chapter 04
“…What?”
At my words, the Duke flinched and turned to look at me with a strange expression.
‘If you can’t avoid it, pretend you don’t know anything.’
The method I chose was a classic cliché straight out of a drama.
Amnesia.
In a lifeless voice, I quickly recited lines that sounded very familiar.
“I don’t remember anything. Where is this? Who are you?”
“What are you—?”
“Is Edith Blake my name?”
As soon as I finished speaking, silence filled the room.
The Duke, who had been staring at me blankly, suddenly twisted his face in anger.
“Norman! Aston! What… what on earth is going on?”
He shouted at the doctor and the healer.
“Didn’t you say she was perfectly fine?”
“W-Well… if someone experiences great shock, temporary memory confusion can occur! The young lady suffered c-cardiac arrest…”
“That’s strange. When I examined her earlier, there were no signs of severe shock…”
Unlike the flustered doctor, the healer looked at me sharply.
Then she tilted her head and asked the Duke,
“Shall I try using healing power once more?”
“Ah, my head…!”
Before the Duke could give permission, I quickly grabbed my forehead and collapsed onto the bed.
“My head hurts so much. I feel nauseous too… How long do I have to stay like this?”
“It could be psychological rather than physical.”
Because of my desperate acting, the doctor hurried to persuade the Duke.
He seemed very afraid of being accused of misdiagnosing me again.
“It may be short-term amnesia. Let’s observe her for a few days. I’ll prescribe medicine that’s good for brain health.”
“…Hmph.”
The Duke glared at me with dissatisfaction before finally turning toward the door.
The doctor, healer, and servants followed him out.
‘Phew… I survived.’
I quietly let out a sigh of relief.
I had barely accepted that I’d possessed someone, and I had no confidence in immediately acting like the vicious Edith.
No.
If I really tried, I could probably copy her. My memory was quite good.
But—
—Is that all you have to say to me?
—What does Father even know about me? How much does he really know?
Just remembering the lines Edith used to spit out at the Duke in the novel made my head spin.
Amnesia was a hundred times better.
‘I’ll keep this up, and if it doesn’t work, I’ll just say my memory came back.’
The more I thought about it, the better the plan sounded.
If I was destined to die as a villain anyway, couldn’t I just quietly distance myself from the protagonists?
‘Come to think of it, it’s a five-way romance. Crazy. I absolutely must not get involved.’
Just imagining the fierce love rivalry among the four male leads surrounding the heroine drained all my energy.
I was congratulating myself on my quick thinking when—
“You…”
“…!”
A low voice suddenly echoed in the room, startling me.
When I looked up, a man was still standing there.
‘What? Why hasn’t he left yet?’
I had assumed he followed the Duke, so I was caught off guard.
Ethan Blake.
That cold, silver-haired beauty radiating icy energy was Edith’s stepbrother—and Male Lead No. 1.
After his beloved adjutant died in a Gate incident, the Duke took in the man’s young son.
He planned to raise him as a knight like his father, but unexpectedly, Ethan awakened.
A powerful S-rank ability that controlled ice—just like his cold appearance.
Since his daughter never awakened, it was only natural that the Duke adopted Ethan as his heir.
“Do you truly remember nothing?”
Ethan asked stiffly.
‘He’s not asking out of concern, obviously.’
As his unpleasant tone suggested, Ethan and Edith did not get along.
He couldn’t stand Edith’s twisted personality, her improper behavior, and her cruelty. Over time, that turned into hatred.
Especially after he learned that she bullied Ruelin, his feelings reached their peak.
‘But when they were young, they seemed close…’
Ethan and two other male leads had frequent contact with Edith during childhood.
That was probably why she hated the heroine so much for taking them away.
Of course, I couldn’t completely blame Ethan. As her stepbrother, he had suffered from Edith’s cruelty for years.
Still, I never liked him while reading the novel.
Maybe it was because I projected my own past onto Edith.
‘You’re just a stone that rolled in. How dare you glare at the one who was already here?’
If not for his ability, he wouldn’t even have the right to stand before her like this.
“Yes.”
I smiled harmlessly.
Originally, Edith spoke casually to Ethan, but I answered politely.
To make it look like I truly had lost my memory.
“Who are you? Judging by your clothes, are you the Duke’s… no, my father’s adjutant?”
“….”
“Or perhaps… are we close?”
“….”
“For example, are you my hus—”
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
Ethan suddenly cut me off, his face twisted in irritation.
Seeing his displeased expression, I secretly felt satisfied.
His trigger points were obvious.
Status. Bloodline.
Being associated with someone he despised.
Just like how my own father’s third adopted son once beat up someone who spread rumors about living under the same roof as me.
“As long as you don’t remember, that’s fine.”
“You won’t tell me what our relationship is?”
“Why should I tell you?”
He reacted sharply before coldly turning his head away.
“Figure it out yourself.”
With that sarcastic remark, he turned to leave.
At that moment—
Suddenly, my vision distorted, and something flashed before my eyes.
—Ugh…!
—Ethan, it’s okay. Breathe in, breathe out slowly. Good…
—Edith! Edith… please, just—ah!
—Shh…
A man, shirtless, clinging at Edith’s feet.
Edith holding his face and whispering gently.
And in the moonlight streaming through the window, his hair color—
“Are you kidding me? What is this?”
I blurted out before Ethan had even left the room.
The scene was that unbelievable.
‘Am I dreaming while awake? Why am I in that position with him—?’
Flash—!
Before I could think further, the vision vanished like a lie.
And in its place was Ethan’s sharp expression.
“…What did you just say?”
He spoke as if asking, “Did you just curse at me?”
If I had been in my right mind, I would have shamelessly denied it.
But my heart was pounding too hard from what I’d just seen.
I stammered foolishly,
“Ah… th-that…”
“….”
“A bug! I thought I saw a bug. I was startled without realizing…”
“A bug?”
Ethan raised one eyebrow.
“In the middle of winter?”
I instinctively looked out the window.
Snow had piled up on the frame. Damn it.
But I couldn’t take back what I’d already said.
So I stubbornly pretended.
“Yes. It was definitely crawling here. Where did it go? Haha…”
“They say you died and came back. Looks like you’ve gone completely insane.”
He looked at me with open contempt, then shook his head as if I wasn’t worth dealing with and finally left.
As I stared at his retreating back, I couldn’t believe my eyes again.
Because a number suddenly appeared above his head.
64%
‘64%…?’
Unlike the vision, the number didn’t disappear.
I stared at it, blinking several times. It remained.
‘What is that…?’
Then I noticed something else.
From his feet, a dark aura began to rise.
A black, transparent smoke climbed up his body like water filling a cup.
For a moment, I wondered if I should stop him.
But Ethan walked as if he felt nothing.
Fortunately—or unfortunately—it stopped around his waist and went no higher.
The swirling black smoke.
‘Demonic energy.’
It was unmistakably demonic energy.
‘Then that 64% is…?’
I looked between the number above his head and the dark aura at his waist in shock.
Click.
He left the room without hesitation.
But I couldn’t take my eyes off the spot where he had stood.
“…I can see his rampage level?”
I couldn’t believe it.
I had never heard of such an ability.
Even with modern technology, no one could measure how much demonic energy had accumulated inside an awakened person.
That was why awakened individuals dispatched to Gates were like ticking time bombs.
That was why the older generation—like my father—desperately avoided Gate missions, even pushing adopted children as substitutes.
That was why I had decided to oppose him and remove the black mist myself.
But although I had purification ability, I had no way of knowing when an awakened person would lose control.
“Then…”
I realized instinctively.
This was Edith’s ability
