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Chapter 13
Why Do You Look Different?
“Kael… run… hurry…!”
“No! Mother! Let’s go together!”
“Young master! You must get away! Quickly!”
“No! Mother! Mother!”
In that horrific scene where screams echoed from all directions, his mother’s pale hand, trembling as it tried to push him away, finally slipped from his grasp.
His own hand—so pathetically small and short—had reached out desperately to catch hers, but failed.
And every time Himenah’s fingertips stretched toward him yet missed and slipped away, Kaelian’s body would involuntarily freeze, as if that painful memory had clawed its way back.
It had happened once on the palace staircase…
And again in the banquet hall…
Moreover, the sorrowful look in her eyes as she gazed at him lingered in his mind, refusing to leave.
What’s changed? Why does she look at me like that…? Or am I just overreacting?
“We should at least lower taxes in our own territory and pay more attention to aid for the poor.”
When he had run into Himenah again in Granthole’s dark alleys, a month after the palace staircase incident, Kaelian hadn’t been the only one startled.
The woman who always overdressed in gaudy splendor at every party had, under the moonlight, faced him with a clear, bare face—no makeup at all. He, too, had faltered for a moment.
Was her face always this bright… this alive? And those pure eyes looking at me—what’s with them?
But the surprise lasted only a moment.
“I-I have night blindness…! Anyway, I don’t like you anymore! I’ve come to my senses, finally!”
When he later met her at the mansion, she wasn’t acting “sensible” at all—more like someone completely unhinged, behaving like a different person altogether.
“Don’t pay attention to it. Just the petty sneer of a small-minded man.”
Could it be that I’m putting too much meaning into her strange words and letting myself get caught up in her bizarre behavior…?
As Kaelian opened his office door, he frowned and clenched his right hand tightly.
“But Captain, why are you trying to meet the lady again? The palace stairway incident, and now this time too—she’s been strutting around as if nothing ever happened. Isn’t it fine to just leave her be now? Besides, she openly had a secret meeting with another man, even got into a scuffle with him. Surely any scandal tying her to you is cleared up for good.”
“You saw it too, didn’t you? That the Duke of Silvestre didn’t show up to the Empress’s birthday banquet.”
“…Yes, that’s true.”
“The Empress’s birthday banquet is one of the empire’s most important events. Duke Silvestre is a founding contributor of the Kerdem Empire, a staunch vassal of Emperor Zenos. Yet he skipped a royal event with nothing but a stomachache as an excuse? Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”
“…That’s true. And in fact, the reason you ignored Lady Himenah’s advances before was precisely because the duke is firmly the emperor’s man.”
“Exactly. It wasn’t because of her scandals or unruly behavior that I kept my distance. If I could secure the Silvestre family’s forces and fortune, I wouldn’t care if she filled her bed with dozens of men. But because the duke is the emperor’s closest ally, marrying her would have backfired. With the emperor behind him, the duke could easily use her to control me instead.”
“That makes sense…”
“But what if it’s not the duke—what if Lady Himenah herself is the one holding sway over the Silvestre family? And what if she… has truly changed?”
At that, Weyl snapped to attention and looked at Kaelian with a serious expression.
“Captain, if that’s really the case… does it mean we could move our plans forward?”
“Yes, Weyl. Which means…”
Kaelian slowly walked over to the window, arms crossed, gazing out toward the Akxan mountains of Acticos.
“…we need to confirm it.”
“Ines Fidelis…”
After a sleepless night filled with tangled thoughts and unease, Himenah barely touched her breakfast before returning to her room. She pulled out the culprit’s threatening letter and sank into thought.
The figure in a black cloak who appeared both at the bookshop district and at the baron’s estate was most likely Ines, the heroine of this novel.
Or more accurately, Ines possessed by the serial killer.
In the novel, Ines was described as a beautiful young woman, small in stature, with shimmering blonde hair and mysterious blue eyes.
No other character besides royals had blond hair.
Of course—if the protagonist’s looks overlapped too much with supporting characters, she would lose her charm, and readers might get confused.
And since she was the heroine who would captivate the cold-hearted male lead, Kaelian, at first sight, her appearance needed to leave a striking impression.
Ines should still be in hiding with her father in Düse on the western continent, after Emperor Zenos’s massacre of the Niger tribe seventeen years ago. She was supposed to appear at Kataraz during the magical beast subjugation tournament that fall.
There, she would rescue a wounded Kaelian from assassins sent by the emperor, put him on her carriage, and take him to Acticos.
But instead, she was already roaming the capital of Kerdem.
The murder of the baroness was unrelated to the original plot. If the culprit hadn’t possessed Ines, then why would the killings overlap with her movements?
Damn it, what now? Do I just hunt her down in the capital, drag her to the constable, and say, “This woman was a serial killer in my past life! Lock her up!” That makes no sense… haaa…
All she could do was sigh.
It was nearly impossible to find Ines alone in the capital. And even if she did, what was she supposed to do—march up and say, “Hey, you’re the killer, right?” As if Ines would smile and say, “Yes, well done. You caught me. Please arrest me.”
