I felt strange.
My body seemed to be floating somewhere.
Now, even in a place where God was no longer present, it was a feeling that gradually floated away from a deeply submerged consciousness.
Finally, a completely empty space.
Perhaps this was yet another grace from God.
A space and time prepared so that someone who had just learned a shocking fact could calm their mind alone, wasn’t it?
With my eyes still tightly closed, I quietly repeated my name in my mind.
Rosetta.
Rosetta.
Rosetta Valentine.
A warm sensation surged from my toes and gathered in my eyes.
The warm and tingling sensation soon turned into tears.
The emotions that had been momentarily interrupted by God now boiled up again.
Hadn’t I always thought that I had forgotten and lost the real ‘me’?
But, that wasn’t true.
I had come back like this.
Next to the people I had resolved to give my heart to, I finally stood as the real me.
Not someone who had put on the shell of someone else, but someone who was entirely ‘me,’ both inside and out.
Just me.
Could words really describe how overwhelming this was?
Of course, that didn’t mean much had changed.
As I had told God, the ‘me’ who had wished for the world to fall apart no longer existed.
The current me wished more than anyone that this world would not collapse, and I wished for Alicia’s happiness more than anyone.
I would continue to act as I always had ever since I ‘transmigrated’ into Rosetta’s body.
So, my plan to make Cassion a duke, my plan to twist Alicia’s fate.
And.
My determination to accept the fact that Alicia and I had switched.
Nothing had changed.
The only thing that had changed was that I could now call Alicia my little sister, my brother as my brother, and my father as my father without any reservations.
I no longer lived in fear that they would realize that I wasn’t the real one, that they would call out for the real Rosetta to be brought back.
Truly, there was nothing to worry about.
The burden of my biggest lie had disappeared.
I was content with that. I had never been a person with ambitions, so I had no more desires.
In other words, things like whose blood was mixed with whose were still not important to me.
With that thought in mind, I laughed.
I laughed heartily.
The loud laughter dissipated into the flowing water, but I continued to laugh.
Real life.
A real life with death.
This exhausting reality of transmigration was no more.
All these circumstances just made me burst into laughter.
That’s when it happened.
Something warm covered my lips, which had been laughing silently.
Immediately after, an even warmer breath entered my mouth urgently.
As the warm breath deep into my lungs, my body, which had been slowly rising from unconsciousness, was suddenly pulled back to reality.
I opened my eyes just like that.
The view was dark and pitch black, as if I were looking up at the night sky.
But what I was facing wasn’t the night sky.
‘Eyes…’
Eyes as dark and deep as the night sky.
And, I knew that only one person had such eyes.
“Cassion?”
I mumbled with my blocked lips, but no sound came out.
Instead, I could feel a soft sensation pressed against my lips.
The long eyelashes framing those anxious eyes blinked heavily. Under the thick eyelashes, a tear rolled down.
The tear stayed on my cheek, and with it, the man’s face slowly moved away.
The warmth that had been pressed against my lips gradually faded away.
However, the urgent breath that had entered my mouth still left a hot sensation inside.
* * *
Right after Rosetta opened the diary.
Suddenly, with a bright light, Rosetta’s body collapsed.
“……!”
Cassion reached out to the fallen Rosetta, unable to even scream. However, her unconscious body showed no signs of movement.
Cassion held his breath.
What on earth…
“Rose… Rosetta?”
He called her name hesitantly, but there was no response.
With a desperate and cautious touch, he cupped her cheek. The once-warm and pale cheek now gradually lost its warmth in his hand.
It felt as if the blood in it was freezing.
So, so cold that it felt like she was freezing all over.
He gently touched his finger to Rosetta’s small and delicate lips.
Fortunately, she was still breathing, but her breaths were shallow and faint.
“Rose… tta…”
His throat was so blocked that he couldn’t even finish calling her name.
It hurt as if his heart had stopped.
