WAV 05

The room was empty now, even Ethan gone.

Staring blankly into space with trembling eyes, I muttered,

“Edith… was an Awakened?”

Awakenings usually occurred around the time of secondary sexual development.

But in rare cases, abilities manifested much later, even after adulthood.

That had happened to me.

Edith could have been the same kind of case.

The problem was that nowhere in this damned novel was there any mention of that.

“Did she not realize her ability had awakened? Or maybe she couldn’t figure out what the ability was, so she kept it secret for the time being….”

After considering several possibilities, I soon shook my head.

Neither seemed likely.

Not when numbers appeared this blatantly.

There was no way she hadn’t noticed.

And even if she didn’t know exactly what kind of ability it was, someone with Edith’s personality would never have hidden it.

If anything, she would’ve shouted to the whole world that she’d awakened.

“Unless… she died inside the demonic energy and came back to life?”

At that moment, a possibility flashed through my mind.

— They said she was found inside a monster’s jaws. Is that even possible?

In the novel, it never explained exactly how Edith died.

But regardless of the details, she had died after being exposed to demonic energy, and then I reincarnated into her body and revived.

Which meant—

“…The awakening conditions were fulfilled.”

Could that really happen?

It sounded ridiculous, but it was plausible enough that a hollow laugh escaped me.

“Ha. I don’t even know whether I should be happy about this or not….”

If the real Edith had been here, she would’ve been ecstatic.

Wasn’t this the wish she’d longed for her entire life?

And on top of that, the ability to see the berserk levels of Awakened ones….

Most Awakened feared berserkization more than dying in battle.

Naturally so. Who would want to be hailed as a hero in chaotic times, only to fall into madness and die like a rabid beast?

Besides, the higher the rank of the supernatural ability, the greater the chance of berserkization.

The higher their energy consumption, the faster demonic energy corroded them whenever they used their powers.

‘That’s why all our S-rank male leads were supposedly so sensitive.’

If it were Edith, she would’ve revealed this ability and gladly used it for the male leads.

Not because she was absurdly kind, nor because she loved them.

No, she would’ve done it to soothe the resentment and emptiness she’d carried for years—to prove to everyone that she had value.

No matter how vicious a villainess she was, in the end she was still just a child who had only recently become an adult.

‘Was she twenty now?’

Thinking about Edith’s current age, I gave a bitter smile.

“Sorry about this.”

In a dry voice, I apologized to the real Edith, wherever she was—dead or alive.

Maybe this was finally her chance to receive the attention and affection she’d always craved.

“But I’m not that sentimental.”

I had no intention of giving anything to people who treated me like shit.

Whether it was my powers or my feelings.

“Sixty-four percent, huh….”

I recalled Ethan from earlier.

The traces of demonic energy coiling around his waist.

‘Once it reaches his head and hits one hundred percent, that’s probably when he goes berserk.’

Curling one corner of my lips upward, I sneered.

“At that level, he can still endure it, can’t he?”

Really, he should’ve tried being at least a little kinder to his miraculously revived stepsister.

If he had, I might’ve advised him to go see Llewellyn as soon as possible.

No.

That bastard wasn’t even worth that much.

Before Edith died, he had abandoned her too.

“What a shameless piece of trash.”

And after that, he had the nerve to accuse me of becoming a monster.

The novel said the male leads felt guilty about Edith’s death, but guilt my ass.

From what I could tell, Ethan Blake was a sociopath.

The duke’s troublesome biological daughter had died, and deep down he was probably relieved about it.

So how displeased must he be now that she’d come back alive and perfectly fine?

“…But what exactly was that thing I saw earlier?”

Suddenly, the vision I had seen right before my ability awakened resurfaced in my mind.

Ethan groaning as he clung to Edith’s feet.

And Edith gently stroking him—

“Ugh, disgusting!”

No way. No way!

I violently shook my head, trying to erase the lingering image.

Not only had a scene like that never appeared in the original story, but after remembering the Ethan from earlier glaring at me with contempt, it felt utterly absurd.

“Did Edith imagine something like that out of jealousy toward Llewellyn… and that memory just lingered?”

I couldn’t understand it, but maybe.

Maybe she had dreamed of becoming a purifier like Llewellyn herself.

But why him of all people?

“Ha… I don’t know anymore.”

Clutching my pounding head, I collapsed weakly onto the bed.

I had only been awake for a short while, yet too many things had already happened.

“And why is the story changing from the very beginning?”

Wasn’t this way too harsh for someone who’d only possessed the novel two days ago?

As though trying to reject reality itself, I squeezed my eyes shut tightly.

When I opened them again, I desperately hoped all of this would turn out to be a dream.

A pretty decent dream idea, at that.

‘Once I wake up, I should propose to Dr. Kang that we develop a berserk-level measuring device….’

The next day.

Unfortunately, my desperate wish did not come true.

Even after opening my eyes, I was still trapped inside this damned novel.

And worse—

“…It’s already been a whole week since the funeral?!”

