I Have Become The Heroes’ Rival

Chapter 8

TL: gaeulriri

Editor: Daed

Our conversation came to a halt the moment my stomach, which had been empty since the morning, made a loud noise.

There must be some beggars inside my stomach, crying loudly. Those beggars weren’t able to read the situation!

Then those beggars inside my stomach rattled again, crying out, ‘Hey, stop talking and give me some food!’

“What do you want to eat?”

Claudia asked as she pinched my cheek cutely.

Of course. I wiped the saliva that almost flowed around my mouth and answered her without any hesitation.

“Meat.”

Shortly afterwards, an assortment of meat dishes were served on the table.

When I asked her how we would finish the food, Claudia said that the maids would eat the leftovers. If so, then I didn’t need to worry.

“I will enjoy this food!”

Wow, the meat was really delicious. As Claudia stuffed her cheeks with food, she tilted her head with her chin resting on the table. Smiling happily, she asked,

“So, I’m Rin’s ideal type, aren’t I? Because I have a lot of money and I’m beautiful too.”

Claudia blinked her eyes while stating that she was beautiful confidently. Every time she blinked with those long eyelashes, I felt like I saw a butterfly flapping its wings.

“Chloe is an unparalleled beauty.”

She had such an ineffable beauty. I stopped eating and shook my head as I admired it.

Then Claudia gracefully twirled her white, waist-long hair that looked like snowflakes with her fingers. She smiled at me.

Ahh, my heart was pounding.

I reflexively grabbed the hem of my gown.

If the heroes in this novel saw this sight, they would be so jealous that they would die.

Yes, just die like that! Burn with jealousy and destroy yourselves!

“Logically, wouldn’t I be your ideal type too?”

Felix asked with a sweet smile. It was a pure smile with no hidden intentions.

Just like Claudia, when the wind blew against his smooth hair, it looked like cotton candy that would melt in our mouths.

Unlike Claudia, however, his features looked flawlessly sharp.

That was exactly it. The high-class visual of beauty.

As I nodded, Claudia glanced at Felix.

“Rin must have liked my brother because he resembled me, right? Don’t be fooled. Even if we looked alike, we have different eyes. His eyes are fierce and scary. It’s different from mine.”

Claudia reached out and tried to remove the gold-rimmed glasses that Felix was wearing.

Felix avoided her easily and kept his glasses.

To add insult to injury, he patted Claudia’s head in a fond way, as if she was cute.

I eagerly ate while watching their dynamic interaction. It felt like watching a masterpiece. After all, watching beautiful faces was the most fun.

I felt like I was in heaven on earth.

[So, you’re going to stay there?]

One of my family members during this year, Liam Amber, asked in despair from the virtual communicator.

Yes, I understood your feelings.

The life of an ordinary girl who befriended the most popular girl and was on the verge of death after becoming the enemy of the best men in this country. It sounded really spectacular.

If I wasn’t the person in question myself, I would have reacted the same way as he did when I heard all of this. Because anyone who heard it would definitely find it absurd.

I tossed the grapefruit cake in my hand into my mouth.

Mmm, it melted on my tongue. Claudia said that the fruit used in the cake had been hand-picked from the palace especially for me. Even the orange flesh ontop of the cake was carefully selected, only the best was acceptable.

“Yes. Maybe forever?”

Of course, on the premise that Claudia would never get tired of me.

There was no guarantee that her feelings for me would last a thousand years.

Maybe in a few years, or even months, Claudia would realize her mistake and think, ‘Am I crazy?’

And there was always the chance that she would leave me and start a new relationship with a new friend.

If one day, she got tired of me, then I would let her go with teary eyes.

I wasn’t going to act like an ex-boyfriend who called at 2 am to wish her happiness.

Life had always been about the opportunities that appear before us anyway.

I would enjoy everything while waiting to be destroyed by the heroes.

Then, Liam sighed and said,

[Noona*, how old are you to run away without leaving a message?]

“I’m not running away, but leaving. This is the only way out. Leaving the mortal world and saying goodbye forever.”

Do you know the term ‘Heaven on Earth’?

As I swallowed the tart, Claudia handed me a slice of strawberry roll cake with a fork, “Rin, try this one too.”

With a blissful expression, I opened my mouth and ate the cake.

This was delicious too! I raised my shoulders and stomped my feet.

I hadn’t eaten anything that hadn’t been delicious yet since I came to this house.

Felix, who was passing by, found me and paused for a moment. He chuckled gently at me with his eyes twinkling in mirth.

“Here.”

