Chapter 3
She looked like she was trying to read my expression. As I silently met her eyes, a thought crossed my mind.
‘Did she just say “sorry” to me?’
It seemed like Lilith thought I had clicked my tongue because of her.
“I wasn’t doing that to you, Miss. I’m sorry for making you feel uncomfortable.”
“Huh, me?”
“Yes, really.”
Only after I nodded and reassured her several times did Lilith finally relax. Then, she squirmed even closer into my arms. As if I were her last lifeline. I gently patted Lilith’s back. After a little while, I could hear her breathing evenly.
“She really does seem just like a little child when she’s like this…”
But… could she even cry freely? Thinking back to what just happened, it felt like Lilith’s powers came out when her emotions were stirred.
“She’s still young. Her powers probably go out of control when she gets anxious.”
That kind of thing often happened to kids with strong powers. If only there were someone who could either teach her to control it or stay close to calm her down, it would’ve been enough.
“But I doubt the Shainon family ever cared that much.”
Now that I looked closely, I could see signs that she hadn’t been properly cared for. They had just dressed her in fancy clothes. Her hair was unevenly cut, and her nails were long.
‘Was Lilith afraid of the maids?’
It was probably because her emotions were unstable that those maids died. But she couldn’t have been scared of them from the beginning. I stared at Lilith’s small head, now deeply asleep. When I gently ran my fingers through her jet-black hair, the tangled strands started to loosen.
“She didn’t mean to hurt anyone from the start.”
I thought about how flustered she had looked when her power burst out earlier. Maybe she was shocked that the other children around her were scared of her.
“Haa…”
A sigh naturally came out.
“Was it really the right thing to do…?”
The villainess, who had grown up being ignored by everyone, meets a man who isn’t afraid of her. Of course, she would fall in love with him. But the man doesn’t look at the villainess. In the end, the villainess tries to get rid of anything that stands in the way of earning his love. Not even realizing that what she’s doing is wrong. Because that’s all she knows how to do. Because no one ever taught her not to.
“I’m not sure if it was right to step in and calm Lilith down just now…”
I mumbled, thinking about what lay ahead in Lilith’s future.
“But it’s better than her dying, at least.”
I looked down at my hand—it was a bit bigger than Lilith’s, but still small. Besides, I’m still just a child. It’s not easy to survive in this world. I needed a place here, too. I continued patting Lilith’s back in a steady rhythm as she curled up and fell into a deep, shrimp-like sleep.
Chloe Herne.
I was reborn as the daughter of a commoner in the Gardia Empire. Back when I cried loudly as a baby, “Waaah!”, I had no idea that this world was the same one from a novel I liked to read in my past life.
‘Wow… life really throws surprises at you.’
I was reborn with all the memories of my previous life still intact. By the time I turned about five years old, I realized this was the world of a novel—and that surprised me even more.
‘I thought the empire’s name sounded familiar.’
Being reborn was shocking enough, but now I was in a novel? No wonder I was surprised. If I retraced my memories from my past life, I got into a traffic accident on my way to a convenience store late at night because I was hungry. The flashing lights and the loud engine noise were still clear in my ears.
‘It was probably a hit-and-run. I hope they catch the driver and clear my name…’
At first, I didn’t even know what had happened. But when I came to my senses, I was already growing up as Chloe Herne. At first, I was sad thinking about how my family must be grieving, but that didn’t last long. The Herne family was too poor for me to hold onto sadness from my past life. Before I was born, they apparently had a bit of money helping out a merchant group, but that was ancient history.
Now, I had to suck on my fingers and even toes just to ease my hunger. Especially since I had one older brother and three younger siblings—five children in total—just breathing cost money.
‘Turns out, when you’re poor, there’s no time to be sad.’
I thought that while helping my mother with every kind of job.
‘I wasn’t rich in my past life either, but at least I never had to starve.’
Now, thinking about the past only left a bitter taste in my mouth. Because the life of Chloe Herne—who had to worry about her next meal—was now my reality.
“Chloe Herne…”
The novel I had read was The Knight of Gardia Desires the Sun. It was a romance fantasy story about a female knight as the heroine and the emperor as the male lead. But I didn’t remember anyone named Chloe Herne. Which meant I wasn’t even a side character—I was less than that.
“Even if I had just been one of the background characters near the main leads, I probably wouldn’t be starving like this.”
But it wasn’t something I could control.
Then one day, in the middle of the night, while everyone else was asleep, my parents woke only me and sat me down on a chair. The first thing I noticed was the serious look on their faces, so I knew something big was going on.
“Chloe, the truth is… you’re not our real daughter.”
“…What?”
I wasn’t even a background character… yet I had a hidden birth secret?
Wow, how. Sur. Pris. Ing!
My stunned expression didn’t stop my mother from continuing.
“Actually, you’re my older sister’s child. She died right after giving birth to you. We had no choice but to raise you as our own.”
“Oh…”
When I was just born, I couldn’t see or hear properly, like I was underwater, so I had no idea this had happened. I forced myself to stay focused and not drift off.
“Then who’s my father?”
“We don’t know. My sister never said anything before she died. But…”
My mother handed me something small. It was a man’s cufflink. There was something engraved on it.
“This was all she left behind.”
“…You’ve kept it all this time?”
“It wasn’t worth much money.”
She stopped talking when my father nudged her. I guess they had thought of selling it at first. And honestly, even if they had, I wouldn’t have blamed them.
‘They were just trying to survive.’
I should be grateful that they even raised me until now.
‘Actually…’
But as I tried to be thankful, memories of how my parents always treated me differently came back to me. From food to clothes to work… everything. I used to think it was just because I had so many siblings, but I guess there was a reason.
“Anyway, Chloe, the reason we’re telling you all this now is…”
My father placed a flyer next to the cufflink.
[The Shainon Family is looking for a maid from among commoners. Girls around ten years old.]
I stared at the flyer.
“They’re looking for a maid at the Shainon estate.”
“…I see.”
“There aren’t any requirements besides age, so even you, who can’t read, could do it.”
They had never taught me to read. While my siblings learned letters, I had to stay by Mother’s side and help out.
‘I secretly learned from behind, so I can read now.’
But I never said anything, so they must’ve thought I couldn’t read.
“Mother, Father.”
“We raised you all this time, Chloe. Isn’t it time for you to repay us?”
“I’m still only ten…”
“You’ve always been oddly mature for your age, so you’ll do fine.”
My father cut me off firmly.
“They say they give you advance pay too. If you become a maid for the Shainon family, our family could eat well for a whole year, Chloe.”
There was a strange pressure in my mother’s tone as she grabbed my hand.
“You’ll do it, right, Chloe?”
When my father looked at me and asked, I had no choice but to nod. Later, when I found out the person I had to serve was Lilith Shainon…
‘I might not last long before I die.’
…was what I honestly thought.
