Episode 14: Money < The Peaceful Life of a Possessor < Too Much Money (2)

As soon as Sodam left the Association, her plan was to gather every bit of information she could about the “Maeng Sodam” she had possessed. She needed to figure out if this new life had parents, among other things, so her first stop would be the Happy Welfare Center to get a copy of her family register. She also needed to check her debt at the bank. And as for the Association—was there an employee cafeteria or something? She was starting to get hungry.

Her thoughts were clear. All she had to do was leave this warm and cozy place.

“Why do I feel so sleepy all of a sudden…?”

Her eyelids, already heavy, shut completely, leaving no room for resistance. Sodam surrendered to the darkness and drifted off into sleep.

* * *

Bang!

“What on earth are you doing?!”

“Hah, playing all innocent now? It’s not like you’ll break from a little touch.”

“…”

“What’s with that look? As if you haven’t done it all before during Guiding. Do you know how many Guides have come and gone through Baek Juyul? More than a dozen, easily.”

The sharp voice was irritatingly familiar. Higher-pitched and more venomous than usual, but it was definitely…

‘Is that… my voice?’

Before Sodam could even process the realization that hit her like lightning, the voice continued to spit out its poison.

“Just last month, a healthy male Guide fainted after trying to Guide you. Everyone’s heard the rumor.”

“That’s enough.”

“Oh, right. How would the young master know? No way the filthy rumors from the F-classes would reach the ears of the Association’s precious only son, right?”

“…”

“Are you just afraid to let someone stronger than you see your ‘great’ power? Or do you only like girls who are as pretty as you?”

Her voice curled into a cruel smile. Watching from a distance, it felt awkward to see a face that wasn’t quite hers making that expression. But that woman… that ‘Guide Maeng’ acted as if sneering was second nature. If Sodam had turned out more twisted, she would have probably looked just like that. Yet what really got under her skin wasn’t just the face.

‘Oh, come on! My favorite character didn’t even touch anyone else before the female lead appeared!’

It was almost impossible to listen to Guide Maeng’s nonsense, which was wrong from beginning to end.

Even after the female leads showed up, Juyul barely held hands and hugged them. It wasn’t until close to the end, when his feelings had fully matured, that he finally had any meaningful physical contact. The readers had been on edge waiting for that moment!

It was such an intense scene that even those who had been fighting over which character should be the main female lead came together to agree, “You’re the main one.” If it had ended with just a kiss on the cheek, the comment section would have erupted in a full-blown rebellion.

‘People even joked in the comments about how we should be grateful Juyul wasn’t impotent. And yeah, after what I went through, I can confirm he definitely isn’t. But why did he do it with ’me’?’

Since she wasn’t speaking out loud, Sodam’s mind let loose with thoughts she would never voice. She reflexively slapped her hand over her mouth, then gripped her head. It wasn’t until five seconds later that she realized the absurdity of trying to block thoughts by covering her mouth.

‘Not like covering my mouth is going to stop me from thinking…’

Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, her thoughts weren’t heard by the two figures in the room. If they had, the situation surely wouldn’t be unfolding as smoothly as it was now. Seeing this, Sodam let out a sigh.

‘This has to be a dream. I might as well watch how it plays out.’

Resigned, she focused on the scene in front of her. As if on cue, sparks reignited between the ‘Guide Maeng’ and Juyul.

“Come on, just lie down, young master. I’ll make this quick.”

“Hah… Get off before I make you.”

“Why so tense? Is this your first time with a woman?”

“I said, get off.”

Disregarding his warning, the smirking Guide Maeng climbed onto Juyul’s lap, straddling his thighs. Even though his fists were clenched in restraint, he refused to push her away outright. Despite his warnings, she moved in closer, her arm wrapping around his shoulder like a snake, while she slowly lowered her head.

‘Wait, what is she doing?! That’s my body—or, well, it’s hers, but still! What the heck is going on?!’

Sodam’s internal panic at the impending disaster was cut short by Juyul’s resistance. He forcefully shoved the Guide Maeng off, and as she fell, he spat out his words with venom.

“If you want something so badly that you can’t handle, fine. Go ahead and try your Guiding.”

“Hah, haha! Now you finally look like an Esper. Pretending to have manners, holding your nose up high, but at your core, you’re just a beast starved for Guiding.”

“Who knows? We’ll only find out whether the beast is me or you after we do this Guiding.”

Juyul’s sky-blue eyes darkened as he looked down at the sneering Guide Maeng. His expression hardened as he tightly grasped her hand.

It was as if even the act of touching her repulsed him, his hand straining to reduce the contact as much as possible, the blue veins popping on the back of his hand. At the same time, her once composed face turned pale.

“W-wait, this can’t be happening… I’ve never heard of anything like this…!”

“Of course not. No matter how ‘great’ you F-classes are, you wouldn’t go around blabbing about things you’ve made secret pacts to keep quiet.”

“Let go of me this instant, you monster!”

“You were so confident just a moment ago, but now I’m a monster? Who’s the real monster here?”

Through her blurring vision, Sodam could clearly see Juyul’s bitter smile. The Guide Maeng might have been too lost in the midst of the Guiding, but Sodam, hovering as if detached from her body, saw it clearly.

That disappointment etched into his smile—the all-too-familiar situation of facing Guides who, after being swept up by rumors, would lunge at him, only to change their attitude immediately and start calling him a monster.

Logically, Sodam knew she couldn’t pity the man who had been strangling her just before she fell asleep.

But the emotions she had felt over months of reading his life in the novel couldn’t just disappear all at once.

‘…He’s pitiful. He didn’t do anything wrong. He just happened to awaken that way, so why are people calling him a monster?’

It wasn’t like Baek Juyul had asked to be born an SSS-class Esper from birth. And honestly, Guiding wasn’t *that* bad. Sure, it was tough—really tough—but it was still better than the bullying she’d faced growing up as an orphan. Guiding was about overcoming things through her abilities, not her background.

‘No, no, what’s the point of feeling sorry for him? He’s the protagonist; he’s bound for success. Sure, things might be tough for him now since it’s the beginning, but in two months, the female leads will show up. Why should I pity someone who literally tried to kill me?’

Her real problem wasn’t just the pitiful Baek Juyul, but her own miserable situation.

The mountain of debt left by the previous “Maeng Sodam,” her freezing cold body, the protagonist who might very well kill her, and her completely clueless mind in this unfamiliar world—it all came crashing down on her. As soon as she remembered the harsh reality, an overwhelming sense of hopelessness swallowed her whole.

‘I just need to survive this by living like a proper human being. I’ll shake off his suspicion and slip out of the original plot…’

Before she realized it, Juyul and the ‘Maeng Sodam’ were gone, and all that remained was a pitch-black void. Slowly, the bitter cold began to creep up, enveloping her entire body, until it seeped into her eyes, closing them shut.

* * *

When she opened her eyes again, she was curled up like a seahorse on a bone-dry bed.

As she blinked slowly, her stiff muscles screamed in protest as she sat up. The muscle pain that had tormented her since she first awoke in this world felt even worse now. But there was something more important than the ache in her body.

“…This definitely wasn’t just some random dream, was it?”