Chapter 22
Killian smiled and nodded.
“Good idea, Miss Sophia.”
Anxiety melted away like snow, and a little hope rose in its place.
‘Since it’s her, I hope that she will be fine in the future.’
Killian thought as Sophia then looked up at him.
“Why… Why do you keep laughing at me…!”
Sophia with her puffy eyes, pouted her lips and spoke in anger.
She cried a lot and spooned her rage as Killian smiled next to her.
Of course it was embarrassing. She behaved badly in front of others and cried like a child…
‘Am I that funny? A person eating some tear-soaked soup is that funny?’
Sophia, who had reached the peak of her fighting power, glared at him.
Killian hid his smile and hardened his face.
“I remember. You laughed at me yesterday too…”
“I didn’t laugh.”
“Okay then.”
“It was nice to see…”
“…?”
“It was nice to see you.”
Just looking at him gave her strength and made her smile. To Sophia, Killian was a lot more reliable than she expected.
“Yesterday and now?”
Sophia pointed at herself with her index finger.
Yesterday’s ugliness was objectively guaranteed by Ian.
And today, since early in the morning, the Countess had slapped her cheeks, and her swollen eyes were red. Read only at pm tl.
No matter what, she doesn’t look the best.
‘Nice to see’ is like looking at the appearance of an old couple who are friendly or innocent children playing on the lawn in the sunlight.
Maybe he was trying to comfort her?
“Do I look pitiful?”
“You don’t look pitiful at all. Unfortunately.”
Sophia’s brow furrowed slightly at the firm answer.
Not ridiculing, not pitying, then what?
‘The Archduke of the North is not the type of person who laughs so much…’
She recalled the cliché while still having her headache.
One answer selected from among numerous data.
‘Maybe that man… Does he like me already?’
It was the basis of romance.
Male protagonists tend to be attracted to female protagonists’ bold or unexpected appearance.
Sophia recalled her looks she had shown to Killian.
It had some ugliness and embarrassment mixed in, but it was unusual.
Sophia again examined the inductive evidence.
First of all, Killian kept appearing in front of her.
He saved her several times whenever she was in trouble and was even angry for her.
Besides, he smiled in front of her several times, even though he was the Archduke of the North.
Above all, he brought her to his home!
If that wasn’t the beginning of a romance, what would it be?
‘I thought it would be like that when I read it in a novel, but it’s so strange to actually accept it!’
Discovering the incredible truth, Sophia covered her mouth with her hand.
It’s like being drunk and vomiting into a taxi, and the taxi driver suddenly says, ‘I like you’?
She still didn’t know why.
Anyway, there was no reason to refuse id Killian liked her.
From head to toe, he was perfect for her taste, so she has a bright future, doesn’t she?
‘Still, to capture a man’s heart in less than a full month, I might be more talented than I thought…?’
As Sophia stopped eating again and fell asleep at her thoughts, Killian stared at her.
“What are you thinking?”
“Oh no, nothing.”
‘You already like me.’
Sophia smiled and shook her head. The inside of her torn mouth and cheeks hurt, but it didn’t matter. She had already won the heart of the male protagonist.
As an insidious smile appeared on the face of the woman who had been weeping bitterly until now, Killian felt an unknown sense of anxiety.
“What was that?”
Killian asked.
“What?”
“That smile.”
“Oh… Thank you.”
Sophia answered without avoiding his suspicious gaze.
Come to think of it, she couldn’t even say thank you to him today.
If it weren’t for him, she might’ve been almost beaten to death.
If Killian hadn’t come on time, she wouldn’t have died as the main character, but her situation would have been pretty tough.
In a life like this, she thought that she should live a normal life without being the main character.
“The way you helped me when I was having a hard time, and the way you brought me to the duchy like this… Thank you, sir.”
Thanks to him, the life she possessed was rewarding.
At Sophia’s sincere thanks, Killian nodded his head awkwardly.
And Sophia went back to eat her dinner.
Although her mouth and throat were sore, she drank the soup and ate everything, even the souffle cake.
‘It’s just that I’m so full. Originally, if it were me, the soup would not have been added, and the cake would have been placed separately in the dessert stomach.’
