Finding You Who Abandoned Me - Chapter 5

So, after checking out her hair again, Calliope realized that this was the reality and she had gone back in time.

Calliope raised her head at the sound which shattered her thoughts. A gentle knock was coming from the worn-out door. Knowing who was outside the door, she quietly approached and opened the door.

Against the cloudy sky, a man with black eyes stood in clean clothes. He twitched his eyebrows for a moment as if in bewilderment when the child opened the door without asking a question, but then asked calmly.

“I came here after hearing that  Etiel Hubert lives here.”

Calliope looked up at him with red eyes filled with subtle emotions and said.

“She passed away last year.”

“What?”

The man’s face was distorted with genuine embarrassment.

“I’m Calliope, Etiel’s daughter. You look like a servant of the nobility. What’s the matter?”

The man presumed to be the servant of the Marquis Anastas hesitated for a few more seconds without saying a word, and then heaved a deep sigh. He came to make a deal with Etiel Hubert under the orders of the Marquis, but he felt a brief headache that the trader had already died.

“The young Hubert is dead… I didn’t know that.I will visit you again later.”

Calliope glanced at the man, who had a troubled look on his face, and rummaged through her past memories for a moment. She lived in Solita’s house, and at that time, he saw the already vacant house and Solita found the troubled opponent first.

She questioned her identity as if to warn a suspicious man standing in front of her house, and he identified himself to reassure her. Of course, after he identified himself, he was rather treated more coldly.

“Calliope, come here.”

As I was recalling about her, I heard Solita’s voice like a ghost. Maybe she saw the shiny carriage out of the window.

Calliope glanced over the carriage he was riding in with  indifferent eyes. It wasn’t just a carriage worth giving to the servants. When I was young, I thought that all nobles rode such carriages, but when you think about it, that is not the case. Perhaps he deliberately gave out such a carriage to pick up her mother.

“Who are you?”

When Calliope, who was pensive in her thoughts, didn’t move, Solitta cut between the two of them. She glared at her opponent with a look of caution , and he raised his hands lightly with a look of pain in his head. 

“You don’t need to be vigilant. My name is Jack Becomber, the servant sent by the Marquis Anastas.”

“Anastas? Marquis of Anastas?”

Upon hearing his introduction, Solita opened her  eyes wide in anger for an unknown reason, Jack unknowingly stepped back and raised his hands again. Even as he waved his hand to calm her down, Solita stretched her shoulders and poked his chest and pointed at him.

“Oh, the one who eats well and lives well after throwing away his wife and child? Why did such a precious person send someone to such a shabby place?”

The hierarchy of the kingdom was not so easy. But her brown eyes that were filled with anger,  she forgot her fear for a moment and thrust her index finger toward him.

“It’s been a year since Etiel died! But you are coming now?”

“Who do you dare to blame now… … .”

“So, why are you looking for my mother? Please tell me the main point.”

Jack Becomber was a faithful servant to the Marquis, and he was not a person who was tolerant of the commoners who confronted him.

Calliope interrupted their conversation before he burst into anger. With his face contorted, Jack, who was about to argue with Solita, coughed and looked down at the child.

“I’ll come back later.”

“Do you have business with me?”

Jack closed his mouth for a moment. Because he was embarrassed.

“…No way.”

 Calliope  was quite annoyed. In the past, Jack Beacomber went back embarrassed when he heard about the death of her mother.

And he came back a day later. Little Calliope was nervous at first, but excited later. Who wouldn’t expect a child to hear that her biological father found her exciting.

“You’ll have business with me even later too.”

But my world couldn’t be so fairy tale. Considering the sequence of things that happened quickly after she was re-registered as a member of the marquis’ family, her father had a clear purpose..

Of course she didn’t know at the time when she was young.

“Don’t waste your time.”

Unlike in the past, Calliope wanted to leave the village immediately. If she delays her day here, the villagers will see her off with  tears, and she will leave behind  regrets. 

Calliope wasn’t making an excuse to escape. There were things to do and things to have.

 The foolish self, who lost it and took her own life, had to make it completely hers in this life.

