CH 5

I had to look for any sign of infection, even if it was just a minor wound. Gloria furrowed her brow every time my handkerchief rubbed against her knee, as if she was in pain. Then, she suddenly apologized to me.

“If you hide it by wearing a skirt, anyone will not see it. I apologize for showing you this ugly wound.”

“You don’t have to apologize to me for your wound.”

“Alright.”

I thought that the female lead’s personality was set up as too weak. She apologized for something that was not her fault.

I made her into a smart and kind character because she was a female character. But when I met her directly like this, I learned that I couldn’t fulfill my greed and it made me a little frustrated. I had to reflect on myself in the past as a writer.

When I was waiting for my brother, Claude, to come back with some medicine, the front door suddenly opened. I looked back and thought it was Claude, but it was an old man with a red face and neck.

“Oh! Who is this young girl?”

It was Gloria’s father who appeared with a strong smell of alcohol. As soon as he saw me, he immediately frowned.

“Hello, I’m Haley, your neighbor.”

Having been educated well by my mother, I bent my knees slightly to bow and greeted the man politely. However, the old man regarded me as an intruder. He waved his hand rudely and shouted to his injured daughter without even turning around again.

“I’m tired and will be going to sleep, wake me up at sunset! Prepare some food to eat!”

After saying that to his young daughter, the old man was already snoring just a moment after. Granted, I wrote him that way myself, but he really was really an irresponsible person. I could only sigh seeing him that way. Gloria just blushed out of embarrassment.

“My dad is usually fine. It’s just, he would be like that when he’s drunk. Sorry about that.”

“Yeah. I don’t mind.”

I thought I would say it was fine to Gloria once more. I felt sorry for her and didn’t know what to do.

But the door to the other bedroom opened and a man came out.

“Oh-, why is it so noisy? I can’t sleep.”

The dark brown-haired man was shirtless and just in his pants. The slender man’s body had no muscles and only his stomach protruded roundly. Wait, I thought the only man in the female lead’s family was her father.

When I tilted my head and looked at Gloria, she still looked embarrassed.

“Hey… who are you?”

The man grinned and approached us.

“You’re Brie’s sister, right? I’m your sister’s friend. Wow~ You look beautiful. You can marry me when you grow up.”

A man, who said he was her sister’s friend, reached out to touch Gloria’s head. Somehow, I felt bad about that behavior and pulled the female lead’s body behind my back. How dare you touch someone with those dirty hands.

I saw it just now. When that person came out, he was scratching his bottom with those hands.

“My Gloria will not marry an ugly man.”

“What?”

The man laughed at me as if he was dumbfounded. But his eyes weren’t smiling.

‘How dare you, when you’re just an extra who doesn’t even have any name?’

I glared at him. When fighting with someone where I didn’t even know their names, weren’t there some ridiculous words that came out of his mouth?

“Ha! What? Are you jealous because you’re also a girl? Yes, I’ll praise you too.”

This is crazy. Did you know who you say that to…?

I got angry and tried to refute him, but absurd remarks kept coming out of the man’s mouth.

“I don’t like red hair. But you have beautiful eyes. They look like sapphires. The appearance is also determined, so it will give off a somewhat erotic vibe when you grow up, isn’t that right?”

The man licked his upper lip with his tongue in a very unpleasant way. It was as if he was imagining me as an adult in his head. The sight made me feel dirty. What kind of delusion this guy had for a minor?

‘Where did I put my gun?’

I thought I should put this man’s head properly and take him using my gun, so that I could sleep peacefully without having to kick the blanket around out of frustration.

I looked around while thinking about it. I looked for my handmade weapon. Then Gloria, who realized this, whispered in my ear.

“Your brother already took that with him earlier.”

Argh, Claude, that stupid b*st*rd. He only acted fast at times.

I bit my lip hard to hold my anger. However, Gloria’s older sister, Brie, suddenly came out of the room. Brie was wearing thin and transparent pajamas. She yawned whilst rubbing her eyes, and spoke to the man.

“What is it, honey? Why are you staying here?”

“I think your family is home. I’m going to take my leave now.”

“What? So soon?”

Brie didn’t care about the minors inside the room and made an embarrassing situation. She wrapped her arms around the brown-haired man’s neck and gave him a deep farewell kiss. The man’s hand moved slowly down Brie’s neckline.

“Oh, baby…”

Brie moaned and grabbed the man’s hair more strongly. At that moment, their hands were getting closer in front of the sight of minors.

‘Wow, I want to bring some popcorn and watch this.’

No, I couldn’t. Wake up! What was I thinking?!

I hurriedly closed Gloria’s eyes and asked them.

“Huh?! Do you want us to go?” 

Has Brie grown up a lot this year? I couldn’t remember how old she was.

How long has it been since she moved to this area? It was hard to believe she’d already seduced a man and even brought him home.

Brie removed her lips from the man and turned her head to the side. She stared intently at me and Gloria.

“What do you want? So annoying!”

Yes, I was annoyed, too. Did she know how it feels to press the stop button on the remote control because of the child beside me when an inappropriate scene appears? That was exactly how I felt at that moment.

Gloria was so shocked that she even opened her mouth slightly. The man glanced at us and whispered in Brie’s ear.

