She Is a Daughter Raised As the Son of a Duke

“Another punishment?”

“Yes. Another punishment.”

Milo readily accepted.

“If Clara Penso receives a fair punishment for what she has done, it’s okay. You can do as you wish, Your Grace.”

“Since Milo is okay with it, I’ll follow your opinion.”

“Thank you, Marquis. Thanks, Milo.”

Stella grabbed Milo’s shoulder excitedly.

“I want to follow that educational scene too.”

Milos raised his hand in agreement.

“I want to go too.”

I smiled and nodded.

“Sure. Let’s all go together.”

* * *

Inside the dark royal prison, the knights pushed Clovin and Clara into the same cell.

Thud – as they fell to the floor, their pride hurt, they grumbled as best as they could.

“Do they even know who we are, treating us like this!”

“Do you all want to die?! If we get out of here, we’ll kill all of you first!!”

However, the knights pretended not to hear and returned to their positions.

In the neighboring room, the Count and Countess tried to catch a glimpse of their children through the iron bars.

“Clovin, Clara?”

“Dad…?”

“Why are you two here…!”

Upon hearing their parents’ voices, the Penso siblings crawled to the iron bars and held onto them.

“Dad, why are you here?”

“Well…”

Having learned each other’s situations, they sighed and sat down huddled together.

“What should we do now… What should we do…”

The Countess, Elisa, wiped away tears that welled up in her eyes with a handkerchief.

Clovin shivered next to Clara.

“We won’t spend our whole lives imprisoned… Right? We didn’t do anything that wrong.”

“Brother, don’t say weak things like that. We must escape no matter what.”

However, the only way to escape this gloomy prison with no windows was to unlock the padlock attached to the iron bars.

Clara gazed at the iron bars and the padlock. With the gap between the bars, perhaps… she could pass her arm through, or so she hoped.

As dawn approached, the knights standing guard outside the prison started to doze off.

While the knights weren’t looking, Clara stuck her arm through the gap between the iron bars and tried to grab the padlock.

“Can it be untangled with straw…?”

“Since we don’t have the key, there’s no other choice.”

Clara attempted to use a tangled straw she found on the prison floor to unlock the padlock, but it wasn’t easy. Whenever she managed to fit it into the keyhole, the straw bent weakly and spun around inside.

“Why isn’t this working properly?”

Just as frustration was starting to rise, a silver glimmer slipped into the scene, and the padlock’s chain was carefully placed on the ground.

Not realizing who he was, Clara jumped back at the sudden clicking sound.

“Huh? It’s undone!”

“Really?”

Clovin came over to Clara’s side, and with a gentle push, the iron bar door opened easily.

“Thank goodness!”

“God helped us!”

They didn’t care why the padlock was undone; they were just excited about escaping.

The Penso couple woke up with a start at the sound of the cell door opening.

“How did you open it? Clara, Clovin, get us out too.”

“We understand. Just wait a moment.”

Clovin, who came out into the corridor, carefully moved to the adjacent room to avoid waking the sleeping knights.

Meanwhile, Clara worried that the knights might wake up and put them back in prison.

Clara shouted in a low voice, “Brother, when will we have time to save Mom and Dad? If the knights wake up again, there will be no chance!”

“Oh, I see…”

After placing the Penso couple’s room key on the ground, Clovin turned back to Clara, leaving the Penso couple baffled.

“What are you all doing? Leaving Mom and Dad behind?”

“We have to save Mom and Dad too!”

To ensure the knights wouldn’t wake up, Clovin answered quietly, “But we can’t help it. We have to stay alive too.”

Elisa shook the iron bars, looking bewildered at Clovin’s words.

Upon hearing Clovin’s words, the Count pulled back his collar and held his neck. Elisa opened her eyes wide and reprimanded him, “Clovin, have I not taught you anything? If we’re a family, we should do our best to save each other, even if it means risking our lives!”

“But Mom and Dad committed different crimes from us. Tax evasion, drug smuggling, unpaid labor exploitation, child exploitation… It was all Mom and Dad’s doing. It’s not fair to compare us to them.”

“Hah! If you committed a crime, you’re all the same criminals. What’s the point of lamenting the difference in crimes? Besides, you’re all still my children. You’re all part of the Penso family!”

