As I stepped back, he took two steps closer to me.
He looked seriously angry, so I was just about to apologize for pinching him when he suddenly let out a sigh and spoke.
“Your foot is bleeding.”
“…Huh?”
Luca knelt down on one knee and checked the condition of my foot.
He gently examined the injured foot with warm hands, sighed again, and then turned his back to me.
“Get on my back. I’ll treat it.”
“Ah… Okay.”
The small room right next to the one Luca brought me to had nothing more than ointment and some bandages.
When I sat on the small cot and swung my foot, Luca scolded me, saying I shouldn’t move while he looked for the ointment.
Then, with careful hands, he applied the ointment to the wound. The stinging pain was bearable.
Even so, Luca’s expression remained grim.
He looked worried about me, but it also seemed like there was something else.
Then I noticed Luca’s arm trembling slightly.
I suddenly rolled up his sleeve.
“…What is this.”
My voice sank instantly.
Bright red welts from a cane were visible on his pale wrist.
“Go ahead, try saying it’s nothing again like last time.”
He had scolded me so sternly over my injury, yet he was being far too lenient about his own condition.
Luca, who had been looking up at me with red eyes, lowered his gaze as if he was finally giving in.
This time, we switched places, and I treated Luca.
Maybe because he felt responsible, he didn’t say anything and silently let me apply the ointment. Luca stared down at me the whole time.
Then, he gently smiled.
At just fourteen, a year younger than me, he looked far too mature. Despite just waking up, he was ridiculously handsome—no wonder he was the male lead.
Luca, seemingly unbothered by the pain in his injured right arm, raised his hand and brushed my cheek.
“…Don’t make that face.”
I must’ve looked as serious as Luca did earlier.
It was clear that he had no concern for his own well-being.
If it had been me—or any other child, really—such an injury would’ve caused a crying mess.
Looking at both him and myself, I couldn’t help but sigh.
Then I blurted something out—half on impulse.
“I’ve decided. I can’t live like this anymore.”
I declared it solemnly. I had to escape this hopeless orphanage.
Luca stared down at me quietly and asked,
“Why? Are you planning to escape?”
Startled by his level voice, I quickly covered his mouth with my hand.
I glanced toward the door to make sure no one was around, then turned back to him. His dark-colored eyes were staring straight at me.
“Take me with you, Noona.”
Of course he calls me that only in moments like these—no blood relation at all.
His angelic face only made his words more ominous.
“Don’t even think about running away alone. I’ll chase you to the ends of the earth.”
Luca gave a bright smile as he made his threat crystal clear.
I stared at him in shock.
Was that a threat, not a request?!
According to the original novel, Luca was supposed to be rescued from this orphanage by the heroine a year from now…
Still.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t considered taking him with me.
In the novel I reincarnated into, I was the one who gave him deep trauma and guilt—a savior and a villainess all at once.
When Luca, the male lead, was nearly killed at the orphanage, it was me—my character—who rescued him, even losing a leg in the process.
That incident made me his savior… and gave me leverage to later sabotage his relationship with the heroine, becoming a villainess in the story.
So if I escaped alone, when Luca faced danger, he wouldn’t be saved—and he might actually die.
Thinking about it… maybe taking him with me is the better option. Better to avoid sticking to the original plot and just make sure both of us survive with our limbs intact.
To me, Luca wasn’t just the male lead of the novel.
He was family.
And I was sure he would be a big help in executing my first post-escape plan.
I nodded.
“…Okay. I know where we need to go, so let’s escape together.”
“Just trust me,” I said confidently, and Luca, eyes wide at first, quickly smiled as if he’d been waiting for it.
“Yes. Wherever you go, Ria, I’ll follow.”
When morning came, after the children came out of their rooms, Luca and I spent the dawn cleaning the living room, which was covered in glass shards—to prevent anyone else from getting injured.
Only then could we finally rest.
Instead of going to the kids’ room, we lay side by side on the cot in the storage room.
Lying on his side facing me, Luca was deep in thought, and so was I.
