Chapter 3
Ugh.
Her arm felt like it was going to fall off.
It was a relief she hadn’t run into anyone on the way. If she had, it would have looked like she was trying to dump a corpse.
Cordelia wiped the sweat off her face after narrowly avoiding being reported to the security guards.
“Ah… this is exhausting…”
Three steps forward, sigh. Another three steps forward, sigh again.
She dragged the Duke along, repeating this process over and over.
Even a turtle wouldn’t have been slower. But slowly, steadily, she managed to move Duke Valencia to a safe place.
Of course, the term “safe” was completely subjective to Cordelia.
She looked around.
This place was an abandoned house that Madame’s people used whenever they wanted to smoke.
Madame used to have a beautiful voice that once ruled the area.
But because everyone around her smoked, her voice eventually turned into something like scraping metal.
She hated smoking to the point of shuddering, so her people came here to smoke in secret.
Because of rumors about ghosts, this place rarely had visitors, except for chain-smokers like Humphrey’s gang who came regularly.
‘Well, even an abandoned house is indoors, so it’s better than leaving him on the ground!’
Though the cigarette smell was overwhelming, it would probably get better with some ventilation.
Now that she’d brought the Duke to a safe place, it was time to take care of him.
“Hm.”
The Duke had been unconscious the whole way here.
Every time she accidentally bumped him against a rock, he groaned, but he never woke up.
It would’ve been easier if he had woken up and walked on his own.
Clicking her tongue, Cordelia took off his outer coat and unbuttoned his shirt.
Then the terrible wound came fully into view.
“Ugh… that must hurt.”
Considering he was covered in blood, it wasn’t the worst, but it was far from okay.
‘How do you treat a wound like this?’
Cordelia was often sick.
Just yesterday, she had a high fever. Probably because she hadn’t earned money all week and went hungry.
Back when she was in the orphanage too, she got sick so often it was like pain was her only friend.
In her short eight years of life, she had been stabbed by needles, beaten to the point of bruises, and even starved so badly she wanted to eat her own flesh.
But she’d never been stabbed with a knife before.
After thinking for a bit, she decided to treat him the way she’d once overheard someone else do it.
She laid the Duke—who somehow looked even paler than when they first met—down and pulled out the bundle she had carefully hidden.
All she had was one piece of old clothing.
She’d seen someone do it once, so she wrapped the cloth around his stomach. Tied it with her clumsy hands, and that was the end of her treatment.
In the meantime, blood had started to seep into the cloth again.
“I’m definitely charging him for this.”
Cordelia muttered, watching the cloth get soaked.
“Though it’s probably nothing to him…”
What she wanted from him wasn’t much, but it wasn’t small either.
To Cordelia, it meant life or death. But to the Duke, it would be like giving something to an ant on the street.
All she wanted was mercy.
The Duke’s tiny bit of mercy would save her life someday.
‘And his money pouch could save me today.’
She had lost her spare clothes, but it was a great investment.
“Hehe.”
She couldn’t help but laugh.
After finishing the treatment, Cordelia decided to stay here until the Duke woke up.
She had to let him know she was his savior, after all.
She meant to sit by his side, but the pendant around his neck kept bothering her.
It had been tucked into his clothes, so it didn’t show at first.
But when she’d unbuttoned him earlier, she’d discovered it.
It didn’t look expensive, but Cordelia didn’t care—as long as it could be sold.
She reached out and grabbed it. There was a small bump on the side, so she pressed it, and it clicked open.
“…What is this?”
Inside the pendant was a strand of red hair.
‘The Duke couldn’t have had red hair naturally.’
It wasn’t his family’s either. The Valencia family all had silvery-blue hair.
‘It must belong to someone important to him. But he’s not married, right?’
As far as she knew, Duke Valencia was still single at the moment when he killed Cordelia in the novel.
‘I’ll just leave it alone. If it’s that precious, he’ll notice it missing right away.’
Also, it felt gross to steal something with someone else’s hair in it.
Cordelia curled up and pulled her knees close.
It had only been a day since her fever went down. She’d used up all her energy dragging an adult man here, and sleepiness hit her hard.
‘Come to think of it, wasn’t there a part in the book where Saint Cordelia healed the injured Duke Valencia with immense holy power and got recognized as a real saint?’
That part suddenly came to mind.
Cordelia blinked.
She wanted to think more about it, but all she could recall was the shocking moment of her death in the book.
Along with that memory, all her strength drained from her body, and she dozed off.
