It's A Misunderstanding That I'm Dating The Villain

‘What’s going on? Did his pride get hurt because I told him not to interfere recklessly earlier?’

However, I couldn’t get the time to inquire. It was because my heart and stomach screamed in agony as if they were being crushed.

‘Internal injuries….’

I was managing to endure the pain somehow, but I could feel my body struggling to endure the aftermath of the excessive sword energy.

‘I can’t faint. I need to handle the aftermath, and since I defeated the Orthros, I also have to write a report….’

My head felt like it was spinning.

At that moment, I heard a gentle voice.

“I’ll heal you!”

It was probably Elisa, who had returned to the gathering hall with the Second Prince.

‘Oh, come to think of it…. Was there a setting where the female protagonist had some kind of healing power…?’

As I thought that, I saw a beautiful blonde woman’s face leaning toward me through my blurry vision.

Elisa looked at me with a worried expression, her eyes glistening with tears.

It seemed like she was performing some sort of healing magic. At the same time, intense pain surged through my body.

I endured the pain without being able to let out a gasp.

‘Ah, my body’s condition still feels off….’

With that final thought, I was completely pulled into the darkness.

***

I opened my eyes a strand when a ceiling made of rough stone entered my blurry vision.

Ah, this was a dream.

I was certain as soon as I took in the familiar cave scenery.

It was a dream I often had whenever I was severely injured.

It must have been because it was one of the most painful days in my life, the enormous pain I felt on that day had left a significant mark on my subconscious.

It happened when I was twelve.

To make a long story short, I was kidnapped at that time.

Of course, it was unusual for the young lady of a Viscount Household, who always stayed home, to be kidnapped easily. I was somewhat responsible for this incident.

I ran away from home.

But I had no choice. The day before I ran away, my long hair that I had been growing out for a long time, had been cut off.

My father, the Viscount, grabbed my hair without hesitation and simply snipped it off.

“Hmph, if you had been blonde like your mother, I could have fetched a high price. In any case, you’re a useless girl as usual.”

Thus, my long hair, which had been my pride, was traded for my father’s drinking money.

Thinking back now, it seemed a trivial matter.

But at that time, I was a twelve-year-old girl who hadn’t yet awakened the memories of her past life.

The shock of having my long-treasured hair being ruthlessly cut like this was something that couldn’t be described fully with words.

Combined with the sorrow of being mistreated at home and doing all sorts of chores, I resolved to run away.

During that time, I endured the humiliation, thinking that maybe I was the one at fault and that living like that was natural.

However, the moment my hair was cut off, a fundamental question that I had buried deep inside raised its head.

Since I was a bad child, would my family continue to torment me like this? In that case, wouldn’t it be better to live alone?

At the age of twelve, brave and ignorant, I recklessly thought to put that question into action.

Determined to run away, I crawled into my brother’s room, put on easy-to-move-in men’s clothes, and gathered some coins and clothes before leaving home.

Then, I boldly walked into a job placement agency, eager to find work.

Of course, not all placement agencies are good……

Unfortunately, the placement agency I stumbled into was also a middleman for human trafficking, selling off naive individuals.

They must have been thrilled at the sudden appearance of a little boy. I was easily deceived by their promises of finding a good place and ended up getting kidnapped.

‘If it was a web novel, people would have cursed at the sudden plot development for being a sweet potato….’

[T/N: In Korea, “sweet potato” (고구마 먹다) is a slang expression that refers to experiencing frustration or irritation, often in relation to a story or situation that feels pointless or overly drawn out.]

Unfortunately, I, who wasn’t the main character in the novel, had to be dragged into the sweet potato development.

One fortunate aspect was that the agency’s boss mistook me for a boy.

I had my hair cut short and was wearing boyish clothes, and I was also very thin at the time. Since there didn’t seem to be much difference between men and women in terms of appearance, it was inevitable that they would misunderstand.

If they had known I was a girl, they would have taken me to a place where I would be treated worse without even proper verification. Even now, thinking about it made me feel relieved and fortunate.

Mistaken for a boy, I was subjected to a different kind of investigation first.

And that was when I learned that I was a Spirit holder.

“Haha, ahahahahaha! What a windfall! A brat with Spirit walking in on his own!”

14 years ago, human trafficking for extracting Spirit cores was more rampant than it is now. It’s a nauseating expression, but it means there was strong ‘demand’ for it.

In that situation, having a Spirit holder who hadn’t even reached puberty yet. They must have felt like winning the lottery.

