I Thought It Was a Common Transmigration - Chapter 56

‘So she rejected all those offers for the sake of Killian?’

That’s the only conclusion K could draw from the situation, but if that’s the case, then he helped Edith meet the second exception condition.

Because K was the one who encouraged Killian to do it through Lizé.

If he had left it alone, Killian wouldn’t have made ten offers in a row, and Edith, who had relaxed in the middle, might have accepted at least once.

Encouraging Killian to strengthen the flow of the story turned out to be a double-edged sword. But there’s no point in hindsight.

‘Damn it! If the second condition is met, that means Killian won’t listen to me anymore!

The second exception condition had never been met, until the thirteenth Edith did it.

K’s control over Killian would be reduced to about 30%, making him even harder to control, and his control over other characters would be reduced to about 70%.

But K had never seen what that was like.

‘What will happen to this world…… when the third exception condition is met?’

A horror he’d never thought of came over him.

As far as he knows, once the third condition is met, he will not be able to intervene in anything in the world, and the world will be driven by the probabilities created by the characters.

But what the world would be like, he couldn’t imagine.

He had always thought of himself as the god of this world, but now that he was in this situation, he felt so helpless.

‘I created this world, why can’t I control it the way I want?!’

Worse yet, once the law of “following the original story” is removed, time will continue to move forward.

Unlike the end of the story, where Lizé becomes the Duchess and the Sinclairs experience a profound sense of regret and then everything back to the beginning of the story…… time will continue to move forward after that.

But apart from being tired of living in a loop, K was not curious about what would happen after the original story.

‘I will only happily ever after, I don’t want to know the after story, I don’t want to see Lizé grow old!’

K wanted the story to stop at the peak of happiness. How could he watch the traces of time fall on Lizé’s beautiful face?

Lizé should be perfect.

She should remain in her current state, young, beautiful, happy, and loved by everyone.

‘And for that to happen, Edith must die as a villainess.’

K gritted his teeth.

Unfortunately, K can’t kill Edith himself.

It wasn’t until this situation that he realized it more clearly: trapped in the flow of the story, he could only control the characters he created.

And the flow of the original story sets up only one person to kill Edith: Killian.

‘Of course, now that the second condition has been met, the law of “following the original flow” is weakened, and I can use it to kill Edith, but the penalty for doing so…… will be severe.’

If Killian falls in love with Lizé again, it might make things easier, but in any case, the most powerful weapon K could wield is the “exception condition”.

If the last one is not met, there is a high probability that no matter what happens, the flow of the original story will eventually lead Killian to kill Edith.

‘So I need to make the third exception condition something Edith will never be able to complete, and I need to try to kill her as much I can.’

K was no longer in a playful mood.

He thought about it for a very long time before finally deciding on the condition that would be set on the level three exception.

And the system of this world accepted his decision.

[The third exception condition has been set.]

Perhaps because I had never heard this sentence before, the voice I usually heard sounded cold today.

***

“Oh my God, I didn’t know there was a place like this!”

At the opera house where I’d come out with Killian to prove I wasn’t treating him like a stallion, I couldn’t help but look around and gape.

The soaring ceilings, wide stage, walled-off private rooms on the second and third floors, and luxurious seating on the ground floor would rival any modern theater.

Maybe it was because I’d only been to movie theaters in my previous life, but it seemed the author had envisioned the opera house in all its glory for Cliff and Lizé’s opera house date.

“You’ve never been here?”

“No, I haven’t.”

Searching Edith’s memory, I couldn’t recall ever being in a place like this.

The only places Count Riegelhoff ever showed his daughter were at parties and gatherings.

Even when he allowed her to seduce men, he never sent her out where she couldn’t be monitored. He thought she would run away if he let her out of his sight.

“No way. I think I’ve seen Count Riegelhoff or his heir a few times in the theater……”

I merely smiled a bitter smile.

