#3
“Nes.”
“……Yes?”
“I’m going to go mess with that bastard who pointed his finger at me the day before yesterday, so you’re going to help me.”
“Damn…..”
The palace servant named Nes openly grumbled as he followed the prince.
After moving some luggage in the warehouse as the wickedly smiling prince instructed, he received the money the prince handed over, saying it was hush money.
“If you let this slip, know that I’ll follow you around for a whole month.”
“……?”
Since both the palace servant and the watching head attendant knew that the prince had almost no money to spend, they could guess that this money shouldn’t be given away so easily.
But the prince left with a very ominous smile, laughing gleefully.
“Whoever it is, they’re going to have a hard time. For him to be grinding his teeth to this extent.”
Nes decided to specially make the prince’s food with decent ingredients instead of using ingredients on the verge of spoiling as usual.
After all, he had earned some easy money.
“……Thanks to this, I can afford medicine. Ahem.”
Watching him grumble as he walked away, the head attendant tilted his head.
No matter how he looked at it, it seemed like the prince had helped Nes, who was in economic difficulty due to being in the lower ranks of palace servants.
‘Am I going crazy?’
There was no reason for the prince, who had his own problems to worry about, to do such a thing, and above all, the prince didn’t have that kind of personality.
The head attendant shook his head with a suspicious expression.
Then he left with an expressionless face again.
* * *
How nice it would be if death were the answer.
I thought this as I returned to my room and closed the door.
‘It would have been easy if the original work had been completed.’
That’s the problem.
That’s why I haven’t been able to eliminate myself even after several days have passed.
The situation I examined properly after returning wasn’t that simple.
There was no guarantee that their ending would be happy just because I disappeared.
‘Besides, if Eris is Ersen’s mother, then Ersen can’t die carelessly.’
Since it was Eris who cursed the original protagonists.
But if Ersen is Eris’s only blood relative, then Ersen might be the only key to breaking their curses.
‘If Ersen is the medium of the curse, that is.’
Powerful curses can be accomplished using a person as a medium.
It’s rare because it harms the person who becomes the medium, but Eris would have been more than capable of ordering such a thing. Especially if it was a child who wanted to help his mother… he would have agreed to become the medium.
I had circumstantial evidence for this.
Before regression, despite my weak power, I was able to break Sercil’s curse.
Would it be too much to think that perhaps it was because Ersen was the medium of the curse?
So I pondered.
About the appropriate moment to eliminate myself.
‘I have to live until all the curses are broken and the half-demons following Eris in this world disappear.’
At least until the half-demons strong enough to curse the protagonists using Eris’s corpse disappear.
However, I couldn’t carelessly ruin the original work. There was a possibility that their predetermined future would be a happy ending.
Then I had to ride along with the flow of the original work to create their happy ending.
But that’s only possible if they accept my interference, isn’t it?
‘It’ll be difficult.’
Because they would reject and hate me no matter what.
‘Then.’
So after observing my surroundings for several days, I came to a conclusion.
“For now… I think it would work if I move like this.”
That is, moving exactly as they know Ersen to be.
A villain. The bloodline of an evil spirit. In accordance with such negative perceptions.
“A villain, but someone you can cooperate with because you have the same goal, wouldn’t that work?”
For example, the goal of weakening the half-demons.
So I’d become a trading partner who’s useful even though you don’t want to get involved with them.
“Then they’d be able to accept my interference.”
Just like the servants of the prince’s palace had been doing these past few days.
“I can do it this time.”
Before regression, the biggest problem was that I had unreasonable greed.
If I hadn’t wanted to be loved by them, I could have acted more rationally.
But this time will be different.
I now knew for certain that such a thing was impossible.
Let me moderately interfere in events and take on all the things that hurt them in the original work instead.
Traps, curses. I’ll handle everything, but make sure they can have all the necessary information… Then they’ll safely reach their happy ending.
‘While I’m at it, let me deal with the half-demons loyal to Eris, preparing for after my death.’
This time the journey won’t be lonely.
“The curses… I’ll have to break them without the half-demons knowing, right?”
As quickly as possible.
Since I need to draw blood, I’ll have to break them with time intervals, but still.
Since I plan to take on the things that would hurt them instead, I’ll have to break the curses before my physical condition becomes serious.
“……Will my lifespan be shortened even more then?”
It’s a bit regrettable that I won’t be able to see them become happy before I die, but it’s okay.
