Aria opened her eyes slowly and saw a black canopy, blanket, walls, furniture, and floor all around. It was like being in a world of darkness.
"I'm alive?" Aria said to herself.
She thought she was going to die and move onto the next round of being reborn, but now she was surprised to find that she was still alive...
Aria finally realized that she asked for help, and was now completely stunned by this turn of events...
Aria realized that not only was she still alive, but now she was inside the Valentine Mansion.
"How foolish of me..." she said to herself, feeling ashamed that she had requested aid for someone.
She now knew that there was only one place in the world like this, with a black mansion.
"I need to go to the Duke quick!" Aria said to herself as she got up from the bed.
But as she did so, she noticed that she was wearing expensive pajamas...
Being in an unfamiliar black mansion, Aria felt like she was in a different world entirely.
As she started to look around, she noticed that there was a table nearby with a glass bottle filled with some sort of medicine, water, and snacks. There were sweet snacks, too, including a macaroon that caught Aria's attention.
"Huh? What's this?" Aria thought to herself.
As with the pajama, this was her first time seeing anything so elegant...
"Maybe someone left this here for me?" Aria wondered.
She took the medicine first and then drank the water. But she didn't touch the snacks.
It was just out of habit.
Aria walked up to the window, feeling confused and lost.
She noticed that the rain started to freeze into snow now, and she watched with surprise as the small flakes began to fall towards the ground...
"It's already snowing in November..." she said to herself, as reality hit her hard once again.
Aria hated winter; she was not a fan of the cold, or the snow, or how dark and gloomy everything was.
But now, she had bigger problems on her hand. She needed to get moving...
Aria, who didn't have any good memories of the snow, as it was tied to death for her in her third life, looked around cautiously once again.
Aria then turned away when she saw someone open the door, and saw Count Alvin Lampez. She recognized him immediately from her previous life, where he was interested in her...
"Is he still interested in me?" Aria asked herself.
She now knew that the man who stood before her was Count Lampez, Noah's cousin, and someone who was interested in her in the past...
Alvin Lampez, who was considered a disgusting individual with no basic common sense, was in control of the duchy after Noah disappeared.
This man was interested in Aria when she was only 17 years old, and recommended that she marry him when she turned 18 years old. Aria was disgusted by this recommendation, and felt insulted that he would take interest in her in this matter...
'Once again I'm going see this disgusting man. '
Aria, who was tired of dealing with Count Lampez, tried to be as rude as possible in order to get him to leave.
"What are you doing here?"
She said rudely, not caring about giving him any manners.
Count Lampez was angered by this and said, "You don't have manners, you b\*tch?!"
In response, Aria said, "Oi, old man; do you not know you don't have manners when talking to a lady? Opening a door without knocking, do you know how rudely that sounds?"
Alvin was was filled with rage, while aria with no emotion as alvin grabbed her hand quickly.
"Come with me, I can sell you with your great beauty of yours?!" he said, with a smile on his face.
But she was not fooled by his tricks, and simply said, "Don't touch me."
Count Lampez, however, was furious by this. "What?! You're disgusting old man; if you want to sell me you need to buy me first. There is nothing is free in life."
Aria's words caused Count Lampez to be even more angry, and he was just about to hurt Aria.
But then, a large hand suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and grabbed Count Lampez's arm, and pulled it up like it was going to break it.
Aria, who was taken by surprise by the sudden appearance of Noah, started to think that maybe she was seeing things or hallucinating.
Count Lampez, on the other hand, seemed terrified after seeing Noah appear out of nowhere.
"What the hell are you doing in my mansion?" Duke Noah asked with cool appearance
"...I keep this brat to expensive room?!" alvin said filled with range, noah protected Aria stepped forward once again.
Now having Noah by her side, Count Lampez became even more angry that he had no control over the situation.
Noah, who responded with a cold expression. "Why do you care? I do what I want, is this your house? If I want this child to stay in this house, you don't need to care about it. So leave now."
Count Lampez, angry with this development, tried again. "But that brat!" he said angrily.
But Noah stood his ground and shouted, "I said get out now!"
"Tsk fine." Alvin wanted to be angry. But he knew it was time to back off. Before leaving, alvin gave Aria deathly stare and strode away. It was as if he was telling her that he won't let her be.
Alvin, in a final attempt to get his way, gave Aria a deathly stare and then left the mansion, promising to himself to not let Aria live peacefully.
When he left, Noah turned towards Aria.
"You..." he said, making her confused.
But before Noah could leave, Aria stopped him, "Duke, I'm sorry I disturbed you."
"...."
"thank you for saving my life. If it weren't for the Duke, I would have died at the hands of Brother lorenzo"
"You must have been flustered by the sudden disturbance because of me. I didn't think Brother would hire..."
"Enough."
Noah cut her off irritably with a bored expression.
"I don't need this pathetic stage act"
Aria blinked and closed her mouth, seeing that Noah had not fallen for any of her usual tricks, simply smiled.
"You caught me..." she said calmly, before continuing, "Then I will do as you say."
Rather than showing any signs of distress or sadness, her voice sounded refreshed, like things had turned out better than she expected.
Noah was surprised by Aria's response as her words seemed to indicate that she was pleased to have been caught...
"Lorenzo Agnes hired contractors to fake an attack on Duke Valentine, in order to condemn me to slavery," Aria simply said.
But Noah was confused by her words, and simply said, "Just say it straight, I don't need excuses."
But Aria didn't mind Noah's request; she didn't want to waste anyone's time with excuses, so she said, "Very well."
She was going straight to the point, and didn't want to waste any time explaining anything further...
"I have a suggestion for the Duke here," Aria said to Noah, with a bright smile on her face.
She sounded very positive and enthusiastic as she made her request to Noah.
"Adopt me, please!"
But Noah was completely surprised by her unusual request. "W-What?" he said, completely confused and taken aback by the words coming from her mouth...
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To Be Continued~~~