ICSF 02

CHAPTER 02

They meet in the Imperial Capital—the capital of the empire where I live.

Since their conversation consisted of little more than each person saying whatever they wanted without any proper flow, there were gaps here and there, but it was still possible to infer the general gist.

The person they called the male lead was an esper. He could wield extraordinary powers such as magic and spirits, but he was also someone who inspired fear in everyone.

‘It’s not the position itself that makes people afraid.’

People were afraid of espers even when the espers themselves had done nothing wrong. How should I put it? Perhaps it was similar to the feeling of seeing a predator.

Just as anyone would naturally be afraid if they encountered a tiger or a wolf while walking down the road.

They said people instinctively recoiled from them.

The feeling of being watched when you were alone.

The sound of another person’s footsteps following you as you walked through a secluded area.

The sight of deep water so vast and unfathomable that it would be difficult to escape once you fell in.

The sensation of being pushed over the edge of an impossibly high cliff and helplessly plummeting downward, with nothing within reach to grab onto.

The feeling of becoming an insignificant creature in the presence of some enormous, godlike being…

All of these emotions, compressed and concentrated until they turned pitch-black, were the fear that could be felt from an esper.

“Well… I’ve never actually seen one myself.”

At least, that was what I had heard from people who had encountered them.

Perhaps it was like encountering an entirely different species. Ordinary people supposedly felt an incomprehensible terror in their presence, to the point that it was nearly impossible to stand against them.

However, most espers either remained stationed at the Imperial Palace, served in the frontier regions, or appeared on battlefields when war broke out.

Since I had no connection to any of those three places, it wasn’t strange that I had never encountered an esper until now.

“Anyway… the female lead is special.”

Tap, tap, tap.

My finger tapped the words female lead written on the note.

In a world where everyone feared espers, she was the only person who could interact with them normally.

Not only could she have conversations with them, she could even make physical contact with them, such as holding their hands.

That was why the male lead inevitably became obsessed with her.

She was the only warmth he could feel in the entire world.

Of course, espers themselves weren’t afraid of one another, so it wasn’t entirely accurate to call her his only source of warmth…

‘But they generally don’t like one another.’

Perhaps you could call it hatred of their own kind.

I had heard that they got along terribly, to the point that their greatest expression of affection was indifference.

I had even heard that the occasional incidents in which the Imperial Palace was damaged or destroyed were caused by espers confronting one another…

Anyway, for reasons like that, the female lead became the male lead’s only light—a treasure he never wanted anyone else to take away.

But would she be a treasure only to the male lead?

The female lead could make contact with other espers besides him.

Naturally, the espers’ heads were bound to be turned by her, and so, according to the main prophecy, her life eventually became filled with obsession, kidnapping, and confinement.

‘Tsk, tsk.’

I clicked my tongue.

In the gods’ conversation, they never clearly revealed the names of the female lead, male lead, or the other people who appeared.

‘They were all just referred to as the male lead, female lead, red-haired guy, purple-eyed freak, crazy bastard…’

Thanks to my unusual middle name, I was fortunate enough to have even a part of my name revealed.

In any case, it was pitiful that the female lead’s future looked so dark and uncertain, but it had nothing to do with me.

It wasn’t my life.

If I at least knew her name, I could perhaps make discreet contact with her and warn her to be careful.

All I knew about the female lead was that in the year 224, she would be working as a maid in the Imperial Palace and become entangled with the male lead.

“Hmmm…”

As I organized everything like this, my suspicion that I might actually be insane gradually disappeared.

The fact that the people having the conversation were so varied, as well as the fact that their words fit together perfectly, finally dispelled my doubts.

If I were truly losing my mind, the words should have been nothing more than a nonsensical jumble.

Instead, this felt like a conversation summarizing an entire play.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the talent to come up with something like this myself.

That realization eased my mind somewhat.

Although I had learned about the future through some miraculous and inexplicable event, it was four years from now, and it wasn’t even my future.

Naturally, I was losing interest.

Besides, if I interfered in someone else’s romance, the best I could expect was three drinks, and at worst, three slaps to the face.

I had no desire to meddle unnecessarily and end up hated by those terrifying beings known as espers.

“What should I do with this?”

I pinched the notes I had written for reference and waved them back and forth as I pondered.

It was a miracle I might never experience again in my lifetime, so part of me wanted to keep them.

But another part of me feared that if I were caught possessing something like this, divine punishment might descend upon me.

After agonizing over it, I eventually burned the papers, destroying all the evidence.

‘I’ll just keep it as a memory in my head.’

With that thought, I shook the remaining ashes out the window and tried to forget the prophecy.

It was a prophecy that was completely useless to my life, after all.

‘But something feels strange…’

As I watched the ashes flutter gently downward, an uneasy feeling lingered in my heart.

“Why was I mentioned in the first place?”

I had absolutely no connection to the lives of the female and male leads.

So why had I appeared in their conversations, with even my name being mentioned?

The question remained lodged in my mind, like a bothersome hangnail.

In any case, as long as people were alive, they had no choice but to keep moving forward, and emotions inevitably faded with time.

