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chapter 17
She stared at me in confusion for a few seconds, not knowing the reason.
Thankfully, Eston’s crying slowly began to calm down. After wiping away the tears and snot still slipping out and taking time to steady her emotions, she finally spoke.
“When… did your ability awaken?”
“……”
“I’ve never seen a case where it manifested after secondary sexual development.”
She must have been very curious. She asked yesterday, and now she was asking again.
Afraid she might start crying again, I answered sincerely.
“Well. I lost my memory, so I don’t know exactly when.”
“I heard that when you were found, you were inside a monster’s mouth. The cardiac arrest and coma were probably aftereffects of the awakening.”
She sounded quite like a proper healer now.
I nodded silently.
I had already guessed as much, and at this point it wasn’t particularly important.
After watching my expression for a while, she finally brought up what she truly wanted to ask.
“You’re not… going to report me to the Security Bureau, are you?”
“Hah.”
I didn’t mean to, but I let out a small laugh.
“Why are you laughing?”
“You sound innocent. It makes me realize how young you are.”
“What do you mean—”
“If I were you, before going around telling everyone I awakened, I would’ve blackmailed someone to purify my little sister first.”
At my words, Eston jumped in place and waved her hands frantically.
“B-blackmail?! Unlike someone, I wouldn’t do something so underhanded—! I mean, I’ve never even thought of that!”
“……”
“You’re my lifesaver, my lady. How could I ever do something like that?”
As she protested indignantly, she regained her usual slightly prickly expression and glanced at me sideways.
“Aren’t you going to tell the Duke and Young Master Ethan?”
“Mm. Is there a reason I should?”
“Well, you’ve always…”
She was about to reply casually, then flinched and quickly changed her words.
“Still, awakening is something honorable. Something to celebrate. And it’s not just any ability—it’s purification…”
“……”
“If it were me, I’d announce it to the whole world and be treated grandly.”
“There’s already a purifier. Why bother? And before being treated grandly, I’d probably be dragged to every gate site and suffer first. I don’t want that.”
When I shrugged, Eston made a strange face.
“Truly… ever since you woke up, you feel like a completely different person.”
Well, I really had become a completely different person, so that stung a little.
“……People can change after dying and coming back.”
“You used to be jealous of Lady Ruelin.”
“You don’t have to say that.”
When I glared at her sharply, Eston hurriedly looked away.
Then she muttered in a subdued voice.
“Once… I saw you hiding in the greenhouse and crying.”
“Me? Why?”
“I’m not sure… but I think it was after you argued with Count Frederick. After that, the Count stopped visiting the ducal estate.”
“……Frederick?”
It was a very familiar name.
‘Wasn’t it mentioned yesterday too?’
— If I’m not there, my little sister will be burned to death by Count Frederick…!
Recalling Eston’s words, I tilted my head and asked,
“Who was that again?”
“You really don’t remember?”
Eston stared at me in shock, then explained.
“Dylan Frederick. He used to be your attendant, but after awakening, he returned to the count’s family…”
“Ah.”
I remembered.
‘Male Lead #3!’
And—
— The funeral arrangements will be handled by Count Dylan Frederick, who was once the lady’s closest friend.
The guy who almost burned me alive on the first day I possessed this body.
As soon as I remembered that, information about Male Lead #3 flooded into my head.
It was a common enough story.
A noble’s illegitimate child, born from a one-night mistake, abandoned in the back alleys.
Male Lead #3 was luckily picked up by a group of vagrants and grew up as a petty thief, begging and pickpocketing.
Then one day, he happened to steal something from young Edith, who was out at a festival, and got caught.
The guard knight caught the boy, but Edith didn’t punish him. Instead—
— He’s so pretty. He’s really a boy?
— Don’t hand him over to the guards. I’ll take him home.
She brought him home and made him her attendant.
‘Was it because she wanted to show him off at social gatherings?’
I don’t remember clearly, but Edith had only been around twelve or thirteen at the time.
‘Seriously, she was something else.’
Since they were the same age, Edith gave her new attendant a new name: “Dylan.”
It was taken from the name of the hottest male singer at the time.
Unfortunately, young Edith didn’t know that the singer entertained noblewomen as a male escort.
Later, when the previous count died and Dylan awakened, dramatically rising in status, he found the name deeply humiliating and resented Edith for a long time.
At that point, I frowned.
‘If he hated it that much, he could’ve just changed his name. Did he have to let someone die over it?’
They had once been close—he had served her personally.
If Edith hadn’t taken him in, he would’ve spent his childhood begging in the streets!
“……What a jerk.”
“Huh? M-me?!”
I must have said it out loud. Eston jumped and pointed at herself.
I shook my head.
“……Are you remembering something?”
“Not everything. Just vaguely.”
“Still, it must be coming back little by little. Memory loss caused by psychological shock often returns quickly.”
Fortunately, Eston didn’t question me further.
Unlike with Ethan or Vincent, I didn’t pretend total ignorance because the novel had clearly described Dylan’s appearance.
“Hair as red as blazing fire, and ash-colored eyes like scattered embers.”
Red hair symbolized the Frederick family, known for awakening fire abilities for generations.
That was how they had been able to find the count’s illegitimate son serving as a servant in another household.
‘Though who knows if they found him, or just pretended not to know before.’
If Dylan hadn’t awakened a fire ability, would they have acknowledged him and made him heir?
In the novel, the “Red-Haired Hero” was someone no citizen of the empire could fail to recognize.
‘If I act clueless and mess up, I might end up in serious trouble.’
As I thought that, a question suddenly occurred to me.
Why did Edith cry after fighting with Dylan? Not Vincent, but Dylan.
“Was I very close to Count Frederick when he was still my attendant?”
I asked Eston directly.
But she shook her head.
“I don’t know the details. I had just transferred to the ducal house at the time…”
“Then how do you know about the Count’s past?”
“Well… it’s a very famous story. When I came to the ducal house and heard it was true, not just a rumor, I was shocked.”
I clicked my tongue.
There was no more information I could get from Eston.
Since the novel was mostly told from the heroine’s point of view, it didn’t show how Edith and Dylan interacted in the past.
It only said that he was deeply ashamed of his past and hated Edith.
‘Edith liked Vincent, so it wasn’t jealousy… Did he demand she deny the rumors about him being her servant?’
Even if I knew the details, what use would it be? None of it was helpful.
Possessing the body of a villainous extra really was a crappy situation.
‘Come to think of it… except for one, weren’t all the male leads closely connected to Edith?’
I was starting to understand why Edith hated the heroine and was so obsessed with the male leads.
Whether they had been close or not, losing something that once belonged to you is the most painful thing.
‘Should I study up on Male Lead #4 too?’
Thinking of the last male lead, I soon shook my head.
My mind was already overloaded with Dylan, and thankfully, Male Lead #4 had no real connection with Edith.
Because she dies before his storyline properly begins.
‘As long as I avoid running into those three, I should be fine.’
It was a relief that I would have one fewer hostile person to deal with.
It should have been a relief.
So why did I feel uneasy?
‘Did I miss something?’
Tilting my head, I was pulled back to reality by a voice near my ear.
“We’ll arrive in about thirty more minutes.”
Eston, who had been looking out the window, delivered the good news.
I looked at her and suddenly asked,
“By the way, where did you work before this?”
