53. Thank You For Loving Me Until Now

 Celestian’s green eyes looked up at the ceiling once before returning to their place.

He smiled, lifting the corners of his mouth like a mischievous child.

“I’ve always been safe and never died, so don’t worry. Daphne……”

The focus in Celestian’s eyes dried up, then quickly returned.

“I never knew you were this sentimental.”

“Teriosa, you talk too much.”

“Live as long as I have. See if you don’t become talkative.”

Still smiling, Celestian loosened the tie around his neck. Oscar’s breathing quickened. There was nowhere to call for help, and no guarantee of getting out alive.

“…Why did you kill His Highness?”

“Don’t misunderstand. This time, I have no personal grudge against him. It was always Princess Laria who killed him.”

“That’s slander. Her Highness would never do such a thing. Where is Her Highness?”

“My brother’s wedding.”

After answering plainly, Celestian frowned his fine brows, seemingly displeased with Oscar panting quite closely.

“The princess said she needs you, so I’ll at least let you leave alive.”

Celestian scratched his cheek.

“I heard she was hit by a carriage, was that your doing too?”

“Speak clearly, Teriosa!”

Celestian shook his head a couple of times. Then he bit his red lower lip. Oscar quietly backed away. The door should be a few steps behind.

“Still, your wrongs won’t be undone.”

“What wrongs are you talking about?”

“That you’d break her ankles to take her to Agentar. Daphne.”

Celestian closed the gap in just two steps. Before Oscar could dodge, he kicked his knee. Oscar fell ungracefully onto the marble floor.

“Argh!”

It was just one kick, but it felt like his bone had twisted. He instinctively started to beg forgiveness, then without another word, began crawling.

When Oscar barely managed to cross over one step’s edge, his trouser hem caught on something. Over that ankle, once again came the rough, flat shoe.

“Feel it yourself.”

“Aagh! Teriosa! Aaagh!”

Celestian pushed out his lower lip slightly and pressed down firmly on the man’s foot hanging over the platform. The pain that dominated Oscar’s lower body made him think it might hurt less if it just broke right away.

“How much it hurts when bones break.”

After saying this, Celestian lifted his foot briefly, then brought it down like a strike to break Oscar’s ankle.

Crack.

A pain-filled groan that cut off breathing was heard. Oscar, seeming to have lost his mind, curled up trying to grab his ankle without even thinking of escaping.

Celestian bent down to grab Oscar’s ankle and pulled him up onto the platform. Oscar seemed to have not only lost his senses but also lost control of his bodily functions.

“Ah, really.”

Celestian shook his hands irritably. This caused Oscar’s leg to fall to the floor, producing an even more unsightly scream.

After turning his head this way and that to briefly loosen his stiff neck, Celestian picked up and held a sharp-pointed sword.

“Teriosa, you, you’re not in your right mind!”

“Yeah. I’m not.”

Celestian made an ‘oomph’ sound as he stabbed the sword tip right below Oscar’s ankle bone.

Directly, without any other threats or warnings.

“Aaagh!!!”

Feeling his foot being precisely pierced through, Oscar flopped around like a fish on a fishing rod.

Celestian watched Oscar’s contorting expression expressionlessly, but soon narrowed the space between his brows.

None of the questions he wanted answered had been resolved.

‘Who is it, then.’

Not Celestian himself, not Psyche Denver, not Romeo Rodriguez. Not these idiots either. Then…

‘Who tried to kill Daphne.’ 

 * * *

 Other people’s weddings are boring.

‘I’ve been waiting just for today.’

One of Daphne’s big plans had come to nothing.

‘Seeing Cele cry……’

Daphne spread her hands with a bored expression, needlessly checking the sheen of her white silk gloves. Even that grew tiresome, so she lifted her head and fixed her gaze on the light-spraying chandelier.

She felt no interest, having seen Romeo’s handsomeness and Psyche’s beauty enough times to be sick of them. Even Iel, who had hated Psyche so much, seemed to be celebrating the birth of the new Crown Princess with both hands clasped together.

Daphne fixed her gaze on the door. Through the briefly opened gap, she had spotted a group of women with silver hair.

