Chapter 10 Part 4: Will You Marry Me?

Cayron. Cayron Winslet.

Hearing that name, Rosa’s mind froze.

“What…?”

The young man standing before her felt unfamiliar. It was a face, an expression she had seen countless times.

Without realizing it, Rosa took a step back.

Caron spoke again.

“It’s my real name. Cayron Winslet.”

It felt like a blow to the head.

Rosa blinked a few times, then managed to utter a word.

“..A lie. You?”

“Yes.”

Caron nodded. Seeing his response, Rosa’s expression slowly hardened.

‘It can’t be.’

She had tried so hard to avoid him. And the boy she had known for years was actually the Second Prince?

‘Yes. It was a ridiculous request, actually.’

Asking him to enter a fake marriage with her. She wouldn’t have accepted such a request herself.

“Huh? Still, there’s no need to play such a prank.”

Rosa forced a laugh and asked Caron.

“Where did you get the clothes? Did you borrow them? You really look like a prince in them. I almost fell for it.”

Caron was dressed in a black formal suit. It was made of a high-quality fabric, and a golden epaulet adorned his right shoulder.

“There. You’re frowning again.”

Caron’s little habit.

She could tell because she had seen it since he was a child. She had known her Caron for so long.

“Rosa. Do you think this is a joke?”

Caron approached Rosa and grasped her slender arm.

“What is it?”

“Look at me.”

“I am looking.”

“You’re not looking at all.”

After a back-and-forth like a tug-of-war.

Whoosh-

Suddenly, Caron pulled Rosa’s arm towards him.

“What are you doing?!”

Rosa’s body stumbled and leaned into Caron’s embrace.

For the first time, Rosa saw two red eyes looking down at her, devoid of emotion.

But.

Seeing him up close, she berated herself for not realizing it sooner.

Ash-gray hair, vivid red eyes. The Second Prince of the empire, Cayron Winslet, with his cold demeanor.

The description of the protagonist matched Caron perfectly.

“..Do you hate it that much?”

Caron asked.

“That I turned out to be the Second Prince.”

“Let go of me first.”

Rosa’s lips were pressed tightly together. It was her expression before she got truly angry. Caron finally smiled bitterly and released her arm.

But he soon opened his mouth again, his expression blank.

“Why? You were the one who proposed first.”

Confused, Rosa replied.

“That’s because I didn’t know you were the Second Prince.”

“What if you had known?”

“Then… I wouldn’t have asked you.”

As expected, Caron’s face hardened at her answer.

But he couldn’t ask why, because he had been despised simply for being the Second Prince.

Instead, he asked something else.

“Conversely, if I wasn’t the Second Prince, it would be okay to use me?”

“Why are you twisting my words?”

But it was the undeniable truth. Rosa couldn’t even feel wronged because she had indeed intended to use Caron.

“..Sorry.”

She admitted it.

Caron, as if he had expected it, twisted his lips and said.

“See. You can’t deny it either.”

At least he, or rather, the young master Caron, had Rosa’s trust enough for her to propose a fake marriage.

That fact was agonizing for Caron. It was only possible because he wasn’t the Second Prince.

But hiding all those emotions, he said with a cold expression.

“Don’t worry. The contract is still valid.”

“Contract…?”

Rosa looked at him with confused eyes.

“Don’t you remember? The contract you gave me.”

Caron then pulled out the contract she had given him before. The contract for a fake marriage that only the two of them knew about. At the very bottom, Cayron Winslet’s signature was clearly imprinted.

“Here, sign it.”

Caron held it out.

“No. Later…”

Rosa was simply confused. Her stomach churned, and her head spun.

The proof she had believed in, the proof that she was living her own life – was her meeting with Caron merely a plot device in the novel all along?

Finally, she snatched the contract from Caron’s hand, then fled the room as if escaping.

Alone in the reception room, Caron muttered self-deprecatingly.

“It’s too late, Rosa.”

He had already discovered it. Rosa’s kindness. The sense of stability he felt relying on it.

The thought of her going to another man made him feel a burning thirst, as if his newly found breath would dry up.

“You can’t escape now.”

He had no intention of ever letting Rosa go.

Tap-tap-

Rosa ran. She ran to her room and locked the door.

Alone in the empty room, she buried her face in the bed.

Her head throbbed. Too many thoughts crowded her mind.

‘How did things end up like this…?’

She had no idea.

She had no choice but to accept that Caron and the Second Prince were the same person.

A suffocating feeling gripped her chest, and Rosa shook her head to clear it.

‘Alright. This isn’t the time.’

She sat up and sat at the desk. She needed time to organize her thoughts.

