"You owe me your life."
Hearing her bold declaration, Juder found it weird yet he couldn't help but find it intriguing.
'What does this woman has in her mind?'
Since he head already recognized her, he might as well play along for now, to see what she has in mind.
So, he just lifted his face slightly and looked straight into her sunken eyes that shone with the brilliance of the ocean without backing out.
A strange moment of awkwardness ensued as the she stared at his sun-like blazing red eyes while he stared back into her oceanic blue eyes.
'Her eyes... They are beautiful.' Juder couldn't help but think like that after staring for a few seconds before realization dawned on him.
'What the hell!? Did I just find her eyes beautiful?'
Despite his confusion and repulsion, he wasn't going to back out from the stare-off first.
'H-He's... really handsome! The art didn't do him justice!'
Meanwhile, Cordelia wasn't any better than him, but it took her second longer to come to the ame conclusion as him.
However, unlike Juder, she didn't feel like she lost if she backed away.
'It's me who has bent their back, not him!
So she just straightened her back before blinking rapidly to prevent her face from getting flushed.
In the end, Cordelia couldn't help but scoff at him when she saw him smirk. 'Hmph! How childish!'
She snorted before standing straight a few feet away from him.
'Hmph! I knew I'd win!' Juder thought triumphantly.
Though his inner thoughts churned as he pondered to himself. 'She is clearly the same girl I saved at the start, but the dispartiy in her personality of fearing a single goblin and the current one is too great. It's like she turned over a new leaf or something.'
Despite his calm outward appearance, he was indeed surprised. He could just maintain that stern expression because of his experience in business dealings.
'Interesting. I wonder what you'll show me in this boring test.'
Only someone like him would consider such a horrifying test as 'boring'.
"So, how do you suppose I pay back?" Juder questioned in intrigue with a serious and stern expression on his face.
Unbeknownst to him, his words relayed some other meaning to Cordelia.
'Damn it! Does he still think of me like a pervert or something? Or he simply wants to get this over with?'
She couldn't help but curse her stupidity of chasing after him without even seeing who it was.
"What can you even repay me with? Just look at you." She too didn't play nice since she knew his character better than anyone.
"Hah! You already know my name. That means you must have some sort of goal in approaching me, given how I have no photos online." Juder reasoned with her as he continued.
"So, what do you want? I may not have anything to give you here, but you should know how capable I am as next in line of the Bayer Clan."
He didn't continue as his words had conveyed what he wanted to and there was no reason to explain anything when she clearly knew him.
Unfortunately, she felt like pulling he rhair and beating herself up as she realised her mistake.
'Fuck! How did I forget that no one should know him at this point of the story!? He only becomes well-known later!'
'Ugh! The situation is turning worse...'
Cordelia weighed the pros and cons of her decision before coming to one. 'This will have to do...'
"Well, I will tell you what I want, if you survive that is." Cordelia deferred it, causing Juder to frown.
'He doesn't like to be in debt. Especially women. He hates the licentious type. He will definitely counter it...'
"Hmm. Wha–"
Right when Juder opened his mouth to say something, Cordelia moved hastily and forcefed a crimson-red jujube to Juder.
Before he could come to his senses, she hurriedly clenched his mouth shut and ordered, "Swallow it!"
Gulp
As if compelled by the order, Juder swallowed it without knowing what it was. All he had seen was her moving suddenly and making him swallow something out of the blue.
"What–?"
Before he could question her or get angry, however, the effects showed themselves as he felt a slight pain course through his abdomen and travel throughout his body.
Arghh
Gritting his teeth due to the intense wave of pain, he cocked his head to look at the girl, who was the cause of his plight, hatefully.
'W-what? Why is her gaze... Why does she look concerned?'
No matter how much he wondered, he would get no result. He could barely see her through his half-open eyes, so he wasn't too sure if what he saw was the truth or not.
Right then, he closed his eyes shut and decided to find out about her motives later. Just as he felt the pain become unbearable and on the cusp of making him want to scream, the pain receded just as fleetingly it had come.
'Huh?'
To his utter shock, a warm energy, so familiar yet unfamiliar, coursed throughout his body and he could immediately feel its effects.
'I hope, he returns to his peak condition. Otherwise, he would go through the same fate as in the novel.'
Cordelia knew something Juder didn't. Well, it only made sense for her to know as an avid reader of the novel, and Juder being the sole Villain that didn't have affection for the protagonist.
She patiently waited for him with slight nervousness as she didn't know when the said event happened.
'In his region, he ranked not even in the top 3 because he got injured fron the repeated hunt of him.'
'This incidence undermined his talent and gave his greedy cousins and long-term enemies the chance to decrease the Bayer group's Prestige.'
'After all, he was the next in line heir and the even naturally lead to sever le complicated situations.'
'The only golden lining is, his younger twin siblings, his elder sister, his parents, and even his paternal grandparents knew of his capability and didn't care about such an incident.'
'But the issue is, he himself. How could an extraordinary man accept such a lousy outcome? So, he gave up some of the management to focus on the Wanderer life.'
Sigh
Cordelia sighed in resignation as she recalled his harsh reality and her eyes filled with sympathy and pity turned to him as his injuries recovered, but he fainted due to the energy loss.
"No option, then."
Cordelia scooped him up, or at least tried to. This resulted in her cursing. "Damn! Just how heavy is he!?"