Chapter 004
Chapter 4: The Husband’s Awakening (3)
“How are you feeling today?”
“A mess,” he muttered sarcastically.
Having been bedridden for so long, Craig found it extremely difficult to move.
The doctor described it as a miracle that he could speak and move the upper part of his body as he did now, but this man seemed dissatisfied.
“Did you do what I told you?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Hmm.”
He lowered his head arrogantly.
He wasn’t the type to say “thank you” or “good job.” It felt natural to him, as if he had ordered a subordinate to do it.
This, too, was vastly different from Craig. Comparing him to the past, where he was frivolous and lacked nobility, made her even more certain.
She sat quietly on the chair and said a few words, pretending to be concerned.
“You need to get better quickly.”
“I don’t think this filthy body will be any different even if it recovers. And what’s the use of this face now?”
“That was something you took pride in.”
Craig was a man whose only joy in life was using his handsome face to seduce women.
“What…”
He looked at his hands with irritation and swallowed the words that were about to come out of his mouth.
Somehow, Cordelia managed to guess the words he swallowed.
‘You must be upset about waking up in a body like this.’
She said, smiling as gently as she could.
“Have you eaten?”
“Do you mean that pathetic soup? How dare you call something like that food? It seems the people in this castle have lost their sense of taste.”
“Even if it’s not to your liking, eat a little. That way, you can get out of bed quickly.”
Craig waved his hand as if annoyed.
“Fine. Why did you come today?”
“Now that I think about it, I feel like I didn’t get to tell you everything about your past.”
“Oh, yes. The past. Speak quickly. I’m tired.”
Cordelia swallowed the saliva that had accumulated and slowly recounted what she had prepared.
Craig leaned against the headboard with his eyes closed.
“You started writing for the first time when you were three years old.”
“Hmm? I’m smarter than I thought. Did I fall from a tree when I was four?”
“And you showed your magical power for the first time at the age of five.”
“What’s with this body? I mean, me?”
He couldn’t hide his surprise, which was understandable since that wasn’t Craig’s past.
Cordelia continued speaking calmly.
“When you were twelve, the teacher instructing you had already given up, saying he had nothing more to teach you.”
“…”
“At seventeen, you became the youngest head of the family.”
Yes. That was the past of Leonard, the head of the White Serpent Atily.
His genius was so renowned that it wasn’t necessary to learn about it through her servants.
“What an impressive past. Enough to become the head of Atily.”
The moment she finished speaking, Craig’s expression immediately turned menacing.
In that instant, Cordelia realized her guess was correct.
“Was it Maximilian who sent you?”
The sudden change in the air was enough to sting her face.
“Damn it. I never thought they’d go to such lengths.”
Craig, or rather Leonard, tried to get up somehow, but it was too much for his unhealed body.
Instead, he gritted his teeth and used magical power. Several flames floated dangerously in the air.
Seeing this, Cordelia opened her mouth in shock.
“How can you use magic when you’re not in your own body?”
“Even though I’m not in my body, I haven’t forgotten how to use magic. I have the power to kill you right now.”
He answered with a cold face. With a simple snap of his fingers, a fireball sped toward Cordelia.
She ducked in shock to avoid it. It was possible because the path of the magical energy was visible.
Leonard’s eyes widened slightly.
“Huh?”
“Hey! Wait. Tell me why you consider me an enemy?”
“If you were an ally, you would’ve already knelt before me and revealed it.”
After that, several threatening fireballs flew toward her.
Cordelia managed to dodge them, but she couldn’t properly avoid the last one, and it burned part of her clothes.
“Ahh!”
“Who are you? How on earth are you dodging my magic?”
“Well, that’s because I can see it.”
“You can see it?”
“That’s how I found out you’re the head of the White Serpents. I threw the letter and saw Atily’s emblem.”
“Ha, you don’t need to lie to that extent.”
“I’m not lying!”
She said quickly before Leonard could try another spell.
In this situation, she could really die.
“I’ve had the ability to see magic since I was young. It’s real!”
“…See magic? I believe there’s maybe one in ten thousand people who can sense and see magical power. Does that make sense?”
“I can tell you the shape of the magical power you just created.”
Leonard looked at Cordelia with suspicious eyes.
Without warning, he gathered magical power at his fingertips and created a specific shape.
“Hmm…”
“…”
“A rabbit!”
“…”
“Oh, umm. What? A goat?”
“It’s not a goat; it’s a sheep.”
Surprisingly, her talent for “seeing” wasn’t a lie. Leonard’s eyes trembled slightly.
It was a talent even Leonard, said to be the country’s most powerful sorcerer, didn’t possess.
After she answered correctly three times in a row, he had no choice but to acknowledge it.
“I can’t believe it. If you have such a talent, why didn’t you learn magic?”
