Chapter 3
“Rio, I told you. If someone bothers you, don’t just stand there and take it.”
Selena pressed an ice pack against Riotis’s cheek, which was swollen bright red. Riotis blinked his jet-black eyes and replied softly,
“Okay.”
Selena sighed inwardly at the gentle, innocent look in his eyes—so meek and kind, no wonder everyone underestimated him and picked on him.
Deciding to give him a slightly stern piece of advice, Selena wanted to prevent something similar from happening again.
“If you keep being too obedient, everyone will think they can push you around.”
She pretended to be angry, furrowing her brows.
“Sorry, Selly Nuna…”
Riotis slumped his shoulders and teared up. Selena was caught off guard. She had only meant to scold him lightly—she hadn’t intended to make him cry.
‘How can I scold Riotis when he’s this cute? After all, it’s not really his fault.’
Being gentle and kind wasn’t wrong; it was the bullies who were in the wrong.
Selena comforted Riotis, telling him it wasn’t his fault. She didn’t want him to be constantly bullied, but she also didn’t want to forcefully change his kind and gentle nature.
“It’s okay. Rio, if anyone bothers you again, I’ll make sure to scold them for you.”
She clenched her fists firmly as she spoke. Riotis gave a faint smile at her words.
“Nuna, you’ll protect me for life?”
“Uh… for life?”
Selena hesitated, unable to answer right away.
‘For life… I can’t promise that. When you turn sixteen, I’ll have to send you to the heroine.’
Swallowing the answer that came to mind, she forced a small, awkward smile.
“Anyway, Rio, look! I brought cookies. Let’s share them.”
To change the subject, Selena pulled out a bag of cookies she had secretly hidden in her pocket. But Riotis wasn’t as easily distracted as she had hoped.
“Nuna, aren’t you going to answer me?”
His dark eyes stared straight at her. Though he could not see anything, there was a persistent intensity in his gaze that made Selena look away.
“Nuna…?”
“Ah! Sorry. I was just thinking about something else. What did you say earlier?”
Riotis didn’t ask again. The brief darkness in his eyes softened, and when Selena asked him to repeat it, he shook his head lightly and held her hand.
“I can’t live without Selena Nuna. So don’t ever abandon me.”
The persistence in his voice, far beyond what one would expect from a child, left Selena momentarily speechless.
‘Don’t abandon me.’
Those words hurt.
It was heartbreaking that this little boy only had a girl his age to rely on.
The tears welling in his lowered eyes, the quivering, pleading voice—it was impossible to turn him away.
Selena spoke without thinking,
“Why would I ever abandon you? Rio, I’ll never leave you.”
“Never?”
“Yes. Never. I’ll stay by your side until the day you don’t need me anymore.”
“So… you’ll stay with me forever?”
Riotis grinned and extended his pinky.
“Promise.”
This time, Selena also hooked her pinky with his without hesitation.
‘Eventually, when he meets the heroine and is happy, I’ll be irrelevant anyway.’
It was a promise that would never truly matter in the end.
But if this simple promise could give Riotis even a little happy memory, that was enough.
They pressed their thumbs together to seal the promise and shared the cookies. Watching Riotis nibble at the treats while sitting close, Selena smiled warmly.
‘It wasn’t part of the plan to get this close to Riotis.’
How did things end up like this?
Selena recalled everything that had happened.
Selena.
She wasn’t originally from this world—she was a consciousness that had come from South Korea. Like many protagonists in typical romance fantasy novels, she had possessed the character Selena after dying in an absurd way.
The first thing she did after becoming Selena was try to guess the title of the novel she had possessed.
For a long time, she couldn’t figure it out.
‘Could it be that I became a character who doesn’t even get a single line in the novel?’
She wasn’t the happy-ending heroine, nor a doomed villain.
The novel she was in was I’ll Be Happy in This Life.
As the title suggested, it was a healing story where the heroine walked a path of flowers and had a happy ending.
Though Selena couldn’t remember all the details, there were three things she knew for sure:
The Trice Orphanage where she lived was where the male lead, Riotis, spent his childhood. He suffered neglect and bullying from the frustrated director and peers alike, growing up in hardship.
Riotis had a black gemstone eye called the Devil’s Curse, which made him lose his sight. But this eye regained its true color when in the presence of someone with purifying power.
Riotis had the world’s only healing power. Upon meeting the heroine with purifying power, he would become the Royal High Priest.
So where did Selena fit in?
‘Nowhere.’
Selena hadn’t even appeared in the novel, not even as a supporting character.
She had possessed a healing story, yet she wasn’t the heroine, nor the heroine’s friend, nor even a named character—just “Character 1.”
At first, she resented the god who put her here. But she soon changed her mind.
‘Better to be a nameless Character 1 than a villain struggling through a future to change fate.’
Not being mentioned in the story meant she could freely draw her own future. Though she regretted being a parentless orphan, she made up her mind:
‘I’ll make my own future.’
Her previous life in Korea hadn’t been smooth either. Born as the eldest daughter of a poor family, she had struggled to balance housework and studies.
This life was also born into nothing. But at least, there were no family members to hold her back. Moreover, she knew a little about the major events that would happen in this world.
‘Knowing the future increases the chances of success.’
Once she reached an age to support herself, she could handle the rest.
But first, she had to turn this rotten orphanage into a safe place for herself until adulthood.
The Trice Orphanage, run by Director Sophie Elenion, existed solely for profit.
She established it to collect government funds, caring nothing for the children and indulging only her greed. While Sophie lived luxuriously, the children often went hungry.
As the original novel described, the Trice Orphanage’s environment was extremely poor.
Once a year, during inspections, the orphanage would receive a failing grade, cutting government funding in half. Enraged, Sophie often took it out on the children.
‘I don’t want to do her favors, but to secure my minimum food and shelter, I need noble sponsorship.’
Without government support, the only way to save the orphanage was to gain the attention of nobles. But there were no “gems” in the orphanage to catch their eyes.
‘It’s okay. If I follow my plan, we’ll attract attention even without a gem.’
Selena quietly waited for the right opportunity.
Fortunately, it didn’t take long for conditions to allow her plan to begin.
That morning was busy. It was the day nobles would visit the orphanage.
The director called Selena while she was cleaning the windows.
“Selina, now that you’re eight, you can run errands, right?”
‘My name is Selena, by the way.’
The director didn’t even know the child’s name—a reason the orphanage failed surprise royal inspections.
‘And she always takes out her frustration on us for her own mistakes.’
Selena muttered internally but replied politely,
“Yes, Director.”
No need to correct the name. Whether the director knew her name wasn’t important.
“Go to the crossroads bakery and buy two loaves of bread and one set of cookies.”
The cookie set was for entertaining the nobles, and the bread was lunch for the children.
‘With the money for a cookie set, we could have soft white bread for a week, not just hard loaves.’
Selena opened the pocket the director offered.
‘Huh?’
Inside were only two silver coins. Though she didn’t yet know this world’s exact prices, she knew that two coins could barely buy a cookie set and one loaf.
“Director, this doesn’t seem like enough money.”
Frowning, the director scowled.
“Act as pitiful as you can. If you can’t buy everything, you won’t have lunch today.”
‘Say that to a child?’
Selena understood the real reason: Sophie wanted to exploit Selena to appeal to the baker’s sympathy and save money.
Though annoyed, Selena didn’t show it.
“Yes, Director.”
“Be back within thirty minutes. If you dawdle, you’ll spend the whole day in the reflection room.”
“Yes, Director.”
Selena gripped the coins tightly and stepped out of the orphanage.
