TRWREUATDM Chapter 5
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After Noah Wynknight arrived with a bouquet of flowers, he left shortly because Lady McMillan wasn’t feeling fell. He said he would visit next time and left the McMillan household in an uproar.
Noah Wynknight. That Wynknight.
The Noah Wynknight who didn’t blink an eye despite the constant courtship from Vivian Shamal, who was known as the jewel of the kingdom.
He was rumored to be impotent because he was never involved with women, but he visited the McMillan residence with flowers himself. He even talked about wanting to meet her as soon as possible!
The employees were all in a frenzy to get the inside scoop. But the main character, Raeliana, was nowhere to be found, so the maids teamed up to find her.
Raeliana, on the other hand, was confined to the back room attached to the kitchen and was eating sorbet.
“It’s ice cream for my hangover.”
“Why did you even drink like that when you’re not good at drinking.”
Elma, the family chef, sat across from Raeliana, her chin resting on her palm.
“It’s been a long time since I drank, so I forgot.”
Raeliana made excuses because she couldn’t exactly say ‘It’s not my body; I couldn’t control it well.’
Raeliana met Elma when she went in and out of the kitchen to escape the McMillan’s vegetarian diet and became close to her. She loved the new recipes that Raeliana taught her, and Raeliana loved her near-perfect execution of Korean cuisine.
Raeliana smiled and played with the sorbet in the glass. The cold raw fruit topping melted in her mouth, adding to the sweetness.
While watching the satisfied young lady eat the food she prepared with a look of pure bliss, Elma carefully opened her mouth.
“So, why did the duke come here? What’s going on between the two of you?”
“Hmm, so you’re curious about that?”
“Of course! I’m sure everyone in the kingdom is wondering.”
Raeliana tilted her head as she played with the strawberries. She didn’t want to lie to Elma, but she couldn’t tell the truth…
So, she decided to compromise by making appropriate omissions.
“We, um… I can’t tell you the details, but… We’re just started out.”
‘With the contract.’
Elma gasped.
“Oh, my god! How did you meet?”
“Well, um… It was fate. We know, if things were the way they were, we wouldn’t have any contact.”
‘I am an extra and he is the main character of the novel.’
“Right.”
Elma nodded. Raeliana rubbed the rim of sorbet glass.
“But we bumped into each other at the ball, and when we talked, there was a part where we felt the same way. We found something in common.”
“In common?”
“It has something to do with the Duke’s job, so I can’t tell you the details, but… I filled his shortcomings?”
“Then the two of you…?”
“I’ve confirmed my heart, and I think if things work out well, we’ll be partners.”
‘I mean business partners.’
A thorough business contractual relationship was changing into a sweet romance novel in Elma’s head, but Raeliana pretended not to notice. Anyway, it didn’t matter as long as Elma could happily dream like that.
Raeliana scooped up the sorbet once and groaned. When she threw up in front of the Duke, she wanted to die, but she was grateful she gained more time.
The only contracts she’s ever made were the consent forms for the use of personal information when subscribing on the Internet, so she needed to be more careful.
‘First, I need to know how to write a contract.’
After saying thank you to Elma for making the sorbet, Raeliana ran to the bookstore.
When explaining the situation, the bookstore owner gave her a book called 「 How to write a contract so that even monkeys don’t get caught.」
Indeed, books were a treasure trove of knowledge.
Raeliana locked herself in her room and began to read the book.
That night, the Mcmillans knocked on Raeliana’s door. She hurriedly hid the book she was reading under her pillow and ran to welcome them inside.
The couple sat on the sofa with a serious look on their faces, and Raeliana sat quietly opposite them. She was sure they’d heard that Noah came to the mansion with a bouquet of flowers.
John Dane was the first to break the silence.
“Can we talk to you?”
Raeliana replied, feeling as if she had become a sinner, “Please speak.”
“I heard that the duke came and went. Did he come to see you?”
Hesitating a little, Raeliana replied, “Yes, that is correct.”
The expression of her mother, Katie, changed a little. She couldn’t figure out if she was just surprised or if she had something else on her mind.
“Can you tell me what happened?” John Dane carefully broached the topic.
What should she say? Though the duke met her yesterday and brought her flowers today, she still unsure whether the contract would push through.
“We are… No, I’m–”
Before she could speak further, the maid, who brought tea, knocked on the door. Katie beckoned her to leave the tea on the table and go.
After watching the steam fluttering the teacup for a moment, Raeliana spoke again.
“I want to cancel my engagement to Lord Brooks.”
John Dane spoke after a while. “Didn’t you like Lord Brooks?”
“It’s natural to have second thoughts before getting married,” Katie jumped in.
“I want to live a different life.The fear that I might regret, or the feeling of disappearing like a mirage at this moment, feels like a warning sound that I can’t miss at that time.”
John Dane nodded silently at her words.
“I don’t like Lord Brooks. I was just following what the family wanted.”
Raeliana trembled with tears on her eyes, taking the role of a poor daughter who was sacrificed for the family’s sake.