Jack was hesitant to see Calliope, who was young but resolute.

“The Marquis Anastas wants to enlist the daughter of his ex-wife.”

“What?!”

In the end, Solita burst into a rage.

No matter how many circumstances he had after the divorce, he left his ex wife with a child like that and came back later to take her children as well?

If Etiel were alive, she would have been furious .

With her anger rising to the top of her head, but she felt alienated by Calliope’s strangely calm expression, and she stopped.

“Calliope?”

“Oh, I guess you were going to make a deal with my mother over me.”

A straightforward and outspoken answer, Jack wrinkled his brows without realizing it. She was not at all childlike.

“What were you going to give to my mother?”

“That I can’t  tell you… … .”

“Why? My mother is dead, so you should talk to me directly. Do marquis people really handle things like this? Adding a side branch that is cumbersome and unnecessary.”

Even though she was only looking like a fourteen year old kid, her words and actions were relentless. Jack had to try not to forget that his opponent had never received a proper education, so she was no different from a commoner.

“It’s quite far from the capital, but you know  you will get a mansion on a decent land.”

“And?”

“The land and vineyards around it will be owned by Hubert Youngae.”

“And?”

“… Some even recognized townhouses on the outskirts of the capital.”

“And?”

“… Since Miss Hubert’s  daughter has been officially enrolled under the marquis, you will receive a certain amount of maintenance fee every month.”

“And?”

“Miss.”

Jack finally called out Calliope with a distorted expression on his face. She has not been registered yet, but it will happen soon, so her title naturally became a young lady. Calliope gave a short snort.

In the past, I  never dreamed that they had come to my mother to trade upon me.

Solita couldn’t ignore Calliope’s words that she wanted to see her biological father. So she sent Calliope  in the carriage to the Marquis’ mansion and the little child felt like she was living in a dream.

The father, who would be like a ray of hope for her, who had lost her mother and had been living insecurely. But sadly, that innocent and stupid little child is dead.

“Why? Isn’t there more?”

Jack bit his teeth. Calliope tilted her head with an innocent face. Marquis Anastas was one of the three richest men in the kingdom. He wouldn’t have tried to trade her existence for anything like that. Jack recalled what the marquis had said.

‘Due to the nature of Etiel, she would not want to hand over her child. You may not even be able to get the second condition out, let alone the last condition. In that case, convince her that the child should grow up in a better environment.’

But he was being robbed here until the end.  Jack knew nothing about the Marquis and Etiel’s daughter, Calliope, as Jack, of course, had only Etiel in mind to trade with.

Which fourteen year old child trades in the first place? Even if you are the one who will be sold.

“…He will hand over one of the gold mines in the northwest that belongs to the Anastas family.”

“Ah.”

Calliope sighed in admiration. There is only about 10 years left to mine gold.

 Of course, no one outside knew that the gold mine had only ten years left. She wouldn’t have known if she hadn’t gone back in time herself. But it wasn’t that bad.

Calliope smiled for the first time as she gently touched the tip of her white hair.

“Give me all of it.”

“Yes?”

Jack opened his eyes wide, and Calliope smiled brighter.

“Give it all to me, and I’ll follow you.”

Jack  bite his tongue. Because he did not know that he would get so much involved with such a young child.

In the first place, his owner ordered him to give everything  he could, but all of this was to prevent her  from claiming parental authority over the child. 

This meant that there is no need of money now. 

“It’s not up to me to decide.”

“Yes, you do.”

Calliope said sarcastically.

 I thought it was a lot of harm by spending time with people who did not  care for me, but when I saw the familiar face that came out of the marquis’s house, the personality of my past life jumped out.. 

“Then I have no choice but to go and talk.”

“What do you mean!”

Solita, who had been silently watching their conversation, interrupted. She reached eye level with Calliope and carefully grabbed her forearms.

“Follow them, no why? I’m sure he is sent here with a black heart.”

“Solita.”

Calliope called Solita, who stopped her with trembling eyes.

“I have to go.”

“Why, why do you have to go?”

Solita was well aware that if Calliope returned to the Marquis, she would no longer have to be hungry, wear old clothes, or work hard.