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Chapter 34
It seemed they had heard Kasia’s scream a moment ago and were coming over to see what was going on.
At that, clarity returned to the vacant look in Kasia’s eyes.
A silent exchange passed between the two of them.
‘Got it? Just like we practiced!’
‘Don’t worry!’
Then Kasia deliberately raised her voice sharply.
In an instant, the girl’s expression twisted into that of a vicious villain.
“Who gave you permission to wander around wherever you please? Were you trying to run away or something?”
“…No.”
Edmund lowered his head deeply and replied weakly, as if powerless.
As a group of servants approached, Kasia shouted as though this was perfect timing.
“You all, just how have you been keeping watch?!”
At Kasia’s fury, the servants flattened themselves to the ground.
“We’re sorry!”
“We thought he was just staying in his bedroom…!”
The servants dragged Edmund back to the bedroom.
That Kasia—who was scolding the other servants—and Edmund—being pulled away by several of them—were exchanging glances was something no one noticed except the two of them.
By now, it was a fairly familiar sight in the villa.
‘Whew, that really startled me.’
As I recalled what had just happened and patted my chest in relief, I still couldn’t shake an inner awkwardness.
Even thinking about it myself, my reaction earlier had been a little strange.
When the image of Edmund coming so close that I could feel his breath surfaced in my mind, my heart tried to start racing on its own.
My cheeks were about to heat up too—
No, no, no, no!
That’s not it!
‘R-right! It was just that the kid suddenly did something unexpected, so of course I’d be startled. Yeah! That makes sense!’
It finally felt like he’d dropped his suspicions about me and that we’d genuinely grown closer.
Maybe this kind of kindness was just part of Edmund’s original nature.
That must be it!
‘He probably gets gentler with people he’s close to or can trust. Haha.’
But then I briefly recalled how, in the original work, Edmund was infamous for having an absolutely foul temper toward friend and foe alike, and I found myself at a loss for words.
‘He’s still young! He’s only thirteen! In Korean terms, that’s middle school age! So of course he’d be a bit softer than his final-boss version!’
Anyway, this was no time to be spacing out.
I took out the secret diary from inside the bedroom drawer.
It was a journal where I’d written down everything I remembered about the original story after accepting the reality of being possessed, as well as my future plans and my daily achievements and mistakes.
I wrote it in Hangul, so no one in this world except me could read it.
I flipped to the pages at the front where I’d written about the original story—especially the points I needed to pay close attention to.
Looking at what was written there, I circled it in red.
-
Find the head of the family’s seal.
I had successfully stopped the assassin.
I’d protected Edmund’s eyes.
Before that, I’d also dealt with the poison and black magic.
Now there was only one thing left.
‘The Cohen family head’s seal!’
Edmund still hadn’t found it yet.
Only after finding it would Edmund be able to escape from this villa, which was practically a prison.
‘But he still hasn’t found it. Why?’
Up until now, I’d thought that if I just let Edmund into the library, he’d find it on his own.
Then I even attached Willes to him, so I’d assumed he’d find it soon.
‘But still nothing.’
The time of Edmund’s escape was drawing closer, yet the search for the seal remained unresolved.
It was possible that something I’d done had caused a butterfly effect and interfered with finding the seal.
‘A lot has already changed from the original story.’
Then it was time for me to start searching more actively.
‘That’s right! I don’t have the luxury to worry about anything else! The seal comes first!’
I cleared my wandering thoughts and steeled my resolve.
‘Once this is done, it’s goodbye to this place!’
And once I leave here, I’ll find out—
‘Whether letting Edmund escape will allow me to leave the book and return to reality, or not.’
Which will it be?
And what am I hoping for?
“……”
I couldn’t come up with an answer myself.
“Ugh! Dust! Kuh-hack, cough!”
Engulfed in a cloud of overflowing dust, Willes once again ended up with tears and snot streaming down his face.
‘Does he have a dust allergy or something?’
There probably wasn’t even a concept of allergies here, so there was no way there’d be medicine for it.
