Chapter 6
“I’ll try to persuade her.”
The Crown Prince hugged and soothed Ji-woo, patting her on the back. She felt awful. She felt awful, but she didn’t know how to resolve it, nor who to confide in.
And not long after, Ji-woo truly got to meet the Marquis’s daughter at a meeting arranged by the Crown Prince.
“I’ve decided to accept you.”
It was an absurd thing to say. Who was accepting whom? And in that tone of voice, as if giving charity? Wasn’t it *her* who had intruded upon our perfectly fine relationship in the first place?
“We are lucky.”
“What do you mean?”
Although it seemed pathetic, Ji-woo asked. The lovely Marquis’s daughter covered her lips with a fan and smiled with her eyes.
“I can provide Aleph with a solid noble foundation and an heir, and you can, as it were, add the blessing of Akarna to his position.”
“…”
“I like you. I think we can get along well together. What if I yield a little of my position?”
It was surely meant as a compliment. That smile was closer to pure goodwill than to jealousy towards a romantic rival.
But Ji-woo’s heart instantly grew cold. It felt as if the heat that had peaked when she kissed him that summer day and hadn’t cooled for a moment had suddenly been extinguished.
*This person called him Aleph.*
*I still call him Your Highness.*
“You seem to call His Highness by his name.”
“Oh my, of course. We are to be married.”
“…”
“And no matter if you are Akarna, that shell of yours is still a commoner.”
The Empire stood above the sacred. Even while diligently performing her duties as Akarna, there were many times she felt she was not a servant of god, but a servant of the Empire.
The only reason she barely endured that, forcing herself to think it was for the good, was because of the Crown Prince. Because of her lover. But was that just her own delusion?
Regardless of what Ji-woo was thinking, the woman chattered on.
“So you wouldn’t know how much I’ve given up for him. Including acknowledging your existence.”
“…”
As Ji-woo kept her mouth shut, the woman continued with trivial gossip from high society that she didn’t care about.
The situation of the three of them became a considerable topic of gossip.
The passionate Crown Prince who refused to give up his love, even going so far as to arrange a position for the infertile Akarna, despite the risk of her diminishing his standing. His wise fiancée, who did not show jealousy. And Ji-woo, the obstacle who had intruded upon the Crown Prince’s brilliant life.
Is that so? Is that really how it is?
Am I the only fool clinging to things like this?
Because of love, I could abandon the past, live only in the present, and give up everything while dreaming of a future with one person.
That wasn’t the case for the Crown Prince, Aleph. His love had been calculative from the start. Not for a single moment could love take priority over his own goals.
That the Crown Prince was maintaining this relationship even at the cost of narrowing his own position?
What did *he* give up?
He gave up nothing. Rather, he used this situation to solidify that very positive image of himself.
It felt as if her love had fallen to the ground and been trampled. She, who had thrown everything away and prioritized Aleph, prioritized love, was a fool. She had thought that if she had Aleph, she could settle here without returning to her reality. That she would be fine even if she abandoned everything that made up her past and started over here.
―*I love you.*
Aleph’s shy confession flickered before her eyes.
He probably did love her. It’s just that he wasn’t someone who would give up something more valuable to himself solely for the sake of love. Ji-woo’s love wasn’t grand enough to create something extraordinary for him.
Yes, that’s right. It’s correct. Logically thinking, it’s all correct. He was royalty, and she was the shell of an Akarna, replaceable at any time.
Akarna could die at any time due to frequent dispatches to barren lands. She couldn’t produce an heir. The Crown Prince had done nothing wrong.
Moreover, it’s not like he’s abandoning her; he’s even offering a realistic position, isn’t he? Isn’t this something to be grateful for?
But what about *my* will?
No one asked for her opinion, not even her feelings.
She was supposed to accept what they had decided among themselves as an honor, given her station.
Ji-woo clenched her fists tightly. Even her shoulders trembled.
“There wasn’t only that way.”
“Hm? Another way? Ah, hahaha. Surely not.”
