I Don’t Want to Be a Lady

“Did you think I’d be caught so easily?”

I caught my breath, which had risen to my throat, and squeezed into the gap in the alley. I was glad she had chosen to wear pants instead of a cumbersome dress, but my relief was short-lived as I heard footsteps approaching and pressed my back against the wall.

Opening the buckle and pulling out my gun, I took a deep breath to steady myself.

Strike first, win first. It was a conclusion drawn from my countless expressions. I intended to blow away whoever poked their head into this alley.

The footsteps got closer. There were at least five or six of them.

“This much is nothing.”

It would be troublesome if there were seven, but up to six was no problem.

My lips curled into a smile, but then I paused.

. This is troublesome. If I knew this would happen, I would have come better prepared. But I had come out lightly, carrying only one gun.

With the footsteps getting closer by the second, I looked behind me. Squinting into the dark alley, I saw an old wooden door. I hurried over and tried to pull it open, but it seemed locked from the inside.

“There will be noise, but I have no choice.”

I aimed my gun at the lock. Rather than wait and hope they passed the alley, I decided it was better to make a noise and get out of there.  Even if it meant jumping off the top of the building if it came to that.

Just as I was about to pull the trigger…

“If I were you, I wouldn’t do that.”

It wasn’t the type of voice I expected to hear in such a situation, but it was a very pleasant one. I quickly turned and aimed my gun in the direction of the voice.  “Who are you?”

* * *

It was two months ago,

“What is all this?”

Madrenne replied to my question as if it were obvious. “What do you think? These are the gifts for Lady Rowina, who has come of age this year.”

Although not piled high, the number was still significant. Among them, what irked me the most were the bouquets.

“Surely, these were all sent by men?”

“Of course, did you think women sent them?

, though with Lady Rowina, that might be possible.”

Outstanding looks, exceptional skills, brilliant intelligence, perfect manners, the offspring of a prestigious family, and a personality as cold as ice. Rowina, my eldest daughter, was enough to become an idol among young people, regardless of gender. Of course, that was her public image.

I was worried. Once, I believed that Rowina would mature into a fine person like her father, but as time went on, she became more like her grandfather, causing me to worry.

“This is troublesome.”

I recalled the young people who had expressed their feelings to Rowina.

A foreign prince who proposed relying only on his status and left with an eternal scar.

An heir of the viscount family who became half-crippled after saying no one else should have her if he couldn’t.

A duke’s daughter tried to kidnap and confine her to make her as her personal doll but ended up confined to a convent instead.

Most of them were not in their right minds. After all, they wouldn’t have dared to approach Rowina if they were sane.

“Despite all those incidents, there are still people who have feelings for Rowina?” I shook my head in disbelief.

“Roses are more beautiful because of their thorns. And the harder something is to obtain, the more it burns with desire.” Madrenne spoke lightly.

“It’s easy for you to say because it’s not your problem. Get rid of these before Rowina sees them.” At my command, the servants quickly moved the gift packages.

Although it was a situation that would make any mother with a daughter proud, I was not pleased at all.

I longed to send my grown daughter off and spend my remaining days leisurely with Charter, but honestly, I doubted there was a man who could handle Rowina.

Maybe that would be better. No man could endure Rowina’s gaze unless he had nerves of steel. There were countless boys who were disciplined just for making eye contact with her.

And Rowina? No one on this earth could withstand her. Even I, as her mother, had to give up. Charter was trying to understand her but would probably never succeed until he closed his eyes for good.

Rowina was that indifferent and self-centered. No one who got involved with her ever had a good ending. If they fell apart on their own, it was a relief. They would often give their unsolicited affection and then blame Rowina, creating a scene and sometimes even using bizarre items to curse her.

Of course, Rowina just snorted.

I tried to kick her out, saying she should live outside if she was going to cause such trouble for the family, but the soft-hearted Charter always brought her back. He would say, “At least if she’s causing trouble in front of us, we can manage it.”

Having her parents as a stumbling block made her behave somewhat normally. Though less than normal, it was the minimum awareness as the daughter of a particularly mean and vengeful mother.

“Wouldn’t it be better if someone just took her away?”

