A Fortune-telling Princess

Camilla and Isia looked at each other for a long time without making a single move.

What was she supposed to say? There was so much she wanted to say that, on the contrary, she could not say anything at all.

If she had to choose the person she would feel sorriest toward in her entire life, would it not probably be Isia?

I’m sorry.

It was not what she had wanted, but in the end, Isia had suffered because of her.

And to tell someone who had gone through being killed by her family over and over again because of that life that she was sorry was shameless in itself.

“......”

“......”

The two of them stood there for a long while, simply looking at each other without a word.

Then, at some point, neither first nor second, they smiled at each other.

For both Camilla and Isia, that was enough.

Because no one understood better than the other what lay in each other’s heart, what kind of feelings they were carrying now as they walked this road.

Now that they had confirmed that each of them was living well in the place where she belonged, what more needed to be said?

The two of them started walking again, each toward the light flowing out before her.

Without even exchanging a brief farewell, Camilla and Isia passed by one another.

Good luck, Isia.

Good luck, Camilla.

Wishing for each other’s happiness.

Chapter. The Numbers Seen Through the System

“Camilla?”

“Y-Yes... yes?”

Isia, who had been absently moving her fork, answered reflexively at the sound of someone calling her name, then flinched.

When she looked up, everyone seated with her was looking at her with concern.

“Are you still not feeling well?”

“I told you to stay in bed longer.”

“Should we call the healer again—”

“N-No. I’m fine.”

Isia hurriedly shook her head. Several days had already passed, but she still did not know how she was supposed to react to this unfamiliar sight.

My God...

A family worrying about her. She had never even imagined such a thing, not once.

Camilla!

Are you okay? Are you awake?

Hey, say something! Are you okay?

The world she had returned to. The first thing she had seen when she woke there was the three men she had feared even in her dreams.

The Duke of Sorpel, Brother Ludville, and... Brother Ravi.

The three men who had always treated her with cold faces were staring at her with expressions she had never seen before.

They’re... worried about me?

Instead of scolding her for causing trouble, they were speaking to her with sincere concern, and Isia had wondered if she was dreaming.

“Eat a little more.”

“Eat properly. You collapse every time because you only eat that much.”

“You like this, don’t you? Want some more?”

Now that a few days had passed, she had accepted that this was reality, but being with them still felt awkward and unfamiliar.

And what is this ridiculous level of closeness?

System

Name: Claire Sorpel

Affinity: 89/100

Affinity with Father is eighty-nine? That makes no sense...

The system had been upgraded not long ago.

A function had been added that quantified how much affection another person felt toward her, and it had been extremely helpful in the entertainment industry. It let her roughly grasp what the other person thought of her.

Watching affinity rise rapidly depending on how she acted had even given her a strange kind of thrill.

I didn’t think anything would surprise me after Senior Choi Sihyeon.

His impression was so cold, and she had never really had a chance to speak with him properly, so getting close to him had been terrifying.

According to Hyunseok, her manager, they had never exactly gotten along even before. She had wondered whether she should even do a drama with him, but then she had happened to glance at the system window and nearly jumped in shock.

System

Name: Choi Sihyeon

Affinity: 2/100

Attraction: 92/100

She had no choice but to doubt her own eyes. His affinity was two, but his attraction was ninety-two, and her mouth had dropped open on its own.

She had never once imagined that the cold stare she found so unpleasant was not him looking at her because he could not stand her, but because he liked her.

She had been terribly confused, but after that, she could not help finding her own gaze drawn toward Choi Sihyeon again and again.

In any case, that system window, which let her roughly guess at people’s feelings, was still usable even after she returned to this world.

And the affinity numbers she saw from her former family filled Isia with disbelief.

System

Name: Ludville Sorpel

Affinity: 91/100

Attraction: 50/100

!! Deleting attraction ٩( ᐛ )و !!

She could understand Father—the Duke of Sorpel—to some extent. Even then, he had always tried to treat her as fairly as possible.

But despite those efforts, her rotten behavior and the suffocating silence in which she could not even offer a proper excuse had eventually made him close his heart.

But what about that man?

Affinity ninety-one? Was that even possible?

Ever since childhood, Ludville had been someone Isia feared almost as much as her father, with that strangely, endlessly cold air about him.

Of course, he had never shouted at her, nor had he looked at her the way others did, as if he were looking at something filthy...

But that made him even scarier.

It was not quite that his silent gaze fixed on her made her heart race, but something like that. For some reason, she kept shrinking under it.

So how was she supposed to explain affinity that high?

Camilla... she’s incredible.

In that short amount of time, what kind of magic had she worked? Normally, once affinity passed thirty, you could already call the relationship a close friendship...

And there had been attraction too?

That was what had truly surprised her. Attraction was different from affinity. It quantified romantic interest.

The attraction that had climbed all the way to fifty had, strangely enough, now been deleted.

I have no idea what happened.

Isia lightly shook her muddled head.

“What? Does your head hurt again?”

“...No.”

Isia’s gaze turned toward Ravi, who was sitting in front of her with a frown between his brows.

The one who had shocked her most after returning here was neither the Duke of Sorpel nor Ludville, but that man.

I didn’t even want to check something like affinity.

She had not needed to. It had been obvious.

How could affinity with that man possibly be high? This was Brother Ravi, who had always looked at her like she was some kind of bug.

But just like the other two, he kept acting as though he were sincerely worried about her, and she could not help finding that strange.

And so, with a feeling of no way, she had opened the system window.

System

Name: Ravi Sorpel

Affinity: 94/100

...Was this insane?

At first, she had thought it was negative ninety-four.

But after checking the system window again and again, the number displayed there left Isia staring blankly with her mouth hanging open.

This is Brother Ravi’s affinity, of all people...? Could that really be right?

Ravi had shown disapproval at everything she did.

Hey! Can’t you do anything right?

You idiot... when you do that, I get cursed at too!

Please, do pathetic things only when you’re alone!

God, seriously! Can’t you live your life after using your brain at least once?

The words still came back vividly even now...

She had wanted, somehow, to get closer to her only blood relative. She had wanted his acknowledgment.

But the more she tried, the colder Ravi’s eyes became, and her mistakes only kept increasing.

Before she knew it, she was doing everything he told her to do. She had believed that was the only way to maintain the thread between them, however barely.

In the end, I even helped with the attempt to kill Brother Ludville.

At the moment of her last death, when Isia became aware of herself in another world, she had still possessed all of her memories from this place.

She remembered how she had met her death as well.

Take her away.

Her father’s final words still rose vividly in her mind even now. That voice, cold as ice.

Brother Ludville swinging his sword at her neck with indifferent eyes while she begged for her life.

And...

“What? You can’t eat any more? Should I tell them to make you something else?”

“...No.”

“Tch. Hey, don’t go anywhere today. Stay right by me. Don’t wander around outside in the cold.”

“......”

...Brother Ravi, who had held a great share in that death.

A dining table shared with those three men.

The feeling was strange.

How odd.

Looking at them as they kept taking care of her, strangely enough, she did not feel angry.

You would think she would want to ask why they had never treated her this way when she was here, why they had been so cold only to her.

Isn’t that strange?

It was the sort of thing that could have left her hurt. But instead, she found herself thinking it was a relief.