“To be honest, yes.”
“But at that time, it was the best choice for me. There was no place as safe as the Mage Tower. No one can enter the Mage Tower unless they are a mage. Except by the method I used.”
“……….”
“I was safe in the Mage Tower, so that was enough. I have no regrets.”
“But….”
“And thanks to that experiment, I gained slightly more strength than others. There are no lingering side effects.”
I couldn’t find the words to respond, so I remained silent. I had no idea what to say.
“Of course, the experiment wasn’t easy. When I felt I couldn’t endure it anymore, I fled to another place.”
“…It must have been hard.”
That was all I could say.
No matter how much you value your life, enduring human experimentation is not something easy. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the weight of the pain Simone had endured.
“I’m really okay. It’s all in the past now.”
I couldn’t even comprehend what kind of mindset he had to talk about such a time so casually.
Simone Monteverdi was truly an enigma.
A man with a cold demeanor hidden behind an angelic face, someone who looked like he was made for holding a pen but possessed great physical strength, a nobleman’s demeanor hiding the misfortune of his childhood.
A person entirely composed of contradictions.
While I was lost in thought, staring at him, Simone also looked at me for a moment before speaking again.
“Alright, now I’m curious. Where exactly are you from?”
“Uh….”
I hesitated for a moment. Should I tell him?
‘Well, he already knows I’m not Seraphina.’
In the end, I shrugged and decided to let it all out, since everything had been exposed anyway.
“To be honest, I’m from another world, but my body has been swapped with Seraphina Viviana’s.”
“…What?”
I would never tell him that this world is actually a novel, but this much should be fine.
“Seraphina Viviana swapped bodies with me and ran away because she was terrified of Princess Eva.”
“I see… So, this body really does belong to Seraphina Viviana. It’s just that your souls have been swapped.”
Was it far from what he expected? For once, Simone looked blank.
“So, you were a foreigner… not some transcendent being.”
“Did you think I was a transcendent being?”
“Well, you had taken over someone else’s body.”
“But unfortunately, I’m just an ordinary human.”
“Then how did you solve the quiz so well?”
“I just enjoy quizzes. Honestly, anyone with a bit of logic could have solved it, don’t you think?”
“..…….”
Simone seemed deep in thought. To convince him, I spoke again.
“It wouldn’t benefit you to hand me over to Princess Eva. No matter how much political success you achieve, she might just use you and discard you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You considered handing me over to Princess Eva. Even though you’ve now said you wouldn’t, who knows….”
“Ah, Lady Seraphina.”
Simone responded with a peculiar smile in his blue eyes.
“Sorry, but that plan was shattered a few minutes ago.”
…What?
“Something far more interesting came up than stupid political success.”
***
“Alright, you’ve agreed to stay in the Mage Tower.”
A place where there’s no foothold for anyone.
“You came from the Kingdom of Boleno? Ah, you’ll stay here for a while and then leave again, right? Then, this is a story that doesn’t concern you.”
Now, it had become tiresome.
“That man is kind, but he’s someone who’s going to leave soon anyway.”
The feeling of being an outsider.
He understood the life of an outsider better than anyone else.
The survival rules of an outsider.
First, always keep a smiling face.
“Well, at least you are a person who knows what manners are.”
Second, always be a good person.
“Thanks for your help earlier.”
Third, endure.
“Yeah, you can make this kind of sacrifice, can’t you?”
Even after becoming the Marquess of Monteverdi, those habits didn’t change. The horrible memories he experienced outside the Marquess’ family still haunted him.
Even though he had risen to a high position, he always tried to be a good person. It had become a kind of habit.
A strange feeling of not belonging anywhere.
Being an outsider was one of the biggest parts of his identity.
So much so that it remained even after he returned to the Monteverdi family.
And what else made him who he was?
Ah, the emotional suppression experiments he underwent in the Mage Tower?
Earlier, he thought he didn’t know whether they had succeeded or failed….
‘I thought I had been under its influence until now.’
Simone had always acted with cold rationality in most situations.
But…
“Why would I run away?”
“Catch them quickly! We have to escape together!”
‘…I don’t know.’
Aside from the painful memories of the past, there was still something else that disrupted his cold rationality.
Someone else, like him—an outsider.
And someone who stirred ripples in his once-calm emotions.
Ah, he truly couldn’t understand it.
***
“I have no intention of handing you over to Princess Eva.”
“But earlier, you said you might hand me over someday?”
“That was before. My mind has completely changed now. Don’t worry; you’ll never hear me say such foolish things again.”
“But you could change your mind again, right? Honestly, I have no reason to trust you.”
I squinted my eyes in suspicion as I said that, and Simone, finding something amusing, laughed out loud.
“If that’s the case, you shouldn’t have saved me.”
“Pardon?”
“It was already too late by then.”
What? Did he consider me a companion or something?
“If you want, I can swear on everything I have. I won’t hand you over to Princess Eva. And I’ll apologize for scaring you earlier.”
“Uh… I really don’t understand what’s going on.”
“There are moments when you can’t act purely based on reason.”
As Simone said this and we made eye contact, I felt something strange.
Until now, Simone had always been kind to me, just like he was to everyone else. On the surface, Simone seemed like a very kind and good person.
Whether or not he was the regretful male lead in the original work, that was the impression he gave.
But that also meant Simone worked hard to be kind to everyone.
In the original story, Simone played with Aurora, and that had its own meaning. After all, Aurora was the first person to whom Simone revealed his ‘true self.’
And at this moment, as I looked into Simone’s blue eyes, I felt that he wasn’t just kind. It was almost as if I had come face-to-face with the real Simone, the one he had been hiding.
“Yes, I won’t run away from you for now. I can’t fully trust you yet, but I’ll trust you halfway.”
“Of course, you shouldn’t run away.”
Even though Simone’s tone was still gentle, I couldn’t help but feel that something about him had changed.
Maybe it was just my imagination, or maybe I was wrong, but…
Somehow, it felt like Simone was now dealing with me more sincerely than before. It was just a feeling I had.
