The wicked woman is roasting coffee beans again today.

Chapter 6

Lynet didn’t make a big deal out of spending the night away since she was accustomed to outdoor activities. However, she knew she’d have to endure Katrine’s nagging, just like always.

“Miss, if you’re an adult, you should act like one. Even if you ran away, spending the night out is unacceptable.”

“But I’ve often stayed out before.”

“That was until you were fifteen. After that, you were supposed to stay quiet at home. Besides, you just recovered from fainting, not too long ago.”

Knowing why she was so upset, Katrine couldn’t scold her further. Instead, she poured honey and water and hugged Lynet.

“Did you happen to meet another man after drinking? One-night stands can sometimes become shackles, restricting your freedom, so you should always be careful.”

“Um? Uh, yeah…”

Unable to confess that a stranger had been lying beside her, indulging in carnal delights, Lynet merely smiled and lay down, keeping her little secret.

“I’m feeling queasy from the hangover, so please just make some tomato soup for me. I don’t need anything else.”

Her mouth felt dry and tasteless due to the alcohol.

“Really, Miss, no matter how sad you are, don’t try to drown your sorrows in alcohol. It only makes things worse when you’re already feeling down.”

Even as Katrine scolded her, Lynet closed her eyes briefly, feeling a warm touch on her forehead as Katrine approached.

“Ah, it’s warm. But right now, something cool would be better.”

Chuckling to herself as she muttered, Lynet felt another cold sensation. The heat from the alcohol seemed to dissipate as she was touched by something cool.

How long has it been? Lynet, who had dozed off, reluctantly opened her eyes when Katrine woke her up.

“Don’t just sleep on an empty stomach. Try to eat something at least.”

Lynet ate the bright red tomato soup and laid back down, not wanting to wake up.

It wasn’t until the evening, past lunchtime, that Lynet finally got up with a sigh. She worried if the man from last night would come looking for her.

Esther and Fernando had already turned the house upside down, and she couldn’t afford to add to the chaos. If she did, their problems would be buried, and hers would rise to the surface. If she was unlucky, they would blame her for sleeping with another man.

“Ugh, this is why I shouldn’t drink recklessly. I hope I didn’t disclose my identity to him unknowingly. But I can’t recall much about last night. What should I do?”

She remembered that the man was joining her because there was no space left. At first, it seemed like they just had mundane conversations. But then she couldn’t remember anything afterward. His name, his appearance, and why they ended up in the same bed were all blank to her.

As Lynet tried to get up with a throbbing head, the uninvited doctor came in.

“Miss, here’s a hangover remedy.”

As the doctor took out a bottle of medicine, Lynet chuckled.

“I wonder when you started worrying about me so much. You’ve always been by my sister’s side.”

“I, I’m sorry. I was ignorant and foolish not to understand your circumstances…”

Feeling ashamed for not knowing better, the doctor handed the bottle to Lynet and put it in his pocket.

“Doctor, you may have been ignorant, but that doesn’t take away what you’ve done.”

After slipping the pills into the doctor’s pocket, which she didn’t need, Lynet went down to the dining room. She wondered why Alice, who always followed Esther, wasn’t at the door. When she entered the dining room, the place where Esther usually sat was empty.

“Where is my sister? Did they dig her out of the register?”

“Sit down first.”

Avoiding Esther’s usual seat, Lynet sat a little further away. Immediately, the table was set there, and food was served.

“Hey! Eat up; you look like you’ve never had a bowl of soup.”

“Whether I eat or not, what does it matter to you?”

She was eating a little when she heard Edgar’s voice and made a face. This was the way Pruina’s siblings talked. Only Esther was acting like a different person.

“Ugh! Don’t talk like that. Don’t ever call me your sister in front of others. I’m the one who ends up embarrassed.”

“Hey! Where do you get off calling me that?”

“That’s why I call you that. You’re always so temperamental and emotional, like a woman going through menopause.”

After Lynet’s jab, Edgar had nothing more to say and just groaned helplessly.

Edgar and Lynet had a quarrel, and without realizing it, Lynet ruined her meal while drinking tea and looking at Kenis.

“Esther… I sent her to the villa as planned.”

It was difficult for Kenis to utter that one sentence as he looked at Lynet. Kenis sighed softly, his eyes still full of mistrust, resembling Lynet. Even though she had done something wrong, Kenis couldn’t abandon his child.

“Well, it’s true that biting all ten fingers doesn’t hurt any of them, but Father always bit only me. Anyone would think I’m not his child.”

“Lynet, what are you talking about? No matter what anyone says, you’re my daughter.”

That was true. Among the bloodlines of this household, only Esther resembled her mother, while the other three were somewhat alike.

“Then call her back now. Since when have you been considering my feelings? With things like this, I feel like I’ve become a wicked woman.”

It had come to the point where she wondered whether it would be faster to die as a villain or succumb to madness.

