Yunho opened his eyes.
There was nothing around him but an oddly comforting pitch black.
He was still sitting on the ground, but Yunho didn't think this was still the base.
The weight of Dorian's head was absent from his lap.
"Where am I?" Yunho thought. He felt the ground with his hands, but he didn't feel... anything.
It was like he was in the concept of a space.
Yunho's heart quickened. Was he dead?
He had been exerting himself lately.
What if he'd pushed himself too far?
Or... What if the real Iris had come back?
Yunho stiffened.
That thought seemed to sting more than the idea of simply dying.
"No, you're not dead."
A voice said. It seemed to come from everywhere, echoing off the nonexistent walls. For some reason, the voice and even the dark space felt familiar to Yunho.
Yunho looked up, but there was nothing.
"Oh, you can't see me right now. Close your eyes and reopen them."
Yunho did as the voice asked, and when he opened his eyes, there was a woman in front of him.
She was glowing white and her long hair flowed down to the floor. The woman was much larger than Yunho. She was on her knees, yet still about five times taller.
Yunho was at a loss for words, but before he could even ask his question, the woman answered.
"I'm Baihye. And I've had my eye on you for a long time. I've tried communicating with you though dreams, but it's nice to meet you in a less abstract way."
Yunho looked up at the goddess' face, but it was obscured by the white glow. He couldn't see her face, but he felt like she was smiling.
Yunho thought for a moment and remembered what he had seen before he passed out.
"Those words I saw in the sky… what did those mean?"
"I don't think I can truly give the answers because I don't know them all myself. But just now, I could feel the world shift like the very universe paused to listen to someone's words. There was silence… then change. I presume you did that. Your will did."
Yunho paused.
"Wait, so I… changed the world? And, what do you mean you don't have all the answers? Aren't you the god of this world?"
"Yes, I'm a goddess of this world. But, I've learned that many things are out of my jurisdiction and even my knowledge."
Yunho knew there were other goddesses worshiped in the novel's world, but he felt like that's not what she was talking about.
Baihye moved her face closer to Yunho's level.
"As a goddess, I've been granted divine omniscience. But the power to know everything, I quickly knew that I could never know everything. I became aware of the boundaries of this world. Of someone entering the bounds of this world from a place outside of my knowledge."
"Then, you know that this world is within a novel?" Yunho asked.
Baihye paused and hummed.
"Well, I didn't know the specifics. But I assumed we were subject to the will of a higher power. I could feel the bounds of fate. So, to you, this world is one from a novel? I see."
Yunho nodded, but he felt a pang of disappointment in his heart. When Yunho heard that the being in front of him was the goddess Baihye, he thought he would finally get answers.
"So, you don't know what brought me to this world? Or why I've taken the body of Iris? I'm sure I died in my original world, but here, I'm alive in someone else's body. "
"I can't give you a definitive answer, but I can see your strong soul. I can see how you've lived on with life, accepting the tasks that have been thrown at you. I can see how your existence changed the fabric of the universe. And, I can feel that the original Iris' soul is no longer in this world. Perhaps, your soul was drawn into the world, slipping through the cracks of its boundaries. Then, by a coincidence of fate, Iris' soul was not strongly attached to this world either. So, your soul took over his body, and his soul went on to another place."
Baihye explained.
"So it was all by coincidence?" Yunho questioned.
"Well, I do believe that you and Iris had to have some compatibility. Perhaps you two were quite similar, and you were attracted to something Iris' life could give while Iris' soul was interested in freedom which led him outside this world."
Yunho paused.
Iris…and he were similar?
He thought about it for a moment. They were both relatively lonely. Living in Iris' body, Yunho had learned that the man didn't have many friends. He had a bad name and was disliked by most people. Though Yunho wasn't unpopular, he had struggled to keep friends due to his illness and felt constantly isolated.
"Perhaps both you and Iris wished for similar things at the same time, and the universe fulfilled you two's wishes."
Baihye continued.
Yunho had wished he could live a healthy, happy life.
"Could Iris have wished for the same thing?" Yunho thought.
He had been thinking of Iris as an annoying side villain this whole time.
But what if Iris had also wanted a different life?
Yunho went silent, wondering where Iris could have gone. Did he transmigrate to another world too?
"How many worlds are out there? Is every book a separate world? Are book authors gods?" Yunho asked. He knew at this point that Baihye couldn't give him a definite answer, but the goddess was still much wiser than him.
