Villain, Let Me Touch You! - Chapter 14
I pondered deeply. Every time Helios turned me inside out, every time the treatment showed no effect, every time I faced the Empress, I thought of the resignation letter I had penned, stashed away in a drawer.
“I’ll leave you to it,” Vincenzo said and left the room.
Jamie also departed, carrying a basket, mentioning she was going to tend to the herb garden she cultivated. I sat in the empty room, lost in thought.
I’ve accomplished everything I set out to do after transmigrating. Helios is cured, my dead flag has been removed, and I attained a suitable position along with the benefits of a lifetime pension. Having received all that I could, leaving without any regrets seemed fitting. Helios was meant to meet the female lead soon.
It pains me to see Your Majesty fall in love with another woman.
But I couldn’t do anything about it because it was his “fate.”
“Sorry, you’re not my destiny. The name engraved on my body wasn’t yours; it was Romeo.”
“Juliet, your name appeared on my shoulder. You are my destiny! I’ll give you everything I have!”
“Ah, cruel destiny. Oh, God, why did you bestow such a cruel fate upon me! Please, let his name appear on my body.”
This poignant line, which begins with ‘fate’ and ends with ‘destiny’, is from a novel I read called ‘Tattoo: Chains of Destiny.’
Helios played the role of the main antagonist tormenting the male lead candidate in that novel. ‘Tattoo: Chains of Destiny’ is a reverse harem novel where the name of the female protagonist is simultaneously imprinted on the bodies of four men. I was fascinated by the romantic tug-of-war and clashes of the female lead Chloe Dorian’s love interests—Helios among them. Chloe attracted men like a black hole, and while the author repeatedly describes the men as being drawn in by her charms, I can only see one reason for this.
The imprint.
If I had to summarize the original story in one sentence, I’d say it’s the courtship of four men who have Chloe’s name imprinted on them.
Imprinting refers to having someone’s name appear on the body of the other person. Just as a tattoo might be etched onto the skin, a distinct name vividly appears on the body.
Imprinting has unique characteristics. First, the appearance and timing of the name on the body are entirely random, hence the association with destiny. Second, there are cases where both parties’ names appear on each other’s bodies, while sometimes it only appears for one person. The former is termed a “happy pair,” and the latter is known as a “one-sided imprint.”
In the case of the happy pair, they lived happily ever after based on a strong mental and physical bond. As long as they had each other, they were healthy and never got sick. While it couldn’t prevent aging, it could delay its effects. It was truly a happy ending.
But the case of one-sided imprinting was different. There were severe problems that followed. If the person who was imprinted on did not have contact with the owner of the name, there would be inevitable side effects. The types of side effects were extremely diverse—the most common being hemorrhaging and unexplained fainting. The only way to get rid of the imprinting side effects was to have deep contact with the owner of the name. Yet, even that was only a temporary solution.
There was only one fundamental solution: becoming a happy pair. Unfortunately, it was very, very, very rare for a one-sided imprint to become a happy pair.
In the novel, Helios imprints Chloe in a one-sided manner. Struggling with an incurable illness and the pain of the imprint, Helios found a momentary release from suffering when encountering Chloe. It’s no wonder he falls for her.
But that’s strange. His terminal illness is not the same as the side effects of a one-sided imprint, so why did all the suffering disappear when he met Chloe?
Was it a mistake on the author’s part?
It was a novel with a lot of plot holes.
I shrugged it off, considering it inconsequential. In any case, there was nothing more I could do in a novel woven with a strong sense of destiny. It was an irony of life that I felt most helpless at the moment of my greatest accomplishment.
I slumped over the now tidy desk, arranged by Jamie. Looking back at the whirlwind of nearly two years since the transmigration, it all seemed like a dream. Initially, the idea of Helios, who once forcefully pushed me away, now relying on me entirely felt surreal.
I held my hand up to the sunlight streaming through the window. I owe it all to these hands. My abilities were unique and peculiar. I could read symptoms through touch and provide treatment, but only for Helios. I would never have to use this special ability again.
Helios is well, and only Chloe can cure him of the imprinting pain he will suffer in the future. My chest felt like it had been ripped open. A chilling wind swept through that pierced hole.
“What’s this?”
It was a bad sign.
“I guess I should stick to the plan.”
Without any more hesitating, I steeled myself and went to find Helios.
