CH 15

I thought there was nothing wrong with Gloria becoming a doctor to twist the original story. She was not a witch, so she wouldn’t be able to use magic like my mother. If she gains knowledge of herbs and makes good use of traditional medicine, she wouldn’t have any trouble making a living by herself.

‘Then I can connect her with Claude in the middle of teaching Gloria to become a doctor.’

If I were to follow the original story, Gloria would face too many challenges. Of course, there would be some sweet moments along the process, but as a writer, I jumped in without being able to put an ending to it. I wasn’t sure if the ending was going to be happy or sad.

‘If Gloria had a crush on Claude, it would be even better. Our protagonist wouldn’t be in so much trouble.

I thought it wasn’t a bad idea to change the original story that way and began to play the scenario in my head.

I took a step back to stare at Gloria. I pictured Gloria and Claude getting married in my head, and they were quite the couple in my sight. Also, from the point of view of being a sister-in-law, I was pretty fond of Gloria.

‘Oh? Wait a minute. Then, shouldn’t I bring Gloria to Philip’s house now?’

If you bring Gloria there for no absolute reason and Philip levels the playing field towards her, he would be taken advantage of for a long time and suffer. I thought for a moment, but then signaled Gloria to follow us.

‘First love is always painful, so it should be fine.’

They bumped into each other yesterday. If Philip was destined to fall in love with my friend, he would have experienced it now. And human grow up with the lingering feeling of painful love. Please, I should let Philip suffer a slight heartache. I prayed to myself with a slight swish in my heart.

I met Philip for the first time yesterday, but perhaps it was because he’s the same age as me. I somehow have my own inner fondness in mind.

Just when I was reorganizing my plans for the future of the novel character in my head, we arrived at Philip’s house by a rented horse-drawn carriage.

“Wow, such a nice-looking house!”

Gloria’s mouth opened wide.

“There’s nothing but the building itself. It almost got destroyed after his father fell ill.”

I went inside the house while filling her with the unnecessary information, just in case she was interested in Philip. Gloria, upon hearing my explanation, looked a little disappointed.

‘Since when did she start seeing men by their wealth? She must have only heard bad things from Brie.’

It didn’t. In a way, it was wise of her. For her, who wanted to get away from her family, marriage seemed to be the only solution.

When I entered the room I went to yesterday, Thomas Dunger was still groaning painfully on the bed.

“Mom, what do you think? Am I right?”

I pointed my finger at the magic that appeared like red threads. The red threads wrapped around Thomas’ neck and emitted ferocious energy. Mother frowned and held the wrist of Thomas.

“I know about this. I don’t know who did it, but the spell was powerful and poisonous.”

Gloria didn’t understand what we were talking about, so she just blinked her eyes in the back.

Mother muttered something I couldn’t understand and removed the spells from Thomas Dunger’s hands and feet one by one. Then,she took some herbs from the bag, mashed them and proceeded to mix them with water, then forced the man to drink it.

Thomas coughed a few times, and he fell asleep again. Mother put him on the bed and fixed up his stuff.

“Mother, what’s in his neck? Should we not be supposed to get rid of it?”

However, a thin thread of red energy was shining around Thomas Dunger’s neck. When I asked mother to get rid of it, she sighed and replied.

“I can’t get rid of it right now. However, this man will be back to his senses again tomorrow.”

“Is it okay if we don’t get rid of that? Is he cured now?”

“No, I have to visit this house often and dilute the curse. Otherwise, this person will not live long and die.”

“What?”

Along with my voice, the door burst open. Philip and Rwan rushed into the room. Judging from the water dripping from Rwan’s hands, the two of them must have continued to clean the house even after I left.

Philip furrowed his brows and asked me with a desperate look.

“Haley. How’s my dad? Is he fine now?”

“Unnie-”

Did she clean the house as well? Their clothes got dirty again. Rwan, who was covered in dust, ran to hug me. I managed out a reply whilst patting her back.

“Your father will wake up tomorrow. I have something to say to your father when he wakes up tomorrow. Can I sleep here again today?”

There was something I had to negotiate with Uncle Thomas, who had been bedridden for a long time. It was regarding the exclusive use of the camera and the business.

It was the time to raise money.

* * *

A month later.

Claude did not return to the fief, and he still stayed in the capital. For some reason, the princess’ engagement ceremony schedule was postponed. It seemed that the fight between politicians and the imperial court had begun, but it wasn’t something the duke like him should worry about. 

For the past few days, Claude had been working at the Lischer Hotel in the capital. His father, the Duke of Lischer, gave him orders to conceal his identity, act friendly with the staff, and learn from the bottom.

He shoved his hands in his pockets, and rubbed around the square box with his fingers. In order to confess to Haley, he bought a ring with money from his own weekly salary. The box was very thin and filled with a gold thread ring. He would use this opportunity to confess his love for her. Words didn’t come out easily when he was exactly face-to-face with Haley. It was sad for Claude because he didn’t have the courage to declare his feelings for fear of rejection.

