Chapter 25

Episode 25

Forlorn

That’s right, in the novel, even though Hubris knew that Eris was not a witch, Eris still felt threatened by the mention of it.

That day Hubris said to crying Eris. He didn’t cut Eris because he didn’t want her dirty blood on his hands.

Eris cried and shouted at Hubris in a chilling tone. Do you like that low-blood bitch so much? How can you put her before your blood sister?

Never once did I think of you as a sister, Hubris affirmed. Then he left to grab Helena with his clean hands’.

“Kill me with that knife. The woman who’s in contact with a witch is a witch, right? Why don’t you cut me when you’re so angry? Is my blood dirty?”

The reason was simple. Eris in the novel was a bitch who bullied Helena, but I didn’t, yet.

You don’t have to be a bitch. Such a bitch deserves to be guilty. What a ridiculous and shallow way of thinking.

I thought it was justice on a subject that bothers people.

I laughed like a madman in front of Hubris, who couldn’t do anything, and soon squatted down and said, eye-to-eye with him.

“Priest, it’s not a difficult request. Just keep pretending you don’t know me like you do now. The fact that I’m a stranger… The fact that I’m communicating with a witch…”

“Lady Misérian….”

“Anyway, I will die soon. But I promise. I will not die in front of you, and even if I become a ghost, I will not appear in front of you.

Hubris was now shedding tears. He said he couldn’t understand. (T/N: / want to see this scene in manhwa)

“Why, why are you talking like that? I didn’t say it out of fear. Your sorrow is painful. It’s too heavy.”

He held head in agony. To be honest I never understood why he was responding like that.

I’m only doing bad things to him……. Is he a pervert too?

“…..No, it’s not. What should I do? I want to ask for forgiveness for your anger……. So, please…….”

“You don’t want me to die?”

He raised his head at my question. His wet eyes shining like obsidian under the moonlight were beautiful.

(T/N: ‘obsidian’: a hard, dark, glasslike volcanic rock formed by the rapid solidification of lava without crystallization.)

Aha. I know that look. I grew up watching that so much that my teeth trembled. That hateful face that says that only you can be their savior.

I reached out and grabbed Hubris’s face. I gently wiped away his tears with both thumbs, as he did for me at my coming of age ceremony.

“Don’t pity me. It annoys me.”

Hubris’s face is dyed with despair.

It is really nice to see.

As I blinked, Anakin, who had been standing aside waiting for my order, came and knocked the back of his neck with the back of a knife.

Hubris fell powerlessly into my arms. I threw him at Anakin and nodded.

“Leave this in front of the hut again. We’ll stop by Rundol for a while and then return to the capital.”

“Are you done with your business here?”

“Yeah, I’ve heard everything I needed to hear, so I’ll leave before they get more suspicious.”

“I’ll get the carriage. Would you like to wait here?”

It was a black night with the loud cries of birds. nodded, thinking that a mountain beast would be better than a woman alone on a rural road.

Anakin slung the Hubris over his shoulders, muffled his footsteps and disappeared.

I dipped my feet quietly in the pond. I had dipped my feet to calm myself down, but as the cold water dug between my toes, I felt drowsier. As I lay down on the lawn as it was, I saw the constellation that Anakin had drawn over the round sky.

Let’s think. What happened to Eris after the coming of age ceremony. Thinking…. Remembering……. I needed to prepare…… It was annoying.

Why should I prepare? I didn’t come into this world because I wanted to. No matter what I do, people will hate me, and nothing will get better.

Can’t I just let him hate me and when the time comes, I can pretend to kill Helena and be put to death?

I was terribly tired. It was like the plot of a B-grade horror movie, that I was dragged into because of something someone did to die, and this time I have to try to die.

I’d rather have an accident and enter….. or, if the door of the dimensional gate had been opened and I had been chosen because the world needs me, it would not have been so futile.

Instead, I was kidnapped into this world to make up for someone’s mistake. To be someone’s replacement……

I’m not complaining because I’m not the main character. Even in Korea, I was more of a supporting, role than a leading role. As an ordinary extra, studied, worked, and endured day by day like everyone else. But, at least in those days, something changed when I tried.

There were many people who liked me, and there were those who would comfort me without doubting

anything if I told them my honest feelings. Unlike here…… Yes, unlike here!

My eyes were blurry. Tears fell before I could even try to hold them back.

