TLed by NolepGuy
Chapter 3
With a slight headache, Olivia’s eyes closed.
[Viewing will begin in 10 minutes.]
She slowly opened her tightly shut eyes.
A familiar ceiling greeted her.
“Ha….”
A deflated laugh escaped her lips.
Thinking she might truly be insane.
A very familiar room, adorned with dolls placed cutely on the bed and decorated with pink curtains like a typical Noble Lady’s room.
It was her past Divine Healer’s room.
It was just as it had been.
Even the ceiling covered with photographs of Mikhail.
Even the attachment doll with Mikhail’s photo stuck on the teddy bear’s head was exactly as it had been a year ago.
Her bewildered heart caused her voice to naturally leak out.
“It’s real?”
She carefully reached out and picked up the teddy bear beside her.
The attachment doll of the Divine Healer, abandoned by Ricardo. Its soft texture and musty smell were still intact.
Feeling the vividness of the illusion, she thought her Divine Healer disorder must be severe. While an empty laugh escaped her, she couldn’t hide the peculiar excitement in a corner of her heart.
Because she was looking forward to the future she was about to witness.
So what if it’s a mental illness?
She was already a crazy woman anyway.
Olivia, lying on the bed, cautiously looked at her Divine Healer’s legs.
Sleek legs. On her knee was a Teddy Bear Bandage given by Ricardo, adorably placed. Olivia slightly flexed her toes.
‘Shall I try moving them?’
Suddenly, fear struck her.
Her lower body, which she hadn’t been able to move on her own for the past year. The memory of feeling like her body didn’t belong to her overlapped. She shut her eyes tightly.
‘It’s moving…! It’s really moving!’
But her worries were unfounded. Her tightly shut eyes were unnecessary, as her toes moved just fine.
Her small, white toes wiggled.
Olivia sprang up from the bed and stood upright on her own.
‘…!’
She felt like crying.
The sensation of feeling the ground beneath her after so long. Olivia couldn’t suppress the giggle that escaped her.
‘Heehee…’
A foolish laugh spilled out of her mouth.
At this moment, she was glad she was crazy. If she could feel the joy of walking again, even for a moment, being called a crazy woman was fine.
As a peculiar sense of fulfillment filled her entire body.
Olivia began to be convinced.
That what she would see in the future wasn’t a nightmare. She was this happy now, so how would her past self, unhindered by the Butler, have been?
Wouldn’t she have been too drunk on sweetness to come to her senses?
‘See, I wasn’t wrong.’
-Tick tock, tick tock.
The sound of the clock hands moving filled the quiet room.
Olivia turned her head to check the time.
11:59 PM.
Olivia was familiar with this date and time.
‘If I remember correctly, it was at exactly midnight?’
The day she used dark magic.
The moment she entered the room.
In truth, Olivia’s memory of that day wasn’t complete.
She remembered up to the point she entered the room.
She couldn’t recall the rest.
She only remembered a sharp pain and how excruciating it was. Then she lost consciousness.
The only thing she remembered clearly was entering the room at midnight. And that Ricardo barged in and interrupted her Divine Healer’s dark magic. Beyond that, she remembered nothing.
Was it because she had been too excited?
Or was it the aftereffect of failing the dark magic?
‘Why did I do it? I guess I’ll find out now.’
Time passed, and the clock struck midnight.
[Viewing begins now.]
After the blue letters appeared.
A familiar voice was heard beyond the door.
-This is all I need.
A voice brimming with excitement.
A voice soaked in happiness, like a Young Child who had just been promised a new toy by their parents, entered through the door.
‘Back then, I looked prettier than I do now.’
Unlike her now faded white hair, her 20-year-old self had black hair and a radiant smile. Her confident smile was overflowing with elegance.
There was a time like that.
She reminisced about the past with a wistful gaze.
Time flowed quickly.
Lying on the floor, engraving a magic circle on her body and the ground using a black magic book obtained from the black market. Her past self, full of recklessness and laughter, seemed contagious.
It was a pleasant sight.
She couldn’t help but smile throughout.
For exactly one hour.
At the one-hour mark since she started drawing the magic circle.
Olivia felt goosebumps rise on her forearm.
-Mix the blood of the one you love with my own….
-It’s almost done. It’s all finished now.
-Heheh….
‘Did I really make that expression?’
It was chilling.
The look of her past self, drawing the magic circle with eyes consumed by madness. It was just like a fanatic.
‘Was I really like that?’
She wanted to deny it.
She wasn’t someone with such a miserable face, nor was she someone prone to obsession.
