Chapter : 07
Unfortunately, perhaps because I was just an insignificant ordinary person, there wasn’t much I could remember.
If I had known the future would turn out like this, I would have memorized every single word as carefully as I memorized English vocabulary!
‘Anthony, blessed by God, had divine power. There were hardly any spirit mages as powerful as Serena in the story, and that was why Serena had the dignity of the protagonist. At the academy…’
My fingers, which had been scribbling down the information I remembered, suddenly stopped.
But how had Alexei ended up entering the academy?
‘I thought he only went because he was following Serena… How did he get permission to enroll? Was it because he was a high-ranking noble?’
The academy supposedly only accepted outstanding students, but how many outstanding commoners could there really be in this era?
Only people who had the opportunity could even study.
The reason Serena, a commoner, received an academy admission letter was because she was a spirit mage.
‘At the academy, Alexei had excellent grades and outstanding swordsmanship, as befitted a male lead candidate… I think.’
Those were basic requirements unless he was a sickly male lead.
In a romance-fantasy novel, a male lead candidate being talented, powerful, and handsome was a given, so there was no way I could remember every obvious detail.
‘The problem is that I can’t even remember the things that aren’t obvious…’
I agonized over it, but nothing more about Alexei came to mind beyond what I had already written down.
‘First, I should find Serena.’
Dear protagonist, even if I have to grab onto your pants and stretch them until they tear, please show me mercy and take me in! I’ll be loyal to you for the rest of my life!
It hurts.
It hurts.
It hurts so much.
My entire body was being crushed and torn apart, with blood pouring out through the wounds.
My body was burning hot as if it were on fire, yet at the same time, it was rapidly becoming cold enough to freeze from the chill of the ground beneath me.
Desperate to survive somehow, I opened my eyes.
Through my barely opened field of vision, I could see blood scattered across the black asphalt, my bag, and that book…
“…Renny, if this continues, you’ll…”
The book lay open on the ground, gradually becoming stained red with my blood.
Amid the intense pain that felt as though it were burning my entire body from within, I could barely focus on the scattered pages.
I…
I want to live.
If there is even the slightest chance I can survive, please, anything is fine.
Please…!
“……Gasp!”
I let out a desperate breath.
‘It hurts…!’
No.
It didn’t hurt.
It had hurt.
I had been suffering through horrible pain.
In a dream.
‘It was a dream. A nightmare. It’s all over now…’
I whispered to myself that it was over, that everything was fine, desperately trying to calm my racing heart.
However, perhaps I had been paralyzed in my sleep, because even moving a single finger felt impossible.
As my eyes slowly opened, what I saw was not the familiar ivory wallpaper with raised patterns in my room.
Instead, there were translucent lace curtains and intricately carved bedposts.
‘What?’
There was nothing like that in my room.
As my vision gradually became clearer, I saw an unfamiliar, foreign-looking room.
A carpet covering the floor.
Exotic and magnificent-looking furniture.
A huge fireplace with a tapestry hanging above it…
‘Where am I?’
My body trembled as I stared at the dark, unfamiliar, excessively spacious room.
‘Is this another dream? Is the dream continuing? Is that moment when I was in unbearable pain, when I felt like I was dying, going to happen again?’
My breathing became ragged.
‘I have to escape. I have to get out of here. I don’t want to feel that pain again. Next time, I might really die!’
Trembling violently, I forced my body upright as though I were lifting a thousand-pound weight.
“……!”
The sensation of the carpet beneath my feet felt incredibly real.
“……No.”
I couldn’t trust my senses in a dream.
I’d seen it in movies, too.
A world so realistic that you couldn’t even realize you were dreaming.
Taking deep breaths, I looked around.
Then I froze when I saw an antique full-length mirror.
‘That’s me.’
There was no denying it.
It was unmistakably my reflection.
But the person in the mirror wasn’t wearing the pajamas I normally slept in.
Instead, I was wearing a long white dress.
I had never worn clothes like that even once.
There wasn’t a single dress in my house made for me.
What kind of nightmare is this now?
“Gasp, gasp…”
By the time I came to my senses, I was already running out of the room.