The fan that had been gently swaying snapped shut. Behind it, her eyes held a look of contempt. She seemed to be mocking her for hoping for something beyond her station.
“You’re not expecting Aleph to abandon my conditions and choose only you, are you?”
Countless words spun in her head, but only one escaped her lips.
“Ha.”
She clearly remembered what she thought that day.
*So, in the end, I’m just a foreigner here.*
—
**【The Forest Otherworlder】**
—
*Drip. Drip. Drip.*
Ji-woo opened her eyes slightly due to the cold water falling on her forehead. The sudden light made her vision dizzy. After a long moment, when her focus finally returned, what she saw were the tree roots from which water droplets were falling.
Had she been lying there the whole time? Ji-woo hurriedly sat up.
“Ugh… Ah.”
She felt dizzy. Her whole body was languid. She felt awful, like waking up after sleeping with a sleeping pill.
But considering she had been left lying here for so long, her body wasn’t cold. Something like a thick cloth was spread over her body. Not far away, a campfire crackled.
‘I slit my arm with a knife…’
Ji-woo looked down at her arm, carefully wrapped in a clean, white cloth. The area where the wound had been was swollen, and the cloth was stained with blood. Ji-woo unconsciously touched it.
“Ugh…”
The unhealed wound hurt considerably. Ji-woo gave up on checking the wound further and looked around.
Naturally, she was alone. There was no way the guards had already come down here. The male otherworlder whose mana she had purified… well, it’s not like he asked to be saved, so she had no obligation to take him to a nearby village. Still, it seemed he had left her a fire.
*Crackle. Pop.*
‘My life is pretty tenacious.’
If there was one thing she learned from her long relief efforts as Akarna, it was that people die surprisingly easily, yet also surprisingly don’t die easily. Since she was Akarna, she was probably closer to the latter.
“Hoo…”
A sigh escaped her.
This damned body, having gotten cold while she was unconscious, welcomed the warm fire. Warming her hands by the fire, Ji-woo thought gloomily.
*When the rescue team comes, I’ll just go with them.*
Trying to die on impulse only resulted in failure and deepened her fear of death. Having survived after going through near-death pain several times, she didn’t want to experience it again.
Even if she continued to be treated like a foreigner here until the end, there was nothing she could do.
Just because she didn’t want to accept this situation, even if she broke up with the Crown Prince and left recklessly, there was nowhere to go. The temple wouldn’t allow it, and it didn’t seem like the Crown Prince would let her go either.
Just as Ji-woo was listlessly absorbing only the firelight, she heard a rustling sound from the entrance.
Ji-woo raised her head. And she met his eyes.
What caught her eye first was his light-colored hair. Silver hair faintly tinted with forget-me-not blue. In the sunlight, it looked much whiter than when she had seen it in the darkness.
Then her eyes went to his most distinctive feature, his ears. Having only roughly seen him lying down, she hadn’t noticed, but one of his ears was half cut off. The remaining ear was long, making the asymmetry even more pronounced.
He was wary of Ji-woo, who was already up. After hesitating for a moment, he then seemed to make a decision and approached her.
They stared at each other for a moment.
“…”
“…”
There was no conversation.
The man unwrapped a cloth bundle in front of Ji-woo. Inside were some nuts or berries, mushrooms, and what looked like medicinal herbs. Next, he threw a piece of meat, its skin completely removed, into the fire.
Soon, a savory smell spread from the fire. Despite the smell of cooking meat and the enticing apple-like berries, she didn’t feel hungry.
After a moment, the otherworlder spoke.
[You are a foreigner.]
“…”
She had only heard about otherworlders, as they were known for their reclusive nature. This was also the first time Ji-woo had met one in person.
The language he spoke was also strange. It wasn’t the common imperial language she always heard. It reminded her of when she first fell into this strange world. She had also heard a strange language then. It was the same: she could only understand it, but couldn’t speak it.
A foreigner. Come to think of it, they were both foreigners to each other.