She thought she was just a girl with an unrequited love like anyone else.
The self she saw was too grotesque.
Even so, the reason she couldn’t deny that it was her.
-Mikhail. Mikhail. You’re mine, so you’ll understand, won’t you?
Was because of the familiar name that came out of her mouth.
4:30 AM.
The room was shrouded in darkness.
Illuminating the room with her back turned, she looked at the completed magic circle, her past self.
That was all Olivia remembered from that day.
Thinking of Mikhail, she poured mana into it and felt unbearable pain. Then Ricardo burst through the door. That was all she could recall.
Olivia clenched both her hands tightly.
No matter the process, it was now time to prove that what she did that day wasn’t wrong.
‘As long as the outcome is good, that’s all that matters.’
The picture she hoped for.
Not the picture where that damn Butler interrupted. After a moment of pain.
The picture where the dark magic succeeded, and she envisioned a happy future with Mikhail.
Dating, hugging, and warmly calling each other’s names in that scene. Thinking of that moment made Olivia’s chest swell with emotion.
‘Yeah. As long as the outcome is good, isn’t that all that matters?’
Olivia clenched her fists tightly.
She saw herself standing at the center of the prepared Magic Circle.
-Good, perfect.
The flowing mana.
The Magic Circle began rapidly absorbing the mana of her Past Self.
-Kikik… Kigigik.
A chilling sound was heard.
The sound of the ground cracking.
The Magic Circle drawn on the floor began to glow black, and the Spell Formula engraved on her body turned red along her veins.
‘Huh… Huh?!’
In that moment, she had a hunch that something had gone wrong.
-What? What’s happening?
It seemed her Past Self realized something was amiss.
Her eyes widened, and her frozen expression revealed she was at a loss for what to do. Olivia shouted.
Olivia shouted.
“Get a grip, you idiot! What are you doing?!”
Now, there was no way her Past Self could hear her voice.
Olivia could only observe.
-What? What’s happening? This isn’t supposed to happen! The Magic Book clearly said it would glow pink!
Quickly flipping through the pages.
She searched for the page in the Magic Book containing the method for brainwashing someone’s heart and read it hastily.
-There isn’t a single mistake. There wasn’t. I definitely prepared everything perfectly… Mikhail’s blood and my blood. I prepared both!
Her voice grew increasingly frantic.
Her once confident expression had long since turned to one of panic.
-I even drew the Magic Circle perfectly…!
-I brought the blood Mikhail spilled in the Training Grounds! What went wrong?!
-Shaak… Shaak.
The sound of pages being turned rapidly.
-Shaak…
-Shaak…!
In the illusion, Olivia’s voice gradually faded after flipping to the last page.
-Huh?
From behind, as Olivia read the Magic Book alongside her Past Self, her breath caught.
-No way?
(The magic only activates if there is even a slight alignment of affection.)
-No way, Mikhail couldn’t possibly feel that way about me. I’m Olivia, the Flower of Society.
Contrary to her words, her head began to droop.
Olivia’s voice grew smaller.
In the end, her Past Self buried her face in the Black Magic Book. Saying this couldn’t be happening, she clenched her fists so tightly that the blood drained from her hands.
-Sniff… No, it’s not true, it’s not!
She was crying desperately.
-This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening!
Olivia was flustered, unable to do anything.
Everything about this was just strange.
Starting with the failure of her Past Self’s magic, to the fact that the conditions for activating the magic weren’t met.
Everything was simply unbelievable.
‘Did I really act like that?’
The trembling wouldn’t stop.
Her mind was filled with nothing but denials, ‘No, no.’
Gradually, Black Mana began to engulf her Past Self. Her pale skin turned black, and blood started to flow from her nose.
It was the sign of her Dark Magic failing.
-Kyaaaaaaaah!
A piercing scream echoed in her ears.
Recalling the horrific pain of that day, Olivia’s arms broke out in goosebumps.
‘Stop it.’
Olivia hurriedly moved.
She tried to pull her Past Self out of the Magic Circle. Desperately, she reached out her hand.
But Olivia’s hand couldn’t make contact.
[This is the Observer’s Perspective. You cannot interfere with the subject.]
Her hand passed through her body meaninglessly, accompanied by a cold voice.
“Get up, idiot! Get up! Get out of there! Are you trying to die?!”
Contrary to Olivia’s wishes.
Her Past Self remained frozen in place.
-No, my magic couldn’t be wrong. It definitely succeeded!
-My magic is perfect.
-It’s perfect, isn’t it? There’s no way someone like me, the Top Ranker of the Academy, could make a mistake.
