Prologue

My name is Chelsea. I’m the elder twin daughter of Baron Eucharis, and I’m called a failure.

In the pitch dark of the morning, before the sun arose, I got out of my crude bed. I put on my tattered old clothes, and exited the run-down shed on the outskirts of the manor. Making sure not to make a sound, I got to cleaning the manor.

I would think that the daughters of lesser noble families would help clean, but my family wasn’t that poor. The other members of my family had personal maids who took care of them, and even their own chefs. They wore nice clothing, ate delicious-looking food, and had fun.

Why was it that even though we were all family, I was the only one wearing rags, being starved, and made to clean?

Once, I tried asking my mother, and she gave me a twisted smile before responding, “You’re an ugly failure, unfit for the house of Eucharis. You’ll never get married off to anyone, so I’m having you learn how to be a maid early. You didn’t even know that? I’m going to have to get even stricter with you.”

Ever since then, I had been told to call my mother “Lady Medisina” and my younger sister “Lady Margaret.” I also began getting whipped as punishment for the slightest mistake. In addition, it had been years since I’d seen my father. He was frequently away on work, only returning every so often. Even when he was home, Lady Medisina would order me to stay in my shed, so we never saw each other.

Since the manor had been built in a period when my family was very wealthy, there were a lot of rooms. It always took me until near noon, when the sun was high in the sky, to finish cleaning them all. After finally finishing my cleaning, I headed straight for the kitchen. Because I’d been working since before dawn without anything to eat, my stomach was growling loudly. But though the chef was there in the kitchen, he shook his head at me.

Lady Medisina had ordered the chefs not to make me any food. They used to make me a little something in secret, but I was punished when she