Beside the antique-style ornate desk was a wooden drawer. The third drawer was where Rosa had been storing something for a long time.

Rosa took out the key she always carried and inserted it into the drawer’s lock.

Creak-

The key turned. As the drawer opened, she felt around the very back.

And soon, she found the paper.

For the first month after being transmigrated here, she had diligently written this. She had racked her brain so hard that she had been bedridden with headaches for days.

The romance-fantasy novel, ‘Shadowed Love’.

She had read it in middle school, and her memory was hazy. Not just the details but even the main plot was unclear.

Still, she had managed to recall it. It wasn’t completely blank.

‘I read it three times to revive my memories.’

Thinking that, her mind calmed down a bit.

“Let’s see…”

Rosa quickly scanned the paper.

[Male Lead – Cayron Winslet, Female Lead – Freya Ruslanche.]

But it was shocking that she had been meeting one of them for a long time.

‘Like a fool, I didn’t even notice.’

Rosa smiled bitterly and read the name beside it.

“Freya Ruslanche…”

The female lead. Naturally, she and the male lead, Cayron, or rather, Caron, would fall in love. Just as Rosa couldn’t avoid the original plot, neither could the protagonists’ fate.

‘In that case…’

Rosa suddenly realized something.

Caron already had a destined partner.

‘It might actually be better…’

At least he would never see her as a woman.

In the novel, Caron’s feelings were depicted as devoted, almost to the point of obsession.

With such a personality, it was clear he wouldn’t look at any woman other than the female lead.

‘Alright… If I have to get married anyway.’

It was better to do it with Caron.

As a noble lady, she couldn’t avoid marriage without resorting to extreme measures.

But if she married a man who saw her as a woman, it would be quite troublesome.

‘Because I can never return those feelings.’

Yes. She couldn’t return them.

Especially when it came to physical matters.

The first night, pregnancy, or childbirth.

‘There’s no way I can do that.’

‘Have a relationship with a man in this body, do that with him, and give birth to a baby?’

She admitted she had become more feminine. But ‘that’ was a different story altogether.

If it were platonic love, she could act it out. But anything beyond that was absolutely impossible.

Her becoming more feminine was merely an outward result. It was simply how others treated her, and she acted accordingly. She might appear more so because she had a gentle and delicate personality to begin with.

But in the seven years since her transmigration, she had never felt any attraction to men. She had no experience in that area and had no need for it.

But with Caron, she could avoid all those worries.

‘Caron has the female lead.’

Moreover, Rosa had a kind of certainty. Caron didn’t see her as a woman. He had never shown any signs, and they weren’t in a relationship where romantic feelings could develop.

A friend, or family. If she had to put it into words, that was the feeling.

Then it became simpler.

Since Caron had a destined partner, it would be easy for her to naturally exit the picture.

Just pretend to be a married couple until the female lead appeared, then say goodbye.

Yes. Nothing had changed. Rosa’s gaze returned to the paper.

It was now the winter of her eighteenth year. Soon spring would come, she would turn nineteen, and she would marry the Second Prince, Caron.

That was also written on the paper.

[In the spring of my 19th year – an imperial marriage to the Second Prince is announced. Must avoid.]

She had failed to avoid it. A bitter smile touched Rosa’s lips.

She had followed the original plot, but she wouldn’t meet the original ending. The original extra, Rosa Anencia, committed suicide after the marriage due to depression and despair over her reality.

‘But I won’t do that.’

Instead, she had a definite future of freedom after the annulment. And the person who would carry out that deal had a very trustworthy personality.

She knew. It was Caron. She could trust him.

“..Caron.”

Uttering that name, Rosa finally realized.

Why her heart felt so gloomy, why the suffocating feeling wouldn’t go away.

What had shocked her the most.

[My real name is Cayron Winslet.]

Caron’s expression as he said those words was still vivid in her mind.

She wasn’t angry. She was just filled with indescribable emotions.

‘Yes. I have to admit it. It seems.’

Caron was the Second Prince, and she had apparently relied heavily on the boy she had watched over since childhood.

“..Why did you lie.”

If only he had told her from the beginning. Then she wouldn’t have been disappointed.

‘Caron, seeing you, I wouldn’t have realized anything.’

Proof. The boy was proof.

Proof that she wasn’t following the predetermined fate of the novel, that this world wasn’t a novel, and that she wasn’t just a character in a novel.

But at this very moment, that proof was shattered.

Loss, emptiness, an unfamiliar feeling of being wronged. Amidst the wave of all those emotions.

Rosa closed her eyes.

It had been a day where her excitement had plummeted to the bottom in an instant.

A few days later, a doctor visited the Count’s estate.