The Predator’s Contract Partner 1

Episode 2

Until about 20 years ago, divorce based on the interests of aristocratic couples was common. Around the time Elisha was born, the Countess and the Laure couple did the same.

Shortly after Elisha was born, her father abandoned her mother. It was because the old kingdom collapsed and he needed a wife who was an imperial aristocrat. Her mother took her Elisha to her monastery.

She said, 'To people like my father, her wife is like a change of clothes.'

Elisha thought so. She didn't care. Elisha grew up in a monastery ever since she grew up. After her mother died of lung disease when she was six years old, she was left alone.

She didn't have enough monastic life, but she had meals on time and she was able to study. Her father just lived without it.

'If I just think I'm an orphan, this is a life worth living.'

So, it seems that her feelings when her life was ruined because of her father were resentment.

'You want me to come and pay the debt of 30,000 gold coins just because I'm your father's daughter?'

*​ *​ *​

The Duke of Cartier was a family that held power throughout the empire. From a large Daishinjeon to a small local store. There was nowhere their money didn't make an impact.

A family of greedy snakes. A family that swallows everything in the world.

Jacob, the eldest son of the family, was the one who had brought Elisha.

'You are now the last remaining bloodline of Lord Lore. Now, congratulations on becoming a count. Sign here first. Because I need to pay war reparations.'

Elisha sat down on the floor with her hair tied up and her hair tied, and her succession ceremony took place. Elisha, who had become a countess, took on her debt.

At that time, her Elisha was fourteen years old.

She, Elisha, was imprisoned in the farthest corner of the vast Cartier estate. As it turned out, that place was where women like Elisha, who had everything taken away from her and were in debt, were being dragged.

She called women of her place, like Elisha, 'collateral'. It meant women who were held as collateral instead of debt.

All the women belonged to Jacob, the eldest grandson of the Cartier family. However, Jacob only had the highest priority, and if Jacob died, the ownership would go to the other members of the Cartier family. So, it was fair to say that he was a slave of the Cartier family.

*​ *​ *​

That's how Elisha became 20 years old without hope. Even when she turns nineteen, she will last a year.

'I, she really survived like a dog. How long can she last? Will I, like the other children, disappear without even knowing mice or birds?'

Elisha lived in poverty even in the monastery. Instead, she learned many tricks at the monastery. From her studies to sewing and simple skills. Thanks to her skills in embroidery and lace weaving, she even earned a penny.

'Yeah, it's not enough to extend my life.'

She did the laundry to death and sometimes she did the cleaning of her present mansion because she didn't have enough. She worked like an ant.

And she was 20 years old, her life was a flashlight.

*​ *​ *​

At the beginning of the year, when she was 20, Elisha went to pray at a small shrine within her mansion. That day, Elisha had a strange experience.

'Ah!'

'Hey, a person has collapsed here!'

Elisha was walking on a slippery icy road that day and she fell in front of the temple. She wasn't hurt anywhere, but she was sick all day. And the next day she got up and went to work.

It may have been a premonition of misfortune that she fell in front of her ex instead that day. From that year on, Elisha's life went further and further into hell.

*​ *​ *​

Twenty-year-old Elisha was broke. It was only natural for her to be sold, having all her property taken away.

As she was in danger of being sold to the window shop, Elisha held on to her maid chief and pleaded.

'I am good at embroidery, I can speak foreign languages, and I am good at math. Please do anything.'

The head of the maid, who is also her supervisor, took her Elisha to someone after thinking about her for a long time. And the person she met was the man she didn't want to think of even in her dreams.

Jacob. He is the eldest son of the Cartier family and the one who brought Elisha here.

'It's been a while, have you gotten prettier? Let's go. Is she a virgin?'

Jacob patronizes Elisha by keeping her books.

Jacob coveted Elisha several times and had a dark desire to sell her. Without knowing that, Elisha desperately did what she was given.

The first misfortune came quickly.

'Boo, madam. What have you been doing up to this point?'

'I heard you seduced Carola's husband? A bitch like you should be punished!'