Sophia leaned her back against the head of her bed, feeling full.
Still, with the food, she felt a little bit energetic.
~*~
Killian went back to work in the military and police force.
Meanwhile, the servants were ready for Sophia in half a day.
A maid in charge was assigned, her items in Frauss mansion arrived, and doctor Leopeld came to treat and prescribe her medicine.
Garfield, the butler’s expression, looked very tired when he returned from the outing, but it seemed to have worked out anyway.
It had been raining.
Sophia, who looked up at the ceiling unconsciously at the sound of rain, realized that she was in the Archduke’s house and shook her head.
‘The rain won’t leak here…!’
Sophia’s habit made her worry about the spring rain without realizing it.
When she was living in the attic, she had to collect the rain from the ceiling from a bucket.
When it rained, a damp and musty smell filled the room, and mold was on the wall.
However, even when it rained, it was refreshing and pleasant here.
The sound of raindrops crashing against the window became a noise calming for the mind.
‘It’s better than home.’
At Frauss, she was always nervous.
Who was coming and going, whether there was a loud noise outside, how people were feeling…
Even though soul has changed, the tension that Sophia’s body has accumulated throughout her life stayed.
It was like her habit, and she did it subconsciously, so she didn’t even know she was doing it.
But when she came to Rivelon, her chest loosened and she was not surprised by the slightest sound.
‘Really, I want to keep this contract until the end of the engagement.’
Sophia laid on her bed and peered up at the ceiling.
Beyond the canopy was a ceiling covered in golden moldings.
A smirk leaked out.
“It’s nice to have a male protagonist…”
There may be temporary hardships, but there was a trustworthy person by her side.
Knowing that the main character of this world was her, her worries will soon be relieved.
She recalled a time when she was originally living as an extra in the world. (tl/n: she’s recalling her past life)
Come to think of it, she had a pretty similar life to Sophia Frauss.
She was the object of the wrath of her family.
Her grandmother, who was strong in her preference for boys even at her age those days, hated her for being born as a girl.
She called her a bastard, saying that she was taking her brother’s share as well.
When her father drank alcohol, his hand went out first, and she, the weakest woman in the family, was her father’s handy punching bag.
Raised by watching her grandmother’s extreme favoritism and her father’s behavior, her brother became like her second father and made her a slave to him.
Beating, breaking, and stealing. All those dirty works were being done on her.
Her mother had no power to protect her in such a family.
A life that was not much different from Sophia’s situation.
‘The only difference is that my past family wasn’t rich.’
Unlike the wealthy Frauss, her family only lamented the accumulating debt.
She desperately studied to get out of the family.
Being locked up late into the night in her reading room, provided free of charge by her school, was her happiness.
Thanks to that, her grades were excellent, and as soon as she turned 20, she ran away with a college acceptance letter.
The transportation costs in Seoul were stolen from her father’s liquor prices, and rose recklessly.
Fortunately, she had a talent for foreign languages, so it was easy to find a part-time job.
Dealing with foreign tourists, foreign-related events and filming interpretation, foreign language tutoring, small group study, etc.
Although her circumstances were not good enough, she was able to maintain a minimum life.
By doing that, she was able to be an exchange student for a semester.
The experience she had accumulated in that way naturally led to a job, and after that, she was quite successful, giving her more room to live.
Her family would then call her and ask: If you have money, pay off some family debt.
Her brother wanted to start a franchise business and asked for a loan in her name.
The only pleasure in such a damn life was fiction novels.
‘Is coming to this world like a blessing god has arranged for me?’
Sophia shook her old memories away and focused on her present reality again.
She didn’t need to feel bad while thinking about her past life, which wasn’t good.
Contrary to the dark and dreary reality, the main character’s happy ending was set.
‘Unless the writer is a strange person who likes sad endings…’
There were some works that come to mind with a sad ending, but those works have a different atmosphere from this world.
Sad ending works tend to start out pitiful, pathetic, delicate, dark and exhausting.
But she wasn’t a character that suited that side.
‘Especially in book possessions. There is no bad ending.’
ominous