He reached out naturally and swiped my mouth with his finger. He showed me the cream on his thumb, then walked away just like that.

“…..”

I felt my heart skip a beat.

I turned my head in the direction where Felix disappeared with a blank expression, and then Liam’s voice brought me back to reality.

[Nonsense. Don’t you think you’re coming into a mortal world instead?]

That was the conclusion Liam arrived at after seeing all of this.

Hey. Whether this was heaven on earth or the garden of eden, it was the same paradise, man.

Liam watched as I played with my gown and jewels that Claudia had bought me.

Liam’s sad and worried expression seemed to say, ‘My sister is taking advantage of her friend and asking for help.’

[What the hell did you do to the Chamberlains? No, in fact, I did expect it to happen someday, but…..]

Of course I didn’t expect to be able to attract the attention of this pair of siblings…. Though I’m not sure if he heard this faint muttering.

“It’s all because I’m cute.”

At those words, Liam became serious.

[Actually I knew you had been becoming weird lately, but when did you become this crazy?]

I suddenly seriously listened to my brother’s words as he tried to pull me back to reality.

Dude, I was brainwashed here, too. Didn’t you know the saying that ‘when you are attracted to someone, you will do everything you can’?

I grumbled in my mind and said aloud what I wanted to say before.

“The crazy one is our father. He sold his family for a monetary loan.”

If it hadn’t been for Claudia, I would have either married a grandfather, been sold as a slave, or run away and worked endlessly to survive.

Though I wasn’t sure if it was possible to run away from the chaotic Carlisle city.

“I have reached this far, how can I stop now?”

And that person wasn’t even my ‘real’ parent anyway.

Viscount Amber was the kind of person who didn’t even want to respect others before they became blood relatives.

He was crazy about his business, not to mention addicted to gambling and drugs. Moreover, he was someone who would actually sell his family to survive.

In fact, when it came to money, I couldn’t help but squander it as well. But of course, I was not as crazy as him.

As I looked at Liam through the virtual communication screen, I told him,

“Come here when you graduate, too. Chloe gave us permission to live with her.”

[…..]

Liam was a fifteen-year-old boy who had been through a lot.

I remembered when I first met him.

This crazy incident happened not long after I entered Irene’s body.

At that time, my biological father tried to sell me for money, saying, “Isn’t it better than being a slave or struggling as a prostitute?”

Liam, who was 14 years old at the time, shouted at Viscount Amber.

“What the hell do you think of us? Are we just an item that you can sell whenever you need? If you want to sell something, just sell yourself!”

My father was very angry and beat him up, inflicting several bruises across his body.

After beating Liam up, my father went out to drink. I approached Liam, holding a fine pebble stone as a substitute of an egg, and said,

“Who would buy an old man like him?”

At that moment, Liam looked as confused as he is now. When he finally processed what I had said, he giggled and rubbed his eyes with the stone I gave him.

The incident made me quickly get along with Liam.

In fact, to me, Liam was still a stranger, and it was really hard to think of him as my relative.

However, he was only a cute young child, so I treated him as my younger brother.

Yes, like real brothers and sisters, we used to bicker everyday… But now that we were separated from each other, let us just pretend that nothing happened at that time.

Liam said that ever since he was born, he had never been educated at the academy.

Somehow, I felt sympathetic when I met a child who had trouble attending school like I had in my previous life.

For the past year, I tried to play the role of an older sister as best as I could.

Thanks to the support from the Chamberlains, Liam finally entered the academy for the first time half a year ago. And now, he lived in a dormitory and had a scholarship.

‘I’m glad he lives in the dorm. If not, he could’ve been caught up into my business too. ‘

Today, Liam came home for a vacation, and it seemed that he was surprised that I wasn’t there.

Then with the money he had, he went to the Communication Center to contact me.

He looked for me as soon as he found out that I was missing. I took a moment to reflect on my narrow social network.

Well, I wouldn’t envy people who had lots of friends as long as I had Claudia.

[About that….. I’ll think more about it.]

Liam had answered like that when I advised him to cut ties with our father and run away.

No matter how badly your family hurt you, it would still be hard to cut off blood ties.

Even if you made your decision, and even when you really wanted to do it, when happy memories suddenly pop up into your mind, it would be very painful and you couldn’t let it go.

Even though Viscount Amber wasn’t my ‘real’ father.

Cheer up, boy.

I patted the virtual communication image as if I was comforting him.

“Yeah. Felix would gladly welcome you.”

[After all, my sister is such an amazing person.]

Finally, Liam laughed until he was breathless.

*Noona (누나) = Older sister (used by males)