Copycat Sister Disguised as Me Seduced Regent, but I'm His Bride

Everyone knew the Regent was brutally tyrannical, and that he especially loathed women of plain appearance.

A minister's daughter, only because she accidentally bumped into the Regent's carriage,

was executed for high treason on his order.

I was plain as could be.

Yet my half-sister deliberately disguised herself as me to seduce the Regent.

After she came home, she couldn't wait to force me to confess.

"Sister, hurry to the Regent's Manor and beg his pardon. Soothe the Regent's anger, or what if the whole House of Coleman is dragged down with us?"

My father cursed furiously too.

"You shameless creature, how could I ever have raised such trash? I'll beat you to death right now, before you bring ruin on the family."

But they didn't know that I was beautifulI had only ever hidden it with makeup.

Just as my father was about to bring the family rod down on me,

the Regent suddenly arrived at the House of Coleman to make a formal marriage proposal.

"I have come today to propose marriage to the legitimate daughter and heiress of the House of Coleman."

...

I am the legitimate daughter and heiress of the House of Coleman, but my mother died young.

My father doted on Teresa alone.

He handed the running of the household over to Teresa to manage.

Teresa mistreated me on purpose.

In winter there was no charcoal fire in my courtyard.

In summer, the food the servants brought me was spoiled.

My half-sister, though, lived every day in fine silks and rich foodher clothes and comforts made her look more like the legitimate heiress than I, the true one, did.

When I was five, only because someone praised my hair, saying it was lovely, like silk,

my half-sister ordered the servants to pin me to the ground and cut off my long hair with scissors.

Then she deliberately pushed me into the water.

I ran a high fever for a full two weeks, and only afterward did I go to my father's study to ask him for justice.

But my father was busy teaching Rosalind her calligraphy, and when he heard me, he only waved his hand at me impatiently, said he understood, and had me driven out.

The next day, Teresa came to my courtyard.

She said lightly, "The eldest young lady has some scheming servants leading her astray. Today I'll set right the bad habits in this courtyard on the young lady's behalf."

She had the maid my mother left me beaten to death, and placed her own people around me.

From then on, my days in the House of Coleman grew even harder.

After that, I learned to pretend.

So that Rosalind would stop targeting me,

I began to learn how to do makeup, painting my naturally beautiful features into something plain and ordinary.

Until, a month ago, Rosalind suddenly became much kinder to me.

She brought a lovely hairpin to my courtyard and said it was a gift to make amends.

She said, "Sister, everything in the past was because I didn't know any better. We're sisters, of one flesh, and we ought to support each other. From now on let's get along well. Please forgive me, sister, won't you?"

Her expression was sincere, her tone hopeful.

I looked at her and said softly, "All right."

After that, Rosalind simply moved into my courtyard, eating and sleeping beside me every day, calling it building our bond as sisters.

She copied the way I ate, the way I walked, the way I read...

Wore my clothes, used my perfumes, took my handkerchiefs...

She said, "I just love you, sister, and want to be a little closer to you."

My father praised her too, saying she was sweet and sensible, with more of the bearing of a legitimate heiress than I had.

And because of that, my days in the House of Coleman became much easier.

The servants no longer dared to slight me.

That morning, Rosalind begged me to do her hair.

"Sister, I'm going to the temple fair today. Could you do my hair in your usual style, and lend me that pink dress you wear most often?"

Smiling, I combed her hair and found the clothes for her.

Then she disguised herself to look like me and said with a smile,

"This plain look of yours is rather pretty after all, sister."

I looked at her and smiled back.

By sunset, Rosalind came running back in tears.

She demanded of me,

"Sister, if you wanted to go to the temple fair, you could have told Father. Why did you sneak out all alone?"

Before my father could explode with rage, she leaned close to my ear.

"You didn't really think I wanted us to be loving sisters, did you? All this time I've just been using you to pass the days."

My father had me kneel in the ancestral hall as punishment.

My half-sister came to see me.

She ordered the servants to bring a brocade quilt, knee cushions, and salve for my wounds.

The servants throughout the manor all said she treated me wonderfully.

In front of a crowd of ladies and young misses, she comforted me.

"Don't be sad, sister. Once Father's temper cools, he'll let you out on his own. I'll plead for you before Father too."

"But you never, ever should have snuck out behind Father's back. Even that could be forgiven, but how could you go and lie about it?"

"Sister, so many ladies and young misses saw you that day."

The next day, the good name of the second young miss of the House of Coleman had spread beyond the manor's walls.

Everyone praised her for being kind and generous, while saying I was devious and a habitual liar.

Teresa said as well, "The one Rosalind loves best is her older sister. The two of them have always been so close."

