Chapter 27 : Chapter 27

…Maybe.

Maybe, you know.

Perhaps, after being tormented by the emotional abuse of her stepmother who tried to make Ye Sara her own, she completely broke down.

Maybe she was so broken and despaired about her future that she just wanted to give up on everything.

What if Ye Sara hadn't swallowed a handful of sleeping pills, hadn't thought of dying?

Maybe she would have become the Ye Sara I saw in that streamer's video.

Having given up on everything, she would have destroyed herself completely to hurt the chairwoman she hated so much.

Maybe she would have hurt the people around her and bullied Yoo Ha-neul so that even the chairwoman would abandon her.

I thought Ye Sara would be able to escape from the chairwoman's grip once she became an adult.

I thought she could do anything if she had that much wealth and the right to manage it.

But could she really have done that?

When I think back on it, the chairwoman had already isolated Ye Sara from the world for years.

I was free to live and learn various things, but could Ye Sara, who had been separated from the world since childhood, really see herself objectively?

In the world Ye Sara saw, the only person who gave her a proper response was the chairwoman.

The chairwoman, who visited only four times a year.

That's why Ye Sara loved the chairwoman.

And hated her just as much.

Ye Sara's feelings were probably much more complicated than what was written in the letter.

She wanted to be with her because she loved her, but at the same time, she wanted to escape this hellish place.

She fantasized about someone coming to save her and longed for salvation so much that she could turn it into a novel.

So, maybe.

If Ye Sara had survived and gone to school.

Maybe, just like in the game, she would have destroyed everything around her, including herself, to make sure the chairwoman could no longer take her back.

Even if death awaited her at the end, Ye Sara would have welcomed it.

As the final escape from the chairwoman.

And—

I hope my mother loves me.

I hope she loves me as much as I loved her when I was a child.

—Yes, as proof that her mother really loved her.

"..."

I lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

I carefully folded the notebook and the letter I had read and put them back in the drawer where they had originally been.

Unfortunately, the torn envelope remained as it was.

The content of the letter was brief.

No matter how short it was, a few sheets of paper were far from enough to record a person's entire life.

But the contents were enough.

Enough to understand what kind of life Ye Sara had lived, what she thought, what she felt.

And why she ultimately chose death.

…And the bruise on her back.

Why I felt such excruciating pain when I woke up.

At first, I thought my death in the previous life might have influenced Ye Sara's body in this world.

But I quickly dismissed that thought.

It seemed a bit absurd to think that a physical injury from my previous life would have transferred over.

There were more realistic explanations.

For example, that she was beaten by someone.

Yes, if she had been a victim of domestic violence from the chairwoman, that would make sense.

Yes, that seemed like a much more plausible explanation.

However, Ye Sara had never been exposed to direct violence.

According to the letter, the chairwoman gave her limited love whenever she visited.

If she had physically tried to subdue her, she wouldn't have felt 'family love' for her.

So, it wasn't due to violence.

Then, why were there bruises on her back?

Why did her entire body feel like it had been crushed?

The reason blood continues to flow inside a person is because the heart is beating.

If the heart stops, blood inside the body pools according to the last position the person was in.

Unless someone dies in space, blood on Earth is pulled downwards by gravity.

If someone dies lying down, the blood naturally gathers on their back, eventually appearing as bruises.

This is called livor mortis.

I remember reading about it in a mystery novel before.

…The reason my entire body felt like it had been crushed was probably because this body of Ye Sara literally 'died and came back to life.'

I'm not sure if it's postmortem rigidity or something else, but maybe the nerves that had completely shut down suddenly started functioning again, causing extreme pain.

"..."

Then what about the sleeping pills that caused Ye Sara's death?

Can a soul really bring a dead body back to life?

How is the brain, which hasn't received blood for hours, functioning?

Countless questions came to mind, but none had answers.

I could only assume that some supernatural phenomenon beyond explanation had taken place.

Otherwise, there were too many unexplainable parts.