“But now… I want to love.”
At Raeliana’s pitiful expression, the McMillans were speechless, looking sorrowful.
Raeliana stared at them, the couple’s sad look a proof of their love for their daughter.
Her beautiful and neat appearance had enough convincing power to make the current situation appear pitiful and tragic. She took full advantage of the situation and tried to alleviate the couple’s worries.
I realized I’m not who I hoped to be, that I had to understand the reason for my existence, and that the search for the reason for existence might make me more determined… and so on.
She made it sound as vague as possible, and the couple nodded as if they had understood the underlying meaning behind her words.
And when she was done talking, they sighed. There was no way they’d let her do what she wanted.
Raeliana tried to think of other ways to convince them.
Then John Dane said, “I see. Do as you please.”
“Yes, but I wouldn’t give up simply… Yes?!”
“Raeli, we will always cheer for your happiness. If this is yours, then whatever you choose, we’ll support you,” Katie said, smiling softly.
“…Ah, hmm?”
No, it shouldn’t have been this easy. As she sipped her tea, she scalded the roof of her mouth and asked again.
“But is it really okay? I did this without consulting you… I’m sure the Brooks family won’t let this go.”
“That’s nothing to worry about. You’ve been quietly obeying our words even though you didn’t have to. We’re lucky to have a wonderful daughter, but were were also worried. We were wondering if our will made you happy.”
“That’s right. You don’t have to be the wonderful daughter who listens well. We will always love you, and we will always support your love.”
Raeliana’s chest felt tight. As she felt their affection and care, her heart pounded and was overwhelmed with shame.
She couldn’t make eye contact with them, so she bowed her head deeply.
“…Yes.”
The couple left after telling her to rest well, and Raelian hugged her pillow and curled up on the bed.
I’m not your daughter.
A sentence she couldn’t say out loud plagued her heart. Did she fall into this world to prevent the painful destiny of these good people?
If she hadn’t come here, Raeliana McMillan would have been poisoned, and the McMillans would have been robbed of their lifelong business with the death of their daughter.
‘It would be nice if I was here for them.’
Raeliana buried her face in the pillow.
‘What will mom and brother do?’
‘Should I be sad that I died?’
‘They must have cried a lot.’
Her mother must have cried until her throat hurt, and she may have been angry at her and told her she was an ugly daughter.
‘And that pig…’
Raeliana recalled her brother who was three years older than her. She couldn’t imagine him crying. He probably didn’t swear at her, did he?
Also Suzy, Somi, Ina, Gyojin, Nayeon, Jeonghyun… She tried listing the names of her friends. It was a little weird to imagine the kids crying after offering flowers to the funeral.
What kind of photo was chosen for her memorial? Her high school graduation photo? Or a selfie? Suddenly, a question she hadn’t thought of came up like a cough that suddenly burst.
‘Can I go back?’
After feeling some much-needed affection from the McMillan couple, she felt uneasy. When you are soaking in this kind of affection, you couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable, as if you’re is wearing something that doesn’t fit you.
She felt reluctant to covet what’s not hers.
When she first realized she had become Raeliana, anxiety kept attacking her.
Hundreds of dark moments a day…
She wondered if she could go back if she fell from a high place again, so she climbed up the roof of the mansion. The McMillan household thought she was trying to commit suicide, and the whole house was in an uproar.
She shook her head.
‘Stop.’
Raeliana stood up and sat down in front of the window. A spider weaved a web outside the window, reflecting the the riverside engulfed by darkness. She blocked the scenery with thin lace curtains then returned to her bed.
Now, she just hoped that the contract would go well tomorrow.
The next day, as Raeliana stood up, ready to go to the duke’s hose, Venia handed her a newspaper.
The photos and headlines on the front page stopped her cold.
「Scoop: the Duke Noah Wynknight’s dating scene captured!」
「Raeliana McMillan, the Cinderella of this era? Will she wear glass slippers?」
The article said that the Duke visited the young Lady McMillan’s house according to a a statement by a reliable source close to the McMillan family.
The picture showed the duke at the door of the McMillan mansion, getting off a carriage with a large bouquet of flowers.
Last night was the first time the two had officially connected, so she was sure they didn’t know how to get information, and have the time to take photos. No, if it’s Noah Wynknight, it’s not strange if the paparazzi constantly tailed him.
Apart from the photo, the problem was the title of the article.
“What? Ci, what? Cinderella?”
No matter how biased on status this society was, wasn’t it too much? Who was she? The Black Jewel, the daughter of Baron John Dane McMillan! The oil king’s daughter was Cinderella?!
Oh how she missed modern society. If this happened in modern times, Cinderella would have been Noah Wynknight, not Raeliana. It was unfortunate that the value of petroleum was not as high here in the novel, where machinery and technology were still at its infancy and magic existed, than it was in modern times.
“Huh.”
As Raeliana snorted and threw the newspaper on the floor, Venia secretly clicked her tongue and shook her head.
Novel Endeavors 
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