I went to the student cafeteria with Dorphina.
Today’s menu was, as usual, dry potatoes and water.
It seemed that one student had somehow managed to get some salt, and a surprisingly large number of students had gathered around them.
“Sa-salt!”
“It tastes good because it’s a little salty!”
“Sa-salt is the best, it’s thrilling!”
Hunger is said to be the best seasoning.
At first, students didn’t even glance at the potatoes, but now they were grateful just to have some food.
And now, there was even salt.
Dorphina kept glancing over there with obvious envy.
“How did they get the salt?”
“Well, most likely they obtained it during the alchemy class.”
“I’m thinking of taking alchemy next semester too. Seila, don’t you want to?”
Alchemy, huh. To me, alchemy felt a bit like a luxury.
Alchemy usually involves combining worthless materials in various ways to transform them into something valuable.
It takes a lot of time, and the results are often negligible compared to the effort.
So alchemy was closer to a hobby for high-ranking nobles than a serious field of study.
“Hmm… I’m not really that interested in alchemy.”
“Really?”
I didn’t understand why she was surprised.
“I thought someone like you would enjoy exploring all the truths of the world.”
What does she even think I am?
I didn’t respond and just continued peeling and eating my potato.
Like the other students, I was honestly quite hungry.
These potatoes provided nutrition but didn’t fill the stomach.
‘I just want to gobble them all…’
Dorphina rested her chin on her hand, watching me eat.
“Seila, even the way you eat is elegant and beautiful.”
Do I feel burdened by such a gaze and words? Not at all.
Living as someone truly beautiful is always exhilarating.
If I had been born beautiful and this had always been my daily life, maybe it wouldn’t feel so special—but for someone like me who had lived as Isohyeon, this kind of attention was deeply gratifying.
I hoped she would keep looking at me like this.
Then someone sat in front of me.
“Seila. Can we talk for a moment?”
Fneldi clenched her fists, staring at the classroom door where Hamun had disappeared.
‘Seila… you already have good friends now.’
Fneldi, who had admired Seila and dreamed of a friendship with her, was furious.
It felt like all her past years had been completely invalidated.
‘Yeah… you have your own life now.’
She felt foolish for waiting for this day.
She didn’t want to act foolish anymore.
‘You live your life. I’ll live mine.’
The happy memories of her childhood were buried deep in her heart.
Memories that had now lost all meaning.
As she tried to think this way, she heard a voice.
“Seila, even the way you eat is elegant and beautiful.”
In the end, Fneldi stood up.
For some reason, it kept bothering her.
Why had I forgotten her? How could I not even remember her? She had to ask.
“Seila. Can we talk for a moment?”
“…….”
Seila felt the gaze of the surrounding students on them.
‘Ah, I don’t like these kinds of stares.’
It was different from being looked at because of beauty.
Seila glanced at Fneldi, who was sitting in the front, and wiped around her mouth with a napkin.
‘This elegance!’
She wanted to quickly eat the remaining potato pieces, but…
Yet here she was, forced to answer politely and not eat.
Hey, let’s just eat first, then talk.
That was the plan, but…
“Right. It would be nice to walk somewhere quiet and talk.”
Seila got up.
No! This isn’t right! Conversation or not! I need to eat my remaining potatoes!
‘This body of mine!’
Bound by elegance, Seila slowly rose.
Students who saw Seila leave her potatoes behind were impressed for various reasons.
“She left her potatoes?”
“Prioritizing a serious conversation over food is a basic virtue, after all. A noble of a prestigious family would do so.”
“Could you do that?”
“I couldn’t. How about you?”
“I’m not from a noble family originally.”
The students eyed the potato pieces Seila had left, their thoughts betraying a primal hunger.
They hadn’t eaten their fill in days.
Nourishment alone couldn’t quench the emptiness inside.
If they ate those potatoes, perhaps a little of that thirst could be relieved—but they had to fight their simple desires.
‘Ugh, this is so annoying! Why does she have to ask for a serious conversation now!’
Even though she thought this, Seila walked along the path with Fneldi.
After some time, Fneldi asked,
“Why don’t you remember me?”
“…….”
Do I have to remember you?
Before I could answer, Fneldi continued,
“You’re the daughter of the Dvernon family. And I am the daughter of the First Vassal family that serves the Dvernon.”
