The Masked Princess and the Transmigrator
“That’s a very convenient excuse.” The vermilion eyes behind the mask curved into crescents. It was a mocking tone, yet it held a strange mixture of a child’s pure playfulness and a detachment that suggested she had transcended all worldly concerns. Her relaxed demeanor, as if she were savoring my flustered state, made me wonder if she was truly just a child. I had transmigrated, so my mind was that of an adult, but Soleia was entirely a child in spirit. She was royalty, through and through. The sheer force with which she drew people into her own pace was genuine.
‘Well, that’s certainly part of it, but…’ I briefly shifted my gaze to the mask covering half of Soleia’s face. Recalling the settings of the webtoon, she had suffered through things far too heavy for a young child to bear, all hidden behind that elaborate mask. It was no wonder her personality had become so detached, or perhaps even twisted. It wasn’t quite pity; it was more of a bitter empathy I felt as a human living in this harsh romance-fantasy world.
But that was one thing, and figuring out how to handle this immediate situation was another. A convenient excuse. Soleia couldn’t possibly know my true identity, but her words hit home. I had indeed been hiding behind the convenient shield of “amnesia,” deceiving my parents and adapting to this world without raising suspicion. Feeling the sting of truth, I was momentarily struck dumb. Still, I worried that a prolonged silence would only invite more suspicion, so I opened my mouth to say something, but Soleia cut me off first.
“Just kidding, I’m just kidding! Hahaha! Your expression is truly a masterpiece!” She burst into light laughter. The pressure from moments ago had vanished; what stood before me now was nothing more than a child, genuinely amused by my flustered face. The blue butterflies fluttered around her, dancing in sync with her laughter.
‘…She really is no ordinary kid.’ I barely managed to suppress a dry laugh at her cunning ability to manipulate me. I had prided myself on having an adult’s mental fortitude, but I simply couldn’t adapt to the pace of this detached yet mischievous princess.
It was while Cassian was struggling to keep up with Soleia’s pace. Though she had spoken playfully, she was observing Cassian with a strange intensity. In truth, Soleia knew. Her insight was so sharp that she had instantly realized every gesture, every movement of his eyes, and every flick of his fingers were different from “that time.” No matter how much a body grew or a mind matured, habits were hard to change. In that sense, the Cassian that Soleia observed was like a completely different person; there wasn’t a single thing that matched the Cassian she had met before.
‘On top of that, he seems to have become a bit softer.’ To put it kindly, his arrogance had diminished. Soleia felt a growing, inexplicable suspicion.
‘Did he really lose his memory?’ But could a person change so much just from losing their memory? Unlike the expressionless, cold gaze he used to have, he was now just wearing a gentle, ambiguous smile. It was as if he hadn’t just lost his memory, but had been replaced by someone else entirely. Soleia looked Cassian over, much like one would examine a curious creature. Cassian could not hide his embarrassment at her scrutiny. Inside, he had no idea how to treat this poor child. To make matters worse, she was an Imperial Princess, making her an incredibly difficult person for Cassian to deal with.
After a moment of silence, Soleia slowly circled him and spoke.
“It’s truly strange. The tremor in your eyes, even that clumsy habit of fidgeting with your fingers when you’re flustered… it’s completely different from the version I knew.”
Soleia kept a playful smile, but her vermilion eyes shone sharply, as if digging into the depths of Cassian’s soul. Cassian was startled inwardly at being hit so close to the mark, but he didn’t show it, instead offering a kind smile as he spoke.
“Haha. They say people change when they lose their memory, don’t they? I suppose I’m just one of those cases.”
Even after saying it, he felt the excuse was weak and unconvincing, so he quickly added, “I’ve been trying my best, too. I heard I used to have a cold personality, so I’ve been trying to fix that.”
He tried to appear as natural as possible. However, anyone who knew Cassian—like Kalia—would have immediately felt it was unnatural. It was a smile crafted by an adult’s mental strength, but the princess before him seemed poised to tear through that smile and expose the bewilderment beneath.