* * *
Cassion agonized over what to do.
Should he call for help, or was it better to stay here and guard her?
She had collapsed under a bright light, so it probably wasn’t just a mere fainting spell.
‘The relic…? Is this because of the sacred relic?’
He kept stroking Rosetta’s hand and tried to shake off his stiffened thoughts.
In fact, the reason he couldn’t easily leave the spot wasn’t just because of this.
Perhaps, if he’d leave this spot…
‘No, it can’t be.’
He hurriedly stopped his train of thought.
Thump.
A large hand struck his cheek. Resenting himself for assuming the worst without even realizing it, he hit his own face.
He slapped his reddened cheek and shook his head a few times.
Even in the midst of the small commotion, Rosetta’s eyelids didn’t show any sign of lifting.
‘For now, I need to call someone.’
The first thing to do was to grab the first person he could find and ask them to call a doctor.
And then, he returned straight away…
That was when a single tear escaped from his tightly shut eyes. The tear, like morning dew, flowed down and dampened Cassion’s hand which was resting on Rosetta’s cheek.
He watched it with a vacant expression.
A tranquil face.
Falling tears.
When these strange elements converged, the situation felt oddly surreal.
“…Rosetta.”
He uttered Rosetta’s name once more, but there was still no response.
Instead, her pale face seemed to have grown even paler in the moments that passed.
Surprised by the sudden and drastic change, Cassion checked Rosetta’s breath again.
‘Her breath…’
It stopped.
For a moment, it felt like the world had stopped.
Just a while ago, there was at least a faint breath, but now there was nothing. Not even a gentle breeze.
Cassion’s pupils moved slowly.
Rosetta’s cheek, her closed eyes, her disheveled hair.
He cupped Rosetta’s cheek and clenched his hand, his lips trembling.
“No… no… you can’t.”
His voice, barely escaping his constricted throat, sounded feeble.
The man’s head drooped.
His slightly grown indigo hair shook with the movement.
In his trembling pupils, there was no focus at all.
It was as if he was looking at someone who had died.
His unfocused gaze shifted further into the past.
Not too long ago, but not recent either.
Rosetta’s birthday night, the hunting festival in which the two of them had a difficult time together, the nights that they sometimes met and wielded their swords in practice.
Memories flowed slowly, like a strong current, toward the distant past.
Eventually, all the way back to the day that they first met.
When he had begged for her help, when they first crossed paths at the hotel, when he ran away, and when they faced danger again.
Rosetta helped him every time, extended her hand, and…
Beneath the haze of his consciousness, the lips that had matched with his came to mind.
The slow, lingering breath that had been gradually drawing near.
He had pretended to be unconscious for quite some time due to the sudden and shocking event.
Well, in the end, she figured out he was awake.
“Why on earth did you do that?”
In response to his bewildered question, Rosetta smiled slyly. Her voice was slow and languid.
“I was trying to save you. You stopped breathing.”
Cassion, lost in reminiscences of the past, blinked his eyes for a moment.
“…Huh?”
He muttered unintentionally. His unfocused gaze returned to the beautiful woman who wasn’t breathing, an almost surreal sight.
Meanwhile, Rosetta’s voice continued to echo in his mind.
“So that you could breathe again, I tried to breathe into you. You cried and told me to save you after all.”
“……”
“So I pinched your nose and leaned your head back to secure your breath.”
Even her whispered words were as clear as ever. Perhaps…
Cassion’s hands once again cupped Rosetta’s cheeks. He gently laid her down and took a seat beside her.
“Please…”
Then, he slowly raised Rosetta’s head and, with one hand, pinched her small, soft nose.
“Please don’t die, Rosetta.”
A deeply anxious expression filled the man’s face. He leaned closer to her lips, and their mouths met.
Their lips touched, and he exhaled warm breath.
I love you, Rosetta.
With this unspoken confession, their lips remained locked in a kiss.
