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Chapter – 07
Part – 01 Hell
Chapter – 01 Return (6)
Even if the trigger had been nothing more than a foolish misunderstanding, I truly loved my fiancé. To me, Linus was the most perfect man imaginable. In truth, he probably wasn’t that only to me.
There were countless women who admired him. I often saw women more beautiful than I was, women with better backgrounds than mine, endlessly trying to seduce him. Even though his place was already promised to me. As time passed, I grew increasingly irritable and sensitive.
And yet, I behaved like a guard dog barking and snarling at a man who didn’t even want me guarding him. Thinking back, it was around this time that he began to abandon even his formal courtesy and openly ignore me. Even in front of others. There was no need to say more about how much he disliked me.
Calling it “looking at me like I was a bug” would not be an exaggeration. To him, I must have looked like nothing more than a parasite clinging to him.
And yet, first love was sweet.
In truth, I was already used to love that was given one-sidedly and never returned. Aside from my grandmother, no one had ever loved me back. I followed him around, and I acted irritably toward women who tried to approach him or show him favor. But I swear, I never laid a hand on anyone as the rumors claimed.
Of course, the truth never mattered to anyone.
The foolish fiancée Florence, trailing behind the perfect Linus.
My reputation plummeted further and further, and sympathy for Linus, who had to deal with me, only increased. Thinking about it now, I wondered why Linus—who could have ended an engagement he never wanted at any time—left the relationship as it was.
Perhaps the existence of a “useless fiancée who clung to the male protagonist” was necessary for the story itself.
It was my eighteenth birthday.
No one congratulated me on my birth. There was no one who could celebrate the day I was born. Because the day I was born was also the day my mother—once the great spirit-user and the beautiful Marchioness Seymour—died.
Some daughters of noble houses throw grand parties on their birthdays. Even commoners are said to be granted a bit of laziness and luck on that day. But for me, my birthday was a day I had to remain hidden away in my room, as if I didn’t exist.
Even meals were not allowed. My existence was not to be made visible to the family.
A day when I was meant to disappear.
“Florence, my only flower. I love you.”
I unfolded the letter my grandmother had given me on my fourth birthday and read it again. It was the only words of celebration I could ever hear. Even that, I had never heard spoken in a real voice.
As with every birthday I could remember, I thought I would spend the day alone—until near the end of that day.
A knock came from beyond the closed door. I heard it, but I didn’t open it right away. Anyone who spoke to me or saw my face that day would lose their job. So I waited a long time by the door until the presence faded.
In front of the door, there was a large flower basket that could barely be held in one’s arms, and a card.
“Happy 18th birthday. — Linus”
Just one line.
Linus simply didn’t care. It must have been a perfunctory congratulation as my fiancé. I didn’t even know if he had written it himself, but in that moment, I truly came to love Linus.
Even those casually scribbled words were precious beyond measure. That simple phrase was so desperate and sincere to me that it was enough to transform my vague, childish affection into something intense and real.
Did I cry while clutching the flower basket, praying that something might change? Or did I treat it as the only hope I had been given? That he would save me, perhaps…
But look at reality.
Linus knew that my body had been taken over by the soul of Jang Hyun-ji, and yet he loved her. He never once wondered whether I was safe, or where I was. He didn’t try to rescue me. As soon as he realized it was “me” and not her, he even tried to strangle me.
A hollow laugh escaped me. I sat in front of the mirror. Just as Jang Hyun-ji sometimes did, I stared at my reflection as if it were someone else. Clear marks remained on my neck. He hadn’t applied full force, they said—but his intent to kill had left evidence on my skin.
“Quite the welcome after five years away.”
If the Jang Hyun-ji in the mirror were still alive and could hear my voice as I once did, would she be laughing? Maybe she would even be grateful to the man who avenged her enemy.
I thought no one had been waiting for my return.
And yet, I had known—while still expecting, deep down.
Had I wanted Linus to apologize? To feel even a shred of guilt? To see me return and be flustered… and then say he was sorry?
Maybe I had wanted just one word.
How foolish.
I thought back to Linus, the moment he had strangled me. His tears, his face twisted in pain, came back one after another. Tears that slid down like translucent scales falling away.
A chill ran through me. No matter how starved I had been for affection, I must have been completely insane to have once loved such a man.
On the surface, Linus Shane Lindquist was indifferent and cold, but not particularly a villain. He was the commander of the Imperial Knight Order, a high-ranking noble—always dignified and proper. A model knight who helped the weak, protected women, and served his lord faithfully.
At least, that’s what I once believed.
But in the original story, when Linus claimed the heroine Laila Green, his true nature was fully revealed. The reason he was able to seize her despite countless men who loved her was his dark, obsessive fixation.
Linus was incapable of feeling guilt.
Perhaps because he was born into a blessed environment with overwhelming talent. Even with loving parents, his emotional range was shallow. He felt interest in nothing, and even dazzling achievements were treated as boring and natural. Perhaps it was inevitable—he had never experienced failure.
Laila Green was the only person who matched his unparalleled talent. Linus felt interest and love toward her. And to have her, he killed anyone who stood in his way.
He eliminated them as “accidents” so that Laila would not grieve or become distracted. If he could not kill someone, he would scheme and trap them instead. He drugged people, staged scenes to make it look like they were with women, or took their families hostage to threaten them.
Everything was fine as long as Laila did not find out.
Linus was cruel and ruthless. The reason he seemed like a chivalrous knight was because it was more convenient that way—easier to maintain his power and position without disturbance.
“A man like that… and yet I once loved him enough to not be able to kill him, even when I should have.”
Perhaps that was why I was still alive despite my foolish impulse. I swallowed down the nausea rising in my throat again, remembering what had been done in this body.
Jang Hyun-ji had even gone so far as to marry using a stolen body.
Unlike my past self who desperately clung to any trace of him, I now found Linus utterly disgusting. In a sense, Jang Hyun-ji might have been the only one who could match him. Laila Green loved him without knowing the truth, but Jang Hyun-ji loved him while knowing everything.
I had to do something before Linus recovered from the shock of my disappearance.
Now that I had finally reclaimed my body, I could not be killed so easily and meaninglessly. He might not be able to kill me directly, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t hurt me. The handprint on my neck proved that much.
I wanted to live. To take back what had been stolen from me, while living in my own body.
