Chapter 110

“Ah, aaah, aah….”

I hugged both arms around myself. The rough, bumpy skin I felt was definitely the hated skin of Jang Hyunji.

The burns were truly severe. I had barely escaped from the fire, but my whole body’s skin had melted and collapsed, leaving me near death right after the accident. My hair was gone, my neck and face scarred deeply. My eyes had survived, but I didn’t want to see anything anymore. I refused to believe the face in the mirror was mine.

This is a monster.

It’s a dream. Just a dream.

No!

The pain was horrible, but the reality was worse. Closing my eyes didn’t change anything. Worst of all—the burned face resembled my mother’s face, which had been left inside the flames. Even after treatment, the scars remained. Skin graft surgery couldn’t fully fix it.

They said makeup could hide most of it. I wanted to believe that. But when I touched the marks on my arms, stomach, sides, shoulders, and legs, despair dragged me down again. The phantom pains at night came from these scars. Whenever I touched them, I was pulled helplessly back to that night.

Florence’s clean, flawless body was the greatest gift this world had given me.

It was proof I had escaped that nightmare reality.

But why—

Why must I use this filthy body, covered in scars, even in this world?

“Laila Green! This is Laila Green’s doing!”

Hyunji shouted, covering her face with her palms and bursting into tears.

“I’ll kill her. I’ll kill you, Laila Green…!”

“Unfortunately, you can’t. She’s stronger than you.”

“…What?”

Linus’s calm voice came from a little distance away. Hyunji couldn’t believe her ears.

“Linus… what do you mean…?”

“You can’t use magic or spirit arts. You can’t even dream of killing Laila Green…”

Linus stopped speaking, letting out a small sigh.

“You should be glad if you can even get close. In that state, you don’t even look able to walk down the street.”

“How, how…”

“Get up. How long are you going to sit on the floor?”

Hyunji looked up at him blankly, forgetting even to cover her face.

He was looking at her with an expression she had never seen before. Not even when he first mistook her for Florence. Back then at least, he looked at her as a person—annoying, troublesome, but his person.

Finally coming back to her senses, Hyunji grabbed whatever was at hand and threw it.

“Why are you looking at me like that!”

“What?”

“You said it didn’t matter whether I was pretty or not!”

She remembered—when she had confessed with difficulty that she wasn’t this beautiful in her original world, Linus had laughed. He joked she wasn’t as pretty as him anyway, then confidently promised he’d recognize her even if she wore the skin of an eighty-year-old woman.

To Hyunji, that had meant he loved her regardless of appearance. Their bond had crossed worlds; fate tied them together. Surely a little change in looks couldn’t matter.

But now—

Linus brushed away the sofa cushion she’d thrown and replied.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Then why do you look at me like that!”

“How did I look at you?”

“Like I’m some… some disgusting, dirty monster….”

“….”

“You said you loved me, Linus. You said you’d recognize me no matter what I looked like!”

“…I did.”

Linus was surprised at how flat his own voice sounded.

Hyunji wept, her eyes wet, her thin shoulders trembling. Just months ago, he couldn’t stand to see her cry—anything that made his woman cry deserved death.

And yet, even knowing the woman before him was Hyunji, his heart barely moved.

“Yes, but… that was when you still looked like a person. This… I’ve never imagined something like this.”

“What? Are you saying… I’m not human now?”

Hyunji trembled. She was just an ordinary-looking woman with scars. Not so bad as to cause revulsion—but to Linus, she no longer appeared human at all.

She remembered laughing before, when he had said he only saw her face, not others. That if his standards were high, it was because her face was beautiful. She had believed it.

But even in her dreams of being with him, the face beside him had always been Florence’s.

“No…”

“…That was a mistake. I’ll catch Laila Green and make her undo that curse. For now, just rest—”

Linus reached for her shoulder, but as soon as he touched her, Hyunji shrieked.

“Don’t touch me!”

The sound of their skin meeting was nothing to him, but he still looked at her with irritation when she slapped his hand away. She read it instantly.

Trembling with betrayal, Hyunji cried out.

“You said you loved me, Linus…”

“…I do love you.”

“You said you’d love me no matter how I looked, that it wouldn’t change!”

“….”

“I came back for you!”

She had stolen a young girl’s body, torn it apart with fever and blood, bitten Enoch Haines’s throat, pierced his body, and taken his life. She had killed that girl.

If she destroyed Florence’s mind, she could take the body again. She could meet Linus again.

But Linus only sneered at her words.

“For me? No, you came back for yourself.”

“….”

“If you’re right, your body is already dead, or dying. You just wanted Florence’s beautiful, healthy body.”

Florence’s body.

“…I’ll call Helen. Until we find Laila Green—the curse-breaker—don’t leave this room. If anyone sees you, there will be rumors.”

“….”

“Do you hear me?”

No sound.

The world spun. The ground twisted. The air grew suffocating.

This is a dream.

The walls rippled, as if burning.

This is a dream.