And besides, she hadn’t committed any crimes in this world yet. What grounds could Himenah possibly use to have her imprisoned?
But sighing alone wasn’t going to solve anything.
To organize her thoughts, she pulled out paper and began writing down different scenarios.
Let’s assume Ines is the culprit and think through the possibilities. First question!
1. Does the killer inside Ines know I exist?
This was the most important question—it would decide Himenah’s next move.
The killer must know that the detective who fell to her death with him would have possessed someone in this world as well. And the killer knew the original novel better than she did.
Then… does she know whose body I possessed?
Himenah decisively marked an X beside the first question.
If she knew I’d possessed someone too, she wouldn’t risk revealing herself through murder. She’d hide, not expose herself.
In her previous life, the killer hadn’t been the kind to gleefully announce murders like some movie villain.
Profilers had concluded that he likely carried trauma tied to “obsession,” “confinement,” and “psychosis,” based on his choice of novels and victims.
The novel Himenah had found at the baron’s house—Sir Knight, Please Obsess Over Me—had a plot where the heroine’s older sister became obsessed with the male lead, scheming to kill her younger sister, only to go insane and die in prison.
Just like Himenah herself—tormenting Kaelian and Ines, only to meet a miserable end.
“Ugh… chills.”
The thought that the novel wasn’t just fiction but her present reality made her skin crawl.
“At least Ines isn’t a noblewoman. She probably doesn’t know about the rumors that I’ve been acting strange. Which means… she doesn’t know about me yet. That puts me at an advantage. Good.”
Encouraged, Himenah wrote down her second question.
2. Then what is the killer’s ultimate goal?
“Ugh… this is the problem. What does she even want? She could just lie low, flirt with a ridiculously handsome man, and live happily ever after. Why come here and kill people again? Is it just that she can’t shake her habits?”
In her past life, the killer had threatened authors to change their storylines—and if they refused, he killed them. But here, in this world where authors didn’t exist, who was he trying to kill to change the ending?
“Ahhh, I’m going crazy!”
Clutching her notes, Himenah paced around the room before flopping down on the sofa in frustration.
Then, suddenly, she caught a sweet, fresh fragrance.
“Huh? Flowers? Where did those come from?”
Too lost in thought to notice earlier, she now saw that a bouquet of colorful flowers had been arranged in a crystal vase on the table.
“Young lady, it’s me. I brought tea.”
Marie entered just then, carrying a tray with Himenah’s favorite black tea.
Himenah quickly hid the threatening letter and her notes.
“Oh, Marie. Thanks. Sit down—let’s have some together.”
Though Marie protested several times, Himenah insisted, and soon it had become routine for the two of them to share tea together after breakfast.
“Mmm… this is perfect. Tea always tastes best when you brew it, Marie.”
“Hehe… I’m just glad you enjoy it, my lady.”
As the warmth spread through her, her muddled thoughts began to clear, and her heart calmed a little.
“By the way, I was so distracted that I only just noticed… what’s with the flowers? Did you put them there?”
“Ah… these?”
Marie’s cheerful smile faded into a pout as she looked at the vase.
“They were sent by Marquis Termos. While you were out yesterday afternoon, his servant brought them, asking me to deliver them to you.”
“Marquis Termos? Why?”
A bouquet of flowers—out of the blue?
Himenah frowned, staring suspiciously at the vase.
What is this? I thought things between us were over. Is he still holding on to something? Or… is this some kind of silent threat, like my public explanation wasn’t convincing enough? But I showed up perfectly healthy at the banquet—proved I had nothing to hide. And people saw me drag a man into a balcony, then throw him around. The gossip alone should’ve been enough proof that my obsession ended, that the stairway scandal was explained… so why flowers now?
Just one bouquet, and already her mind spun with unease.
“Did he say anything else when he sent them?”
“No… nothing at all.”
“Hmm… what’s that supposed to mean? Or am I overthinking it? Maybe it’s just a polite gesture—like a way of saying thanks, now that things are settled?”
“My lady…”
Marie set down her teacup, her face clouded with worry.
“Please… don’t go to parties anymore.”
“Parties?”
“Yes. Especially any that Marquis Termos attends. Every time you’ve met him at a party, something bad has happened. I can’t stand watching you suffer anymore.”
Tears welled up in her eyes.
“Oh, don’t cry, Marie.”
Himenah quickly wiped them away with her hand, speaking gently.
“I told you, didn’t I? I don’t like those society parties anymore. I won’t go. I won’t have anything more to do with Marquis Termos, either.”
Smiling fondly at her maid’s sincere concern, Himenah stroked her freckled cheek and plucked a pink flower from the vase, tucking it behind Marie’s ear.
“Ah… my lady…”
“Oooh, pretty! It suits you, Marie.”
“Hehe… really?”
Blushing, Marie giggled shyly, then hesitated before speaking again in a quiet voice.
“My lady… there’s something I want to confess to you…”