Thanks to the maid attending me, I was finally forced to correct a massive misunderstanding.

Terrifyingly enough, today marked my seventh day since possession.

After waking up inside the coffin, screaming, and fainting, not just one day but an entire week had passed!

“Then… was I asleep the entire time?”

“Yes. Though I woke you occasionally to feed you medicine and rice gruel.”

I had absolutely no memory of it.

I wasn’t some hibernating bear, so how could I sleep for a whole week without realizing it?

According to the physician, my vitality had been so depleted that my body spent the entire time recovering.

‘Well… I did come back after cardiac arrest. No way I’d be perfectly fine.’

Come to think of it, even yesterday after talking with Ethan, I’d collapsed into exhaustion and only woke up this morning.

The moment I remembered that, rage suddenly surged inside me.

‘Then those bastards treated someone who had just woken up after a whole week like that?!’

Even if Edith had brought about her own death.

They were still family, weren’t they?

‘They didn’t have to make it that obvious they weren’t worried or sad at all.’

The more I thought about it, the more absurd their treatment felt. But then I let out a hollow laugh.

‘Family? What a joke. Am I really in any position to say that?’

There were parents in this world who didn’t care whether their own child lived or died.

I had learned that lesson long ago myself.

So getting angry over Edith’s situation now felt ridiculous.

Quickly discarding the useless emotions, I spoke to the maid instead.

“More importantly… thank you.”

“Huh? For what…?”

“They said you were the one taking care of me the whole time.”

“O-Oh, no! It was simply my duty!”

The maid hurriedly waved her hands.

“What’s your name?”

“I-It’s Nancy.”

“Nancy.”

“I don’t know if you remember… but I originally worked at the villa. Five years ago, you brought me to the duke’s estate yourself, my lady.”

Nancy added the last part cautiously while watching my reaction.

‘She did something like that? Unexpected.’

In the novel, it said none of the maids volunteered to serve the duke’s daughter because they were terrified of her cruelty.

But Nancy seemed rather friendly toward me.

Putting on an appropriately gentle smile, I replied kindly,

“I see. Then it was a really good thing I brought you here.”

Nancy’s eyes widened.

Soon, a bright blush spread across her freckled young face.

“Th-Then… I’ll go prepare your meal!”

Embarrassed, Nancy abruptly sprang to her feet and hurried out of the room.

A little later, she returned pushing in a tray full of food and carefully set everything on the table.

Everything tasted good.

Not only were there many dishes, but they were all light foods easy to digest, clearly prepared with care.

‘For a second I thought they’d starve me and leave me to die….’

Compared to the treatment I’d braced myself for after the duke’s cold attitude yesterday, this was surprisingly decent.

I’d worried even the servants might despise me, but thankfully it didn’t seem that hopeless.

Relaxing somewhat, I started asking Nancy various questions.

“Did anything happen after the funeral?”

“No! It was a little chaotic, but… everyone congratulated you on your recovery before leaving.”

“And Father… how is he?”

“His Grace went to the palace, and Young Master left for Ezenia.”

I had asked how the duke reacted after I woke up, but instead I got an entirely different answer.

‘Why would I care what those people are doing?’

Feeling my appetite fade, I asked absentmindedly,

“Ezenia?”

“Yes. Um, it’s the region where your villa is located, my lady. The recent Gate appeared near there….”

That immediately caught my interest.

‘Did he rush off to see the heroine already?’

Thanks to my excuse about memory loss, Nancy answered all sorts of questions without suspicion.

Ezenia was a small town near the capital, described in the novel as “Ethan’s summer villa.”

But according to Nancy, the villa had originally belonged to Edith.

An inheritance left to her by the former duchess—Edith’s biological grandmother.

‘The former duchess… wasn’t she the one responsible for spoiling Edith rotten?’

— Hmph! Grandmother said it doesn’t matter if I don’t have powers. I’m the empire’s only duchess candidate anyway.

— If Grandmother were still alive, burying trash like you would’ve been nothing to her….

I recalled Edith constantly bringing up her grandmother in the novel.

When I first read it, I’d wondered just how excessively pampered she must’ve been to still obsess over her dead grandmother even as an adult.

Unfortunately, after Edith’s death, the villa seemed to fall into Ethan’s hands.

In the novel, Ethan brought Llewellyn there for secret rendezvous.

In other words, it had merely been one of the male and female lead’s dating spots.

“My lady always vacationed there every year. When the former duchess was still alive, festivals were held there too, and you often went to watch them together….”

But Nancy kept chatting about Edith—stories the novel had never mentioned.

How much she loved that place.

How many memories she had there.

How deeply she missed her grandmother.

Listening to her chatter, I suddenly realized something, and my chest tightened slightly.

‘…So that’s why she took Llewellyn there.’

— What were you thinking, bringing a purifier to the site of a Gate outbreak?

She hadn’t been trying to go to the Gate outbreak site.

She had been heading to Ezenia.

Because she wanted to protect the villa that would soon be swallowed by demonic energy.