Soleia narrowed her eyes at his poor excuse, staring at him intently. Blue butterflies crossed between them, casting a dreamlike light.
“You tried to fix your personality? That arrogant Cassian Valenvalt?” Soleia let out a playful scoff, as if she couldn’t believe it. “That’s a truly bizarre thing. To act like a saint just because you lost your memory…”
Perhaps something didn’t sit right with her, as Soleia fiddled with her mask while she spoke. “But well, if the young master of Valenvalt says he changed his personality through effort, then yes, I suppose it’s possible for a person to seem like they’ve been replaced.”
Soleia’s voice still held a playful tone, but her detached, sunken vermilion eyes were watching him, as if testing his reaction.
“Ahaha, that is correct. As expected of Your Highness.” Cassian had no choice but to offer a sheepish laugh and compliment her. However, there was one thing Cassian missed: the slight upward curve of Soleia’s lips.
‘I wonder, if he sees this, will he show a different reaction than before? Or will he give me that same look of disgust?’ Soleia was so curious she couldn’t stand it. An impulse arose to test how this “changed” Cassian before her would react.
“Oh my…” Soleia pretended it was a mistake and applied pressure to the mask she had been holding, letting it fall to the ground. With a light *thud*, the mask dropped onto the grass. The moonlight illuminated her face without reservation. The moment the hidden half of her face was revealed, a silence fell over the garden, as if the air itself had frozen.
Soleia looked at him with an indifferent expression, yet her eyes shone coldly, as if she wouldn’t miss a single change in his complexion. In the past, Cassian would have recoiled in disgust or openly displayed his displeasure. Soleia waited quietly for his reaction, curious to see what eyes this current Cassian—who had lost his memory and was “trying to fix his personality”—would use to look at her.
I saw the mask falling. The way it dropped onto the grass with a *thud* was burned into my vision like slow motion. In that fleeting moment when the mask, which had been sparkling under the moonlight, hid itself among the grass, Soleia’s hidden half-face was revealed without reservation.
A strange silence descended upon the garden. Even the blue butterflies seemed to hold their breath, frozen in mid-air, and only the cool night breeze brushed between us. Soleia stared at me without a single movement. Our vermilion eyes met.
I understood, at least a little. Before I had possessed this body, the original Cassian must have surely shown an emotion akin to disgust. Perhaps, in addition to that emotion, he had even spat out sharp, hurtful words. Judging by the way Soleia was staring at me now, as if testing me, it was safe to assume that was the case. However, I could also understand the original Cassian’s reaction to some extent. Seeing it in a webtoon and facing it in reality were two completely different dimensions.
The half of Soleia’s face revealed under the moonlight was grotesquely alien. The marks spreading over her white skin exuded a presence too intense to be called a mere scar. It was a cruel mark, the kind that would make someone with a weak stomach or no immunity instinctively frown or turn their head away.
But I did not look away. This sight, which the old Cassian would have recoiled from, appeared to me now as nothing more than evidence of the cruel time a young girl had been forced to endure.
‘Right. This was the trickery of a romance-fantasy novel.’ My fist clenched. In the silence, Soleia’s vermilion eyes seemed to tremble ever so slightly. She seemed to be waiting for me to cast a look of contempt, or perhaps to utter some fake, performative pity. But I simply stared at her eyes in silence, then slowly shifted my gaze to the mask on the ground.
Would I turn my head in disgust like the old Cassian, or would I offer some hollow sympathy? Soleia stood proudly, as if she wouldn’t miss any ugly reaction I might show. I simply opened my eyes, reached down, and picked up the mask that had fallen to the ground.
The “disgust” or “contempt” that Soleia had expected had no room to enter my mind. I slowly raised my head and met Soleia’s eyes directly.
‘If this is pity, then I suppose it is.’ Even so, I reached out. Yes, this feeling was a sense of kinship born from being caught in the same web of this romance-fantasy world. Amidst a mixture of pity and kinship, I held the mask out to Soleia.