Being able to receive a kiss from the one I loved only in death was certainly a miserable thing. Yet I was surprisingly neither sad nor did my heart feel heavy. I was just confused.
‘Why on earth a kiss……’
My corpse—I didn’t know how long it had been since I died—looked strangely intact. However, the trace of the soul that had departed from the body couldn’t be hidden, and it felt quite stiff even from a distance. Yet His Highness acted as if he felt nothing, lifting my body and continuing to kiss it. As if the gazes of the people didn’t matter at all.
If the lips had briefly touched and parted, it could have been seen as courtesy toward a knight who had given his life. That too would have been unusual, but since His Highness knew my feelings, it could be seen as him bestowing a final gift.
‘If only that had been the case, I could have been purely happy.’
A slave who could receive a kiss of gratitude from his master. It was treatment that the words “more than I deserve” couldn’t adequately express.
“What on earth is this? Was Sir Tienas originally an omega?”
“That can’t be.”
It was famous that Tienas was a beta. In noble families, not manifesting was quite rare, and in the Sayus family, it was the first case on record.
Yet the reason the man presumed to be Aila’s attendant asked such a thing was because His Highness’s demeanor looked to anyone like a person who had gone mad from losing his lover. Even I, who knew best that couldn’t be the case.
Around the time the organ music that had stopped resumed sparsely, the long kiss ended and His Highness raised his body. He placed my corpse back into what looked more like a precious display case than a coffin.
Standing before the coffin, he had mixed tongues for so long yet still seemed heartbroken, stroking my cheek and speaking as if warning the people.
“This is the funeral of the knight I cherish most. Everyone maintain proper etiquette.”
The behavior he had just shown wasn’t something one would do for a ‘cherished knight,’ but no one was foolish enough to point this out. Most bowed their heads as if afraid to even make eye contact.
‘Jane noona?’
Except for one person. Noona was staring at His Highness with an expression of utter hatred. It was a gaze filled with fury on a completely different dimension from when she looked at me as if I were invisible or regarded me coldly. I couldn’t possibly imagine with my head why she would commit such an insolent act.
“Young master, when that second row empties, we’ll go to offer flowers. As I said before, you absolutely must not make any mistakes! Not just mistakes, but you also can’t whistle and talk to people just because there’s a handsome alpha, you can’t subtly mix in pheromones just because there’s a pretty omega, and you can’t brush past people just because there’s a beta who’s your type.”
The forbidden actions were somehow all related to romantic affairs. I had heard he was a scoundrel, but to think he made advances toward everyone regardless of gender or secondary gender. If the current situation weren’t so surreal, I would have been thoroughly disgusted.
“I won’t do that.”
“Last time you said you wouldn’t do it and then snuck away without telling me. I don’t believe those words anymore!”
His father, Marquis Jeras, was a very respectable person, so I didn’t know how such a son came to be.
“No matter how much of a scoundrel I am, would I do that at a funeral?”
Right now, whether it was Aila or whatever, I was too overwhelmed just caring about His Highness. When I gave a roughly reasonable answer, I felt an incredulous gaze from beside me. Rather than needlessly being conscious of the attendant’s reaction, I ignored it.
“We need to go. Get up.”
Leaving the dumbfounded attendant behind, I stood up from my seat first. As my corpse drew closer, His Highness also came closer. His beautiful and well-arranged golden hair was sticking out here and there, and the area under his eyes was red. That too looked picturesque as if deliberately staged, but to me who knew the original him, it didn’t make sense.
My heart beat so fast it hurt. I couldn’t distinguish whether it beat from reverence or from sadness at his broken appearance.
‘What made you like this?’
My death and such could never and should never make you like that. I barely redirected my steps that tried to go toward him to my coffin instead. Even though all my nerves were directed at His Highness, there was something else I had to do right away.
‘It really is Tienas.’
The act of looking down at my own face was stranger than I thought. Perhaps it was more so because I wore a peaceful expression as if sleeping. It was somewhat different from the corpses I had known. The neat appearance, as if someone had poured recovery magic on me knowing I was already dead, was creepy.
‘How was the kiss with His Highness?’
I asked my corpse as I laid down the flower. Naturally, no answer came back. I had acted as if I was only flustered, yet the ridiculousness of being jealous of the corpse that kissed His Highness was absurd. Feeling like I’d be consumed by nonsensical emotions if I stayed longer, I quickly turned around. Perhaps because I had stood there a bit longer than others, strange gazes touched me.
‘What do I care. If my expectation is correct, I’ll disappear anyway once this funeral ends.’
Having given up, I stopped thinking further and only looked at the face of the one I loved. He was looking at my corpse, just as I was looking at him.
For the first time, I felt resentment toward him.
* * *
The funeral ended only after the sun had set. His Highness, who remained until the end, personally closed my coffin.
“The final procedure will be omitted.”
Though every procedure that could be called a funeral procedure had been performed, he omitted the ‘prayer ritual to send off the soul.’ Was that why? Unlike what I expected, I wasn’t expelled from this body.
‘Why isn’t this situation ending? Far from my consciousness fading, I’m only becoming more and more accustomed to this weak body.’
The body that was somewhat foreign at first now felt natural as if I had used it for over ten years. Sitting blankly in the carriage, I was tired of wondering when this situation would end. The attendant must have felt my state was strange too.
“Young master, why are you so quiet today?”
The attendant acted as if Aila being quiet was very unsettling.
“I have something to think about.”
I didn’t know what kind of tone this scoundrel normally used, but when I might be expelled from this body at any moment, I had no desire to pretend to be Aila. There were far too many things to worry about besides this.
‘Still, it’s a reasonable answer, so he’ll probably just let it pass.’
Or so I thought……
“Think… thinking? Young master is thinking?”
The attendant’s reaction was extraordinary.
“No, no way. Young master, don’t think. You just saw someone you liked among the people at today’s funeral, right? You were worrying about how to seduce that person, right? Because if not, there’s no way young master would be thinking.”
Considerably insolent words for an attendant to say to his master continued in succession. Judging from this reaction, the rumors about this person weren’t exaggerated but understated.
“It’s not that, so please be quiet.”
I let out a deep sigh and quieted the fussing attendant. He seemed to be seized by even greater anxiety, but I also needed to sort out my thoughts first. After about an hour of traveling in the carriage, the conclusion I reached was this:
‘If I’m still stuck in this bastard’s body by tomorrow, I need to properly find out what this situation is. Both His Highness and the Sayus family are strange somehow.’
The appearances both His Highness and my blood relatives showed at the funeral were very strange. There must be some benefit to be gained from pretending to grieve my death, or there must be some greater meaning I didn’t know about.
‘Because there’s no way everyone would grieve my death like that.’
It was an indisputable conclusion. Once my task was decided, my heart that had only been agitated quietly settled.
And the next day, I was still in Aila’s body. Now I had to acknowledge the fact that I had taken over Aila’s body and move accordingly.
‘Perhaps my role still remains.’
The first thing to do to assess the situation was already decided.