"I think there's many worlds, but we're not distinct realities. We all connect in some way. Perhaps every book is a separate world, and its author is the Creator. Or sometimes, when an author is to write, they have a vision from an already existing world. Whether the God is the pen or in the universe itself, it doesn't really matter. It matters not our creator once we've been created. I may only be a book character— a being whose existence hinged on the imagination of another. But yet, I think and I observe. Therefore, I exist."
Baihye paused before continuing.
"Well, you shouldn't stay here any longer. This realm isn't meant for mortals, and you've been unconscious for a while longer. But before you go, I have to say that your entry into this world could have also been aided by the fact that the boundaries of this world had already been weakened by another arrival."
Yunho was thrown off by Baihye's sudden revelation, but before he could ask for an explanation, he felt his eyes close once again.
When they opened, the first thing Yunho saw was an unfamiliar ceiling. And the second thing was Irene sitting beside him. Her hand was on his wrist, checking his pulse. When
HIrene saw he was awake, she didn't react a lot, just slightly raising her eyebrows.
"Where am I?" Yunho asked. He couldn't recognize the room he was in at all.
"You lost consciousness and wouldn't regain it, so the Grand Duke had you escorted out the base to his estate and put you in one of his guest rooms."
Irene continued.
"Initially, one of my underlings was taking care of you. But, you've also been unconscious for more than a week, so before you even woke up, we beat the Bahitan forces, and I was able to come back to check on you."
Yunho's eyes widened. His conversation with Baihye did not feel that long.
But Yunho caught on to something else Irene said.
"The Grand Duke? Is he… alright?"
Irene paused.
"Yes. If you're asking about the curse from back then, I was able to dispel it for him. He endured for an astonishing amount of time, so I was able to save him time. In fact, he's been waiting on you to wake up. I should go inform him."
Yunho felt a weight being taken off his chest.
"So those words I saw and my conversation with Baihye weren't just dreams. They were real. I really changed things…"
But then Yunho remembered what Baihye said last:
"Another arrival."
There was another transmigrator in this world. And if Yunho was being honest, he could already guess who it was.
He looked down at the bracelet on his wrist. While Drelle was monologing, he mentioned that it had been zapping his energy.
Cursed magic that a holy priestess would certainly be able to detect and would usually refuse to use.
But Yunho had to confirm his suspicions.
Irene had gotten to leave the room and was walking towards the door when Yunho called out to her.
"Did you read The Mistreated High Priestess Is Now a Princess, too?"
Irene stopped in her tracks and turned around. She narrowed her eyes and folded her arms.
"So I was right… You aren't Iris."
Yunho felt his heart quicken.
"And you aren't Irene."
"It's really annoying to be the main character when a side character can't stay in their place."
Irene walked towards Yunho and lowered her face to his level.
"You can't just change everything, you know? I'm the female lead. I was the first transmigrator. This is my story. You may have forced yourself into the main cast, but stop trying to change everything!" Irene gritted through her teeth. She spoke sternly, yet her eyes seemed to be desperately pleading.
Yunho was silent for a moment.
"I won't say anything if you take the bracelet off."
He raised his wrist which had the silver bracelet. Yunho had felt uncomfortable with the bracelet from the beginning, but he didn't imagine that Irene would give him a cursed item.
Irene scoffed.
"The curse is already broken. When you passed out, it seems you exerted an amount of spiritual energy high enough to break the case. The only reason why that thing is on your wrist now is because you haven't taken it off yet."
Yunho raised an eyebrow and tugged at the band on his wrist. The bracelet which had been previously impossible to take off snapped in two, surprising Yunho.
"Well, like I said before, I should go tell the Duke that you've awoken." Irene said, turning around to leave.
Just as she was turning the doorknob to leave, Yunho said one last thing.
"I know you don't like me, but I don't want us to be enemies. I don't think our goals are at odds. I don't know why you came to this world or what you want, but I do know that I just want to live a happy life. In my original life, I was sickly and lonely, but here, I have a second chance to live. We're really the only two people of our kind in this world. I don't want to steal your role; I just don't want to play my part of being a villain," Yunho said.
He spoke quickly as the words flowed out his mouth. It felt satisfying to finally admit that to someone even if his words wouldn't reach Irene.
Irene paused for a moment and left the room wordlessly.
Yunho settled back down in bed and stared at the ceiling.
Only a few minutes had passed when there was a knock on the door.
"Iris? I heard you're awake?"
—
End of Chapter 47