Chapter 3
From the age of seven, Eugenie repeatedly heard the same advice.
[ “Eugenie, a woman must experience many men in her life.” ]
After a fight with her father, her mother would hold young Eugenie and lament every time. Eugenie would gaze at her mother with her amber eyes.
Her mother, with the same chestnut hair and amber eyes as Eugenie, had a slender face and looked like a proud cat.
To Eugenie’s eyes, her mother was beautiful, but that beautiful face was always marred by tears of frustration.
‘Ugh, your mother has never had a proper romance…! She picked such a scoundrel!’
Even though she cried, Eugenie knew that her mother would ultimately lose to her father. In relationships, the one who loves more is always the loser, and sadly, Eugenie’s father, Viscount Peregrin Norton, was exceptionally handsome.
In his youth, Peregrin’s looks had worked wonders when he wooed Theodora. However, his appearance was unfortunately an asset even after the birth of their only daughter, leading to constant fights between the couple.
The fights only stopped when Eugenie’s mother fell ill and passed away when Eugenie was eighteen, marking her mother’s ultimate defeat.
‘Eugenie, remember what Mother said. Men… you must meet many of them. You need to be surrounded by them.’
Her father’s numerous affairs had clearly affected her last words.
‘If you’re going to say farewell for the last time, at least talk about something else.’
Eugenie sighed inside.
Having matured early because of her mother, Eugenie did not believe in emotional outbursts.
Love? Does that help prevent an invitation to the professor’s tea time?
But her mother’s final words were somewhat unusual.
Surprisingly, they didn’t end with mere curses and laments about men.
‘Eugenie, I’ll make sure you don’t live like your mother did.’
Her mother, holding Eugenie’s hand, whispered with her last glimmer of life.
‘I’ve prepared everything for you.’
‘Eh? Mother, what do you mean…?’
‘Perfect men. Not just one, but several.’
Oh, perhaps her mother was so traumatized that she saw hallucinations before she died.
‘Just wait, Eugenie. If by the time you turn twenty-four, you’re still alone… ‘
But her mother could not complete her sentence before passing away.
Eugenie shrugged it off, thinking her mother’s words were the result of her agony. She was too stunned by her damned father’s swift remarriage to mourn properly.
‘I’m sorry, Eugenie. But love finds its way even through sorrow.’
A week after the funeral, her father appeared with his new family—a mother and daughter duo with lemon-colored hair. Eugenie looked at them with cold, indifferent eyes.
‘You must have sought them out not out of sadness, but for the sake of family, Father.’
The stepmother-to-be, Agatha, and her daughter, Apollin. The pair, with sky-blue eyes, looked like porcelain dolls, but their cold smiles were full of greed.
“Isn’t she the lady-in-waiting to Empress Silvea?”
At the thought of the empress, Eugenie’s lips twisted in distaste.
The current Empress was the powerful head of the Schroder family, which monopolized the supply of magic ores in the Hermeland Empire. It was obvious why Agatha had chosen her father as a remarriage partner—Peregrin Norton was a strikingly handsome man, boasting golden hair and a dazzling smile even with an adult daughter.
Agatha dismissed Eugenie with a sneer. Sadly, Apollin smiled at her instead.
“Hello, Eugenie. You look different outside the academy, don’t you?”
“…”
“Since my mother is now Mrs. Norton, we’ll be seeing a lot of each other! By the way, is it alright if I use your room?”
“….you would give me the perfectly fine new room that was given to you?”
“Yes!”
Apollin cheerfully nodded, showing clear determination to claim the best room in the mansion, ‘the eldest daughter’s room.’
Eugenie sighed in exasperation.
“Apollin, by the family hierarchy, I’m still the daughter of this house. I’ve always used that room.”
“So what? You don’t have your mother anymore anyway.”
“…”
“Oh, sorry. That was thoughtless of me, wasn’t it? You don’t have any relatives to complain to…”
Eugenie did not respond.
Theodora was from such a modest family that she had no relatives— or so she claimed.
Whenever Eugenie asked, Theodora would evade the question, continuing to speak ill of her husband.
Eugenie, like most daughters, had never pried into her mother’s background. After all, her mother was simply ‘mother’ to her.
Anyway, Apollin, who was in front of Eugenie, smiled prettily like a doll.
“Oh, did I upset you? I didn’t mean to. I only mentioned what everyone already knows about your mother.”
“What are you talking about?”
Eugenie continued calmly with a smile.
“Your mother was quite something, just as much as my late mother. So, well it’s no concern.”
“…What?”
“If you were involved with a man who had a dying wife, do you think you’d have any noble dignity?”
For the record, Eugenie Norton was well-known at the academy as a fighter.
Not with her fists, but with her words.
“Oh, and I heard your real father passed away due to a chronic illness. Was it due to your mother or some other woman?”
“…!”
“Seeing that your mother is still perfectly fine without any trauma, I guess it must be the latter.”
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