Killian’s brow furrowed slightly at me, but he didn’t press for details.

“What’s the title of the play?”

“It’s Odelette.”

“What’s it about?”

He looked at me puzzled when I asked for the title.

“You don’t know Odelette?”

“Is it famous?”

Intrigued, I searched through Edith’s memory, but strangely enough, she had no knowledge of opera, play, or painting.

Then a memory flashed through my mind.

“You don’t need to know any of that, you ignorant, no one knows any of that. Don’t be interested in any of that stuff for no damn reason, just do what you’re told!”

It was the day I went to a young ladies’ social gathering and came home humiliated because I didn’t know what the play was about.

I asked him to tell me a little about it, but Count Riegelhoff dismissed me as a nuisance.

‘He was afraid his daughter would know too much; he wanted a dog who could do what it was told.’

Even if it was a set-up to create Edith’s distorted view of love, it was a family relationship that really went too far.

When I showed signs of not knowing anything about Odelette, Cillian thought about something and then explained with a straight face.

“Odelette, the daughter of a once wealthy viscount, goes into the woods to pick raspberries and finds a wounded man. Out of pity, Odelette helps the man and falls in love with him. The man says he’s lost his memory, but he’s actually László, a prince from a neighboring country who was being hunted by an assassin sent by the enemy.”

“Oh my, oh my! And?”

Killian sighed softly, then spoke again, “They fall in love, but Odelette’s father wants to marry her off to a man from a wealthy family to raise the family name, and when László finds out about it, he begs her to run away with him.”

“But it sounds like she would have made a different choice.”

“That’s right. After much deliberation, Odelette marries a wealthy man, and László, despairing, returns to his own country. A year later, Odelette sees the prince of a neighboring country marrying a princess, and is devastated, regretful, and ends her life by suicide.”

“Sounds like a tragedy.”

It was like a European version of Lee Soo-il and Shim Soon-ae [1]. I wonder how many similar sad-ending love stories there are.

[1] A popular love novel depicting the tragic love between Lee Soo-il and Sim Soon-ae, in which the female lead is faced with the choice of “money or love.”

As we talked, the lights in the theater went down and the stage lit up.

As the spotlights shone down on the stage and the beautifully dressed singers began to sing, I was quickly drawn into the opera.

At first, Odelette and László nurture their budding love as they sing lightheartedly.

But their love is quickly put in jeopardy.

Othello’s father introduces her to a wealthy baron, Hubert, for the sake of the family.

“Oh, God! What am I to do? Please give me the answer.”

Odelette is torn between Hubert, a wealthy man, and László, the man she loves, and László begs her to trust him and come to him.

And Hubert seduces her with money even though he knows she has a man she loves.

“Oh, forgive me, László. My heart will always be yours, but I am forced to leave you.”

A creepily clear soprano sings Odelette’s heartbreak as she chooses another man over László.

They say the human body is the best instrument in the world, and my mouth fell open.

Suddenly, a handkerchief appeared in front of me.

“Huh……?”

I turned my head in confusion and saw Killian staring at me.

He pressed the handkerchief lightly against my cheek.

I must have been in tears without even realizing it.

“Thank you,” I whispered, taking the handkerchief from him and wiping away my tears.

The opera ended with Odelette stabbing herself in the chest with a dagger in the back of László’s wedding, where everyone was celebrating.

As the actors came to the front of the stage to take their bow, I jumped to my feet and clapped enthusiastically, as did everyone else.

It was so touching that my heart skipped a beat.

“Did you enjoy it?”

“Yes! I never thought opera could be like this, and I don’t think I’ll forget it for a while.”

I put my hand on my still-pounding chest and thanked Killian for bringing me here.

Killian seemed to be thinking about something, and then he asked, “If you were Odelette, who would you have chosen?”

I wiped the last of my tears away and answered bluntly, “Hubert. I’m not going to kill myself.”

Killian stared at me, a little surprised, then asked again.