‘Is that woman the princess?’

Neither Oscar nor the prince could be seen, only a tanned-skin woman with silver hair tied up and people presumed to be her maids. Daphne assumed they must have had a rough time at last night’s bachelor party and dismissed it without concern.

The wedding officiant’s sheep-like sermon continued for an hour and a half.

Usually, she would pass the time with interesting imaginings, but the whirlwind of events from just a few hours ago wouldn’t leave her mind.

‘In the original work, Celestian who committed treason died because of Psyche. Then now, if his goal isn’t to possess Psyche…… could it be revenge?’

Either way, it was related to Celestian.

‘I hate complicated things.’

Daphne chewed on the rough insides of her mouth.

While it was her nature to face and solve situations that arose, it was best to avoid things that hadn’t happened yet if they could be prevented.

At that moment, everyone stood up, and the male and female protagonists shared their eternal kiss.

‘Ugh.’

Daphne dry heaved internally.

‘Is it over now?’

At some point, she had thought everything would end if she just saw this scene with her own eyes.

She even thought maybe the words ‘Thank you for loving me until now’ would float before her eyes.

Though she had been living in parallel with the novel for two years, this wasn’t actually a novel. This was Daphne’s reality. Nothing had ended. It wasn’t as refreshing as she had thought.

Just one premise became clear.

That Daphne Beaucater had ruined Celestian Teriosa’s second life. 

 * * *

 The deep-colored sunset was dying the sea red as it sank beyond the white line.

The stern deck of the first class where the wedding reception was being held was decorated here and there with pearl-like small light bulbs, giving the feeling of being inside a carousel.

Daphne had left that place for now. Though there were college classmates she hadn’t seen in a long time, she lacked the energy to maintain formalities and fake smiles while chatting with them.

“What should I do.”

She sat alone on a bench in the quiet left corridor, still in her ceremony attire. She had already chewed through five cigarettes until their insides burst.

No entry to the reception. No meeting in between.

Because she needed time to organize her thoughts, this situation was practically an opportunity for Daphne.

‘What should I do. Should I run away?’

She looked at the end of the corridor where knights had again formed ranks and sighed.

‘Why should I run away. Should I just pay him handsomely and send him to Teriosa?’

Until now, she had kept rationalizing with ‘I saved him!’ but Daphne felt even a hint of guilt that it was she who had made the once-prince belong nowhere here.

‘If Celestian did regress, it means he knew his entire future……’

If his skillful swordsmanship despite having no calluses on his hands was because he had lived once more, it all made sense.

‘No matter how I look at it…… regression, that seems right.’

If she hadn’t unnecessarily interfered then, acting like she knew everything. If she hadn’t reported to her uncle, everything might have gone according to his wishes.

‘If it weren’t for me, Celestian might have been beside Psyche.’

When her thoughts reached there, Daphne’s mood turned to sh*t. She flicked an unlit cigarette into the ashtray. Then she pressed both hands to her temples.

‘F*ck. He must think I’m such a b*tch.’

With such a naive plan, she had mortgaged his future and made it nothing.

Not all situations would be the same as before. She couldn’t guarantee that Celestian’s life would exactly match the novel she had read.

—You in this place.

What were those words that followed? Was there no way to fix this hasty temperament of hers? She was belatedly regretting cutting off Celestian’s desperate words.

‘But how did Celestian know about my death? There, ‘Celestian’ dies crushed under rocks, and ‘Daphne’ dies in the side story.’

Was the Celestian in the novel Daphne read and the Celestian breathing before her eyes the same person?

‘Is he not? Is he different?’

The doubt that started from a small contradiction suddenly raised its head. And soon Daphne muttered blankly.

“No, even after living once more, he can’t let it go? Couldn’t he just live comfortably sitting on a pile of money like me?”

It was a moment when her insides were becoming stuffy like sweet potatoes because of the question ‘Why do all these people who regress choose to suffer?’

“Who lived once more?”

A familiar voice suddenly came from behind Daphne. She turned around and met eyes with the owner of the voice.

Goosebumps spread across Daphne’s entire body.