WAV 04

…What?”

At my words, the duke froze and turned to me with a strange expression.

If you can’t avoid it, pretend you know nothing.

The method I chose was an age-old cliché straight out of a drama.

Amnesia.

In a hollow voice, I quickly recited the kind of lines I’d heard countless times before.

“I can’t remember anything. Where is this? Who are you people?”

“What are you—”

“Is Edith Blake… my name, by any chance?”

The moment I finished speaking, silence fell over the room.

The duke stared at me blankly for a second before his face twisted violently.

“Norman! Aston! What in the world is going on here?!”

He barked at the physician and healer.

“Didn’t you say she was perfectly fine?!”

“Th-that is…! If someone experiences severe shock, temporary memory confusion can occur! The young lady suffered c-cardiac arrest, after all…!”

“That’s strange. When I examined her earlier, there were no signs of severe mental trauma…”

Unlike the flustered doctor, the healer scanned me with sharp eyes.

Then, tilting his head, he asked the duke,

“Shall I try using healing power one more time?”

“Ahh, my head…!”

Before the duke could answer, I quickly grabbed my forehead and collapsed dramatically onto the bed.

“My head hurts so much. I feel nauseous too… How long do I have to stay like this?”

“It may be psychological rather than physical.”

Fooled by my desperate acting, the physician hurriedly stepped in to persuade the duke.

Apparently, he was terrified of being accused of another misdiagnosis.

“It could be temporary amnesia. Let us observe her for a few days. I’ll prepare medicine that’s good for brain health.”

“…Ahem.”

The duke shot me a displeased glare before finally turning toward the door.

The servants, along with the physician and healer, quickly followed him out of the room.

Whew… I survived.

I secretly let out a sigh of relief.

I had barely managed to accept the fact that I’d transmigrated into a novel. There was no way I could immediately act like the vicious Edith.

No.

Actually, if I tried, I probably could. Fortunately, my memory was pretty good.

But—

— Is that all you have to say to me?

— What do you even know about me, Father?!

Just remembering a few of Edith’s lines from the novel whenever she faced the duke made my vision blur.

Amnesia was a hundred times better.

I’ll just keep this up, and if it stops working, I’ll say my memories came back or something.

The more I thought about it, the better the idea seemed.

If I was destined to die as a villainess anyway, then all I had to do was quietly distance myself from the protagonists.

Come to think of it, this was a freaking five-way romance. Damn it, I absolutely need to stay out of that mess.

Just recalling the vicious love war between the four male leads surrounding the heroine drained the life out of me.

I was inwardly praising myself for such quick thinking when—

“You…”

“…!”

A low voice suddenly echoed through the room, startling me.

I quickly looked up and saw a man still standing there motionlessly.

What the— Why is he still here?

I had naturally assumed he’d followed the duke out, so I was caught completely off guard.

Ethan Blake.

That cold silver-haired beauty radiating icy energy was Edith’s stepbrother—

and Male Lead #1.

After his beloved adjutant died after being swallowed by a Gate, the duke took in the man’s young orphaned son.

He had intended to raise him as a knight like his father, but unexpectedly, Ethan awakened.

A powerful S-rank ability befitting his appearance—the power to control ice.

Since the duke’s daughter never awakened no matter how much time passed, adopting Ethan as his heir became the natural course of events.

“So you truly remember nothing?”

Ethan asked stiffly.

What’s with him? It’s not like he’s worried about me.

As his unpleasant tone suggested, Ethan and Edith did not get along.

Unable to tolerate Edith’s twisted personality, uncouth behavior, and constant cruelty, he gradually came to despise her.

Especially after learning that she had bullied Llewellyn, his hatred reached its peak.

Still, it seemed like they got along pretty well when they were younger…

Including Ethan, three of the male leads had frequently interacted with Edith since childhood.

That was probably why she hated the heroine so intensely for taking them away from her.

Of course, I couldn’t entirely blame Ethan, who had suffered under Edith’s abuse ever since becoming part of the family.

Still, I disliked him throughout the novel.

Maybe because I projected my own past onto Edith’s situation.

You’re just a stone that rolled in later—how dare you glare at the stone that was already there?

If not for his abilities, he never would’ve even dared stand on equal footing with her.

