Chapter 1

It was purely by chance that I discovered his secret.

Only a week had passed, yet the wounds on his face were nowhere to be seen.

Could he possess some monstrous recuperative power?

Pavel was far too composed for a man whose secret had been exposed. If anything, it was I—the one who had discovered it—whose mouth had gone dry.

“Gizelle doesn’t know that I enjoy fighting.”

I had no idea why Gizelle had suddenly come up. Just as I faintly furrowed my brow, Pavel made a shocking proposal.

“So I want you to treat my wounds from now on.”

“…What do you mean by that?”

Without a doubt, it was the most absurd thing I had ever heard from him.

Telling me to treat his wounds. I had no such ability. Nor any reason to.

“The mages in the imperial capital are a bit troublesome to silence.”

In other words, it meant there was already a mage who could treat his wounds.

…No, wait—I’m not even a mage.

“I’m not a mage.”

“Liar.”

This time, I felt a little wronged. Of course, Chadwick had also said I was a mage, but that was all.

If everyone with a faint trace of mana were called a mage, it made no sense that there were so few mages in the imperial capital.

“…This time, it doesn’t seem like a lie.”

Perhaps he had read the sense of injustice on my face, because he muttered as if to himself.

“Because I’m not a mage.”

Why on earth did everyone keep calling me a mage?

Pavel, who had been silent as if weighing whether my words were true, suddenly seized my hand. I had taken him for a cold man, but unexpectedly his hand was full of heat.

“Try thinking about treating it.”

“…Your Highness, I truly am not a mage. Besides, there’s no wound right now… Ack!”

My small scream was swallowed by the surrounding noise. In the blink of an eye, Pavel drew a dagger from his clothes and lightly cut his own cheek.

Even as I stared at him with my mouth open in shock, blood was seeping from the thin line that had appeared on his cheek. It was a very small wound, but I had not known he would injure himself so without hesitation.

“Now then, there’s a wound, so shall we try treating it?”

There was a note of amusement in Pavel’s voice.

So much so that I could hardly believe he was the same man who had just sliced his own face without hesitation.

“From where I stand, you are definitely a mage.”

“I really…”

“Is this not enough? Shall I make a few more wounds?”

He looked ready to cut his own face again at any moment, so I hurriedly waved my hands.

His earlier action alone had been enough to show me he was capable of it.

Pavel’s dark green eyes glinted as if he expected something from me.

‘This is truly absurd.’

Even as I brought my hand to Pavel’s face, I repeated those words inwardly. There was no way I could heal a wound.

I did not know what had made Pavel so certain about me, but whatever it was, he was wrong. Gradually, I began to calm down.

‘Right. It’s not as if he said he would kill me if I couldn’t heal the wound.’

My frail hope was that he would not kill me in a place crowded with people like this.

When my hands trembled, Pavel grabbed my wrist firmly. As if to soothe me, he tickled the inside of my wrist with his thumb.

‘Soothe me? Ridiculous.’

Just because a sharply honed blade was wrapped in velvet did not make it dull.

In any case, there was no way for me to shake off his hand and run right now. Pavel pulled my wrist so that my fingertips touched his wound.

“Heal it.”

The command was curt. There was only one thing I, who knew nothing at all about magic, could do. I had no choice but to hope it would happen just as he wanted.

But for several seconds, nothing happened. The noise of the tavern hummed as if circling around us.

Pavel, who had been quietly waiting for mana to flow from my hand, twisted his face.

‘See? There’s no way I could heal anything.’

At the same time, I felt relieved. The noise instantly filled the space between Pavel and me.

“It’s not that you’re deliberately holding back, is it?”

“I am not bold enough to disobey Your Highness’s command.”

“For someone like that, you tend to ignore my words quite often.”

Perhaps disappointed, Pavel let out a deflated breath and released my hand.

In my released hand, the heat he had left behind seemed to bloom in red patches. To shake off that strange sensation, I quickly lowered my hand beneath the table.

Pavel gazed at me intently, as if he still found something suspicious.

“I don’t know what misunderstanding you’re under, but I am not a mage…”

The words that had been about to come out retreated back into my mouth. No, that is, I mean…

Before my eyes, the wound healed smoothly. Even seeing it with my own eyes, I could not believe it.

