Chapter 2

“What?”

It was only a suspicion, of course.

“I know that you and I don’t study together, but why are you the only one with good grades? It just doesn’t make sense.”

“What is strange about it? You looked at me with such genuine curiosity. So what?”

“Don’t you have a paper with all the cheats?” She persisted.

As he held his chin with the back of his hand, Cassian stared at Yena and asked.

“Are you curious why I get good grades compared to you?”

“Yes, what is it?” Yernia’s head bobbed up and down eagerly as they whispered at each other during class time.

She leaned towards him just in case she missed his secret.

“Your brain is empty while mine is full.”

“What?”

It was so absurd that Yernia raised her voice without even realizing it.

The sound wasn’t loud enough to disturb the whole class, but the professor looked at Yerniaa as soon as she finished speaking.

“Yernia Cilliard. Come here and solve the problem.”

Why was Yernia the only one who was pointed out?

It was the first crisis in her 14 years of age.

“Cilliard!”

The moment she heard the teacher call her name, she got up from her chair, but she simply couldn’t step forward.

The math problems listed were something Yernia couldn’t solve at all.

It would be nice if she had the necessary knowledge from her previous life, but Yernia was a lazy student who didn’t study ever since.

She glanced sideways to ask for help, but Cassian had looked down at his desk cheekily, pretending not to know.

What was she supposed to do?

If she moved forward like this, she would suffer from humiliation.

However, if she just stood there without doing anything, she might fan the flames of the professor’s temper even higher.

When she turned around, Cassian touched Yernia’s hand.

“This is the cheating paper you were looking for.” Cassian mouthed inaudibly.

At that moment, she saw Cassian in a different light.

The devil, who had always been impatient with him,  had grown angel wings behind his back.

Yernia was so touched that she almost cried.

Cassian knew that Yernia was already performing poorly at school.

He helped her as she expected.

She liked childhood friends very much.

She glanced down at the cheating paper confidently.

<<Ye Na, you got me again.>>

“You crazy punk!”

Yernia couldn’t solve the problem, and it made everyone laugh.

Was it because she was dumb,, and the only thing that was inside her head was as useless as pebbles?

“How much, how much–”

It turned out this childish person had no idea.

A halo had appeared over the bastard’s head the moment he handed her a note and told her that it contained the cheat.

He made her feel crazy.

She was crazy.

Now, the person in front of her was such a naughty bully that it physically hurt to see him.

“You’re crying.”

“I’m not crying, you childish kid.”

“You’re crying.”

“I’m not!”

Yes, she was crying because this person shattered her illusion of him.

It was ridiculous to cry over this, but Yena got angry because she couldn’t bear the chagrin that she felt.

What would Cassian do if it was the other way around, and he was the one who got angry for facing this humiliation, and she would be teasing him about it?

After committing such a terrible thing, Cassian followed Yernia brazenly.

Why was it so natural for the bastard to enter the Cilliard mansion?

When she saw him sitting on the garden bench purposefully, the resentment she had suppressed inside her heart came out.

“You are going to die while today, I am going to live.”’

Yernia swung an ax she got from the warehouse.

She could barely swing it as she held it with both hands because it was too heavy.

Cassian burst into laughter at sight.

“Come here, Cassian!”

“Are you going to kill me?”

“Yes! I’m going to kill you.”

She was going to kill him.

“HAHAHAHA. You can cry and scream in outrage. But, just do one thing for me.”

The mischievous bastard avoided the ax expertly as if he was merely dancing to a beat when Yernia swung the ax at him.

Well, that made her even angrier.

In the end, it was Yernia who lost.

Yernia was only 14 years old at that time.

Even if her childhood memories have returned, her mind has not matured at all.

“Yena, why are you still crying over that?”

Yernia was still mad at him.

It hurt her pride that she was the same age as this childish person.

Can’t she be more mature if she possessed her past life memories?

“Don’t cry.”

Bending both of his knees, Cassian crouched in front of Yena, who was shedding tears as she sat down on the floor with her ax.

Then, he grabbed Yernia’s cheek with both hands and caught her teardrops with his thumb.

Somehow, she felt even sadder.

“It’s your fault.”

“That’s right. It’s my fault.”

“Don’t just give up like that and repeat what I told you!”

“You are so cute.”

What did the bastard say?

Yernia’s eyes, full of tears, widened, and she looked like a rabbit at that moment.

It looked like rabbit eyes—eyes that were red, bloodshot, and wide-open.

The corners of Cassian’s mouth twisted before it curved upwards.

“Oh. Ye Na, you’re hilarious!”

“What? Is it that fun?”

Is he really making fun of her?

