“Episode 43”
Ah, sorry. It’s just too funny.”
Yun continued to smile, showing no hint of apology.
Her black pupils shimmered brightly. Facing her eyes, which shone with goodness without a hint of malice or discomfort, Yuliana took a step back.
“What’s she thinking?”
End
“Ah, Yuliana. Let me share my thoughts. Well, actually, there’s this novel that’s boring but has an intriguing ending, right? That’s this story. Wasn’t the title of the novel ‘Threads of Fate,’ or something like that? Maybe that was also foreshadowing? You being reincarnated into this world and me dimension-hopping here. Maybe we’re protagonists of another version. It’s quite romantic, isn’t it?”
Yun rambled on with a grin. Then she whispered to Yuliana, “At first, I thought sticking to the original I knew was the right path. But I kept thinking. ‘Ah. Is it right to follow the boring ending of a novel I’ve read before?’ So, even though it means defeating the villain and saving the male lead for a happy ending, such novels are common. There’s no reason for me to follow a boring story, right?”
“Then you’re going to create a new ending? Seems like you’re considering a bad ending?” Yuliana sneered. Being cast as the protagonist who brought destruction upon herself and everyone else wasn’t what she wanted. There was no point in dimension-hopping to this world if that was the case.
Yun, leisurely observing Yuliana’s sharp gaze, replied, “Yeah. That’s why I want a completely different ending. A new one. Even one where I could die…”
“Don’t joke. I’m already tired of your jokes.”
“Me? Well, I’ve often heard that I’m boring even in reality.”
Yun chuckled and raised her hand, gleaming gray.
Suddenly, Yuliana realized Yun would attack her ‘mind’ again, dragging her into her reality.
Yuliana was already a non-existent character in Yun’s world. Yuliana’s past life, Ishian, was a thing of the past.
She couldn’t be drawn back to the past world. In an attempt to avoid suffering, Yuliana struggled.
Flames erupted from her hands. As a defensive measure, Yuliana poured flames onto Yun’s eerie, gray-tinted face.
With her powerful magic, the flames glowed dark and crimson, consuming everything around them.
Yuliana gasped for breath under the strain of her magic. Yun, engulfed in flames, was nowhere to be seen. Was she dead?
“Pant… Pant…”
She collapsed.
The tiny white space began to fill with flames spread by Yuliana. She needed to extinguish the flames, but strangely, she couldn’t.
Yuliana trembled like a rabbit being chased by a hunter. She had to get out of this space. She struggled to move her legs, which felt powerless.
Then, Yun’s hand suddenly emerged from the dying embers. Her hand grabbed Yuliana’s ankle.
“Ahh!”
Yuliana struggled with all her might, but Yun dragged her back into her reality.
“Huff!”
When she opened her eyes tightly shut, she was back in ‘that room.’
Yuliana froze at the strange sight. Yun was kneeling in front of her computer, looking as if she were asleep, or dead.
Yuliana forced herself to look out the window. It was still night, unlike her world. Time seemed to have stopped in Yun’s world.
A lump rose in her throat. Was it a side effect of being forcibly thrust into a world she didn’t belong to? She felt nauseated.
“G-gasp.”
“Look at this. I’m still not dead.”
Without even looking at Yuliana’s reaction, Yun pressed down on her prone body.
Her glasses lay on the desk, and only the old computer screen blinked blue. Yun sighed as if bored.
“I told Lucian I wanted to enter a story I knew, but maybe I should stop that plan. I realized that there’s no point in being happy in a story. If I see the end of the story and return to my original body, that would be a truly tragic ending. I had to come up with another way for my sake.”
Yuliana stuttered, trying to convince herself. “Your world is here. Like I was reborn… So I have to go back.”
“Don’t talk nonsense. Are you really a reincarnated person? Why do you only talk about boring stories?”
“Yun!”
As Yuliana called her name, she realized she didn’t know her real name. Perhaps Yun, as well as herself, had no desire to reveal their true names.
