SPRH 3

Chapter 3

I took a deep breath, expanding my chest greatly, and focused my mind.

‘Only the swelling on my cheek needs to go down. Leave the bruises elsewhere as they are. I can’t let anyone find out yet that I’ve awakened my ability.’

Since the day after I possessed this body, I confirmed that turning the bracelet changes my appearance. However, perhaps because I had suppressed the awakening of my ability for so long, it rarely manifested. Still, as a result of practicing every day without giving up, I had been able to use my self-healing ability for a while now. Just as my breathing grew slightly ragged from using the ability, the swollen cheek had completely subsided.

‘Let’s not be impatient. If I keep practicing, I’ll be able to manifest other abilities too.’

I steadied my breathing, erased my anxiety, and put the bracelet back on. The silver-blue hair that had been faintly glowing turned back to a dull, light brown.

* * *

That evening, after finishing my preparations, I headed to the banquet hall of the count’s estate wearing a new dress Emma had brought.

‘I wonder what kind of expression Oliana will make, having had this dress taken from her.’

What I was wearing now was a dress of thin, emerald-tinted fabric layered in folds. Emma said she had picked one from among the things Oliana had set aside to take to the capital. It was a dress reminiscent of a forest fairy, and it suited this place where cherry blossoms were in full bloom in spring remarkably well.

‘It’s not my dress, so the size doesn’t fit and I had to tie the waist with a white ribbon.’

Thanks to that, it puffed up the thin, meager-looking chest area, which was ultimately satisfying.

“Young lady, you remember the waltz, don’t you? I’ve been teaching you since you were little, so your body should remember.”

Emma accompanied me just in case.

“I’m sure I remember. If I don’t, I’ll just watch someone else and follow along.”

I answered while rolling my eyes upward, uncomfortable with my hair being pinned up. Emma had pinned all my hair up so I would look at least a little more grown-up. It was fixed so tightly that it wouldn’t come loose even while dancing—so tight that the skin around my eyes seemed to be pulled taut.

“Ho ho ho, thank you so very much for attending our family’s banquet.”

As soon as I entered the banquet hall, that insufferable Oliana’s voice rang out.

“I don’t see Lady Seria. She must be feeling quite unwell.”

When someone brought up Oliana’s older sister Seria, Oliana’s laughter cut off abruptly.

“Yes, she has gone to the far eastern region to recuperate. So the marriage arranged by the imperial court will be undertaken by Liriope instead of Sister Seria.”

At Oliana’s answer, the nobles murmured with interest.

“Lady Liriope, you mean the daughter of the last water fairy, Alisa?”

The water fairy was a nickname for women who possessed abilities.

“If I had known Lady Liriope would be married off to another family, I would have sent a proposal from our family first. Haha.”

Though Liriope was said to have the mental age of a seven-year-old, one never knew what could happen. The nobles worked themselves up, saying that perhaps the daughter Liriope bore could awaken an ability.

“Unfortunately, how could that be?”

When the men showed interest in me, Oliana let her displeasure show slightly. Just then, Emma and I approached them.

“Liriope?”

Oliana’s eyes went wide when she spotted me. She had expected me to show up looking ridiculous, but when I appeared looking presentable, Oliana’s expression curdled. Following Oliana’s gaze, the nobles gathered around turned to look at me.

“Oliana, this dress is really pretty.”

I gave Oliana a bright, eye-smiling grin and spun around ostentatiously. Oliana’s hand, holding a fan, trembled, and then she twisted the fan.

“As the rumors say… you are quite the beauty.”

“Indeed. As expected of the water fairy’s daughter.”

As the rumors say, indeed. My rumor must have been that I was a half-wit with the mental age of seven. I blinked innocently at the male nobles’ honeyed compliments, as if I knew nothing.

“Hiding such a beauty away so thoroughly.”

“I know, right. What a pity to meet her so late.”

The noblemen, seemingly unconcerned that I had the mental age of seven, kept talking to me and trying to win my favor.

‘They’re all coveting the water ability. The child I would bear.’

It was a moment when I keenly understood why Liriope’s mother had blocked her ability from awakening.

‘Even with rumors of a low mental age, they’re like this… If Liriope had been normal…’

Everyone would have been desperate to have this body. Her maternal uncle, Count Akis, would of course have imprisoned Liriope. Truly chilling greed.

“Haha, you were all here first.”

Just then, a man made a boisterous entrance from the banquet hall doorway.

‘Philip Quaid. The man who drove Liriope to her death in the novel.’

He had entered with a hearty laugh, and he was the nephew of the Empress Dowager, who currently held the highest power. Philip approached amid everyone’s gaze, his long silver-gray hair that reached his shoulders fluttering. Between his gently folding eyes, gray pupils glinted thickly for a moment.

“Young Count Philip certainly knows how to pick them. Serve him well and live properly. After all, a noblewoman’s virtue is to live and die for her family and for her husband.”

Oliana hid her mouth behind her fan and giggled softly.

‘Virtue, my foot.’

I pretended not to understand and pointed with my index finger at the hem of Oliana’s dress.

“Oh, a bug.”

“What?”

Oliana’s gaze followed my finger downward.

“It went into your dress!”

“Kyaaak!”

