging to the bars.

“I knew it. I always knew my daughter could do this. Look, guard sir. This child may not know fancy writing, but her cunning is exceptional.”

I can read and write, I’ve told you many times.

Melody swallowed the words that rose to her throat. Right now, that wasn’t what mattered.

“In prison, I see my daughter has become an excellent con artist. Better treated than a slave trader, getting along with the guards, aren’t you?”

“No, I don’t want to be a con artist, Mother.”

Melody couldn’t hold back, slightly rebelling against that statement. Her mother glanced at her with a familiar look, but it didn’t last long.

Perhaps she thought better not to offend Melody since she had money.

“It’s good you’re reunited, mother and child. Family should be together, right?”

The elder patted Melody’s shoulder from behind, as if encouraging her.

“Yes, yes, that’s right,” her mother nodded incessantly at the elder’s words.

“There’s no time. It’s a complicated process. Give half of the money you have to the guard.”

Melody’s eyes widened in surprise at the elder’s words.

“My money?”

“Yes, the purse I gave you at the mansion. You have it with you, right?”

“Oh, about that money… in the mansion’s corridor…”

I dropped it. The words barely slipped out.

“What?! You dropped the money I gave you?!”

“You hurried me along, and I dropped it without a chance to pick it up.”

“You should have told me! Do you know what that money was for?!”

The elder, flustered, checked his pockets and clothes to see if he had anything of value.

But he too had left in a hurry without any valuable possessions.

“Oh no! You’ve ruined everything. Your mother will rot in prison forever because of you!”

At that moment, a thin arm reached through the bars, grabbing Melody’s arm.

“Don’t lie, Melody! You’re just trying to keep all the money for yourself, leaving your mother here, right?!”

Her mother shook her violently.

“Hurry up and give it! That’s my money!”

“I really lost it…”

“Stop joking! After all the trouble I went through raising you, you just lose it all?!”

Her mother’s grip tightened. If the bars hadn’t been between them, she might have done worse.

“If I hadn’t become pregnant with you, I could have been a great merchant’s wife, living a life of luxury! Do you know who’s to blame for my miserable life?!”

She screamed furiously, her breath hitching, yet her tirade against Melody did not cease.

“Ungrateful and clueless! A totally useless and unfilial child!”

Observing this, the elder clicked his tongue in disapproval.

He firmly believed that a person’s origin determined their nobility. After all, someone who never experienced beauty couldn’t possibly appreciate it when they finally see it.

“There’s no helping it. Guard, lock up that little one with her mother.”

“What?”

“Those two conspired together, planning to sell the Duke’s precious daughter as a slave.”

Pointing at the disheveled mother and daughter, the elder indicated their fate. The guard seemed regretful about losing the opportunity for a big payoff.

“This has become more troublesome. Tsk.”

“Troublesome? No, this is the right thing. We’re guiding the sinners onto the right path.”

“Well, that’s true. Hey, woman! Stand against that wall!”

As her mother screamed that it couldn’t be, the guard banged on the bars, demanding silence.

“Can’t you stay quiet! Your daughter will soon be sent to where she belongs!”

His words sounded distant, as if coming from the heavens, probably due to the phrase ‘where she belongs.’

If Melody were following the original story, she might have been receiving punishment in prison at this moment.

‘If I return to the original storyline…’

Loretta and the Duke would also proceed smoothly with the original plot, towards a certain happy future.

‘That’s alright.’

Melody recalled her mother’s recent accusation of being ‘ungrateful.’

But that wasn’t true.

Melody knew gratitude. Therefore, if returning to the original path would allow Loretta and the Duke, who had given her special memories, to be happy, she was ready.

‘And I…’

Melody contemplated her own fate.

She couldn’t be certain, but somehow, she felt she might manage well, just as she had protected Loretta by altering the original story. This time, she would be protecting herself.

Soon, the guard opened the prison door.

Creak.

Even in the darkness, she could see her mother standing afar, eyes gleaming like a predator waiting for prey.

“Get in. Don’t try to resist.”

The guard pushed Melody, and the small girl stumbled, falling onto the rough floor.

“Ugh.”

“Oh, really, such a nuisance.”

The guard, slightly embarrassed, scrunched his face and nudged Melody with his foot, signaling her to get up quickly.

“Guard. If you don’t remove that foot immediately, I will cut it off.”

At that moment, a chilly voice came from behind the guard, carrying a heavy presence that seemed to weigh down the air.

The guard hastily turned around.

“…?!”

Upon recognizing the figure, the guard froze.

There stood the Duke of Baldwin.