I felt strange.
My body seemed to be floating somewhere.
Now, even in a place where God was no longer present, it was a feeling that gradually floated away from a deeply submerged consciousness.
Finally, a completely empty space.
Perhaps this was yet another grace from God.
A space and time prepared so that someone who had just learned a shocking fact could calm their mind alone, wasn’t it?
With my eyes still tightly closed, I quietly repeated my name in my mind.
Rosetta.
Rosetta.
Rosetta Valentine.
A warm sensation surged from my toes and gathered in my eyes.
The warm and tingling sensation soon turned into tears.
The emotions that had been momentarily interrupted by God now boiled up again.
Hadn’t I always thought that I had forgotten and lost the real ‘me’?
But, that wasn’t true.
I had come back like this.
Next to the people I had resolved to give my heart to, I finally stood as the real me.
Not someone who had put on the shell of someone else, but someone who was entirely ‘me,’ both inside and out.
Just me.
Could words really describe how overwhelming this was?
Of course, that didn’t mean much had changed.
As I had told God, the ‘me’ who had wished for the world to fall apart no longer existed.
The current me wished more than anyone that this world would not collapse, and I wished for Alicia’s happiness more than anyone.
I would continue to act as I always had ever since I ‘transmigrated’ into Rosetta’s body.
So, my plan to make Cassion a duke, my plan to twist Alicia’s fate.
And.
My determination to accept the fact that Alicia and I had switched.
Nothing had changed.
The only thing that had changed was that I could now call Alicia my little sister, my brother as my brother, and my father as my father without any reservations.
I no longer lived in fear that they would realize that I wasn’t the real one, that they would call out for the real Rosetta to be brought back.
Truly, there was nothing to worry about.
The burden of my biggest lie had disappeared.
I was content with that. I had never been a person with ambitions, so I had no more desires.
In other words, things like whose blood was mixed with whose were still not important to me.
With that thought in mind, I laughed.
I laughed heartily.
The loud laughter dissipated into the flowing water, but I continued to laugh.
Real life.
A real life with death.
This exhausting reality of transmigration was no more.
All these circumstances just made me burst into laughter.
That’s when it happened.
Something warm covered my lips, which had been laughing silently.
Immediately after, an even warmer breath entered my mouth urgently.
As the warm breath deep into my lungs, my body, which had been slowly rising from unconsciousness, was suddenly pulled back to reality.
I opened my eyes just like that.
The view was dark and pitch black, as if I were looking up at the night sky.
But what I was facing wasn’t the night sky.
‘Eyes…’
Eyes as dark and deep as the night sky.
And, I knew that only one person had such eyes.
“Cassion?”
I mumbled with my blocked lips, but no sound came out.
Instead, I could feel a soft sensation pressed against my lips.
The long eyelashes framing those anxious eyes blinked heavily. Under the thick eyelashes, a tear rolled down.
The tear stayed on my cheek, and with it, the man’s face slowly moved away.
The warmth that had been pressed against my lips gradually faded away.
However, the urgent breath that had entered my mouth still left a hot sensation inside.
* * *
Right after Rosetta opened the diary.
Suddenly, with a bright light, Rosetta’s body collapsed.
“……!”
Cassion reached out to the fallen Rosetta, unable to even scream. However, her unconscious body showed no signs of movement.
Cassion held his breath.
What on earth…
“Rose… Rosetta?”
He called her name hesitantly, but there was no response.
With a desperate and cautious touch, he cupped her cheek. The once-warm and pale cheek now gradually lost its warmth in his hand.
It felt as if the blood in it was freezing.
So, so cold that it felt like she was freezing all over.
He gently touched his finger to Rosetta’s small and delicate lips.
Fortunately, she was still breathing, but her breaths were shallow and faint.
“Rose… tta…”
His throat was so blocked that he couldn’t even finish calling her name.
It hurt as if his heart had stopped.