By now, that uneasiness had faded into little more than a faint trace.

‘It would be different if it were my own business, but this concerns someone else.’

I was still curious about why I had been able to peek into the words of the gods, but just as before, it was difficult to ask anyone about it.

‘It’s not as though I can go to a temple and say, “This happened to me…” and ask them about it.’

I would be lucky if they didn’t simply label me mentally ill.

So I decided to forget about that extraordinary experience.

If only nothing else had happened that day.

I dressed myself up carefully from early in the morning and climbed into the carriage waiting at the main gate.

The carriage bore the family crest prominently on its side and was so lavish that even from a distance, anyone could tell it belonged to the House of Count Estarotte.

I leaned back against the seats, which were softer than most sofas, and gazed outside with a face full of anticipation.

It was the day I met my fiancé once a month.

“Hm-hm, hm.”

I hummed softly as I thought about my fiancé.

Pedro Sachsen.

He was the legitimate eldest son of the Viscount House of Sachsen, and, to be honest, his family wasn’t particularly impressive.

‘Regardless of his family background, Pedro is a person who shines.’

I couldn’t see my own face to confirm it, but whenever I thought of Pedro, I was probably wearing a dreamy, lovestruck expression.

I had fallen for him at first sight when I met him during a family trip as a child, and I begged my parents to let me become engaged to him immediately.

The circumstances of the House of Viscount Sachsen weren’t particularly favorable compared with the House of Count Estarotte, one of the wealthiest families in the empire.

But no one could refuse the request of a daughter who had been born into the family for the first time in a hundred years.

In the end, we became engaged on the condition that he would marry into my family as a son-in-law once we became adults.

I had two older brothers and one younger brother, so bringing in a son-in-law was highly unusual.

Normally, a family only brought in a son-in-law when their daughter was going to inherit the household.

But my parents didn’t want their precious daughter to leave their side, nor did they want me to marry into a backward territory like Sachsen and suffer there.

If Pedro married into my family as a son-in-law, then despite being the legitimate eldest son, he would be unable to inherit his family’s territory.

He would be transferring from the Sachsen domain to the Estarotte domain, after all…

Within their own territories, lords were practically kings.

It was an extreme example, but with a single gesture, a lord could easily take someone’s life, and even if he did, no one could punish him.

Pedro had lost the chance to inherit such a position because of one childish act of stubbornness on my part.

So it wasn’t as though he looked at me fondly.

“At least he’s gotten a little better lately…”

Because of the way the people of House Estarotte treated him, he had never actually struck me, but his attitude toward me had been unbearably cold.

Fortunately, perhaps his feelings had changed recently, because he wasn’t as cold as he used to be.

“…I should try harder.”

I had always heard him say that I had ruined his life.

So I had to make up for it by doing everything I could for Pedro’s happiness.

Anything.

It was while I was gazing out the window with a slightly gloomy expression that it happened.

[I’m Getting Off at This Translation]

Oh, for fuck’s sake ㅡㅡ That stupid idiot is back again.

Once again, a translucent panel containing the gods’ words appeared before my eyes.

└ [Send the Trashy Car to the Junkyard]

I’m――――――seriously so sick of this. How long are you going to keep stuffing us with nothing but sweet potatoes?

└ [I’m Getting Off at This Translation]

Exactly! How many times has this happened now? I swear I’m going to beat the shit out of this bastard…… And now, on top of everything else, an illegitimate child? A six-year-old, too? Hahahahahahahaha. (Dies of high blood pressure.)

My fingertips turned cold even though I hadn’t touched ice.

For a noblewoman, especially, the word illegitimate child was enough to send a chill through my heart.

And the name written before it was…

‘Jwo-Paedro? Pedro… It can’t be him. It must just be a coincidence that all three syllables are the same.’

Hadn’t they only ever prophesied about the female and male leads before?

Although my own name had occasionally been mentioned in passing, it had never been the subject of discussion.

So surely this had nothing to do with me either.

└ [Send the Trashy Car to the Junkyard]

It’s the year 225 right now, isn’t it? The male and female leads went on a winter trip together and watched the sunrise.

But if the child is six years old, then including the pregnancy, that’s roughly seven years…

So he cheated in 218, right?

└ [I’m Getting Off at This Translation]

I knew this would happen ㅡㅡ He brushed off the previous four mistresses like some saint, but now he’s finally filled the quota with five—and got an illegitimate child as a bonus lol. I. CAN’T. TAKE. THIS. ANY. MORE. AUTHOR-NIM!!! ༼ง=ಠ益ಠ=༽ง

└ [M/M Mathematics Academy Director M/M]

LOL, why haven’t you dropped it yet? Last time Lovely showed up and the sweet-potato frustration started, you said you were going to quit reading lol.

└ [I’m Getting Off at This Translation]

Exactly! Why didn’t I quit? Fuck, why am I getting this angry over some extra character’s problems instead of the male and female leads? ༼ง=ಠ益ಠ=༽ง

“Ah…”

When my own name was finally mentioned, I could no longer suppress the dizziness.