One day, Jacob's wife, Carola, who broke in without hesitation, had her maids press Elisha's body and splashed a strange liquid on her face. In so much pain, Elisha screamed and rolled on her floor.

'The face……. I feel like burning……. Someone please ask……. Please…….'

After a few days, she woke up to find an ugly burn scar covering her entire right cheek.

The white skin that was exceptionally beautiful, and the blue eyes like glass beads that made that skin shine. Even the wavy blonde hair. After that day, everything has lost its meaning. Seeing Elisha's face, Jacob burst into anger.

'Mistress, how do you write something like this? I was just going on a business trip. I should have eaten it sooner.'

The lucky thing is that Elisha, who came back to life at that time, turned out to be a genius of calculation.

Seeing Elisha absorb all of her learning in her monastery like a dry cloth, her archbishop attributed her genius. That talent of hers shone through in her death crisis.

After seeing the ledger Elisha made, Jacob licked her lips.

'Well, originally accounting was supposed to be done by ugly bitches like you. Because there is a myth that smooth things get cheated on and run away with money. Let's continue the work for now.'

At that time, I thought it was fortunate that I was able to live longer even though I struggled in despair. Even though she knew that the path of her life was her path to hell, she had no choice but to keep going.

*​ *​ *​

'If you make a mistake, you will die. You can't sell it to Changgwan, so I'll dispose of it right away.'

Jacob said.

Elisha was competent. In her third year she became Jacob's secretary and in her fourth year she became Jacob's assistant butler.

Elisha carried secret notes from her spies under Jacob's instructions, and she also served as Jacob's wife's maid. Elisha's exact title is that she was a butler, but she actually did everything she was told to do. To be precise, she was more of an errand boy.

Suddenly, strange rumors began to circulate about Elisha.

'The eldest son of the Cartier family, Mr. Jacob, likes a woman with an ugly face.'

'Does the night work seem so dead? It's a perverted hobby!'

Elisha was known as the clown that Jacob accompanied. Many people mocked her Elisha and spit on her.

It was almost a miracle that Elisha, who was in such a situation, was not forced into it. After all, Jacob was surrounded by beauties, and Elisha was an existence that did not need to be touched.

What Elisha felt while living such a life was that all members of the Cartier family belonged to the same family.

The Cartier family, which is said to have all the wealth in the world, passed all their wealth to a single head of the family through competition and testing rather than through deficit inheritance. As a result, there was fierce competition for the position of head of state.

Elisha was known to be close to Jacob, so she was threatened by other members of the Cartier family.

Sometimes she was kidnapped and nearly killed, and other times she was beaten by another state candidate who had a grudge against Jacob.

Right before her death, Elisha was so devastated that she thought nothing of getting hit.

*​ *​ *​

She did that and she survived 5 years. And her ruin came sooner than she thought.

'I thought that if I died, it would be Tosa Gupin after Jacob became the head of the household.'

Jacob's situation became urgent. At that time, Jacob had a fearful enemy that threatened his place.

Lucerne de Kayas.

It was the name of a nemesis.

A person from the Cartier family, but not given the Cartier family name. A general who abandoned his family and sided with the Empire. He is caught in the middle of Jacob's drug trafficking.

'Elisha, how much I trusted you. Drug trafficking, I repaid the favor with my enemy.'

Jacob eventually decided to put the blame on Elisha.

'I'm even running a drug business to make money for myself.'

It was an unbelievable false name. But there was evidence. Jacob set up several stores in Elisha's name, and one of them traded drugs.

'A woman who loved me so much that she even trafficked drugs. It will go down in history as a story of desperate unrequited love. She's a famous ugly woman, but she's a virtuous woman, kya, how wonderful.'

Jacob prepared an outrageous fake suicide note. Then he forced Elisha to sign with her blood. At least the hanging was certain.

'I didn't live my life struggling to die in vain like this.'

Even at that moment, Elisha wanted to live. She ran away She did and she was caught not long after.

'Tsutsu, it hasn't been a day or two since you ate our family's meals. Huh? You know A pattern engraved on your body. This pattern follows you for the rest of your life wherever you go. All the collateral in the same mansion as you is engraved with this.'