Oliana, who had been pretending to be elegant all this time, reflexively screamed and leaped backward.

“Lady Oliana, please calm yourself!”

“Kyaaak!”

Even when the nobles beside her told her to calm down, she stamped her feet and frantically flapped her skirt.

“Oliana, I’ll catch it for you! I’m good at catching bugs!”

I told Emma to hold Oliana’s waist and pretended to look at the dress hem. There had never been a bug in the first place.

“It’s gone now, Oliana.”

I raised my gaze to look at the ashen-faced Oliana and grinned.

“R-really?”

As Oliana caught her ragged breath and tried to tidy her disheveled appearance, Philip approached me.

“So you are Lady Liriope. The daughter of the famous last water fairy.”

Goosebumps rose all over my body at his gaze, like a snake scanning its prey. When it was decided that I would be sold off instead of Seria, Philip had reportedly giggled and accepted immediately. Saying he liked that I was even a year younger.

“You’re more than what I heard.”

Just as Philip tilted his head and wore an unreadable smile—

“Duke Declan Fergnath is entering!”

Declan, the last guest of the banquet and the highest noble, appeared at the entrance of the banquet hall.

“Gasp.”

Oliana, seeing Declan in person for the first time, let out a startled breath at his overwhelming presence. Others too unconsciously swallowed dryly and watched Declan with bated breath.

‘I hope I’m not jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.’

Declan, a head taller than the other officers, walked with an upright posture, neither slow nor fast. The clothes he wore were the uniform of the Fergnath family. Both top and bottom were black, and the inside of the cloak and the tie at his neck were a vivid red. It was a uniform that seemed to embody his black hair and red eyes. On the silver mask covering the right side of his face, a red wyvern—the symbol of the Fergnath family—was engraved. The red wyvern, reflected in the chandelier’s light, looked threatening and mysterious, as if alive.

‘If it weren’t for that terrifying silver mask, he’d probably be incredibly handsome.’

Perhaps I had been staring at Declan’s face too long, for he turned his head slightly toward me. For an instant, my eyes met his red pupils, like a sun steeped in blood.

* * *

The banquet began in earnest with a brief greeting from my maternal uncle, Count Akis. At Count Akis’s insistence, I took Philip’s hand and went out onto the dance floor. Fortunately, once the music started, my body began to respond.

“Lady Liriope dances quite well. Countess Akis must have had her hands full.”

“Ho ho, of course. I taught that child day and night so she would have the basics befitting a noble lady.”

I was dumbfounded as Countess Akis received praise from those around her.

‘Declan is heading to the second floor. I have to follow him!’

I saw Declan, after exchanging a few words with the nobles, going up to the second-floor terrace alone.

‘I need to get away from Philip.’

I pretended it was a mistake and stomped hard on Philip’s foot.

“Ugh.”

“Oops! Sorry!”

When Philip let out a shallow groan, I stomped a few more times, silently urging him to get away from me. Then he grabbed my hand and pulled me into an embrace.

“Young Count!”

When I twisted my body to escape him, he held me even tighter. His damp breath spread over my ear and neck.

“If you marry me, bear me a daughter first. Then I’ll cherish you.”

His sticky breath lingered around my neck and moved down to my chest. His viscous gaze seemed to burrow between the slightly lifted front of my dress. Just as something sticky, like sinking into a swamp, seemed to wrap around my body, the music ended.

“Young Count, I’m tired now. I want to rest.”

“Do so.”

I whined like a child to Philip and headed for the second-floor terrace.

‘Bear a daughter, my foot! I wouldn’t even raise cockroaches with you!’

Feeling Philip’s gaze clinging persistently to my back, my steps quickened to almost a run.

“Nanny, just a glass of juice please.”

After entering the second-floor terrace, I asked Emma, who was following behind. I told her to bring something sweet and cold because my stomach was churning.

‘Where did he go? I was sure he came this way?’

It couldn’t be easy to hide that massive frame, but Declan was nowhere to be seen. It was early in the banquet, so no one had closed the terrace curtains to rest.

‘Did he leave already because he hates banquets?’

I closed the curtain, sat down on a chair, and took a deep breath. Sitting alone, a gloomy feeling washed over me. It was probably worse because I had met Philip. Even though I hadn’t experienced it yet, the violence of Philip described in the novel kept coming to mind. Ariadne, the female lead of the original work, suffered from nightmares due to her childhood memories. Philip had persistently abused Liriope in front of Ariadne, who was not yet even five years old. Ariadne had to witness Philip’s violence firsthand while in Liriope’s arms. The memories were so terrifying and intense that the nightmares continued even until Ariadne married the male lead. Thinking that Philip’s horrific violence would become my reality in a month made me dizzy.

“I don’t want to live like that.”

I got up from the chair and stood holding the terrace railing. Just then, I saw a sturdy black-haired man passing right below the terrace.

‘Is that Declan?’

My heart raced. If I went down the stairs, he would disappear. I took off my heels. I hoisted my right leg over the railing to vault over the terrace. My dress hem rode up, exposing my calves, but I didn’t care. Anyway, I was the only one here right now. The moment I leaned my body downward—

“I’ll decline dying in front of me.”

Suddenly, a large man’s hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed my wrist.