That was the moment we almost fell, in whatever sense of the word. Almost fell to our death, almost fell into temptation. The chances of us dying and succumbing to attraction were equally strong.

I realized I was probably sick in the head.

Because I thought it wouldn't be bad to die here right here and now, with our hands intertwined.

"Shit!" Grand Duke Averill cursed when his blade finally snapped, releasing us from the surface.

At this point, Alistair gave up on trying to save us. Instead, the grand duke focused on shifting our positions and braced for the imminent fall below.

"Fret not," He whispered then pulled me closer to his ironclad chest. "I won't let you die like her."

His words had my eyes rimming with tears.

The trees broke the momentum of our fall, but Alistair took the brunt of it all. He was wearing an armor, but I saw how he winced in pain as we broke through tree branches before finally landing on the ground. I was still in his arms.

The impact made my head spin. This is bad.

I knew it. I knew that he purposely let me land on top of him, so he would take the impact of the fall.

I wanted to call out his name, but my damn voice was non-existent as usual. So I got up despite my ringing head and checked on the grand duke.

He passed out. His head was bleeding profusely.

Calm down, I kept chanting inside my head.

I'm not Isabelle anymore. I'm Allari now, and she has a body rich in mana and a flair for healing.

I can save him. No, I will save him, at all costs.

I wanted to start healing him right away, but the sky has already faded into bruised purple. We're in the Forest of Silla and the parts we patrolled earlier were only filled with low-level monsters, but where we landed was an unknown area.

I made up my mind. I'll get us somewhere safe.

It's already dark. I don't think the knights would be able to find us soon, especially when Alistair is unconscious. I'm mute so I have my limits. I can't make any sounds, so I cannot scream for help.

With that in mind, I mustered all my strength to move the grand duke. I roamed around as quiet as I could while half-carrying and half-pulling him.

After a few minutes of trying to find a safe space, I finally saw a small opening. I barely managed to carry Alistair inside the cavern that seemed okay.

This is tough, I thought to myself, out of breath.

In order to battle the cold of the night, I reinforced my magic to create a fire. It's a basic spell that I learned by watching Servan do it at home.

The recumbent Alistair remained unconscious.

I wasted no time and tended to his wounded head which is still bleeding, but not as much as before.

I took a deep breath. Visualize the magic particles all over your body and gather them in your hands...

It took me a few tries before I finally managed to manifest my healing prowess. My hands stayed still on the wounded part of Grand Duke Averill.

A beam of viridescent light materialized from my hands as it made contact with the open wound.

However, to my confusion, his head was taking longer to heal. Is there an internal bleeding?

Huh?

Blood trickled from my nose. My eyes widened in realization. Come to think of it, I'm also exhausted from healing some minor injuries of the knights.

This can't be. Has my mana been totally depleted?

Well, it doesn't matter to me.

Despite my fatigue, I squeezed out my mana until the lost drop to ensure that his head survives the critical stage. While doing so, drops of blood came out of my nose, and my vision became bleary.

I was in the midst of healing Alistair when his hand moved and grabbed me by the wrist.

The grand duke awakened. He seemed upset.

"Stop it," He muttered grimly. "Why are you going to such lengths for me? Is this a scheme of yours?"

While his hand was circled around my forearm, the diamond ring on his finger made contact with my skin. That's when reality gripped my heart and crushed it. For a while, the fact slipped my mind.

Alistair Kirsten de Averill was already married.

He's married to the evil and conniving villainess.

Ruth Alessia di Camellia.

Since that woman betrayed me, would it make me a bad person if I ruin her marriage with Alistair?

The nearby torch reflected the flickering flame on his eyes. In that pair of golden orbs, I saw many emotions: longing, misery, and even desire.

Despite that, however, Alistair did not yield.

Because when I leaned in to kiss him, he stopped me when our faces were only inches away from each other. This time, he was neither angry nor hostile, but his face looked a bit crestfallen.

"I see the same eyes and lips, but you are not her."

His eyes narrowed into slits.

"Isabelle is dead. That is an indisputable fact that I have learned to live with." Grand Duke Averill whispered to me. "Whatever you are trying to pull, it will not work on me, woman. Just stop."

His breathing was also unstable.

"Moreover, I am now married to somebody else." He inhaled sharply. "I am a man of principles."

I know. I understand. He belongs to someone else now, and he wants to erase Isabelle from his life.

But after all the things I have been through, would it be selfish to ask a small portion of happiness?

I can do it. I can let him go. If he wants to live a blissful life with Ruth, then I shall back down.

Only if he wants to, that is.

