The work that followed went at a snail's pace.
The maids rushed in and helped Alicia, then the knights marched in to detain Katie.
"Take her."
"It's not fair, Young Master! It's not fair!"
As soon as the silence was disturbed, Katie shouted and shouted, but her words fell to deaf ears.
The knights wordlessly grabbed her arms and began to lug her forward. She tried her best to resist, but she was being held on both sides by two strong knights, and so she was like a sack being dragged across the ground as she went away.
Tears flowed down her blue eyes. After all this time, it's strange that they could still hold fear in them.
It was ridiculous.
"No, no please! Lady Rosetta! Rosetta! Please come here! I have something to tell you! Milady I'm— You must come to see me! Milady! You'll regret it if you don't come, you'll regret it!"
Her desperate cries echoed from beyond the open door.
It was background music that perfectly matched a minor villain's downfall.
Rosetta stood motionless and stared out the door, then soon walked out the door to the hallway when Katie's voice couldn't be heard anymore.
"Rosetta."
But someone called from behind her.
A large hand was holding onto her wrist.
Carefully, as if it was holding a precarious egg.
Stopping halfway through the door, she looked up at the ceiling for one quick moment, then turned her gaze to the person who was holding her back.
"What's wrong, Brother?"
She made eye contact with Damian, whose face had turned white and distorted.
"…Your hand is hurt. Besides, I think you got even more hurt when you fell down earlier, so it would be better not to move until the physician comes here."
She blinked slowly a couple times at the dry voice, her eyelids heavy with exhaustion.
She wanted to go somewhere else for now.
Not in this chaotic mess. Somewhere quiet.
"I'll just get treatment in my room. I'm so tired. I just want to rest."
When she pulled her arm gently as she said this, Damian quickly loosened his grip.
"Please pay more attention to Alicia than me. Earlier, she seemed very surprised."
The hand that was still between the two of them paused for a moment before returning back to his side.
"Alright."
He turned away after that brief confirmation.
Rosetta felt heavy.
It felt as though her leg, which had been stabbed by a large shard of glass, was burning.
Blood dripping from her wounded hands dripped down every step she took.
"I'm sorry."
A brief voice spoke behind her.
She paused, but didn't look back.
'I'm sorry, Ra.'
Wasn't it better not to apologize like this?
It was a random apology thrown out at a random time, but Rosetta knew what it was about.
The unanswered question.
'Brother. Who did you believe?'
'No—who do you trust now?'
The latter question was answered by the sight of Katie being dragged away.
And this apology was the answer for the former.
Instead of answering 'Okay,' I continued walking away.
The original Rosetta certainly wouldn't have accepted it.
Sometimes, you just have to adjust to the will of the body's owner.
Ta-dak, tak.
Ta-dak, tak.
The footsteps that echoed throughout the hallway were offbeat due to one limp leg.
It was a sound that was a result of the danger from today, even when it was gone now.
* * *
"Milady."
As she turned the hallway where her room was, someone quickly rushed to her side.
It was Mary, who had an incredibly frightened expression.
Rosetta glanced at Mary's nervous face and looked forward again.
"What happened to Alicia?"
Flinching, Rosetta could feel her shoulders shaking even without looking.
"I apologize, Milady. When I went back after I called the Young Master, she threatened to jump if I didn't let her out. I heard the window opening from inside the closet… I couldn't help it, Milady."
As her voice shook, Marie confessed her innocence.
Unlike Katie, her confession seemed genuine.
But compared to Katie's excuses to Damian, what Marie said was more unbelievable.
'She was going to jump? That Alicia…?'
In the midst of these questions, Alicia's hazy smile flashed across Rosetta's mind.
"Alright. Go back."
"Pardon? But, Milady's clothes…"
"Why, do you want to play dress-up?"
"…Milady..."
"The doctor will come to my room, and I'll leave my clothes to another maid. Stop following me. If you do…"
Rosetta was about to threaten her, and the small warning was for Marie to stop following her.
Then, she left the maid alone in the hallway and went into her room.
The sound of the rain drumming down had already stopped before she realized it.
A faint ray of sunlight emerged from the dark clouds.
