IMCG 04

Chapter 04

If the intention behind that laugh was to ruin my mood, then it succeeded. An ugly man laughing in an ugly way—how could that not put me in a foul mood?
I answered curtly, making no effort to hide my irritation.

“Luca is sick. I’m on my way to the apothecary.”

“Oh? That’s rare. You actually care that Luca’s sick? Kids are supposed to get sick as they grow up, you know.”

“I’m not in the mood for jokes.”

I brushed him off irritably, but the man—Thomas—didn’t seem to care and kept walking beside me. He glanced at me, gauging my reaction, then spoke as if testing the waters.

“Hey, but apparently a pretty decent guy showed up today. Seems like he’s a noble. Lea’s already got her eye on him.”

Emden wasn’t a big village. People knew how many chopsticks each household owned.
So when a stranger came to town, rumors spread like wildfire. I had a good idea who that noble was.

The culprit who’d ruined my clothes—and the owner of the carriage.

“Ah. I think I know who you mean.”

“You ran into him? Saw him?”

“I didn’t see him. I got knocked over by his carriage.”

“So that’s why you look like that?”

There was a strange sense of relief in his cheerful voice. He seemed genuinely glad I hadn’t gotten tangled up with that noble lord.
I ignored him and let his words slide. A child was sick, and he kept spouting nonsense.

Whether some noble showed up or not had nothing to do with me, so I kept walking without paying him any attention.
When I didn’t even turn my head, maybe he got anxious. Thomas cleared his throat beside me.

“Ahem. Hey. So… do you have a partner for today?”

So that was it. No wonder he’d come up to me the moment I entered the village and hovered around like a fly.

My brow furrowed sharply. Had he not listened to a single word I’d said?

“I told you Luca is sick. What partner? Stop being a nuisance and ask someone else.”

“Come on, don’t use Luca as an excuse. Since when did you ever care about Luca?”

Thomas kept repeating the same thing, clearly convinced I was lying.
Ugh, this was infuriating. I had no desire to convince the villagers of my sincerity.

Judith Maybaum had lived her whole life in this village—twenty-seven years—while I’d only been in this body for a month.
Compared to that, my time here was far too short to change anyone’s perception.

Twenty-seven years versus one month. The karma of this body—I had no choice but to accept it.
Still, it didn’t feel good to have everything I said dismissed as a lie or an excuse.

At least I’m not some infamous villain known across the continent… Maybe that’s something to be thankful for. At least in another town, I wouldn’t be treated like this.

After sending Luca to Winterwald next year, it might be best to move to another town. I’d planned to avoid the collateral relatives’ eyes anyway…

They searched relentlessly for anything they could use to attack Luca.
Even if Judith hadn’t gone around extorting money like in the original story, it wouldn’t have taken long for them to notice us.

I was the only blood relative on his maternal side—the one who’d shared his childhood.

The north, where Winterwald was, was out. The west was hostile to outsiders. The south, where Emden was, was out too…
The east or the central region with the capital seemed better.

Settling alone as a young woman in a rural town without connections required caution, so the capital would be the safest choice overall.

They say the best place to hide a tree is in a forest, after all.

The more stubbornly Thomas stuck to me, the stronger my desire to leave this place became.
I repeated the same answer like a broken record, trying to brush him off—but even that had its limits.

Finally, unable to take it anymore, I shot him a sharp, annoyed glare.

“When have I ever turned someone down by making excuses about Luca? You know I’m the type to say no outright if I don’t want to.”

“Ah… yeah, I know.”

“Do I really have to get nasty for you to understand?”

When I narrowed my eyes and snapped at him, Thomas finally shut his mouth, hunched his shoulders, and started reading the room.

Still, maybe he couldn’t quite give up—or maybe he was trying to justify himself with a pathetic excuse.
He started muttering to himself.

“Jeez… you’re damn hard to get. That’s why you’re still unmarried, raising your nephew. If you don’t lower your standards, no one’s going to take you.”

The words came easily, like he was used to hitting below the belt. A vein bulged on my forehead.

Judith and I had countless differences, but we weren’t completely different people.
One thing we shared was that neither of us had the slightest intention of lowering our standards for marriage.

