Chapter 2
Elisa Croft is the noble daughter of Duke Croft, who even drops birds.
Duke Croft lost his wife at a young age and gained a daughter.
What I mean is, Duke Croft’s wife gave birth to Elisa and shortly after passed away from illness.
Duke Croft, who deeply loved his wife, cherished Elisa as the last gift left by his wife.
However, tragedy befalls even the powerful.
One day, before Elisa turned one, she was kidnapped.
The kidnapper was the wet nurse who had nursed Elisa while residing in the ducal residence.
The wet nurse’s name was Bilon.
Characteristic: a compulsive gambler.
Bilon, burdened with an insurmountable gambling debt, even with a lifetime of work, contemplated a way to settle the debt and devised a plan for “infant abduction.”
So one day, Elisa and Bilon disappeared without a trace.
Then, where did the kidnapper Bilon, who seems to live up to her name, take Elisa?
First, she hide Elisa deep in the forest.
Then, knowing only herself, she took Elisa to a small, crumbling cabin and went out into the forest to send a threatening letter demanding money from the Duke….
“Move, move aside!”
Tragedy befell not only the Croft lady but also Bilon.
Bilon was hit by a carriage while running down a narrow road late at night.
At the scene of the accident, Bilon took her last breath and left the following dying words.
“Over there… the cabin….”
The stableman, who had accidentally hit a person but wasn’t a bad person at heart, couldn’t just ignore the final words of Bilon.
The stableman wandered in the direction indicated by Bilone for a while and eventually found the cabin.
Thus, the stableman, whose name was Hans – not intending to mock the name, but it felt lacking in creativity – met Elisa, the speechless baby, in the old cabin.
“…So, you’re the daughter of that woman.”
Bilon had brown hair and brown eyes, while Elisa had silver hair and sky-blue eyes, but Hans was truly an unbiased person.
Anyway, instead of the deceased Bilon, Hans decided to raise Elisa himself and left for another country with her.
In fact, Hans was not a native of this country. He had come to this country alone a few years ago to earn money and support his family in another country.
So, Hans crossed the sea with Elisa, unable to say, “My name is Elisa Croft, and my legal guardian is not Bilon but the Duke of Croft.”
Nine years passed since then.
Instead of Elisa Croft, who now went by the name “Clodie,” she was living well.
Until Hans and his family were all tragically killed in accidents.
Being the protagonist, tragedy struck one after another.
It was an accident where the building collapsed. One might say she was lucky, as she was the only one who survived, being slightly away from the building.
Elisa became an orphan overnight in a foreign land and was sent to an orphanage.
“Hey, what’s your name?”
“…Clodie.”
“Such a pretty name. I’m Bella. Let’s get along well here from now on.”
In the orphanage where Elisa was left to rely on herself, there was only one girl her age.
Her name was Bella, as she introduced herself. She was also nine years old, with red hair and similar sky-blue eyes as Elisa.
In fact, upon closer observation, Bella’s eyes had a mix of gray with the sky-blue, but in dim light, they just appeared sky-blue.
“We look quite alike, Clodie.”
“Do we?”
“I think so. If I had silver hair like you, wouldn’t we have looked like twins?”
Bella enjoyed flaunting the fact that she and Elisa looked alike. Indeed, to strangers, the two appeared as though they were sisters.
A year passed.
With new children coming into the orphanage and rooms becoming scarce, Elisa and Bella ended up sharing a room.
“…What’s this? A necklace?”
And Bella, who had resorted to pickpocketing on the streets before coming to the orphanage, still hadn’t quite shaken off her habit.
At the age of ten, she found herself rummaging through Elisa’s belongings and stumbled upon something peculiar.
Bella first stole the necklace and then took it to the oldest resident of the orphanage to show off. This resident, mentioned briefly on one page, was named Thomas. There’s no intent to disparage the name Thomas…to be continued.
“When did you steal this necklace from? Whom?”
“Why do you care? Just tell me how much this is worth, Thomas! I’ll give you a small cut if you sell it.”
“You must never sell this necklace, return it to its owner quickly.”
“What?”
“This is a noble’s belonging. It’s obvious.”
“…A noble?”
“Don’t take my words lightly, Bella. If you sell the necklace, you’ll get caught for sure. If you want to live, listen to me.”
After Thomas’s sound advice to Bella, he never appears again. He’s just an extra.
Thanks to the invaluable advice from the extra, Bella learned the true value of the necklace. With it and a little pocket money—which was also someone else’s money—she went to the port and boarded a ship.
For Bella, who had made a living by pickpocketing at a young age, the threat of “getting caught and killed if she sells the necklace” wasn’t a coercion at all.
“Stupid Thomas! I’ll just sell it where I won’t get caught!”
After several days of relentless sailing, the ship dropped Bella off in the Eos Kingdom.
Bella acted quite thoroughly. She paid the fare and with the remaining money, she bought a worn-out hood from the market and sold the necklace at a jewelry store, hiding her appearance with the hood.
“If I went this far, it should be enough, right? Hmm, no. Just in case…”
Bella’s final decision was to change her appearance.
At a shop run by an alchemist, Bella bought a magic potion to change her hair color. The potion was very expensive, but Bella had earned much more money from selling the necklace than it cost.
“While I’m at it, I should change my name to Clody.”
Bella fell asleep in a luxury inn after drinking a magic potion.
And the next day.
“Are you awake?”
Bella met the most handsome man she had ever seen since she was born.
“I’m sorry I’m only finding you now, Elisa. Let’s go home.”
Bella ended up becoming Elisa Croft, the forbidden love interest of a duke, thanks to the coincidence that the kingdom of Eos, where she chose to sell Elisa’s necklace, happened to be Elisa’s homeland.
It might be inevitable considering this happened in a novel, but for an orphan from the streets like Bella, it was quite a transformation to become “Elisa Croft.”
Now, let me reintroduce myself one more time.
My name is Gongju-an.
That’s what it was before I possessed her.
And now?
…I’m Bella. Bella, also known as Elisa Croft.
“Of all the characters to possess, why did it have to be the villainess! It’s sad enough just being possessed….”
As I reminded myself of my situation, tears threatened to fall.
I sat on the bed and let out a deep sigh.
The aftereffects – fever and body aches – that I got as a reward for jumping into the pond had subsided after resting in the bedroom for a few days.
I looked down at my lighter body with a melancholic feeling.
“Why am I feeling down when I’m not even sick?”
Well, it’s because even though my body isn’t in pain anymore, it’s still someone else’s body… that’s why.
“I wonder when I can go home.”
As I muttered to myself, suddenly a memory flashed through my mind.
It was when I woke up not in the hospital ward I had been transferred to for intensive therapy, but in a spacious and luxurious bedroom.
After seeing my face reflected in the mirror placed on one side of the bedroom, I immediately thought,
“It’s a dream.”
I wanted to wake up from the dream quickly. Since it was just a dream, I didn’t feel like enjoying a new experience.
Maybe a corner of my mind had already realized it wasn’t a dream.
“That lady!”
As I fiercely slapped my cheek with my hand, a maid entered the bedroom.
Although the maid screamed, it wasn’t my concern, so I ignored her and focused on slapping my cheek.
Bella’s hand hurt. Is every villain like this?
Anyway, while I was feeling the sensation of my cheek bursting, I suddenly lost consciousness. Alright, now I’m waking up from the dream…
“Elli!”
When I opened my eyes, I was still in the luxurious bedroom.
And next to me was a very handsome man who seemed to have rushed here from somewhere.
