Chapter 02
One Day, My Body Was Stolen
After Chester and the woman left the alley, I lost consciousness again.
I don’t know how much time passed while I was out cold. I only came to my senses when raindrops hit my cheeks.
The rain that had been falling in just a few drops suddenly turned into a heavy downpour.
“……!”
Unlike before, my body moved properly. I sprang up and ran out of the alley.
“Oppa……!”
I desperately looked for Chester, but as expected, he was nowhere to be seen. That was when I burst into tears.
I had never cried my heart out before, even at a young age, because I was taught to maintain my dignity. Showing emotions openly was considered vulgar. But the fear that surged up made the tears keep flowing.
I ran through the village, sobbing loudly. Perhaps because of the heavy rain, there were no residents outside, and the only one left in the rain was me.
Since I had always escaped using Chester’s teleportation magic, I didn’t even know how to get back to the duke’s estate from the village. At the time, I was only eight years old—a young girl raised in luxury. There was nothing I could do on my own.
I wandered around, searching for Chester with a vague sense of terror. Even though I knew he wasn’t there, I kept looking for him. Because of the rain, my body temperature kept dropping, and because of my tears, my vision blurred and I couldn’t see properly.
While running like that, I discovered a full-length mirror that had been thrown away in a trash dump and stopped in my tracks.
In the mirror in front of me was a young girl with light brown hair.
The same girl who had handed me the lantern.
“…….”
Anxious, I raised one hand while looking at the mirror. The girl in the mirror copied my movement exactly.
Only then did I roughly understand the situation.
The commoner girl and I had swapped bodies, and I had lost everything.
My wealth. And even my father and brothers.
Once I accepted reality, the tears no longer came. I collapsed right in front of the trash dump, sitting down with my back to the mirror.
It smelled awful, but I didn’t even have the presence of mind to care. The young me wracked my small brain.
‘If I go to the duke’s family and explain everything, it’ll be fine.’
At first, it was hope.
‘But I don’t even know how to get to the duke’s estate.’
Then came denial.
‘Will they even believe me in the first place?’
And finally, despair.
I was young, but I knew people wouldn’t easily believe a situation like this. Especially my family, who wouldn’t even spare a glance at commoners—there was no way they would willingly meet me.
“…….”
I couldn’t see any hope. Negative thoughts kept chaining together and swallowing my mind.
I crouched down and buried my face between my knees. The rain kept pouring, and my body slowly started to tremble.
Back then, I instinctively realized something.
‘I’m going to die.’
The thought came naturally.
I had always relied on my family, so I had no confidence in living as a commoner child. I was powerless, and I was so cold. There was no one around me.
Maybe because I had exhausted myself running around, drowsiness washed over me. Just as my eyes were about to close, the rain soaking my hair suddenly stopped.
“……?”
I lifted my head. In front of me stood a boy about my age, holding an umbrella.
“What are you doing?”
The boy asked me. I didn’t answer.
When I didn’t respond, the boy crouched down to meet my gaze. His black eyes stared at me quietly from right in front.
“Aren’t you cold?”
The boy asked another question. He was still holding the umbrella over me. Even though his own shoulders were getting soaked because he was tilting it entirely toward me, he didn’t seem to care.
I kept my mouth tightly shut, then belatedly nodded. It was the tiny bit of pride I had left.
“Yujin!”
A woman’s unfamiliar voice called out from afar. The boy jumped up in surprise.
Before I knew it, a woman had run right up to us. She had the same dark blue hair as the boy and flicked him on the forehead.
“What are you doing running off by yourself? I almost lost you!”
At the woman’s scolding, the boy made an unfair, sulky face.
“But… there was a kid getting rained on. How could I just pass by?”
“That’s… wait, what?”
At the boy’s words, the woman’s eyes widened. The boy looked down at me. The woman’s gaze also turned toward me.
Because I was so small, they hadn’t noticed me at first. Only then did the woman realize I was there and look shocked.
“Why are you alone like this…?”
She couldn’t even finish her sentence properly because she was so surprised. That was how terrible I looked.
“Why are you by yourself?”
“…….”
At her question, I kept my mouth shut. Just like the boy had done earlier, the woman crouched down and met my eyes.
“Did you get lost?”
“…….”
“Tell me, okay? Where is your family?”
Her gentle words made my heart surge. I blurted out without thinking.
“I don’t have any.”
As soon as I said that, tears welled up again. Feeling the two of them staring at me in shock, I said it once more.
“I don’t have any… anymore.”
I kept crying. It was embarrassing, but I felt relieved that someone had found me, and I let myself cry freely.
The woman and the boy just watched me cry in silence. When my sobbing slowly grew quieter, buried under the sound of rain, the woman took my hand.
