The Reserved Daughter Of a Duke And The Cold-Headed Emperor

Eleonora was quite comfortable living in a detached building. She lived with the nannies until she was five but after that, only the occasional servants would come by, allowing her to live freely.

She studied with the tutor in the annex and rarely ever stepped foot into the main residence.

When she became ten, the servants stopped coming every day. When she was 15, they would come twice a week, only coming to deliver ingredients and daily necessities. With her past memories, however, Eleonora found this lifestyle very comfortable.

Likewise, her stepmother fired the older servants one by one until only servants who would follow her whims were left. Those servants were told that Eleonora was the child of a mistress and was being isolated due to an illness.

Of course, there were still servants who knew of the real situation, but there were none who would attempt to do anything about it. This was because they were afraid of offending Anna, who now controlled most of the household affairs, and getting fired.

The person herself was oblivious to this oppression and lived her life peacefully. She secretly kept a garden, built birdhouses, and overall lived a fulfilling lifestyle.

Aside from her occasional participation in tea parties and the rare visit to evening parties, she lived very carefreely after reaching adulthood.

Now she was 17. Wavy golden hair and large violet eyes. When she smiled with her exceedingly beautiful face, everyone would blush. Consequently, the servants who were appointed to take care of her these past few years all had bad eyesight.

Eleonora, who was living a fun and fulfilling life, also secretly kept a pet.

“Today’s weather is great! Ikkaku-chan!”

Eleonora had found a one-horned mouse that accidentally got lost and decided to raise it. Though it was small, it was still a magical beast.

According to her tutor, the empire’s magical beasts had almost entirely been wiped out. It seemed that the year Eleonora was reborn, a saintess appeared and destroyed the magical beast population.

The magical beasts from the Magical Forest where Eleonora had lived previously were gone, and the forest was renamed Ecterina Forest after the saintess’s name.

“…Everyone died. I also died. I wonder if Ham-chan is alive. I hope he’s alive-pe. I wanna see Ham-chan-pe. My cute, precious Ham-chan.”

Eleonora placed the one-horned mouse onto her lap, petting its back with her finger. Though many thought that all the magical beasts had disappeared from the world, there was a small population that survived since they lived far from the Magical Forest. The humans who were conscious of this fact went on to eradicate the rest. Now, only the small magical beasts continue to live on.

“Why do they have to kill magical beasts? Everyone was living quietly in the forest-pe.”

What are magical beasts in the first place?

No one really knew. No one even really knew why they sometimes left the Magical Forest.

“Magical beasts and animals are the same-pe. Why do they have to be killed?”

Eleonora couldn’t understand the reason why magical beasts were killed.

Humans fear things that are different from them and eventually eliminate them. She knew from experience. Like her previous life, Eleonora could communicate with animals and magical beasts. To her, they mattered just as much as humans.

Now, the 17-year-old Eleonora was currently with her tutor named Roman. He was an eccentric white-haired old man. This was another part of Anna’s harassment. Though he was a commoner that graduated at the top of his class, he couldn’t establish himself as anything grand and eventually became a twisted old man.

Her half-sister Sofia had a countess in her twenties as her tutor. Honestly, hiring a commoner like Roman as a tutor went against the common sense of high society.

Roman was barely scraping by so he was willing to take on any kind of work. His high intelligence and unfortunate circumstances led Roman to look down on and see everyone, both aristocrats and commoners, as fools. Thus, the job he held the longest ended up being his role as Eleonora’s tutor.

“Eleonora-sama. All people are equal. Both aristocrats and commoners are just humans. The word ‘human rights’ was coined in the neighboring country, but nothing has changed here.”

Roman taught Eleonora that all humans were equal. However, Eleonora could not accept this easily.

“Even if they were all farmers, my family was ostracized because of my appearance. You’re a city kid, Mr. Roman, you wouldn’t understand what it’s like in a poor village-pe.”

Eleonora spoke to the one-horned mouse in the detached building.

She knew that discrimination didn’t only apply to social class. Discrimination existed between fellow farmers as well.  

“Ham-chan said he liked me even if I was a monster. Only Ham-chan said that-pe. I really wanna see him.”

The more she knew about the world, the more she wanted to see the boy she named Ham-chan.