“Mom is right. Please help us escape too, Clovin!”

Clovin tried to argue back, but Clara stopped him.

“Brother, the knights might wake up for real. Let’s just go.”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

“I hope Mom and Dad can escape too.”

With Clara’s final words, the Penso siblings left the prison.

“These kids…!”

Elisa’s hands shook as she held the iron bars because her own children had disappointed her.

She was not the kind of person who would just watch those who didn’t help her escape from prison actually escape.

The knights, who were sleeping soundly, were suddenly awakened by her loud voice.

“Escaping! My children are gone!”

The knights were startled by the voice and turned to look at the Penso couple’s cell, immediately realizing that the Penso siblings had escaped.

Under the dark night sky, Clara and Clovin, who had come out of the prison, ran with all their might.

“Clara, where should we go now?”

“I don’t know, but let’s get out of the palace first!”

“Will the knights follow us?”

When Clovin turned to look back, he saw that the knights were already following them.

“Darn it! Clara, they’re already following us to catch us!”

“Damn it!”

The distance between the Penso siblings and the knights quickly closed. Thinking they would be caught at this rate, they scattered and hid.

Clara hid behind the entrance of a building, and Clovin hid in the bushes.

“Huff… Huff…”

Clara breathed heavily. Her ankle hurt, and when she lifted her dress slightly, she saw blood oozing from the grazed skin caused by her shoes.

“Why am I, a noble, in this situation?”

But for now, not getting caught by the knights was the priority.

“Where should we go to avoid being caught and get out of the palace….”

As she looked around, an unidentified silver aura enveloped Clara. The silver aura lifted Clara into the air and carried her somewhere.

Startled, Clara almost let out a scream but managed to hold it in, as she didn’t want to be caught and put back into prison.

Meanwhile, the knights searched the area near the bushes where Clovin was hiding.

“Search carefully. He couldn’t have run too far.”

“Yes!”

Trembling with fear of getting caught, Clovin prayed.

‘Oh, dear God. Please, just this once, help me not get caught. I hope they leave quickly…’

At that moment, Clovin became curious about where Clara had hidden. If she had been caught, they would have known right away, but she didn’t hear either Clara’s voice or the knights saying they had caught Clara.

‘She must not have been caught. But I need to know where we both are…’

To figure out Clara’s location, Clovin cautiously looked around.

Just then! The light from a portable lamp illuminated Clovin’s face.

“We found him! We found Clovin Penso! Over here!”

Clovin quickly ran to the other side, but the knights surrounded him from all directions.

“There’s no use running away. Let’s go back to the prison obediently.”

With a resigned expression, Clovin sat down.

* * *

In the meantime, thanks to the silver aura, Clara was able to cross the palace wall unnoticed.

“Indeed, God is on my side.”

The silver aura led her to a carriage, and Clara didn’t hesitate to get on.

‘Seems like someone is helping me. When I meet them, I should praise them.’

The carriage seemed to have been waiting for her, and it departed without delay. The carriage was quite spacious, and the seats were comfortable, so Clara, who hadn’t slept a wink until dawn, let out a big yawn.

‘Ahh… Should I take a nap? The coachman will wake me up when we arrive.’

Without knowing the destination, Clara fell asleep.

“Hey, hey! Aren’t you waking up?”

At the break of dawn, someone tapped Clara’s body to wake her up.

Not fully awake, Clara blinked her eyes and sat up. The ground was cold. She realized she had been sleeping on the bare ground.

‘How did this happen…’

“You finally woke up. I didn’t expect an escaped prisoner to have time to nap.”

Clara looked up to see who the three people in front of her were.

Stella Nazret, May Flotina, and Milo Nazret.

Seeing them, Clara immediately understood the situation and regarded them warily.

“You were the ones who brought me here with that silver aura? What are you planning to do to me?”

Stella stood confidently with her arms crossed.

“Well, did you expect someone to kindly take an evil person like you home? Besides, you don’t have a home to go to anyway.”

“What are you talking about? Why wouldn’t I have a home?”

“Don’t you know your Penso family’s assets are being confiscated? Well, not that there would be much to confiscate anyway.”

“What…”

Unable to believe what she was hearing, Clara’s eyes widened. Unfortunately, unbelievable events continued.