Pursuit (1)
The whole body creaked as if every joint had broken down. I barely swallowed the groan that rose from the sharp pain stabbing through me. My vision was blurry, and my head throbbed. I lacked even the strength to sit up, so I slowly turned my head to look around.
…
It was an ordinary guest room in the Imperial Palace. It seemed someone had carried me inside after I lost consciousness.
I clung to my fading mind and barely pieced together my memories. The confession drug. The mana rampage. And…
“…Luna Winfred.”
To think that drinking a single vial of confession drug could trigger a mana rampage. If this hadn’t happened to me, I wouldn’t have believed it either.
“Haa…”
A sigh escaped at the unexpected turn of events. How much time had passed since I blacked out? What was Diana doing right now, left alone in the mansion?
My mind was too tangled to speak. There was no time to waste here. As I slowly shifted to get out of bed, something caught at my feet.
When I lifted my head slightly, I saw Luna collapsed at the foot of the bed, fast asleep.
…
What the hell is she doing? How long has she been like this?
I blinked blankly. Her face looked quite haggard; it seemed the sight of me coughing up blood and collapsing right in front of her had hit her harder than I thought.
I couldn’t understand it. The woman who had hated Kyle more than anyone else—why was she clinging to me now with such obsession? Simply inheriting memories from the previous round wasn’t enough to explain this cause and effect.
Yes, there had to be a reason. Some hidden circumstance I didn’t know about. Or maybe it was the damn System’s manipulation.
But.
“…Who cares.”
I wasn’t curious. I didn’t want to know. There were more pressing issues demanding my attention right now.
It was already at thirty-five percent. I wanted to erase the progress bar from my mind entirely, but that was impossible. If it reached one hundred percent before I obtained the Holy Relic, I couldn’t even begin to predict how badly things would spiral afterward.
Tsk— I clicked my tongue and was about to stand when—
“Kyle?”
Luna, who had woken at some point, was staring at me with an unreadable expression.
“Are you feeling any better?”
“…”
“Can you hear me? Are your eyes working properly?”
Luna fired questions at me in a restless voice.
“Please… say something, anything…”
I was about to snap at her to get out of the way when—
“Cough—!”
A faint smear of blood stained my hand. The aftereffects hadn’t fully subsided yet. It was fine. This much would resolve itself with a little rest.
But Luna’s face as she looked at me drained of all color, as if she had seen something she shouldn’t have.
“Wait just a moment. Just a moment, please. I’ll call for a physician right away.”
“I’d rather you just move aside.”
“Now that you’re conscious, you need to take medicine—”
“I said it’s not necessary.”
I cut Luna off with a hoarse voice.
“My mana just got a little tangled inside my body.”
“What?”
“It’ll be fine after a few days of rest, so move.”
“……”
A surge of irritation made me frown. Why does she keep showing up and bothering me?
Even if she called a physician now, it wouldn’t help. Mana rampage left no visible external signs of internal damage, so a standard examination couldn’t identify the cause. Besides, the phenomenon of mana rampage itself was extremely rare.
One of the most basic conditions for mana to rampage was the sheer amount of latent mana within the body. With an ordinary mana pool, even a rampage would barely be noticeable.
Kyle’s mana stat was insanely high, after all.
Moreover, the phenomenon of mana rampage hadn’t even been properly researched yet. A physician would only spout formal nonsense about organ damage or incurable disease. All of it would be meaningless.
All I needed was to eat well, rest well, and stabilize my mana. That was it.
That was when—
“……You’re lying.”
“What?”
“You expect me to believe that you collapsed and coughed up blood just because your mana got a little tangled? That absurd excuse?”
Luna asked in a sunken voice, lowering her head. She moved her lips a couple of times before continuing carefully.
“……I know I did unforgivable things to you.”
Her urgent voice trembled.
“This incident. And all the wrongs I committed against you when we were children.”
Luna knelt on the floor.
“All of it…”
Luna Winfred. The sharpest, coldest daughter of the Winfred family.
“All of it… I regret.”
Her voice, on the verge of collapse, begged for atonement.
“…”
Regret. That single short word echoed in my head.
