SPRFG 23

Chapter 23

The Runaway Lady and the Sorcerer’s Stone (1)

It had been one year since Aiolia, the daughter of Duke Almadellcore, ran away from home.

The soul of Heo Hwanhee, which had been placed inside Aiolia’s body, gave herself the name ‘Juaie’ and was living in a single rented room on Repautte Street, a slum.

She was in a situation where she had to worry about her next meal, but she was not in debt. Although her body ached and felt numb in various places, she had not developed any serious illness. Instead of having a reliable friend to depend on, she also had no sworn enemy.

Juaie tried to live each day while thinking positively.

It was one of the things she was worst at.

One morning, Juaie sat quietly and tried to organize everything that had happened in her mind.

She still could not remember the final memories from when she was Heo Hwanhee. Perhaps it was because she had crossed into another world, but even the simple task of putting the various events in chronological order was difficult.

So, Adriano, the son of the powerful ducal family of the Ilgentavita Empire, had killed his younger sister after she discovered that he was an anti-imperial activist working with the constitutional monarchy faction.

And for reasons that perhaps only the Seven Gods knew, the soul of Heo Hwanhee, who had been working hard as a teaching assistant and writing her thesis in 21st-century South Korea, had been placed inside Aiolia’s body.

This world was either a dream or a romance-fantasy novel of the kind Heo Hwanhee had loved to read.

Also, according to what Heo Hwanhee had discovered, the genre of this novel was probably either a group-possession story or a reincarnation story.

There were very, very many people in this world who remembered their past lives in Korea.

Heo Hwanhee, who had become Aiolia, ran away from home for two reasons.

First, she did not want to marry the Northern Grand Duke, who was certain to be a terrifying monster.

Second, and more importantly, Heo Hwanhee had figured out that Adriano had killed Aiolia.

She also realized that he was a devil capable of killing ‘Aiolia’ one more time at any moment in order to completely silence her.

One might wonder if a person like that could really exist.

But just as one should not recklessly doubt human goodness, there were times when one should not hastily underestimate human malice either.

If her runaway had been delayed by even one more day, Adriano might have tried to strangle Heo Hwanhee.

This time, it would have been a perfect final murder, with no evidence left behind.

Juaie pressed her forehead with her fingers as she thought.

Usually, when characters in romance-fantasy novels needed to organize their thoughts clearly, they would write numbers on a piece of paper.

She could not do that.

Paper, ink, and pens were all too expensive for her.

She looked at the traces left behind by Guard Captain Kunsi and the two soldiers who followed him as they had entered and searched through the room.

Muddy footprints were scattered all over the floor.

The lock on the door they had broken their way through was hanging uselessly.

It seemed that what had happened the previous night had not been a dream after all.

“That woman is making a racket again this early in the morning!”

“Are you done talking? You worthless thief! Did you take the door handle because there was nothing else to steal? What did you do with it, huh? You traded it for alcohol again, didn’t you!”

Through the broken window, Juaie could hear a married couple arguing.

The sounds of people hitting each other, things breaking, or someone crying at the top of their lungs were not unusual on Repautte Street.

The people living on Repautte Street were always fighting.

It was not because they had bad tempers or were aggressive.

It was because they were always hungry and buried under debt.

The children of Repautte Street did not cry.

Even if young children did not know how to write their own names, they knew that crying meant they would get hit at least once more.

Her head hurt.

Even Juaie herself could not believe that she had gone to the Vinkitur residence the previous night.

She thought about how soft and refined the speech of nobles like Kunsi and Ritona had been.

Since Juaie herself had also retained the habits that were familiar to Aiolia’s mouth, she realized once again that she was speaking with a noble accent.

The corridors of the Vinkitur residence had chandeliers made of glass and crystal hanging from the ceiling.

The stair railings, from the basement all the way to the attic, were all plated with pure gold.

Ritona, who had confessed to killing her maid, was dressed in fine clothes from head to toe.

Even the garters holding up the socks that fell down from her white ankles were made of pure white silk.

‘It feels like I went to another world.’

In a sense, perhaps the upper society of nobles and wealthy people really was another world.

A world so unimaginable that it was difficult even to set foot in it.

Juaie gave a bitter smile.

She slowly looked around her room.

The walls were stained with rat urine.

The bed had sunk down.

There was not even enough space for a wardrobe, so a pole had been fixed across the room.

A pair of hole-filled socks she had washed the day before hung from it.

She had sold all the clothes and jewelry she had brought from Aiolia’s home on the very first day, leaving only her underwear.

Since she had to find clothes that were cheap and comfortable enough to wear immediately, custom-made clothes were out of the question.

She somehow managed to obtain work clothes worn by female factory workers.

Although they were the wrong size, she simply wore them as best she could.

