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“I will not do it!”
I wanchu give up the inheritance!
(t/n: I believe you guys know that ‘wanchu’ means ‘want to’ (it’s Konglish) hehe. I decided to leave it like that so that you guys can feel the same vibe of Catyshia’s POV as the one in the raws.)
It’s only right that I don’t trade 80 years of the rest of my life for one house!
I’ll just rent a house and keep my life.
I raised my left hand and declared.
“I’ll cleanly give up on it! Since I’ve never been able to hold any ‘knife’ except for a fruit knife my entire life. Even if I succeed the Demon Sword, it’ll only be like casting pearls before swine.”
(t/n: 칼 [kal] is ‘knife’ or can also be translated into ‘sword’. So the second sentence actually means [she has never been able to hold any kind of knife or sword except for a fruit knife, let alone a Demon Sword]. If I put ‘sword’ there, it won’t make sense with the fruit knife, so I put in ‘knife’ and added this note.)
Just in time, the Duke, who was carefully wiping a long sword’s blade, looked back at me with a gnawing face.
The sword with a very sharp blade flashed. With that half of my spirit was also cut off in a big lump.
No, I mean, why out of all times are you pulling out and holding a sword right now?
The Duke threw the handkerchief which he had used to wipe the sword at the desk and crossed his arms.
“Oy, Orange.”
“Yes!”
“I like one that is quick to understand its place.”
My expression also soon turned sour. Anyway, he talked like an old man. Even so, compared to yesterday when I felt like he was going to munch me whole, his spirit felt a little more moderate.
However, as handsome as he is, he stilled lacked character. The Duke firmly pointed out.
“If it could be like that, don’t you think I would have done that beforehand?”
“Yes? Then that means, I can’t give up on inheritance…?”
“The will is fully marked with the Magic Department’s notarization. It means that there is an unbreakable taboo.”
The Duke raised a paper knife as if telling me to look. Then he tore the will into pieces at once.
I stared blankly at the pieces of paper that were scattered in the air. The fluttering pieces connected again in the air as if they were attracted by a magnet. It was like watching puzzle pieces that one by one, assembled together.
Soon, as if it had never been divided into 32 pieces, the will flew straight into its original state and was placed finely on top of the desk. An ominous feeling came.
“Don’t tell me, it can’t be destroyed?”
“Try it.”
The Duke indifferently handed me the will.
I quickly crumpled the paper as small as my fist to make a ball and threw it with all my might through the open window.
As soon as I thought it had become a dot and was far away, I was hit exactly on the forehead by the paper ball that returned from outside the window.
“Aack.”
“Do you also want to try a match?”
The Duke was already holding a match with an extremely indifferent face. Of course, to the will’s iron wall defense it was of no use.
Even if the will was burnt by fire, it soared suddenly from the ashes like a phoenix, and no matter how much water was poured onto it, it was not wet even a bit as if it had a waterproof coating.
Watching my attempts for a while, the Duke, tsk tsk, clicked his tongue and said a word.
“Stop it now. Since taboos can never be physically broken. Don’t eat that, you unsophisticated Little Kid.”
The attempt to digest the will in my stomach as the last attempt was wretchedly canceled.
The Duke, who quickly snatched the will that had my tooth marks, slammed it into the drawer again.
“You have no right to refuse. Since the late Duke wrote down with his hands, if you give up the inheritance, it will all be sucked into the Imperial Family under the name of social restoration. That’s why things got messed up to this point.”
“T-then if it’s given to me first, and I immediately designate the next heir and hand it over…?”
“Don’t you know what it means to succeed Giost and choose the next heir?”
I know. It means my death. Since in words of the one who became the owner of Giost, after its early death, one becomes a spirit and is subordinated to the sword…
‘No, I must not….’
The Duke raised his eyebrows as if telling me to try it.
“If you want to die, I won’t stop you.”
“No! Never!”
When I turned white and shook my head, the Duke chuckled, one could not tell whether it was ridicule or a fake laugh of pity.
He soon approached my direction without hesitation and lifted me lightly.
“If so, wait quietly. Right now I’m seriously thinking about your treatment. Since my head hurts, don’t make a fuss by trembling in front of me and get out.”
“It… It’s not that you’re going to kill me, right? I’ve lived nicely, Mist- Duke. I even guarded Grandfather’s deathbed….”
“It’s none of my business how much that old man cared for you. And it’s surely up to you to decide what you’ll do from now on.”
“What should I do from now on, though…?”
If I do well, you won’t kill me?
When I raised my head in full fear, there was seen a sharp jawline and violent eyes which were sharper than even the jawline.
However, the blue murderous energy from yesterday was no longer in sight. Even the movement of lifting me up and moving me like a cotton doll wasn’t as rough as it looked.
“Listens well, get along with people, don’t cause trouble, and wait calmly until the proper measures are given. The end.”
“I-if I just fulfill that, will you send me back?”
“Not sure. I’ll see.”
To think that he said ‘I’ll see’. For him to say ‘I’ll see’? This is a matter that a person’s life depends on, but to think that he said ‘I’ll see’!!
I swayed and clung to the neck of the Duke who was going to put me down outside the door.