Why is she acting like this?
A sidelong glance showed Luna more sincere than ever. Even if I spat curses I couldn’t take back. Even if I kicked her in a fit of rage. She would probably accept it all in the name of atonement.
It was ridiculous. Every single thing unfolding before my eyes.
“So.”
I paused, then slowly continued.
“What exactly do you want to say?”
Luna squeezed her eyes shut. The corners of her eyes burned red.
“……At first, it was to protect you.”
“To protect me?”
“Yes.”
Luna barely steadied her ragged breathing. After a moment, she slowly began her story.
“While walking down the corridor of the mansion, I happened to overhear the duchess. She was planning to assassinate you the next day.”
“…”
“I was scared. Back then… you were all I had.”
“…”
“So I had no choice but to suggest another method.”
To keep Kyle alive. At least breathing was better than dying a meaningless death.
Then, caught on a trivial pretext, Luna was stripped of her position as family heir. Pushed to her limit at a young age, she ended up making an irreversible mistake.
The story was cliché. Boring enough to make me yawn.
— …It’s a misunderstanding.
— I was young back then, and there were reasons I had no choice.
Luna’s voice echoed faintly in my ears.
I see. So that’s why she clung to Kyle. Because she regretted the past. Because she wanted to escape the boiling guilt. Because after losing everything, Kyle was all she had left.
“…Ha.”
A laugh escaped. It couldn’t be helped.
“Must have been hard.”
“…”
“Suffering all that humiliation just to keep one person alive. No wonder I disgust you.”
“…Kyle.”
Luna called my name in a choked voice. I ignored her and snarled viciously.
“I feel the same way.”
“…”
“Just like you did, I hate you too. To the point of disgust.”
As I continued mockingly, Luna’s face turned deathly pale.
“Why now?”
If she had told me the truth earlier, this tragedy might never have begun.
“You should have just let me die.”
Luna’s face flooded with shock. I knew this was pointless venting. My possession of Kyle’s body, my entrapment in this damned world—none of it had anything to do with her.
That was why I had tried to forget the past and move on. I wasn’t the real Kyle. Obsessing over the situation he had been in would only wear down my own soul.
But even that wasn’t easy. Every pain I had endured in Kyle’s body still felt vividly real in my hands.
Why did I have to fall into Kyle’s body? Why did I have to bear the suffering that should have been his?
And why—
Why had Kyle been born with such a cursed fate?
“The mistake you made when you were young.”
“…”
“Because of that mistake, my life was ruined.”
I knew that even saying these things while occupying Kyle’s body was nothing but meddling. But for some reason, the despair and loneliness I had experienced in his body felt like my own in this moment.
Tears welled in Luna’s reddened eyes. She stood frozen, breathing harshly.
“Luna Winfred.”
Luna’s shocked face shook violently.
“Just looking at your face makes me sick.”
The tears gathered in Luna’s eyes slowly fell. She clutched at her chest, unable to speak.
Whether she did or not, I moved to leave the room. Leaving behind Luna’s stifled sobs, I threw one last remark over my shoulder.
“So live your own life from now on.”
Because I’m leaving this world.
****
I left the Imperial Palace immediately. Most of the ingredients for manufacturing the Elixir would be procured from the imperial family, and on my way out I exchanged brief greetings with Rudine.
It had already been five full days since I left the mansion after ordering Diana to wait. Nothing serious should have happened, but I couldn’t help worrying about her.
After finishing my business, I hurried back to the mansion. It was in such a remote location that I got lost for a while, but it didn’t take long to find it.
As I drew closer, the blurry outline of the mansion gradually became clear.
But…
“Hey, open the door already!”
“Without my lord’s permission, I cannot allow outsiders inside.”
“What are you talking about? The owner of this mansion isn’t your lord—it’s me!”
“That doesn’t matter.”
A woman was squatting in front of the gate, arguing with what sounded like Diana’s voice.
“Huh?”
A moment later, my eyes met the woman who had been shouting for the door to open. It was a familiar face.
“You’re a little late, aren’t you?”
The fallen saintess, Merlin Trivia. She waved her hand playfully with a bright smile.