Thought It Was ‘The End’, Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 3

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 1. The Male Lead is a Villain (2)

The first day she felt something was strange was sometime during the year she turned 9.

Edelaine was spending some quiet time with her fiancé.

‘Already having a fiancé when she’s just a kid.’

Though it was common in this world, it still felt unfamiliar to Edelaine.

If she thought of him as a young childhood friend it wouldn’t be strange, but thinking of him as someone she’d marry in the future felt peculiar.

‘Having a young duke as a fiancé, look at this silver spoon class…’

In her previous life, some duke inherited his fortune at 25 and became the richest person in their twenties on Earth. This duke here would be even more so, certainly not less.

Up until this point, Edelaine didn’t know much about the world she had been reborn into.

She thought the setting was quite fantastical, but she hadn’t realized it was truly the world of a novel. That was usually a difficult direction to think in.

‘In my previous life, he would have been hugely successful as a model.’

Beauty that became a picture just by standing still and blinking would have succeeded in any medium.

The name of the angelically beautiful boy was Shane Blancarde.

He had lustrous black hair and sharp eyes that folded prettily like crescents, with jewel-like blue pupils embedded within them. His porcelain-white skin had not a single blemish, and his long limbs were straight and slender.

Counting by full years, even at 13 he already had quite the bearing of a young man.

Since Edelaine was 9, there was a 4-year age difference, yet he was a kind fiancé who didn’t show any signs of boredom when dealing with her.

‘Mainly his face is kind.’

In Edelaine’s view, Shane was an excessively kind model student.

A child whose maturity from being too smart had become poison.

‘Maybe it’s because he grew up receiving strict education, but he can’t even cry like a child should. He’s not honest either…’

Not long after their engagement, Edelaine had been dragged to Shane’s mother’s funeral hall.

She was startled once when she realized the place she’d been led to by adults was a funeral hall, and startled twice when she saw the young boy standing there blankly with a pale complexion.

That child had lost his mother, yet the adults were neglecting him as if he were an adult himself.

A child who had only learned to suppress emotions and didn’t know how to release them.

He was so pitiful that she had no choice but to embrace him.

“I’ll stay by your side. Don’t worry. I’ll be the only one watching, so it’s okay to cry.”

“How can I cry when tears won’t come?”

“Still, try to cry.”

“Do you like it when I cry?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll try to cry.”

Even without tears, he’d try to cry at his fiancée’s request—how kind was that? She thought she’d have to take good care of him so he wouldn’t become a pushover somewhere.

After that, she worried about him more and visited often, playing together.

Shane seemed to understand Edelaine’s feelings, as he began following her enough to visit even outside their once-monthly scheduled meetings.

Since Shane was older, it should be called becoming close rather than following.

“You came to play again? Are you free?”

“What could be more important than spending time with my fiancée?”

“I-Is that so?”

Maybe he was using her as an excuse because he didn’t want to study.

Though she felt like she was being used as an excuse for legitimate slacking, time passed well while looking at his pretty face, so it was fine.

“The Saint should appear soon.”

“Huh?”

“Weren’t you reading the newspaper?”

Edelaine was holding the newspaper for show but was actually admiring Shane’s face. Realizing she’d made a foolish sound, her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment.

No matter what, she couldn’t say she’d been staring at his face.

“Saint?”

What Saint?

Edelaine read the newspaper headline.

It was an article about how 102 years had already passed since the last Saint died, but no new Saint had appeared yet, causing difficulties.

‘What kind of novel-like setting is this word… Huh?’

Novel?

‘Huh?’

Come to think of it, her fiancé’s surname was Blancarde…

A Saint who appears once every 100 years.

The eldest son of House of Blancarde, a black-haired, blue-eyed handsome man…?

This name and setting sounded very familiar…

‘Ah, shit! He’s the male lead!’

The moment the words ‘male lead’ appeared above the angelic boy’s face, the plot she’d forgotten quickly occupied her mind.

‘It wasn’t just a fantasy world, but really inside a novel!’

And she instantly grasped the situation.

‘No wonder he had everything!’

The pure-hearted material that only looked at the female protagonist with devotion, genius in both literary and martial arts, perfect status and appearance.

He was definitely the male lead of the healing romance novel “The Saint I Thought Was Fake Turned Out to Be Real.”

