Chapter 25
Chapter 25
She didn't report to the Chairwoman? So the Chairwoman doesn't know about the strange way I've been acting over the past two days?
......Why?
Well, not that I'm complaining. It's definitely better for me if she isn't reporting to the Chairwoman. I don't want to spend my time in this body like a prisoner, unable to do anything. That's exactly why I've been sneaking out and running around like this.
But that doesn't mean I wasn't prepared for the consequences. I always figured I'd have to clash with the Chairwoman eventually.
I don't know what kind of character Yang Hye-in was in the original story. She was probably the type who wouldn't even appear unless you were on the Ye Sa-ra Route, so it's not surprising I only met her after I came here. Even if she did appear, I doubt she had a CG or a properly displayed name.
"Why?"
When I pressed further, Yang Hye-in, who had seemed frozen for a moment, finally looked at me.
"......."
But her expression showed she still didn't know how to answer.
"I just... I simply felt that was what I had to do."
Yang Hye-in's answer was, in many ways, quite surprising. The Yang Hye-in I had observed until now was the kind of 'cold, emotionless' maid you often see in subculture, someone who barely showed any emotion. If the Ye Sa-ra Route was about rescuing the young lady trapped in a cage, this maid would have been the first wall you'd have to climb.
Ah, right. I've had the feeling that Yang Hye-in worried about Ye Sa-ra in her own way. Whenever I spout nonsense, she looks at me with a hint of worry in her eyes... After all, when I first entered this body, she even deliberately cooled my porridge and spoon-fed me. And she did it so naturally, as if she'd done it many times before.
But I had assumed that was professionalism rather than personal feelings. Maybe the contract stated that Ye Sa-ra had to maintain a minimum standard of health.
"So, you mean you didn't report it because you 'just' felt like you shouldn't?"
When I asked, Yang Hye-in nodded.
There's no such thing as a reason of 'just because.' People use it when they've done something and don't really know why, or when they don't want to tell the real reason. If you dig into it, there's always a real reason buried beneath the 'just because.'
Of course, until the other person tells you the real reason, 'just because' really is just 'just because.' It's an absurdly forced excuse, but it's the kind of clumsy pretext you use when you want to hide something.
Prying any further here probably wouldn't get me an answer.
What did Ye Sa-ra think of Yang Hye-in?
If Ye Sa-ra's memories had flowed into me according to the standard cliché in possession stories, things would be much easier. Even setting aside Ye Sa-ra's opinions of the people around her, simply not knowing how Yang Hye-in has treated Ye Sa-ra over the past few years is a massive problem. It might not blow up right this moment, but the cracks will grow over time.
Since I am not Ye Sa-ra, I can't replicate the actions and mindset of the previous Ye Sa-ra, no matter how hard I try. Yang Hye-in isn't going to ask me why I've changed. Yoon Da-ho and I aren't close enough to exchange pleasantries like that in the first place. And the kids I've started talking to at school only formed relationships with me after enrollment, so I haven't had to put on an act.
The real problem is the Chairwoman.
The one who pushed Ye Sa-ra into this state... presumably.
I can't figure out the exact reason, but the Chairwoman has been watching Ye Sa-ra since she was very young. So she'll be sensitive to any changes in her, especially since she's someone the Chairwoman has managed so meticulously.
"However, Miss."
As I was lost in thought, Yang Hye-in spoke up. Whether it was an act or not, a very faint expression of worry surfaced on her face.
"Even if I didn't report it, the Chairwoman has many ways of finding out what has happened to you."
"......I suppose so."
"And I imagine that if she learns about your actions over the past few days, she will certainly take measures."
"What do you...."
I started to ask 'What measures?' but hastily shut my mouth. This was probably information Ye Sa-ra should have known. It must be related to why Ye Sa-ra had to be a loner throughout middle school.
And honestly, it wasn't hard to guess. She's the chairwoman of a company with an absurd market cap of 3,600 trillion won. On top of that, she inherited the position after Ye Sa-ra's father, the former chairman, died, meaning she's been managing that massive company through family control without any major issues.
Of course, market cap is just the company's assets, and the chairwoman's personal wealth is bound to be much less... but considering Ye Sa-ra alone held 5.7 percent of the market cap, it wouldn't be strange to assume Chairwoman Choi Na-kyung has a similar, if not larger, fortune.
......A fortune worth hundreds of trillions is enough money to persuade people to commit evil deeds.
......And it's more than enough money to bury someone in society.
"I know."
Having thought that far, I answered quietly.
"When will the Chairwoman visit this place next?"
At my question, Yang Hye-in blinked as if slightly flustered. That wasn't an easy expression to see on her sharp features. This was apparently another 'fact that Ye Sa-ra should have known.'
But true to her nature as a professional maid, Yang Hye-in immediately erased the look from her face and answered politely with a slight bow of her head.
"The Chairwoman visits the mansion quarterly. Her next visit is April 1st."
*
Alright.
I can't say I gained specific information, but I did manage to solidify a few certainties.
First, the reason Ye Sa-ra became so isolated is because of the Yujin Group's chairwoman, Choi Na-kyung. It's highly likely that the reason is related to wealth. To isolate Ye Sa-ra by any means, she probably did terrible things to the people around Ye Sa-ra, bought them off, or both.
In other words, there's a high probability that this Choi Na-kyung person is completely insane. It means she's been continuously pulling this crazy crap, going to such massive expense just to torment a single child, ever since Ye Sa-ra was very young.
Second, the Chairwoman visits this mansion once per quarter.
