Chapter 31.1

SIDE STORY – Gloria Lupinus (3)

Until now, I had thought of daughters from noble families as glorified jobless people who had lots of money. a life in which one would go around laughing while wearing pretty dresses and waving a fan, and sometimes going to parties to eat delicious desserts. a life of leisure and excess.

That was the life I had expected to unfold before me.

But that was not the case. Being the daughter of a noble family was an extreme job.[1]

From the age of nine, at the very least, the only thing I did was study, without any chance to meet the male or female lead. So much that it made me sick. To add to that, because I was to be the next head of the family, I not only had to learn basic etiquette, but also all sorts of theory, as well as knowledge about other families too, all of that in my tiny head. Instead of being the usual handsome daughter-con that is seen in novels, my father was a stuffy, old-fashioned tightwad,  and the corset I had to wear to fit into those pretty dresses was a true torture device.[2]

Having to live in such a situation as a child, I could understand why Gloria became so twisted.

Things like these… I never wanted things like these. At the very least, these were not the contents of those transmigration romance fantasy novels I had read copiously. I felt completely deceived.

Ah, I just want to live comfortably. How nice would it have been if I had just been born in some mid-ranking noble family, instead of a high-ranking one.

That was what I thought one day, as I was being tested on what I had learnt the day before, in front of my father.  Isn’t the father of the transmigrated female lead usually a daughter-con? She would act all lovely and he would just die from how cute she was?

Alright, I would just help him awaken his inner qualities as a daughter-slave.

So I dropped the pen I’d been holding and made a small sound.

“Oh, Papa. Ria doesn’t wanna study today.” [3]

That punk that calls himself my father looked at me like I had lost my mind. I still cannot erase that cold look from my brain till this day.

I mean, come on, wasn’t that too much for someone to do to his daughter? I know we are not the most affectionate father-daughter pair. But still, wasn’t that too harsh?

Father looked at me like I was pathetic, telling me to give more time to my studies since I had the energy to do such nonsense. Then, he assigned me more homework.

That was not all. That day, I copied the genealogy of the Marquisate thirty times, shedding bitter tears as I did so. In retrospect, I have no idea why I had thought of doing such a thing. Had all that heavy studying addled my brain?

In any case, my goal became to just pass the days and run away from this crazy house, no matter what it took. Then when Father died, I would return to succeed him as family patriarch.

A prodigal child, you say? Yes, I agree. But however much I may hate that household, becoming the Marquis is such a great merit that I would never think to give it up.

I looked into it a bit and found that there was indeed a way for me to leave this house right until Father is on his deathbed. and that method was to become a Holy Knight. Imperial knights have to commute from their homes, but it’s not the same for the Holy Knights.

So from age five, I decided my course, and began taking classes like crazy with the Marquisate’s swordsmanship teacher.[4] Unlike usual nobles, I poured any time I had left after studying into it. After the teacher said that I had talent, I became even more excited and continued to train. After more than a decade of training, I was even able to use aura. My boomer father initially opposed my training, asking what business a girl had learning swordsmanship, but I eventually won. Even the Gloria in the original novel had been in the swordsmanship department, so it seems this body has some real talent.

In any case, I had lived a hard knock life like this, but there were many interesting things that happened in between. If I had to pick one, I would definitely not leave out the story of how I almost became engaged to the male lead.

So what had happened was that, the year I turned ten, my so-called father and Marquis Yurielle began marriage talks. I had wondered what exactly a ten year old was doing getting engaged, but because there are many cases of people getting engaged at a young age here, I didn’t dwell too much on it. Anyway, if I said I didn’t like it and dug my heels in, the marriage talks would end.

Because I had been designated the heir, my fiancé could not be the firstborn son. It also could not be the last daughter who was said to be sick, so the only left was the second son.

Noah Yurielle. Yep, the male lead.

He was well known for having a huge amount of mana and for being exceptionally intelligent, all from an early age, so he must have looked like an excellent live-in son-in-law to Father.[5] On top of that, it would strengthen his relationship with Marquis Yurielle too.

If it was according to the original novel, the moment I saw Noah, I should have immediately fallen for his modesty, his appearance, abilities, and all his other numerous qualities, and begun pestering him. But unfortunately, Noah had not been my type even when I was reading the book, so I didn’t care. I had enjoyed reading the novel, but he really was not my kind of man. I like people who are a bit more on the cute side.

But as always happens, the opinions of the both of us who were directly concerned were completely ignored. Instead, we were pushed together by Father, and left alone in the drawing room.

As I stirred my tea after dropping a cube of sugar into it, I glanced at Noah’s face. Up till now, he had his nose stuck to a book, so his face wasn’t showing much. But after I turned my head this way and that, in various angles, I succeeded in catching a glimpse of his face.

My hand that had been stirring the tea stopped.

Indeed, he was exactly as he had been described in the novel.

Footnote:

[1] extreme job: ; this is also the title of Korean action comedy that was released in 2019. Highly recommend it. The movie’s title has now become a thing of its own.

[2] stuffy, old-fashioned tightwad: ; basically a ‘boomer’

[3] This is what I thought of when I read this line:

[4] The raws say five, but the age should probably be nine.

[5a]Mana: ; this has been previously translated as magical powers. Instead, where the raws say <>, ‘mana’ will be used, and where it says <>, ‘magic’ will be used.

[5b] Live-in son-in-law: ; refers to a son-in-law that lives with his wife’s family: he marries into his wife’s family and becomes a member of her family instead.

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