Chapter 1

In the territory of Shadaf, on the outskirts of the Rose Kingdom.

One night, in a room of the Ardenne Margrave's mansion.

"It's all your fault, all your fault!!"

With a sharp, dry sound, an impact.

The small girl's body was easily blown away.

She fell to the floor.

A hot sensation on her cheek.

Tears threatened to well up, but she immediately put her hands down and lowered her head.

Her cheeks were swollen in places, as if she had been hit many times.

Her beige hair, which reached her shoulders, was dull and frayed at the ends.

Her pale, unhealthy-looking skin and emaciated body.

The clothes she wore were not a dress but a maid's uniform, tattered and dirty.

A girl who seemed to be a servant, constantly abused every day—this was Chloe Ardenne.

"I'm sorry... Mother... I'm sorry..."

If she didn't apologize immediately, worse violence would follow.

So Chloe repeatedly bowed her head and apologized.

The person who had just struck her cheek—her mother Isabella—looked down at Chloe with a hateful expression and shouted.

"It's because of you!! Because you were born!! I...!!"

What followed was a continuous stream of insults.

You have no right to live, you're useless, it's because you were born—these were the insults she heard every day, over and over again.

Chloe continued to apologize while accepting all of it, but Isabella showed no mercy.

Finally, Isabella grabbed Chloe by the collar, forced her to look up, and slapped her hard.

A hot sensation around her nose.

...Drip, drip, red-black droplets in her field of vision.

It seemed that the impact had cut her nose somewhere.

"Ha... ha..."

Isabella, breathing shallowly, looked down at Chloe with no trace of sympathy or pity in her eyes.

What she saw was only hostility and hatred.

Certainly, not the eyes a mother should have for her own daughter.

But Chloe had resigned herself to this.

"If you leave even a trace of that filthy blood, I won't forgive you."

With that, Isabella roughly opened the door and left the room.

(...Good, it's over for today.)

She pressed her nose to stop the bleeding.

Finally, Chloe was able to take a breath.

After a while, when the blood from her nose had stopped, she got up shakily.

Seeing the drops of her own blood on the floor, her spine froze.

If left for too long, the blood would clot; she had to clean it up immediately.

With that thought, she was about to go get something to wipe it up when—

"Oh my, you really got a beating today, didn't you?"

Turning around, she saw a woman standing there, laughing softly, her fiery red hair fluttering.

Unlike Chloe, her skin was as white as porcelain, and her figure was alluring to men.

She was dressed in an elaborate dress, looking every bit the noble lady.

"...Sis..."

Chloe's three-year-older sister, Lily, came over with a twisted smile on her face.

Chloe's shoulders trembled.

From past experience, she had been subjected to Lily's violence countless times.

"Since you have nothing better to do, there's a tea party at the Morgan Earl's house the day after tomorrow. I have a dress I want to wear, and I need some cute embroidery. Can you do it for me?"

"Embroidery..."

She had received similar requests, or rather, orders, several times before.

Having been forced to do needlework since she was young, Chloe's embroidery was apparently well-received at tea parties.

...Lily apparently boasted that she had done the embroidery herself.

Chloe sighed inwardly and replied.

"Alright, by when...?"

"By tomorrow morning, please."

"Tomorrow morning...?"

It was already late at night.

Even though Chloe was skilled at needlework, it was a very tight deadline.

Besides...

"I still have housework to do, so..."

Pachin, Lily slapped the other cheek, the one that hadn't been hit by their mother.

"What? Can't do it?"

Lily, with a serious face, reached out and grabbed Chloe's hair, pulling it hard.

"It hurts... stop... Sis..."

"Say 'please stop.'"

"Ah..."

Pushed away, Chloe fell to the floor, and Lily looked down at her with a malicious smile.

"Does it hurt? How miserable, right?"

Chloe struggled to hold back her tears.

"But there's nothing you can do, right? After all, you are..."

Lily's mouth twisted into a smirk as she looked at Chloe.

Then, emphasizing her words, she said:

"A 'cursed child.'"

"If you found it interesting, if you're curious about what happens next, or if you want Chloe to be happy, I would be very grateful if you could support me with a bookmark or a ★★★★★ rating...!

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