She watched those dark clouds and rays of sunlight for a moment before she crumbled down.
On her face were streams of red blood.
She didn't know what kind of expression she had on her.
"Ah, I'm so tired."
Her head was spinning.
She didn't know if it was from the blood loss… or from something else.
Alicia's eyes kept glimmering in front of her.
Damian's hushed apology kept echoing behind her ears.
The world was full of ridiculous things.
It was tiring in many ways.
* * *
Rosetta continued to live in her new body. There were several reasons why she came to this decision.
First, she wasn't the main character here.
She was sick and tired of being the main character, so she liked the idea of being a supporting actress.
Although she was bothered that this role was a 'villain,' it didn't matter in the end because nothing would happen to her if she simply did nothing.
Second, it would be a random roulette.
She literally didn't know where it would stop.
In this life, she was lucky to have the role of a supporting character, to have a pretty face, and a considerable enough family. If she went on to the next life, she didn't know what kind of fate she had.
The first round was worth living in because she was only a high school student. It was likely that she'd be thrown back to a place like the second or the third round.
And lastly…
She wasn't close to her family.
In fact, this was the decisive factor.
Even before she got reincarnated, the Duke and the Young Duke would always be out of the house, and Rosetta had an awkward relationship with Alicia.
According to some memories still left in this body, she didn't even talk much with Marie, who was her personal maid.
In fact, it was safe to say that inside this mansion, no one truly knew Rosetta well.
And she liked this very much.
Whenever she possessed someone knew, their brother or sister would realize the terrible reality that she wasn't the same person.
She couldn't live like herself after transmigrating.
She had to constantly analyze her memories and act according to that character so that the character's family and the people around wouldn't notice.
Once energetic, once bold, once timid.
"Who am I?"
It had been a long time since she had forgotten.
It was good enough to just act according to the script given to her.
However, no matter how much she acted, there was always something lacking.
Because she wasn't real.
In the midst of it all, she had lost herself. It was an irony that 'others' couldn't even feel.
'What's wrong with you?'
'That's not the answer.'
She was always on her toes when these sentences were flung towards her.
She lived as though she was clinging onto the end of the string.
It was always like that.
Nevertheless, the moment would come when she'd be off the mark.
'You're not my daughter.'
Those eyes were kind to her just a few days prior, but they would suddenly look at her like she was a monster.
Indignation, dismay, anxiety, fear, anger.
'You… You're not my daughter!'
The ear-splitting scream would jolt her to her senses.
That's right, she actually thought she could pull it off.
She always thought that way.
Whenever she acted strangely, or if the way she spoke became awkward, or if she used words that she shouldn't know.
Would there really be no one who would catch on?
However, the gap between reality and fantasy was bigger than she thought.
The tearful eyes and grief-stricken screams of agony were even more frightening than she thought.
Once, it was her mother.
Although she was just acting, she tried to love her. And she tried to be loved.
She wanted to be a good daughter.
But no matter how much she struggled, her body's family would never be hers.
'Rita, where's my daughter?'
'Ah, now I'm… How should I be called?'
What was the name of a person who could neither be real or fake?
* * *
"…ter… Sis… t… sis…"
She opened her eyes to a strange sound. She felt dizzy.
The world she saw was distorted through the cracks in her vision.
Where was she, who was she now?
Rosetta, or Rita, or…
"Sister!"
It was the familiar voice that pulled her back to reality.
She lifted her eyelids, which had been heavily lowered, then searched for the voice's owner through the darkness.
"…Alicia? Why are you…?"
Her voice cracked. Perhaps her throat was swollen.
And it wasn't just that.
It was dizzy.. she felt hot… and it was burning…
'Is it because of the wound?'
"I was by your door because I was worried, but I heard a groan inside. Even though I know I shouldn't come in without permission… I'm so worried… So I just came in. I'm sorry, Sister…"
Alicia's dejectedness glimmered over the tears in her eyes, which Rosetta could see through the darkness.
She slowly raised her upper body.
She held herself up with her injured hand without realizing, so when she yelped a little in pain, Alicia hurriedly helped her.
After leaning back on the headboard, she breathed in deeply amidst the heat she was feeling and through her hazy mind.
