The Exhausting Reality of Novel Transmigration

mediately looked down to check Cassion’s waist, where a scrap of cloth was loosely tied.

It looked like he had torn off a piece of his cloak.

Lowering the same hand that had fumbled on his back, I pulled the sloppily tied knot to remove the cloth.

“…Crazy.
This is crazy, seriously.”

The now-exposed wound was dreadfully severe.

It was quite deep, and his flesh had been ragged.

The blood that the sloppy fabric could not block flowed continuously.

In an instant, the terrible metallic smell of blood spread through the air.

I stared blankly at the wound for a moment, then at the man’s increasingly pale face.

I blinked.

My throat was burning, tears filled my eyes.

That dream, and then this.
Perhaps things kept happening in quick succession, but the situation felt like utter dogshit.

My heart raced faster and faster to the point where it felt like I needed to puke.

Opening and closing my lips a few times, not knowing what to say, I buried my cheek on the man’s shoulder.

“…I feel so sorry towards you that I want to die.”’

I’m serious.

“…Even if it’s just a joke, don’t… say such a thing.”

And Cassion, too, was perhaps also serious.

Foolish tears flowed down.

 

* * *

 

Afterwards, while trying to press down on the urge to shed tears, I wrapped another piece of cloth around Cassion’s waist again.

Before doing so however, I didn’t forget to apply some medicine, which I thought to bring just in case.

Of course, the salve was far from sufficient for the extent of his wounds.

But it’s better than nothing.

“…Rosetta.”

As Cassion quietly let me tend to his wounds this whole time, silence had stretched between us for a while, but he soon spoke to me.

“Are you in pain?” I asked.

He shook his head in response.

Then in turn, he asked a question that wasn’t even funny.

“How about you… Are you alright?”

“That’s what I should ask you, Cassion.”

“I’m okay.”

His foolish answer made me laugh.

He always answered that he was fine.

Still, there was a time when he told me that I’m the one who’s never concerned about myself.

I wanted to say that right back at him.

“…Ha.
Fine.
Let’s start over.
I said earlier that I’m fine, right? I’m not really fine.”

Unconsciously, I answered with a curt tone.

I’m not even a child, and yet.

“This or that… Ha… I feel sorry… to hear it.”

I couldn’t help but pay attention to his labored breaths in between the words he uttered.

Glancing at the man, I said reproachfully.

“I feel more sorry for you, look at you right now.
I told you to run away.
But why didn’t you? And why do you look like this now?”

You should’ve just left me behind.

At this, he smiled lightly.

As though he heard a joke.

Ha.

Staring at him, I saw his smiling lips slowly opening.

“How can I abandon you? You’ve never… abandoned me, not even once.”

“……”

“Can I tell you a secret?”

“A secret?”

“Actually, the day of the carriage incident.
Well, when you saved me… That day.”

As Cassion brought it up, I could vividly recall the events that had transpired on that day.

Beneath the blazing sun, his frayed appearance.

It was the day that we first met, and the day of a new destiny.

While I was silent, he continued speaking.

“It’s late, but I… thought of something.”

“What is it?”

“I thought, I’m ready to give you my heart.”

Heart?

Unable to comprehend his words, my eyebrows became knitted together.

As I slightly turned my head to face Cassion better, he opened his eyes a little and smiled.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“From the moment I chose to hold your hand, there would never come a time that I’d think to abandon you.”

That’s why, for you to feel apologetic towards me or anything like that, you don’t have to feel that way at all.

His slow enunciation made it sound like he was an adult soothing a crying child.

An adult who’d offer a kind smile and a piece of candy just to stop the child’s tears.

“Besides, I was attacked by those things earlier, not by you.
That’s why, even more so, Rosetta— you don’t have to apologize to me.”

When I continued to be silent, his comforting words began anew.

He spoke so much even as his blue lips trembled all throughout.

‘When you’re in such pain… Why do you keep saying that you’re alright.’

With eyes that started to become cloudy, I looked only at his side profile and avoided his gaze.

“No, it’s because of me.”

“…What?”

As I confessed with a small voice, Cassion asked briefly.

Staring into the air now, I felt the corners of my lips tugging up.

“Those things followed me.”

“What are you…”

“They came looking for me.
To take me, Rosetta— No…”

Rita.

“Rita?”

Cassion murmured back, confused as to why a stranger’s name was suddenly brought up.

The inside of my mouth tasted bitter.

With a tight throat, I gulped with effort before continuing.

“I’ll tell you a secret, too.”

A secret that I’ve yet to tell anyone else.

Strangely, a smile persistently remained on my lips.

 

 

t/n:

we’ve got a manhwa now!!!

tbh i’ve just been staring at alicia for, like, 10 minutes straight– i can understand why rosetta took one look at her and went, ‘i’ve only known alicia for a day and a half, but if anything happens to her, i’ll kill everyone in this room and then myself’

sadly, i can’t do a mass release to celebrate the manhwa’s launch……. but! i’ll post daily updates for ten days straight~ woohoo~