If It Were Possible: The Slim Hope That Two Transmigrants Might Exist
The slim possibility that two transmigrants might coexist in this world was so faint it bordered on the ridiculous. The lack of concrete evidence only reinforced my sense that my own situation was far worse than I wanted to admit, and a stubborn refusal to believe it festered deep in my heart.
If Selina had been another transmigrant, her treatment of Lilisciana would have been far from kind. In the novel’s later chapters, when Lilisciana suffered from Cellular Petrification, the fact that Selina was also afflicted proved beyond doubt that Selina had been forced to use the cure that rightfully belonged to Lilisciana. In other words, Selina knew she was destined to die in Lilisciana’s place.
‘Maybe she’s simply spared the guilt because she knows every heroine except the main one ends up broken in this story.’
That was why she had brought up vitamins in front of me. She had been genuinely suspicious of the possibility that I was another transmigrant.
If Selina truly was not, then my words should have been treated with perfect trust. After all, every person in this world had reacted identically the moment I spoke a word that did not exist here.
— Advertisement?
I recalled the TV commercial and the word I had inadvertently used. The response the dean had given me was exactly the same dull, stuttering pronunciation of “광고.”
I had experienced this before, and it helped me understand the mechanism of my language here. Everything appeared and sounded Korean to me, yet the language of this world was not Korean. My Korean words, delivered with meaning, registered to them as this world’s native tongue, while their words came through to me as Korean.
The same held true for what I saw and wrote.
Yes, when I stopped to consider it, the names of people and places here all carried an unmistakably foreign flavor. The probability that this world used Korean was extraordinarily low.
There was no guarantee that the world of a novel written in Korean would actually employ Korean.
Therefore, even after translation, my intended “advertisement” or “vitamin” would reach them in the exact sound I had spoken, and the words they used that I did not understand would arrive to me, untranslated, as Korean.
If Selina showed the slightest reaction, I could have caught even the faintest trace. She was only a mage with no physical combat skills whatsoever, while I had trained to the point where I could sense the micro-tremors of muscle movement and breathing in anyone I faced.
— Vitamins??
Whether fortunate or unfortunate, this was the answer to my growing anxiety.
The lack of even a flicker in her muscles or expression sealed the conclusion: Selina was not a transmigrant.
The relief was immense; the question of whether I would have been able to detect her true intent if she had been one had vanished. Yet the unfortunate side was that, regardless of direct action on my part, my mere presence here was already enough to warp the original story.
“Haa… this is really getting on my nerves.”
I tossed the common supplement I had brought toward Ian with a casual flick of my wrist, then excused myself by claiming urgent business and headed for a quiet bench nearby. I let out a long, weary sigh.
Uuuuung—
Just as if my troubled lament had been answered, Baekya vibrated with a faint resonance.
It was a reaction I only received when no one else was around. The sword that had been trained never to draw attention obeyed my warning perfectly.
“Do you think you know what I’m thinking, huh?”
Born with talent yet fated for tragedy, Baekya was a weapon meant for those who carried such burdens. Even without true understanding, its reactions always brought a faint smile to my lips.
The darkness and uncertainty ahead seemed to recede a little with each vibration.
The one who alone heard my burdens without asking questions was this blade that could not speak but still felt everything.
Uuuuuung—
As if urging me not to ignore it, Baekya shook its blade again, releasing a softer light.
I had not told it everything I knew about this world being a novel, yet I suspected the sword had absorbed enough of my thoughts to realize that, above all else, my troubles centered on Lilisciana.
“Well now, thank you, old friend. You always cheer me up when I need it most.”
To a man with nothing but this blade as his only true companion, I reached out and stroked its handle in gratitude.
“…Uh, Veri.”
Drip. Drip.
The drizzle began, and a single raindrop fell on the back of my hand holding Baekya, shattering like glass.
Then another. And another.
As the rain intensified, the single drop multiplied into a dozen fine streams.
The sudden downpour brought startled screams from students racing for cover.
If this had been the Magic Faculty, most would have raised thin barriers of mana to shield themselves. But in the Swordsmanship Faculty, there were no such mages.
Clack-clack-clack.
The rhythmic hoofbeats of the academy’s circulating carriage drifted from afar.
Immediately, Baekya shook its blade again as if warning me to hurry and find shelter.
“What on earth are you doing here so shamelessly, Berry?”
Even with rain pattering around us, a voice floated down from above—clear, beautiful, and untouched by a single drop of water.
I looked up and saw a carriage that had paused briefly before resuming its journey toward the training grounds, still raining down its whip in perfect rhythm.
Lilisciana stood a short distance away, watching me with worried eyes as the carriage rolled past.
She had probably spotted me on the bench in the middle of the rain while heading to the arena for training in time for the appointment.
Tap.
