Previously
Noah Tudor steps into the bedroom and coldly demands repayment of the Marguerite family debt of 5,000 rubles. After returning her mother's keepsake teddy bear, Noah brazenly appraises Cordelia's striking jade eyes and silver hair as collateral.
Then again, would he be any different with a lover? With such an eccentric disposition, romance would surely be just as bizarre. Instantly, an image flashed through her mind of him cornering Shasha Ander—having seen that morning’s scandal piece—and threatening to pluck out her eyeballs. Her features twisted into a comical grimace at her own absurd imagination.
‘She’s spacing out,’ Noah concluded, watching her face. With eye color and expressions so hazy that one could call her mysterious at best and dreary at worst, she maintained a pale, washed-out countenance from start to finish, yet it paradoxically left her emotions plainly exposed.
She probably assumed she was controlling her expressions. Seeing right through it was rather amusing. Always treading on eggshells, she seemed almost dull-witted beneath all those crowded thoughts, yet in a split second, unmistakable feelings would flood her eyes. Particularly when she grew angry or overwhelmed by emotion.
In truth, that side of her had not been half-bad either.
Noah asked mildly,
“Come now, Miss Cordelia. Aren’t we in the middle of our calculations?”
“Yes.”
“What are you daydreaming about?”
“Do you say things like that when courting, Lord Tudor?”
The sheer mortification on her face after blurting that out without thinking was truly a sight. Wishing to inspect her more closely, Noah curved his lips and leaned his upper body forward. Watching her shrink back and wither away from him was thoroughly entertaining.
“Do I?”
“No, um, I apologize.”
Her long lashes cast an anxious shadow over her jade irises. This woman was uneasy around men. Whether from the recent incident aboard the cruise ship or due to some other cause, he could not say. Pulling his leaning torso slightly back, Noah narrowed his eyes into crescents.
“Are you flirting with me because you don't have the money?”
“What? N-no!”
Her overblown horror only made him want to provoke her all the more.
Observing the timid woman plaster herself against the wall in helpless fluster, Noah pondered with languid detachment. He possessed a rotten temper, one that made him yearn to torment people even harder whenever they dreaded or despised him. Yet the foulest part of his foul nature was that even his expressions of affection toward family took on this very same bent. Especially toward his brother, or people like his brother.
His brother had once shuddered and cursed Noah as a “sadistic bastard.”
Shocked back then that someone could speak so harshly to family, he had poured an entire bottle of ink over his brother’s prized book, but looking back with the passage of time, the assessment was not entirely off the mark. Seeing how their father, who had taken sole charge of disciplining both sons, had always told Noah, ‘Do not torment someone just because you like them,’ perhaps his very nature had been flawed from birth.
Appraising Cordelia like a cat pawing at a dazed bird that had fallen from a tree, Noah arrived at a fresh realization. She was the kind of person who made one itch to poke and prod.
“Is… is an imperial hero permitted to act like this? Threatening bodily mutilation over money….”
Watching her pull out futile moral lectures, it was clear she could think of no way out of this predicament. Noah offered a faint yawn, wearing a bored expression, which caused Cordelia to deflate even further.
“What is wrong with collecting the money I lent? Miss Cordelia, human life is surprisingly cheap. On the battlefield, be it royalty, nobility, or slave, everyone is merely the same lump of flesh. Of course, I am no criminal, so should I take possession of your body parts, I will follow due legal process. I will even summon a lawyer for you if necessary.”
“If, by any chance….”
Cordelia gnawed on her lip for a long while. Noah tilted his head, adopting a look that invited her to speak.
“If I am worth five thousand rubles, will you buy me?”
‘Well, well.’
He chuckled in amusement.
“And if you are?”
“Could you not buy them a year from now? My eyes will still be just as fresh then.”
“Aha.”
At this point, Noah genuinely took an interest in Cordelia Marguerite. His long fingers tapped rhythmically against the armrest.
“Why on earth should I? Since ownership of the collateral—Miss Cordelia’s body—now falls under my jurisdiction, I could steep those eyes in formalin right this second and display them in my bedchamber. Will the investment value of your eyes appreciate after a year?”
At his monotone, cruel words, Cordelia’s cheeks turned stark white. Trembling in terror, she nonetheless strove stubbornly to persuade him. To secure one year of life.
“You have plenty of money anyway. Does it really have to be right now?”
