OFTPE 16

Chapter 16

Donghee turned slowly and looked into the mirror, reflecting on a past she didn’t even remember.

Anna quickly wiped her damp cheeks with the back of her hand and rushed over to skillfully fix Chloe’s hair.
She took the ribbon—which had only made Donghee more irritated just by holding it—and twisted it this way and that, forming a fantastic shape. Then, she swiftly braided the hair into several sections. Her hands moved so fast, they were almost a blur.

“Wow, Anna! You’re really good at this.”

Donghee sincerely admired the neatly finished hair, lightly touching it.
She hadn’t even bothered to go to salons because it felt like a waste of money, so she was still unfamiliar with having someone else do her hair.

“Th-thank you.”

Although she had been more nervous than usual that morning and had made more mistakes with slower hands, somehow she ended up being complimented.

Anna curled her still-trembling fingers and smiled brightly for the first time.

With light freckles sprinkled across her cheeks, Anna looked completely different when she smiled.
When she had entered the room looking like she was about to cry, she had seemed like the saddest person in the world—but now, she looked like a mischievous child running around the neighborhood.

“Thank you. Go get some rest now.”

Donghee glanced at Anna’s still-puffy eyelids as she spoke.

“Yes! Thank you!”

Anna bowed deeply and was about to leave the room when—

“Anna.”

Chloe called her back, and Anna stopped walking and looked up.

Her hair, tied neatly into twin braids, moved gently below her shoulders.

“Get some bread from Delma before you go. Do your younger siblings live nearby?”

“Yes, they live in Condal.”

“Ah, Condal!”

Donghee nodded as if she knew the place, though she had no idea where it was.

“Yes, I moved inside the Grace Castle walls after starting work here. It’s safer here, so I feel more at ease working inside the castle.”

Kind Anna instinctively answered Donghee’s unspoken curiosity like she had read her mind.
Apparently, Condal was the name of a village within the Grace Castle walls.

Kind-hearted Anna.

Donghee recalled the village inside the castle walls she had passed through on her way to Morta Village.

She remembered it being just as bleak and desolate as Morta.

So Anna’s siblings lived there too.

Donghee suddenly felt a sense of urgency. She wanted to finish the Morta Village mission quickly so she could take care of Condal, where Anna’s siblings lived.

“Delma, give Anna some bread. Plenty of it—enough for the children to eat until tomorrow.”

She had gone back and forth to the convenience store a few times earlier that morning, just in case—and sure enough, the opportunity to use the supplies had come.

“Yes!”

Delma, seemingly glad to carry out the order, pulled some bread from a box in the room and handed it to Anna.
It was a generous amount—more than enough to last until tomorrow morning.

“Th-this is…”

“It’s a special gift from the lord. Take it quickly and share it with your siblings.”

Delma, realizing she might’ve taken out a bit too much, glanced nervously at the lord and began loading the bread into Anna’s apron.
She had only planned to pack a few, but once she imagined the haggard faces of children who probably looked just like Anna, she couldn’t bring herself to hold back.

Anna’s worn apron was soon filled with soft, sweet bread.

“Is it really okay for me to receive something this precious?”

Even the paper wrapping the bread seemed enchanted—it clearly showed the contents inside.
Colorful drawings and unfamiliar letters were printed on it, too.

It was obvious this was food only the highest nobles could eat.

“We already ate plenty, thanks to the lord. So take them quickly and give them to your siblings. They’re soft, so even Jake should be able to eat them.”

Jake was Anna’s youngest brother, only three years old.
Because of their sick mother, Jake had grown up malnourished and constantly sick.

From the moment he woke until he went to sleep, all he did was whimper in a mosquito-sized voice.
Everyone said Jake wouldn’t live through the month—something they’d been saying for three years now.

“Thank you. Thank you, my lord!”

Anna hesitated briefly, then bowed deeply with a loud voice.

She bent over so far that the bread bundled in her apron tumbled to the floor.