‘I’m afraid she’ll reject and hate me.’

Claude was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to see Haley’s face for the rest of his life after he confessed his feelings.

As he lowered his shoulders, thinking nonsense, someone patted his back and started talking to him.

“Claude! Have you finished cleaning the room on the 4th floor?”

It was Jay, his friend who joined the company around the same time as him. Jay was a commoner, but he was a sociable person and friendly with others. When he was working, he would use tricks and quietly give my work to others. Basically, his personality wasn’t bad.

Claude sighed and wiped the sweat running down his forehead.

“Jay, where did you go and where did you come back from just now?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. You know Miranda in the secretary’s office, right? I talked to her. She was thinking of resigning because she’s been having a hard time lately. I comforted her. Oh, you said you need to move the furniture around. Where are you going to move it? I can move it with you.”

“I’ve already moved everything.”

“Ha, we should have done that together. I’m sorry.”

Jay said he was sorry, but his face was smiling. This guy, he must be chatting with the female employees even though he knew he had work to do. When Claude shook his head and tried to go away, Jay stopped him.

“Hey, Claude. You don’t have a girlfriend, do you? There’s a really pretty friend of mine, so do you want to hang out with her?”

Among the commoners living in the capital, the staff of Hotel Lischer were popular in their own way. Getting a stable job and a decent salary, plus the owner of the hotel was the Duke of Lischer from the Imperial Family.

Gateron Lischer was popular among the public for his good personality. Some people even personally said that Gateron Lischer should have taken over the throne in the past, not the current emperor. Of course, since the Duke of Lischer officially renounced the throne, he was no longer entitled to the throne.

After joining Hotel Lischer, Claude received many offers from seniors to get him introduced to women. At times, he refused a lot of times to the extent a senior played a trick on him. After asking him for a small favor, he invited Claude to dinner at home as the way to express his gratitude.

“This is my cousin. She’s very pretty, isn’t she? She’s famous for her beauty in my hometown. The nobles kept on chasing and bothering her, so I called her to stay in the capital. I was worried about her.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Nice to meet you. My elder brother often praises you for being so diligent at work.”

“Yes.”

At that time, Claude responded to the words of his seniors and cousins without having much thoughts, and he even struggled to separate the seniors and women who thought he was giving a positive response to them. The woman continued to stick to me on the way home from work.

“I have someone I like.”

“Then, what did she say?” Then she asked the reason why he had been smiling affectionately to her. She cried out to him, “You should have said that first before I gave you my heart!”

Even after that, the seniors forced his relatives to show themselves in front of Claude, and even asked them to do it well.

Why would he do this to someone he didn’t even like?

Claude sighed and answered his friend.

“Never mind. I already have a girl I like.”

“Hey, you know how many times I’ve heard that? You say that you already like someone, but you don’t show her to anyone else. How far along have you two been?”

Jay’s eyes widened when Claude shut his mouth tightly.

“Have you not admitted it yet?”

“…”

Jay clicked his tongue and looked at Claude in dismay.

He looked better than anyone else out there. How could he say that with such a face? Tsk, tsk.

Jay looked around for a moment to make sure that their colleagues were not around them, and handed the book he had hidden in his arms to Claude.

“This hyung decided to lend you something precious. Be grateful to me.”

What Jay handed to him was a thin, red-bound book.

“The Red? What’s with the book title?”

Even beyond the title, there were bold dark letters saying, ‘Readable above the age of 18.’

“Hey, you have to hide it quickly. If you get caught by the seniors, they’ll take it away immediately. I worked hard to get this. This is the first edition.”

Hearing Jay’s irritated remark, Claude hid the book in his arms with a puzzled look on his face. He wondered why his friend suddenly gave him this book. Then, Jay laughed slyly.

“Huft. Take care of this book and return it in good condition. I’m only saying this because I’m concerned about it. You must not deface this book.”

Claude didn’t realize the meaning of Jay’s smile until he got home.

Lately, he had been deliberately staying at Haley’s house, going and coming back there after work. Claude gave his father the excuse that it was for the sake to hide his identity and he easily got permission for that. Actually, he came to this house because he wanted to see Haley’s face more often.

Claude walked into his room and put the ring box on the table. Then, without thinking much, he picked up the book that had been lingering in his mind and opened it.

Gulp.

As he looked at the contents of the book, he couldn’t help but to swallow his saliva.

There was a strange vibe with a picture of an almost naked woman inside! Even on the side page that contained the picture as well, the novel was too embarrassing to be expressed with words like that, and a vulgar article that told about people’s experience.

“Playing with hot fire with Count…. Oush! What is this!”

After reading the contents of the book, he was shocked and dropped it on the floor. Then, in the middle of that moment, curiosity got the better of him, and so Claude picked it up again and looked at the pictures inside the book.

“What are you doing Claude?”

When Haley approached cautiously behind him, he gasped in shock.