WOFSTF 04

← Previous Next →

Chapter 4

“Hallara!”

The middle-aged woman frowned as soon as she spotted Hallara. Her voice sounded annoyed.

“Oh my, did you prepare snacks for me again today?”

Snacks?

“What’s the point of eating alone? Please come in.”

“Thank you. But really, is something going on? How can a person change so drastically in an instant?”

At those words, Hallara’s expression stiffened momentarily.

As if she’d been hit right on the mark.

Carlos held his breath tightly at this.

Change? What exactly had changed?

“You’re not pregnant, are you? They say women change completely when they become mothers.”

Pregnant!?

“Pregnant?”

I chuckled as I looked at Madam Michelle, who had already settled comfortably at the dining table.

Madam Michelle is a neighbor who lives right next door.

At first, she kept clicking her tongue at me, but once I started being friendly and sharing homemade food with her, she quickly let her guard down.

“Yes. You can be honest with me.”

A baby.

I suppose that’s a reasonable assumption.

“Is it because of the man who came yesterday?”

Just last night, Hallara’s followers had come knocking at the door. Not just one, but two of them.

“Just yesterday? Men have been lining up here every single day.”

That was true.

Ever since I possessed this body, strange men had been pounding on the door constantly.

It was truly exhausting trying to send them away.

“They won’t come anymore. I even made a sign.”

That’s why I made the wooden sign.

“Men Absolutely Prohibited

-Thank you for your love until now.”

In case they couldn’t read Korean, I even drew pictures.

Plus, the lock mechanism that the vegetable shop shopkeeper made for me helped too.

Michelle tilted her head as she looked back and forth between the lock and the sign.

“But why are you suddenly doing this? Didn’t you like it before? You were changing men like changing clothes every day of the week.”

“I won’t do that anymore.”

“But why? I’m dying of curiosity, really. You’ve been acting like a completely different person lately.”

Michelle asked as if she was truly frustrated.

She’s right. I am a different person, just like she said.

I have absolutely zero interest in men.

The days I lived with that bastard I loved most, my husband. Every moment was hell.

“I hit my head.”

“What? Your head?”

I gave the most convenient excuse.

“Yes. I tripped over a stone and hit my head hard recently, and since then I’ve come to my senses.”

“So that’s why you’ve been away from home lately?”

But Michelle seemed to have been very interested in me.

She knew things I didn’t even know.

“I was away from home?”

“Oh my. Your memory must have gone with it too.”

What happened before I possessed this body?

“Yes… After hitting my head, my memory disappeared too.”

I really don’t have any memories.

I have no memories at all from before possessing Hallara’s body.

Usually when you possess someone, they give you the possessed character’s past through body memories or something. But while I know Hallara’s original story settings and future, I have no memory of what she was doing before I possessed her.

“Well, I saw it while going back and forth for farm work, but you didn’t show your face for over two weeks.”

“Over two weeks?”

“Maybe even longer. Anyway, I wondered what had happened. I thought you’d finally left with some man to settle down…!”

Michelle flared her nostrils then drooped her shoulders.

“But seeing that you hit your head, I guess that wasn’t it.”

She looked disappointed.

‘Away from home for over two weeks.’

I suspect she went to Bloodmere and was scheming to pretend to be pregnant.

Thanks to that, I have a good excuse.

“I was lying down for a long time. So I did a lot of thinking. About how I should live from now on.”

“Growing pains, huh. Anyway, I like the changed you. It was so awkward seeing a young lady walking around with thick makeup all the time, but look now. You’re much prettier.”

Michelle let out a good-natured laugh.

“Where would I get money for cosmetics? I have to save every penny now.”

“That’s right. You have to suffer when you’re young to suffer a little less when you’re old. I’ll share some of my sewing work with you, so let’s work together.”

“Thank you.”

I’m glad I became friends with this lady.

I gratefully filled her teacup to the brim.

“But will this kind of sign really keep away the men who were chasing you?”

Michelle’s gaze was directed at the crude sign I had made.

I thought I wrote it in bold letters.

“Do you have any other clever ideas?”

Is there any other way?

Then Michelle smiled, pulling up the corners of her mouth.

“How about you leave it to me?”

As if she had some definite method.

