I Reject the villain’s ending.

Episode 55.

My heart crashed and splintered like an apple falling from an apple tree, so natural and heavy.

The crown prince locked eyes with me, whispering as I froze, frozen in time like a man who had forgotten to breathe.

His red, long lashes fell like a sunset, parting his golden eyes.

‘Don’t you remember the day you dozed off to watch the sunset? You grabbed me by the throat in that broken carriage and whispered, ‘I’ve had enough of playing love games to kill you, and now I’m going to take your stubborn knights off you, too, so you can die.’…….’

‘Oh, no.’

‘That’s what you said as you watched me die, and you won’t tell me you’ve forgotten. It was very painful.’

‘No! I didn’t!’

I couldn’t have done that.

Because that’s what Sierra said when she killed the crown prince in The Crazy Saint.

How does the crown prince know this if it hasn’t happened yet, and can’t possibly have happened?

‘Do you want to know how I remember it?’

‘……!’

‘How can I forget what my lover, whom I loved with all my heart, said to me as he plunged a knife into my back, cut my tendons, and choked me to death? No man in the world can forget.’

‘Ah, Nya.’

‘You’ll always remember, and you’ll always give it back.’

…and the crown prince sneered coldly.

‘That’s impossible……!’

Those are just sentences from The Crazy Saint. They’re not real.

‘But is it just a novel?

I suddenly thought.

If it’s not just a novel, then…….

If it’s not a prophetic book that contains my entire life if it’s not a simple possession or reincarnation.

Then what is the Crazy Saintess that Kim So-won read?

How did I end up reading it?

As I clutched my thumping chest and racked my brain, which was threatening to explode in a frenzy, the crown prince leaned forward, his face dangerous.

‘I see you and Lord Iros are still on good terms after all that killing. He’s had a red mark on his neck since this morning.’

‘……!’

‘How many marks have you carved into that pure white body? I whispered my love and abandoned him, but he is different.’

The crown prince’s eyes sank deeply. A self-help smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and he muttered skeptically.

‘Still.’

The crown prince knows everything.

The realization that he knew the course of this world that only I knew filled me with terror.

My heart feels like it’s going to burst.

The crown prince gently clears my throat.

‘Did you think you were the only one who returned to the past?’

‘What?’

Who came back? Me, the crown prince, or both?

Hearing my voice trailing off, the crown prince’s lips twisted in an arc.

His eerie gaze swept over me lazily.

‘You don’t know. Or are you pretending not to know?’

I can’t make out the words at all.

‘Now, I have no idea what you’re talking about…….’

‘Well, if you don’t know, then shut up, because I have a lot to tell you.’

‘…….’

Thus began the crown prince’s long and lonely story.

* * *

Freehi Ronsel Cyanin Lugar.

The noble crown prince of the Cyanin Empire was twenty-two years old when he first met Sierra.

He was twenty-two years old when he first met Sierra, a pale blonde girl staring up at the Imperial Palace, and he approached her.

‘You’re going to get your nose cut off if you stare at the palace like that.’

‘…….’

‘I’m not surprised.’

‘Because there’s no reason to be surprised. Who’s surprised when you walk up to them with such a brazen air?’

‘Mmm.’

At the girl’s patronizing tone, Fritz scratched his cheek in embarrassment and looked away.

‘If you want to scare someone, next time, go completely naked and approach them from behind.’

‘Uh……. Thanks for the advice. But are you sure you’re not surprised?’

‘……?’

‘I’m a crown prince.’

‘I’m the crown prince,’ Fritz said, feeling a little embarrassed that he’d said it.

‘The people in the palace freak out when they see me, so I thought I must be an outsider because they don’t recognize me.’

Hearing that, the strange-looking girl, Sierra, lifted the tip of her skirt slightly and bowed her head.

‘Sierra Elgratton, Saint of the Viatars, to see the Crown Prince of the Cyanine Empire.’

‘Ah, I did not mean to be so polite. It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Saint. I am Freehi Ronsel Cyanin Luga, Crown Prince.’

Freehi lightly crossed her hands over her chest and bowed her head.

It was a strange and haunting first meeting.

