For Sale: Male Lead, Obsession Included - Chapter 143

With a heart that wasn’t exactly light, we left the outskirts of Dongguk behind.

Following Jin’s back, unsure whether he was smiling or crying, I moved my feet in silence.

To think it’s already been three years since I walked this road.

Looking back now, it feels incredible that, armed with nothing but the will to survive, I’d come all the way to this distant Dongguk with only two guards in tow.

Fearless, and how quick my execution had been, too.

Somehow, it felt like if I were told to do it again now, I wouldn’t be able to pull it off. The past three years of eating warm meals every day in Jin’s village, sleeping full and content, and spending every moment laughing had softened me far too much.

Like how your mindset changes when you enter a bathroom versus when you leave it.

It was exactly like that.

If the road toward Dongguk in the past had been anxious and precarious, the road back to the Empire now felt relaxed, even enjoyable.

It was one of those moments when the days I’d struggled desperately to survive after possessing the body of some short-lived extra felt like someone else’s story.

“Wanna rest over there, Jin?”

“Yes.”

Maybe it was thanks to the stamina I’d steadily built up over the past three years. Jin and I only found a place to rest after walking quite a long distance.

The saying came to mind, that kindness comes from a full purse, and ease comes from a healthy body.

“Shall we boil some nurungji and eat? The Madam packed me so much of it.”

Until I complained that it was too heavy to carry anymore, Okhee had stuffed my bag full of food. Seeing her like a mother worried that her child might starve somewhere made a smile rise on my face without me realizing it.

“I’ll do it.”

“Will you? Then I’ll go gather some firewood.”

“Thank you.”

Jin was an exceptionally good travel companion. He built fires well, was strong, cooked well, and fought at a high level.

Satisfied with the meal, I patted my round belly and lay down inside my sleeping bag.

Jin said he’d take the first watch, and he sat beside me while keeping an eye on the fire.

Rustle. Rustle. When Jin added dry branches, red embers flared up. It looked pretty, like red stars blooming in the black night sky.

“I can’t fall asleep.”

Maybe because it was the first day of travel, or because I had energy to spare, I couldn’t drift off easily. Jin rolled his eyes for a moment, then spoke for my sake.

“May I ask what you meant by what you said to Mother earlier?”

“Ah, that?”

I turned my body fully toward Jin. Orange firelight flickered over both our faces.

“If anything happens in the village, or if dark mages show up, you must go straight to Priest Ariel of the Holy Kingdom. Understood? I’m saying you absolutely must not try to protect the Well of Benevolence or the village yourselves.”

Before leaving home, I’d said that to Okhee. Don’t resist, ask the Holy Kingdom for help.

When Okhee laughed it off, saying I was saying scary things, I grabbed her hand tightly and said it again.

“Please remember my words.”

Only then did Okhee say she understood, playfully tapping my arm. It seemed Jin had overheard that conversation.

“You spoke as if something was bound to happen to the village…”

“Did I sound too much like a prophet?”

Jin nodded slightly, his face tense.

It wasn’t something I should say to Jin and his family, but in about two years, Dongguk would truly become a stronghold of dark mages. What the dark mages targeted was the Well of Benevolence, and just before the village was reduced to ruins, a passing pilgrim procession allowed it to barely escape disaster.

That was the original story’s flow, and that was precisely when the Dongguk arc properly appeared, with the original female lead, Rozemian, playing the biggest role in that procession.

Rozemian exhausted her divine power to its limits while facing the dark mages trying to seize the village, and the villagers offered all kinds of precious local dishes to help her recover her strength. When she immersed herself in the Well of Benevolence to offer prayers, an unknown mass of divine power chose her, and as she accepted that vast amount of power into her body, she awakened in that moment.

Afterward, she wiped out most of the dark mages and returned to the Empire, where she was revered as a Great Saintess. Declan, who had been counting the days waiting for her return from the pilgrimage, began to fully reveal his obsessive side when Rozemian suddenly became a famous figure and no longer spent time with him. He clung to her side with all kinds of feigned illnesses and excuses.

As I traced this and that flow of the original story in my head, I belatedly realized that Jin was waiting for my answer.

“Ah. It’s not that I know anything for sure… I’ve just heard information that dark mages have been spreading plagues lately and steadily expanding their power. Even if Jin’s village is on the outskirts, there’s no telling when dark mages might target the Well of Benevolence.”

“…I hope that never happens.”

“Yes, I hope so too.”

“But… what you say is always right, and you’ve never been wrong.”

“……”

“So I feel uneasy.”

Feeling like I’d needlessly planted anxiety in Jin’s tender heart while trying to warn Okhee, I felt apologetic.

“Not everything I say is right. And Ariel said he’d keep an eye on things, so don’t worry too much.”

More than anyone, I hoped that nothing would happen to the village, unlike in the original story, but a predetermined future wasn’t something that changed easily.

All I could say to Jin was not to worry.