A small magic circle that confirmed the Spirit core was engraved on my neck, and I was dragged to a cave far from the city center.

The second fortunate thing was that this Spirit core couldn’t be extracted right away. Thanks to that, I was able to buy some time.

In order to extract the Spirit core, a magic circle had to be engraved on the neck and leave it for about two months. Attempting to extract it before then would result in the core breaking.

It was also thanks to this delay that I was able to recognize the situation when I saw the boy Ludger had previously saved. There was a familiar magic circle carved around the boy’s neck.

The fact that I felt a momentary sense of kinship when I saw that boy, as if he were me in the past, is my secret.

Well, nevertheless.

I was confined in the cave, awaiting the day I would become a wreck.

Of course, at the time, I had no idea about things like Spirit cores or any of that.

I just vaguely comprehend that I had a Spirit, and that it was valuable. I was also able to realize that I was captured by the bad people who were trying to sell me off.

“I was wrong, I was wrong….”

Having run away in defiance for the first time, I thought the God of heaven must have punished me.

Just as my father and stepmother always said, I was a cursed child. I should have listened to them and lived obediently.

As I was just a child, I couldn’t stop such ridiculous thoughts.

My life was on the verge of ending like that, but…

The last stroke of luck was waiting for me.

“What have you done wrong?”

“Ah, hmm?”

A boy with brown hair and a vaguely unkempt face, who was imprisoned with me.

He asked me in a clear, youthful voice as I cried.

He seemed to be around my age, but his unbothered demeanor and lack of tears were surprising. His attitude brought me an inexplicable sense of relief.

So I choked back my tears and stammered, explaining why I thought I had done something wrong.

I spoke with sincere remorse, looking back now, it was a confession shaped by a childhood marked by abuse.

As he listened to my story, the boy’s face was gradually distorted.

He wiped away the tears from my eyes and said.

“You haven’t done anything wrong.”

“But….”

“You haven’t done anything wrong. So… never think of yourself as a bad child.”

When I trembled and couldn’t respond, he gently stroked my cheek.

“It’s your parents who are at fault.”

“…!”

My parents were at fault. It was something I had heard for the first time.

Isn’t it common sense that you should absolutely obey your parents? To me, it seemed like a blasphemous thing for such a young boy to say.

Yet, at the same time, I felt a sense of liberation from those words.

I’m not a bad child.

The ones who are bad are my parents.

“So, never reveal to your parents that you are a Spirit Holder.”

“…Are my parents really bad?”

“Yes.”

My heart was pounding. It felt like I was committing a huge mistake by saying that my parents were bad.

And that felt surprisingly…. good.

But there was something that troubled me in his words.

“But… Can I even reveal to my parents that I’m a Spirit Holder? I can’t go home….”

“You can go back.”

“….??”

I couldn’t understand his words. We were captured and were about to be sold somewhere.

“Uh… We’re locked up.”

“Yeah.”

“But how can we get home?”

“I’ll help you out.”

“Really…?”

“Yeah. I’m a mage.”

I opened my mouth wide. Even though I was young, I had heard through rumors how great mages were.

Therefore, if the boy said he would help me get out, it wouldn’t be a lie.

My heart began to fill with hope.

“Oh, right. But there’s a condition.”

The boy smiled playfully.

“If you promise me something, I’ll help you get out.”

“Promise…?”

“Yeah. From now on, you must always… value yourself as the most precious thing than anything else.”

“….”

“If you keep that promise, I’ll help you get out.”

I nodded almost instinctively, tears welling up again.

Even with my young mind, I thought the boy wouldn’t abandon me even if I didn’t make the promise. He simply wanted me to value myself, even if it meant making a promise.

He just wanted me to not hurt myself anymore.

“Yeah, promise….”

I extended my pinky finger. The boy tilted his head.

“What’s that?”

“Ah…. Oh, making a promise with your pinky… Don’t you know?”

“Ah.”

I explained to the boy that the pinky promise was a gesture where we interlock our pinky fingers to make a vow.

“So that’s what it is. Okay, I’ll keep my promise. Would you keep yours?”

“Y, yeah!”

The boy and I linked our pinky fingers and made the promise.

But the warm moment was very short.

The sound of commotion from outside interrupted us.

“Tch, where did those damn knights catch the scent from!”

“Quickly, just take those bunch of kids and run away!”

We could hear the frantic footsteps of the people who had kidnapped us rushing in.