Yun responded petulantly, “I had to make a choice for myself. To have fun in your world and end my real self. So the world gave me the opportunity to choose, didn’t it?”
“What?”
“I had a chance to rewrite the story. Of course, there was a price to pay.”
“W-what?!”
Yuliana was fed up with Yun poking her ‘body’ like it was an amusing toy.
It felt like a corner of her mind was crumbling. This strange human, who had no respect for herself or others, what was she saying?
End
With a sickeningly blue face, the dying woman’s body, whether Yun’s or the eerie blue body she referred to herself as, was horrific. Yun pressed down harder on Yuliana, who trembled and struggled to resist.
“We’re destined to oppose each other and perish together. I’m looking forward to that ending. It’ll be much more interesting than the original, don’t you think? Huh? What do you think, cute Yuliana?”
* * *
“Ahh!”
“Yuliana!”
Yuliana’s eyes snapped open. It didn’t feel like much time had passed, but her limbs felt limp.
She screamed and buried herself in Evan’s arms. Claudie, standing beside them, nervously paced around, not knowing what to do.
“Why are you doing this? Should I call a healer?”
“Huff… Huff…”
Yuliana barely managed to catch her breath in Evan’s arms.
The sensation of touching the dying ‘Yun’ lingered throughout her body. The feeling of that blue-tinted body…
Yuliana’s neck stung where Yun had forcefully grasped it. She quickly checked her neck, and although Evan rubbed it too, there were no marks.
Afterward, Yuliana looked around anxiously.
It hadn’t been long since she collapsed, but now a golden hue was cast over the room as the sun began to set. Anna, who had been shocked by the sudden event, still stared at Yuliana in surprise from the door, while Evan held her tightly.
Collecting herself, Yuliana rang the bell. Anna rushed in, her expression showing determination to keep anyone from entering.
Meanwhile, Evan silently observed Yuliana’s expression and actions. His gaze seemed to assess whether she had regained her lost memories and whether she was experiencing any side effects.
Ignoring her husband’s gaze, Yuliana looked at Claudie.
“Princess.”
“What’s going on? I… I never imagined something like this would happen. Are you saying Iris is practicing dark magic?”
Claudie glanced back and forth between Evan and finally met Yuliana’s gaze.
As someone who had been close to Lucian in the past, Claudie might have known about Evan’s experiments to preserve Lucian’s mind.
However, it was unlikely that she could imagine Lucian using Iris to attack her sister.
But Yuliana cut to the chase.
“You must be aware of the experiments Evan and Her Highness conducted in our duchy during our childhood to prevent the side effects of royal succession. Unfortunately, in the process of trying to preserve Her Highness’s memory, some of Evan’s memories were inadvertently shared. Her Highness told me herself. So, Her Highness knows what Evan did to me when we were young. It was too radical a method to forcibly restore torn memories. It must be painful for Evan, who created a situation where he couldn’t even remember his past, to remember his past mistakes. Looking at his face, Yuliana calmly continued.
“Her Highness seems to be trying to cut ties with our duchy abruptly. Your Highness, I suspect Her Highness allowed her sister to stay at the palace with the intention of using her. I think she expected me to foolishly go looking for my sister.”
Yuliana frowned.
Everything she thought was ‘Yun’s doing’ was actually Iris’s childish behavior.
Yun had already lost interest in entering the original and was willing to use everything to lead this story to destruction.
At least Lucian and Iris wouldn’t mind using each other. Yuliana grimaced at the thought.
Suddenly, memories came flooding back, making her head spin. The threats Yun had made in her dreams were so shocking that her heart still raced.
As Yuliana bowed her head and swallowed hard, Claudie spoke slowly.
“…Brother always hated powerful nobles, and he even started to hate Evan. How nice would it have been if we had just been foolish childhood friends? If we were just orphans. If Brother hadn’t become emperor, then—”
“Claudie.”
Claudie, who had been muttering to herself, looked up.
