Spring in My Grasp - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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(1) Character is destiny!

Character is fate itself.
If that were true, then it would make sense that Roan Eleanor Hartwood’s life had changed at some point.
“Miss! Miss Rowan has opened her eyes!”
The maid’s shrill cry pierced my ears. I opened my eyes in confusion and looked around.
‘What is this? Surely…’
I had been living alone in a Basement Single Room, barely scraping by with grueling part-time work. As an orphan abandoned by both parents, with no one to rely on, my last memory was of a gleaming truck approaching terrifyingly close as I made my way home from work.
‘The truck… it was coming so close…’
On that dark night, on that Quiet Road, the truck—whether driven by someone drowsy or not—had barreled forward without slowing, terrifyingly fast. My last memory, wrapped in exhaustion as I trudged homeward, was the deafening roar of the truck bearing down on me.
‘At that intensity, I should have been hit by the truck…’
As I was lost in thought, suddenly several people rushed into the room along with the maids.
“Rowan!”
“You’ve finally awakened, Rowan!”
Rowan? Are they calling me?
I slowly looked around. I examined those who had approached my bedside. A plush, cozy bed, and a spacious, comfortable room. It was an environment the original me could never have imagined. And moreover…
“Do you know how worried your Father has been!”
A father, for someone without parents. This was utterly surreal. My brow furrowed slightly as I inhabited Rowan’s body.
‘Let me think about this situation…’
I observed the middle-aged man gazing at me with concerned eyes. Dressed in splendid medieval attire, he resembled a nobleman from a painting.
Behind him stood a woman with tears streaming down her face, looking at me. She appeared to be around the same age as my father, dabbing at her tears, yet her gaze swept over my condition with a subtly sharp intensity.
“Rowan, my heart has been breaking with worry for you!”
The woman I had been staring at, the one pretending to wipe away tears, suddenly threw open her arms and cried out.
‘This is ridiculous, like some theatrical performance.’
I turned away in exasperation and examined the two young people watching me intently from behind her. With hair color similar to the woman’s and faces bearing a striking resemblance, they appeared to be siblings.
“Sister, why would you do that?”
“Older sister, please don’t do that again!”
My lips curved into a smile.
‘Look at this.’
A whole family had suddenly appeared in my life—something that was never meant to be.
***
Roan Eleanor Hartwood.
She was the eldest daughter of the Hartwood Marquis Family and the sole child of a deceased first wife. Like a Cinderella from a fairy tale, Roan had come to live with her stepmother in childhood, sharing a home with the two stepsiblings born before her arrival.
Despite the stepmother’s cruelty and the stepsiblings’ torment, Roan had barely endured life in the earldom by clinging solely to her father’s affection.
Yet that was merely her delusion. Her stepmother, eager to dispose of the now-grown Roan, had thrust an absurd marriage proposal upon her and forced the union through.
‘Throughout that process, Father must have listened only to what the stepmother said.’
Roan, stretched out lengthwise across the bed, placed a slice of fruit from the nightstand into her mouth. Since her body was indisposed, the maids attended to her diligently, bringing refreshments and meals directly to her room at appropriate times. Quietly observing and assessing the situation, she organized the facts she had gathered thus far.
Alexis Adrian Glister.
The second son of the Glister Earl Family and their sole troublemaker. He appeared to be the one with whom she had been arranged to marry. Unlike his upright elder brother, he had caused all manner of disturbances and scandals since childhood, making him essentially cast out by the family.
The only thing he could boast of was his blood connection to the Glister Earl Family, yet as a second son, even that could not be claimed as any particular distinction or advantage.
A ruffian who had dabbled in everything—alcohol, violence, women, and every conceivable trouble—he was someone no family, however humble, would ever offer their daughter to as a husband. And yet she had been matched with him.
‘I have no idea how they managed to convince anyone, but…’
Her father, the Hartwood Marquis, appeared on the surface to cherish her, yet he seemed far more swayed by the stepmother. Trusting such a man and conducting her life within these walls felt far too unreliable.
‘I seem to have been struck by a truck and died, but I have no idea why things turned out this way.’
For now, she had to accept that she was Roan Eleanor Hartwood. And the moment she accepted it cleanly, she felt a sigh of relief escape her as the “true Roan” completely departed from her body.
The “true Roan” had trembled and relinquished this life without hesitation, departing to the Afterlife. In her place now stood she herself, brimming with the yearning for life.
‘It is not incomprehensible.’
She sighed faintly as she grasped the “true Roan’s” current circumstances. The “true Roan,” faced with marriage to the notorious ruffian of House Glister, had found the prospect utterly abhorrent.
She had been forced to attend a family gathering, and even there, Alexis had appeared thoroughly intoxicated and covered in blood.
—What? You’re marrying me?
His face was so battered and swollen from blows and fists that it was impossible to discern what he actually looked like.
The moment he extended his hand toward Roan with a giggling laugh, she lost consciousness. When the “true Roan” came to her senses some time later, she clung desperately to her father, weeping.
—Please, I beg you, call off this marriage! Please, Father!
Yet the Hartwood Marquis did not grant his eldest daughter’s plea. The wedding proceeded steadily forward, regardless of her wishes.
Unable to bear it any longer, the “true Roan” attempted to flee in the dead of night with a childhood friend she had long known. But even that could not alter Roan’s fate.
—I’m sorry, Roan.
Stripped of all her mother’s jewels that she had brought for the escape, Roan could only stand in utter despair. The childhood friend—the man she had cherished for so long—had taken her jewels and abandoned her in some desolate place.
—You can just go to the Glister Earl Family and live comfortably.
Robbed even of her mother’s jewels and abandoned by the man she had trusted, Roan eventually wandered aimlessly before throwing herself into the river. By good fortune, a passing stranger saved her life, and she returned to the Hartwood Marquis Estate to receive care.
‘For a delicately raised daughter of an earldom, it must have been an unbearable ordeal.’
Roan—she who now inhabited Roan’s body—sprang from the bed and stood before the mirror.
Luxuriant golden-brown hair, large sparkling blue eyes, pallid complexion… The sickly pallor still clung heavily, yet there remained a hint of fear in her expression.
‘Roan.’
She gazed at herself in the mirror and reached her hand toward it. Then she pressed her forehead gently against the cold glass surface. The soul had already departed without hesitation, leaving only an empty shell that conveyed the mirror’s cold temperature.
‘I will survive, no matter what.’
The yearning for life that had never wavered, even when she lived alone in a single room without parents. Perhaps it was for this reason that her will to live and Roan’s soul had aligned at this peculiar moment, resulting in this.
Roan had cast off her body and life as though shaking away dust, departing completely. And she, now wearing Roan’s form, harbored no intention of resignation, regardless of her circumstances.
No matter how difficult things became, she wanted to live. She found happiness in delicious food, and a single gathering at her workplace could brighten her entire day. For someone like her, Roan’s current life was nothing short of luxury. She could never abandon anything.
***
“I’ll get married.”
During a quiet and melancholic dinner, Rowan Eleanor Hartwood suddenly broke the silence. Perhaps without her presence, the evening meal would have been far more lively. The moment she spoke, her family members’ eyes widened in astonishment, and they turned to regard her.
“Rowan!”
Her Stepmother was the first to exclaim.
“What a remarkable thought!”
She was determined to drive me out through marriage or any other means available. It was difficult to overcome someone possessed of such negative obsession. Moreover, I had not yet properly adapted to my current life. In such circumstances, retreat was the wisest course.
Rowan gazed at her Stepmother and offered a subtle smile.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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