It was a one-piece dress made of stiff, undyed fabric sewn straight down.

The word ‘sack’ was probably the best way to describe it.

The fabric had not received any kind of processing, and its vague color was somewhere between gray and brown, with stains here and there.

Fortunately, because she had bought it and personally finished the edges with bias tape, the threads did not come loose.

She put it on by pulling it over her head and tied a ribbon in front.

When she wore a light-colored long apron over it like an outer skirt, the gloomy appearance became a little better.

She herself knew how badly the clothes suited her face, which looked as if it had never been exposed to rain, and her hair color, which resembled strawberries placed on top of a cake.

Even so, she had been wearing those clothes everywhere for an entire year.

‘Ah, the socks are dry.’

Juaie happily put on the old but clean socks.

Whenever she lay on the bed and looked up at the ceiling, she always felt frightened, as if the laundry hanging down like ghosts was staring at her.

After taking down the completely dry clothes, sunlight filled even her tiny room, and she felt better.

She was ready to start a new day.

She decided not to think too much about the incident involving Ritona killing her maid, Cherlina.

Ritona’s friend had been Aiolia, not Juaie herself.

She had not even chosen to take over Aiolia’s body, so worrying about Aiolia’s friendships from before she possessed her body was too troublesome.

Juaie had to survive one day at a time.

‘It’s a relief that today is my day off after such a long time. It would have been terrible if I had tutoring this morning. There’s not even an alarm clock here…… I should go to Lavilsservitu Street and leave the textbooks at the printing shop. If I’m lucky, they might be finished today. I’ll buy a bowl of ramen and eat it before coming back…….’

The Koreans who had once been hospitalized because of the cabbage-made kimchi had been right.

A Koreatown had formed on Lavilsservitu Street.

Although it tasted very different from the food she had eaten in Korea, there was at least a noodle dish called ramen.

She was curious about the ingredients and recipe, but if she learned too much about it, she felt that she might never be able to eat it again.

So Juaie suppressed her curiosity and sometimes bought ramen.

It seemed that it was about time for her to eat a bowl and regain some energy.

After finishing her plans for the day, Juaie walked energetically toward Lavilsservitu Street.

Except for the fact that she was hungry, everything was going well.

“Boss, how long will it take? Hmm…… Should I come back in a few days?”

“Come back this afternoon to pick it up.”

“Wow! Thank you.”

The typesetter at the printing shop flipped through the tutoring textbooks Juaie had left with him.

Then he held up two fingers.

There was a reason Juaie mainly used the printing shops in Koreatown rather than other printing shops.

The Korean spirit of ‘hurry, hurry’ was widely practiced on Lavilsservitu Street.

At other printing shops, they would accept an order and only begin typesetting two weeks later.

But at the printing shops on Lavilsservitu Street, even at the latest, they could finish everything, including proofreading, within two days.

That day, perhaps because they were unusually free, the bookbinder said that he could finish printing everything within two hours.

Juaie was delighted.

She had planned to buy ramen as breakfast and lunch, but among the restaurants with signs saying ‘Breakfast Available,’ none would accept a woman without companions as their first customer.

She was unhappy, but she did not have enough energy to get angry or complain.

So Juaie simply crouched beside the restaurant area and carefully watched the people passing by.

As long as she was not the first customer, she thought she would be able to buy food by herself.

There were no adults on the street that day.

Well, it was natural.

Everyone was supposed to be working at workshops, trading companies, or offices at this time.

Several children with runny noses came running around while shouting excitedly.

Then they began playing hopscotch in an empty lot.

After watching the clouds drift by until her jaw almost fell off, Juaie began observing the children playing hopscotch.

When she was younger, she had been very good at all kinds of games, including hopscotch, jump-rope games, and horse riding games.

If she could, she wanted to join them and play together.

But she had lived until the age of twenty-seven in Korea, and then lived here for another year.

That meant she was at least twenty-eight years old.

Going up to children who looked like they were not even ten years old and asking to play with them…… well, that was a crime.

Juaie’s eyes met the children’s.

She asked gently.

“Kids, why aren’t you at school? What are you doing here?”

“Us? We can’t go to school.”

Ah, right.

There was no compulsory education system in this empire.

Nobles hired private tutors to educate their sons and daughters.

Wealthy commoners sent their children to private schools attached to religious institutions.

Most ordinary people raised their younger siblings at home until around the age of ten.

After that, they entered workshops and craft shops as assistants, or trading companies as errand boys, where they learned to work and became adults.

Of course, that was assuming they survived long enough to become adults……

While Juaie was lost in thought, the children went back to playing among themselves.

‘Damn class system. Rotten gap between the rich and poor. Damn child labor.’

Just then, a shadow suddenly fell over them.

And a loud sound rang out.

A huge carriage crashed into the empty lot where the children had been playing.