The Villain’s Precious Daughter

It was a fine, normal day.   However, it would have been a much more normal day if her arms and legs weren’t tied down, and she wasn’t being abducted.  As soon as Cordelia saw the reflection of her face, she couldn’t help but stare in a daze at the fidgety knight in front of her.    The knight had been in that state ever since he realized that he kidnapped the wrong person.  “You’re saying that this is not Saintess Cordelia?”   The Duke of Valencia had a frosty expression as he questioned the knight who had kidnapped her.  The knight stuttered as he tried to make excuses.  “Yes. B, but I clearly heard the people call her Cordelia……”   Right, of course that’s what you heard! Because my name is Cordelia!    Cordelia badly wanted to ask the knight who had mistakenly kidnapped her if he wanted to get his eyes checked.    But unfortunately, the only sound that she could make was  “Hmph! Hmph!”.    Duke Valencia ignored Cordelia as he muttered to himself…   “I’ve wasted my time.”   ‘What? He wasted his time?’   Cordelia felt that it wouldn’t be strange if that man dragged her off of the floor and twisted her neck right away.   ‘You’re saying that as soon as you learnt that I wasn’t the Saintess? Isn’t that too much?’    In the first place, she knew that she wouldn’t get such a fervent response after being dragged here, but she still wouldn’t be happy to hear that to her face.    Putting aside Cordelia’s feelings of resentment and anger, even Duke Valencia was caught in a bad mood.   Looking at his point of view, he clearly spent a lot of money and efforts just to get through an overly tight security and kidnap the Saintess, but he was told that the person in front of him was a completely different person.   Of course, anyone would be mad.   ‘So it turns out to be like that……’    The Valencia Dukedom was one of the four main families of the Empire.  The Duke wanted to adopt the orphan Saintess and increase his authority and power in the Empire.    However, he was left gritting his teeth in anger when the Saintess chose a different family to adopt her.    And it came down to the happenings of today.    ‘Today is the day when the Saintess holds a holy ceremony to prevent the collapse of the world.’   It was the perfect day to kidnap the Saintess.    ‘But in the end, they were still not able to kidnap the Saintess.’    “If you look at them from behind, they look a bit similar. They even have the same hair color, so I mistook her for the Saintess. It was my mistake.”   “You’re making me more and more speechless today.”     The knight couldn’t help but suck in a breath when he saw Duke Valencia’s anger.     And with his eyes filled with resentment, he looked at Cordelia angrily.    What? Why? What did I do?! I wasn’t the one who made a mistake you know!      Cordelia felt that the situation around her was completely ridiculous.   It wasn’t her fault that she had the same name as the Saintess or that she had almost the same appearance as well as age!    Being close also did not mean that they were ‘friendly’ but that she was at a close physical distance when everything happened.     ‘If I had known that this would happen then I should have just increased our physical distance and lived my life as a normal stranger.’     Cordelia had been working as ‘The girl who the Saintess always brings along’ Girl meaning she was the one in charge of everything for the Saintess.  Maybe it was because they were orphans from the same region and they had the same name but Cordelia was really fond of the Saintess Cordelia.   She was a talkative friend as well as the servant of the Saintess.   This was the reason why she was with the Saintess.   “Based on her outfit, it seems like she is affiliated with both the church and the Oricsa Family?”     The Oricsa were the family that the Saintess had chosen.    And now that Duke Valencia had kidnapped Cordelia, he was trying to find ways to make use of her since he was not able to get the Saintess.    But the answer that she had heard was a bit too harsh to the ears.    “Uhm…… That……”   “What is it this time?”    “The Oricsas had told us that they don’t care about what will happen to this girl.”   “What?”     “They did not show any signs of rescue or will for negotiations. What should we do?”   The knight mumbled    ‘No way, this can’t be happening.’    when he unmasked Cordelia and realized that he got the wrong person.    It was also the reason why they did not run for her rescue…    Because she was not the real Saintess.    ‘That’s right. Why would they even search for me if I have no use for them.’    Perhaps it was because she had experienced something similar before, so she was not that shocked.    A few years ago, there was a fire that broke out.     At that time, Cordelia was together with the Saintess.     [They will come to save you.]      The Saintess had held Cordelia’s hands and told her this.    It was a situation where the flames were soaring and burning fiercely to the point that their faces were already feeling hot.    There was no way that anyone could help them unless they wanted to jump to the fire pit and burn themselves to death.    Back then, Cordelia laughed helplessly at the overly positive Saintess as she tried to find a way out of the predicament that they were in.    ‘But there were still three madmen that threw themselves into the fire.’    Those three stupid men broke through and went inside the fire.    All of the princes of the four families, except for the Valencia family came to the Saintess’ rescue.     The three of them were the ones who usually courted the Saintess enthusiastically.    All of them loudly promised to come to her rescue as they pulled the Saintess from the fire.     And that was only for the Saintess.     That incident had left burnt marks on Cordelia’s face, so she couldn’t be called as someone who looked like the saint from the front.    However, their backs still remained to be similar.    ‘Perhaps all of them are sighing in relief right now that it wasn’t the Saintess that got kidnapped but me instead.’     I can foresee it even if I’m not there to view it in person.      She knew that it was another situation where she had to find a way to survive on her own.     He already knows that I’m not the Saintess, so he’ll probably let me go.     This was what Cordelia was expecting the most.     “Only the Oricsas could think of using a person as a bait like this. I believe that the Oricsas are celebrating by now since they knew that we have made a mistake.”     Duke Valencia smiled coldly.     Usually, the Saintess Cordelia should be the only person to attend the ceremony.   But for this yellow-faced girl who looked extremely similar to the Saintess to be here, it only made sense that the Oricsas had planned this from the very beginning.    After all, they were already aware of his plans so they probably did this to trick him.    He turned his back away from the not-Saintess Cordelia.     “Y, your Excellency. Duke! What shall we do with this child?”     The knight, who was sitting with the fake Cordelia, turned towards the Duke in a hurry.    Duke Valencia, who was still in a bad mood, spoke decisively.  “Kill her.”    What?! No way!    But Cordelia’s shouts of plea couldn’t reach him.   This was how Cordelia died.   Duke Valencia wanted to use the Saintess to gain more power.    And considering all of the bad deeds that he had done to gain that foothold, killing this child was something akin to a noble sacrifice for him and his aspirations.     The Saintess would later shed tears for the other Cordelia who died on her behalf.    I’m sure that the dead Cordelia will also be happy with this kind of ending.   So this was just a normal day for everyone except Cordelia.   ……And Cordelia who had read the book wanted to tear her hair out with frustration.   As a matter of fact……   ‘I’m that Cordelia!’   No, she wasn’t the Saintess Cordelia.    She was the Cordelia who would die instead of the Saintess.   Cordelia frowned as she looked down at the palm of her tiny hands.    ‘I think I’m really doomed this time. Is my role really just to die ridiculously?’    I will really be happy if I was born as the Saintess, but life isn’t that easy.    Cordelia believed that her misfortunes would begin once she met the Saintess.   However, right now, she was only eight years old.     She was yet to meet both the Saintess and her enemies.    In other words, she was still not the ‘Fake Cordelia’.    Cordelia’s story of being compared to the Saintess would only begin once the Saintess caught sight of her during one of her volunteer works.    ‘I need to get out of here before she sees me.’    So Cordelia decided to run away as far as she could so she wouldn’t get associated with the four ducal families as well as the Saintess.