“…….”
Hearing Fneldi speak, it did feel a bit strange.
It was as if she had deliberately erased the memory.
“Does it make sense that you don’t know me?”
“…….”
“Why are you pretending not to know me?”
My head throbbed.
“I’m not pretending not to know.”
“Liar.”
“…….”
“Don’t lie!”
Fneldi shouted.
A few students were on the walking path, and their eyes turned toward them.
“I really cherished you, but to you, I was nothing.”
She seemed more sad than angry.
Back at the dorm, I fell into thought.
‘Weird. Really weird.’
The thoughts lingered for quite a while.
Unable to sleep, tossing and turning, Dorphina asked with concern,
“Did something bad happen earlier?”
“No, nothing like that.”
Dorphina worried about me for a bit, then fell asleep snoring.
Muttering incomprehensible sleep-talk, like “I hate math… it’s scary,” was a bit odd.
‘Why did my head hurt?’
It felt like… the lock I had firmly secured in my mind was cracking.
A rather big shock, perhaps.
Time passed, and it became dawn.
I spent a long time thinking about Fneldi, and some memories began to resurface.
‘Seila is like a princess in a fairy tale.’
‘Fneldi is even more princess-like.’
Memories of my childhood, spent with Fneldi visiting the Dvernon household, kept coming back.
And my childhood memories of missing Fneldi.
‘I…’
So, before I possessed Seila, she…
‘Fneldi was precious to me.’
She was my first friend.
She didn’t point at me as some ominous kid who devoured her mother.
She didn’t ignore me for having no magical talent.
She was a child who smiled brightly and extended her hand, asking to be friends.
‘I remember I got scolded by my father for trying to write her a letter first.’
How could the Dvernon line send a friendship letter first to a daughter of the vassal family? It would degrade the Dvernon’s prestige.
Amidst all the murmurs about my lack of talent, sending a letter to the vassal family’s daughter first didn’t look good from outside.
I waited, hoping for a reply from Fneldi, but no letter ever came.
Over time, Seila began to understand her position more objectively.
‘I guess I thought I could never become friends with Fneldi.’
Fneldi was a talented mage and diligent.
Rumors spread that a daughter of the vassal family would surpass a Dvernon.
If I reached out first, everyone would ridicule us.
‘Fneldi must have been afraid of being dismissed by me too.’
Of course, being ignored by others was familiar to Seila.
But being ignored by Fneldi was terrifying.
‘She was my first friend and my last friend.’
The friend with whom I first laughed together.
Being dismissed by that first and last friend would have been devastating.
‘So I tried every day to forget Fneldi.’
Even those few precious memories could have been ruined.
Better to forget than to be broken.
‘It was better for my younger self to have no happy memories.’
Like children who lived only on potatoes, for whom potatoes were everything.
I just wanted my life to consist only of potatoes.
Without happy memories, I wouldn’t desire anything.
Without expectations, I wouldn’t be hurt.
‘So I forgot Fneldi.’
I raised my right hand and patted my left chest.
The lock I had so carefully closed opened, and emotions I had tried to ignore poured out.
‘Am I… crying?’
Tears rolled down my cheeks.
The only one who could comfort me now was me.
Because these were both Seila’s and my memories.
I hugged myself and patted my back.
‘It’s okay to be brave, Seila.’
I told myself it was okay to have at least one happy memory.
Tears kept flowing.
‘Next class, I should try talking to Fneldi again.’
In <That Novel>, Fneldi pushes Seila away and becomes the student representative of the magic class.
If Fneldi had wanted, she could have claimed the position in the first semester.
‘Seila was able to become the magic class representative initially thanks to Fneldi’s consideration.’
Goosebumps ran down my spine without me realizing it.
This wasn’t some developer-inserted plot.
Independent of the developers’ settings, this was a natural plausibility created by the characters themselves.
‘If possible, I should become close with Fneldi.’
If things continue like this, Fneldi would become the magic class representative.
It wouldn’t hurt to maintain a good relationship with the class representative.
‘But is it just for that reason?’
I still had my right hand on my left chest.
I quietly asked myself.
‘Do I want to get close to Fneldi just because it will benefit me?’
This was both a question to Seila, the owner of the body, and to myself.
After a long time, I was finally able to reach a conclusion.