"Sister, you're sweating a lot. I should go call the doctor…"
After Alicia wiped Rosetta's forehead with her cuffs, she motioned to get up from her seat, but Rosetta reached out to stop her.
"Don't go."
Her senses weren't right because of her fever.
Half of her mind was still inside her dream.
Now, she was both Rosetta and Rita, or neither Rita nor anyone.
Lonely, desolate, like a lost child.
"Sister…"
"You, you… Why did you do that."
"Huh?"
Alicia stuttered in return, as though she had forgotten how to speak.
Rosetta looked at Alicia through bleary eyes, only seeing the outline of her body by the corner of the bed.
"Why, why did you leave your room. Why—you ran to me. Why… Why did you tell Katie… You're too weak. You cry all the time. In the end, you even… fainted… Why the hell…"
Why.
They were silent for a moment.
The silence was as still as the darkness.
And with a face as tranquil as the darkness, Alicia fell into thought.
It was a long time before she answered.
No, actually, perhaps it was in an instant.
"You've been protecting me. Sister has been protecting me, so I wanted to protect you. I was scared… but because of Sister, I got some courage. Just… That's all…"
Rosetta's lips trembled.
The heat she felt all over her body quickly gathered to her face.
"...Like a fool…"
It felt like her throat was clogged.
The unbearably warm sensation went to her eyes, and tears flowed down her cheeks, trickling down.
Knock, knock.
Once tears began to trickle, they immediately poured like waterfalls.
She couldn't stop the broken faucet that was leaking.
"Sister… What's wrong? Does it hurt somewhere?"
Startled, Alicia was agitated and was at a loss on what to do.
Even with this, she was so clumsy.
Seeing just a few tears, she also followed suit.
In the original novel, Alicia was no different.
The original Alicia was constantly this tearful, weak character until the very end when her mind was finally worn out.
She was always at a loss.
After getting rid of Katie after she was found guilty, the Duke and Young Duke tried to spend more time with her, but the novel's narrative soon started.
She was still suffering from lack of affection, and because of that, she was often dragged around by the male lead.
Alicia was a person who was easily intimidated.
That was Alicia in the original novel. And that should be the Alicia in this present day.
But then, Alicia came running.
She threatened to jump out the window and ran to Rosetta as fast as she could.
She did something that even normal people couldn't easily do, then ran to Rosetta.
To save her.
Rosetta helped Alicia, which became her courage, and Alicia, who gained courage, tried to save Rosetta with that courage.
She changed.
She opened the cage door and untied her shackles all by herself.
With just a little attention from Rosetta.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to her.
'If someone just… If there was someone who gave me salvation. If only there was someone who made a small difference…'
From the depths of her hazy mind, she felt like someone with long blond hair was looking at her with forlorn eyes.
A woman with no family, no anything.
All she had was a body to live in.
She lived as Rita, but she wasn't really Rita.
'Me.'
Or someone else.
She reached out her trembling hand, then embraced the shadow in the dark.
"Sister…?"
A voice filled with fear entered her ears, but instead of answering, she buried her face deeper onto the slender shoulders.
'Maybe I'm…?'
That's right, maybe she's… from the moment she opened her eyes in this world.
The moment she saw Alicia looking exactly like her.
From the moment she said she'd be beaten instead of Alicia.
Maybe.
Maybe she already knew this would happen.
As long as she was breathing in this world, she wouldn't be able to stop caring for Alicia.
And she wouldn't be able to abandon her.
She didn't have the confidence to see Alicia walk through a path of thorns, a path that she had already walked before.
She didn't have the confidence to see Alicia become exactly like herself in the past.
No hopes of death, no hopes of life, not even any hopes of feeling pain.
She wasn't afraid of anything, but she didn't have the confidence to watch Alicia go through any misfortune.
'To me, you are another me, just not yet in the future.'
In that way, perhaps she could save herself.
She held Alicia tightly in her arms, tears flowing down endlessly.
The little girl who jumped fearlessly for her even though she was so weak.
"I'll… I'll protect you… I mean it… I will…"
Don't worry, Alicia.
Rita.
The words she couldn't say in the end were washed away by her tears.
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