***

Long after Hallara and Michelle had gone into the house, butler Carlos was still hiding in the thicket, unable to move.

He wanted to think he had misheard, but Karl’s sight and hearing were good, taking after his father.

With those ears, he had clearly heard it.

“She suddenly changed. Could she be pregnant?”

Just those two sentences made his heart plummet.

For Hallara, who had no parents, the neighboring woman was currently the closest person to her.

If such a person suspected pregnancy enough to mention it, wouldn’t there be some credibility worth considering?

‘Besides, if someone suddenly changes, you’d ask if they’re sick, not if they’re pregnant.’

The fact that she specifically mentioned pregnancy meant the neighbor woman must have had some person or incident in mind.

“She’s not really pregnant, is she?”

If she’s pregnant, could it really be Master Docheop’s child?

Karl recalled the moment when Hallara had come to the family estate.

“I have something to tell the highest-ranking person here.”

It was only a few days ago, so it was still vivid in his memory.

“What’s your business?”

“I’ll tell you after we meet.”

“Do you think you can just meet a member of a prestigious ducal house whenever you want?”

The woman, whose entire body was soaked with what could have been sweat or water, looked very precarious.

“…I’m with child.”

And he never expected her to drop such a bombshell statement.

Of course, he didn’t believe it.

He thought it was a cunning scheme.

‘If only I hadn’t turned a blind eye to the young master staying out on the date she mentioned.’

And if only the woman’s voice hadn’t been trembling.

The woman was terrified.

It could have been because she was lying, but at least to Karl, that desperate-looking face didn’t seem false.

“No. Stay calm, Carlos! As Madam said, maintain your dignity!”

Huff, hah.

Carlos took deep breaths and steadied his pounding heart.

If she really was carrying the young master’s child, she wouldn’t have just left the family like that.

‘Let’s hide and observe her behavior for now. It could be another man’s child.’

But the composure he had struggled to find was shaken again when Hallara and Michelle came out with a sign.

「Men Absolutely Prohibited」

What’s that about.

Hallara placed the sign in front of the door and locked it.

“I’m going to the market for a bit.”

“Alright, be careful. I’ll get some sewing work.”

“Yes. Let’s have dinner together.”

“Sounds good.”

When the neighbor Michelle waved her hand, Hallara took her market basket and left the courtyard.

Men prohibited.

She must be a woman who can barely make ends meet without sponging off men, right?

Karl’s mind became as complex as if lost in a maze.

“Oh my. Seeing her trying to live earnestly makes my heart ache.”

But he didn’t have time to think about such things. Michelle sighed while looking in the direction Hallara had gone, then tried to return to her own house.

Karl suddenly rose from the bushes where he had been hiding. Now that Hallara was gone, this was his chance.

“Wait a moment!”

A chance to find out whether Hallara’s pregnancy was real or not!

***

Jingle jingle-.

I left the house with all my assets and headed to the market.

“I need to find out what sells well here first.”

Since I didn’t know the people’s tastes here, I decided to test it on Madam Michelle.

While also having a meal together.

I had roughly figured out the food prices in advance.

But what I could buy with the money I currently had was limited.

“When every penny counts, that man made my budget even tighter.”

A few days ago, the mercenary who broke the apples at the vegetable shop.

“A mercenary did that?”

“Yes. He had a sword at his waist. His clothes looked like a mercenary’s too.”

“Sigh. Those damn mercenaries. They’re nothing but thugs.”

The shopkeeper shook his head as if this was a familiar occurrence.

Once the shopkeeper confirmed that the mercenary and I weren’t acquainted, he actually comforted me, saying I must have been scared to get caught up in such trouble.

I held out two silver coins to that shopkeeper.

“Here.”

“What’s this?”

“Payment for the apples.”

“Why are you giving this to me, miss?”

Because I felt guilty.

If I hadn’t said the apples were in poor condition, that mercenary wouldn’t have broken them for no reason.

“Apples are expensive. You probably don’t have much profit either, shopkeeper…”

It was guilt and meddling.

“I thought you were just pretty, but I didn’t know you had such a kind heart too!”

Of course, I planned to tell that mercenary to pay me back if I ever saw him again.

Though despite going to the market every day for the past few days, I hadn’t seen that man.