Faced with his colleagues' compliments, my father smiled and praised Rosalind too.

"It's mainly that Rosalind is sensible and good-natured."

"As for my legitimate daughterwell, the less said the better."

But the moment all the guests were gone, Rosalind's face changed at once.

She threw all my clothes into the pond and made me put on the wet ones she'd just fished back out.

"I've worn these rags right along with you for over a month. I suffered plenty to ruin your reputation, and you're going to pay me back double."

The servants forced me down to kneel on a path covered in gravel.

She kicked me again and again.

I was covered in wounds, but I clenched my teeth and said nothing.

She spoke with disgust.

"Why do you just lie there like a dead thing, no reaction at all? So boring."

To get a rise out of me, she smashed the jade bracelet my mother had left me right in front of my eyes.

I had always kept the bracelet at the bottom of my trunk, and every day I took it out just to look at it.

Now it lay on the ground, broken into several pieces.

She stepped on the jade bracelet and ground it hard under her foot.

"Are you planning to gather up all the pieces after I leave and figure out some way to fit the bracelet back together?"

Her smile was vicious.

"Keep dreaming."

I stared and stared at the bracelet on the ground, and couldn't stop myself from reaching out.

She stomped on my hand at once, grinding down hard.

She laughed, thoroughly pleased.

"I knew you'd come to pick it up."

"Go on, beg me. As long as you admit your mother was a whore who stole the rightful wife's position that should have been my concubine mother's, I'll give the bracelet back."

I looked at her coldly, my whole body shaking, but I refused to speak.

She kicked the bracelet into the lake beside us.

"It's fine. Everything your mother left behind, I'll destroy it piece by pieceincluding you."

"The place of legitimate daughter of the House of Coleman should have been mine to begin with."

That night I came down with a chill.

I lay in bed, aching all over, tears falling without stop.

Outside the door the servants sneered.

"How can she be so blind as to offend the Second Miss again? Is the Second Miss someone she can afford to offend? She's got it coming."

"We really are unlucky, getting assigned to this jinx's courtyard to look after her. I just want to be in the Second Miss's courtyard."

My father cursed me for a bad omen too.

"Sick every single day, exactly like that jinx of a mother of hers. She's drained all the good fortune out of my manor with her sickness."

I held back my tears and curled up in bed.

Desperately, I thought of the words my mother had said to me when she was gravely ill.

"Gretchen, you have to be all right. You have to live, and live well."

"You mustn't let anything happen to you. Things will always get better."

And I believed it toothat sooner or later, things would get better.

I had only just recovered from my illness.

Then Rosalind came rushing back to the manor in a panic, saying I had offended the Regent.

She was trembling all over.

"Sister, how could you seduce the Regent? Do you want the entire House of Coleman to be buried with you?"

When she finished, she leaned close to my ear and whispered.

"Fool. You didn't really think I'd spend such a fortune just to ruin your reputation, did you? I want your life."

"With your history of lying, everyone in the Capital will believe you really are capable of clinging to power and seducing the Regent. No one will suspect that I framed you. You'll be dead soon."

My father flew into a rage and hurled his teacup at me.

"The Regent loathes plain, homely women above all. Looking as you do, you still dare to dream of clinging to the powerful."

"How could my house ever have such a shameless daughter as you?"

Teresa spoke up at once.

"My lord, since things have come to this, all we can do is let the eldest young lady go to the Regent's Manor herself to beg forgiveness. Perhaps that will spare the rest of the household from being dragged down with her."

The Regent was brutal beyond measure.

He loathed women who tried to climb by clinging to power. Not long ago, the legitimate daughter of the Minister's household had been executed for high treason simply for accidentally bumping into the Regent's carriage.

At those words my father's eyes lit up; clearly Teresa's suggestion pleased him greatly.

Teresa wore a smug smile.

Rosalind could barely contain her delight.

"Sister, you brought this folly on yourself. There's nothing to be done about it."

"Don't worry. Once you're dead, we'll all pay our respects to you."

The moment she said that, my father ordered the family rod brought out.

He beat me until I was gravely injured, then locked me in the ancestral hall.

He meant to escort me to the Regent's Manor himself the next day.

Rosalind came to the ancestral hall to see me again.

She sat across from me, eating sweets at her leisure, smiling.

"Sister, you should have died long ago. Who told you to stand in my way and my mother's way?"

"There's a law in this land that even if an official loses his wife, he cannot elevate a concubine to legitimate wife so long as the wife has living children. So my mother is truly the mistress of this house, yet for all these years she's only been called a concubine, not even qualified to attend the noble ladies' banquets."

"And because I'm an illegitimate daughter, the noble young ladies of the Capital shun me, and even my marriage is affected by it."