Lilisciana flicked her wrist, and a thin veil of mana shimmered into existence between us.
“Your Highness the Princess.”
“Do you have some kind of worry on your mind? …No, of course not. There’s no one who doesn’t worry. Let me ask again—do you have something truly heavy on your heart?”
Heavy worries.
In my life, every problem solved only created another. The very thought crossed my mind that I would like to tell her this.
You make me worry. You make me worry for you.
But I could not let such tender emotions show in my eyes, so I simply answered with calm, self-deprecating resignation.
“Just… I wondered whether I was actually doing well.”
“Doing what?”
“Anything.”
To my arrogant—or perhaps foolish—concern, Lilisciana closed her lips tightly for a moment before offering her own opinion.
“When you feel that way, think about who made you who you are now.”
“Who made me… who I am now?”
When I tilted my head in confusion, she nodded.
“Then you’ll understand that such worries are a luxury. The very fact that you can even worry about whether you can do what you set out to do is because of their sacrifice.”
“….”
“No one succeeds through their own efforts alone. There is always someone else—family, friend, lover—who sacrificed so that you could stand here.”
“Then I should find a way to worry less and perform better, right?”
“Are you thinking about a problem that you would actually solve by worrying?”
“….”
Her words struck like arrows straight to the heart. They did not wound. They simply pierced the heart of the matter, leaving me speechless.
No answer existed to the worries I carried. Even if one had, I would never have been able to recognize it.
She gave me a light tap on the chin and continued.
“You see? What you’re doing now is nothing but wasting time.”
“Then, Your Highness—”
“I do not run headlong toward problems I cannot solve. I simply accept them. The very fact that I have not solved this one is also the result of someone else’s sacrifice. To wish for more would be greed, and to devour the sacrifice itself would be unforgivable.”
The person she had in mind was almost certainly her parents and her betrothed.
The hollowness in my chest felt bitter, yet her reasoning was sound, so I nodded.
The me who was now thrashing about to save her had also been possible only because of the sacrifice she had made before regression and because of the original owner of this body—Finn—had sacrificed himself.
“So instead of worrying about problems beyond your power, always strive to do your absolute best. The one who sacrificed for you is waiting for you to reach your full potential.”
“Your Highness, is that why you work so hard despite being the only bloodline of the Empire?”
Without the slightest hesitation, she answered my question.
“Yes. I want to show them. Thanks to me, I have become great. Thanks to me, I can keep working so hard.”
She spoke with eyes glistening with unshed tears and lips trembling with moisture.
“This is the only gift I can offer you right now, and I will do anything for it. Tomorrow’s tournament—I will win it. No matter what.”
The pain in my chest was sharp.
She wished for victory so fiercely, yet I had no intention of helping her win it.
My goal was to rescue her from death and the broken fate of the original story, and for that, claiming second place with her was the best possible plan.
Rather than pushing her one step closer to a life of living only for her betrothed by winning the tournament,
it was far more reasonable to erase every trace of the betrothed from her heart as much as possible.
So I pushed off the bench, praying that my inner thoughts would not slip from my lips.
I forced the corners of my mouth upward into a faint smile and struck a stance that looked as though I had been given courage by her words.
“Indeed. At this point, worrying about problems that could still be solved is pointless. Let’s first focus on the tournament that lies right in front of us.”
She smiled back at me—a smile that held no trace of my presence at all.
“You’ve finally come to your senses. Ah, and after the tournament ends… let’s keep some distance for a while.”
“…?”
“What do you mean ‘what?’ After the tournament, why would I have any reason to stick close to you? Even if we’re in the same party, staying glued together will only spread strange rumors. Got it?”
Her eyes as she looked at me said it all: do not disappoint me again. Stay on your side.
“I have to write letters to my betrothed, so… you should find someone of your own during this time. If you’re the top student of the Divinity Faculty, almost every young lady will be happy to take you.”
“Understood.”
“Or, I can make the introduction. That way your status as a commoner won’t be such a drawback, right? You could even aim for a duke’s house.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I want to find someone I like by walking straight to them myself.”
“You’re surprisingly romantic.”
She shrugged.
Unable to face her expression, I stepped back first and headed toward the training grounds.
“I hope, as much as possible, that you end up with Grace. Aside from her lacking a little awareness, she’s perfect as a woman. You’re in the same party, after all.”
“…I’ll give it a try.”
“Be sure to! Come on, let’s go! We’ll be out of time for training if we keep standing here!”
I answered automatically, knowing that her determination to find another woman for me was absolute.
The pain of her words had already become familiar; I had grown used to burying hurt emotions beneath a calm facade.
Despite the heavy weight in my chest, our parting that day came sooner than usual.
With that unnameable feeling still clinging to my heart, I greeted the morning of the tournament day.