Her Past Self gritted her teeth and held on.
-It must be because there wasn’t enough time for activation. If I endure just a little longer, it’ll work.
Olivia was terrified.
She was utterly horrified by herself, who was like a moth to a flame.
“Please, just. Just get out of there.”
Her Past Self stubbornly endured, even as her flesh began to rot from the Dark Magic.
Olivia covered her ears and closed her eyes.
*
How much time had passed?
A hoarse voice broke through the fingers blocking her ears.
-Kyaaaaaaaah!!! It hurts… It hurts… It hurts so much…!
Her Past Self, breaking down helplessly.
She looked so pained.
She looked so pained that just watching her made Olivia feel like she was in agony.
Clutching her chest, Olivia said,
“Somebody, please help her.”
That couldn’t possibly be heard.
Her Past Self had cast Silence Magic outside the room because she wanted to focus entirely on the Dark Magic.
Her Past Self cried out with a hoarse voice.
-Kyaaaaaaaah… It hurts… It hurts…! Mother… Mother!
“Somebody, save her. She’s in so much pain…”
Her Past Self was pulling at her hair, sobbing.
Just how agonizing it was.
Watching it made Olivia feel as though she was the one in pain.
“No, this isn’t right. This can’t be right.”
Her rotting flesh.
Her skin burning to a crisp and turning cloudy.
Olivia couldn’t bear to watch the horrific scene anymore.
What on earth had made her believe the Dark Magic would succeed?
She couldn’t pinpoint where it had gone wrong.
All she could do now was desperately wish for someone to help her.
Olivia shouted.
“Isn’t there anyone?! She’s in so much pain! She says she’s going to die from the pain! Somebody, anybody, help her!”
Her Past Self was the same.
-Save me! Please save me!
Scratching the floor while screaming.
It was utterly pitiful.
The smoke from burning flesh filled the room.
Olivia covered her nose with her sleeve.
“Cough. Cough…”
-Please save me…!
A fading groan.
Her Past Self kept saying this until the end.
-Mikhail… Save me…
-Mikhail, please save me. I was wrong about everything, so please, save me.
Olivia instinctively cursed at her Past Self.
“Get a grip, you crazy woman──!”
Yet, she continued to call out.
-Mikhail, save me.
Just as she was about to exhale her last breath.
Her Past Self uttered a familiar name.
-Ricardo. Save me.
[The perspective is shifting.]
It was the familiar ceiling again.
Some time had passed, and the room was now neatly organized. The photos of Mikhail that had covered the walls were gone.
Half out of her mind, Olivia struggled to lift her head.
There was a single frame on the bed.
Olivia let out a hollow laugh.
“Ricardo was telling the truth.”
A familiar face smiling brightly.
It was herself.
She must have died.
That crazy woman.
If Ricardo hadn’t helped, she would have been happy, but instead, she had died.
‘…’
Sitting on the bed was The Man, wiping the dust off the frame.
With a single white chrysanthemum placed modestly.
Olivia found the back figure familiar.
The Red Hair and skin whiter than hers, someone she mocked daily for being lowly.
It was her Butler.
Ricardo was wearing a white shirt with his sleeves rolled up, bowing his head to hide his expression as much as possible.
He spoke softly.
“Why do what you were told not to do?”
His voice carried a hint of tears.
“Do you know how hard I worked?”
He seemed like he was about to cry.
Like a Young Child holding back tears.
He looked as though he would burst into tears if nudged.
Olivia stood silently behind Ricardo, her lips tightly closed.
Ricardo stayed by the bedside.
Until dawn broke.
[Viewing is interrupted.]
***
Her forehead felt cold.
“What are you doing, Young Lady?”
A familiar voice was heard.
The Butler with Red Hair, pressing a wet towel to her head.
The Man her Past Self had desperately sought in her dream looked perplexed.
“Did you have a nightmare?”
“…”
“Are you going to stay silent and make me feel awkward?”
“A dream?”
“Yes. You’ve been asleep all day, you know?”
He touched her forehead with the back of his hand to check her temperature.
Olivia tried to put strength in her legs.
Her legs wouldn’t budge.
She returned to reality.
Relief washed over her.
Whether it had been insanity or reality, it was the worst dream she’d ever had.
It was a nightmare she never wanted to experience again.
Olivia looked Ricardo up and down.
As always, Ricardo was dressed in Long Sleeves and long pants. As always, he greeted her with a gentle smile.
“Are you hungry?”
“Shut up.”
Her Butler.
It was Ricardo.