Judith’s first requirement for a husband: money.
She had a complex about her looks, but that only made her more obsessed with adorning herself. She constantly longed for dresses and jewels that would enhance her beauty—and for that, wealth was essential.

Second requirement: looks.
If she’d cared only about money, she could’ve become a rich merchant’s second wife. But she couldn’t tolerate having an ugly child.
She wanted a child prettier than Luca, at the very least, so a handsome husband was non-negotiable.

Because of all that, Judith’s marriage kept getting delayed… and honestly, I agreed with her completely.

And that wasn’t all. If you’re going to live together, he needed a good personality. You’d have to listen to his voice every day, so it had to be pleasant too.
A protruding belly from poor self-care looked lazy, a scrawny body had no appeal—and being tall was a must!

With so many conditions I had no intention of compromising on, I snorted derisively.

“You’re pretty good at talking about yourself like it’s someone else, aren’t you? Don’t worry about me—worry about yourself, Thomas. Judging by how hard you’re trying to get involved with me, your standards must be pretty high too. If you don’t lower them, are you going to end up unmarried?”

The longer I spoke, the redder Thomas’s face became.
Lacking the courage to retort, he quickly tucked his tail between his legs, muttered something under his breath, and fled.

I snorted. Did he think I couldn’t see through that cheap attempt to tear me down?

Larisa and Luca might be exceptional in looks, but even so, in a rural village like this, Judith was strikingly beautiful.
From Judith’s memories, Thomas hadn’t even dared speak to her when they were younger.

Why had he suddenly found his courage now? Because he’d gotten older?
No—he thought my “value” had dropped and figured he might as well try.

Aside from age, there was little difference between Judith then and Judith now.
And Thomas and I were the same age. Both at the tail end of marriageable age—how laughable.

They only ever push that “marriageable age” nonsense so harshly on women…

I’d never expected to be lectured about marriage even after coming to another world, and my irritation shot through the roof.
Having finally shaken Thomas off, I quickened my pace to avoid running into a second or third version of him.

But maybe because it was the May Festival, the streets were packed everywhere I went.
I tried to push through the crowd as quickly as possible.

Then suddenly, I collided with a large man who’d appeared out of nowhere.

We’d only bumped into each other, but his body was so solid that I bounced straight backward.

“Ow!”

People brushed past me as I fell to the ground.
I hurriedly pulled my basket of medicinal herbs toward me. If they got crushed underfoot, it would be a disaster.

First a carriage, now people—something was seriously off about today.

Then, as if storm clouds had suddenly rolled in, the sunlight disappeared above me.
A beat later, I realized it was the shadow of the man I’d collided with.

He reached out his hand. The hand thrust in front of my nose, clad in a glossy black leather glove, was as big as both my palms together.

“Are you all right, my lady?”

His low voice resonated pleasantly, making my ears tingle.
But a nice voice was just a nice voice—I assessed the situation rationally.

An unfamiliar voice. And the way he addressed me as “my lady” suggested he wasn’t from around here.
On top of that, the polished toe of his shoe caught my eye—clearly the son of a wealthy family.

If someone like this gets tangled up with me, it’ll only become troublesome.

If this were my original appearance, I wouldn’t even imagine men flocking to me.
But Judith’s looks made that kind of misunderstanding unavoidable.

Even I, living in this body every day, got startled every morning when I washed my face.

If I were Judith, I’d probably smile brightly and take his hand, showing off my beauty.
But since I wanted nothing to do with men, I deliberately lowered my head, hiding my face from his gaze.

Unaware of my thoughts, the man continued speaking.

“I was in a hurry and caused you trouble. I apologize.”

“No, it’s fine. I was in a hurry too.”

Without taking his hand, I sprang up like a roly-poly doll.
Noticing my disheveled skirt, he asked with concern,

“Wait, my lady. Your clothes—”

“Oh, this is fine. It’s not because of you. Then, I really—really have somewhere urgent to be, so I’ll be going now.”

Finding his attention unwelcome, I rattled off my words, bowed briefly, and bolted.

But strangely, I could still feel his gaze following me.

He’s not following me, is he…?

I considered turning around to check, but locking eyes with him would only make things awkward.
So I ignored the feeling and disappeared into the crowd.