Chapter 10
As time goes on, you won’t even be able to fake your expressions or the look in your eyes anymore.
From the moment she heard those words, Elisha stopped listening to anything else Sohee said.
This manager had seen through the anxiety and sensitivity written all over her face even before checking the record of her life.
If even someone meeting me for the first time could tell...
Then how long had the people around her known?
Had they all been laughing at her?
Then what had all her effort been for?
All those times she smiled while hiding the way she was burning up inside?
Had all of it been nothing but useless struggling?
Had she simply been making a fool of herself without even realizing it?
Her head spun.
That couldn’t be true.
It couldn’t be.
“What do you know? How much could you possibly know about me?!”
Unable to endure it any longer, Elisha abruptly stood up.
Anxious?
Restless?
What did that even matter?
This...!
“You ugly woman!”
Elisha squeezed her eyes shut and screamed.
Her voice rang throughout the consultation room.
“......”
Silence fell.
Elisha lowered her head without opening her eyes.
She was the one who had shouted, yet for some reason, she felt like she might cry.
Humiliation.
Embarrassment.
And despair.
It felt as though her entire life had been exposed as something ridiculous.
She could not bring herself to raise her head.
When she finally opened her trembling eyes, Sohee was frozen in place in front of her.
At least, that was what Elisha thought.
She’s supposed to be a villainess... and the worst insult she can come up with is “ugly”?
Sohee stared at Elisha, who was barely managing to stay upright despite trembling all over.
Back in the real world, Sohee had been called things like beggar bastard, orphan, freeloader, and plenty of other things too foul to even repeat.
Compared to those, ugly was honestly something you could even say affectionately.
Just as I thought. For a villainess character, she’s surprisingly fragile and easily influenced.
There was no way someone like this could steal another person’s body and live happily ever after.
Absolutely not.
Without realizing it, Sohee lightly shook her head.
“…What are you thinking right now?”
“What?”
Sohee asked back in confusion.
Elisha’s face twisted at once.
“You were just thinking I’m pathetic, weren’t you?”
“What are you talking about...?”
“Don’t pretend you weren’t!”
She had clearly shaken her head as if Elisha were pitiful!
How dare she act innocent now?
“I’m fine with everything. Elisha, you did nothing wrong.”
“I’m only grateful that you took my place for me.”
“Everyone, Saintess Elisha also possesses holy power. Please stop arguing about who is real and who is fake.”
The face of the real Saintess suddenly overlapped in her mind.
That woman who had acted kind.
Acted gentle.
Acted merciful.
Every single word had made Elisha’s insides twist.
Her expression turned cold.
“I suppose being called ugly doesn’t bother you because you’ve heard it all your life.”
Elisha no longer bothered hiding the contempt on her face.
“Then you should at least be capable.”
Her gaze swept through the room.
“But I suppose you’re terrible at that too?”
“You couldn’t even hire proper employees, so you only have two.”
“And I heard they’re villagers who don’t even have real names.”
“Everyone here knows about this place.”
“......”
“That hotel in front has more than five people just guiding guests at the entrance.”
Elisha continued, sounding increasingly pleased with herself.
“And they’re former extras who actually appeared in novels.”
“Wouldn’t that put them on a completely different level from villagers like the people working here?”
For the first time, Sohee quietly lowered her eyes.
Seeing that, Elisha looked down at her with satisfaction, as though she had gained the upper hand.
“At this rate, it looks like it’s only a matter of time before this motel goes bankrupt.”
When Sohee’s expression visibly darkened and she still said nothing, Elisha felt strangely relieved.
She’s nothing special after all.
Elisha had done the same thing countless times.
Lowered her head.
Looked away.
Pretended to be busy with something else.
Anything to swallow her humiliation.
This was beyond a simple battle of pride.
It was outright humiliation.
...Was that too much?
As the uneasy silence dragged on, Elisha glanced at Sohee.
In truth, this was the first time in her life she had ever actually said such vicious things out loud.
Had she gone too far?
Just as she began to feel slightly anxious, Sohee raised her head.
Elisha flinched and quickly looked away.
But Sohee smiled instead.
“The hotel is nice, isn’t it?”
“......?”
“Considering someone of your status, Elisha, I suppose that level of service would be more appropriate.”
Sohee rose from her seat and tucked the file under one arm.
“As you can see, we’re rather lacking here.”
“So I think a luxurious hotel would suit you much better than this shabby motel.”
“…What?”
Sohee could tolerate Elisha taking shots at her personally.
A little.
This was a service job, after all.
And since Sohee needed to attract customers and successfully send them through reincarnation, regression, or transmigration, she was unquestionably the one in the weaker position.
