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Translator: uly
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Rubette's Sacrifice
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The moment I woke from a light sleep, I came face-to-face with the unfamiliar face of a woman strangling my sleeping self.
"You think you're all that? Who the hell do you think you are to meet our Jaehyun oppa?"
The woman who had snuck into my house was probably an extreme fan of the actor Ha Jae-hyun.
Lately, after filming a commercial with him, I'd unfortunately gotten tangled in a scandal and was dealing with the fallout.
I'd received countless death threat letters from his rabid fans, and eggs thrown at me were a dime a dozen.
But I'd been through it all before, so it was nothing I couldn't handle.
I just hadn't imagined there'd be a fan so deranged as to hide in my house with the intent to actually kill me—and pull out a knife to boot.
"Where do you think you're going? Die!"
After a frantic struggle, just as I finally broke free from the bed and tried to flee.
I felt the chilling weight of a thick kitchen knife plunging deep into my abdomen.
"No way."
It was so searing, as if the pain from that moment had transferred over, that I clutched my stomach and curled up.
'Right, I'd been mistaken. It must've been such a horrific memory that I wanted to forget it.'
My last memory hadn't ended with falling asleep. It cut off right there, stabbed by Ha Jae-hyun's rabid fan.
'Which means... the part about my body having only ten minutes left to live...'
I grasped my dazed mind and carefully asked Wishit.
"...Am I dead? No way, right?"
Wishit fell silent at my question. Another affirmation.
"So Rubette wished to swap with my dying body?"
"..."
Hoping desperately that my guess was wrong, I added,
"Y-you didn't know and just wished for my life out of greed? And I just happened to die at the worst timing? That's it, right?"
"..."
"...Please just say yes?"
"I'm sorry, but I can't give you the answer you want."
"Oh, come on."
No way. She knew I was dying? And still wished to swap bodies?
There was no other way to interpret it. Rubette hadn't wished out of envy for my life—she'd done it to save me, somehow.
For me, someone from a completely different world, who hadn't even known she existed.
'Why on earth?'
Seeing my confusion, Wishit spoke.
"Rubette had lost all will to live by the end. She had one wish left out of three, but even that felt meaningless. In the end, she went to throw herself into the pond where I'd shown her glimpses of your life..."
At those words, I recalled the last comment Rubette had left on my SNS.
I've decided to die today, Juliet.
It had been sincere, after all.
"She wanted to watch your life one last time before dying. By chance, the final scene was you, dying from the knife wound."
"..."
"You might think it cruel, but there's something I want to show you. Rubette's final moments as she made her last wish."
Wishit muttered with an impassive expression and lightly tapped my forehead. In that instant, a scene rippled into my mind.
Peering into the pond that displayed my dying form, Rubette was wailing.
"No! No! Juliet! Please!"
She soon summoned Wishit and screamed, trembling.
"W-wish. I-I'll use my last wish. Please save Juliet. I beg you."
"I'm sorry, but I can't revive the dead. The wheels of fate have already turned, and Juliet Karrenina is fated to die soon."
"Th-then rewind time there? Somehow let Juliet know to d-dodge..."
"I already told you. Interfering with causality in that world is beyond my power."
"Then? She has to die, just like that?"
"If that's Juliet Karrenina's fate."
Rubette despaired more than I, the person involved, at Wishit's response.
"This can't happen... Juliet lived a pretty, glamorous life, but I know better than anyone that she didn't get it without effort."
Her sobbing mutter echoed clearly in my head, and suddenly my throat tightened.
"She lived so fiercely! Unlike a fool like me! Juliet was such an amazing person!"
Rubette sobbed like a madwoman.
"She only slept four hours a day and even cherished those four hours! Everything Juliet achieved wasn't just handed to her!"
"..."
"It was hard— so, so hard...! S-sob! She built her life like that, and now it ends so pointlessly..."
"..."
"This can't happen. It really can't."
Staring blankly at me dying and bleeding out, Rubette turned to Wishit with a changed glint in her eyes.
"As long as you don't interfere with that world's causality, right?"
"What are you thinking?"
"Right now, before Juliet's last breath."
"..."
"Swap my soul and Juliet's. If you can't save her, I'll enter her body and die in her place."
"What?"
"I was going to die anyway."
"Have you lost your mind? You think I'll grant a wish like—"
"You're my familial spirit, and this is an order. Swap our souls right now. Juliet would never want to die like this."
"Ha..."
"Better her than me—someone useless even if alive... someone who clings to life."
Wishit couldn't defy Rubette's command.
And so I opened my eyes in Rubette's body, while Rubette opened her eyes in my dying one.
She writhed in agony for exactly ten minutes in my body before passing.
'No way. What did I ever do to deserve...'
When the first glimpse of Rubette finally faded like an afterimage from my mind.
I stayed silent for a long time, suppressing the churning emotions.
It was too much reality to take in at once.
A meaningless death.
And the new life handed to me by a woman called Rubettria Diorus, whose existence I hadn't even known.
"I... didn't know..."
"..."
"I'm sorry for snapping at you..."
"It's fine. Like you said, you didn't know."
"Hey."
"..."
"Can I have a little time to cry?"
Without waiting for Wishit's silent response, I collapsed face-down on the bed. Tears began flowing immediately.
* * *
Deep into the night.
When my body felt drained of all moisture, as if no more tears would come.
"Are you done crying?"
Wishit, who'd stayed by my side through my hiccupping sobs, asked. I nodded, peering at him through swollen eyes.
"What will you do?"
"What do you mean, what?"
"Let me say this: Rubette's life is so harsh and miserable that even after regressing, she chose suicide. You probably couldn't handle all the trials surrounding her."
"...What are you getting at? Spit it out straight."
"Maybe you could cleverly make use of me."
Wishit crossed his arms and looked down at me, adding,
"I'm still bound to 'Rubettria Diorus's' body as her familial spirit, but since the soul inside is now yours, you can make three new wishes to me."
Stunned by the unexpected words, I blinked. Smirking as if he'd anticipated my reaction, Wishit proposed,
"How about it? Want to use one now?"
"...Okay. Let's do it right now."
"Good. I'll make you slim."
As if he'd assumed I'd wish for that, Wishit made a finger-snapping gesture.
I scrambled up and grabbed his hand.
"Are you crazy? Why would I waste a once-in-a-lifetime wish on that?"
"You wouldn't?"
"Of course not. I'll lose the weight with diet and exercise. And if I suddenly slim down, people would think it's weird as hell."
"...Diet control? Exercise?"
Wishit eyed me skeptically. He must've recalled Rubette's failed diet attempts.
"I was an actress. I've managed my body for nearly twenty years since debuting. Daily workouts and meal checks are basic, and I adjust weight for every new project. Dieting's the easiest thing for me. I'll drop it fast. No wish for that."
"Then what will you wish for?"
To the bewildered Wishit, I stated my demand right away.
"First..."