Chapter 2

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Engaged to the Blind Duke
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Knock knock. Marin opened the door and stepped into the room, holding the tray with both hands.

There lay her mother, Roanna, weakly sprawled on the bed.

Her once-lush golden hair was now streaked with gray, and her cheeks were hollowed out, her illness plain for anyone to see.

Marin hid her sorrowful gaze and called out to Roanna in as bright a voice as she could muster.

“Mom.”

Roanna’s eyelids fluttered weakly as she opened her eyes.

“Marin.”

She slowly propped herself up and leaned against the headboard.

“You look much better today, flushed with color. You’ll be back to health in no time.”

At Marin’s playful words, Roanna managed a faint smile despite her pallid face.

“Thank you. But you’re at an age where you could marry anytime. When will you stop calling me ‘Mom’?”

“Oh! Even when I’m your age, I’ll still call you ‘Mom.’”

Marin widened her eyes as if to say what kind of nonsense is that, then burst into a wide grin.

“Oh, who could stop you? Your brother, maybe…”

Roanna smiled along, then suddenly froze, unable to continue.

“Mom! Your unstoppable daughter has brought some bitter medicine and soup.”

Marin pretended not to hear and proudly presented the tray.

Roanna glanced down at the medicine and soup, then lifted her head with a darkened expression.

“Have you eaten?”

“Of course. I just had two full bowls.”

She hadn’t eaten since yesterday, but Marin puffed out her belly and acted full.

Roanna stared at her with sad eyes, then turned away and lay back down.

“I have no appetite. So eat my share too.”

It was just one bowl of soup, scraped together from the last scraps of ingredients in the house.

She couldn’t eat something so precious meant for her ailing mother.

“Mom…”

“It’s really gone. No appetite at all.”

She sounded firm, as if she’d seen through Marin’s lie about being full.

Once she dug in her heels like this, there was no persuading her.

“Mom. Shall I read to you, then?”

It was the surest way to coax Roanna into eating.

“Aren’t you busy today? Truth be told, I haven’t been sleeping well lately. When you read to me, I fall asleep easily.”

Anticipation lit up Roanna’s face.

“Why didn’t you say so sooner?”

“I didn’t want to burden you when you’re so busy.”

“I’ll read to you. But you have to eat the soup.”

Roanna shook her head weakly, as if that were impossible.

Thump thump thump.

Just as Marin opened her mouth to persuade her mother further, a knock came at the cabin door.

“Mom, sounds like someone’s here. I’ll read later. I’ll leave the soup on the table, so eat it when you’re hungry, okay?”

“…”

Leaving the silent Roanna behind, Marin stepped out of the room. She passed through the tiny kitchen and opened the cabin door.

The middle-aged landlord Jorno, whose belly protruded like a pregnant woman’s, grinned at her as if delighted to see her.

“Marin.”

***

“Mr. Jorno. Hello.”

Marin forced a greeting, hiding her reluctance at the sight of the unwelcome landlord.

“Yes, I’m always fine. How have you been, Marin?”

“Fine. What brings you here?”

Jorno let out a hearty laugh, as if she’d told a great joke.

“What brings me? Between us?”

Marin clenched her fists at the lecherous glint in his eyes as he blatantly ogled her.

Despite being married, he always came at her with that look.

Should she just punch him? Punch and run?

Marin thought of her sick mother in the bedroom and hid her trembling hands behind her back.

“If there’s no business, I’m busy.”

As Marin spoke coldly and moved to shut the door, Jorno smirked and grabbed the cabin door.

“Rent’s going up threefold starting this month.”

“What do you…”

Marin stared at him in dismay.

“You’ve paid on time all along, so I held off until now. But the other tenants already got the hike ages ago. Rent’s due in five days. I’ll come collect it myself. If you don’t have it, you’ll have to leave.”

Jorno glared and issued his threat.

“How am I supposed to come up with that much money on such short notice? Could you give us just a little more time?”

Marin bowed her head and pleaded.

Winter was fast approaching. Being evicted with her sick mother would be disastrous.

Jorno chuckled as if he’d expected that, leaning in close.

“Of course, there might be… other ways.”

Before he could finish his slimy suggestion, Marin slammed the door right in his face.

“Argh, my nose!”

Serves you right. Marin locked the cabin door tight and braced it with her back.

Rattle rattle. As Jorno yanked the handle, her body shook with it.

“Hey, open up! Think I’ll let that slide? Skinny broomstick. Tch, ptoo.”

He bellowed at the top of his lungs before finally leaving.

Marin swallowed a sigh and glanced toward Roanna’s room. She’d surely heard the commotion.

Her already fragile mother—would this worsen her condition?

Marin approached Roanna’s door to knock, then lowered her hand.

Could she comfort her mother?

Could she lie and say everything would be okay?

Marin bowed her head and opened the door to her own room across the hall.

The hinges squeaked noisily.

Marin shot them an annoyed look. Rusted in spots, they’d needed replacing long ago.

The room held only a rickety bed and an antique vanity.

The vanity was the sole piece she’d brought from the old mansion.

She couldn’t bear to part with it, remembering her father’s face as he’d asked her to cherish it—Grandma’s, used since her childhood.

“I need money.”

Marin murmured softly to herself. She desperately needed money.

A sick person needed proper nutrition, but every time she fed her mother watery soup without solids, her heart broke.

And now the rent had tripled. Disaster on top of disaster.

“Damn landlord.”

Marin slumped into the chair and carefully pulled a hidden paper from the corner of the vanity drawer.

It was densely covered in writing that only she in the empire could read.

Her gaze lingered on the first line.

***

She’d realized she was living inside this novel a month after the carriage accident.

She’d hovered between life and death for over a month. When she finally awoke, the truth had struck her like lightning—this was the world of a novel she’d read long ago.

Because she was the protagonist?

No.

Because she’d been born and raised in the west, where the story was set.

No one from the west could be ignorant of House Vines.

The novel *The Western Duke’s Bluebird Does Not Sing* had a simple plot.

The male lead, the Western Duke, goes blind and broken from a monster attack, then meets the female lead, a prodigy herbalist, who restores his sight. They fall in love—a romance fantasy.

She’d read plenty of northern duke novels, but picked this one for its fresh western duke premise.

To think she’d been reborn into that novel’s world and lived here all this time.

“Ridiculous…”

She was a total extra, not even mentioned in a single line. A background character who could just sit tight and do nothing.

If time passed like this, she’d naturally hear of the duke’s happy ending. His wedding would be the event of the century.

But the problem was money.

“I need money.”

There’d been no time to grapple with the shock of rebirth into a book world.

Her family had fallen, and poverty had crashed down right after.

House Schwenz had been prosperous with vast lands and inherited wealth.

But after the carriage accident, it came out that her father had massive debts.

They’d surrendered the lands, assets, mansion—sold every jewel and dress they owned.

With the proceeds from her last expensive dress, they’d barely rented this two-room cabin at the foot of the mountains.

Roanna had taken to her bed ever since.

Someone had to do something.

A fallen baron’s daughter who hadn’t even made her debut was no help in life.

“I need money.”

Marin repeated it again, imprinting it on herself.

Otherwise, her resolve to insert herself into the protagonists’ lives might waver.

She’d struggled all this time to avoid their story. But now, she’d reached her limit.

Her tender sprout-green eyes bored into the paper in her hands. It was packed with key details from the novel she’d read.

She already knew events tied to the male lead, the duke, in this world.

It was time to wield her one and only weapon.