“Yes.”

I smiled harmlessly.

Normally, Edith spoke casually to Ethan, but I answered him politely.

To make it seem like I had truly lost my memories.

“Who are you? Judging by your clothes, are you the duke’s… no, my father’s adjutant?”

“…”

“Or perhaps… are we close?”

“…”

“For example, my husb—”

“Don’t say useless things.”

Ethan suddenly cut me off with a deeply irritated expression.

Seeing the disgust written all over his face, I secretly celebrated inside.

It was obvious what kind of thing triggered someone like him.

Status. Bloodline.

Being associated with someone he despised.

Just like how the third adopted son of my quiet, brilliant biological father once beat someone half to death for spreading rumors that he lived under the same roof as me.

“It’s fine if you don’t remember.”

“You won’t tell me what kind of relationship we have?”

“Why should I tell you that?”

Ethan reacted sharply before coldly turning his head away.

“Figure it out yourself.”

Sneering, he finally turned to leave the room.

And at that exact moment—

My vision suddenly distorted, and something flashed before my eyes.

— Ugh…!

— Ethan, it’s okay. Breathe in, breathe out slowly. Good boy…

— Edith! Edith…! Please, help me… ngh!

— Shhh…

A man clinging to Edith’s feet with his upper body bare.

Edith holding his face gently as she whispered softly to him.

And the moonlight spilling through the window illuminated the color of that man’s hair—

“What the hell is this?”

The words slipped out before Ethan had even fully left the room.

The scene had been that unbelievable.

Am I dreaming with my eyes open right now? Why was I in that position with him…?

Fwaaash—!

But before I could continue the thought, the vision vanished like a lie.

And in its place stood an ice-cold face.

“…What did you just say?”

Ethan asked in a tone that clearly meant, Did you just curse at me?

If I’d been in my right mind, I would’ve shamelessly replied, No? I didn’t say anything.

But my heart was pounding too hard from whatever that dream—or hallucination—had been.

So instead, I stammered out a pathetic excuse.

“Ah… th-that…”

“…”

“A bug! I thought I saw a bug flying around, so I got startled without realizing it…”

“A bug?”

Ethan immediately shot back, raising one eyebrow.

“In the middle of winter?”

At his words, I reflexively glanced out the window.

Snow was piled up on the windowsill.

Damn it.

But it was too late to take my words back now.

So I stubbornly kept pretending.

“Yes. It was definitely crawling around here somewhere… Hahaha…”

“You died and came back only to completely lose your mind.”

Ethan glared at me with open contempt as I laughed awkwardly.

Then, as if I wasn’t even worth dealing with anymore, he shook his head and walked away.

As I stared at his retreating figure, I found myself doubting my eyes once again.

Because suddenly, a number appeared floating above his head.

64%

64%…?

Unlike the hallucination, the number didn’t disappear immediately.

I stared at it fixedly above Ethan’s head with trembling eyes.

I blinked several times, but it remained there.

What the hell is that…?

That was when I noticed something else strange around Ethan’s body besides the number.

Whoooosh…

A sinister aura began slowly rising from beneath his feet.

Black translucent smoke rapidly climbed over his body like water filling a cup.

For a moment, I wondered if I should stop him somehow, but Ethan moved as though he couldn’t feel anything at all.

Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—it stopped around his waist and rose no further.

That wavering black smoke.

Miasma.

It was unmistakably miasma.

Then that 64% means…

As I alternated between the number floating above Ethan’s head and the miasma swirling around his waist in shock—

Bang!

He walked out the door without hesitation.

But I still couldn’t take my eyes off the place where he had stood.

“…I can see rampage levels?”

I couldn’t believe it.

I had never heard of such an ability existing.

Even modern technology couldn’t determine how much black fog—miasma—had accumulated inside an awakened person’s body.

That was why awakened individuals dispatched to Gates were essentially ticking time bombs.

Why the older generation like my father desperately avoided Gate battlefields, even using adopted children as substitutes.

Why I had resolved to oppose him by removing the black fog.

But while I possessed purification abilities, I had never been able to tell when an awakened person would go berserk.

“If that’s the case…”

Instinctively, I realized the truth.

This—

was Edith’s ability.