Chapter 95

“…….”

Nine stared at me with a surprised expression.

I know. It was an incredibly absurd thing to say, something that clearly sounded out of my mind.

Even though I knew he would believe me, that he wouldn’t find me strange or push me away, my voice trembled.

But seeing Nine just wait for my next words, I gathered my courage and opened my mouth again.

“……I died in a world completely different from this one, and when I woke up, I had become seven-year-old Chacha Blueberry.”

Nine flinched.

However, the part that made him flinch was not that I had become Chacha Blueberry, but the part about dying.

He looked momentarily flustered, but quietly placed his other hand over our clasped hands and patted them.

Even though it was a memory too distant now, a pain that no longer surfaced, I felt something within my heart soften at his comforting touch.

Feeling my frantically beating heart settle down, I continued calmly.

“This place is very different from where I lived. So, at first, I was overwhelmed just trying to adapt. I didn’t even know what kind of place this was, and even this body’s family didn’t know me.”

Still, the possession itself was a web novel cliché even in my previous life, so it wasn’t too confusing.

It just took a little time to adapt. I think my feeling was just, Wow, something I only read about in a book has happened to me, too.

“But as I started learning things one by one to adapt, I realized something. This world was a place I knew. This is… the book I read in my previous life.”

I paused for a moment and then looked straight into Nine’s eyes.

“And you were the male lead of that book.”

“……”

“It was a romance novel.”

Telling the person who loves me who they were fated to love was a task that made my mouth terribly dry.

Nevertheless, I told him the book’s story, my role in it, and what my goal was after realizing the truth—to live quietly.

“I thought the world would flow according to the book’s story, so I intended to live with that flow. I thought that someday… when all the events passed and the story in the book ended, I could live peacefully. But after I first met you, that resolve wavered.”

Nine, who had been mirroring my serious expression, tilted his head as if confused by my words.

“Why? When we first met… wasn’t it a less-than-ideal situation? When Helena first spoke to me.”

I didn’t expect Nine to remember, but seeing that he actually didn’t made me feel a little disappointed inside.

Yet, to explain that day myself, even though there was nothing left to hide, I felt embarrassed and hesitated.

It would reveal when I started liking him and how long I had harbored this unrequited love.

However, after fluttering my lips for a while, I finally looked up at the bright moonlight, just like on that day, and said, “The first time we met wasn’t then.”

“Then…”

“Do you remember Count Kellogg’s eldest son?”

At my question, Nine frowned slightly in thought, then quickly looked back at me with a startled expression as if he had realized something.

I met his gaze with a wry smile.

“No way…”

“Yes. You saved me.”

Nine’s face instantly crumpled.

Anger surged in his sharp eyes, as if he regretted not having beaten the Viscount’s son even more severely back then.

Feeling a little pleased by his reaction, I chuckled softly and continued.

The Kellogg heir wasn’t important to our current conversation anyway.

“After falling for you that day, I naturally thought it would end as an unrequited love. You were the male lead, and there was another woman you were destined to be with.”

“Chacha.”

“But what could I do? I’d already fallen for you. So, I just kept it deep in my heart.”

Nine seemed shocked by the fact that I had liked him for much longer.

His eyes, which had been overflowing with anger, suddenly widened.

“I was just going to keep it to myself… Originally, the love potion incident gives you trauma. I didn’t want that to happen. So, even though I resolved to stick to the original plot, I interfered…”

“……”

“But in the end, I hurt you all the same.”

Though we were now holding hands and sitting side-by-side, it was true that the action I took hoping he wouldn’t be hurt had, in fact, caused him a different kind of pain, and that regret lingered.

This was the end of my confession. The fact that I was a possessor and that this world had a predetermined fate called the ‘original plot’—everything.

I looked at Nine with a bitter smile, and as expected, Nine did not show any signs of doubting me, viewing me as strange, or pulling away, despite hearing this fantastical story.

Nine looked at me with a sincere gaze and said, “Chacha.”

“……Yes.”

“The only person I love is you.”

He pulled me into a tight embrace and whispered into my ear.

“What happened back then was because I didn’t try to listen to you. And even if I was hurt, if it was to meet you, I would take that pain again and again.”

“……”

“As you know, I lost my father when I was young and inherited the ducal title without my mother’s protection. At that time, I was overwhelmed just by myself, so I knew my family members were nursing their wounds, but I couldn’t do anything about it. After a while, it became uncontrollable, and I eventually let go, giving up and saying it couldn’t be helped.”

He lifted his head slightly, leaning in close and looking into my eyes, which were sheltered in his embrace.

His voice, as gentle and earnest as his gaze, continued,

“But you took care of my family. Everyone else only leaned on me, but now they are standing on their own, pushing me forward so that I can’t give you up. They took up the burdens I was carrying all alone, each taking a share.”

Nine looked a little exhausted as he spoke.

I could feel the weight of having to be the head of the family and support everyone since he was young pressing down on him.

“You were the only one who truly saw the man behind the titles of ‘Youngest Swordmaster’ and ‘Iron-Blooded Duke.’ And yet, when you stopped asking for my help like you had become a different person, I felt a pang of sadness and realized. I had already fallen hopelessly for you.”

Nine seemed to want to say that it was the ‘me’ he saw and experienced that he liked, not just the outer shell, ‘Chacha.’

I tightly hugged his waist, so grateful for his efforts to convey his true feelings.

Nine, who flinched in surprise for a moment, soon hugged me back and kissed my hair.

He seemed to understand that his sincerity had reached me completely.

But as if that expression of affection wasn’t enough, he continued to kiss me as I lay in his arms.

I let out a small laugh at the ticklish sensation of his light touches, and this time, he pressed his lips gently to my forehead.

Looking up at Nine, who was gazing down at me with warm eyes, I leaned in closer and whispered into his ear.

“…Me too. You are the only one I love.”

“……”

“Even when I believed there was a set destiny, and even after I resolved not to cross that fate, I ended up jumping in for you.”

“……”

“After going through so much, I couldn’t abandon my feelings for you. I love only you.”

I loved Nine Eclipse—not the male lead of the original story, the Youngest Swordmaster, or the Iron-Blooded Duke, but him.

Looking at each other with eyes filled with love and tenderness, we naturally closed our eyes and pressed our lips together.

The carefully and lightly touching lips parted, only to come back together as if yearning, and soon grew deeper as if that wasn’t enough.

His warm breath filled me in the cool night air, and he swallowed my breath as the kiss gradually intensified.

“Chacha.”

“……Yes.”

“Should we go inside now?”

“……”

Desire glittered in his dark eyes as he looked at me.

My neck felt hot from the overwhelming yearning that seemed to ripple and overflow from him.

Feeling shy just from meeting his gaze, I averted my eyes and finally answered by wrapping my arms around him.

As soon as I held his neck tight, a hot breath reached my ear, and then I was swiftly lifted into his arms.

His steps, heading back to the mansion, felt somewhat impatient, which made me giggle softly.

And so, after a night of long lovemaking, we truly became husband and wife that day.