Nod, nod—
If she hadn’t suddenly felt like someone was staring at her, she would’ve slept straight through until morning.
“Yawn.”
When Cordelia opened her eyes again, the sun was setting.
It felt like she’d only blinked once, but a lot of time had passed.
But the sunset shining through the broken window was blocked from view.
Because Duke Valencia’s red eyes were staring directly into hers.
She instantly woke up.
Cordelia froze.
‘He’s awake!’
“…Who are you?”
Apparently, he had woken up while she was asleep.
He looked a lot more composed than when he had been calling her Rosalyn earlier.
This time, though, Cordelia had just woken up, so she didn’t understand the question right away.
‘Who am I? I’m me!’
It was such a ridiculous question, but who would dare say that in front of his cold red eyes?
Not Cordelia.
Once she understood the situation, she answered.
“Um. I’m the person who helped you?”
Her voice cracked badly because she hadn’t cleared her throat.
The Duke didn’t seem to care. He just kept staring into her eyes.
It was an intense stare, but Cordelia didn’t look away.
Even though she’d stolen his money pouch, she didn’t feel guilty.
‘I’m your savior!’
Still, she was nervous he might ask, “Where did you hide my pouch?”
But instead, he asked something strange.
“Are you Rosalyn’s daughter?”
“Who’s Rosalyn?”
He kept mentioning that name, but Cordelia didn’t know it.
Rosalyn, Rosalyn…
She tried to recall if the name appeared in the book, and saw a faintly sorrowful look in the Duke’s eyes.
“Rosalyn was… no, I should ask differently. Are you Cordelia?”
Cordelia flinched.
‘Gasp. How did he know?’
The Duke didn’t miss her reaction.
But Cordelia lied smoothly.
“Nope, don’t know that name.”
“……”
“Never heard it before.”
“Then what’s your name?”
“I don’t have one.”
Cordelia had always been compared to the saint just because they shared the same name.
One of the reasons the saint had shown interest in her was also that shared name.
So she figured it would be best to abandon that name and run away while she had the chance.
‘What should I call myself next time?’
She vowed to pick a name that didn’t even remind her of the “Cor” in Cordelia.
“I just want you to remember my face.”
The girl who helped him that day.
That was enough.
“Anyway, I’m the one who saved you!”
“Your eyes look like Rosie’s.”
Rosie? Cordelia at least knew that was a nickname for Rosalyn.
The problem was… that nickname sounded very familiar.
‘Where have I heard… Gasp!’
Realization hit Cordelia, and she gasped.
Rosie was the name of the saint’s mother—and Duke Valencia’s first love!
In the story, that nickname was used more often than her full name.
‘But why is he bringing that name up?’
While Cordelia was lost in confusion, the Duke raised his hand and gently covered her lower eyelids.
“Same eye color… I must’ve come to the right place.”
“I—I’m not that person!”
“That person?”
“The person you’re thinking of!”
Startled by the Duke’s mistaken assumptions, her voice rose.
‘I have nothing to do with that!’
Rosalyn became a noble-turned-saint after her family fell from grace.
Maybe the gods were touched by her devotion, because she later gained immense divine power.
She rose in rank in the church and eventually got involved with the second son of the Oricsa family. Despite the Duke’s love for her, she chose the Oricsa heir.
She could’ve lived happily, but when her child was three, Rosalyn was attacked and killed.
The child went missing.
While the Duke was searching for the child, he was ambushed and gravely wounded—since he’d made many enemies with his wild ways.
On the verge of death, the saint happened to find him, and used her holy power to heal him.
‘Then the Duke, seeing a woman who looked exactly like his first love except for hair and eye color, instantly recognized her as Rosalyn’s daughter.’
That was the beginning of the novel Cordelia had read.
So in other words…
‘I’m not her!’
Cordelia was dying to explain that she wasn’t Rosalyn’s daughter.
“You know something.”
“No, no! Not at all!”
But she couldn’t say it.
If she admitted it, she’d eventually have to reveal she knew all this because she read the book.
“You act like you know who I’m looking for, but say you don’t?”
“I don’t! I really don’t—”
Creak—
Just then, a strange sound pierced her ears.
The squeaky door, the creaking wooden floor.
Cordelia instinctively covered the Duke’s mouth and dragged him behind the sofa.
She’d been the one talking loudly just a moment ago, but now she was the one panicking.
The Duke frowned slightly, clearly annoyed, but let her lead him.
Step, step—
As they hid, a shadow entered the abandoned house, slowly approaching them.