“When I was young, I didn’t know it was a talent, but when I grew up…”
When she was thirteen, her family’s fortunes took a sharp turn after her mother’s death.
Even the servants’ salaries were so low that household items had to be sold.
In such a situation, learning magic, which required a huge amount of money, was unimaginable.
Moreover, the fundamental question remained whether her father would have allowed her to learn.
“There were unavoidable circumstances.”
But she didn’t want to reveal her messy past to a man she had just met. Cordelia gave a suitable answer.
“Can you trust me now?”
“Are you sure Maximilian didn’t send you?”
“No. Maximilian must be your brother who killed you, right?”
Leonard’s guard, which had softened at the light question, rose again.
Before another fireball could hit her, Cordelia quickly added another word.
“There are already rumors spreading all over the capital.”
“What?”
“The head of the Atily family was killed, and the likely culprit is his younger brother. I heard the second son has already requested the Council to inherit the title?”
“Ha, inherit the title? How dare he do as he pleases?”
“Exactly. The head of the family is alive right here, with his eyes open and blue.”
Cordelia said to herself, ‘What are you doing?’
“Think about it carefully. Did the ruler tell Maximilian you’d wake up in Craig’s body and have me marry Craig a year ago? That doesn’t make sense.”
Cordelia protested strongly.
Considering Leonard asked who he was the moment he woke up, he must not have expected to awaken in Craig’s body.
“So?”
“Yes?”
“What do you want? A divorce?”
“Given your circumstances, don’t you think a divorce is an unfair trade and might not align with what you want?”
“…Ha.”
When she repeated what he had said a few days ago, Leonard pushed back his bangs in frustration.
Cordelia swallowed the saliva in her mouth and tried to relax her tense body.
Divorce. Of course, it was very important to her.
But if he was truly Leonard Atily, she could ask him for something far better than a divorce. She could sign the divorce papers anytime.
“Anyway, we made a deal, didn’t we? I’ll help you four more times, but just for four letters isn’t enough, so I want to add something else.”
“What?”
“What I want isn’t anything special. It’s mutual benefit.”
“Mutual benefit? That’s something I only do with people I trust. How can I trust you?”
“Didn’t you ask me to send that letter because you trusted me?”
Cordelia blinked her large eyes.
Leonard couldn’t understand why the servants sympathized with her, describing her as “the poor, innocent lady.”
She was astonishingly perceptive, bolder, and calmer than anyone he knew.
It was as if she had known in advance that he would wake up in Craig’s body.
So he couldn’t trust her any more than he already did.
“Did sending that letter require trust? I could kill you right now, and that would be the end of it.”
“Of course, that’s an option too…”
What’s wrong with this guy? He’s too harsh.
A chill ran down her spine as he spoke so calmly, as if contemplating killing an insect. Cordelia tried to act calm and crossed her legs.
“But is there anyone in this castle you can trust?”
“…”
“With that weak body, your activities will be greatly restricted.”
“…”
“Isn’t that why you haven’t left this mansion immediately?”
Cordelia had stayed up all night the previous night to find the most logical reason.
If he was truly the head of Atily, why did he enter Craig’s body, and why did he stay here?
No matter how hard she thought, there was only one answer.
It was clear this man couldn’t move without others’ help. That explained why the letter was sent with her assistance.
“It’s hard to survive in this harsh place alone. Let’s do it together. Both of us.”
She smiled wryly and spoke as calmly as possible.
“Are you saying you’ll help me?”
“Exactly. I’ll help you in every way possible, physically and mentally, until you safely return to Atily, except for things that could endanger my life.”
“That’s very generous of you, yes.”
Contrary to his words, Leonard’s smile was sharp, like that of a predatory animal.
“What are your conditions?”
“Great. You just had to do it that way.”
Cordelia suppressed the urge to cheer and controlled the corners of her mouth, which were twitching.
“There’s only one thing I want.”
“What is it?”
“I want to become your apprentice.”
“An apprentice? You want to learn magic? You?”
He looked her up and down with extremely arrogant eyes.
“You must think magic is a joke just because you caught a glimpse of it. Magic is a challenge even for someone who started training at a very young age.”
“You haven’t taught me yet.”
She felt insulted by his attitude toward her without even knowing her. When she retorted immediately, Leonard snorted.
“Are you sure you can keep up with me if I teach you?”
“I may not look like it, but I was told I was a smart child when I was young.”
“Oh, what? You’re smart? I suppose you studied in this countryside?”
He raised one corner of his mouth and laughed at her. It was annoying, but Cordelia restrained herself with great effort.
“If I become your apprentice, I have the ability to learn harder than anyone else. Really.”
“What will you do with learning magic? If you start at this age, your achievements will be far behind others, won’t they?”
“…Actually, my father is very ill.”
She secretly pinched her thighs and tried hard to force tears.
Fortunately, a tear formed on the side of her right cheek.
