The Original Main Heroine Likes Me Too Much (3)
Liana's blood was red.
An obvious fact, yet the sight of that color made me forget to breathe for a moment.
A dress soaked in wine, lips stained with blood. A pale face. Hair stirring in the night wind. The image of the saintess I had seen countless times in the original work crumbled in that instant.
In the novel, the saintess had been written as a being who never bled. Someone who healed wounds, forgave everyone, and smiled at the crown prince's side. The main heroine readers adored. The Liana Bell I knew was a character drawn that way.
But the Liana standing before me now was different.
She was forcing a smile while swallowing blood.
And inside that smile, there seemed to be years I did not know.
"Don't speak."
I bit my lip. What could I even do right now… nothing? What was there to do when Liana needed help this very second? Then her hand, still clutching my sleeve, went still.
"Evelyn-nim."
"Please don't speak."
Her voice was a little rough.
I managed to steady my breathing and scanned our surroundings. The curtains inside the terrace were drawn, and beyond the glass doors the nobles pretended not to notice us while constantly stealing glances.
If Liana walked out like this, every kind of rumor would start rolling. "I heard the saintess poured wine on the saintess candidate and then hurt her on the terrace?" "There was talk she came out covered in blood?" Rumors would breed more rumors until they became noble entertainment and spread through the entire empire.
That could not happen.
Everything I had worked for until now would turn to foam.
If word got out, the Temple would seize a weakness against me. The saintess had bled. That alone was enough to shake House Rosetta. I pulled out a handkerchief and pressed it beneath Liana's lips.
At the touch she stiffened for a heartbeat.
"I'll do it."
"Stay still."
"But the dress—"
"We can wash it later."
She smiled, very small.
I narrowed my eyes.
"You can smile?"
"Yes."
Liana was honest.
"Because Evelyn-nim is worrying about me."
"Don't get the wrong idea. If you collapse here, I'm the one in trouble."
"I know."
She answered far too easily.
That ease made me more uncomfortable. The old Liana would have flinched at words like those. She would still smile, but her fingertips would curl, and every time I drew a line she would stand before it a long while before carefully stepping back.
The Liana in front of me now was different.
She moved like someone who already understood the meaning I hid inside the words I used to push her away.
That fact was strangely frightening.
"Evelyn-nim."
"What."
"Show me your wrist."
Instead of answering I hid my hand behind my back.
Liana's eyes narrowed.
"You're hurt."
"No."
"Liar."
"Bell."
"You told me to call you Liana. The hand that held the wine glass earlier was trembling. Evelyn-nim isn't someone who trembles like that."
I lost my words for a moment.
She saw that?
In the middle of the banquet hall, right before the wine struck, my wrist twisting against the world?
Liana quietly held out her hand.
"Show me your hand."
I started to refuse.
But at that moment the terrace door opened.
It was Kyran.
He had not come alone. Behind him stood one imperial attendant and a man who looked like a high priest of the Temple. The priest's eyes went wide as he stared at Liana's dress, as if questioning whether what he saw could be real. Then his gaze met mine and he hastily lowered it.
I did not miss that look.
That bastard.
The one who had come to check whether the mark inside the dress had vanished. A high priest of the Temple would never be ignorant of that fact; he had come to confirm it.
Kyran took in the distance between us—the way I had Liana backed against the wall, wiping her lips with a handkerchief. Anyone could see it was no ordinary relationship.
"Did I interrupt?"
He asked softly.
I folded the handkerchief and closed it in my fist.
"You already have."
The attendant's face went pale; the priest slightly furrowed his brows. Kyran seemed unbothered and let out a short laugh.
"The Rosetta princess is always direct."
"And Your Highness always chooses the most appropriate moment."
"I only came to check on Miss Bell's condition."
"As you can see, she is alive."
"I didn't ask the princess, hmm."
Kyran's gaze shifted to Liana.
She bowed her head on reflex. It was a polite motion. But she bowed not behind me—beside me.
"Thank you for your concern, Your Highness. I am fine."
"There's blood on your lips."
"I bit them from tension."
Liana lied with perfect naturalness.
I looked at her profile. This was the first time I had seen Liana lie so smoothly. Or perhaps I had simply never known.
…Possession? Same as me? If she were a transmigrator I would have noticed long ago. Was her acting that good? If not that, then what?
What on earth is it.
Sometimes she had acted as if she had lived decades longer than I had. Had that been real?
I stared at Liana with confused eyes, unaware that Kyran was watching me. He pretended to study her, then turned his gaze to the priest.
"Check her."
The priest stepped forward.
"To confirm there is no abnormality in the saintess candidate's body, with the Temple's blessing."
