* * *
Seeing a side of Sean he had never seen before, Raizen felt himself tense up without realizing it.
His mouth went dry, and he forced himself to speak.
“…You have something to say?”
“Yeah. It’s something… important.”
Something important.
What could it be?
What kind of story would make him look that nervous while saying it?
He couldn’t even begin to guess, and naturally, Raizen’s thoughts started drifting in a negative direction.
Maybe Sean was about to say that he didn’t think the engagement was right after all.
“Why? Sean, wasn’t that what you wanted?”
He’d been so shocked by the engagement talk that he’d broken a teacup.
His expression had looked genuinely hurt.
Even though there’d been no prior agreement, even though Raizen had declared the engagement entirely on his own, Sean had gone along with it.
Raizen rarely doubted his own thoughts or actions—but when it came to Sean, he was an exception.
‘When had that even started?’
He dug through his memory but couldn’t pinpoint it.
It had just… become that way at some point.
Fear of the unknown—an emotion he rarely experienced.
Usually, if there was something he didn’t know, he just found out.
Simple as that.
Raizen had the ability to do that.
But only Sean was an exception. Raizen had learned, through Sean, that the unknown could be frightening.
‘Maybe I should just make it so Sean can’t say anything. If I held his hand…?’
‘Or what if I looked completely exhausted?’
Sean would get flustered or worry about him and probably forget what he came to say.
But…
“Hyung?”
…He couldn’t do it.
Raizen let out a faint smile, feeling an unfamiliar sense of helplessness.
“Yeah. Come here and sit.”
At Raizen’s words, Sean walked over and sat at the table.
Even his footsteps betrayed his tension.
Just a brief glimpse of his gait showed it was slightly off from usual.
Raizen kept his composure and asked calmly,
“What is it… that you want to say to me, Sean?”
Was he actually smiling?
Was his voice trembling unnecessarily?
He wanted to summon a mirror right in front of his face just to check.
That’s how uneasy he felt, and yet Raizen’s eyes stayed fixed on Sean.
“Well…”
Even though he had come with a determined face, Sean couldn’t quite bring himself to speak.
Watching him hesitate, Raizen felt like his insides were burning up.
“Why are you the only one who’s so hard to deal with?”
If he wanted something, he should just take it—whether it was an object or a person.
That’s how Raizen usually was.
But with Sean, it wasn’t that simple.
Several times a day, he’d feel the desire to lock Sean away somewhere only he could see, but he never acted on it.
Meanwhile, Sean seemed to make up his mind and gave a small nod.
Then he asked:
“Hyung… would you believe me no matter what I say?”
Would he believe him? The answer to that was obvious.
No.
Raizen didn’t fundamentally trust people’s words.
People changed their minds and feelings all the time—and words were the easiest thing to fake.
That applied to Sean, too.
Raizen quickly scanned Sean’s face.
His head slightly lowered, eyes glancing up.
In those blue eyes—hesitation, and some inexplicable desperation.
The answer Sean wanted was clear as day.
“Of course I would.”
So Raizen said it.
Because only by giving Sean the answer he wanted could he keep him by his side.
“Whew…”
And sure enough, Sean visibly relaxed at Raizen’s response.
Feeling reassured that he had made the right choice, even Raizen felt just a bit more at ease.
“Have you ever thought… that this world, this life, feels like it’s from a novel?”
“…I don’t know. Not really.”
“Yeah… I guess it wouldn’t.”
Sean gave an awkward smile, his eyes flitting around.
He seemed lost in thought for a moment, then spoke slowly.
“I told you before… that I came from another world, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you ever think I was weird? Like, I knew things too well, or accepted things too easily…”
“I never thought you were weird, but I did think you adjusted to your situation a little too quickly.”
In truth, he had thought it was strange—but Raizen chose not to say that.
Seeing Sean’s cheeks flush slightly, he felt reassured again.
This approach wasn’t wrong.
In fact, most of the odd feelings Raizen had toward Sean stemmed from that very thing.
Sean claimed to have lost all his memories and suffered regression due to trauma, but even then, his eyes were far from those of an innocent child.
He was easily startled by small things, yet when real events happened, he accepted them calmly, almost like he had expected it.
Anyone else would have asked why?
But not Sean.
Especially when he saw the black mass—that had been the strangest moment of all.
Looking back, there were far too many oddities he’d let slide.
Had he unconsciously chosen to overlook them?
As Raizen mulled over his own behavior, he waited for Sean to continue.
“At first… I thought this world was just a novel. Because… it was exactly like a fantasy novel I read in Korea.”
“…A novel?”
At his question, Sean slowly nodded.
Raizen tilted his head slightly, turning over what Sean had just said.
So that means…
“You’re saying… there’s a novel out there where I appear as a character?”
Sean couldn’t bring himself to say yes.
But his expression and eyes gave away the answer.
‘Yes, Raizen. You’re right.’
‘I’m a character in a novel…’
From Sean’s point of view, that was true.
Strangely enough, Raizen felt like he could guess how he was depicted in that novel.
A perfect heir of a duke who finally reappears in high society after years of seclusion.
On the surface, flawless.
But inside, rotting away from a curse.
For some reason, he didn’t think he’d be the protagonist.
If anything, he’d be someone who torments and obstructs the main character.
‘Like a villain, maybe.’
In that moment, a name flashed through Raizen’s mind—Karon Luavis.
Someone who changed overnight.
Another transmigrator, like Sean.
And Sean’s attitude toward Karon…
“…Was Karon Luavis the protagonist of that novel?”
Sean looked a bit surprised but nodded.
“Yeah. His real name was ■…”
As he spoke, Sean winced and clutched at his throat.
Raizen stood up in alarm, but Sean quickly waved a hand as if to say he was fine.
“I’m okay. My voice just suddenly gave out. I guess… that name isn’t something I can say here.”
He said it calmly, then slowly began to explain the novel he had read.
A regular man from Korea gets dragged into this world and possesses the body of Karon Luavis, a total scoundrel.
With the help of the gods, he becomes a hero, defeats the demon king, and eventually marries the princess to become emperor.
‘The gods…’
Something about that term rubbed Raizen the wrong way, but he kept that to himself.
Instead, he asked something else.
“In that novel… did Karon Luavis ever get a new surname?”
“No. That kind of scene doesn’t appear. The protagonist ascends the imperial throne while still bearing the surname of Luavis.”
“That’s… something that only works in fiction, I guess.”
Saving the world was undeniably a grand feat, but there was no way the emperor would hand over the throne so easily.
Even setting aside the fact that the crown prince was still very much alive, putting someone on the throne who still carried the Luavis name?
“Does Duke Luavis die in the novel or something?”
“No, not that either.”
A novel featuring people who were very much alive in this world.
And yet, the ending felt too much like fiction to be real.
It truly seemed like someone had taken reality and layered their own imagination over it—like one of those “what if” stories, where history is borrowed to explore alternate possibilities.
After a brief moment of thought, Raizen asked, half-jokingly,
“Then, what about me?”
“……”
“In that novel, what kind of role did I play?”
* * *
