Thrown Into A New World: Let The Punishment Begin!

The Baroness had just asked about how his stay at the academy had been and the young boy was more than willing to fill her in on the details.

He was quite articulate while explaining how the dormitories functioned and his schedule during his stay there.

When he came to the part where he began to mention the friends and acquaintances he had made, Eddie was excited when one particular name came to his mind.

Therefore, he rushed to reveal it, and as soon as that name echoed in the room, both Hilda and the Baroness widened their eyes.

However, the young girl was the first to recover and lowered her head in the very next second.

Her long lashes cast shadows over her cheeks as she stared at her plate.

.....

This was the sight that the Baroness, who had glimpsed at her from the corner of her eye, had noticed a second later.

Seeing that her daughter was focusing on the meal, she sighed inwardly before turning towards Eddie to listen to what he was talking about.

However, both the mother and the daughter’s minds kept circling the name that they had just heard.

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Baroness’s thoughts went back to a certain memory of an incident that had taken place during the time she was pregnant with Hilda.

She had stayed in the Capital most of her life and hence her mannerisms and way of life varied from those who had stayed in the South all their lives.

Therefore, after she had gotten married, she did not have too many people she was close to.

Especially any outsiders who did not belong to her husband’s family did not deserve much attention from her.

Due to this aloof nature of hers, she had not been able to get acquainted with the Madames of the neighboring fiefs who often met once every few months.

However, her mother-in-law, the old madame, had a very good relationship with the other nobles of the neighboring lands from the very beginning.

One such fief belonged to the Lumex family which happened to be their immediate neighbors.

During the old Madame’s generation, the two fiefs were close and had always thought of joining the two families through marriage.

Sadly, only boys were born to both the families which had thwarted their plans.

The then Viscountess Lumex had two sons who were already quite old when the old madame gave birth to her first child, the current Baron.

By the time a daughter was born in their family, the two Lumex boys had already gotten betrothed to other women so they could not fulfill their desire to join the two families through marriage in that generation.

Therefore, when the Baron’s wife had gotten pregnant, the old lady had reminded them of the promise they had made to the Lumex family in the past.

Since the Baron had a pleasant relationship with the current Viscount Lumex and also considered him to be a wise senior, he was willing to go along with his mother’s wishes.

The promise made in the past could finally be fulfilled in this coming generation.

Though King Ophire had already abolished the practice of child betrothals, it was a fairly new rule and hence had not been taken seriously by many of the families.

This was one such case and considering how far they were from the Capital, they were confident about getting away with it.

Hence, even before Hilda was born, she was already betrothed to the present Viscount Lumex’s only son, Porte Lumex who was five years old then.

The Baroness did not have much say in this regard but she was hesitant to let her daughter’s future be decided for her even before she entered this world.

She wasn’t even sure that she would give birth to a girl but the rest of their family had already planned everything out for the unborn child.

She had gone through the pain caused by an unsuccessful betrothal and hence did not wish her child to experience the same distress.

However, everyone else seemed to be quite excited about the union of the two families and her voice had been suppressed without a trace.

Her mother-in-law had already promised that if a girl was born then she would marry into the Lumex fief once she comes of age.

Unhappy with this outcome, the Baroness had requested her husband to take her to a silent place where she could recuperate during the remaining months of her pregnancy.

She wanted to use this opportunity to cool her mind while also thinking about how to avert the disaster that awaited her child if she turned out to be a daughter.

She did not want her daughter to follow the same path as her and was hoping that something would change.

However, who would have thought that her child, who turned out to be a girl, would get stolen soon after birth.

Through her manipulations, everyone assumed that the child was dead, and thus, she had indirectly managed to dissolve the childhood betrothal that had been made between the two families.

Later on, she gave birth to a son, Eddie, and it was obvious that the betrothal partner could not be changed to this second child of hers.

After all, the Viscount of the Lumex fief only had one son and hence once again the hopes of joining the two families had been crushed.

In this way, while the Baroness’s desire to end the betrothal had been fulfilled, she had lost her daughter in the process.

This had been a regretful event for the grieving mother but now that she had reunited with her child, she was happy again.

This time, she neither wished her daughter to be forced into marriage with someone she did not like nor would she let any force in this world try to separate them from each other.

If need be then she was even willing to go against her mother-in-law for the sake of her daughter’s happy future.

Though the boy from the Lumex fief was a good child and Eddie loved him as an elder brother who often took care of him at the academy, she hoped that their relationship would remain just that.

She did not want her daughter’s future to get connected to someone else just to fulfill a promise made by the older generations in the past.

Therefore, she would do her best to prevent all talks of their betrothal from being brought up now that her daughter was back.

‘Hilda deserves only the best.’ She declared when she thought of the hardships her child had faced earlier in her life.

This only meant that the latter part of her life should be filled with love and happiness which the Baroness would ensure at all costs.

__

Unaware of the thoughts going through her mother’s mind, Hilda smiled when she thought of the young man she had known and cherished in her past life.

‘He was just the same.’ She shook her head with a helpless smile on her face when she heard Eddie singing praises about the son of the Lumex family.

This same boy had, in her previous life, turned into a splendid young man who was an excellent friend to her.

If there was someone she could trust blindly then it was this very person.

Just after a few interactions, Hilda had realized how great a person he was.

Though they had not known each other for long, he was always there when she needed a shoulder to cry on and was the first person she confided in when she was in trouble.

Ever since she had reunited with her family, he was the one person who had always tried to make her feel comfortable and gave her a sense of security through his considerate actions.

Therefore, if there was someone she considered to be her true friend in this whole wide world then only his name would come to her mind.

‘Porte, I hope we meet soon.’ She prayed and her heart felt warm when she recalled the gentle smile he had on his face each time she saw him.

Reminiscing about the pleasant memories she had with him, Hilda could not wait to meet him once again in this life.