After all, I was a person who originally lived in another world.

"I didn't want to give up."

But Ye Sara did.

Because she no longer felt a reason to live.

This world's Ye Sara was not the Ye Sara from the game I knew.

In hindsight, that was to be expected.

Even if I hadn't crossed over to this world, even if Ye Sara hadn't chosen to commit suicide before the main story began.

Maybe, she could have taken another path.

Perhaps not the villain of the male lead's route, but Ye Sara's route, where she ends up with Yoo Ha-neul, awaited her.

After suffering all her life, maybe a happy ending with Yoo Ha-neul was waiting for her.

No, no.

Maybe she would have walked a path different from any Ye Sara in the game.

Maybe she wouldn't have chosen to destroy herself.

Maybe she would have desperately tried to make friends.

Maybe she would have eventually become friends with everyone at school and somehow escaped the chairwoman's grasp.

Maybe she would have achieved the ordinary life she longed for.

Maybe, maybe…

Yes, it was all just 'maybes.'

Because the Ye Sara of this world was already dead.

She had lived a life of suffering and ended it herself.

Now, there was no way for Ye Sara to go to school.

No chance to make friends, no opportunity to apologize for past wrongs, no chance to meet someone she loved and live a happy life.

None of it remained.

Ye Sara used up all those chances in her final attempt at revenge.

In that sense, I am an intruder.

I suddenly appeared at the very end of Ye Sara's plan, rendering her final, all-in move meaningless.

"..."

I felt as if someone was slowly, heavily pressing down on me as I lay in bed.

*

After thinking for a long time, I finally came to a conclusion.

I don't want to die yet.

In my past life, I didn't live a life worth bragging about.

I had no presence, just living day to day because that's what everyone else did, because that's how everyone made a living.

I got a mediocre job and went to work every day.

But even so, I never thought about giving up on that life.

In between the mundane parts of life, there were things Ye Sara never got to have.

Family, friends, hobbies, places I wanted to visit, things I wanted to eat, things I wanted to try.

I had more reasons not to die than reasons to die.

That's why I didn't give up on my life.

It's the same here.

I don't feel like giving up on life.

Whether I return to my original world or not, I actually… enjoy some parts of my current life.

Why should I die when I can eat such delicious food?

No, I don't think I should.

Why should I give up when I finally have female friends?

Especially in a world where homosexuality isn't frowned upon.

Should I give up without even trying?

No, absolutely not.

Why should I give up when I could inherit an amount of wealth equivalent to a major corporation?

Are you kidding me?

No, I won't allow that.

I got up from the bed.

I still felt a heaviness in my heart.

The life I was enjoying in this body wasn't originally mine to enjoy.

Now that I knew what had happened to the original owner, the heaviness was natural.

But, Ye Sara, I'm sorry, but I can't be part of your plan.

I'm going to live my life the way I want.

Maybe one day, just like when I came to this world, I'll suddenly have to return to my original world.

Maybe I'll wake up in the house I remember.

And maybe Ye Sara's soul will return to this body.

And she'll think, bewildered.

Why am I not dead?

Why do I have friends?

Why is no one controlling me?

Of course, because I will make it so.

Ye Sara dreamed of revenge by throwing her life away, but I won't.

If I seek revenge, I'll do it right.

I'll live happily, and my enemies will fall into despair.

That's how the cost balances out, doesn't it?

Isn't that the obvious rule?

In novels and games, it's only natural for someone who possesses the villain's body to defeat the villain who couldn't be beaten.

Now that I've possessed Ye Sara's body, I have to somehow defeat the chairwoman, the source of evil in the game.

That's only natural, right?

So… yeah, that's the deal.

Ye Sara, you don't have to worry about anything.

Someday, if you wake up again, you'll surely get to spend that ordinary week you dreamed of.

You'll live such a happy life that revenge won't matter anymore.

…And that life won't just be for a week.

Because I'll make sure of it.