“Let’s do it all the way tomorrow. Come to my house. I’ll be leaving in a minute.”

“Wow, you are very considerate, honey.”

After sharing a brief kiss, the man disappeared in front of us. I felt really bad when he winked at us before walking away. Somehow, I felt that man would do something unreasonable when Gloria grew up. Of course, if he wanted to flirt with a female lead when she was still a minor, I would break his legs and make sure he can’t walk anymore.

This house is not soundproof because it is made of wood. Gloria would grow up in this kind of environment. Among the father who was an alcohol addict and gambling as a habit and an older sister who was addicted to men. Meanwhile, Brie, who resembled their father, showed jealousy towards her younger sister’s beautiful, unpolished appearance.

“I told you not to look at men’s pockets. You’re ruining my good mood!”

Brie kept muttering to herself while chewing on her nails.

“I seduced him because he’s the son of a cotton mill owner. there’s no way he has a crush on my little sister.”

Don’t. Gloria had a destiny with a man who was destined to become the crown prince, didn’t it? Where did she get such a lewd man? Besides, the female lead was still very young. Why was she already so wary of her younger sister? I was completely dumbfounded.

Brie glared at her young sister sharply and returned to her room.

Bang!

I didn’t even want to know how loud the door sounded when she closed it. I thought the door would break.

This is even before the actual story of the novel began. Moreover, Gloria’s appearance of receiving abuse when she was a child was all my doing, conveying it in a few lines. However, the female lead was the only one who had to suffer because of the poor arrangement.

‘I’m really sorry. Gloria.’

This was a situation where it wasn’t enough for me to do penance in front of Gloria for days.

Her stomach growled.

When I was busy feeling sorry for the female lead, an embarrassing voice came out from Gloria’s stomach.

“Are you hungry?”

“Huh? Y-Yes. It hasn’t been long since I moved here. There’s nothing to eat at home.”

“Let’s go. Let’s go to my house and have dinner together. There’s plenty of good food at my house.”

I have memories of my previous life, so my mind at this age already matured, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I were to experience such abuse. By the way, wasn’t Gloria currently a minor? Very young.

Gloria would grow up alone in this house where no one takes care of her properly.

Cooking with makeshift skills in order to survive, and working hard as a house cleaner with those delicate hands to raise money for buying groceries. The child’s salary was not high, so she lived a life full of labor exploitation from such a young age. If she didn’t have any money, she would starve herself.

Of course, there have been times when the family was harmonious. However, those days disappeared after the absence of a mother who died of illness. Her older sister, Brie, blamed all her misfortunes on her younger sister. She said it was her younger sister who caused her mother’s death, and considered it her natural right to abuse her sister.

The protagonist’s father has the same thought as well.

“It would be better if you weren’t born.”

Gloria’s father often said that to his daughter. He drank to cope with the sadness of losing his wife, and eventually found more pleasure in it. It was only in the gambling house that he could feel that he was still alive.

The whole family just hated the female protagonist. Gloria deserves to be praised for growing up well in such an environment without having to break down.

I wanted to protect the female lead until she grew up.

When I brought her to my house, I met Claude, who was holding a bunch of ointments and bandages at the door. He was just about to go out when he looked at us with surprised eyes. Claude opened his mouth as if wanted to speak. When I read the shape of his mouth, it seemed like he was saying, ‘Why did you bring her here?’

“Oh, I thought it would be better to take care of her at our home. That’s why I brought her here.”

I led Gloria to sit on the sofa and continued treating her knees. The method was simple, I just had to apply ointment and bandage it, and this simple treatment was something I had always done under the guidance of my mother, who was a doctor and regarded herself as a witch. My mother had always made me her assistant.

The letters that had been floating above Gloria’s head had disappeared.

‘Did it disappear when the story in the novel was finished?’

Or did I really see something so important? It was hard to properly understand the things that I saw back near the river. There was no way I, who came from a science background in my previous life, could believe such an unscientific story. Even when my mother called herself a witch, I just didn’t take it seriously.

No, not at all. The thought that it might not fit into a novel remained in the corner of my mind. I should stop talking about things that others might misunderstand.

First of all, as an adult, I have an obligation to feed the hungry female lead properly. There was a salad made from smoked sausage and vegetables picked from the front yard. As well as fresh bread and jam from the city center. When I served it to Gloria, her eyes widened.

“Wow, can I eat this fancy food?”

It was a meal I used to eat every day. Gloria sounded very excited. One part of my chest ached upon seeing that look in her eyes.

“Of course. This is for you to eat.”

“Uh, what is this?”

“Huh? Which one?”

“This thing with pretty colors here.”

Gloria pointed at the jams and smiled shyly.

“It’s just regular jam.”

“Jam? What is that?”

“Um… It’s a sweet food made from stewed fruits. Put it on top of the bread and eat them together.”

Gloria spread the jam on the bread, then took a bite of the bread that had jam smeared on top of it in her hand and looked pleasantly surprised.

“Wow, it tastes sweet and sour. This is my first time eating this kind of thing.”

I couldn’t believe she made such a pleasant face for just eating one food. I told the negative part of me in the past, who felt uncomfortable meeting the female lead earlier, to reflect on ourselves. This girl needed me.
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