We stayed still, our faces bearing no distance and lips parted in tension. I was still on top of the grand duke, but he didn't push me away.

His words were sharp, but his gaze was soft.

Not once did he take his eyes off me.

After a moment of silence, I brazenly took his hand and opened his palm, which startled him.

"What are you-!" Alistair exclaimed.

Before he could lash out on me, I began drawing some letters on his palm. The words I couldn't say with my mouth, I slowly traced them on his hand with my finger, making sure he feels each stroke.

I love you.

His body slightly trembled from my delicate touch.

I love you. I traced on his palm once again.

If this face causes you so much pain and deprives you the freedom to be happy, then let this be my final words before we go our separate ways.

He stared at me. "What a dangerous thing to say,"

The grand duke smiled sentimentally.

"Really," He closed his eyes. "How dangerous."

Alistair never spoke a word to me after that.

We were in that small space, like two people stuck in what seemed to be a crack in the entire globe.

Yet he never looked my way ever again.

I didn't blame him. He was a man with a strong sense of justice and virtuous principles. He is not the type of person who would cheat on his wife, regardless of whether he truly loves her or not.

That was the kind of man I fell in love with.

Daybreak came, and we left the cavern to find our way back. Fortunately, the knights also conducted a search and rescue, so they found us sooner.

"Allari, you're okay!" Servan, who seemed to have went with the knights to come look for me, cried.

While Servan was reprimanding me for leaving without his permission, my eyes followed the grand duke who was talking with one of the senior healing mages in our department.

"I am unharmed. That lady has already healed the wound on my head." Alistair told the healing mage who wanted to check on his body condition.

Alistair glanced over me, but also looked away.

"If anything, you should check on her. She must have depleted her mana after healing my injury."

"Understood, Your Grace."

The grand duke faced his subordinates.

"My apologies, but we will have to postpone our exploration. I would like to get some rest." he announced in a regretful tone.

"We do not mind, Your Grace!"

"Hmm," Alistair crooned then looked at me in the corner of his eye. "I prefer not to prolong my stay here. This place is too dangerous for my heart."

What's that supposed to mean? Why does he have to say such things while staring at me intently?

How irksome. He's always so flippant, always so frivolous. One moment he says ambiguous things like that, the next he draws the line between us.

---

From then on, it felt like both Alistair and I made an effort to avoid crossing paths. They asked for a different mage during their patrols, so I've had no business with the Lohefalter knights since then.

I also decided not to do anything about the story.

During the first arc, I tried so hard to change the plot. I joined hands with the villainess to prevent my death, only to be betrayed by her in the end.

The plot of this novel is untouchable.

I learned that the hard way.

And so, I decided to simply go with the flow this time. If I'm going to die anyway, then it would be better for me to live the rest of my days quietly, peaceful and away from the eye of the storm.

"Who's Allari?"

But then again, I am an extra.

"I came because of an intriguing story that I heard. It seems that Alistair risked his life for that mage? My cold and stolid husband, who wouldn't bat an eyelash even if I bleed to death in front of him?"

That even if I wanted to live quietly like a mouse, I was cursed to serve many roles for a single purpose: to end each arc with my death.

"So, who among you is Allari?"

That's why when Ruth Alessia di Camellia came looking for me in the tower, I knew that escaping the chains of this novel was impossible for me.

Her ocean blue eyes reflected the past that we shared. It was sickening to see her charismatic smile, the same smile she had when I came knocking on death's door after her betrayal.

We meet again, you traitor.

It was a humid summer day and we were creating potions as usual, when Ruth suddenly appeared in the tower with my name as her very first word.

My colleagues seemed too stunned by the sudden visit from the grand duchess of the Averill duchy.

Emma, who was astute in nature, glanced over me with a hint of concern. She knew that the grand duchess didn't come here just to say hi to me.

But her concern was unneeded.

Rather than feeling anxious or scared, my heart was trembling from excitement and rage at the same time. I promised I'd live quietly from now on, but promises are indeed meant to be broken.

Seeing the villainess before me, flaunting the ring on her finger and the Averill name she acquired through marriage, I felt like destroying her life.

Without so much as a single word, I stepped forward, catching the attention of the grand duchess who flinched upon my appearance.

"Huh?" The villainess blurted out in disbelief.

When she saw me, the deathlike pallor of her face was so satisfying to witness. For a moment, her calmness and self-esteem turned into pure fear and confusion, as if she saw a ghost from her past.

It's me, my lady. I smirked then placed a hand on my chest. It's the loyal servant that you betrayed.

The summer reignited my flames of resentment.

You're mine to kill, Ruth Alessia di Camellia.

---