Chapter 6

Episode 6

How many days has it been since we arrived at the Duke’s residence in the capital?

Upon being called by the Duke, I went to his study, and the boy sitting behind the desk looked out of the window and spoke with a leisurely voice.

“I’m going to try putting the documents in soon.”

“Yes? Haven’t you submitted the documents yet?”

I was so surprised that my eyes widened as I looked at him, but he looked more surprised than me.

“I haven’t done it yet. What’s the urgency to submit the documents in such a hurry?”

Normally, the guide exam was open to everyone regardless of their status.

Since the temple bears all the costs of the participants’ thorough examination process from beginning to end, anyone could check it out if they had the potential to be a guide.

If you become a guide of Grade C or higher, you can enter a guide training boarding school, but of course, all subsequent expenses such as tuition, dormitory fees, and textbooks were to be shouldered by the student.

Nevertheless, there were always many people submitting their own documents, so it was clear that it would take a few days for the temple to receive all of them if they would fill out the documents just now.

Even though I knew the situation clearly, I asked with a confused face.

“Then… How long does it take to take the guide level exam?”

“It’ll probably take a few months. Why? Don’t you like being in the capital? I will feed you, dress you, and put you to sleep on time.”

“…No.”

“Then why is there no energy in your voice?”

I swallowed a sigh and cried out in a hoarse voice.

“I am really grateful to the Duke for taking care of me!”

“Why aren’t you wearing the clothes that I bought you?”

Take one at a time, you punk.

I swallowed a swear word and mumbled.

“That’s… It’s such a waste…”

“You’re not wearing it, but you’re trying to resell it secretly, right? You can’t do that. Pick something and change your clothes right now.”

When the boy rang the bell, a maid, whose assigned to the capital mansion, came up. Contrary to being neglected, the servants in the capital mansion were clearly well oriented.

Among them, it was a fairly high-level maid that served the owner. I glanced at the maid, who had a wonderful position in the career field of my choice.

“Cynthia, help her change her clothes and bring her back here. I’ll give you 30 minutes.”[soul: Didn’t wanna say this but sir, she doesn’t want you to be her sugar daddy..stop-]

“Yes, master.”

Oh, for reference, her name was Lucy, not Cynthia.[soul: WTF- Sir, are you Hitler?]

This duke never remembers a person’s name at once except for my name.[soul: Sounds like you are his favorite pokemon]

Of course, there was no one to point that out even if he called the wrong name. Even if the original name is Lucy, if the owner calls her Cynthia, she becomes Cynthia.

I calmly followed Lucy out of the study.

She maintained restrained movements and expressions even without her owner. Admiring the thoroughness, I followed her to the room that was assigned to me.

The Duke’s mansion in the capital was much smaller than the Duke’s castle, but considering the price of lands in the capital, it was very luxurious.

Based on the faint memories of my past life, it would be like living in a luxurious hotel. The only difference is that the Duke and his servants are the only ones living in this luxurious hotel.

Thick and soft white bedding made with cotton, and furniture were in perfect harmony with black and gold.

‘He gave me just any room, but I like it so much that my eyes always stick out like this.’ [soul: Like how? A popsocket?]

I was even afraid that I, a commoner, could use a room like this. After living for a decade in this life, it seemed that the status system was already imprinted into my bones.

Lucy was a high-leveled talent with an eye for styling the nobility.[soul: She strangely reminds me of Lucy from the Chronicles of Narnia]

The accessories that seemed to have been chosen randomly went very well with my white dress, and my curly red hair, which didn’t tidy up no matter how much I combed it, was quickly styled nicely.

The skinny child with a lot of freckles in the mirror had already turned into a fairly plausible figure.[soul: This is what you call the power of money child]

It was exactly 26 minutes until I finished changing and stood in front of the Duke again.

‘The high-leveled maid from the capital is different no matter what anyone says.’

I was amazed. I’ll probably earn 50 Albon a year. I want to be a maid like Lucy. [chapter notes: I think Albon is their currency, but that kinda doesn’t make sense if I’m basing it on the sentence, it’s probably more like ‘gold’ (50 gold).]

“Is your name just Betty?”

Even stepping down even without the Duke needing to tell her to.

Her appearance of appearing like a ghost to attend to what the owner needs, but not showing her presence.

‘So cool.’

“Write Betty as written in the employment contract.”

After Lucy had left, I was lost in staring at the door, and the Duke’s gray eyebrows rose when he took his eyes off the paperwork.

“If you write it down, you’ll be registered until you go to school. Are you sure your name is just Betty?”[soul: No, Her name’s Lemon, Stop asking now.]

Only then did I come to my senses and look at the Duke.

“Yes! N, no… Well…”

I tried to answer as it was, but I hesitated a little because it was a name that would be called even when I was in school. I was reborn and witnessed with my own eyes the moment when I was named.

I managed to live satisfied with my roughly made name, but in fact, I’ve always imagined what if I had a chance to change my name over the past decade.

“Do you not know? You don’t have a fake identity, do you?”

While looking at the Duke with a playful smile, I paused in a solemn voice.

“Betty is a nickname… My real name is…”

“……?”

“…Beatrice.”[soul: Please why did I read that as ‘Bellatrix’ for a second XD]

“What?”

I couldn’t say anything because of the astonishment written all over the boy’s face.

After a suffocating silence passed, I finally gave strength to my throat and said.

“Be, Beatrice.”

