FYWAM CH 5

Chapter 5

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Negotiations (1)

After checking her hair, Calliope realized that she wasn’t having lucid dreams but had travelled back in time.

Knock. Knock.

The sound broke Calliope from her reverie and lifted her head. A gentle knock was coming from the dilapidated door. Knowing who was on the other side of the door, she quietly approached and opened it.

A man with dark circles under his eyes stood there, immaculately dressed against the backdrop of the cloudy sky. His eyebrows twitched briefly in confusion as she opened the door without asking any question, but he calmly asked.

“I heard that Lady Ethiel Hubert lives here.”

Calliope looked up at him with red eyes full of subtle emotion.

“She passed away last year.”

“Pardon?!”

The man's face contorted in genuine surprise

“I am Calliope, daughter of Ethiel, and you look like a servant of a noble family. What can I do for you?”

The man, presumably Marquess Anastas' servant, hesitated for a few more seconds before letting out a deep sigh. He had come to trade with Ethiel Hubert on the Marquess' orders but felt a slight headache at the realization that the person he was supposed to negotiate with was already dead.

“I was not aware that Young Lady Hubert had died...I will have to pay you another visit later.”

Calliope stared at the troubled stranger and briefly thought of the past. At that time, she was staying in Solita's house. Solita was the first to notice the man's distress when he saw the empty house.

She asked the suspicious man loitering in front of the house and he identified himself to reassure her. But after identifying himself, he was given an intensified cold shoulder.

"Calliope, come here."

As she was thinking about her, she heard Solita's ghost-like voice. She must have spotted this gleaming carriage through the window.

Calliope scanned the carriage with indifferent eyes. It was not a carriage worthy of a mere servant. When she was younger, she had thought that all nobles rode in carriages like this, but now that she thought about it, it was unlikely. Perhaps they had provided this carriage on purpose to transport her mother.

“Who are you?”

When Calliope lost in thoughts didn’t move, Solita intervened between the two. She shot the man a wary look, and he held up his hands as if he had a headache.

“No need to be wary, my name is Jack Beacomb, a servant sent by the Marquess of Anastas.”

“Anastas? Marquess Anastas?” Solita's eyes widened at his introduction. She was inexplicably angry. Jack stumbled backward and raised his hands again, even when he waved for her to calm down she squared her shoulders and puffed out her chest, glaring at him.

“Ah, you mean the one who's so well fed and well off that he'd throw away his wife and child? Why would a nobleman send a man to such a shabby place as this?”

The kingdom's caste system was not to be trifled with. But the anger in her brown eyes made her forget her fear for a moment and she jabbed her index finger at him.

“It's been a year since Ethiel’s death, and now you’re coming here just to find her?”

“How dare you criticize...”

“So, why are you looking for her mother, get to the point.”

Jack Beacomb was a faithful servant of the marquess, and was not the type of person to be lenient to a commoner who goes against him. Calliope interrupted their conversation before he could vent his anger. Jack, who had been scowling and was about to confront Solita, coughed as if he had come to his senses and looked down at the child.

“I'll come back later.”

“You seem to have business with me.”

Jack was silent for a moment. He was embarrassed.

“...No, I don’t.”

“Yes, it is.”

Calliope found him quite annoying. In the past, flustered by her mother's death, Jack Beacomb returned and came back a day later. Young Calliope was nervous at first but was hopeful. What child wouldn't be excited when they heard that their biological father had come looking for them?

“You do have some business with me.”

But her world can’t possibly be that fairytale-like. When she thought about the quick sequence of events that had occurred since she had been reinstated as a marquess, her father had a clear purpose. Of course, she didn’t know it when she was young. She only realized it now that she was older.

“Don’t waste any more time.”

Unlike in the past, Calliope wanted to leave the village right away. If she were to linger here for another day, the villagers would see her off in tears and she would be left with regrets; then find a place to run away.

Calliope didn’t want to create an escape route. There was work to be done and things she need, and she had been foolish enough to lose it and even took her own life but in this life she must make everything completely hers.

Jack hesitated and opened his mouth, looking at Calliope’s young but determined attitude as if it was strange.

“The Marquess of Anastas wants to reinstate the daughter of Lady Hubert, his ex-wife.”

