SPRFG 06

Chapter 6

Prologue (6)

Jua-iye’s voice trembled. The string of words, made up of only a few words, was too fragile to contain so many emotions, and it seemed as though it could break apart at any moment.

If she had to give those thoughts a name, the strongest one was impatience. Even when she had another name, Jua-iye had never had the temperament of a gambler. If she was going to gamble, she had to consider every piece of evidence she could gather before making a judgment. Because of that, she sometimes took too long before revealing her own hand like this.

‘This world is a stage, and all people are actors. Everyone has their own exits and entrances.’

Based on the world Jua-iye had known, more than three hundred years had passed since Shakespeare had sung those words in his play. The idea that the world was one enormous play or novel was so common that it could be called a cliché.

In fact, from her point of view, that made the world easier to understand. If an all-powerful god had created the world, there was no way to explain why the world was so imperfect.

People created reasons to cause disagreements and conflicts, and even the things considered the most beautiful and good had ugliness and evil hidden behind them. Just as even if you cut a coin thinly, there would still be a back on the front and a front on the back, if you tried to hold only nobility in your hand, its lowliness would end up staining your palm as well.

Could this world be some unfinished result, written by a being as perfect as humans and as imperfect as humans, doing its best even if it could never reach perfection?

When she had her other name, she had never once thought that the place where she lived might be inside a novel. She had read many stories about children who opened a wardrobe and entered another world, or people who lost consciousness in an accident and woke up in another world. But those ‘other worlds’ always had magic and monsters, protagonists and villains, adventures and journeys.

There had been no reason for her to think about such things while living a life that had been so ordinary she could barely remember it. If she had not woken up one day to find herself the precious daughter of a ducal family in a world where there was no dragon but there was magic, she would have had a little less of a headache from such thoughts.

At first, she thought that being reborn as a completely new person in another world was a chance at a second life. A young and beautiful body, a wealthy family overflowing with love—those things were so tempting that she wanted to believe her previous life had been a dream and this was her real life. When she thought this was an opportunity not given to everyone, she even wondered if she really was the protagonist of some novel.

Perhaps it had been fortunate that she learned early on that many people had either possessed the bodies of people in this world or been reborn here after reading romance-fantasy novels in Korea. From the memories of her previous life, she also realized that she had never been someone who was meant to enjoy such things, and she gave up on the idea early.

But it seemed Ritorna could not give up like that.

She asked,

“Wait? Are you Korean too?”

“Uh… yeah. It happened that way.”

Jua-iye answered each question despite feeling uncomfortable. Perhaps because she was happy to meet someone she could relate to, Ritorna suddenly grabbed Jua-iye’s hand.

Jua-iye’s shoulders trembled.

The hand of someone who had stabbed a person to death was touching her…

Without realizing it, Jua-iye slowly pulled Ritorna’s hand away. Ritorna smiled as if she understood.

“So that’s why you suddenly ran away from home.”

“That’s right.”

Jua-iye admitted it obediently.

From the morning she had suddenly opened her eyes in the body of ‘Aiolia da Almad el Core,’ she had done her best in her own way to adapt. If nothing had happened, she would probably still be living as Aiolia without ever running away from home.

She had been able to run away precisely because she was not really Aiolia but a person from twenty-first-century South Korea. A true noble lady could never make up her mind to run away from home, abandon her name and family, and build a life of her own no matter what happened.

“It’s nice to meet you. Now we can become even closer friends.”

“Ah… uh… yeah.”

Ritorna smiled. Jua-iye answered awkwardly, while thinking something else inside.

How can I bring the murder case back into the conversation? I wasn’t summoned here at this hour just to have a Korean friendship meeting.

She glanced back. Lieutenant Kunsi was staring at the back of Jua-iye’s head with an expression that clearly said, What on earth are those young ladies talking about?

When their eyes met, he hurriedly looked away.

“I was twenty-three years old. I was preparing to find a job, and after I was fired from the place where I worked part-time, I got into a traffic accident on my way home. When I woke up, I had become Ritorna. What about you?”

The Korean Confucian spirit inside Jua-iye began to boil.

Hey, just because I look like I’m the same age as you doesn’t mean my actual age is the same, okay? Call me older sister. I was twenty-seven by Korean age, so I’m at least four years older than you.

But what had happened before she possessed Aiolia…

“I don’t remember. Really. I want to tell you too, but I don’t remember anything.”

“……”

Jua-iye said it. Ritorna gave another small laugh. It seemed as though she was saying not to lie.

I really don’t remember, so what do you want me to do? If I could remember, I’m the one who most wants to know what happened that turned me, a citizen of the free and democratic Republic of Korea, into the precious daughter of a powerful noble family in the Ilgentavita Empire.

I’m so curious I’m going crazy.

“Anyway… since I don’t remember what kind of person I was in Korea either… let’s return to the original subject. You killed the maid, didn’t you?”

