The Woman Called a Witch (1)

Sylvia Eleanor is a woman who has lived a wretched life.

From a young age, she was ostracized by her father for being born with cursed eyes called Maan, and her mother passed away after giving birth to her younger sister.

Because of that, she was always an outcast in the family.

Her younger sister, who was much younger than her, would occasionally visit her, but after being caught and beaten by her father each time, even that became infrequent.

When Sylvia learned that people in the world were calling her a witch, she thought that her very existence was a mistake.

Because she was so kind by nature and had never resented anyone, she didn’t curse God or her parents who had brought her into the world, but instead, she blamed herself and began to call herself a witch.

“I’ve arranged a blind date for you. It’s the only thing you can do for the family, so you must succeed.”

As such a twisted daily life continued for nearly 20 years, one day her father, Creed, secretly called her and told her a rather unexpected story.

A blind date out of the blue for her, who had never even dated, let alone met a man of a similar age.

Perhaps if it were the young ladies of other noble families, they would have thrown off their seats and protested, no matter how respectable their father’s words were.

“Yes, Father.”

But Sylvia couldn’t do that.

No, she couldn’t even find a reason to.

After all, she never even had the expectation that a man who would like this cursed body would ever appear even once in her life.

If, as Creed said, this was the only thing a sinner could do for the family, Sylvia thought it was the right thing to do, no matter what it was.

Even if a pot-bellied man who looked twice her age appeared at the blind date, she vowed to humbly accept this reality and moved her steps to the meeting place.

Ttokttok.

While waiting leisurely, drinking tea in a rather stylish greenhouse, the sound of someone knocking on the door followed.

Soon after, the door opened with a thin scream unique to doors that were not well oiled, and the person who appeared beyond it was a surprisingly neat-looking young man.

Unlike her long, white hair, which was closer to white than silver, his jet-black hair, reminiscent of the night sky, was grown rather shaggy, as if he hadn’t cut it because he was too lazy.

When his amber eyes, faintly visible between his hair, gazed at her, Sylvia realized that she hadn’t even greeted him yet and hurriedly opened her mouth.

“It’s an honor to meet you. I’m Sylvia from the Eleanor family. You must be Young Master Lyaird?”

She had heard his name in advance from the servant who had guided her, so she greeted him politely, pretending to know.

In response, the other person stared at her intently before muttering a word so quietly that it was unclear whether it was a compliment to her or just a soliloquy.

“…Beautiful.”

“…Excuse me?”

As soon as those words came out of his mouth, Sylvia’s movements, which had been moving the teacup, stopped, and then the man’s eyes, her blind date partner, widened.

It seemed he hadn’t even realized what he had said.

The man, belatedly coming to his senses, hurriedly corrected himself.

“…I apologize. It’s my first time seeing red eyes, so I unconsciously let my admiration slip out.”

From the moment he blurted out such a straightforward remark to someone he had just met, his personality might as well have been ruined, but Sylvia didn’t care about that at all.

Rather, her consciousness was focused on the content of what he had just said.

‘Beautiful? These cursed eyes?’

With an incredulous expression, she momentarily groped her right eye.

Even her father had never even paid lip service to saying that her blood-red eyes were pretty or beautiful.

Even her younger sister had initially said that her right eye was a little scary.

It was a first. Someone who had said that to her.

“Eueut…”

The moment she realized that, her cheeks flushed as if the red light that had been lingering in her right eye was rapidly spreading to both cheeks.

With her ears turning bright red, she lowered her head for a long time and couldn’t bring herself to look at him sitting across from her.

That was the first meeting between a woman named Sylvia Eleanor and a man named Kyle Lyaird.

＊＊＊

Fortunately, the blind date turned out well somehow.

It ended up being as if Kyle had accepted her ugly clinging, but even so, Sylvia was just happy.

She was just happy that there was someone who treated her as Sylvia Eleanor, not as a witch.

Was that why? After that, Sylvia went to see Kyle whenever she had an excuse.

His side was more comfortable and better than Kaintreche Castle, where she had lived for nearly 20 years.

Above all, the fact that he wasn’t overly kind, nor was he as cold as his initial prickly and rude attitude, made her heart the most peaceful.

He was more human than anyone she had ever seen.

“It’s been a while, Young Master Lyaird.”

“…You’ve come again.”

By the time she had barged in and greeted him five times without making a separate appointment.

From then on, Kyle didn’t even flinch, but instead looked at her with a look full of annoyance, sighing openly as if what was coming had come.

One might feel hurt by such an attitude, but Sylvia was just happy.

It wasn’t for some strange reason like she had a taste for bad boys, but because she knew that when she came to visit, he would sincerely try to take care of her.

She had come to realize through the past few months of meetings that he was a man with a warmer heart than anyone else, even though he showed a prickly attitude for some reason.

“I’m disappointed. Even though my fiancé went out of her way to visit from afar, you have such an attitude…”

Nevertheless, she would occasionally say things like this, complaining without meaning it.

It was a kind of joke.

Even she wouldn’t have expected that the day would come when she would joke with someone. Even such a trivial joke felt like a miracle to her.

“Even if you say you’re disappointed with a bright smile, I don’t believe you at all.”

“Oops, was I caught? I might need to practice my acting a little more.”

“Please stop. It’s already hard enough to read your true feelings.”

Of course, Sylvia also knew that Kyle Lyaird wasn’t so easy to be flustered by such jokes and feigned innocence.

But she couldn’t stop because his reaction every time was so funny.

He was a man who was fun to tease, so much so that Sylvia herself realized for the first time that she had such a mischievous and playful personality.

It wasn’t like his reaction was exaggerated or anything, but why was that?

Sylvia vaguely thought that this was what people in the world meant when they said someone had a crush.

“So, where do you want to go today?”

At first, he would wave his hand as if to get rid of something cumbersome, but now, whether out of resignation or not, he would usually ask her this question when he met her.

Some might grumble that the man has no backbone, that he should come up with his own plans, but Sylvia’s position was completely different.

In the first place, she was full of a desire to experience everything anew in the world, so even his indifferent words felt like consideration to her.

“I heard there’s a fire-breathing elephant in the Lyaird County. Do you happen to know about it, Young Master Lyaird?”

“There is. But you’re not a child, were you interested in something like that?”

“New experiences are always valuable.”

“Anyway, you’re always full of fancy words. I’ll go change my clothes and come back, so wait here.”

“Yes, take your time.”

There was no unnecessary formality or excessive courtesy between the two, such as apologizing for making the guest wait or saying he would be back in a moment.

Therefore, Sylvia, who was virtually experiencing human relationships for the first time, found the current distance comfortable.

The current relationship where they don’t want anything big from each other, and they don’t get hurt or inflict hurt on each other with light words.

“Then shall we go?”

“Hehe, I’m looking forward to it. Anywhere I go with Young Master Lyaird is always fun.”

And at the same time, the man named Kyle Lyaird was also the man who had given her the most new experiences in her life.

The novelty of receiving consideration and attention from others.

The novelty of enjoying and experiencing something with others.

The novelty of exchanging emotions and building bonds with others.

She was sure that she had experienced more new things in these short few months with him than in the past 20 years of her life.

‘He probably doesn’t know.’

But this indifferent man probably doesn’t even know that she is so grateful.

No, it would be fortunate if he just didn’t know. Even if she told him this fact, he would probably just shrug it off indifferently, saying, ‘Is that so?’

That’s why Sylvia wanted to convey this gratitude someday.

That what you gave me during this short time was the greatest thing in my life, and I hope you know that.

But, alas, it seemed that the time of fate had no intention of easily fulfilling even this little girl’s wish.