When the Guide Stopped Playing a Villainess, the Obsession Began - Chapter 10
II. So Vivid
She carefully traced the shoulder where Rose had applied ointment just a little while ago with the tips of her fingers.
Every time a sharp pain flared, she felt a sense of satisfaction—along with confusion. Overwhelmed by mixed emotions, she suddenly wondered when this dream would finally end, then murmured,
“If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be better to see Cal’s face for even one more day?”
‘Yes. I should go see him tonight after all.’
It was an impulsive decision, but just the thought of seeing him again made her heart pound.
Ever since the day she was doused in hot tea, she hadn’t even caught a glimpse of a single strand of his hair, and it had driven her mad.
Part of her hadn’t gone out because she needed time to organize her thoughts about the current situation, but more than anything, she had quietly stayed put to avoid Bianca’s gaze.
“I can’t waste precious time locked away in the basement just because she picks a fight over nothing.”
Enduring punishment wasn’t difficult, but losing time was.
The time spent waiting for him passed unbearably slow.
At last, when the deep night arrived, Lea, who had been pretending to sleep, quietly rose after Rose left.
She moved to the window where the moonlight shone softly and stepped out onto the balcony.
Her nightclothes crumpled and dropped to the floor, and from within them, a fox with chocolate-colored fur peeked out.
The fox gave a slight shiver to its soft coat, then with golden eyes gleaming, leapt onto the railing.
Cautiously watching her surroundings, she swiftly leapt across the palace rooftops toward the Crown Prince’s quarters.
The cool night air cleared her stifled chest.
Climbing up a tree, Lea located the Crown Prince’s bedroom.
Fortunately, it was summer, and the balcony window was open.
Squeezing her body through the gap, she carefully made her way toward the bed.
Calix was notoriously sensitive to disturbances, so she approached with utmost caution.
“Ugh…”
As she drew closer to the bed, she heard groaning.
It was faint enough that one would need to bring their ear right to him to hear it, but to her fox ears, it was perfectly clear.
Lea immediately realized he was groaning from pain.
She quickly returned to her human form.
A soft moonlight fell over her bare, porcelain-like body as if it would melt away.
Lea knelt in front of the bed and quietly observed Calix.
The youth she had last seen before death appeared younger than she remembered—familiar, yet strangely foreign.
His hair, like molten gold, lay scattered across the bed. Even that looked beautiful, and Lea let out a small sigh without realizing it.
In the past, she had been the one to cut that beautiful hair.
For someone of imperial blood to deliberately cut their hair—something they personally would never do—was a direct threat to his authority. Yet she had done it.
How deeply she had come to regret that…
Like a fool, she had realized her true feelings far too late, and because of that, there were so many things she regretted.
She had mistaken her genuine affection for him as nothing more than a desire to keep him beneath her.
It was laughable how foolish she had been.
And so, more than anything else, she was sorry.
‘I should have been good to him.’
Even while being tortured, that regret had filled her throat to the brim.
By the time she broke her promise with her mother and gave him his first guiding, their relationship had already been irreparably twisted.
Of course, their relationship had never been good from the start.
Back then, she had harbored a warped sense of possessiveness and, full of self-satisfaction, offered him that first guiding.
She remembered being slightly nervous because of a foolish hope.
But a guiding done with such base desire—to make him kneel before her—could never be effective.
She had finished that first guiding with the arrogant belief that no Esper would ever reject a Guide.
What kind of expression had Calix worn then…
She couldn’t recall clearly, but it had probably been close to contempt.
It had been an utterly pathetic thing to do. Even now, looking back.
While Lea was briefly caught up in the past, Calix groaned once more.
Noticing the cold sweat beading on his forehead, she checked the area around his right eye. Still unblemished, unlike in the past.
Relieved by this change in the present, she calmed her heart.
To her, the heart of a Guide was the most important part of guiding.
She didn’t know about other Guides, but for Lea, at least…
Though it was all in the past now, the more she guided, the more one truth became clear.
The quantity and purity of a guiding were vastly different when done half-heartedly versus with sincerity.
She had realized this long after the fact.
But now, no matter who the Esper was, even if it wasn’t Calix.
When she guided, she would do it with utmost sincerity.
Because that’s what she believed to be the essence of a Guide.
