“Wh-what?”
I took a step back as he approached, and he took two steps closer. I tried to move again, but his fierce gaze froze me. As I was about to apologize for pinching his cheeks, he sighed, pointing to the floor, and said,
“Your feet are bleeding.”
“…Uh?”
Before I could grasp the situation, Luka was already in one knew, checking the condition of my feet. He held my feet with his hands, gently examining my wound, then turned his body and sighed.
“I’ll carry you, come on, we need to heal that wound.”
“Ah… o- okay…”
Luka took me to a little room just next to the children’s room, full of ointment and bandages. While looking for ointment, he scolded me for wiggling my feet as I sat on the spare bed, waving my feet. Then he gently applied the medicine to the injured spot.
The stinging sensation was manageable, but Luka’s expression remained somber. I knew part of his concerns were related to my wound, but there seemed to be something else going on.
At that moment, I caught a glimpse of Luka’s arm trembling slightly. I rolled up his sleeves.
“…what’s this…”
My voice faded in an instant. Red whip stripes glistened drearily on his slender, pale wrists.
“Just like you said last time, it’s no big deal.”
Last time, while he treated my wounds with a rigid gaze, I regarded my physical condition lightly. Luka, who looked up at me with red eyes, quickly lowered his gaze in remorse.
We switched seats this time, and I treated him. I couldn’t say anything to him since I believed it was my fault. Luka gazed down at me as I silently applied the ointment. Smiling gently, he appeared so mature that it was hard to believe he was just 14 years old and a year younger than me. I knew he was the main lead, but how can a child be so dreamily gorgeous?! I felt I was insane.
Luka, making sure his right arm wouldn’t hurt, carefully raised his hand and stroke my cheek and said,
“…Don’t make that face.”
His voice was so soothing and reassuring that for a brief moment, I thought the child was me rather than him. I must have made the same expression he did a moment ago.
Luka was blatantly indifferent about his physical state. His injuries were more serious than mine. If that had been me or any other child, I would have sobbed uncontrollably.
I sighed in despair, contemplating Luka and myself. What followed was half an impulse.
“I made up my mind. I can’t live like this anymore.”
I said resolutely. I must get out of this morbid orphanage. Luka asked, looking down at me.
“Why? Are you going to escape?”
Startled by the nonchalant question, I covered his mouth with my hand. I glanced at the side to see that no one was behind the small door, and I looked back at him sighing in relief. His dark eyes glowed with an odd light.
“Take me with you, big sister.”
‘Only in times like this you call me ‘big sister’ although we don’t share a drop of blood… ‘
The voice coming from that angel-like face was foreboding.
“Don’t even think of fleeing on your own. I’ll follow you to the end of the world.”
I was baffled as I glanced down at Luka, who spoke with a soft smile and a hard resolve in his eyes. My thoughts became blank.
‘Are- Are you threatening me right now?!’
According to the original story, the heroine will show up a year from now and save Luka from this hellhole…
However… It wasn’t as if I hadn’t thought of taking Luka with me.
In the story in which I was reincarnated, I was both a benefactor and a villain who caused him great trauma and sorrow. When the male lead, Luka, was on the verge of death, it was the original Leah who saved him, even though she lost her legs in the process. Using that tragedy as a chance, she became Luka’s savior, and using that as a justification, she turned into a villainess who tried all she could to damage the relationship between the heroine and Luka.
So, if I escaped alone, Luka could die without my help when in harm’s way.
‘If you think about it, it could be best if I bring Luka with me. It’s more crucial for me and Luka to have functional limbs than to follow the original plot…’
He, the novel’s male lead, meant far more to me than his original role. Yeah… he is like family.
Also, I was sure he would help me achieve my first plan after escaping. I nodded after a moment of thought.
“…Right. I’m not sure where to, but let’s leave this sh*thole together.”
“Trust this Noonim,” I said, and Luka looked at me with surprise, his eyes widened, and then replied with a smile as if looking forward to the future.
“Yes, wherever Leah goes, I will go with you.”
Because children should not be wounded in the morning, Luka and I spent a restless night cleaning up the living room, which was a wreck with smashed glass everywhere.
We lay next to each other on the extra bed in the storage-like room, not in the children’s room, where they could barely sleep. Seeing Luka lying on my side, I fell into deep thought. I really wanted to flee, but I was afraid.
I went out last night, not for water, but to investigate if there was a way out of the orphanage without going via Miss Raiolla’s chamber. ‘Escape’ was something she could never forgive, and it was a serious felony in this place.