No matter how far I ran, the unfamiliar space continued endlessly.
My vision gradually blurred, and fear seeped out through my eyes as tears.
‘Where am I?’
No matter how far I ran, I couldn’t find anywhere I recognized.
A long corridor lined with thick marble pillars.
Portraits that looked as though they belonged in a horror game.
Marble decorations that became even more terrifying in the darkness.
‘The corridors I know aren’t like this.’
Unlike the cramped, suffocating spaces at school, this place, shrouded in darkness, felt as though it could open its mouth and swallow me whole at any moment.
“Gasp, gasp. Hek!”
The sound of my ragged breathing rang in my ears.
My feet, which had been running like crazy, tangled together.
My body collapsed in an instant.
I instinctively covered my head.
Pain shot through me as my body slammed into the floor.
It hurts.
It’s cold.
The sharp, freezing pain brought me back to my senses.
‘Ah. Right.’
I had transmigrated.
I was possessed into this world.
I forced strength into my trembling arms and somehow managed to raise myself.
‘I’m Cassandra. An extra who appears toward the latter half of the story and dies almost immediately.’
The protagonist of the story was Serena Cotton.
The male lead she chose was Anthony Lionhearts.
The two of them met at the academy, where Anthony entered under the name Anthony Brown to conceal his identity as a prince.
And then…
‘Alexei.’
The male lead who wasn’t chosen.
The worst villain.
A devil who seized power by killing his own family for the sake of love.
‘…And the person who will kill me someday.’
As I realized the reality of my situation, I consciously breathed in and out.
Air entered my panicking brain, and little by little, I felt myself returning to my senses.
‘Calm down. Calm…’
As I slowly raised my head, my body suddenly stiffened.
Golden eyes, vividly shining in the darkness, were staring directly at me.
My body trembled violently.
I couldn’t think of anything.
‘It’ was enormous.
It looked easily over three meters tall.
The muscles of its thighs were as thick as a horse’s, covered in black fur.
At the ends of its legs were countless vicious claws, sharp like those of a wild beast.
Unlike its beast-like lower body, its upper body was built with the powerful muscles of a human male.
Somehow, that made it even more grotesque.
Its hands, attached to muscular arms covered in bulging muscles, did not look remotely human.
Black veins protruded vividly beneath its skin, extending into fingers tipped with pitch-black, razor-sharp claws.
And then…
[Growl.]
A beastly growl echoed through the room.
The snout that produced the sound was pointed.
Inside its open mouth were rows of savage animal teeth.
And above its head were enormous horns.
They were curved and ridged like those of a mountain goat, incredibly thick with razor-sharp tips.
Beneath them were its eyes.
Golden eyes that glowed fiercely as they stared at me.
A monster.
A demon.
It felt like only yesterday that I had thought such things didn’t exist.
And yet one was standing right in front of me.
How had Cassandra managed to scream and run away?
I was so terrified, so utterly terrified, that I couldn’t even move a finger.
[Cassandra…]
It even knew my name.
My name.
It reached a hand toward me.
Sharp, thick claws came close to my face.
My body trembled violently, but I couldn’t even move my lips.
The hand came closer and closer.
Everything seemed to move slowly, like a montage of memories flashing before someone’s death.
Am I going to die like this?
Wasn’t I supposed to die much later?
The hand approached my face, but I couldn’t dodge it.
I couldn’t even avert my gaze from those fierce golden eyes.
How could I possibly…
…Golden eyes?
“Ah… Alexei?”
Golden eyes.
Those eyes were the same as Alexei’s.
I muttered his name in a daze.
The hand approaching my face froze the moment it heard that name.
From its reaction, I instinctively realized.
‘That’s Alexei.’
How?
How was that possible?
Was that demon-like thing, that hideous monster, really Alexei?
I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
‘That Alexei, whose appearance was practically angelic…?’
But when I called Alexei’s name again, the monster contorted its already grotesque face into something even more twisted.
Even though its reaction was an unmistakable confirmation, I still couldn’t believe it.
“Why…”
Why did he look like that?