“What?”

In the end, Solita burst into anger. Even though they were divorced, he had thrown his ex-wife away and now even came here to take the child away? If Ethiel were alive, she would have died of anger right now. Solita, feeling feverish, wanted to go home right away and sprinkle flour instead of salt, but stopped in her tracks when she felt Calliope’s strange unfamiliar and calm expression.

“Calliope?”

"Oh, so you were planning to make a deal with my mother about my living arrangements."

Her words were direct and blunt. Jack unconsciously frowned. It was an attitude completely uncharacteristic of a child.

"What were you planning to give to my mother?"

"That is not something for me to tell..."

"Why? Since my mother has passed away, you should speak directly to me. Do the people of the marques' estate usually handle things this way? Adding unnecessary and bothersome details?"

Even though she was barely at the age of fourteen, she was relentless with her words and actions. Jack had to try not to forget that that the other person was just a child, no different from a commoner, and never received a proper education.

“We have prepared a mansion on a decent piece of land, albeit quite far from the capital."

“And?”

“The land and vineyards in the neighborhood will be owned by Young Lady Hubert.”

“And?”

“...We have even looked into townhouses on the outskirts of the capital.”

“And.”

“…Since her daughter has been officially registered as part of the marquessate, she will receive a certain amount of allowance every month.”

“And.”

“Young lady.”

Jack finally called Calliope with a deeply contorted expression. She hasn't been officially registered yet, so the title young lady was natural as she would be soon.

Calliope gave a short snort. In the past, she had no idea that they came to her mother to negotiate over her. Solita could not refuse Calliope’s words that she wanted to see her biological father. So, she sent Calliope away and the child was filled with dreams in the carriage on the way to the marquess’ mansion.

A father, a ray of hope for her who lived anxiously after losing her mother. But unfortunately, that innocent and foolish child was dead.

"Why? I know there's more.”

Jack gritted his teeth. Calliope tilted her head with an innocent face. Marquess Anastas ranked top three among the wealthiest in the kingdom. He wouldn't trade his existence for just those things. Jack recalled what the marquess had said.

“Given Ethiel’s nature, she won't be willing to hand over the child. You might not even be able to bring up the second condition, let alone the last one. In that case, convince her that the child should grow up in a better environment.”

But Jack was being completely stripped of all his conditions right there. Naturally, Jack had only considered Ethiel in mind when making the deal, so he knew nothing about the marquess and Ethiel’s daughter, Calliope. Who would care about a child who is just about to turn fourteen in the first place? Even if she was the one being sold?

“…I’ll hand over one of the gold mines managed by the Anastas family in the northwest.”

“Ah.”

Calliope exclaimed in a trembling voice. A mine with only ten years left to mine gold. Of course, no one outside the city knew that the gold mine had only ten years left. She wouldn't have known either unless she traveled back in time, but it wasn't such a bad deal.

Calliope calmly toyed with the ends of her white hair and smiled for the first time.

“Give everything to me.”

“Pardon?”

Jack's eyes widened, and Calliope smiled even brighter.

“If you give me all of it. I'll go with you.”

Jack chose to keep his mouth shut. He didn’t know that a child like her would be involved this much. Although his master had originally ordered him to give her everything he could, all of this was meant if he was being barred from claiming custody of the child. It meant that there was no point to get back what was given directly to the person in question.

“That is not for me to decide.”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

Calliope said with a mocking tone. She thought she had softened after spending time with the people who care about her for the first time in a while, but seeing a familiar face come out from the marquess' house made her old personality peek out and assert its presence.

“Then I'll just have to go and talk to the marquess myself.”

"What do you mean?!"

Solita, who had been silently watching their conversation, intervened. She carefully grabbed Calliope’s forearms and lowering her eyes to her eye level.

“You shouldn’t follow them. They must have dark intentions now that they’re looking for you”

“Solita.”

Calliope called out to Solita, who was trying to stop her trembling eyes.

“I have to go.”

“Why, why do you have to go?”

Solita knew that if Calliope returned to the marquessate, she would no longer have to starve, wear old clothes, or work hard.

Chapter 4

Chapter List

Chapter 6