I Ran Away And The Reverse Harem Started Chapter 118

“Think whatever you want. I just feel sorry about everything. If you had asked our family for help, Rumiz, you wouldn’t have committed a crime, and our family wouldn’t have had to suffer for twenty years.”

“Hahaha!”

“What’s so funny?”

At Rumiz’s loud laughter, Yvette’s eyebrows shot up sharply. Rumiz spoke in an irritated and somewhat annoyed voice.

“I just want to say I was tired of everything, miss. Everything.”

“……”

“I was tired of the kids’ dad gambling, tired of my life having to serve nobles all the time. When my father got sick, you gave me a year’s salary in advance. But after pouring all that money into treatment, I had to work myself to death again. I was just tired of that kind of life!”

She swept her face with her dry, rough hand.

“Ah, really… Are you saying I had to go back and beg the same person who gave me a year’s advance pay? I want to say I was tired of that life. A life leeching off the convenience of the rich. A life where all I could do was wait for someone to reach out a hand—that life itself was shameful.”

Rumiz’s dull eyes held a glimmer of resentment. For a moment, she looked as if she had aged years in a short time.

She had been laughing nervously but soon became frighteningly calm.

“…But I couldn’t just die as I pleased. Because of the kids. If I died, no one would take care of them.”

“……”

“I still feel sorry to your family, miss. I made your family miserable just to save my son.”

Yvette let out a scoff at that deceit. Rumiz clenched her teeth and argued back.

“But I really wanted to escape. And then, Baron Leuwis reached out to me. He mentioned a huge sum of money.”

“……”

“I thought I could be happy forever with that money. Instead of helping manage someone else’s house, I thought I could finally live my own life. I believed I wouldn’t have to live a shameful life anymore.”

“So, were you happy?”

“……”

“Happiness gained through someone else’s misery must have been sweet, right?”

At Yvette’s words, Rumiz shut her mouth, seemingly at a loss for words. She looked far too shabby for someone who had supposedly wanted a new life.

Dull, gray eyes, hair gone completely white, sagging skin, and thin, rough lips. That’s how she must have looked to my eyes, to Yvette’s, to everyone’s.

Yvette especially had known Rumiz well when she was thirty. She also knew how much Rumiz now looked like a completely different person.

Maybe because she sensed the blatant gaze, Rumiz’s cheeks reddened faintly. She shrank back, as if she couldn’t bear the situation.

Meanwhile, Yvette slowly observed Rumiz with her arms crossed. She felt neither anger nor resignation anymore.

Instead, there was a sense of having lost any remaining will after seeing the kidnapper’s pitiful appearance.

“I don’t think I need to hear any more of your story. That’s enough.”

“……”

“I don’t want to hear any more of your pathetic excuses. So now, tell me clearly. Which orphanage did you abandon Irene at, what name and surname did you give her, and why did you keep working in our house for ten more years after that? Why are you confessing all your sins only now?”

Yvette’s gaze flicked briefly toward Rosieta. Rumiz, seemingly unaware of that look, opened her mouth.

“As you know, I wasn’t in Rewybourn when Miss Irene disappeared. You were told I went on vacation to the capital, right?”

“Yes.”

“But that wasn’t true. I pretended to take a vacation to avoid suspicion, bought a train ticket, then waited in a nearby inn for the right time. And then, I secretly took Miss Irene, who was alone in the mansion.”

“……”

“Maybe because she was used to me, she never cried even when I took her to an unfamiliar place.”

“She would’ve. That girl liked you.”

Rumiz paused for a moment at Yvette’s calm words.

“…Holding her hand, I took a night train to the far west end of the kingdom. There was an orphanage in a shabby, poor village with few people. I thought no one would ever find her if I left her there.”

“……”

“I wrote a new name on a note and put it in her pocket. I thought if she had a name, the orphanage director might take a little better care of her.”

At those words, Yvette clenched her fists. Behind her, Daniel, who stood by the wall, also looked like he had a lot to say. It was because of Rumiz’s face—like she was at ease after naming the child.

What difference does a name make? She had stolen the name of a child from a proper family and made her an orphan.

A life of poverty, of lacking everything. A life where you had to struggle not to be swallowed by inferiority.

Rosieta also felt a faint irritation. Rumiz’s actions were deceitful and had nothing to do with considering Irene Büllossen. It was just a way to ease her own conscience.

And then, in the next moment, I had to hold my breath at what Rumiz said.

“Her name was Rosieta. There were roses blooming on the train platform. The surname…”

“……”

“It was Jensen. I took it from the village name where I stayed in Rewybourn.”

 

 

****

 

 

 

Rumiz was a woman who had just turned thirty. She had been working for the Büllossen family for ten years, got married early, and had a daughter and a son. Her husband worked at the harbor, sailing far away and only showing up once every few months.

Rumiz had lived at the Büllossen estate when she first started working, but after getting married, she moved to the outskirts of the capital. She got up at dawn to care for her children before going to work at the mansion and returned home late at night.

Her husband didn’t send money regularly, but he sent his wages with some consistency. Around the time their eldest daughter was old enough to look after her younger brother, Rumiz noticed the amount of money her husband sent had dropped significantly.