“How many times have I managed to fool you?”

So when he said she was cute, he meant it as a tease.

Her face heated up even more,, and now she was embarrassed and angry at herself.

Is this what it felt like when her blood rose high and then low inside her body?

“Yeah! I’m a dork.”

Did he think she had instigated all this because she wanted to?

She was upset, too!

Why did she possess Yernia in the first place?

Shouldn’t she deserve to be reborn as an intelligent person if she were to be reincarnated?

Her life would be full of comfort if she were born as an extra Cassian would never get involved with.

“That’s too bad. Who would accept you if you are so foolish?”

“It’s none of your business!”

Yernia huffed as she rubbed her tears with the back of her hand,, and while she was at it, she slapped Cassian’s hand,, who hadn’t removed it from her cheek.

“You take a friend’s concern with a cold heart.”

Cassian was right, of course.

Yernia had no friends.

Even if she thought about herself in her previous life or the present, Cassian was the only person who stuck around her, and it was the irrevocable truth.

It wasn’t like he was not there from the very beginning.

Anna, Benny, and Daisy, with whom she took classes.

She didn’t remember the rest of their names, but there were quite a few who greeted her.

However, they began to drift away from Yena, one by one, and Cassian was the only one left.

“So what? I will date and get married on my own, so never mind. I don’t care.”

“Don’t cling to me later.”

Blood rushed to Yernia’s head, and her face turned redder than before.

This wasn’t good.

She tried to suppress her anger, but she couldn’t.

Ugh, she gritted her teeth.

“I hate you. Even if I am on my deathbed and you are the only one who could save me, I will never, EVER, marry you.”

Yernia was serious.

‘Marrying Cassian who teases her every day.’ She wouldn’t dare imagine it.

It would be more horrible if they lived in the same house.

***

Other than that, there were too many things to consider.

Both of them often quarreled, but they also got along well afterward if they had never even fought.

Yernia got angry to no end once he incited her fury, but when she was in that state, she sometimes forgot the reason why she was mad in the first place.

Their fights are quickly resolved because Cassian wasn’t the type to breed a hostile atmosphere between them for an extended period.

Of course, most of the fights she experienced with Cassian made him the unilateral victor every single time.

“Oh, look! A shooting star had fallen!”

It was the most natural thing for Yernia to have Cassian in her everyday life.

Every year, every day, and every moment, Yernia was with Cassian.

“Make a wish, Cassian.”

Cassian and Yernia were sitting on top of a mountain hill behind Cilliard’s mansion when the shooting stars began to fall.

As the meteors cut through the night sky, Yernia  watched and brought her hands together to pray.

“Let me meet my beloved ‘Esper’. Let me marry him.”

An ‘Esper’ and a ‘guide’ had to get married.

Yernia was a guide, and Cassian was an Esper.

There were no exceptions.

“—and let Cassian marry his beloved guide.”

No matter what happens, Cassian is as precious as a family to Yena.

She hoped they could both marry the person they loved.

She made that wish and wished again–

“We have to get married.”

What does this mean?

Yernia couldn’t believe it even after she saw her name appearing on Cassian’s body with her own eyes.

Does this make sense?

It was so different from the flow of the original novel she knew.

Confused, Yernia arranged her thoughts carefully.

“We must sort this out. My name appeared on your body. Does this mean we have to get married?”

Was it a part of her destiny to be Cassian’s guide?

“Yes. You’re the only one who can take responsibility for this.”

“No way.”

Yernia Cilliard is not Cassian Lecardo’s fate.

She couldn’t remember the details because her mind had slowly erased the content of the original novel.

Yet, she was confident that there was a separate female protagonist in <The Esper’s Arrogant Love>.

But why is her name on Cassian’s body, then?

She had no idea what was going on anymore.

Eventually, Yernia went past Cassian and ran up the stairs.

“Ye na! Where are you going?”

Everyone except Cassian was embarrassed by Yernia’s unexpected behavior.

Yernia’s mother, Countess Cilliard, shouted after her.

“How shocked would Yena have to be? Please understand her, Marquess.”

“Why would she even be shocked in the first place? It would be great if our family would be involved with the ‘Lecardo.’”

Since then, Ivan and Seria, who tried to diffuse the situation, said one after another.

Yernia and Cassian have been connected ever since they were young.

The two had been friends without their status forcing them together, but they were not like other people.

Cassian had the spirit of a craftsman who people find hard to treat casually.

Yernia’s behavior was considered rude.

Of course, everyone knew that only Cassian would have no issue with it, and Seria and Ivan felt at ease with him.

Yernia went to her room quickly without caring whether their words stabbed her in the back or not.

She had to check something.