The girl’s nod grew more intense. Maletta’s face was now as pale as if the grim reaper had come to meet her.
“Maletta? This child?”
“Well, about that…”
While barely managing to shrug, Maletta received an enormous look of hatred and resentment from the freckled girl. The girl, mustering her dying strength, grabbed Ariadne’s sleeve.
“Save…please, save me, Miss…!”
[This is the time separator]“No matter if you are the daughter of a bishop, special treatment is not possible.”
The manager shook his head. Those were his words when asked to save the life of the freckled girl, Sancha.
Ariadne was the daughter of the second most powerful man in San Carlo, but it was nothing more than a pretty surface.
Her powerful father did not love her and paid no attention to her beyond minimal investment to use her as a tool. She had neither money nor power under her own name. She couldn’t even afford to call a doctor.
Having barely returned from death, she was still a bird in a cage, unable to make any choices for herself.
“I understand. Then I will give my share of food for today to that girl.”
What came as Ariadne’s ration was nothing more than a half piece of dry bread and clean water.
Ariadne had Maletta make a porridgelike substance by steeping the dry bread in boiling water and fed it to Sancha.
That was all she could do. Ariadne felt a gloomy sense of powerlessness.
But whether Sancha was merely starved or not, a bit of food made her gradually robust in a day or two, like a stray kitten picked up from the street.
“Maletta. Come here for a moment.”
While staying in the nuns’ quarters, Ariadne thought repeatedly about the ‘vision’ she had had before.
When she asked Sancha the same questions she had seen in the vision, everything matched up. And considering Maletta’s startled reaction, the ‘vision’ seemed to show exactly what had happened in the past.
“Like before, hold my wrist.”
Maletta hesitantly held Ariadne’s wrist again, but this time, nothing happened.
Skin touching skin didn’t always seem to induce a vision.
[This is the time separator]After giving her share of food to Sancha, Ariadne quickly became thin.
Insisting that she had to take care of Sancha, the manager sent Ariadne back to the food line. The manager, who had kept her continuously on bath duty, seemed to fear that the sympathetic young lady might become attached to another pitiful patient.
‘Ah, I’m hungry.’
Standing in the food line, Ariadne swallowed her saliva while looking at the soup for distribution.
Normally, it would have been a soup that she would not have eaten even if given, but now even the oil floating on the surface looked too tempting. But that soup had all been claimed, and the poor of the refuge were very serious about food.
Unable to even touch the soup, Ariadne, who had finished her morning ration, hadn’t eaten since the day before yesterday’s dinner. She leaned against the shade of a tree in the orphanage, trying to forget her hunger for a moment.
Then, an apple appeared out of nowhere in front of Ariadne’s eyes.
‘Who?’
Looking at the owner of the hand, it was a handsome boy with dazzling blond hair and milkywhite features. He was wearing a court outfit made of satin, extending an apple towards her.
“Do you want to eat?”
It was Prince Alfonso. He was much younger than the last image of him that Ariadne remembered, a boy still growing, like a fresh budding tree.
It felt unreal. He was already dead at the hands of Cesare.
Ariadne reached out and accepted the apple he offered. Their hands touched at the apple, and feeling his warmth, Ariadne shivered.
The past had truly returned. Her sin was alive and moving, before it was committed.
“You looked hungry……”
He smiled a little sheepishly. His large mouth revealed neat white teeth.
Although Ariadne knew that the boy in front of her was a prince, she replied in a casual tone. It was the instinct of a woman who had been through all kinds of hardships, around the age of thirty.
“Thank you.”
She wiped the apple on her sleeve and took a big bite.
Crunch!
The apple was sweet. It was hard to resist, especially when sweetness touched the tip of her tongue while she was starving for three days. The juice was so refreshing.
After a bite, then another, the apple was quickly reduced to its core. Only then did Ariadne remember the presence of the prince in front of her.
Embarrassed, she quickly made an excuse.
“I haven’t eaten for three days, thanks to you.”
She emphasized the words ‘three days’ to cover her embarrassment, but Prince Alfonso stared at her with an innocent look, whether he knew the fact or not.
“You’re giving your food to a sick child.”
“Ah…… It just happened.”
“I think it’s great. I couldn’t have given up my food.”
Ariadne found herself smiling involuntarily. It was a delicate smile, like a pear blossom, unbeknownst to herself.
“Me too.”
For some reason, it was embarrassing to pretend to be good in front of Prince Alfonso. She wasn’t bold enough to act weak in front of the man she had killed.
“I gave away the orphanage bread because it was tasteless, if it was delicious food, I couldn’t have given it away, right?”
What came out instead was a bold declaration. Prince Alfonso asked Ariadne back with a slightly surprised expression.
“Is the orphanage bread tasteless?”
“It’s totally bland. No milk or butter was included, just wheat and salt.”
“Is that so……”
Prince Alfonso gave a bitter smile. Apparently, the orphanage didn’t serve him the real food.
She didn’t bother to pretend to know that he was a prince, and a silence fell for a moment. It wasn’t the atmosphere to apologize for killing him.
Fortunately, the prince asked a question again.
“How long are you going to be here?”
“Tomorrow.”
If Isabella hadn’t acted up, Ariadne would have returned home the day before yesterday, on the third day, and wouldn’t have met Prince Alfonso today.
The prince asked kindly.
“Are you going to keep giving up your food until then?”
“Hmm, I was planning to eat from today, but thanks to someone who gave me an apple, I think I can do it for two more days.”
Ariadne smiled broadly.
Prince Alfonso seemed to ponder a bit and then took out a cookie wrapped in a handkerchief from his pocket.
“I wish it was something more substantial to tide you over……, but this is all I have.”
Ariadne accepted the cookie wrapped in the handkerchief. The handkerchief had a small ‘AFC’ embroidered in gold thread at the corner. It was Alfonso de Carlo’s initials.
“I’ll eat well. Thank you.”
Looking at the tall, skinny girl taking the food in the handkerchief, the goldenhaired boy asked.
The afternoon sun was falling from its zenith, casting a brilliant light on both the boy and the girl.
“What’s your name?”
“Ariadne. Ariadne de Mare.”
My Step-brother Is Obsessed With Me (Female-dominant)
A gentle female protagonist vs pitiful in the early stage, and a sick male protagonist in the later stage
Cheng Songer transmigrated into the body of a vicious cannon fodder female supporting character with the same name as her in a female-dominant novel.
In the original story, the cannon fodder female supporting character was inhumane, committing domestic violence, gambling excessively, being lustful, and even wanting to sell her stepbrother to a brothel for money.
As luck would have it, she just happened to transmigrate at this time.
Seeing Cheng Qingzhi biting his lip, enduring the tears in his eyes, looking pitiful, her heart softened.
She stuffed the money back into the Madam’s hand and reached out to him.
“Brother, come home with me.”