I can’t change anything here. I will persevere in order to make others shine as planned, and eventually I will be executed according to the fixed ending.

Neither an earlier death nor a later death will be permitted.

I clenched my teeth and swore. I won’t do anything in the future. Never….. Nothing…… Anakin looked down at me as if he had just returned from work.

“You’re really fast.”

“I was worried.”

“Worried about me? Why?”

“I was worried that you might have left me somewhere.”

“You think I might have died?”

He looked at me without saying anything.

No. He shook his head. He opened and closed his mouth again and again, as if trying to find a suitable expression, choosing his words.

“I… I’m curious about the owner.”

“What?”

The words he finally spit out resembled me.

“Like I said I was curious… I wonder what kind of life you have lived and what kind of life you want to live… Yes, I dared to wonder.”

“So I was scared. I’m afraid I won’t get to know you.”

I was dumbfounded by his answer.

I wish I could read Anakin like the other male characters. Then I could understand why he looked at me like that.

No, as a matter of fact, I knew. Anakin falls in love with Eris Misérian. Unlike Hubris, however, Anakin’s face did not contain any emotion.

What are you thinking? I was scared to ask.

I decided to postpone the question which I’ll ask one day, just a little bit.

“Come here, carry me. I don’t want to walk.”

Instead, I extended my arm to him. He grabbed my shoulder blade carefully. Placing his wrists on my hips, he began to wander through the dark blue forest without saying a word.

I put my head on his firm chest and stopped thinking. When I stopped thinking about making noise, I heard a different sound. The sound of birds, the cry of bugs, the sound of footsteps rustling.

And Anakin’s slow heartbeat. His pulse doesn’t speak of love yet. That somehow reassured me. It was burdensome if your favor originated from love. There was nothing like love that couldn’t be reciprocated that puts a person in trouble.

(T/N: ‘His pulse doesn’t speak of love yet: it means his heart isn’t racing while he is carrying her so this means he hasn’t fallen in love with her and this made her assured.)

The slow but regular sound was very pleasing to the ear, and I thought he would like to walk as long as possible.

The carriage rattled. We were on our way to the Rundol region to reduce as much suspicion as possible. What can the Marquis say if Eris makes excuses for getting it wrong by mistake?

By the way, it seems that the driver who dropped us off at Priest Metheus’s house was the only driver in the Bonitao region.

I could hear the driver’s yawn as I was sleeping.

The driver may hear it, but he won’t understand me because he doesn’t know me anyway. I couldn’t sleep and I got tired of looking outside, so I slowly opened my mouth.

“The place where I lived… was far more advanced than the empire. There was no such thing as a God of high priesthood, but there were religions similar to those. Of course, that religion was not the state religion. It was a country with freedom of religion. There was such a thing as advanced ‘science Science… Well, it’s a little difficult for me to explain. think it’s a science that clearly reveals certain truths that make up the world.”

Anakin was silently listening to me. I pondered for a moment about what to say.

“There was no class system there. There was no king or nobility. No, there are countries, but at least where I lived, a person called ‘president’ ruled the country, not a king. They were hand-picked by people once every few years.”

“What do you share in your degradation when you lose your identity? Don’t you share the distinction?”

“Similar to this country, money was used to scrutinize the world. Those who accumulated wealth lived with power. And, unlike Eris, I was poor and ordinary in that world.”

He closed his eyes and asked me.

“Did you have any family?”

“There was. Mother, father, younger brother. It was like this in my family. I hated it because it was all messy… Now that I think about it, I think they were quite harmonious and friendly.”

“Do you mind if I ask you why you didn’t like them?”

“At that time, I thought I was being discriminated against. My parents tried to give my brother something better than me.”

Then I suddenly stopped talking and corrected myself.

“No, I thought I was discriminated against. Even if it wasn’t my parents, my parents’ close friends or relatives… Ah, I didn’t stop them, so maybe my parents thought the same thing.”

They gave praise to my brother when he cooked pancakes or did housework, but if I didn’t, I was considered ‘spoiled’. Of course, I didn’t like the tone that an older sister should do it. So I deliberately passed on my age to my younger brother.

They used to tease me about what I would do with the housework when I got married, but I thought it was something to think about then.

That’s why I ran away.

TL/rant: this is my most favourite chapter. I always wanted a plot where the MC shares about the earth and about the people of earth to the male lead. I have read a similar plot (scene) in these novels/manhwa.

1. Pharaoh’s Concubine 2. KTV