‘I only called him Shane, so I never had reason to think about his surname, and I couldn’t think to apply the black-haired, blue-eyed handsome setting to a child… I had no idea.’

You can’t live remembering novel character names every moment of every day.

Until the keyword ‘Saint’ was added, she’d only thought of him as a pretty fiancé with a difficult foreign name.

But he was this novel’s male lead, and Edelaine herself was not the female lead. She’d been fond of him thinking he was her fiancé, but now that she knew, she had to change her attitude.

“Edelaine? What’s wrong?”

“Let’s break off our engagement.”

“What?”

When such unexpected words popped out of his 9-year-old fiancée’s mouth, Shane’s gently smiling face turned cold.

His expressionless face looked like a wax doll rather than an angel.

Edelaine paid no attention to Shane’s cold blue eyes and rattled on.

“Break off the engagement, Shane. Yes, that would be good. We’re still young, so…”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but Edelaine. Our engagement has already been officially recognized by His Majesty the Emperor. You know it’s not a simple matter that can be broken by mere whim, right?”

“An engagement for a child not even ten years old—this is child abuse!”

“Now? We’ve been engaged for a long time.”

“…”

That was true, but still.

“B-break it off. We must break it off! They say divorce is better than annulment!”

“Who taught you such bullsh—I mean, bad words?”

“…”

You seemed about to say something worse just now.

“What would you do if you knew…”

“I’ll make sure they never teach you bad words again.”

“…”

Could a mere 13-year-old boy feel this scary? The meaning contained in “make sure they can’t” was certainly not gentle.

It definitely didn’t mean he’d kindly persuade them.

“Edelaine, who is it? Just tell me their name, okay?”

Shane coaxed Edelaine as if soothing a child. She wanted to ask who was treating whom like a child, but right now Edelaine was indeed a child.

“Let’s just break off the engagement, okay? If we both say we don’t want it, something will work out.”

“But I want to marry you, Edelaine.”

“You’re still young. The future is unknown.”

“You know you’re younger than me, right?”

“…I don’t want to know…”

“Edelaine, did I do something to disappoint you? Tell me and I’ll fix it.”

“…No… You didn’t do anything wrong…”

Not yet.

Edelaine briefly considered throwing herself down and screaming her head off in a tantrum.

Break off the engagement!

She imagined herself sprawled on the floor, Shane watching her, and her parents in shock….

‘No, that’s not it….’

As Shane had said, their engagement was a promise between families and a contract made under the Emperor’s official recognition.

It couldn’t be broken by a child’s stubbornness alone.

Even parents who loved their youngest daughter dearly wouldn’t find it easy, and there would be losses involved.

She didn’t want to cause harm to the parents who had given birth to her and raised her.

‘Then there’s no choice. Having him break off the engagement and drift apart would be the most gentle method, but….’

If he wouldn’t break off the engagement, she’d have to find another way.

The male lead belonged to the female lead anyway.

Getting entangled would only be tiresome, and it would be better for both parties to cut ties early rather than have him taken away after growing attached.

‘Though I’m already getting attached….’

You belong to someone else.

She would slowly detach herself emotionally, maintain a friendship rather than an engagement, and when the female lead appeared, she would send him off cleanly.

Up until this point, Edelaine was still relaxed.

‘But what exactly was the content of that novel? I only remember the romance from the middle and latter parts, so I’m confused. There are so many romance fantasy novels with saints in them… I think I’ve read dozens of similar ones.’

She was even a little excited about the fact that the world she was reborn into was inside a novel. Though it was somewhat bothersome that her role was the male lead’s fiancée, she was also thinking of enjoying it from one step back.

The nightmares began that very night.

*

“Ah, damn it!”

Edelaine opened her eyes with a scream, breathing heavily.

Her young body was drenched in cold sweat.

“I remembered… my role in this novel….”

It wasn’t just the role of the male lead’s fiancée.

‘Edelaine,’ who had much and grew up receiving plenty of love from her parents and two older brothers, couldn’t bear her beloved fiancé abandoning her and falling in love with another woman.

She tormented the female protagonist and tried to kill her using everything she had, until finally….

‘Who was it, the bastard who killed me.’

She was a character who got murdered by someone who loved the female lead.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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