Five years ago now. A night of slaughter.
It was an unusually wild and stormy day.
Theo, the patriarch, was away battling Paimon, leaving only his wife, the still-young Master Nox, and me at home.
Most of the others followed Theo to slay the demon, and the masters were no different.
Master Garen, the eldest, had already become skilled enough to assist Lord Patriarch, so it was natural for him to join the demon slaying.
Master Grine was taking classes at the Academy.
The twin masters were away with Psylla-nim, but....
In any case, it was inevitable that anyone with the name of Reinhafer would have to fight demons.
But we weren't expecting it.
That the Demons were a meaner, dirtier people than we thought....
* * *
Rumble-Crash-Bang!
(jjaeng-geulang!)
When you hear a noise like that, it's customary to suspect a storm, but what kind of place is this? It's House Reinhafer, after all.
Of course, it takes a lot of horsepower to make each piece of glass. It's a masterful piece of work, so it can't be broken by natural forces.
That fact... only made us more uneasy.
Because breaking a window with several layers of protective magic would mean that someone had gotten inside the mansion, and that would be terrifying.
Snap. Snap.
(chalbag. chalbag.)
It wasn't long before we heard the footsteps of a hulking demon stomping down the hallway.
The Madam, the Young Master, and I are huddled in a small servant's room, holding our breath, because we've decided that we're too vulnerable to be discovered in the big room.
But you know what?
Demons smell human blood.
As he was running away with me, he tripped and tore his pants a bit, and in the process scratched the nightstand, which was bleeding, and the demon didn't miss it.
He walked into the room we were in and said.
[I smell human blood. Just because you're hiding doesn't mean I don't know it].
It wasn't a large supply.
It wouldn't have even been below that.
But we were terrified.
We'd already heard the screams of countless temporary troops and vassals outside as they were crushed by other demons. It didn't matter if we held our breath.
The thing was moving towards us, ever so slowly, inch by inch.
Like a child waiting to take a slow bite of a delicious meal.
"Stop right now. All you want here is my life, so why don't you stop killing for nothing?"
At that moment, it was none other than the Lady who stood up from her seat, a warm, holy light radiating from her entire body that instantly engulfed the evil demon.
But the devil scoffed and didn't back down at all.
[You think you can drive us away with that light? It's only a speck of weakness, and besides... it's not you we want].
The words were clear, for the demon's gaze lingered on exactly one spot.
Young Master Nox was what he wanted, and for some reason, they were going to kill him. Suddenly, from outside the window, countless dark red eyes began to coldly scan every inch of his body.
"Rona."
It was then that she called to me.
Our eyes met, clearer than ever.
I don't know if she'll ever know, but tears welled up in my eyes as she smiled warmly at me.
I froze, and all I could do was listen to her muffled voice.
"I need you to help Nox, he has too much power, and I need your help… his memory will be erased."
"…What?"
That was all I could say out loud.
The Mistress nodded in understanding and continued.
"With his memories gone, even if he's not the same person you know… would you be able to take care of him, so that he doesn't draw unnecessary attention to himself, and so that he can come back to our side again someday...."
I didn't hear the last of it, as there was a crackling, crackling sound.
All I know is that a brilliant flash of light pushed the darkness off the far balcony, and when I opened my eyes, I saw the still-young Master next to me and the morning sun streaming through the window.
I realized.
She had defeated the demon and died for him and for me.....
"You can't just cry like this. You have to wake up. I can't let her last words go to waste."
Tears welled up in my eyes, but I managed to hold them back, because I had to protect him, and that was my last promise to her.
Since then, I've made sure to keep him out of the limelight and keep him out of sight of all the vassals, including the vassal wars.
Even if he thought it was a malicious rumor, if he punished me, I tried to make it sweet, but he's a very warm person, so he didn't punish me at all.
I barely managed to catch him as he was about to slash his wrists with a shard of glass, unable to bear his grief. I may have guessed it then.
That you had already woken up from that nightmare, and that you remembered everything....
* * *
There was no explaining what happened next.
We had survived, but we had been crushed by a massive force of magic and hadn't seen anything.
By the time we woke up, you had already lost your memory, and you later told me that you had forgotten that tragic scene.
But you know what?
Even then, you were a cold person on the outside, but you were warmer than anyone else on the inside.
So I thought, maybe he actually remembers what happened that day, and that's why he's being so hard on me.
If only she hadn't shed her own blood that day.
I thought that maybe, just maybe, I was living in a nightmare and that she might still be alive.
In fact, she had nightmares every day.
I don't want him to be sick.
I wanted her to always be there to watch over me.
But now I don't.
If you remembered everything, I wouldn't be able to be by your side, because I would be the one who deceived you and hid the truth from you, forcing you to continue to live in your miserable past.
