Alicia Rain (3)

Alicia had spent nine years there.

To Daisy, today would be just another ordinary day.

To her, it was merely the routine act of entering the room in the morning to check on the young lady she served—but for Alicia, it was a reunion after nine years.

Then a sudden question arose.

What had happened here during the nine years she spent in hell?

Just how old was she now?

She recalled the suffocating, tangled reality that surrounded her before she fell into hell.

Now that the promised bride had vanished, the Grand Duke surely wouldn’t have left her family untouched.

But despite the supposed hardship, the surroundings looked no different than the last time she’d seen them.

No—if anything…

Daisy walked in and bowed formally.

She stepped precisely into the space between the door and the console table.

She placed her right hand over her left just above her navel, bent slightly at the waist, and rose again.

Whether Alicia was standing in front of her, still in bed, or by the window, Daisy—who viewed rules as absolute truths—always offered her morning greeting from that exact spot, exactly as taught.

With her eyes lowered, she spoke in a calm and polite voice.

“Good morning, Lady Alicia. Did you sleep well?”

Whether Alicia answered or not, Daisy would now begin straightening the bed.

“……”

Alicia stepped forward with steady footsteps toward Daisy, whose next move was entirely predictable.

She stood directly in front of Daisy and stared at her face intently.

Though Daisy wasn’t the type to crack jokes at unusual behavior, she also wasn’t the type to ignore someone standing right before her.

“……”

A maid’s daily schedule was tight.

If she didn’t follow the set routine, even her bedtime could be delayed by an hour or two.

And if she failed to meet mid-day expectations, she’d be summoned by the head maid, scolded to tears, and have her pay cut.

Precious time passed in awkward silence.

Daisy tried not to meet the eyes boring into her face.

A maid’s duty was to exist beside her master like air—present, but unnoticed.

Any movement outside prescribed conduct was improper.

“……”

But Daisy couldn’t help glancing at Alicia’s face, whose gaze felt like it could drill holes through her.

She had never seen anyone stare at her so intensely with violet eyes.

She wondered if perhaps she had dirt on her face, but she dared not move carelessly.

“Is something wrong, my lady?”

“Uh…”

The young lady she served rarely spoke.

She gave little sign of what she wanted, which sometimes made service difficult.

Still, Alicia never acted violently or erratically, so the silence wasn’t really a problem.

“What’s the matter, my lady?”

Daisy tried her best not to show her confusion.

Alicia’s intense gaze gradually faded into a blank stare.

“Daisy. How old are you right now?”

She thought nothing could surprise her anymore.

But sensing something out of place, her mind froze.

Alicia forced her sluggish thoughts to grind forward.

“Are you asking about my age? It’s autumn now, so I’m twenty-four. Why do you ask, my lady? …My lady?!”

Alicia blinked several times, as if her soul had left her body.

Daisy was five years older than Alicia.

That meant Alicia was currently nineteen.

“I’m… nineteen…”

When she last remembered being here, she had been twenty-seven.

She had spent nine years in hell.

Between there and here, a time gap of four months existed.

Alicia, who had stood frozen, staggered a bit as she took a step back.

Daisy quickly supported her.

If she ignored the time of her fall and return, Alicia had essentially returned to four months before the moment she’d left.

Her thoughts were tangled so tightly that her head throbbed.

Leaning on Daisy for balance, Alicia turned to look at the full-length mirror.

There stood her nineteen-year-old self.

Maybe it was all the thinking—her mind emptied, and strength drained from her fingertips.

As her body lost balance, Daisy caught her and called out in alarm.

“Lady Alicia!”

As the sound brushed past her ear, Alicia quietly accepted her dimming vision.

She didn’t feel like forcing herself to stay conscious.

Perhaps it was best to give her exhausted mind a break.

More than anything, after spending nine years having her arms and ankles torn apart, a little rest felt well-deserved.

“Nineteen…”

Alicia mumbled softly as she slipped into sleep.

It was a refined lady’s delicate voice that woke Alicia.

She couldn’t hear it clearly.

The sound echoed as if her ears were submerged underwater.

“…Alicia is…”

Even though the voice was unclear, Alicia instantly recognized who was saying her name.

As a soft hand touched her sleeping forehead, Alicia frowned slightly, stirring from sleep.

It had been a truly peaceful sleep after so long.

She didn’t want to wake from such a sweet rest—her eyes refused to open.

Her eyelids kept wanting to fall shut.

“Young Lady?”

As Alicia opened her eyes, Daisy was the first to greet her.

She woke up as the soft hand that had been on her forehead slowly pulled away.

Beyond the neatly drawn canopy, the Marchioness’s head maid and several maids stood at attention beside the bed.

Alongside them, the southern wing maids and servants were also lined up.

Daisy, holding a basin of water, signaled to Annie.

She passed the basin to Annie and was about to approach Alicia, but an elegant hand stopped her.

“You’re awake?”

“Yes…”

Seeing Daisy’s troubled face, Alicia wiped her eyes with one hand.

