ASDEF 06

Chapter 06

At this point, it was clear she just didn’t like my face.

Well, whatever. This was my final moment with the novel’s sub-male lead. I extended my hand first.

“Thank you. For following my opinion for the first time. I suppose our connection ends here.”

Daniel’s gaze slowly drifted to my hand. A sound like air leaking from between his lips escaped.

“Shaking hands must be a habit of yours.”

Such a prickly person to the very end.

I gave an awkward smile and lowered my hand. Then, for the sake of a quick resolution, I got straight to the point.

“Well… since we got through today safely, you won’t make me pay back the 80 gold like you promised, right…?”

Daniel stared at me silently without a word.

I grew increasingly uneasy.

‘Who knows what scheme he might come up with next. I need to get away.’

I hurriedly climbed down from the carriage. And just before closing the door, I looked at him and added one last thought inwardly.

‘Don’t die in the female lead’s place. That love will never be fulfilled anyway. Because you two are…!’

Before Daniel’s expression could turn even more sour, I bowed my head and snapped the carriage door shut.

‘Live well for the remaining chapters, Daniel.’

Without looking back, I ran toward the train station.

Satisfied that I wouldn’t have to repay the 80 gold.

At that time, I had no idea. That I would end up entangled with Daniel again, the man I thought I’d parted ways with for good.

“Where are you going? Why do you keep trying to run away from me?”

Daniel, dressed in a white shirt, firmly closed the open door and approached me.

Then he lifted me and laid me down onto the bed, covered with soft white sheets.

Flustered, I gripped the sheets tightly.

“Wh-why are you doing this…”

Daniel kept his gaze fixed entirely on me as he drew closer.

The moonlight streaming through the gap in the window gradually illuminated his well-defined, pleasing physique.

The closer he came to my side, the more clearly his handsome features, paired with his solid body, came into view.

Soon, his large hand cupped my startled face.

“What exactly have you done to me? I have no choice.”

“N-no choice, my lord…?”

The more I reached out my hands to push him away, the more my fingertips trembled uncontrollably against him.

Yes, I had never been this close to a man before.

Moreover, to see Daniel, whom I’d only ever read about, with my own eyes! There’s no way my heart wouldn’t race!

*Thump-thump, thump-thump*—my heart was pounding wildly against my will.

Despite my mind telling me this was wrong, my gaze kept drifting to his face.

‘Even if you’re ready for marriage, I’m still not…?!’

Daniel smiled softly and stroked my hair.

As his upper body drew closer and closer, a subtle fragrance brushed past the tip of my nose.

‘What is this. It’s so hot!’

At a loss with my trembling body, when he caressed my cheek, I unconsciously closed both eyes tightly.

“This is troublesome…”

At that moment, his cold voice echoed in my ear.

“I love you, Celestine.”

Celestine…? What, I’m not Celestine.

Hearing the name Celestine, it felt like this inexplicably heated atmosphere shattered completely.

I snapped my closed eyes wide open. And shouted clearly.

“I’m Sophie.”

“Yes, Celestine.”

Looks like the young man can’t understand what people say already.

After taking a short breath, I spoke firmly.

“No, I said I’m Sophie.”

“Celestine…”

Is this gentleman testing my patience now?

Regardless of my complicated feelings, Daniel tried to press his lips to mine. Suddenly feeling quite offended, I brushed away the hand caressing my cheek and shoved his broad body firmly away.

“Ugh!”

Still not satisfied, I sprang up from the remaining spot and jabbed a finger at him.

“How dare you call out another woman’s name so carelessly! Do you need to be taught a lesson to come to your senses! I’ll just—!”

“Ce-Celestine. I love you.”

“What? You’re really—! I’m Sophie, Sophie! Can’t you understand!? I see now, you really deserve to be hit! Come here, right now!”

“Sophie! Sophie!”

Yes, my name is Sophie. Finally, you’re saying it properly.

Hmm, but why is it a sharp, somewhat familiar voice calling for me, rather than Daniel’s sweet voice?

Even with the loud noises coming from outside, I didn’t budge. Until that sound reverberated even more loudly in my ears.

The clattering footsteps coming up the creaky stairs soon pushed open the thin wooden door and stopped right in front of me.

“Sophie! You lazy good-for-nothing! Hurry up and go fetch water from the well instead of dawdling around?!”

I thought I was having a rather sweet time with Daniel.

That is, until my stepmother, Eva’s, greatly amplified voice made me snap my eyes wide open.

“Hah, are you finding my words amusing now?!”

“I-I’ll get up! No, I’m already up!”

No, seriously, why did my father in this novel marry such a woman, only for me to suffer like this? Ma’am, technically, we’re strangers to each other?!

I wanted to snap back with, “If you’re in such a hurry, why don’t you go get it yourself?!” But without even time to formulate a proper response, I could only reflexively get up from my spot.

Knowing full well I’d become the town’s laughingstock, in my worn-out pajamas full of holes I couldn’t replace due to lack of proper clothes or money, I left the cramped attic and headed downstairs.

“Sophie unnie!”

On the first floor, my stepmother’s children—my half-siblings—greeted me.

They were among the few beings in this world who treated me warmly.

“Anna, Lucy. Did you both sleep well? Oh, be careful! Unnie will hug you one by one.”

“Unnie likes Anna best, right?”

“No, Lucy is the best!”

“Unnie likes you both, okay?”

I smiled softly, gently stroking the hair of my younger siblings who had thrown themselves into my arms.

“Sophie…”

At the sound calling me, I briefly left the children and headed over.

Through the slightly open door, I could see my father lying on his sickbed.

Father would seem to recover a bit, then disappear for several days, only to return and collapse like this.

Father barely opened his eyes and looked at me.

Joseph Cole. He was once a renowned carpenter, they say. Skilled enough to have built this old, worn-down hut with his own hands.

But after meeting my stepmother, Eva Cole, the fortune Father had worked so hard to build vanished in an instant.

“Father, where did you go again? You’re not even well.”

“Just went to see if there was any leftover work. Anyway, you have a hard time again today…”

“No, I don’t.”

“I’m sorry you have such a useless father.”

I clutched my growling stomach and barely managed a smile.

‘Right, what fault are these children and Father guilty of? I have to help them.’

And so, I reluctantly gave up on the runaway fantasy I’d been dreaming of, hoisted the bucket in the corner onto my shoulder, and stepped outside.

As I watched the soldiers patrolling the village as usual this morning, the memory of Daniel’s sturdy physique from my dream earlier flashed through my mind, and I unconsciously blushed.

“Crazy, crazy! This damned, terrible instinct!”

I grabbed my innocent head in frustration from early morning.

Ever since that day, I’d only been dreaming of Daniel, the villainous sub-male lead.

He was someone who held and shook my life’s thread, even if only briefly; to dream of such things without going insane was unthinkable.

While drawing water from the well, a sudden thought crossed my mind.

Yes, surely Daniel, who despised me, had cursed me.

“Come to think of it, Daniel is a wizard. I got caught by a villain with abilities and that’s why this mess happened! Argh!”

The other people drawing water began to look at me and slowly back away, one by one, but I had no time to mind them.

Tangling my long hair wildly into a disheveled mess, I suddenly lifted my head and gazed at the blue, tranquil sky.

I took a deep breath. And fervently cried out to that sky.

“Why do you make me, merely an extra, go through something like this! Forget everything else, just make me rich! Please!”