Wouldn’t it be solved by adding a ‘no take-backs’ clause in the marriage contract? That was a typical Madrenne thought.

“Did you forget what happened to her ex-fiancé?”

At my question, Madrenne cleared her throat and looked away.

“What can we do? Like mother, like daughter…”

At Madrenne’s blunt remark, my purple eyes sharpened.

“Oh my, is it that time already? I have to go. My son, Rian, was recently selected as a scholarship student in the swordsmanship department, so I have a lot to do.”

Before I could point out that Rowina had never missed the scholarship, Madrenne moved away.

“By the way, I already burned all the love letters.” Just before leaving, Madrenne said that.

“What? Why did you do that?” I asked in surprise.

“Because I knew exactly how the Countess would react. You’d probably visit each sender and threaten them to never send anything like this again.”

“How is that a threat? I’d do it for humanitarian reasons…”

“Think carefully. Why did Lady Rowina turn out like this?”

“Hey. Stop. You’ve crossed the line.” I gritted my teeth, glaring murderously at Madrenne.

“Oh my! Is it already that late?” Madrenne pretended to look at a non-existent watch on her wrist and disappeared.

“You’ve grown a lot, Madrenne.”

Madrenne, now a baroness due to her contributions (mostly donations) to the empire, had become more brazen in front of me. We had spent a lot of time together, overcoming various hardships, so most of her cheeky remarks were laughed off, but this time was different.

Why is Rowina’s behavior my fault?

. I clicked my tongue and looked at the maid standing on one side.

“Remember? Call them all. Leave no one out.”

While I was still speaking nicely.

The maid, pale with fear, began to name the people she had heard about. As scary as Lady Rowina was, she couldn’t compare to the real power in this house, Arianne.

And two months later, I found myself being chased by strangers in a distant foreign kingdom.

* * *

“Who are you to have the key?” I followed the young man who had just unlocked the previously locked wooden door with a key and asked.

“Well, wouldn’t I have the key because I’m the owner?”

Passing through a narrow, old passage, a candle on the wall illuminated the young man’s face. Whether he knew I was glaring at the back of his head, he remained relaxed.

We arrived at a small room, which could generously be called a parlor, where the young man stopped. He gestured to an old sofa, inviting me to sit. I complied, wanting to see his face.

“A snake-like face.”

Given his pleasant voice, I had expected a bit more, but he wasn’t bad-looking, though not exactly likable.

At my frank assessment, the young man smiled with thinly narrowed eyes.

“I didn’t expect you to say that so bluntly. ‘As expected,’ should I say?”

I naturally aimed my gun at him and asked. “You know who I am, don’t you?”

I continued. “Then, it’s time for me to learn about you.”

The young man swallowed a laugh. Knowing full well the power of the gun I held, and even without it, my fierce gaze made his whole body feel chilly, and his hair stand on end.

“You must be Rowina’s mother. Now I see who Rowina takes after…”

“Stop. Any more remarks, my finger might not hold back.”

The young man thought.

It was only after confirming that he was Rowina’s classmate at the National Education Institution that I lowered my gun.

“Please, call me Noah.”

“

, so you’re that Noah…”

“Has Rowina mentioned me?” At my words, Noah Lutis asked with excitement.

“Yes. She said she would deal with you before graduation. Lucky for you, you survived intact.”

“

. Dropping out to study abroad turned out to be a lifesaver.”

Noah didn’t seem offended. In fact, he looked pleased that Rowina had mentioned him at all.

“So why were you being chased?”

I answered his question with an incredulous face. “I was strolling through the night market for nostalgia’s sake when I happened upon an auction. Curious, I went to see what they were selling, and they were selling people!”

Noah’s expression noticeably changed. He still smiled, but there was a subtle sharpness to it. Ignoring this, I continued.

“So I couldn’t stand it and shot them.”

“…You shot the slave traders? So those men…”

Noah assumed that Arianne had shot the slave traders and was being pursued by their group. However, Arianne was not someone to be thought of logically.

“No? I shot the buyers, not the sellers.” I replied nonchalantly.

“…What?” Noah momentarily doubted his ears.