The mere sight of my face would remind you of that day, of the pain, of your breath.
I can't even begin to imagine how painful that must be for you.
So....
You couldn't be more kind.
Even when I spread rumors and you acted like an asshole.
I would never do anything to make someone really hate me.
Everything happens for a reason,
so there was a reason....
* * *
Rona de Nero.
The story of the expendable character has finally come to an end.
In a nutshell, the story went like this.
The night of slaughter.
At the time, Theo and the main forces of House Reinhafer had assembled a large army to defeat the demon Paimon and attacked them.
Naturally, their forces were relatively weakened in the process.
Dozens of demons took advantage of this and stormed the mansion.
Nox's mother was sacrificed in the process.
Nox himself had been tracked down by the scent of her blood.
Nox was traumatized and became a mess… or so the story goes.
"So what?"
I said, but I looked up nonchalantly.
Rona looked up at me, her round eyes wide with horror.
"I told you, I might not be able to stay by your side any longer...."
"It's already past."
"But it's your mother's business. She loved you… and it's impossible for you to forgive me for forgetting and deceiving you. I know you hate me… I'd rather have been sacrificed instead...."
"Stop. Don't make me say it twice. I don't hate you. I don't want to explain any further, so go back to your normal self. Zitri and the others won't tell you, but they're worried about you."
I've heard enough about what happened.
But if there were mistakes, they were Nox's in the past, and she simply didn't tell me about them for fear of traumatizing me.
Where is her guilt in that?
Furthermore, I realize that she had her reasons for spreading rumors about me. It made me a little uncomfortable because she seemed to find it quite amusing, but Rona was surprisingly sincere.
So that's the end of the matter.
No more self-pity that won't help me later.
I looked at Rona and said calmly.
"Rona, do you know why I don't hate you?"
"I…I don't know."
"Because the reason tragedy repeats itself is because someone dwells on it."
That's it.
I hastily added, and then organized my thoughts. I get it now. Why Theo spoke of Nox's mother when they crossed swords.
Both Theo and Rona told me because they were feeling pain and guilt of their own.
But what does that have to do with anything?
It has nothing to do with me.
I'm a stranger in the outside world, possessed.
It was just a game setting.
A narrative that served as a trigger for the character of Nox to become evil.
Someone had to be sacrificed for this.
Unfortunately, it was his mother.
As a gamer, I feel sorry for Nox's situation, but if you ask me if it's the same pain as losing my own mother, the answer is absolutely not.
I never experienced her death in the first place, never even saw her.
I don't even deserve to miss her.
Perhaps that sentiment is shared by Nox von Reinhafer. The child I had glazed over before I was possessed. To him and no one else.
But the Rona in front of me seemed a little different.
She opens with a rare hesitation.
"But... Young Master."
"Ha," I sigh. Then she laid her usual light hand on my head.
"Don't you realize," I say, "that you were the one who stayed by my side for two hours every night, worried about me when I was sick, the one who cursed at me all the time, and the one who always added at the end that I wasn't a bad person at all."
I don't know what happened between Rona and Nox in the past. I probably never will.
There's something between them that can't be conveyed by listening, something deep, something lonely that mixes like a spoonful of mischief.
I dare to be an extra A. As a stranger, I can only observe and try to understand. [sic]
But paradoxically, I know better.
I see how hard Rona has worked for her role as Knox, how devoted she is to him, and how she is beginning to open up and admit it.
The tears in her pitiful eyes gently dampen the hem of her skirt. As she watches, she reaches out to wipe them away, but her hand freezes.
It's easy to see why.
'I am not the one she now serves and follows.'
I am an outsider. I am the one who possessed him and took his body. Perhaps I am the one who will be considered bad by Theo, and by the Rona of old.
These thoughts quickly filled my head, and for the first time since my possession, I wondered if I had done something wrong.
Now I realize that I can't even comfort the small child in front of me from the bottom of my heart. I'm not the real Nox.
The one I wanted so badly to abandon,
Nox von Reinhafer, the spoiled youngest son of the Reinhafer family.
In that short amount of time, I'm devastated.
It became hard to tell if this was right, if what I was doing was right, so all I could do was throw up my hands, stare at them, and say in a low voice:
"I know. I know you're feeling guilty. So just relax. It's easier for me, too."
"…Young Master."
I know I sound like a broken record.
But the truth is that I want her to be comfortable, even if it's just a little bit.
How much Theo loved her.
How much Nox relied on his mother.
How Rona felt for me.
I, the stranger, cannot know… but I do know that in their own ways, they have relied on the character of Nox.
Nox von Reinhafer.
My thoughts turn to him in the final, final moments.
I want to ask.
Nox,
why on earth did you have to be the villain.