“Ah, Lynet. I’m truly sorry. How can I make you feel better?”

He couldn’t immediately mend Lynet’s heart, which had been turned away for years. Despite trying to turn it around now, Lynet’s wall was too high. In an effort to break it down, Kenis cautiously asked, determined to do whatever it took to fulfill Lynet’s wishes.

“Give me that.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“The dowry. Since we’ve already broken the engagement and there’s no chance of marrying Fernando, give me the dowry you promised for that house.”

Kenneth nodded at the obvious request for a dowry. He hoped it would ease her mind a little.

But as soon as Lynet had the dowry, she left the house.

***

“Find out what Lynet is doing outside and report back to me.”

With a sense of unease, someone was secretly tasked with following Lynet. After a while, they came back with surprising news.

“She’s going on a pilgrimage to tea houses?”

“Hmph, it must have fallen under the spell of an owner who wanted to sell it, hah…”

A noblewoman with a sense of money? That was unlikely. It was clear that she had bought a worthless mountain at an exorbitant price.

“And what else is she doing?”

“She’s been going around selling tea leaves, asking about this and that, and she’s also been buying buildings.”

“Sigh… Lynet, what on earth are you up to?”

Kenis covered his face with both hands. He couldn’t figure out what Lynet was up to. With the dowry in hand, she could have remarried elsewhere. Of course, if Lynet ended up squandering that dowry and had to find another source of funding, he was willing to provide it.

“So, what is Lynet doing now?”

“She’s looking at other buildings.”

***

The best thing about being possessed by a novel is that you know what’s going to happen beforehand.

Taking a little advantage of that, Lynet bought a desolate mountain. It was a bargain, and it was going to be a huge hit later. But for now, she couldn’t afford to hire someone to guard it, so she put development on hold.

“Ah! It feels good to drink tea outside.”

For several days, she explored various places while drinking tea with Katrine.

Then, by chance, she stumbled upon a noticeable building. It was located in a corner of the bustling district, so it wasn’t too crowded. However, it seemed like business wasn’t thriving, probably because of the lack of foot traffic.

When she saw a sign for sale, she bought the building with her dowry. She had a small dream, and this time she saw a building on the main street. A downtown location was more likely to have more guards.

She looked around for a suitable building, considering security concerns, and bought a clean, one-story house. This made her a landlord with two buildings and a mountain.

“Being a landlord on top of the mountain, my pockets are empty, but my heart is full.”

Holding the documents for the land and the building close to her chest, Lynet smiled brightly for the first time in a while. Then she went back into the nearby tea shop.

She spent a comfortable time drinking green tea, which had a refreshing aroma. After finishing a cup of tea, Lynet, who had been lost in meditation for a moment, suddenly got up, feeling that she had something to do.

She went to a place that supplied tea leaves to the tea shop and bought various types of tea.

“This is…”

“Ah! These are coffee beans that can be used to make a type of black tea frequently consumed in the Sepia Empire.”

It was coffee beans. Seeing coffee beans for the first time here, Lynet touched them and nodded her head.

“It seems like this tea hasn’t caught on here yet.”

“Yes, it’s a rare tea in this country, so no one seems to buy it. I think I might have to throw them away.”

The shop owner sighed with disappointment.

While asking the shop owner various questions about coffee, Lynet also asked him to procure tools used in the Sepia Empire. After offering an advance payment, the shop owner readily agreed and said he would have the items ready in a month.

“For some reason, everything seems to be going well, but I’m getting a little anxious.”

Everything was happening as she wished. However, at times like this, she needed to stay vigilant. After deciding that she had done enough for today, she went straight home.

When Nixon, the butler, saw Lynet returning home late in the afternoon, he smiled and said, “The master is calling for you.”

“Do you know why he’s calling for me?”

“I’m not sure about that.”

Could it be that her father had assigned someone to spy on her activities? Even if her father had investigated, she was confident that she hadn’t done anything illegal.

So, without delaying by washing up or changing clothes, Lynet immediately followed Nixon to the study. Kenneth, who seemed preoccupied with work, put down his pen when Lynet entered.

“Sit down.”

“Just tell me. We’re not close enough for you to chat with me face-to-face, Father.”

When she was young, Lynet used to stick to Kenneth like glue whenever she saw him. But now that she spoke so coldly, Kenneth sighed inwardly. He couldn’t bring himself to say anything, knowing that he was the one who had made the kind and tearful child into this.

“I heard you’ve been buying various things with the dowry.”

“Yes, some real estate investments look to the future rather than the present.”

There was a saying that real estate is bought for at least several decades. Unable to say anything about that, Kenneth asked something else.

“I heard you’re buying a house and purchasing furniture to go with it. Are you planning to rent the house?”

“No, I’m going to live there, and I want to disassociate myself from the family for the time being until I feel at ease.”

“Dum spiro spero”