'Leave this!'

Elisha struggled. Then a fingernail brushed Jacob's cheek. Jacob's eyes widened. Jacob was a hideous-looking man with a fist-like nose, and a twitching of his eyebrows meant one of the people around him was dying.

'Ah, fuck! Mad bitch!'

Jacob pushed Elisha to the floor. At that moment, her eyes turned red.

'Ah!'

It was clear that there were sharp stones on the floor. Because my eyes were blurry and my consciousness was clouded. I touched her hair. Blood came out Elisha closed her eyes as it was.

'Such a madman, are you dead? It should have been treated as suicide. What do we do?'

Ironically, those were the words Elisha heard right before she died.

*​ *​ *​

When she opened her eyes again, Elisha was on her bed.

“Here……. Where are you?”

The answer came from the nurse who was taking care of Elisha.

“Don't you remember? You fell and fainted in front of the temple. It wasn't broken anywhere and her head wasn't hurt. She had been unconscious for two days. You are lucky.”

Elisha was taken aback. She asked the nurse a few more questions.

“This year……. The year 995 on the Imperial calendar?”

Elisha had an excellent memory and remembered her details from several years ago.

'Obviously five years ago, she collapsed in front of a shrine on New Year's Day. Today is the day?'

She couldn't believe it

“Hey, what are you doing?”

Elisha untied her hair and walked around her outbuilding in her bare feet.

Few shabby clothes, worn-out underwear, belongings. A few collateral sagging co-workers, including her freckles. Decaying furniture. It was the same sight she remembered.

Elisha had returned to the past.

'Is this hell? Things like that happen, too. Because there is no greater punishment than repeating that life once more.'

She rubbed her back with demons and she survived five years. So, it was natural for her to go to hell.

'However…….'

Elisha pinched her cheek several times. She was obviously alive.

'It's not a dream. 5 years of life. That must have happened.'

So, could she possibly turn back time? Elisha couldn't believe it.

Elisha wondered, one day she wondered if she was crazy, and another day she wondered if this wasn't a dream either. However, her laundry came in every day, and Elisha's debt remained the same.

'This……. It's real.'

A day at the mansion was monotonous. Day after day of labor and debt was repeated.

The lace on Carola's dress, the chatter with her freckles……. The windows kept creaking at the sound of the strong rain that fell last night, and I couldn't fall asleep while shaking.

All of them were nothing special.

'I need an opportunity to be convinced of something.'

So Elisha, on the third day after she fell in front of the temple, decided to test whether the events in her memory were really happening.

'Today is the day I meet that man.'

The man who arrived just in time for the family's birthday. An unforgettable man. Lucerne de Kayas. His nemesis, who terrorized Jacob all his life, will arrive at the mansion today.

'If he really shows up……. I turned back time.'

Elisha doubts her own regression, but if this is true. I figured out in my head what I would do if this was reality. If all of this is her delusion, then…….

'Then I'd rather die. However, if I really meet Lucerne today, I will try one more time to change my life.'

Elisha said she decided to make today's event a milestone.

*​ *​ *​

And when the man's carriage appeared at her laundry, tears burst from Elisha's eyes without realizing it.

Tears were shed because she was sad about her future life that would end her life in hell. At the same time, they were tears shed for the future Elisha, who died in vain after struggling for five years.

“Stop crying. It's okay?”

Said Freckles, bewildered.

“…… It's okay.”

“I really…….”

The main residence of the Duke of Cartier itself was large enough to be considered a territory. Inside, there was a small hunting ground, a forest, a streamside, dozens of outbuildings, and a mansion where each descendant lived.

They stood by the creek behind the outbuilding. The single road right next to the stream was a shortcut to the main mansion where the head of household resided, passing through Jacob's territory.

“That black carriage, that flag. I've heard of it. It must be the general's carriage. Stop crying and let's watch. Yes?”

As the road turned into a narrow road, the carriage slowed down slowly. The carriage windows were open.

Elisha caught a glimpse of his face. Lucerne, it was that man.