* * *
Cassion agonized over what to do.
Should he call for help, or was it better to stay here and guard her?
She had collapsed under a bright light, so it probably wasn’t just a mere fainting spell.
‘The relic…? Is this because of the sacred relic?’
He kept stroking Rosetta’s hand and tried to shake off his stiffened thoughts.
In fact, the reason he couldn’t easily leave the spot wasn’t just because of this.
Perhaps, if he’d leave this spot…
‘No, it can’t be.’
He hurriedly stopped his train of thought.
Thump.
A large hand struck his cheek. Resenting himself for assuming the worst without even realizing it, he hit his own face.
He slapped his reddened cheek and shook his head a few times.
Even in the midst of the small commotion, Rosetta’s eyelids didn’t show any sign of lifting.
‘For now, I need to call someone.’
The first thing to do was to grab the first person he could find and ask them to call a doctor.
And then, he returned straight away…
That was when a single tear escaped from his tightly shut eyes. The tear, like morning dew, flowed down and dampened Cassion’s hand which was resting on Rosetta’s cheek.
He watched it with a vacant expression.
A tranquil face.
Falling tears.
When these strange elements converged, the situation felt oddly surreal.
“…Rosetta.”
He uttered Rosetta’s name once more, but there was still no response.
Instead, her pale face seemed to have grown even paler in the moments that passed.
Surprised by the sudden and drastic change, Cassion checked Rosetta’s breath again.
‘Her breath…’
It stopped.
For a moment, it felt like the world had stopped.
Just a while ago, there was at least a faint breath, but now there was nothing. Not even a gentle breeze.
Cassion’s pupils moved slowly.
Rosetta’s cheek, her closed eyes, her disheveled hair.
He cupped Rosetta’s cheek and clenched his hand, his lips trembling.
“No… no… you can’t.”
His voice, barely escaping his constricted throat, sounded feeble.
The man’s head drooped.
His slightly grown indigo hair shook with the movement.
In his trembling pupils, there was no focus at all.
It was as if he was looking at someone who had died.
His unfocused gaze shifted further into the past.
Not too long ago, but not recent either.
Rosetta’s birthday night, the hunting festival in which the two of them had a difficult time together, the nights that they sometimes met and wielded their swords in practice.
Memories flowed slowly, like a strong current, toward the distant past.
Eventually, all the way back to the day that they first met.
When he had begged for her help, when they first crossed paths at the hotel, when he ran away, and when they faced danger again.
Rosetta helped him every time, extended her hand, and…
Beneath the haze of his consciousness, the lips that had matched with his came to mind.
The slow, lingering breath that had been gradually drawing near.
He had pretended to be unconscious for quite some time due to the sudden and shocking event.
Well, in the end, she figured out he was awake.
“Why on earth did you do that?”
In response to his bewildered question, Rosetta smiled slyly. Her voice was slow and languid.
“I was trying to save you. You stopped breathing.”
Cassion, lost in reminiscences of the past, blinked his eyes for a moment.
“…Huh?”
He muttered unintentionally. His unfocused gaze returned to the beautiful woman who wasn’t breathing, an almost surreal sight.
Meanwhile, Rosetta’s voice continued to echo in his mind.
“So that you could breathe again, I tried to breathe into you. You cried and told me to save you after all.”
“……”
“So I pinched your nose and leaned your head back to secure your breath.”
Even her whispered words were as clear as ever. Perhaps…
Cassion’s hands once again cupped Rosetta’s cheeks. He gently laid her down and took a seat beside her.
“Please…”
Then, he slowly raised Rosetta’s head and, with one hand, pinched her small, soft nose.
“Please don’t die, Rosetta.”
A deeply anxious expression filled the man’s face. He leaned closer to her lips, and their mouths met.
Their lips touched, and he exhaled warm breath.
I love you, Rosetta.
With this unspoken confession, their lips remained locked in a kiss.