“I suppose this counts as a success?”

Perhaps the sensation of the wound healing had been strange, because Pavel stroked his cheek with his fingers. Soon, apparently satisfied with his perfectly healed cheek, he curved the corner of his mouth.

“That, why, no.”

Even as I stammered in utter confusion, he took my share of the drink as well and drank it with an air of leisure.

“If you still don’t believe it, shall we try again?”

I knew all too well that he meant it, so I quickly shook my head.

“Then I’ll be counting on you from now on.”

“I-I… I need to go away for recuperation.”

I protested cautiously. It was not an excuse. He knew my plan as well.

It had been agreed that I would disappear so as not to burden the Erdona estate any longer. Though it was a flight disguised as recuperation. Was that not what he wanted as well?

“Ah, that’s right.”

He nodded as if he had completely forgotten.

Seen from afar, Pavel had always been a man with firm lines of his own. Even after drawing a line and taking a step back, he had the power to manipulate people as he pleased.

Somehow, those lines of his felt fainter than usual.

His neat, ascetic, and even somewhat sacred face seemed a little softer and more relaxed today.

Though I had never wished for it, I felt as if I had somehow stepped inside his lines and become a small animal unable to move.

“Then you may continue staying at the Erdona residence.”

I heard the sound of my plan—perfect until midday today—shattering into pieces.

‘Why are you suddenly doing this to me!’

Pavel seemed to marvel at his own consideration after having cruelly smashed my plan before I knew it.

* * *

It was one day that I learned why my life had been filled with nothing but misfortune.

In a dream, I remembered my past life and realized that I had possessed the body of a character in one of the books I had read in that past life.

It did not take long to realize that my life was merely a narrative device for Gizelle.

As the title suggested, the ending was solely for the heroine, Gizelle.

In the novel, Gizelle suffers from the obsession of the male leads who love her, and eventually reaches an ending in which she chooses both of them. The male leads, unwilling to lose her, respect her choice but agonize over the fact that they must share the woman they love.

And I, Saya Erdona, was Gizelle’s adopted younger sister—a petty villain who harbored a one-sided love for Kirill, one of the male leads, hated Gizelle, and harassed her at every turn.

And I was destined to be killed by one of the male leads.

To escape a future in which I would be horrifically murdered, I had to stay as far away from Gizelle as possible. So that my life would not serve as a catalyst for Gizelle’s happiness.

This confession was also part of my plan. So that Kirill would not retain even the slightest feeling for me.

“Thank you for meeting me.”

“What is it you want to say? Get to the point.”

Being hurt by Kirill’s indifferent tone was a thing of the past, before I knew my ending. My one-sided love could never come true anyway.

Because this world existed solely for Gizelle. What could be more foolish than hoping Kirill, Gizelle’s male lead, would love me?

“As you said, I’ll get to the point. I don’t have much time either.”

“……”

Even at my words that I did not have much time, his expression remained blank. Damn it, that familiar face still made my chest ache as if it were being pricked.

‘Fine. After this, not even a shred of lingering attachment will remain.’

I cleared my throat slightly. Even though I had steeled myself quite firmly, actually carrying out what I had only ever imagined made me nervous.

It would not take even five seconds. There was no need for me to be nervous.

Taking one last breath, I confessed to him as if exhaling a breath I had held for a long time.

“I like you. Not as a friend, but as a marriage partner.”

“……”

As I had expected, he gave no answer.

A crack appeared in his expression. A look of such dislike had not been in my expected scenario, but I stubbornly continued.

“Of course you probably already knew, but I’m saying this so you’ll be even more put off by me. Thank you for everything, and we won’t meet again. I promise.”

“…Is that all you called me here to say?”

Of course, it was not a ‘mere’ thing to me, but I nodded.

“What is it this time? Are you trying to provoke guilt and get some sympathy?”

Considering my misdeeds up to now, he could have thought that. I neither affirmed nor denied it. It was all a waste of time.

“That’s all I have to say. Thank you for making time.”

“If I hadn’t known.”

“……”

“I didn’t know you liked me.”

I was flustered by his words.