“What on earth just happened?”
The mourners, having witnessed something entirely without precedent, murmured among themselves in a state of bewilderment. In the midst of that commotion, I stood staring at the door Bertram hyung had walked out of, completely at a loss.
Thoughts crashed through my mind like a wave.
Does he remember?
I bit down on my lip until it ached, and cast my mind back to the past.
The truth was, I had once told Bertram hyung about this magic. It was right after Mother passed — when I had gone to find hyung and sobbed my eyes out.
At the time, once my tears had settled, I told hyung everything. Including what Mother had told me about Bloodline Magic. Back then, there was no one I trusted more, so I hadn’t hesitated to say it.
I had told him that Mother hadn’t died — that she had used the magic to leave. But Bertram hyung had been indifferent when he heard it. He didn’t seem to believe me, so I hadn’t brought it up again.
That was now eight years ago.
I thought, in stunned disbelief.
Is he saying that now with that magic in mind?
Bertram hyung had said that I had used magic and run. He hadn’t specified what kind of magic — but he wasn’t the type to make baseless claims simply on the grounds that I knew how to use magic. He would have had something far more concrete in mind.
Namely — what I had told him eight years ago.
He was someone who didn’t bother remembering things he had no interest in. If he had truly not forgotten, that alone was remarkable — but what Bertram hyung had just done at the funeral was far more remarkable than that.
Even with the body showing no signs of decay and still having color — it had only been three days since the death. More time might have changed things.
It shouldn’t have been easy to be certain yet, and yet he had jumped straight to the conclusion that I had used magic? That wasn’t rational. That wasn’t like him at all.
No matter how I thought about it, it wasn’t like Bertram hyung.
To choose to believe in a magic he himself barely knew anything about — over the professional opinion of a learned physician.
And then to actually walk out of the funeral carrying my body.
Of all things.
Is he so frustrated that his plans have fallen apart, so unwilling to accept that I’m dead, that he went that far?
I tried to reason out what could have driven hyung to act like this. I refused to indulge the foolish hope that hyung was grieving.
Even so, this wasn’t a situation I had never considered. The scenario where Bertram hyung realized I hadn’t died but had instead entered someone else’s body. When I had been planning everything, I had imagined as many possible outcomes as my mind could hold.
But even if hyung had figured that much out, I had thought he wouldn’t be able to imagine that I was inside Edgar’s body specifically.
If someone were going to steal another person’s life, they would generally choose someone wealthy, royalty, or a high-ranking noble. It would be strange to take the life of someone you had been close to in your own lifetime.
And even if hyung knew everything — most people probably wouldn’t believe him.
The number of people who could use magic was extremely small. Even among the magic used by minority groups, getting ordinary people to accept the concept of Bloodline Magic — something even more obscure than that — would be difficult. The story of my mother’s family’s Bloodline Magic wasn’t known to the world at all.
On top of that, there was a general stigma around magic, and people tended to keep quiet about it. In society circles, even mentioning it was considered distasteful.
Would people really believe a fantastical tale about living a new life inside someone else’s body?
How much does hyung actually know?
I couldn’t even be certain that Bertram hyung truly remembered what I had told him eight years ago. There was no way of knowing what he would do next.
For now, thankfully, the mourners seemed to understand Bertram hyung’s behavior as nothing more than someone lost in grief.
— Uncanny. I had thought the odds of him figuring it out were extremely low….
Edgar’s voice reached me, and I gave a small nod in quiet agreement.
— You don’t suppose he knew about our plan in advance, do you?
I shook my head slightly at that. Bertram hyung couldn’t have sensed anything beforehand. Right up until just before we walked the aisle, there had been no sign of it whatsoever. He had simply looked to be in very good spirits.
Before long, a servant stepped forward to announce that the funeral was being halted and, much as had happened at the wedding, the mourners were ushered out.
I made my way through the crowd, carrying a heavy heart. Once I was away from the people, I covered my mouth with my hand and spoke as quietly as I could.
“I’m truly sorry to ask, but — could you follow him?”
— You mean Bertram? Of course. I’ll go see what he’s up to.
“Thank you so much.”
What was hyung planning to do with my body? And where was he going right now?
I was infinitely grateful that Edgar was by my side. If I had been going through this alone, I would have been completely lost.
Voices from the mourners drifted over from a distance.
“The world has truly gone mad.”
“Should we call this romantic? It seems he’s having a hard time accepting that his fiancé is gone.”
“That Bertram? Has he finally started feeling emotions?”
