6. You’re Going to Have to Die

“What did you eat wrong? Or did you decide to smear our family name by pretending to be crazy?”  

Even at the bellowing of Asilly’s father, Brooks, who had just thrown away a broken cane, Judy did not cower and only seethed. The image of Asilly she had glimpsed while being dragged had been nothing like she expected. In that image—Asilly clinging to Gianna’s arms, acting pitiful, pretending to cry—Judy had not found the slightest sign that she intended to help.  

An uneasy feeling struck Judy hard in the head.  

“Are you even listening to me right now? Just who did you take after to end up with such rotten manners!”  

“That’s what I’m saying. The girl’s been cunning since childhood, but now I have no idea what she’s plotting.”

Asilly’s stepmother, Bonika, chimed in.  

“Fine. Today, I’ll correct that cunningness that’s embedded to your very bones—properly.”  

Brooks, picking up another perfectly fine cane, brought it down hard on her calf. Judy clenched her molars and endured it. If she showed how much it hurt, it felt like she would be giving a satisfying spectacle to Asilly’s stepmother Bonika and those sisters who were watching right in front of her, and her pride stung.  

She reached her room—almost crawling—only after every prepared cane had snapped.  

“I have to let people know that I’m Judy.”  

Even if she had to talk about incidents only “she and the other person” knew—things no one else knew, things known only between the two of them through their relationship—she had to make everyone realize that she was Judy. And after that, she had to acknowledge this situation together with everyone and find a way to solve it.  

As she looked down at her calves, raw and burning with pain where the skin had split, her resolve only hardened.  

“I didn’t want to live in this house. I…… didn’t want to live as Asilly.”  

***

After that, some time passed helplessly. Judy went to her own home, the Grant Marquisate, to meet Asilly, but each time she was turned away at the door by the servants and had to retreat as if being chased off. It was the same in front of the Crawford Dukedom, Theo’s family home.  

With her former body still not returning no matter how many nights she slept, the people around her continuing to turn their backs on her, and the Leroni Barony’s constant mistreatment, Judy was in a truly precarious state. But because it was a life she could not give up, she was heading to her own home again that day to meet Asilly.  

“Hey.”  

Someone stopped her inside a gloomy-looking alley.  

“Who are you?”  

Without approaching, she asked from a distance. The man motioned for her to come closer. Judy, keeping her guard up, instead took another step back, widening the distance between them.  

“Lady Grant of the Marquis’s house is looking for you.”  

“Even so, I can’t just trust you and go with you.”  

At Judy’s words, the man flicked his eyes upward. When she slowly followed his gaze, she saw a second-floor window. Blond hair, blue eyes, snow-white skin, and a languid, beautiful presence that even looked elegant—herself—was looking down at her.  

Judy went up, following the man who said he would guide her upstairs. Creak— creak— the warped groan of wooden stairs in an old building sounded spine-chilling. When she reached the door, it opened from inside, and a musty smell brushed her nose.  

Asilly was waiting for her in a place that was unpleasant just to exist in.  

“Judy.”  

When the door shut, Asilly moved away from the window and came toward her.  

“You still haven’t told people, have you? That you and I switched bodies.”  

There was no need for petty, unnecessary words. What was most urgent and important to Judy was only that. But Asilly did not seem to find it urgent or important at all. She strolled leisurely to a chair at the edge and sat, then stared at Judy with a calm voice.  

“You miss being Judy Grant, don’t you? That’s why you’re desperate to go back.”  

The intent behind the question felt strangely sinister. In particular, the wicked smile lifting the corners of her mouth made Judy’s skin crawl.  

“You don’t?”

When Judy forced herself to steady her mind and ask, Asilly’s twitching lips finally burst into laughter. It was not a pleasant laugh. It was a laugh laden with pure sneer.  

“You’ll know once you’ve lived my life. Do you think I’d want to go back?”  

Judy could not refute her. Even if Judy were Asilly, she did not particularly want to return to Asilly’s life.  

“Looks like it’ll be hard for our souls to switch back, doesn’t it? It’s been days and it’s still the same.”  

“We can find a way.”  

At Judy’s words, Asilly laughed and shook her head.  

“It’s a waste of time. And when I became you, I realized I can have everything. Earl Wesley, the man I love, a rich fortune, and Theo, a friend with power, and even warm, kind Gianna.”  

“…….”  

“Of course, Marquis Myka Grant is a blunt father, but he isn’t violent or hot-tempered like my father, Baron Brooks Leroni. And your pretty dresses, your jewels, and that grand, beautiful mansion……!”  

As if enchanted by something, Asilly rolled her shoulders with an enraptured expression. She wore the face of a commander intoxicated with triumph after winning a war.  