Why…?
I couldn’t understand it at all.
All I could do was stare.
At the heir of the Clayman ducal family.
At the monster he had become.
[…Get lost.]
That voice didn’t resemble the beautiful voice of the boy who had mocked me at dinner even slightly.
It was an unpleasant sound, like iron scraping against iron.
“Why… Why are you like this?”
[Shut up!]
At the growl, my collapsed body toppled backward.
“A-Alexei…”
[I said shut up!]
The monster’s hand seized my upper body.
Its fingers were as thick as my forearm.
The sensation of them wrapping around my body was so horrifying that my jaw trembled and my teeth began to chatter.
When his hand tightened around me, I couldn’t breathe.
My legs gradually lifted from the floor and began swinging helplessly in the air.
He lifted me up and brought me close to his face.
His grotesque face.
His beast-like teeth.
His elongated snout.
They were so close that they seemed about to touch me.
Even though the face of that disgusting, terrifying monster was right in front of me, I couldn’t look away.
Those golden eyes.
At the center of the bloodshot eyes, golden patterns shimmered and writhed like boiling lava.
[Get lost!]
With those words, I was dropped back onto the floor.
Only after my body hit the ground did I realize that my eyes were no longer meeting those golden eyes.
I could sense Alexei—the monster—moving away.
But I couldn’t obey his roar telling me to get lost.
Until that enormous monster disappeared completely, I couldn’t move even a single finger.
I simply stared at him.
Because I couldn’t do anything else.
“……Hanna.”
“Yes?”
The maid tilted her head at my call.
Her face was bright and gentle.
‘It wasn’t a dream.’
I had waited without sleeping a wink until Hanna came.
‘I’m scared.’
I couldn’t sleep at all.
Yet now that I was looking at her face, I found it difficult to ask.
Last night, Alexei…
That monster had growled loudly while smashing pillars.
He had roared at me again and again.
“Are you feeling unwell? Shall I call the priest?”
Hanna looked at my face with concern.
Could she really not have heard those sounds?
Why had she told me not to go outside at night?
“You have a fever…”
Looking at her worried face, I suddenly wanted to ask.
Did you know?
“……I’m fine. I’ll feel better if I get some rest.”
“No! You only just recovered… I’ll go tell the Duchess.”
As Hanna left through the door, I slowly got up and slipped outside through the open doorway.
Does everyone know?
“Lady Cassandra?!”
I heard someone call my name, but I ignored them and kept walking.
There was something I had to confirm.
Was Alexei really a monster?
‘A setting where he turns into a monster at night? I never read anything like that.’
How could such an important setting not have appeared in the novel?
There was no way I could have forgotten such a terrifying detail!
My steps stopped in front of a pillar.
“Lady Cassandra! Why are you here…?”
The servants were clearing away the remains of the pillar.
‘It wasn’t a dream.’
Hanna…
That meant the servants knew.
And if the servants knew, then naturally the ducal family knew as well.
I had thought dealing with a crazy, murderous, psychopathic villain was already difficult enough.
But he was a monster, too.
‘Is there really anything I can do?’
Someone like me?
My trembling body suddenly ran somewhere.
My feet carried me aimlessly until I came face-to-face with the person I least wanted to see.
And yet, unconsciously, he was the person I had been thinking about over and over.
Bright white sunlight poured over him, making his face seem to glow.
His sharply defined features were clear even from a distance.
A sharp jawline.
A long neck leading to broad shoulders.
The sturdy body of a young man.
He possessed an angelic beauty that bore absolutely no resemblance to the monster from the previous night.
And yet the boy’s hair was black.
Black like a demon of the night.
“A-Alex…”
His golden eyes, beneath long, thick eyelashes, met mine and twisted violently.
The anger that had been suppressed erupted.
His tightly closed mouth opened, revealing gleaming white teeth.
“Get lost! Now!”
The last words he had spoken were repeated again, but in a different voice.
At the resonance of that voice, my body turned around before my mind could even react.
‘Run. I have to run.’
Where?
Behind me came the sound of something breaking.
Screams.
Crying.
Where can I run to?