I heard those words and let out a small, hollow breath.
As if that could ever be.
I tried, deliberately, not to entertain that possibility. It was better for me that way.
As the others gradually began to disperse, I slipped into a carriage among them and headed to Edgar’s house.
When I arrived home and stepped down from the carriage, just as I was about to open the front door, Edgar’s voice came to me.
— Sir Rowell, I’m back.
I stepped inside, closed the door, and said,
“Thank you for that. Did you see him?”
— Yes. Bertram carried Sir Rowell’s body into the ducal residence. He laid it down on the bed in the green room on the second floor.
“The green wallpaper… that’s his own room.”
Bertram hyung had laid my corpse in the bed of his own room. Imagining that scene stirred something strange in me, and my chest felt tight.
— His expression was unreadable. He may have been frowning faintly, but… I honestly couldn’t tell.
“It’s all right. Thank you.”
I let out a sigh and made my way inside, shrugging off my coat. My mind was a tangle.
I would need to keep an eye on Bertram hyung’s movements going forward. How certain was he that I hadn’t died? Was what he had done at the funeral a single impulsive act, or something calculated? What was he going to do next? I couldn’t tell a single thing.
After a restless night, the following day — a story about Bertram hyung ran in enormous print across the front page of the newspaper. It was also a story about me. It was about what hyung had done at my funeral, after all.
The size of the headline alone was enough to tell me how much of a stir this had caused in society circles.
The newspaper was framing the story as Bertram, who, having lost his fiancé, had fallen into grief and lost his senses. It paid no attention to the mention of magic hyung had made.
He used magic and ran was a far less conventional conclusion than he dropped dead without warning. Of course they wouldn’t take it seriously.
That was a relief.
But when I turned to the next page, I found something that shocked me far more. I narrowed my eyes and read the words carefully.
Seeking anyone with knowledge of the Corvin family’s Bloodline Magic.
Bertram Kildun, questioning the circumstances surrounding the death of his fiancé Rowell Wigg, has announced that he will offer a reward to anyone who has knowledge of the Bloodline Magic passed down through Rowell’s maternal family, the Corvin family. This magic, when activated, allows the user to enter another person’s body and live on.
The hands holding the newspaper began to tremble with tension.
He really does remember…. But to go this far?
I let out a hollow laugh and read the passage again.
Hyung hadn’t just not forgotten my secret — he had gone and published it openly like this. Those had been words I had shared only with him, and I felt both angry and flustered.
Bertram hyung was moving with serious intent. What he had done at the funeral had not been a momentary impulse.
Hyung truly intended to find me.
To what end? Out of anger, to punish me? Or to track me down and push through with the wedding regardless — to inherit as originally planned?
Before any of that — did Bertram hyung genuinely believe I wasn’t dead? The more I thought about it, the more tangled my mind became. Every thought wound around every other until I couldn’t sort through any of them.
But I tried, within all of that, to hold onto some semblance of calm.
He won’t be able to figure out that I’ve entered Edgar’s body.
Edgar and I had been conspicuously close for the past three months, so — unlike my earlier assumption — someone might find it strange, but I hadn’t done anything that would actually invite suspicion.
Even so, a vague anxiety swelled inside me.
I put the newspaper down and, in an effort to collect myself, turned my mind to what I needed to do.
The first thing I had to do was submit an application to the academy.
Edgar had once told me that being admitted to Cressa Academy had been a dream of his from long ago. Cressa Academy was considered the most prestigious of all academies in existence. Both I and Bertram hyung had graduated from there.
The admissions competition was fierce, so I had no way of knowing whether I would get in safely — but I still wanted to try. There were fewer than ten days left before the deadline, so I needed to move quickly.
I spent the entire morning filling out the application, then carefully sealed it and prepared to go out and post it. Because I wanted to do right by Edgar, I had written it with great care and sincerity. And it wasn’t just graduation I was aiming for — I wanted to do well academically, too.
I was straightening the collar of my coat and stepping up to the front door when someone knocked.
I tensed and went still. If this was one of Edgar’s acquaintances coming to call, it would be the first time I’d have to face them. I had rehearsed in my mind many times how I ought to act — but the way my chest tightened was unavoidable.
Just as I moved to peer through the window beside the door to get a look at the visitor, Edgar told me,
— Sir Rowell. It’s Bertram.
What?
He seemed to be saying that the visitor was Bertram hyung. I looked through the window to confirm it — and found an all-too-familiar face.
Bertram hyung was standing right there, just outside.