I don't know why. What does it mean that she comes here after destroying Ye Sa-ra's relationships?
......Maybe she deliberately comes to abuse Ye Sa-ra. The night I arrived in this world was January 1st. If Ye Sa-ra had met the Chairwoman during the day, it would roughly explain the bruises on her back. To mentally break Ye Sa-ra, the Chairwoman cuts her off from the world, then visits periodically to inflict physical pain. Through cyclical violence, she imprints who is above and who is below. It's probably something like that.
When the police visited the hospital regarding potential domestic violence, I could roughly guess why the doctor was threatened and high-ranking police officials were mobilized to pull them out. If the perpetrator was the chairwoman of the Yujin Group, it would go beyond a simple scandal and become a weapon their competitors could wield.
A company with that kind of market cap is one where other domestic businesses aren't even truly competitors. From the Chairwoman's perspective, other factions fighting for management control within the same group would be far more threatening than the Homyeong Group.
......Wait.
But in that case, was there no option to simply not go to the hospital in the first place?
If the Chairwoman had abused Ye Sa-ra that severely and wanted to hide the evidence, it would have been far better to just keep her locked up in the mansion rather than go to a hospital. In reality, I didn't have any major issues aside from the bruises back then. Even if a health problem arose, wouldn't it have been better to just call a doctor, hand over a thick envelope of cash, and arrange an at-home visit?
.......
Hmm, I'll have to table this issue. I need more information before I can judge.
Anyway, I now know with certainty that the Chairwoman's next visit is April 1st, so I can treat that as a sort of deadline.
If the Chairwoman somehow catches on to my existence, that deadline could get moved up. And before that even happens, I have to build a minimum line of defense to prevent her from severing all my relationships and isolating me from the world again. This is the 'certainty' I've gained based on the information I heard from Yang Hye-in.
So, what should I do from now on?
I have a few ideas. But they're still a bit vague. I'll refine those as I think them through.
What's urgent right now is Ye Sa-ra's memories.
I could ask Yang Hye-in. But the more I ask, the more she'll suspect me. Even if she doesn't figure out that someone else has entered this body, she could easily imagine scenarios like mental illness or amnesia. If Yang Hye-in makes that judgment and ultimately decides to report to the Chairwoman, I might end up locked away somewhere else before I can do anything.
So, I need to grasp as much as I can on my own, that is, without asking anyone else. At the very least, people who knew me should be able to dismiss me as 'Ye Sa-ra with a changed personality.'
"......."
With that in mind, I pulled out the two most personal items of Ye Sa-ra's that I had hidden deep in a desk drawer.
One was Ye Sa-ra's delusion notebook, and the other was an unopened letter from Ye Sa-ra addressed to the Chairwoman.
After laying them both out on the bed and agonizing for a while, I let out a heavy sigh and picked up the notebook first. I felt guilty. Nobody would want their childhood delusions shown to someone else.
But... given the current situation, it doesn't look like Ye Sa-ra will ever return to this body. And more importantly, I have to survive, don't I?
Steeling my resolve, I opened Ye Sa-ra's delusion notebook.
*
.......
And then, I came to somewhat regret having read it.
No, it wasn't because the delusions inflicted internal injuries on me. Rather, it was because I felt a little guilty about what I had thought when I first looked at this notebook.
Just mindless scribbles from an immature teenage phase. That was all I thought this notebook was.
Yeah, the first few pages were exactly that.
But Ye Sa-ra didn't let those delusions remain as just delusions.
She'd write a sentence, scratch it out with her pen, and rewrite it. Over and over, she refined the text so the sentences weren't awkward or childish. She added descriptions of the characters' actions and appearances between the dialogue. Those descriptions were revised repeatedly to increase the level of completion.
What started as a few short lines of dialogue became a full scene on the later pages. After that, the scenes turned into a story, and then on the pages after that, she built the novel's plot based on that story, recreating the characters from scratch.
Every time I turned a page in that thick notebook, I found the same material rewritten again and again. Each rewrite reinforced the weak story, and the character descriptions became clearer.
In the end, near the back of the notebook, a complete short story had been finished.
So, this wasn't just a delusion notebook. It was a notebook that contained all the planning for a novel Ye Sa-ra had painstakingly written on her own. She had written it with immense sincerity.
A story about a princess trapped in a castle, rescued one day by a vampire who comes for her.
......Honestly, I don't know if it was well-written. I've always liked novels in my own way, but my skills aren't high enough to judge someone else's work. But it was definitely interesting. Unlike the absurd synopsis, both the princess and the vampire had their own stories and reasons for their actions.
Did Ye Sa-ra write this just as a hobby? Did she immerse herself in writing this story just to pass the time because she had nothing else to do?
I lifted my head and looked at the sparsely filled bookshelf. Most of the books were selections from various publishers' collections of world literature. They weren't unified under a single publisher. It seemed Ye Sa-ra chose them intermittently, whenever she had the chance and felt like it.
Had those novels influenced the writing of this story?
Was the princess in this story a character based on herself?
There wasn't a single part of the notebook where Ye Sa-ra's personal thoughts were written directly. This notebook contained only the material needed to complete this untitled novel of hers.
But.
"I didn't want to give up."
As the princess leaves the castle with the vampire at the end, she says this line to the vampire. I got the feeling that this was, perhaps, what Ye Sa-ra herself had wanted to say.
"......."
I closed the notebook. And then, I picked up the letter envelope written 'To Mother.'
I hesitated once more, but eventually let out a small sigh and tore the envelope open.
I took out the letter inside and began to read its contents.