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“What do you mean by that?”

Who are you, he seemed to be asking.

Was he asking who I was, or was he trying to probe me?

“Who am I… of course I’m Tiana. I’m your wife, Tiana.”

I tried to hide it for the moment. But the tension that felt like it would explode at any second made me swallow hard.

Lucius looked at me quietly, his eyes calm. He didn’t look like someone who had just dropped a bombshell.

“I know you’re Tiana. But you aren’t the ‘Tiana’ I know.”

“…!”

“You’re different from the Tiana I met before. You’re someone else.”

“……”

He spoke without taking his gaze off me, his voice full of certainty. The precision of his words made my heart fall.

My strength left me and I wanted to pull away, but he held my hand tightly, so I couldn’t.

I forced my trembling voice into calm and asked, “Why do you think that?”

“He told me beforehand. That you weren’t the same as you used to be.”

“…His Majesty gave you that hint? Could it be something he said today?”

“No. It wasn’t today. He told me earlier. Before he married you.”

He said it earlier? If it was before the marriage, the timing that could have allowed him to say something like that was probably when Rayel and I first met.

But at that time, he’d seemed to be confirming whether I was the real Tiana.

Could it be that with those twenty-questions-like inquiries, he had realized I wasn’t the original Tiana or the previous Tiana?

Maybe Rayel knew about the possessor sooner than I did. So he asked me those questions to check whether I was the previous possessor.

‘But if he realized you weren’t the original Tiana, why did he let it go?’

Judging by his attitude back then, he seemed to accept me as if not revealing my identity was fine.

Thinking back, it felt like he was testing my reactions — seeing what I’d answer or do. As if it mattered only that I wasn’t the old Tiana.

‘Did something happen between the two of them?’

Remembering what Lucius had said earlier, it seemed likely that the possessor in the side story and the possessor here were the same person.

In other words, the side-story possessor and the one here should be the same individual.

If so, maybe Rayel waited for that possessor to leave. Whether he approached them or opposed them, in any case they would have been an obstacle to him.

‘Anyway, Rayel basically revealed my identity to Lucius first.’

So why didn’t Lucius immediately confirm it with me back then?

Even if they’d decided to put past events behind them and I’d tried hard to act, there must have been awkwardness, unnaturalness in my behavior.

Hearing Rayel’s words should have increased that sense of strangeness.

So why didn’t he press me?

‘Did he trust me?’

For now, that was the only thought that came to my mind. That he’d been considerate of me. He was the kind of person who paid attention to others. That’s who he was.

A jumble of thoughts filled my head. He just watched me quietly.

Compared to my restlessness, he was composed. On impulse, wanting to confirm it, I blurted out before I could stop myself.

“Lucius, do you really think I’m different from before?”

“…Right now, I do. I’d felt a sense of unease a few times before, and after hearing my brother’s words, it grew stronger.”

“Then why didn’t you ask me? You thought it strange, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t think it was strange. I only thought that perhaps you might be decidedly different from the previous you.”

“……I see.”

So he was suspecting me after all. But even with that suspicion, he hadn’t shown it and had accepted me.

Typical Lucius, I thought. It showed how much he cared for me.

That made it even harder to accept his gaze directed at me so straightforwardly.

‘I didn’t exactly expect a day like this…’

Everything being found out felt like the floor collapsing.

It had come sooner than expected and when I hadn’t expected it — I felt flustered, scared, and uneasy.

Would he know I was a possessor? If so, how would he react now?

Would he be furious at being deceived, or would he show contempt?

Would he ask where the original Tiana had gone since this ‘Tiana’ he knew was different?

‘And since I hid that I wasn’t the real Tiana and married him… maybe he’ll ask for a divorce.’

That was the worst-case scenario. Negative thoughts kept surfacing.

If we really divorced, we might never see each other again.

I didn’t want to go through that at all.

I had worked so hard to meet him and become his wife — to be torn away from him now was unbearable.

I wanted to explain to him right away. To tell him it wasn’t true, that I really was Tiana.

But the words wouldn’t come. The warmth from the hand we were holding made it hard to insist confidently.

“Don’t be scared.”

Lucius pulled my hand closer. He smiled gently as if sensing my anxiety.

“I’m not scolding you. I only wanted to confirm the facts, so don’t worry.”

“…You won’t be angry?”

“Angry? Why would I be?”

“I deceived you.”

I couldn’t bring myself to say, ‘I’m not Tiana.’ If I admitted it outright, it would be irreversible.

I bit my lips anxiously. He shook his head and said, “You didn’t deceive me.”

“What?”

It was an unexpected reply. I was sure I’d deceived him — yet he said I hadn’t. Why?

Was that another kindness for my sake? Or was there some other reason?

At the sight in his eyes that showed no blame, my chest tightened and words spilled out.

“Lucius, you already know. You know I only imitated her.”

“That was for me.”

“Still, it’s deception. And though it was done for you, it was also done for me.”

Thrown into possession suddenly, and meeting the man who would become my husband — since I didn’t know how to return to my original modern body, the only way to live as ‘Tiana’ was to act as the original Tiana as best I could.

That’s how I could survive in this world.

“I know that too. I know you had no choice if you wanted to survive.”

“…What did you say?”

“You may not know why you became like this, but I know you had to choose to live.”

“……!”

This man… he kept surprising me. How could he read the thoughts I had back then as if he’d seen them?

When I possessed Tiana and first had a chance to meet Lucius — when I finally met him — waking up in this world in Tiana’s body had been exhilarating. I was indescribably happy to be with a character I loved from the original story.

So I willingly decided to become the ‘real Tiana’ in her place.

But at the same time, I’d had no choice but to choose to become Tiana.

My body had already changed; there was nowhere to run. To avoid complicating matters, I had to be Tiana.

Only then could I live here.

He’d understood those feelings. And yet he said it wasn’t deception.

“How can you… say that? If you knew everything, shouldn’t you be angry with me? Shouldn’t you hate me?”

“Why would I be angry at you or hate you?”

“You said you knew everything. That I chose you to survive. That I became the ‘Tiana’ who chose you.”

“Exactly. There’s no reason to be angry or hate you. You became your own version of Tiana and chose me. You didn’t run away — you stayed by my side. That’s enough.”

“…….”

He smiled and pressed his forehead to mine. At that close distance I could see his face clearly. His long eyelashes fluttered as his golden eyes blinked open.

“Whoever you were before, right now you are the Tiana I know. You made yourself that way, and I accepted it. So don’t blame yourself. Don’t be anxious.”

“…Lucius…”

“You are not the Tiana who hurt me. Now I can tell. She and you are completely different people.”

He let go of the hand he’d been holding and gently cupped my right cheek.

His touch felt soft as if confirming my skin. He looked at me with a tender expression and continued.

“I couldn’t have felt this vividness from the old her. She wasn’t this warm.”

“Then what about the original Tiana?”

“The original… Tiana?”

“Yes. Not the Tiana who hurt you, but the one who made you fall in love with her… the original.”

The Tiana who first met Lucius and stirred his affection until it grew into love — if he were the Lucius of before, he’d surely recognize that neither she nor I were the same person. But what if the original Tiana returned?

“If you were to meet the Tiana you originally loved again… how would that be?”

“……”

I had basically laid everything bare with my words. That I wasn’t the original Tiana, and that the original Tiana was a different person. That there was someone else who might return.

I didn’t know how she would return, but if she came back, would he still be able to call me Tiana?

Would he tell me he loved me?

Keeping a tight knot of anxiety in my chest, I waited for his answer. He paused, then lifted his forehead from mine and slowly began to speak.