Anna quickly and carefully gathered the fallen bread, wrapped it back up in her apron, and bowed again before leaving.

Her footsteps sounded unusually light as she walked away from the room.

“But, my lord… Where exactly do you get all that bread? And those jewels you sold to Goldrich for a fortune—where did they come from?”

Delma finally asked the question that had been bothering her since yesterday.
She just hoped the answer wasn’t “I stole it.”

The kitchen had never made such bread, and there were no records of buying food from outside either.
It had simply appeared in the room, as if by magic. Yet, the food wasn’t spoiled, and she and the servants had all eaten it without issue.

And the jewels? Worth 1,100 gold? Even selling all of the late madam’s heirlooms wouldn’t fetch that kind of money. So they certainly weren’t from her.

“It’s a secret.”

“Pardon?”

“I’ll keep making more, so look forward to it.”

Donghee said confidently as she admired her new hairstyle in the mirror, checking it from different angles.

Though it was her second day heading to Morta Village, the road felt completely different—probably because they left at a different time than yesterday.

“Are you sure this is the road to that same village from yesterday?”

Donghee, staring out the carriage window, couldn’t help but ask the question to Scrooge, who was dozing off in front of her again.

He had been nodding off until he jumped awake at Chloe’s voice and lifted his head.

“Yes, we’re headed to Morta.”

He answered groggily, still half-asleep, his gaze drifting briefly to the scenery outside.

But even with his answer, Donghee couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling.

She may not be good with directions, but she could tell when unfamiliar trees were popping up.

Yesterday had been her first time outside the castle, and everything had felt new, so she had stared out the window all the way to the village—and remembered it well.

“Oh! Is it that tree that’s bothering you? You asked the same thing last year.”

“Yeah, that tree. That one wasn’t there yesterday. The leaves are different.”

“That’s because we’re taking a different route.”

“No, it’s the same road.”

Donghee pointed at the window with certainty.

But Scrooge shook his head and responded even more confidently.

“It just looks similar. This road is a bit narrower, and the mountains are in a slightly different direction.”

“Really?”

Donghee tried hard to compare the scenes from yesterday, but it wasn’t easy to pinpoint the differences.

Scrooge continued explaining.

“There were reports of wild boars on yesterday’s path, so we’re taking a safer one today. With food being scarce, they’ve been attacking travelers.”

“Not boars—wild pigs?”

Donghee spun her head toward Scrooge in disbelief.

“If it were wild boars, that’d be better. At least we could eat them. But wild pigs are too dangerous. They could destroy the whole carriage.”

“They’re that dangerous?”

Scrooge let out a deep sigh at Chloe’s question.

“You really need to study more…”

Donghee didn’t see what studying had to do with wild pigs, but she sealed her lips.

She decided to take back the thought that she might grow fond of him.
Delma might be fine, but Scrooge was surprisingly naggy—not someone she could get attached to.

Then Donghee suddenly shouted, pointing to a tree with long needle-like leaves.

“What’s that?!”

The sharp-looking leaves were so huge, some of them looked as thick as a person’s forearm.

The tree resembled a pine, but unlike pine needles that grow in clusters, these needle-shaped leaves grew evenly from every branch—almost like green hair.

“That’s a Needle Tree.”

“Needle Tree?”

“Yes, the leaves look like needles, and the locals actually use them as needles.”

“The leaves? They’re that stiff?”

“They’re not as good as real needles, of course.”

“Then why use them?”

To her innocent question, Scrooge responded with all the sleepiness gone from his voice.

“Because they can’t afford real needles.”

His eyes, fixed on Chloe’s, were filled with both sorrow and frustration.

“They can’t even afford a needle?”

Donghee couldn’t understand no matter how much she tried. How poor must you be to not even afford a needle?

She felt a heavy wave of guilt—like this was all the fault of the real Chloe Grace, the owner of this body.

“A single needle costs over 1 bron.”

“That’s considered expensive?”