"There is no need."
Liana cut him off at once.
The priest's feet stopped.
"But Lady Liana—"
"I am not yet the official saintess. Even so, I at least have the right to refuse a Temple examination."
The priest's face hardened.
Liana knew. She knew the examination was no simple check—that it was a ploy to confirm whether the mark beneath the wet dress had burned away. Kyran's eyes deepened again.
"Miss Bell knows a great deal about the Temple."
"I learned from Evelyn-nim."
I clicked my tongue inwardly.
Why does she keep selling me out.
But Liana only smiled softly once more.
"How not to entrust my body carelessly in noble society."
The words were not wrong.
They were so correct it was hard to refute them.
Kyran was silent for a moment.
His gaze moved from Liana to me, then from me back to Liana. Calculations flickered back and forth. He did not know everything that had happened. But he must have been certain of at least one thing.
Liana Bell was not the naive saintess candidate from the original. And at the center of that change stood Evelyn Rosetta.
Kyran took one step closer.
"Miss Bell."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"If the Rosetta princess is threatening you—"
Liana smiled.
A truly happy expression—small and clear. Then, as if that smile had been a lie, her face went expressionless and she spoke with quiet firmness.
"Your Highness."
Kyran's words cut off.
"Evelyn-nim does not threaten me."
She took my arm.
This time so everyone could see.
"Rather, I am the one who keeps bothering her."
In that moment I wanted to close my eyes.
Liana.
Please. Contrary to my wish, she did not stop.
"So there is nothing for Your Highness to worry about."
For the first time, emotion was wiped clean from Kyran's face.
Expressionless on this side as well. This was getting a little dangerous. I watched the crown prince carefully and searched for a way out of here.
"Then let us end today's matter here."
He spoke calmly.
He's backing off easier than I expected.
…Is that fortunate?
"But Miss Bell. The Imperial Palace will send you a formal invitation. As a saintess candidate, there is a need to confirm your talent and qualifications."
Liana's hand stiffened, very slightly.
I felt the change. She was afraid.
Of Kyran? Of the Imperial Palace? Or of some memory that lay behind that invitation?
I laid my fingers over the back of her hand. Only for a breath. Liana looked at me on reflex.
I smiled toward Kyran.
"Please send the invitation."
"It does not seem like something the Rosetta princess should answer."
"Miss Bell is under Rosetta's protection."
The moment the words fell, the priest's face twisted. Kyran narrowed his eyes.
"Is there an official guardianship contract?"
"If necessary, I will send a copy to the Imperial Legal Affairs Office tomorrow morning."
It was not a lie.
There happened to be a contract I had drawn up when I was ten. A document that allowed Liana and Martha Bell to receive treatment and education within Rosetta's protected territory while preventing the Temple or outside nobles from taking them away at will.
I had made it as insurance for a day exactly like this, and I was glad I had. No matter the Temple or the crown prince, if Liana had Rosetta as her backer they could not touch her lightly.
Kyran's gaze sank deep.
"Thorough preparation."
"Living life, one finds many reasons to become thorough."
"Because of whom?"
I did not answer.
Kyran did not press further. After he turned, the priest looked at Liana's dress one last time. Disgusting. When I answered that stare with a thin thread of killing intent, the priest flinched, bowed his head, and withdrew.
The door closed.
"Hmph."
Who does that nobody think he is, staring like that?
Once more only the two of us remained on the terrace. Liana let out a long breath. The face that had smiled so easily in front of Kyran a moment ago crumbled a little.
I took her wrist.
"Bell… hah. Fine. Liana. You."
She raised her eyes.
"You already knew about the Imperial Palace invitation, didn't you."
She did not answer.
I asked low.
"What happens there?"
Liana's lips parted.
Again no words came. Instead the corners of her eyes reddened. The world itself was sealing her mouth.
Only then did I understand for certain.
Liana was not a transmigrator like me, nor someone who merely glimpsed the future in vague outlines.
She had lived it.
Not once, but many times. And something harder than I had imagined. She lowered her head and took my wrist. This time I could not hide it. The wound beneath the glove met her fingertips.
"This time."
She whispered.
"I remember everything."
Blood beaded again between her lips.
I covered her mouth with my hand.
"Stop."
Liana's tears fell onto the back of my hand.
They were warm.
For a moment that heat made me dizzy. The wine-soaked dress, the gazes from the banquet hall, the crown prince's warning—all of it felt distant in that instant.
What remained was a single tear on the back of my hand. Still holding me, Liana spoke very softly.
"Please live, Evelyn-nim."
That one thing, I could not bring myself to stop.