Chapter 3: Avoiding The Ashbournes
Amidst the children’s shock and worried faces, Emilia looked at Shani with blatant disgust.
"So that awful smell is coming from that filthy girl?" she said arrogantly.
Her words immediately made Shani’s brothers and sisters frown. Even Cedric looked displeased.
"Is she the only eighteen-year-old girl here?" Emilia asked impatiently. Emilia paid no attention to Cedric’s displeased expression.
With a cold voice, Cedric replied, "She’s the only eighteen-year-old here. There has never been another child Shani’s age living in this orphanage."
Just as Emilia openly showed her disgust, Cedric made no effort to hide his hostility. His tone made it clear that the two of them were no longer welcome.
Not wanting to waste any more time, Emilia turned and headed straight for the hovercar without another word.
Only Butler Stone remained unconvinced. "Young Madam, you should still check the girl’s birthmark," he reminded her.
Emilia shot him a sharp look.
"Can’t you see she’s covered in that filthy, stinking mud? Besides, look at her hair and eyes. She doesn’t resemble Samuel Ashbourne or Tala Kestrel in the slightest."
Butler Stone tried once more to persuade her, but Emilia continued walking toward the car.
"If that filthy girl is really my niece, I’ll eat cow dung," she muttered with obvious disgust.
In the end, Butler Stone apologized to Cedric for the unpleasant encounter before climbing into the hovercar as well.
Surrounded by Cedric and her younger siblings, who bombarded her with questions, Shani quietly watched the hovercar disappear down the road.
She had to admit Butler Stone lived up to his reputation as an experienced butler.
He had insisted on checking her birthmark, unlike Emilia, who let her arrogance cloud her judgment.
His attitude toward Cedric had also been respectful.
Even though Cedric lived in a small village, he was once an instructor at Grand Academy. He had many connections that could cause trouble for the Ashbournes if he ever chose to use them.
"Hurry and wash yourself. I’ll draw some water from the well," Cedric said, pulling Shani’s attention away from the now-vanished hovercar.
"I’ll heat the water!" Mina volunteered.
"I’ll get you some clean clothes!"
"I’ll bring a towel!"
"I’ll pick some Thousand Fragrance Flowers!"
The other children eagerly chimed in, each offering to help.
A smile spread across Shani’s dirt-covered face. Feeling their warmth and concern once again filled her heart with comfort.
Her real family was Rowan House, not those Ashbourne bastards.
"This isn’t cow dung." Shani pointed at her grinning face. "It’s just mud from around the Corpse Flower."
Cedric, Mina, and the other children all stared blankly at her.
A few seconds later, they let out a collective sigh of relief. So it was only mud mixed with the Corpse Flower.
True to its name, the Corpse Flower gave off a foul odor similar to rotting waste. Its muddy greenish-brown surroundings were often mistaken for animal dung.
"What a coincidence that this happened today," Cedric said, narrowing his eyes.
"Accidents can happen anytime, Director," Shani replied confidently.
Cedric wanted to ask another question, but Shani had already turned around.
"I’m going to take a bath." She didn’t dare stay any longer, afraid Cedric would realize she was lying.
She had deliberately smeared that foul-smelling mud all over herself to stop Emilia from checking the birthmark on her chest.
She had also changed the color of her hair and eyes so that the observant Butler Stone wouldn’t suspect anything.
Following behind her, Mina looked relieved, but her brow remained furrowed.
"Shani, you obviously rubbed that mud into your hair on purpose. And you did it in front of the barn, not near where the Corpse Flowers grow."
Shani almost praised the little girl for her sharp observation.
Without the slightest shame, she made up an excuse.
"I had a bad feeling about the people coming today. Did you see that woman’s attitude? What if she decided to take one of us with her? I figured it was better to scare them away."
The eight-year-old girl’s face turned serious as she carefully considered Shani’s words.
Eventually, she nodded. "You’re right. If one of our brothers or sisters ended up living with someone like her..."
Mina didn’t even want to imagine it.
Shani laughed silently. Because in her previous life... She had been the one to live with that family.
...
After taking a bath, Shani headed to Cedric’s office on the first floor.
Now that she had avoided returning to the Ashbournes, her next priority was making sure she could enroll in Grand Novabeast Academy, the most prestigious academy on the continent.
She had to. Only then could her Cashback 500% System finally activate.
She had only learned this shortly before her death, during the Beast Resonance with the partner the Ashbournes had brought for her.
After following her for fifteen years without doing anything, the system had finally displayed a new notification.
"Resonance Connected! Cashback Target Found! Jaxen Cole!"
Jaxen Cole was the life prisoner who had performed the Beast Resonance with her.
That was when Shani finally learned the truth. Her Cashback target was her Resonance Partner.
Rage surged through her heart every time she thought about it.
The Ashbournes had countless opportunities to find Shani a Resonance Partner. They simply chose not to.
She also could have entered Grand Novabeast Academy through one of House Ashbourne’s admission slots and found her partner there.
Every year, Grand Academy granted the ten most prestigious houses in each kingdom two guaranteed admission slots. Neither entrance exams nor standard qualifications were required.
At the time, only two members of House Ashbourne were old enough to enroll. Shani and Emilia’s beloved daughter, Vivianne.
Yet instead of giving the second slot to Shani, the family unanimously decided to give it to Vivianne’s personal maid.
Shani wasn’t even given the chance to object. She wasn’t allowed to attend family meetings in the first place.
Regret and fury burned inside her.
If only the Ashbournes had allowed her to enroll at the academy, she would have met her Resonance Partner at eighteen. Her life would never have ended at the age of twenty.
Shani slowly calmed herself.
This time she would make them pay for every ounce of regret they had left her with.
...