Thought It Was 'The End', Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 8
Since the day she started having nightmares, Adeline couldn’t sleep properly.
‘What kind of torture is this…?’
She would toss and turn in her bed until dawn, tormented by nightmares.
There were times when she would spend an entire day within the nightmare and wake up only when the day broke, so there was no respite from exhaustion. Today was no exception.
‘This is so damn absurd… Why the hell would my brother have to go on a business trip? He’s still a minor.’
In today’s dream, Adeline was murdered by the servant her second eldest brother brought along. The boy, whom her second eldest brother had hired after going on a business trip, turned out to be an assassin hired by the boss of a criminal organization.
‘The country where my brother went was Thveit, and what business he had there…’
Thveit was a country unrelated to the Bertrand family.
It wasn’t a country where the son of a marquis would go to study abroad, and it seemed entirely out of place.
Although the anxiety of possibly being murdered made the nightmare more concrete than usual, she still thought it was far-fetched.
Once she finds the culprit who might kill her, this anxiety will surely dissipate.
She stirred her soup absentmindedly, her mother spoke up.
“Adeline, are you not feeling well?”
“Yes, a little… I didn’t sleep well.”
“Perhaps it’s because you’re sad that your second eldest brother went on a long journey.”
“Yes, that’s… What?”
“Maybe so, he’s thoughtful in his own way. But your second older brother would rather see you off with a smile than see you sad. He said he’ll bring back lots of gifts for you when he comes back, maybe even a kiss on the cheek.”
“My brother… is… Where did he say he was going?”
“He said he’s going to the Tihit Kingdom. He has some business he wants to pursue there.”
“….”
It was the first time she had heard of this.
“He said he’ll start from scratch in a place where our family’s influence doesn’t reach. But he’s so full of enthusiasm that he doesn’t even think about his worrying parents…”
But she already knew this information. She had seen it in her dream.
“It wasn’t just a nightmare…?”
Adeline’s face grew even paler.
The nightmare felt more like a premonition.
Along with various deaths, the dreams also showed situations that would soon unfold in reality.
When she dreamed of her eldest brother, the news soon came the next morning that he would indeed return to the estate. And when she dreamed of her mother falling ill, shortly thereafter, her mother would indeed fall ill.
It was as if the dreams were mocking her, saying, ‘Are you still not going to believe even if it’s like this?’
Even when the ‘Adeline’ in the dream tried to rebel in order to survive somehow, or pretended to accept the female lead, the end was always death.
No matter what she did, it seemed inevitable that she couldn’t escape the villainess’s obligation of ‘death’ that influenced the female lead’s happily ever after.
The types of deaths shown in the dream were also diverse.
Even if she were to endure the household’s damage and forcibly pushed for a breakup, the end result was poisoning.
Or, if she didn’t break up and instead acted as a follower of the female lead, she would be assassinated while sleeping.
And if she attempted to escape to a monastery, she would ultimately end up in a fatal accident.
“By now, aren’t I just a scapegoat rather than a villain?!”
Does that make any sense?
Adeline was exasperated. She felt frustrated and helpless. No matter what she did, the nightmare followed her like a shadow.
There was only one moment when she was liberated from the nightmares.
It was during the week when Shane was away on official business abroad.
During that time, she didn’t have a single nightmare. Of course, as soon as Shane returned, the nightmares started again.
‘It seems like I have nightmares when I’m closely involved with the main characters. As long as I don’t stray too far from the story, it feels like I can’t escape from the nightmares.’
The nightmares seemed to warn Adeline that no matter what she did, she couldn’t escape from ‘death.’
The inexorable force of destiny that moved the characters, or rather, the people, in the novel with precision and without a single error made Adeline keenly feel the coercive power of her fate.
She had no choice but to admit it.
This world wishes for Adeline’s death.
‘It’s like they’re saying, Die without being able to do anything.’
Would she just obediently accept her fate to die?
She didn’t want to die a second time. Adeline wanted to live.
So.
‘I have no choice but to fake my death.’