Was his company struggling? Had his boss cut his pay?

But her husband never sent any letters besides the money. And around that time, she found out he was spending his days at a gambling den near the docks.

Everything felt miserable and pathetic to Rumiz. She hadn’t even married him out of love.

It was just—because all the other young women in town were doing it. She couldn’t be the only one not to get married, so she found a suitable man and went along with it. She didn’t think she could survive her bleak life alone, so she clung to a man.

Who could have known it would backfire so badly?

Her husband secretly spent all his wages, racked up debts, and even dipped into the savings Rumiz had carefully built. That was when the Büllossen family had moved to Jensen in Rewybourn.

She had just barely repaid the year’s wages she had borrowed for her father’s medical bills. Even just paying that back had been hellish.

But the weather in Jensen had been incredibly warm. The salty sea breeze, nobles in light clothing, soft sunlight and green ridges. And the smiling faces of the Büllossen family…

She stood under the shade of a tree and watched them. From afar, the Büllossen family looked so happy—like nothing could ever disturb their peace.

At that moment, Rumiz felt miserable enough to want to die.

‘Why do I have to live like this?’

What kind of life was this? Why did she always have to be chased by debt and age away caring for her family?

Eventually, the debt collectors came. Rumiz thought her husband had been watching the kids while she worked in Jensen. But he had run away.

The debt collectors had already found their house in the capital and trashed it. Her children cried, and a letter came saying her mother had come and barely managed to calm them down.

The debt collectors followed her all the way to Jensen and threatened her. Her husband had racked up sixty thousand billings in gambling debt under her name! It was an amount she would need to work nonstop for over two years—without eating or sleeping—to repay.

To make things worse, her younger son fell ill. It was tuberculosis.

Her husband, unable to handle the mounting interest, ran away. Her family members fell sick one after another. Since her husband had kept the debt hidden, the interest was about to exceed the principal. It was too late when she found out.

Rumiz even felt dizzy. It was like someone had pushed her into hell. Like someone had maliciously dragged her life into the gutter.

‘Why is my life like this? Why can’t I live any better? What did I do wrong?!’

She had worked over ten years as a maid in someone else’s house, and yet she had nothing to show for it. Now she had no home, no assets—only family members who kept getting sick.

She used to have some youth and pride left…

She stared blankly out at the distant horizon. She could see the bright green ridges and the sea, and in front of them, the Büllossen family leisurely gathered under a gazebo, painting together.

At that sight, Rumiz twisted her lips.

Why were others allowed peaceful happiness while she rolled around in a pit?

Rumiz barely swallowed her tears. What was even more horrible was the thought of having to ask the Büllossen family—who had already given her a year’s wages in advance—for help again.

The head maid would ask if she needed more money, and the other maids would gossip about her misfortune. But more than that, she hated her own situation.

And once again, she’d have to work herself to the bone, repaying the debt… When would she ever be free from it this time?

That was when Baron Leuwis approached her.

To be precise, it was one of the baron’s men. He promised a large sum if she would kidnap and dispose of Irene Büllossen. They had already investigated and knew about Rumiz’s financial troubles.

Even in desperation, kidnapping the daughter of the family she served? Rumiz wasn’t bold enough to steal someone else’s child.

And yet, she couldn’t deny a small rebellious feeling had started to grow inside her.

If she just closed her eyes and did this one thing, everything would be solved.

It was true that Rumiz had worked at the Büllossen estate for a long time, but it wasn’t because she loved or respected them. It was because they acknowledged her skills and paid her slightly more than other places.

And at some point, watching their family stirred a dark swamp in one corner of her heart. She knew well that the feeling was jealousy and envy.

The more wretched and dark her life became, the more the sparkling Büllossen family made her feel sick.

Rumiz asked for a few weeks’ leave. The head maid, knowing Rumiz was a diligent worker, agreed. Her son’s illness made for a good excuse.

She looked after Irene, who was sitting under a rose bush. Holding her close, she headed straight to the train platform.

“Rumi, where are we going?”

“We’re going to see your parents, miss.”

Rumiz’s heart pounded, fearing the child might burst into tears. But Irene was a sweet and calm child.

When told she’d be with her parents, Irene fell asleep on Rumiz’s back. Rumiz passed her off as her daughter and transferred between several trains. After traveling all night, they reached the far western edge of the kingdom.

“If you stand here, your parents will come for you.”

“Okay.”

“You mustn’t cry or make a fuss. If you do, they’ll never come. But you’re a good girl, so you’ll listen to me, right?”

“Okay.”

Rumiz changed her into plain, cheap clothes instead of the clean, expensive ones she’d been wearing. Inside her coat pocket, she placed a note with a new name written on it.

Rosieta Jensen. For something made up on the spot, it sounded believable.

Even though she was abandoning her as an orphan, she thought leaving a familiar-sounding name might make the orphanage director call her by it. If she used the name Irene too long, she might get caught.

And so, Irene stood there in front of the orphanage. She didn’t cry or throw a fit. She was a mature and lovely child.

As Rumiz walked away toward the train station, she kept glancing back.

The child was watching her. Her heart beat so fast it felt like it would jump out of her throat, but she forced herself to walk faster.

And then she returned to the capital—alone.