But there was no way she intended to tolerate anyone insulting her precious employees.
Sohee smiled brightly.
Then she gently pressed the button she knew would set Elisha off.
“But would a place like that even accept a mere supporting character who was only a fake Saintess?”
At the front desk not far away, the Moon Jar inwardly let out a deep sigh.
Screaming could be heard from the consultation room.
Along with the sound of things breaking.
So Sohee never lets anyone win against her.
She always did everything she could to prepare a reincarnation, regression, or transmigration.
She never treated any character carelessly.
She listened closely to every story.
Of course—
only as long as the other person stayed within the line.
Strong against the strong.
Soft toward the weak.
That was the impression the Moon Jar had formed after watching Sohee for roughly three months.
The chairs and table had been knocked over.
Blood seeped from Elisha’s neck where her nails had scraped the skin.
Her hair was completely tangled.
The lace on her beautiful dress had torn in several places.
And in the middle of that wrecked room, Sohee alone was sitting calmly in her chair.
Watching Elisha sob on the floor.
Sohee had simply allowed Elisha’s near-hysterical outburst to run its course.
No emotion showed in Elisha’s empty eyes.
But the resentment and rage buried deep inside her chest were rooted far too deeply.
Elisha cried silently, wearing a hollow expression like ashes after everything had burned away.
Sohee clicked her tongue inwardly.
Through the slightly torn sleeve, she could see scars.
Some dark.
Some faint.
Far too many of them.
It probably was not only her arms.
The skin hidden beneath her dress was likely covered in scars just like these.
Sohee let out a low sigh.
So this is how she endured everything inside.
She had worn the mask of a perfect Saintess while anxiety slowly rotted her from within.
The fear that she would become useless.
Elisha Brown had desperately clung on because she did not want the people she loved to abandon her.
But the life of a villainess always ended the same way.
With betrayal and death.
Because that made the protagonist Saintess shine even brighter.
What is so important about being loved?
Why cling so desperately to some shapeless emotion like that?
Sohee sighed in frustration.
Was it really right to beg affection from someone who did not want you?
Even if Elisha somehow succeeded, love that had been tilted to one side from the beginning would never carry equal weight.
One person would probably spend the rest of their life wanting more and more.
Was it truly impossible for her to let go?
This isn’t something I can understand.
And there’s no way I’ll convince her.
Sohee’s gaze hardened.
“Get up.”
Elisha raised her wet eyes and looked at Sohee.
Her black eyes contained nothing.
Only tears she could not control continued sliding down her cheeks.
“I can’t give you what you want.”
“So please leave.”
Every single soul requesting reincarnation, regression, or transmigration was precious to Sohee.
Filling the gourd with water was the only way she could return to her own world.
Even so, she could not ignore her own standards just to help Elisha possess someone else.
“I...”
A hoarse voice barely escaped Elisha.
After finally calming down, she could not bring herself to raise her head once she regained her senses.
She was ashamed, as if the ugliest depths of herself had been exposed.
Even the excuse she barely managed to speak came out trembling.
“I-I’m... not normally like this...”
Sohee gave a bitter smile.
“I see.”
“You’re not normally like this, so now that you’re dead, you decided to stop holding back completely?”
Elisha’s mind went blank as she finally realized how badly she had messed up.
Sohee was right.
Before her death, she had been despised by the entire nation and eventually beheaded.
And even until the very end, she had never truly been able to rage or fight back.
What she could not endure most was Cedric’s disgusted gaze.
Her feelings for him had been sincere.
But once she was branded a fake who had only coveted power, nothing she said mattered anymore.
Perhaps, just as Sohee said, the leash inside her had finally snapped.
She had spent her entire life smiling obediently while feeling like she might explode inside.
Now, just one remark from Sohee had been enough to make her throw away all reason.
“You... you called me a fake Saintess, so I got too angry...”
“Yes. That can happen.”
Sohee’s voice remained soft.
But her gaze was cold.
“I’m not sure the things you said afterward were particularly kind, though.”
Elisha bit her lip.
It had only been a few minutes since she had insulted Sohee’s employees and compared this motel to the hotel.
She hurriedly began speaking.
“D-Do you know?”
“Do you know how miserable my life was?!”
Her voice rose again.
“Do you know how much those words—fake Saintess—have strangled me my entire life?!”
“That’s completely different from you living comfortably here!”
“......”
“I don’t know how much about my life is written on those stupid pieces of paper, but you wouldn’t understand unless you lived through it yourself.”
“So don’t talk about me so casually!”
Sohee said nothing for a moment.
Then, without hesitation, she opened the file.
And crumpled the paper in her hand.
The sheet containing the condensed record of Elisha’s life twisted and crushed mercilessly.