“‘Really have to’ implies going out of one’s way out of stubbornness, Miss Cordelia. I hardly think that applies here. I am merely exercising my rightful prerogative. Do you have any idea how much interest has accrued on the money your father borrowed?”
‘I’ve waited quite a long time out of sheer generosity.’
Though he was smiling as if joking, he was dead serious. Just as he had claimed, the empire's hero placed little value on human life. Much like a butcher, his sole concern was simply what this lump of flesh was worth.
Swallowing hard, Cordelia raced her mind frantically and blurted in desperation,
“Y-you could just take more interest!”
“And what will you offer as interest?”
He was grinning outright now. Frustrated to tears, she still wanted to live.
“W-would you take my hair, then?”
Since he had shown an interest in her hair alongside her eyes moments ago, she tossed out whatever came to mind. But when he remained silent for a long stretch, Cordelia mumbled downcast, ‘It shouldn't be that bad.’
Even her spiteful aunt and cousin Dorea had never been able to find fault with her lovely hair. A rare silver that shone brilliantly as if dusted with mother-of-pearl, the thick, voluminous mane fell lustrously to her waist, retaining a silken texture without requiring any special care.
“I’ve heard Katysha nobles wear wigs quite often. Hair like mine should fetch a handsome price, so….”
“Do I look like a man in need of a wig to you, Miss Cordelia?”
She flinched. Taking in his thick, gleaming gold hair, Cordelia shook her head frantically. At her bird-like reaction, Noah let out a quiet chuckle.
“And yet?”
“Even if you don't need it, couldn’t you just keep it as a collectible…?”
“Hahaha!”
Unable to hold back any longer, Noah covered his eyes and burst into laughter. Baring his teeth in a bright, open grin, he resembled a cheerful angel straight out of a masterpiece painting. ‘Good grief, he has the temper of a devil, yet he’s truly breathtaking….’ For the first time, Cordelia realized she might possess an aesthetic sensibility far stronger than she had imagined.
Here was a bizarre, terrifying man talking about gouging out a living person's eyes, and yet her gaze was drawn to his handsome features in the midst of it all. She would have had no defense if someone called her foolish and brainless.
Yet even as she cursed herself inside, her heart sank when the man, laughter still brimming at the edges of his eyes, gazed at her with a hint of familiarity—speaking softly, as if he meant every word.
“You are quite an interesting woman, Miss Cordelia. I’ve never seen anyone flirt by begging to be bought.”
“I wasn't flirting….”
“Then buy you I must. As a proper gentleman, how could I refuse when a lady is so desperate to sell off everything she has?”
He had a truly bizarre way of speaking. Though his phrasing was insulting and crude, he delivered it gently, with a tender intimacy as if whispering endearments. Because of this, she could not tell whether she ought to take offense or blush. Noah looked on with immense amusement at her comical, tearful fluster. The coming year certainly would not be dull.
He would extract his due elsewhere regardless.
“Fine, we'll let this suffice for the interest. My mother always taught me to be generous to ladies.”
Resting his cheek on his hand, he spoke nonchalantly to the hesitating Cordelia.
“Aren't you going to thank me? I bought it off you at an exorbitant price like an absolute fool.”
“Th-thank you.”
At her dazed murmur, he chuckled softly.
“Miss Cordelia.”
“Yes?”
“Keep behaving just as you are now. You’re cute enough that it makes me want to let you off the hook.”
It was the first time she had been called cute since her mother had passed away. Snapping his fingers before the stunned Cordelia, he gestured with his index finger toward the plate laid out with brunch.
“Eat up first. It’s going to waste.”
‘We can discuss the principal next time. That is what truly matters, after all.’
***
Was she safe for now, at any rate?
Just as Cordelia began to eat hurriedly in the face of belated hunger, a secretary rushed in to whisper in Noah Tudor’s ear. Extremely busy, Noah rose promptly and took his leave, parting with a gentle reminder to chew thoroughly so she would not get an upset stomach.
‘He is a truly bizarre person.’
He seemed like a ruthless, unfeeling devil, acting rude and treating her haphazardly, yet he was also the kindest person she had ever encountered. Anyone watching might have scoffed that she was desperate for affection, but in Cordelia's eyes, Noah Tudor was a man steeped in understated consideration.
Things that went unnoticed because he never made a show of them—such as reading her hunger before she even realized it herself, keeping his distance when she showed signs of fearing men, or how, during that horrifying first encounter, he had blocked her view of the corpse and draped his coat over her shoulders.