NOVEL NEXT Episode 177
Episode 177
In the brief moment of awkwardness, almost all the students had entered the banquet hall. Ryuseong and I entered last. The banquet hall is usually closed and only opened for end-of-semester festivals or commemorative events, so it was my first time seeing it in person, and it was more beautiful than described in the original work. The banquet hall was a space like a majestic work of art. Reliefs, sculptures, tapestries, framed pictures in galleries, displayed pottery, white porcelain, celadon, ancient artifacts – I was captivated by a single aesthetic that encompassed and overwhelmed all of these. Because it was on the ceiling, I looked up as if gazing at the sky.
The ceiling painting depicting the creation myth of the World Tree was displaying a mysterious and auspicious appearance like the universe.
Just as I thought the foam of light created by magic bursting from all directions looked like a meteor shower, I suddenly felt that this moment was like a wedding. Like a wedding ceremony where the bride and groom enter arm in arm, we were holding hands, in love, and everyone was waiting for us to enter.
Somehow it was funny to an odd degree. A wedding at a banquet for a friendly competition between schools! We haven’t even proposed to each other in the first place. Moreover, we don’t even know if we can get married! I don’t even know if I can survive!
But isn’t it strange?
‘I’m not worried at all.’
Whether it’s Demillang or whoever.
No matter who the real final villain is.
At this rate, I’ll win.
Because I have to marry you.
I’m under a marriage buff right now, so I don’t feel like I can lose at all.
I’m not worried at all about what if you refuse.
‘What will you do if you don’t want to get married?’
I’m going to marry you.
‘I’m asking what you’re going to do.’
No matter how you look at it, there’s nothing Ryuseong can do.
If Ryuseong refuses to the end, isn’t this an opportunity for me to return the favor of being imprisoned by the emperor?
Thinking this way, I energetically pulled Ryuseong’s hand, and Ryuseong muttered as if he couldn’t bear it.
“I wonder what you’re thinking to smile like that again.”
“Like what?”
“…Right, if it’s comfortable for you to live without knowing, then do so…”
Rather than it being comfortable to live without knowing, it’s more comfortable to pretend not to know.
‘Thanks for the official approval.’
If we had to assign a genre to our romance, romantic comedy would be the most fitting. If you want to argue that other keywords suit our romance better, I hope you stand up and raise your hand now. I’ll send you to Nietzsche’s side.
Now then, there shouldn’t be anyone opposing, right?
***
The banquet finally began.
However, despite luxurious buffets spread out everywhere, no one was interested in the food.
Instead of the abundant tables, what caught everyone’s attention was me, Cassice Demillang.
I was just having trivial conversations with Ryuseong, but the gazes around us wouldn’t leave me.
‘If it had been shortly after I possessed this body, I might have been flustered.’
But not now. I had become somewhat accustomed to living as Cassice Demillang, and because of that, I had a sense of why people were reacting this way.
Until now, the sight of Cassice Demillang laughing happily had never been publicly seen. To be more precise, laughing ‘happily’. While Cassice Demillang’s image of smiling while delivering scathing insults wasn’t rare, his smile didn’t seem genuine. Wherever and whenever, Cassice Demillang was captured in photos with a smile. But it didn’t seem sincere. His habitual smile, wherever and whenever, was beautiful like a rose crafted from glass, but not alive.
But now it was different. Not only was I inside, but I was genuinely laughing!
‘Because I’m tormenting Ryuseong.’
I wiped the smile off my face and lowered my voice. As if bringing up a serious topic that was racing against time.
“What does a parasite say when it’s thirsty?”
“Please don’t do this. I’m begging you.”
“Host… I… water…”
“…”
“Pfft.”
Ryuseong, who was so serious and solemn in the early days of my possession, was now cringing at my low-brow jokes.
That very fact made me laugh out loud.
‘We’ve really changed a lot, haven’t we?’
As I burst into laughter holding my stomach, a smile also spread across Ryuseong’s lips. Laughter bred laughter. Laughing face to face, our abs were starting to hurt. Ryuseong, who was grinning along with me, tapped and circled my temple with his fingertips, and I chuckled while hitting Ryuseong’s shoulder a few times. In other words, we were engaging in everyday playfulness. That’s why people couldn’t come to their senses. Some students were seen with their jaws dropped, unable to chew the food in their mouths. A certain reporter who had sneaked into the banquet hall pretending to be a faculty member was on the verge of dropping and breaking the camera he was holding.
‘Oh my. For a photojournalist, a camera is as good as their livelihood.’
What a talent for cutting off one’s own lifeline.
Unfortunately, my personality, which was very close to Cassice Demillang’s, judged that there was nothing particularly to be done except refill the eye smile. It wasn’t Cassice Demillang who broke the camera, after all. He dug his own grave. I obviously had no responsibility for compensation. Moreover, I wasn’t even mocking the reporter who broke his camera.
‘I was consoling him.’
Yes, of course.
Anyway, the students’ meal wasn’t an official schedule, and therefore, if an intruder was found in a space where coverage wasn’t permitted, the result was obvious. The reporter tried hard to argue for his harmlessness, but there was no mercy from the jangseung, the guardians of the school grounds. I waved my remaining hand gently to bid farewell to the reporter being dragged away with his mouth caught and both arms bound.
I thought maybe the photo files could be salvaged if done well, but…
Bang! Crack! Crunch!
Hmm. The jangseung started tap dancing on top of the camera. At this rate, the files can’t be salvaged.
Then articles with titles like
Somehow, I felt a bit disappointed. The more opportunities to claim Ryuseong as mine, the better.
I didn’t know this before, but I seem to have a peculiar constitution that’s perfectly suited for public dating. To be able to genuinely enjoy this situation where people go crazy just from a glance. An introverted person would probably faint if they heard this. Therefore, I can be said to be a born extrovert, no, a born attention seeker.
You ask if the shocking setting of being half politician, half celebrity isn’t too much?
No. It’s thrilling. Attention is the best.
Seeing this, I thought I should have been a celebrity during my Jeong Ian days. Maybe it could have been my true calling. If I hadn’t wasted myself by dating just any man, the entertainment industry might have been a good choice. A chaebol’s third generation who’s also a genius actor. Wow. That’s impressive, isn’t it? This kind of thing always works. I can think of over fifty article headlines already. I probably would have been cursed at for debuting with family backing, being called a commoner bastard as soon as I opened my mouth.
‘…Is being possessed in a book the best after all?’
That’s because a celebrity is just a celebrity. Even if personal attacks and sarcastic remarks are thrown at you, you can’t curse back to their face. Slap their cheek? Can’t do it. But Cassice Demillang is half celebrity, half politician. And even a soldier on top of that. One who’s actually deployed to the battlefield!
‘And when combined with the great achievements the original body has accomplished…’
I guarantee that if someone curses at me, before I can even retaliate, people around would be ganging up on that bastard.
That’s the kind of existence Cassice Demillang is.
…The talk about excessive settings, it was a joke, but it might be true. No, wait a minute. Come to think of it, even if I’m not terminally ill, I’m a sickly genius pretty boy, aren’t I?
‘It’s thrilling.’
After all, being a munchkin is the best.
Translation Notes:
Got caught up with the raws, will be back after the raws are out.