I muttered while crouching and meaninglessly fidgeting with my withered fingers.
“After I finish everything and die, you all will be happy.”
Since they wanted to kill Ersen but couldn’t because they lacked justification.
How fortunate. At least there’s one thing that will make them smile because of me.
A smile formed without me realizing it.
“Good! Let’s move busily.”
I have to be diligent to handle all those tasks with this dying body.
* * *
The face I had barely gotten used to over 3 years before regression was reflected in the mirror.
Hair as black as a raven’s feathers was cut in uneven lengths, and large eyes about one-third covered by bangs were a cloudy ash color.
White, pale skin.
A body too thin for its height couldn’t be called healthy even as empty flattery.
‘I don’t remember starving in the palace. Yet I look like I’m not eating properly to a strange degree?’
Ersen had been like this since I first possessed him.
Perhaps my impression changed because I possessed him.
“Hmm! Wait. Before, I practiced looking pitiful and sorrowful, right?”
I straightened my expression that was naturally becoming gloomy and raised the corners of my mouth as smugly as possible.
“Oh, it suits me.”
Though it’s a wretched impression, it suits me well, perhaps because I look gloomy at the same time.
“Ah, ah.”
I adjusted my voice tone to be lower and softer than before, pronunciation to standard, and speech pattern to secretively muttering.
‘Hmm… It doesn’t seem much different from me before possession.’
Now let me straighten my shoulders and back.
Walk quietly.
I left the room just like that.
* * *
Before regression, the first thing I changed was the first episode of the main character Sercil.
In the original work, Sercil comes to the capital to break a curse of unknown origin.
He meets a pickpocket and has his belongings stolen, and while trying to earn money, he’s tricked by a temple and nearly sold as a sacrifice.
He encounters each of the male leads once at the temple without knowing their identities, but in my opinion, that episode would have been better off not existing.
‘Because Sercil got marked by High Priest Bormir after fleeing from the temple.’
High Priest Bormir is a character who’s about a mid-boss in the story.
He hid his filthy insides behind a gentle mask, but in reality was a corrupt priest who had long dealings with half-demons.
There was no reason to get involved with such a person in an unprepared situation.
Everyone ended up with a handicap from being harmed by the high priest early on…….
So before regression, I prevented Sercil from being victimized by the pickpocket and tried to make him my attendant. To prevent him from getting involved with the temple at all.
“N-no, let me go! Who are you to force me like this……!”
“Shh, shh! Please lower your voice, Sercil! I’m not a dangerous person!”
“And how do you know my name!”
“……”
Right. Now that I think about it, I ruined the first impression from the start!
I scratched my cheek a bit awkwardly.
At that time, apart from trying to become a villain, I was also slightly excited from the joy of meeting the main character…….
‘Anyway, then His Highness Theodore took Sercil away from me.’
Theodore, that is, the (presumed) main character of the original work and my half-brother.
“What are you doing right now?”
He appeared not long after I brought Sercil into the imperial palace.
Red hair and golden eyes.
A passionate color combination, but his first impression was that of a very pretty ice block.
“Let him go.”
Was it because our first meeting was early? The speed at which the two became close afterward was much faster than in the original work.
Sercil, who was rescued(?) from me, became Crown Prince Theodore’s attendant as is.
Unlike the original work, there was no incident of the Archduke interfering in their employment contract, so Sercil wasn’t cheated out of his wages by Theodore either.
Thanks to this, Sercil became an enthusiastic fan of the crown prince. And it didn’t take long for that feeling to develop into love.
‘His Highness Theodore originally fell in love at first sight……’
At that time, I hung around the crown prince’s palace for several days trying to clear up the misunderstanding between the two, and ended up encountering the other male leads, Archduke Skyle and hyung Marcus, one after another.
And to them…….
“Ugh.”
I wrinkled my nose and shook off the bitterness.
I’ll just say that their faces, which I looked up at with a pitiful expression full of anticipation, were even colder than Theodore’s.
‘I should have realized it then.’
That I should give up early on the idea of becoming a beloved protagonist.
“I’ll take this one.”
I chose a small horse from the imperial palace stables near Ersen’s palace.
The stable keeper looked at me with displeasure, then nodded with a slightly softened expression.
If I had chosen a well-maintained good horse, he would have openly asked about my destination and told me to go back in a roundabout way, or recommended a weak horse saying this one wasn’t in good condition today.