Even though I said I wanted to escape, fear had already crept in.
After all, last night I hadn’t gone out just to get water—I’d been trying to find a path out of the orphanage that didn’t pass Miss Rayolla’s room.
“Escape” was considered an unforgivable act here—an unpardonable crime.
The infamous Troy Orphanage had existed for over 30 years, and in all that time, only one escape attempt had succeeded.
Other than escaping, the only way out was adoption—but nobles didn’t care about an orphanage tucked deep in the forest.
So, when the children at Troy Orphanage turned fifteen, they were sold off to the criminal underworld—specifically, the Cablos Duchy, which was known for its villains and dark dealings.
According to the novel, the real sponsor and owner of this orphanage was a subordinate of the Cablos Duchy, and they were using it to raise future criminals from childhood.
Miss Rayolla would say, over and over again:
“The world is dangerous and corrupt. Especially for orphans like you with no parents, you could vanish without anyone noticing.”
She never told us who would make us disappear. She certainly didn’t say it was her.
Under the pretense of “protection,” we were raised locked away in this orphanage.
No wonder villains always came with dozens of lackeys—they were raised in places like this.
This place was the complete opposite of an orphanage meant to help children find new guardians.
And now, I was fifteen—and about to be sold off as one of those lackeys under the Cablos Duchy.
I stared up at the cobwebs hanging from the dark ceiling and began writing a letter in my mind—
To the family I missed from the other world.
“Your daughter is screwed…”
I still clearly remember the day I was brought here, as a very small child—curled up in the cold back of a carriage, relying on nothing but a thin blanket.
I kept blacking out and waking up from the harsh shaking of the carriage. By the time we arrived at this place, the Troy Orphanage, I was completely worn out.
“Do not let this child leave before she turns fifteen. After that, I’ll contact you again. I’ll come for her then.”
Even in my dazed state, I clearly heard that cold voice.
After the man left, Miss Rayolla opened the tiny crib I was in and looked down at me with a terrifying face—one of my worst memories.
Without caring if her sharp nails scratched me, she lifted me up and practically threw me into the arms of the oldest-looking girl among the many children staring at us.
‘What the hell is this situation?’
Even I was bewildered—how much more must that girl have been?
But when I looked up at her… I saw the first warm smile I’d seen since being reincarnated here.
“You’ve forgotten everything before you came here, right? It must’ve been a big shock… Your name is Ria. It’s such a pretty name.”
That girl—Serin—talked to me dozens of times every day.
Her gentle voice helped stabilize me during those confusing times.
I had no idea my life would be cut short.
With great athletic talent, I had swept youth kendo tournaments since I was little. I was even on track to join the national team.
Even after suffering a sudden injury and watching my long-cherished dream crumble, I endured because of my family.
They were the most precious people in the world.
And yet I died without even a chance to say goodbye.
Among all the people on that bus, did anyone survive? No one knew, not yet. I had been thrown onto the cold asphalt—and as if to add insult to injury, it was the season’s first beautiful snow as I closed my eyes.
Is there something after death?
People offer thousands of answers to that question, but no one really knows.
Maybe all those answers stem from the boundaries of what we call “common sense.”
Because we all unconsciously believe the world operates within that framework.
But in truth, the world—no, the universe—was far more insane.
I sighed as I looked into the mirror at my unfamiliar self.
Serin often told the other kids that my silver hair and green eyes made me look like a fairy—so mysterious and beautiful.
“Should I call it a miracle that I’m alive… or ask God if this world actually exists?”
There were even newborns in this orphanage, but they were just another task for the older kids like Serin.
The director, Rayolla, rarely showed her face—only in the early mornings or late at night.
Thanks to Serin’s help, I washed up and sat down for breakfast. I was eating a potato soup with floating carrots when she showered me with praise for not being picky.
“Ria, you’re so mature!”
‘Well, I am older than I look. Still… Ria. That name. I swear I’ve heard it somewhere before… Maybe I’m just confusing it with a burger joint or something.’
Back then, I didn’t think much of it.
Not knowing what the future had in store.