“……”

“What was the maid’s name?”

“……”

Ritorna closed her mouth again.

Is she exercising her right to remain silent?

Jua-iye began to understand why Lieutenant Kunsi had brought her here, thinking that Ritorna would at least talk to an old close friend.

Should she use their common ground of being Korean to get through to her?

By now, Jua-iye herself was so curious that she could hardly stand it. Had Ritorna really killed the maid? And why had she killed her?

She stared silently at Ritorna, who kept her mouth shut, then turned her eyes toward the report on the table. She flipped through the paper and read the name she saw.

“Cerlina?”

“Shut up!”

The dead maid’s name was Cerlina. Ritorna shouted as if she could not even bear to hear her name.

Just as Jua-iye was about to ask again—

“If you keep saying her name like that, her importance as a character will increase. If a character’s importance increases, the possibility of becoming the protagonist also increases.”

Ritorna was extremely serious when she said it.

Jua-iye blinked in disbelief and said again,

“Cerlina. Cerlina. Cerlina. Cerli—”

“Stop it!”

Ritorna suddenly stood up.

Jua-iye also stood up.

Fortunately, there was nothing in the room that could be used as a weapon. Jua-iye grabbed Ritorna and made her sit down again.

Looking straight into her eyes, she asked,

“Did you kill that maid because of this?”

Ritorna did not answer.

Inside Jua-iye’s mind, an argument unfolded between a duke’s daughter and a maid—two people who believed they had come from outside the world of the novel and that this novel’s world existed for their sake.

If that was the case, then all the more reason to tell her that the maid’s name had been Cerlina.

Wouldn’t it be sad if she appeared as a character in the novel but never even had her name mentioned, being referred to only as ‘her,’ ‘that maid,’ or ‘the victim’?

She was already dead, so she would never appear again.

“Yeah.”

Ritorna admitted it.

Jua-iye turned toward Lieutenant Kunsi.

Ritorna was speaking.

“Now that you know everything, this will go quickly. Aiolia, let me speak directly to His Highness the Crown Prince. Once I become the Crown Princess, I won’t forget your help.”

“Hey, I think you’ve read too much romance fantasy. You seem to be mistaken about being the protagonist of a romance fantasy novel with ‘villainess’ in the title. Usually, only the title is like that. The protagonist is normally pretty human and kind. From the reader’s point of view, there has to be at least some room to sympathize with and relate to her. But you… you’re kind of arrogant, rude, and full of confidence without any basis. I can’t sympathize with you at all, for one thing.”

“What did you say?”

Jua-iye spoke indifferently. Ritorna became angry.

Regardless, Jua-iye continued.

“Did you think, ‘I’ll just kill anyone else who might be the protagonist so I can become certain that I’m the protagonist’? You were just unlucky enough to get caught after killing only one person, your maid Cerlina. If you had successfully covered up this incident, you would have tried to kill other Koreans too, wouldn’t you?”

“……”

“There are sooo many people here who possessed bodies or were reincarnated from Korea that there’s even a Koreatown in the capital. Didn’t you know that? You’re… a bad person. If there were someone who wanted to write a novel with you as the protagonist, they would probably be an inexperienced beginner who had never even read a web novel before.”

“Do you really think I would care about something like that? Look, even you are jealous of me…”

“Why do you want to be the protagonist in the first place? Do you really want to believe that you are a character inside a novel that badly? To be manipulated by some unknown author’s tricks, used for an unknown plot and message, and then thrown away when the story ends… Do you want to give up all the rights to your entire self forever, even after death, just so that only tiny fragments of your actions and personality can be extracted and judged instead of you as a whole person?”

“……”

Jua-iye spoke.

Ritorna did not seem to be listening to her.

But Jua-iye continued.

“If this really is a novel, people will remember you as one of two things. The unfortunate, kind heroine, or the villainess who deserved to die. People will look at only half of you and think they know everything about you.”

“Shut up.”

“Wouldn’t it be better not to be remembered at all rather than be remembered like that? Wouldn’t it be better to leave the right to judge yourself only to yourself and simply remain as one complete human being?”

“I like happy endings.”

Inside the room, where even the sound of their breathing seemed to freeze, the two faced each other.

It was regrettable that time flowed like water without ever stopping or freezing.

Their conversation had to come to an end somehow.

When two people who had no intention of yielding met, the only possible ending was for one side to break.

Jua-iye continued the conversation like a child walking across thin ice.

She could not pull her foot away before it ended.

After all, it was because of curiosity.

“What is a happy ending? People only believe that Cinderella lived happily ever after with the prince. They never think about the possibility that Cinderella might have severe trauma from being abused by her family. Do you want to become that kind of protagonist and have that kind of happy ending?”

Ritorna seemed to be just as curious.

She walked toward Jua-iye.

“I don’t know. But I am certain that if I kill you first, I’ll get closer to becoming the protagonist.”

Ritorna picked up a chair.