“Your name is… Beatrice? Like this?”

He picked up an empty piece of paper around him, scribbled on it, and held it so that I could see it, too.

For your information, I have not learned the text of this world.

“I don’t know what you wrote.”

“You don’t know?”

Will there be a problem with the documents?

As far as I know, there was no problem. A commoner orphan like me is almost always outside the system.

Since I don’t have any parents, I didn’t have to be tied down, and since I wasn’t a precious person in the first place, changing my identity was very easy. I could just write ‘Beatrice’ in the signature line.

“I wrote Beatrice in . Is that right?”

“…Yes.”

To an unexpected question, I answered while rolling my eyes slightly.

were famous fairy tales in this world.

The plot was roughly similar to , but Juliet was a noble, and Beatrice was different.

How popular a fairy tale is, Beatrice was a name that anyone of my age, regardless of status, would have heard of at least once. It’s a name that you can literally think of as the epitome of a princess.

So I said I wanted to change my name to a ‘princess’ now.[soul: Please, WTF-]

However, to make an excuse, it is a common name among aristocrats.

“That’s right… Ha… …Bea, Beat… Huhu… Beatrice heeheeheeheehee…” [schwarzel: why do you laugh like a horse, duke?][soul: He was a Horse in his previous life, for sure]

The boy, who couldn’t hold back, burst into laughter and chimed.

“Who… Who gave it?”

Both my cheeks were as if they were burning, but I answered firmly.

“…I just created it.”

The sight of the boy rubbing his forehead as if trying to hold back something made me very angry.

“Why? Can’t I do that?”

“Huh? …No… Khm, khm. It works. Of course, If Betty wants to do it.”

“When I go to school, there are only Elizabeth and Alexandra and such people. If it’s just me, Betty, I won’t be fine.”

“Yeah… Who… Khm… Who said that?”

Tch. You’re laughing at me.

I stared at the boy whose shoulders were trembling from enduring a fierce inner fight.

“Change it if you want to change your name, change it. It’s your name. If you want me to call you that… Bea…Euhahahahaha! Beatriceheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee!”[soul: Ugh…Imma Slap and Kick and Have a Whole fistfight with him if I could]

The boy, who had been trying to hold back the sound of his laughter that was about to burst out from a while ago, finally rolled off the chair and rolled onto the floor.

I stood in the middle of the study and waited for his laughter to end.

***

I changed my mind and just decided to put my original name ‘Betty’ in the documents.

It was because I knew that the plausible name I made to avoid being noticed was only a raincoat for the nobles. I may be intensively bullied for trying to pretend to be a noblewoman in a shallow way that doesn’t even work.

Surprisingly, the Duke submitted the documents as I wished, but the teasing was not over.

“I hope you are satisfied with my precious Beatrice. I would double the original price.”

“Oh, no. It’s not like that. I’m just grateful that you appreciate our bakery.”

I spoke in a friendly tone, but the baker’s eyes were busy trying to ascertain my exact identity. He seemed to have guessed that I would at least be a noblewoman since Duke Janus even used honorifics to me.

But I wasn’t, and as a person whose status system has been firmly engraved on her bones over the past 10 years, it was a relief that I did not pretend right away.

As I looked up with the cookie in my mouth, I made eye contact with the smiling Duke again.

“Why don’t you drink tea? Doesn’t it suit the taste of our precious Beatrice?”[soul: He would have died soon if it was me there instead of her, honestly]

I drank the tea quickly and answered.

“It smells so good that it already suits my taste”.

“Why don’t you eat more snacks? Did you get sick of it after eating one?”

“No! It’s so delicious. I wanted to save it for later”.

That bully is bothering me again.

Whether people intended to tease me properly or not, they were treating me like a VIP, calling me “Beatrice.”

Without knowing whether it went into my mouth or my nose, I stuffed myself with cookies and parfait, but the duke patted my head with a more prolific voice.[soul: DAMN, I WANNA KILL THAT LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT-]

“Okay, okay, eat a lot. You can’t eat things like this when you go to school.”

Tak.

I was suddenly confused by the sudden talk about school and choked.

“Beatrice, you are aspiring to be a guide! It is an honor to see the future of the empire.”

The bakery owner, who didn’t even know what I was doing, immediately pretended to know and flattered me.

I guess the Duke really intends to raise me as a professional guide and use me as his, exclusively. I don’t want to be a guide to the Duke even if I receive a million dollars, but my current situation doesn’t allow that.

However, there is nothing free in the world.

One needs to pay a corresponding price for the sponsorship.

I’ve seen countless people die of indigestion due to useless greed. The best way to live is to take the easy road that everyone else is going and live in the middle.

However, I hid my complicated innermost thoughts and shouted vigorously.

“Thank you!”

“Is there anything else you want? Do you want me to buy you a doll?”

The person who will be excited when receiving a doll is not me, but you.

Since the time we came to the capital, he has been dragging me around as if playing with a doll. From the time we came here, I have been stuck close to him all the time, so there are not many things that I can do.

I answered with all my heart.

“No, it’s okay!”

“I’m not asking because I’m really curious about what you think. After I finish eating, we’ll go to the toy store, so think about what to buy in advance.”

Then why are you asking?

I was eating parfait in spite of the situation, and a small child rushed into the private room where only the Duke, I, and the bakery owner were located.

A child wearing a red cloak decorated with rabbit fur took off his hood, revealing a blonde-haired figure.