‘No. I can’t just go back with feeling uncomfortable of only having this kind of vague answer!’
At my desperate heart, my habit which I had always done to Grandfather popped out just like that.
“I’ll do well! I’m good at cleaning, and I crush herbs well, I can also cut apples into swan shapes, I’m also good at calculating change, and…”
“What?”
“I know how to mow grass, and I also read a lot of books. I did physical training with Grandfather, too, and, and…”
What else do I know how to do?
I learned a lot from Grandfather, but in this situation, everything seemed useless, making me sad.
“And, also….”
As I restrained and clung to him, the Duke seemed as if he was a little flustered.
After he hung me around his neck with his back bent forward awkwardly, he sighed rather lowly.
“Don’t think nonsense. If you are living well nicely, I’ll give you a chance to take the test.”
“Test…?”
I lost a bit of strength in my arms because I was stupidly asking back.
Not missing that chance, the Duke quickly removed me and put me down outside the study.
“I had told you, right? If you listen well and wait quietly, the proper measures will be put into place.”
“Yess….”
“That’s why enough asking and get lost. If so, go to the breakfast room. Be a plump grapefruit, Tangerine.”
With the end of his sentence, the study’s door was closed heartlessly.
Before I knew it, tears hung at the corner of my eyes as I stared blankly at the closed door.
‘Plump….’
Is he saying that my life will be over anyway, so I should at least eat a substantial meal?
I grasped my liver that became as small as a bean and first decided to go out to the breakfast room. First, I have to listen well.
Actually, what he said was surely true. Inheritance is inheritance, Demon Sword is Demon Sword, and meals are meals. Anyway, once glucose is supplied to the brain, the will to live will also surge..
As I entered the dining room, the chef and Magaret, the maid who was in charge of me, welcomed me with both arms wide open.
“Welcome, Miss! A warm breakfast has been prepared!”
Surrounded by all kinds of hospitality, I tasted the sumptuous feast. In truth, it was hard to distinguish whether it entered into my nose or mouth.
No matter how much I thought about it, it was truly a serious problem. This wasn’t the type of problem where I could give up because I didn’t like it and I won’t do it. ‘I will cleanly give up the inheritance’ is a thing that I can’t do.
If I refuse, the full amount will be given to the Imperial Family. However, if not, when I accept it, it was a crisis of even my soul being inevitably mortgaged to Giost.
“I’m totally entangled in this, aren’t I.”
To think that it’s nothing else but a sword. To think it’s a sword. To think that at that, it’s a weapon that corrupts humans.
‘I, don’t want to have something terrible like that, though…!’
In the meantime, the words that the Duke leaked out at the end lingered in my ears.
‘He said that if I do well, he’ll give me a chance to take the test.’
To think he said ‘test’. Just what kind of test is it, though?
***
Even on the second night I spend at Blasco, I couldn’t sleep for a long time.
The room that they gave to me at Blasco was twice the size of my room on the second floor of Grandfather Herzen’s house. And it was so glamorous to the extent that it could not be seen as a small room at all.
What’s even more, animal dolls that were full of cotton were even sitting on the head of the bed.
“Hmph. There are more cute things in our house, but oh well.”
What was worse, even for the pillow and bedding, Grandfather’s ones seem to be more comfortable.
Tsk, turns out even if they’re the Duke Family, they’re not much… For me to think like that, the rabbit doll which was as big as the size of my body was too soft, and the bed was too soft.
To not be swayed by temptation, I firmly kept my balance.
‘This place is simply like a poisonous mushroom. I can’t be deceived.’
Pressing hard on the paper, I opened the code of conduct that I wrote down. The things the Duke pointed out were written down neatly.
[1.  Behave politely towards people
2.  Live quietly without making any trouble.
3.  Absolute obedience to the Duke!
4.  Do the test(???) well.]
However, even if I followed all of this, there was no guarantee that I could get out of here safely.
‘By any chance, did Grandfather actually hate me a lot…?’
Did I do something wrong?
‘From what I remember, there’s nothing, though….’
I felt depressed and touched the locket around my neck.
The old plump shell-shaped locket was the only trace of my parents.
Ten years ago, I was abandoned in front of Grandfather’s house together with this. He said that there was a small note with my name written on it inside the locket.
When was it? Was it when I was 6?
When I got lost on my first errand, Grandfather put a note with the house address inside the locket. Then every time I didn’t do that, he nagged a lot.
“Where else again would you be whining like a stray puppy!? Does this old and ill Grandfather look like he is going to chase your tail around and go to find you?”
“I said I didn’t get lost! And to think that you are old and ill, which elderly dingle-dangle lifts a six-year-old with one hand!”
‘…I miss Grandfather.’
If I knew we’d part like this, I would’ve spoken less impolitely and acted less arrogantly. I won’t talk back, too, and… I won’t steal any errand change, I won’t steal snacks secretly from the kitchen, and…
I miss my parents, too. I missed the real mom and dad who gave birth to Catyshia Ainsley, not the humans who had no parental qualification in the first life.
With the power of dawn, I was dripping with tears little by little, but suddenly I thought my palms were hot. The pendant, which I had miserably held tightly, was gradually heating up.