As Alicia rubbed her eyes, slender arms gently reached out to help her sit up.

The Alicia of the past would have been uncomfortable and lost.

The only Marchioness of the North.

Marchioness Marine Rain.

Marine Alexandra Ernst Rain.

As a child, Alicia had always felt guilty toward the Marchioness.

The current family head, perhaps due to being the rare only son of the Rain family, had been infamous for his indulgent affairs even as the young heir.

Even after marrying the Marchioness, he hadn’t changed.

Alicia had no memories of her birth mother but understood her position perfectly.

Until the age of six, she had lived in the southern wing with only wet nurses.

Alicia would never forget her first impression of the Marchioness.

A woman so slender her waist seemed graspable with one hand had smiled as she pushed back protesting knights, slammed the rushing family head to the floor, and burst into the southern wing.

She then elegantly swept back her tousled hair and smiled like an angel at Alicia, who was holding a wooden ball painted with flowers.

‘Hello. I’m your mother.’

Thanks to the chatty wet nurses, Alicia had already known about the Marchioness.

She had been taught that when meeting the Marchioness, she must greet her:

“I greet the Marchioness.”

That day, Alicia had darted behind the wet nurse’s skirt and, despite everyone’s urging, couldn’t utter a single word.

“Did you sleep well?”

The Marchioness helped Alicia sit up and handed her a glass of water.

She smiled warmly, simply happy that Alicia didn’t shy away from her help.

“Yes. Thank you.”

Daisy and Annie, holding the water basin, watched the mother and daughter’s exchange with anxious expressions.

They were relieved yet puzzled that Alicia, who rarely spoke with ease to the Marchioness, was now speaking smoothly.

Usually, Alicia’s discomfort made everyone else uncomfortable too—but now she was replying calmly, if briefly.

What’s gotten into our young lady today?

“Alicia.”

At her call, Alicia lowered the cup from her lips.

In the past, Alicia remained awkward around the Marchioness even into her twenties.

She felt guilty in front of her, ashamed of her birth mother, mistrustful of the kindness the Marchioness showed her—and felt sorry about all of it.

“Mother.”

Even after growing closer to the Marchioness, Alicia couldn’t easily change the way she addressed her.

She didn’t dare say it aloud.

What she couldn’t bring herself to say face to face, she had written only in letters.

One of Alicia’s regrets after falling into hell was that she had never once called her “Mother” aloud.

Though she still felt unworthy of the title, a cheerful friend once said she called her friend’s mother “Mother” all the time.

So maybe it was okay to be a little selfish.

Silence fell over the spacious room.

The Marchioness, who had been smiling at Alicia, suddenly looked as if she’d been struck by lightning.

She had two sons who called her “Mother” every day.

But now, seeing her stunned expression as she struggled to compose herself and smile again, Alicia—embarrassed to death—still thought it was worth it.

Her face burned so hot, she knew it must be bright red.

“…Yes. Do you need any—”

The Marchioness, trying to speak, turned around and briefly covered her eyes.

Then she turned back with a radiant smile.

“Could I have another glass of water, Mother?”

Pretending not to notice her burning cheeks, Alicia held out the glass.

“Of course. Of course! Have… have you been feeling tired lately, Alicia? They told me you were unwell, so I rushed over. I was worried. If you’re struggling, just tell your mo—mother, okay?”

As she poured a fresh glass of water, the Marchioness rattled off her words quickly.

Unlike her usual composed self, she now spoke in a scattered rush.

Alicia found it oddly refreshing to see the woman—who could command a butler without so much as a frown—this flustered.

“Mother.”

“Yes, sweetie?”

“Has Gregory of the Barker family already been decided as my fiancé?”

“You’re still young, Alicia.”

The Marchioness hesitated as if to place her hand over Alicia’s, then gently took it.

In the past, the Marchioness had never spoken about Alicia’s engagements.

Once the family head made the decision and issued the order, she would invite Alicia for tea—but never said a word about it.

Looking back, those invitations might have been her way of trying to hear Alicia’s thoughts.

Alicia didn’t know exactly when she had returned to in this timeline, but it seemed the family head had already chosen the Barker family by the time she was being debuted into society.

Given how fast the engagement with Gregory had progressed, the rest of the candidates had merely been backups.

Since Daisy’s birthday had passed and the weather wasn’t hot outside, negotiations between both houses were likely complete.

Once the engagement was announced to the imperial family and publicly declared, it would be almost impossible to undo.

“I don’t like Gregory, Mother.”

“I don’t either. Leave it to me. …Would you like to have dinner together tonight?”

As she patted Alicia’s shoulder and began to leave, the Marchioness spoke as if it were an afterthought.

She added the last part awkwardly, then smiled in a clumsy way.

Alicia responded to that uncertain smile with a courteous reply.

“Thank you for the invitation.”

She wanted to return a confident smile like the Marchioness always showed her,

But smiling—then and now—still felt foreign to Alicia.