“Judy, I’ve decided to live as you. But under the sky, there can’t be two Judys.”  

“What do you mean?”

Seeing Asilly’s eyes gleam with chilling madness, Judy instinctively backed away with a bad premonition. At that moment, the tightly shut door opened, and two burly men trudged into the room.  

“So… you’re going to have to die.”

The two men grabbed Judy’s arms hard.  

“Let go!”  

She fought back with all her strength, but astonishingly, it did not affect them at all. The more she thrashed and screamed like a cornered animal, the tighter their strength clamped down on her. Bruises bloomed on her arms, and pain surged as blood flow was cut off.  

“Asilly, you can’t become me. You don’t know any of the precious memories I have with them at all.”  

“Ah, that doesn’t matter. I’m going to fall while going down the stairs, and after that, I’ll act like I got amnesia.”  

“How can you do this to me? After all I’ve done for you!”

In the past, it had been Judy who diligently took care of Asilly when she was subtly ostracized among noble young ladies. Ignoring Theo and Gianna’s warnings—telling her the atmosphere around Asilly felt ‘off’ and that she should not get close—Judy had kept her by her side, and now she regretted it bitterly. But it seemed that regret came too late.  

Asilly rose from her chair, walked over slowly, and whispered low into Judy’s ear.  

“Goodbye, Judy. No, Asilly.”  

As Asilly waved with a face grinning as if she was enjoying it, the two men brutally dragged Judy down. The situation was truly turning into the worst possible outcome. If she was dragged away by those men like this, the result was obvious—she would meet a miserable end. She did not want to die like this.  

“Let go. Let gooo!”  

But with a weak woman’s body, pushing past not one burly man but two was like throwing an egg at a rock. Outside the wide-open door, an old carriage was visible. It seemed they planned to drag her somewhere and make her disappear without anyone noticing. She could not die like this.  

‘When someone grabs you tight, it’s actually more effective to completely let all the strength drain out of your whole body. When that happens, the other person instinctively hesitates.’  

In that instant, the knowledge Theo had told her came to mind, and Judy let her body go limp.  

“Wh-what……!”  

And the two men hesitated as they both tried to catch Judy’s slack body as it collapsed without strength. Using that opening, Judy shoved away the man who looked slightly smaller with all her might, and bolted down the alley.  

“Get her!”  

If she could just get out of this alley, it would be incredibly crowded, and there would be plenty of people to ask for help. This alley—if she could just get out of this alley!  

“Uh—!”

The moment she was about to burst out of the alley, Judy was struck hard in the face by something and bounced backward, falling flat. Ever since her soul had switched with Asilly’s, she had been suffering with not a single part of her body left unhurt.  

“What’s wrong with you? What are you doing, suddenly popping out from there?”  

A familiar voice flew sharply down over her head! This voice was Theo’s.  

“Theo!”  

Judy, who had squeezed her eyes shut from the pain in her tailbone as it slammed the ground, hurriedly looked up. Theo was looking down at her with the most displeased expression in the world.  

“Theo!”  

Judy sprang up at once, hid behind Theo, and pointed toward the alley.  

“Save me! Those men are trying to kill me!”  

“…….”  

The men she needed to show were nowhere to be seen.  

“Huh? Where did they go?”  

“What kind of trick are you pulling lately?”  

“It’s not a trick. They’ll be in that building if you go in. But there’s probably no need to go in and check.”  

It seemed they had spotted Theo and fled. Judy finally let out a relieved breath. But just when she started to think this was not something she could keep relaxing about, her body swayed hard once more.  

“Ah.”  

It was because of Theo’s rough shove—Judy must have linked her arm through his without realizing it.  

“Up until now, I let it go because you were Judy’s friend.”  

“…….”  

“But I despise you, Asilly Leroni.”  

“Despise? Asilly… no, you despise me?”

Why did the word “despise” make her so happy? The face that had been pinched in pain from her aching arm slowly brightened with color. Seeing her actually look pleased at “I despise you,” Theo shot her a look of disbelief.

“Yeah. I despise you.”  

“Good. Despise me as much as you want. Despise Asilly Leroni all you want.”  

“What?”  

“It doesn’t matter. I’m not Asilly Leroni—I’m Judy Gra—.”  

Bang!  

Before she could finish, Judy and Theo’s gazes turned at the same time toward the alley. From that building she had fled, her own limp body was being carried out slung over a man’s back.  

“Judy?”  

“No. Theo, that one is—.”  

Once again, Judy could not finish. It was because Theo shoved past her and headed straight for the man carrying her slack body. The man who followed behind spotted Judy standing apart from Theo and started to move toward her.  

And so Judy was forced into a situation where she could no longer follow Theo—then, as if being sucked into the crowd, she ran.