As I clicked my tongue, Willes asked tearfully,
“But what on earth are you trying to find, my lady?”
“Something very important.”
“Huh?”
Of course, that was a lie.
I knew very well what I was looking for.
‘The Cohen family head’s seal!’
There were only a few things I knew about it.
-
Only by possessing the head’s seal can one be acknowledged as the true Duke of Cohen.
-
The seal is magically sealed.
-
It was written that Edmund happened to find it in the villa’s library.
So I made a decision first.
‘Let’s turn the entire library upside down! Every last speck of dust!’
And for that, I brought Willes along.
“There! Start from the top and pull out all the books.”
Willes did as told, sneezing and coughing repeatedly.
After the assassination incident, Willes had become noticeably kinder to me.
“Khack! Cough, cough! Here you go, my lady.”
As I carefully examined the books—which looked extremely old at a glance—Willes asked in a subtly expectant voice,
“Have you had another flash of inspiration for a new spell technique?”
‘Did he suddenly get nicer to me because he’s trying to drag me off to the academy?’
That suspicion of mine wasn’t unfounded.
“There’s nothing like that!”
“Then why are you suddenly inspecting all the books?”
“I told you, I’m cleaning the library. I’m planning to throw out what we don’t need.”
At that, Willes visibly drooped.
It was as if I could see an illusion of nonexistent ears and a tail hanging limply.
This person, too, was so different from his image in the original story.
‘In the original, he only came across as a loyal, serious character who met a tragic end.’
He dies while desperately trying to save Edmund, killed by Edmund himself when Edmund goes berserk due to the side effects of black magic.
And that becomes—
the direct cause of Edmund truly beginning his descent into villainy in the original story.
“Ah-chooo!”
…You really are shattering the original image in every possible way.
But it wasn’t bad.
Living on as a trivial gag character seemed better than being completed by a solemn, tragic death.
‘If it were me, I’d want to live.’
That was also why I was trying to guide both Edmund and Willes toward the best possible outcomes.
-
While having these rather serious thoughts, my hands and eyes kept busily moving.
I had to thoroughly inspect every single item in the library.
To see if there was even one suspicious or strange thing.
To see if there was even the tiniest magical secret mechanism.
‘That’s also why I deliberately called Willes and searched together.’
If there was something off, a mage like him would surely notice it better than I would.
And then—
After the two of us spent nearly half a day combing through the entire library…
“There’s nothing here!!!”
At that, Willes—who was a complete mess with tears and snot everywhere—retorted from behind me in a hoarse voice,
“Huh? There’s a lot here. Especially dust.”
Ignoring Willes’s foolish remark, I sank into thought.
‘What is it? Did I miss something?’
Was the problem that Edmund, who was supposed to find the seal, wasn’t here with me?
‘But I’ve spent so much time with Edmund in the library already, and there wasn’t the slightest hint?’
Besides, for reasons I couldn’t quite explain myself, I felt a bit reluctant to face Edmund up close.
‘Th-that… ever since our foreheads touched…’
It was hard to pinpoint exactly, but anyway, it made me uneasy and uncomfortable!
And it’s not like I could openly suggest that we search for a seal ring together.
‘If he asks how I know about it, what am I supposed to say?’
I’d have nothing to say.
The suspicion he’d only just let go of might flare up again.
He might look at me once more with eyes full of wariness and distrust, like when we first met.
“I don’t want that.”
The moment the thought slipped out of my mouth—
A completely unexpected voice asked,
“…What is it that you don’t want?”
Right from behind me.
“Eek!”
I jumped in shock. Before I knew it, Edmund was standing right behind me!
I’d been so lost in thought that I hadn’t noticed at all!
‘T-too close!’
Panicking, I tried to jump away from Edmund, but my foot caught on the books piled on the floor, and I toppled over.
Thud!
“Ah!”
“Are you okay?”
No—almost.
If Edmund hadn’t caught me.
When I came to my senses, instead of rolling on the floor, I was sprawled on top of Edmund.
It felt as though the sound of a heartbeat—whose it was, I couldn’t tell—was ringing impossibly loud in my ears.