"For the sake of his name, afraid it would harm his future and the prestige of the house, Father has always refused to let you die of illness. So there was no other waymy mother and I had to finish you off ourselves."

She looked at me, her eyes full of jealousy, resentment, bitterness, and glee.

"Once you're dead, my mother will be the legitimate wife, and I'll be the legitimate daughter and heiress."

"Then your mother's dowry will all be ours, and I'll carry everything she left you into my own marriage."

"Oh, rightI forgot to tell you. Do you know how your mother died? She had bad luck; she happened to be carrying a boy, so my mother made sure she died in childbirth. Two lives, gone at once. You were supposed to have a younger brother, you know. But soon the three of you will be reunited."

She threw a sweet in my face.

"That's a treat I'm granting you. After tomorrow, you'll never taste it again."

"And your mother's memorial tabletI'll find a chance to burn that too. Sitting here, it's just an eyesore."

I stared hard at the sweet on the floor, unable to keep my fingers from clenching.

But I kept telling myself to endure it, just a little longer.

She picked the sweet up off the floor.

And forced it hard into my mouth.

"How dare you not appreciate what's good for you. You're going to eat it."

She made me swallow the sweet before she let go of me and rose to leave.

"Sister, tomorrow is the day you die."

"I've waited so long for this day."

The door closed.

I knelt where I was, my fingertips ice cold.

Outside, dawn would break soon.

But I was not afraid.

I looked at my mother's memorial tablet.

Mother, tomorrow is the day I escape this sea of suffering.

My good days are coming soon.

The next morning, the House of Coleman was already bustling with activity.

Teresa had already begun preparing for the banquet she would hold once she became the lady of the house.

She was busy drafting the list of guests to invite.

She was also planning a grand coming-of-age ceremony for Rosalind.

The servants were busy replacing the koi in the pond and transplanting new flowers and trees.

The servants murmured among themselves.

"It won't be long before the house has a new mistress."

"That's right. The second young lady will soon become the legitimate daughter, and she'll live in such splendor then."

The entire house was filled with a joyous mood.

Except me.

My father ordered his men to bind me hand and foot with rope and haul me to the front hall.

The carriage to take me to the Regent's Manor was already prepared.

But my father was still not satisfied.

He was afraid the Regent wouldn't be appeased, that I didn't look wretched enough.

So he ordered someone to bring a long whip and lashed me several times, hard.

He didn't stop until I was covered in blood.

I spoke through the pain.

"Father, do you know the Regent has been searching for a certain woman?"

My father's hand froze on the whip.

He frowned and spoke.

"So what?"

Rosalind couldn't help but sneer.

"Does my sister mean to say that the woman the Regent is looking for is you?"

"Sister, I know you cling to life and fear death, but do you realize telling such an enormous lie is useless? You can stall for a moment, but can you stall for a lifetime? And angering the Regent will only make your death more miserable."

Teresa dismissed it with disdain as well.

"The eldest young lady has lost her mind and is already talking nonsense. The Regent is a man of such standing. Countless noble ladies in the Capital are in love with him. How could he possibly take a fancy to you?"

She looked me up and down.

"You're plain as a board, not even as pretty as the lowest maid in the house. Everyone knows the Regent loves only beautiful women. Stop daydreaming."

Before I could get a word out, my father lashed me with the whip again.

"You're just like that poisonous woman, your mother. Are you trying to provoke the Regent on purpose, so you can drag the entire House of Coleman into the grave with you?"

"If you spout such nonsense in front of the Regent, our whole house will be dragged down with you."

He simply ordered someone to cut out my tongue.

Just as several servants were closing in on me

The steward rushed in from outside and spoke, trembling.

"My lord, the Regent has arrived at the house with his men."

My father's face went pale in an instant.

Teresa and Rosalind couldn't suppress the smiles at the corners of their mouths.

The look in their eyes was full of gloating and venom.

My father immediately went out to greet him, knelt respectfully on the ground, and spoke, trembling.

"This official greets Your Highness. Rest assured, Your Highness. I was about to send that rebellious daughter who offended you to your manor, to be dealt with as you see fit. I only hope Your Highness will let your anger go."

"From this day forward, this rebellious daughter will have no further connection to the House of Coleman. I will strike her from the family register."

But to everyone's surprise, the Regentwho had always struck fear into the officials of the Capitalstrode past the crowd and headed straight for me, drenched in blood.

He lifted me up with great care and ordered his trusted men to fetch the royal physician at once.

The Regent spoke, his face still as water.

"Who injured the woman who saved my life?"

"I have come today for one purposeto propose marriage to the legitimate daughter of the House of Coleman."