NOVEL NEXT Vol. 1 Chapter 3
Rub, rub. It felt like her arms would fall off. She was glad that she hadn’t encountered anyone but if she did then it would look like someone wanted to dump a dead body. Cordelia, who was facing a crisis of being found and dragged by security, wiped the sweat off of her forehead. “Phew. Ah, it’s hard work……” She took three steps forward, then sighed. And she took another three steps forward before sighing once more. She repeated those movements and successfully dragged the Duke away. She might have been slower than a turtle, but little by little she was able to successfully move Duke Valencia to a safe place. The expression ‘safe’ was only based on Cordelia’s understanding of the word safe . She looked around her surroundings. This place was where the madame’s people often came to smoke. She heard before that the madame used to have a very beautiful voice that it even conquered and dominated the whole area. However, all of the people around her smoked which resulted in her graty and unpleasant voice of today. This was the reason why she would tremble in rage whenever she saw someone smoking. It was also the reason why madame’s people would hide here if they wanted to smoke. It was a hidden place that the madame would never want to step her foot on. Aside from the occasional visits from the Humphrey workers and the heavy smokers, the place was practically deserted. Perhaps it was also because of the rumors about ghosts appearing that people had strayed away from this place. ‘It’s better to bring him to an abandoned place than letting him stay on the floor in the back alleys!’ The smell of smoke was so strong that she felt like her nose was being pricked with the stench. She thought that it would be for the best if she ventilated the area. Now that she was in a safe place, she believed that it was high time that she dealt with Duke Valencia. “Hmm.”The Duke was fluttering between being unconscious and conscious while he was being dragged to this place. Every time he bumped on a rock on the floor, he would emit a light groan but he never opened his eyes. I’d rather he gained consciousness and walked on his own. It would have been much easier if that was the case. Thinking how he was of no help at all, Cordelia clucked her tongue as she took off the Duke’s jacket and unbuttoned his shirt. Once she opened his shirt, she could finally see the injury that brought all of this mess. “Ugh…… That must be painful.” But he was still fine, considering that he was still quite strong even though he was covered in blood. However, being fine did not mean that he was on the good track to recovery. ‘How am I supposed to treat a wound like this?’ Cordelia often got sick. Just yesterday, she was suffering from a high fever. Perhaps it was because she wasn’t able to make enough money last week. But even from before, back when she was still in the orphanage, Cordelia was still always sick. Just accompanying her friends to play and eat would make her body ache all over which would result in a fever. In the 8 short years that Cordelia has lived in this world, she had experienced great hardships including being stabbed by a needle, being beaten black and blue and even being starved to the point that she would want to eat her own flesh. It seemed like the only thing that she hadn’t experienced before was being stabbed by a blade. This was why she was still thinking about how she would go about treating Duke Valencia’s wounds and how she would ask for payment once she’s done. She gently laid down the Duke who looked like he was much paler than when she had first met him earlier. Then, she opened the cloth that she had hidden deeply on her body. Cordelia pulled out the remaining old clothing that she had packed earlier. She had seen it somewhere before that you had to press on an open wound to stop the bleeding, so she placed her old clothes on the Duke’s abdomen and bandaged it tightly. Her preliminary treatment was finally finished once she had clumsily tied the clothes with her tiny, awkward hands. Perhaps his wounds had opened during the time that she had dragged the Duke away since her clothes were quickly dyed red with blood. “I’m sure that I’ll definitely get paid for the treatment.” Cordelia mumbled this to herself as she watched the mess that her clothes turned into once she had bandaged it on the Duke. “Anyway, just this much is nothing to someone like you, ahjussi……” What Cordelia wanted from him was not something grand and luxurious. For Cordelia, the matters regarding her life and death were extremely important. But to someone like the Duke, it was like crushing the ants that were passing by in front of him. All Cordelia wanted was a little bit of his mercy. In the future, this little bit of mercy would definitely save Cordelia’s life. ‘And this ahjussi’s money will definitely save me right now.’ She might have lost her dirty, ragged clothes but she definitely gained a great investment. “Hehe.” She couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle at the thought of her investment. After she finished her treatment, Cordelia had decided to stay with the Duke until he came back to his senses. This was a choice that she had to begrudgingly make since she had to tell the Duke that it was her who saved his life. She had been trying to stay still beside the Duke but the pendant from earlier kept on bugging her. She did not notice it earlier since it was hanging on his neck and tucked inside his clothes. But when Cordelia untied his clothes for the treatment, she discovered that the Duke was wearing a pendant. When Cordelia looked closely, she realized that it did not look that expensive. However, as long as it was worth some money, she really wouldn’t care if it was expensive or not. So she sneakily reached out to grab the pendant with her tiny hands. Once she got her hands on the pendant, she felt a protruding part on the side and when she placed some pressure on it, it opened with a click! “……What is this?” There were some strands of red hair placed inside the pendant. ‘Duke Valencia definitely was not red haired before.’ And it clearly was not a hair strand from someone in his family because the descendants of the Valencia family all had their trademark silvery blue hair for generations. ‘I’m sure that he kept these hair strands like this because it was from someone precious, right? But the Duke is most likely single though?’ In the book, she was sure that the Duke was still single up until the point where Cordelia was killed. ‘Let’s just hide it from sight. If it was something precious, then he will definitely notice that it’s gone once he wakes up.’ And she also did not feel comfortable in stealing an item that has another person’s hair inside. Cordelia silently went to sit back on a chair and drew her knees up as she drew circles on the ground to pass the time. It has only been a day since her fever had gone down besides, she also used up a lot of her energy to drag a grown man into safety so she felt tired and sleepy. ‘But I think I saw before that the Saintess Cordelia was only recognized as a Saintess after she had treated the wounded Duke Valencia using a vast amount of divine power……’ Suddenly, the contents of the book flashed in her head. Cordelia blinked blankly. She wanted to continue looking at the other content in her mind but only the part of her death was shockingly written so boldly. And Cordelia, who was still weak and under recovery, couldn’t think any more as she fell asleep deeply. Squirm, squirm— If she hadn’t come to her senses from someone staring at her then she would definitely have fallen asleep until the next morning. “Yaaaaawn.” When Cordelia opened her eyes again, the sun was already starting to set. She felt that she had only blinked once but so much time had already passed by. However, she still couldn’t properly see with just the red light from the setting sun through the broken window. Once her view cleared, she was met with the bloody red eyes of Duke Valencia. Her drowsiness was suddenly cleared away. Cordelia almost wanted to scream but she steeled herself. ‘He woke up!’ “Who are you?” Cordelia thought that he had come back to his senses while she was asleep since he looked like he was fine already. He definitely looked more sober and sane compared to before when he used to call Cordelia ‘Rosalyn’. On the contrary, Cordelia just woke up and was currently still in a daze so she did not understand Duke Valencia’s question. ‘Who am I? I’m me!’ It was such a ridiculous question but no one would say such a huge statement in front of those frosty red eyes. And smart Cordelia did the same thing. She barely grasped the situation and managed to answer properly. “Uhm. I’m the person who helped uncle.” Her voice cracked as she tried to answer without coughing. However, Duke Valencia looked like he did not care about the condition of Cordelia’s voice. He only stared at Cordelia’s watery eyes. Cordelia felt uncomfortable but she still did not avoid his stare. Even though she stole the Duke’s purse, she was not the one who stabbed him so she did not feel any guilt at all. ‘I’m your benefactor in name!’ She was so nervous thinking that the Duke would ask her ‘Where did my purse go, did you hide it?’ but he asked her a completely random question. “Are you Rosalyn’s daughter?” “Who’s Rosalyn?” He had been calling Rosalyn since earlier but Cordelia did not know anyone with that name. Rosalyn, Rosalyn. As she tried her best to recall if there was such a name inside the book, she met with the rather indecisive eyes of Duke Valencia. “Rosalyn…… No, let me change the question. Are you Cordelia?” Cordelia was startled with his inquiry. ‘Heok. How did he know?’ Duke Valencia couldn’t miss her response. But Cordelia suddenly grabbed his hands. “I don’t know that name.” “……” “I’ve never heard that name before.” “Then, what’s your name?” “I don’t have a name.” Cordelia’s everything was compared to the Saintess because they had the same name. And one of the reasons why the Saintess paid attention to her was because they had the same name. So she decided that she should just take this opportunity to abandon her name and escape. ‘What should my new name be?’ Later, she would definitely have a name that was not ‘Cordelia’ and does not have the ‘Co’ in ‘Cordelia’. “It would be nice if uncle remembered my face.” And remember me as the kid who helped you in the past. Just remembering like that was more than enough for her. “Anyway, I was the one who helped uncle so that’s that!” “Your eyes look the same as Rosie’s eyes.” Rosie? Cordelia realized that Rosie was Rosalyn’s pet name. But the problem was it was a pet name that she had heard plenty of times before. ‘Where did I hear…… Heok!’ She couldn’t help but suck in a breath when she realized who Rosie was. Rosie was the name of the Saintess mother as well as the pet name of the Duke’s first love! She was more familiar with her pet name since she was called by her pet name plenty of times in the book compared to her full name. ‘But why did he mention that name?’ While Cordelia was still in the midst of confusion, the Duke had already raised his hands and touched the corner of her eyes. Then he slightly covered them with the palm of his hands. “The color of your eyes…… is the same. I don’t think I’m in the wrong place.” “I, I’m not that person!” “Then, which person am I talking about?” “The person that Uncle is thinking about?” She was so flustered by the Duke’s happy expression that she took a wrong step and even screeched in embarrassment. “I have nothing to do with that person at all!” Rosalyn was a person who turned to the Church after being deemed as a fallen aristocrat. Perhaps it was because God had felt her sincere and pure faithfulness that he had given her a tremendous amount of divine power. Because of her divine power, she was able to make a deep friendship with the second son of the Oricsa Family who went to church to increase his power. It would have been fine if they would have just lived happily like that. But when their child turned three, Rosalyn suffered from an attack and was killed and the child disappeared like smoke. Duke Valencia was attacked by assassins while he was searching for that child—for someone like Duke Valencia who had a rough and wild attitude, he was bound to have many enemies—and ended up collapsing due to a fatal wound. The Saintess accidentally found him in a life and death situation, used her divine power and healed him. ‘Thanks to the Saintess treating him, the Duke’s injuries were healed cleanly and properly. And once he woke up, the Duke saw that the Saintess resembled his first love Rosalyn with the exception of her hair and eye color.’ This was the beginning of Cordelia’s story in the book. That’s why…… ‘It’s definitely not me!’ Cordelia was really itching to tell him that she was not Rosalyn’s daughter. “You know something.” “No, no! Absolutely not!” But she couldn’t tell him. If she told him that then she would also have to tell him the contents of the book. “You seem to know who I’m looking for since you told me ‘absolutely not’. Hmm?” “I don’t know! I know nothing at……” Creaaaaak— Cordelia picked up a strange sound with her tiny little ears so she pricked them up to listen closely. She heard the sound of the ungreased door opening and the squeaking sound of the wooden floors being stepped on. Cordelia instinctively covered Duke Valencia’s mouth as she dragged him to hide behind the couch. It was Cordelia who talked loudly but the mouth that got covered was the Duke’s mouth. When the Duke saw Cordelia’s dirty hands covering his mouth, he frowned slightly as if he was displeased with such an action but he still followed Cordelia obediently. Step, step— At the same moment that they hid, a black shadow silently entered the abandoned house and drew closer to where they were.