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Chapter 01 …
“Ku, kueegh—”
A man who had been lying motionless on the sandy beach as if dead suddenly began coughing violently and spitting out seawater.
Cough, cough.
After a long and noisy purge of his insides, what appeared before his eyes was a small beach, with a forest stretching behind it.
On the opposite side, only the vast ocean.
There was no sign of human presence anywhere. This place was clearly a deserted island.
A perfect shipwreck.
A man who should have been falling into despair instead looked at the scenery and suddenly—
“Ha, hahahaha! Hahahaha!”
He began laughing like a madman.
Hot tears streamed down his blue eyes.
It was not that he was trying to deny reality.
Rather, it was because this scenery was not his first time seeing it.
“Thank you, God!”
Instinctively realizing everything about his situation, the man lowered himself and burst into tears, offering prayers of gratitude to God.
He didn’t care at all that wet sand stuck unpleasantly to his soaked body.
His tears soaked into the sun-baked beach sand under the scorching light.
Sand slipped through his clenched fists, veins bulging as if they would burst.
With a beast-like sob swallowed down, the man—Jean de 랑베르—once again spoke the promise he had failed to keep.
“Dad… Dad will be there soon. My daughter……”
* * *
Two years later.
“Hey! Vivian, there are stains left on the plate!”
“I’m sorry! I’ll wipe it again right away!”
비비안—who had been cleaning under the table—quickly raised her head in response.
After finishing wiping the floor she had been diligently cleaning, she stood up, her face a mess of sweat.
“Hup-cha.”
Her soft cotton-candy-like pale pink hair clung in strands to her flushed cheeks.
But Vivian didn’t even have time to fix it. She rushed to wash her hands and continue wiping the dishes with a cloth.
“Why are you so slow! If you don’t finish quickly, how am I supposed to clean up the dishes!”
“Yes, yes… I’m done now!”
The child polished the plate until it reflected her face, then proudly handed it back to the stern woman.
The woman, with deep wrinkles between her brows, carefully inspected it before tossing a hard black bread toward Vivian.
“Thank you very much, ma’am!”
Vivian carefully received the bread, hard enough that it needed to be soaked in water for a long time before eating.
Her starving stomach screamed for food immediately, but Vivian swallowed her saliva and carefully placed it into the pouch of her apron.
This was her only food for the day.
There was still more work to do, so she would have to eat half after finishing work and the other half at night to survive the day.
“It’s even half a hand bigger than yesterday’s bread! Yes! I’ll eat it carefully!”
If her parents heard that, their hearts would break—but this was Vivian’s reality.
A child alone in the world, with no one on her side.
Still, things were fine until her father, Jean, left on a ship saying he would earn money.
‘If you sleep for a hundred nights, we’ll meet again. Young lady!’
‘Is it longer than ten nights?’
‘You just need to sleep ten nights ten times!’
‘Uuu… I don’t get it.’
Back then, the butler couple Ron and Mary treated her kindly, calling her “young lady,” and villagers greeted her warmly.
What changed was when rumors spread that the ship her father left on had encountered a storm, and no letter ever came from Jean again.
‘He must be dead, right?’
‘A man who loved his daughter that much wouldn’t fail to send even one letter if he were alive.’
‘Then…’
His absence awakened desires long dormant in Ron and Mary.
A month after communication stopped, Vivian was kicked out of her room.
That room was taken over by Ron and Mary’s son, Peter.
‘Young lady, you should be thankful you met people like us. Others would’ve thrown you out already.’
‘That’s right. Do you know how hard it is for wandering orphans? You should be grateful you’re not freezing to death.’
Calling it the price of raising an orphan until adulthood, Ron and Mary began using the household property as if it were their own.
“I’m sorry, young lady.”
“We also have to survive.”
All the villagers owed Jean something—big or small—so when Ron held those IOUs in his hand, they had no choice but to ignore poor Vivian.
Before leaving, Jean had appointed Ron as his proxy, making legal action impossible.
If Vivian, who was only five, had even a single relative, things might have been different. But she had no grandparents, no uncles, no aunts.
As for her mother, Vivian didn’t even know which family she came from. She supposedly ran away from home the moment she fell in love with Jean, cutting off all ties.
In truth, Vivian did not understand any of these adult matters. To her, her mother was simply someone who gave birth to her and then went to heaven.
Even in such a situation, Vivian tried to live cheerfully—
“Hey! Ugly!”
—but the world did not help her.
It was Peter, the son of Ron and Mary. A boy two years older than Vivian, who had been eager to bully her ever since Jean left.
Vivian ignored the spiteful voice calling her.
“You’re pretending not to hear me? Hey!”
“…Right. I still had laundry to do! Busy, busy. I should go wash clothes!”
“Oh? You’re going to keep ignoring me?”
“Ow!”
Peter grabbed Vivian’s hair. He pulled so hard that her body staggered.
“Let go!”
“Who told you to ignore me? When I call you, you should answer immediately—”
“When did you call me? My name isn’t Ugly.”
“If I say you’re ugly, then you’re ugly. Idiot.”
“I’m not an idiot! Who do you think you are!”
“Who am I?”
Grin.
Seeing Peter’s smile, Vivian instinctively felt danger.
Peter was barely holding back laughter, his mouth twitching on one side. His face even turned slightly red.
Anything Peter enjoyed like this could not possibly be good for Vivian.
“Well, whatever. Heh… heheh. Forget it, forget it. Kids don’t need to know yet.”
Still chuckling to himself, Peter suddenly disappeared.
“What was that about?”
Vivian rubbed her goosebump-covered arms.
It felt unsettling, but she had laundry to finish.
Carrying a heavy bundle of clothes, Vivian went to the stream and began washing as usual.
Soon, the discomfort was forgotten in the pain of her freezing fingers.
* * *
Grrr.
Vivian clutched her empty stomach and opened her door.
She had already eaten all the bread from the morning, so she intended to fill her stomach with water.
Ron and Mary never complained about even drinking water.
Coming out of the small, corner room right below the attic, Vivian went down one floor and heard voices.
“…Vivian is……”
‘Huh? Me?’
Hearing her name from the room once belonging to Jean—but now used by Ron and Mary—Vivian stopped walking.
‘Huh. Are they trying to kick me out?’
Her heart dropped heavily for a moment as she tiptoed closer.
Peeking through the slightly open door, Vivian’s blue eyes trembled.
“Wouldn’t it be better to arrange an engagement first?”
“But she’s only seven. How can she get married?”
“There’s no need for a separate engagement ceremony.”
‘Engagement? What’s that? I know marriage. It’s when two people who love each other promise to live happily forever.’
Vivian tilted her head.
Then why was her name being mentioned?
“If Peter marries Vivian, then we won’t have to worry anymore!”
“Gasp.”
Startled so badly she let out a strange sound, Vivian quickly covered her mouth.