This heinous orphanage was established more than 30 years ago, but there has only been one successful escape. Other than fleeing, the only way out of this dreadful place was by adoption; however, ordinary nobility had little interest in a nursing facility hidden deep in the forest.
As a result, when the children of the Troy orphanage reached the age of fifteen, they were sold to Duke Klavos, who had taken the Imperial slums and had a huge net of crime running wild with all kinds of crooks doing whatever he pleased. The sponsor and true owner of this orphanage, according to the story, was Duke Klavos, who sought to grow and nurture future criminals.
Raiolla talked till her tongue dried up:
“The world is so corrupt and dangerous that orphans like you, who have no one to care for you, will be captured and swallowed whole without a soul noticing.”
By whom? She never mentioned it, and she certainly wouldn’t tell us. That’s how we grew up, locked in this hellish nursing under the guise of safety.
The apparition of several pawns when the villain appeared was not coincidental. This place was completely incompatible with an orphanage’s child care goal, which was to introduce the children to their future guardians.
And now that I was fifteen, I was going to be sold to Duke Klavos as a minion. I scribbled a letter in my head as I gazed up at the spider webs that hung from the black ceiling.
‘To the family in another world that I want to see.
This is your daughter X…’
* * *
I recall traveling in the rear compartment of a cold wagon, relying only on a tiny blanket, when I was very young. I arrived at the ‘Troy Nursery’ after passing out and waking up many times due to the rocking of the carriage, which showed no regard for a three-year-old child.
“Never let this child go until she turns fifteen; after that, contact me privately and I’ll come back to pick her up.”
Even though my mind was hazy, I could hear the icy voice. The gruesome expression of Miss Raiolla, who opened the small cradle I was in after the man left, was still one of my worst memories!
She just lifted me, not caring if I got hurt by her pointy nails, went out of the room and threw me at one of the eldest-looking girls out of dozens of children staring at us, and went back into the room.
‘What the hell is this situation?’
Startled as I was, I looked up at the girl who held me, wondering if she was as afraid as I was but… a warm smile greeted me for the first time since I reincarnated to this world.
“Baby, did you forget what happened before coming here, right? I understand it must have been a big shock… Your name is Leah, I think it’s a really pretty name.”
That girl- Serin talked to me dozens of times a day. With my mind clouded and confused, Serin’s gentle voice helped me gradually regain stability.
I never imagined I’d be so short-lived.
I was a proud daughter who, as a child, won several prizes in youth kendo events and was able to compete on the national team as an adult.
It was only because of my family that I was able to live and bear the unforeseen accident as well as the frustration of losing the dream that I had longed for my entire life. I died without saying goodbye to a relationship that meant more to me than anything else in the world.
Were any of the passengers on the bus alright? I was flung into the icy asphalt in that catastrophic collision, where no survivors were confirmed, and closed my eyes at the sight of the beautiful first snow.
‘Is there life beyond death?‘ It was an important question, and thousands of people commented, but no one had the answer.
And the tens of thousands of reasonable replies might have all originated in the inside framework of common sense. Because everyone assumed that the world only functioned under the yoke of common sense.
But, in reality, the world, or the universe, was considerably more insane.
I sighed as I glanced in the mirror at my peculiar self. Serin used to tell the kids that my silver hair and green eyes made me seem magical, like a fairy.
‘Should I claim it’s a miracle to be living again like this, or should I ask God whether this reality truly exists?’
I couldn’t understand what kind of place this was. There were even newborn infants in the nursery where I was, and those babies were entirely the responsibility of the other girls, who appeared to be Serin Unnie’s age.
Raiolla, the orphanage’s director, only appeared in the early morning or late at night, and she never left her room. Cleaning and cooking were all our responsibilities; and the older children, whose age didn’t surpass the age of fourteen, were in charge of taking care of the little ones.
I was praised for not being picky about carrots while eating potato soup while sitting at the breakfast table after washing my kitty-like face with Serin’s help.
“Leah is such a grown-up!”
‘What age am I?’ Mmmh… I believe I’ve heard the name Leah before… Well, I guess I must have confused it with the name of that burger place.1‘
I didn’t take it seriously at the moment.
Ignoring what was going to happen in the future.
1. [롯데리아 (Lotteria) The first hamburger franchise in Korea. It is operated by Lotte GRS, and the hamburger business division is in charge. Running since 1979. As you can guess Leah’s name is written the same as the last syllable of the burger store]↩