“Do you want to come to our house?”
She didn’t ask for details. She just smiled gently and asked.
I don’t remember what I answered back then. But one thing is certain—I became the first child of this orphanage.
“Rivera.”
While I was immersed in warm memories from my childhood, Yujin’s voice came from beside me.
I opened my eyes and looked toward the voice. At some point, Yujin had come to stand next to me.
Yujin spoke calmly.
“Mom says if you don’t come right now, she’s kicking you out.”
“Oh dear, then I’d better go.”
I jumped to my feet. I had ignored her earlier when she told me to come for lunch, and now I was about to get kicked out of the orphanage.
Following Yujin inside, the cramped interior of the orphanage came into view at a glance. Around the large table in the center, the kids were sitting and eating.
The director noticed me and, while feeding soup to Sam sitting next to her, said,
“You always show up late when everyone else is eating, and make me prepare another meal, don’t you?”
“…….”
Watching her expression, I quietly pulled out a chair and sat down. At times like this, it was best to keep my mouth shut and just eat.
“You and Yujin—both of you are grown already. Don’t you ever think about becoming independent? Do I really have to take care of sixteen-year-olds too?”
The director’s nagging was especially long today.
I swallowed the bread I was chewing and replied boldly.
“With what skills are we supposed to become independent?”
“Yeah! She might not be, but I’m your real son! I’m going to live next to you for the rest of my life!”
“Wow, how proud,” the director said.
In the end, she smacked Yujin on the head with the spoon she was holding. As a result, soup splattered all over Yujin’s dark blue hair. Yujin made a pitiful face.
“There are plenty of jobs out there. Why won’t you work? Rivera, I heard a teahouse is looking for someone to do cleaning. Why don’t you at least apply there?”
“Come on, how am I supposed to do cleaning…?”
Even though I’d lived as a commoner for eight years now, I’d spent half my life as a noble lady. Helping clean the orphanage was fine, but I didn’t have the confidence to make cleaning my actual job.
“Of course, for our precious young lady. How could you possibly do such work?”
Yujin mocked me from the side. Without hesitation, I threw the bread I was holding at him. It hit Yujin square in the face.
As if used to it, Yujin picked up the bread that had fallen from his face and took a bite.
“A noble lady? Is Rivera noona a noble lady?”
Sam, who had been eating soup from the director, asked me. Sam hadn’t been at the orphanage long, so he didn’t seem to know.
Yujin smiled brightly and answered in my place.
“That’s just a lie Rivera’s been telling since she was little. Just nod along.”
“What did you just say?!”
I slammed my hands on the table and stood up. Even if I had nothing now, I had always been proud of being a noble lady. Of course, everyone around me treated it as nonsense and brushed it off.
“Rivera, you should stop too. Just because your name is the same doesn’t mean you’re a noble lady.”
Even the director joined in and scolded me.
My heart surged, and I slammed the fork I was holding down with a loud clang.
“That’s it, I’m going to find my family!”
“Then don’t come back, if you’re going.”
The director said with a smile. I slammed the door shut and stormed out of the house.
No matter how many years I lived modestly, my temper never really went away. I shoved my hands into my pockets and walked down the street.
I had stormed out saying I’d find my family, but I had no real intention of going to the duke’s estate. I knew it was impossible. As always, I planned to take a short walk, then go back to the orphanage and smooth things over.
While strolling leisurely and thinking about what I’d say, I suddenly stopped when I noticed a person ahead.
A man was standing in front of a bench. The hood he was wearing was pulled down to just below his nose, as if to hide his face.
“This is troublesome…”
The man muttered while looking toward the bench.
I rolled my eyes toward the bench. Looking closely, there was something shiny fallen under it. It seemed like something the man had dropped, but it was stuck deep inside and hard to reach.
I walked over and stood next to the man. He looked at me in surprise.
“What’s going—”
Before the man could finish speaking, I had already thrown myself face-down onto the ground. The man flinched in shock.
Lying flat on the dirt, I stretched out my arm and pulled the shiny object out from under the bench.
It was a ring. Just by looking at it, it seemed extremely expensive.
After finishing what I needed to do, I stood back up.
“Ah, thank you…!”
The man smiled brightly and thanked me when he saw the ring in my hand.
I brushed the dirt off my clothes, then without any hesitation, slipped the ring straight into my pocket.
After that, I casually walked past the man as if nothing had happened.
“……Huh?”
I heard the man’s bewildered voice behind me.
“E-excuse me!”
The man, finally coming to his senses, hurriedly called out to me.
I stopped and turned around, putting on an innocent, shameless expression as if asking what was wrong.