After that, Sierra began traveling in and out of the temple and the imperial palace, caring for the weak second prince Rivier.

Seeing her nearly four times a week, Fritzig would often suggest to her, with whom she had developed a natural rapport.

‘Saint, why don’t you just stay at the palace? It’s a long way to the palace and the temple, and it’s hard to use the carriage and portal every time.’

‘Is that okay?’

‘Yes. I’ll set aside a palace for you. Do you have a preference?’

‘Somewhere close to the prince’s palace will suffice.’

‘There are two princes, which one do you want to be close to, me or Rivier?’

I asked the question half-jokingly, and my heart began to race when the answer came back.

‘You, Freehi.’

‘……!’

‘You don’t like assertive girls?’

Sierra’s smile was so sparkling, so innocent, that he couldn’t look away.

From that moment on, Fritzie had been smitten with her.

He couldn’t help but follow her lead, sometimes like a younger, more ignorant sibling, other times skilfully twisting him around and crushing him beneath her.

‘I don’t think I’ve ever met a woman with more spunk than you.’

‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’

‘Of course, it’s a compliment, Sierra. Pooh-pooh.’

He had someone in mind, but he broke off the engagement and took Sierra as his fiancée.

After much protest from the Viatars, who forbid marriage, I swore I would never marry anyone but her, and I finally did.

So I thought I had nothing but good days ahead of me…….

‘Pink, I told you to behave like a dog.’

‘…Mmm.’

‘Right.’

‘……!’

He left the house early.

In his and Sierra’s room, Iros kneeling between Sierra’s legs with kiss marks on her neck and collarbone.

I saw Iros, flushed with shame, and my wife, who was used to seeing him like that, teasing and manipulating him.

He shuddered at the betrayal, but he couldn’t let go of her.

Because he loved her, too much.

Instead, he wooed Sierra to be nicer to him, to listen to him, to change her mind.

I didn’t realize it was Sierra’s ploy to get me killed.

‘Freehi, do you want to watch the sunset?’

‘Sunset?’

‘Yes. Just the two of us, without the knights.’

‘Your Highness, that is not possible.’

‘That’s enough.’

‘But Your Majesty!’

His loyal knights recoiled at Sierra’s words, but Freeh cut them off at once, focusing on her.

‘What’s with the knights?’

‘Every time we go on a date, knights are watching us everywhere, and I can’t stand it anymore. I can’t stand it anymore. I can’t stand it anymore. I can’t stand it anymore. I can’t stand it anymore.’

Sierra complained in a patronizing tone, and Freehi nodded, melting away.

‘Very well, if that’s what you want. But this time, let’s do it without Sir Iros, who always sticks to you like a stick of gum. What do you say?’

‘Fine.’

Iros looked up, his mouth twitched at the sight of Freehi, and then he bowed his head.

Freehi smiled triumphantly at the sight of him.

He did not see Sierra, who was laughing quietly.

He shouldn’t have been so cautious as to go anywhere without his escorts, but in his foolish triumphalism, he made a terrible mistake.

And when he went into the field to watch the sunset, the carriage exploded with a bang.

‘Kerr, huh. Kuluk! Shi, erah. Sierra is……?’

As the carriage exploded and burst into flames, I reflexively grabbed Sierra to protect her, but when I came to, I couldn’t see her.

Shivering from the heat of the burns that lanced through my body, I looked around to see that the carriage had been blown to pieces and the coachman was dead.

‘Sierra. Sierra, where are you?! Answer me if you’re alive!’

‘You’re not dead?’

I called desperately and turned round at the sound of her voice.

I saw Sierra standing with her back to the red sunset.

Her clothes were burnt and her face was blackened, but she looked unharmed, and I was relieved.

‘Where, where are you? Are you hurt? Are you okay?’

‘You protected my whole body, so only my clothes and hair are slightly burnt.’

‘Thank goodness, thank goodness, thank goodness you’re okay.’

My head was so full of concern for Sierra that I didn’t realize that she was saying something back to me that wasn’t her usual respectful tone.

Plus, Sierra’s initial ‘You’re not dead?’ was a bit of a joke.

‘I’m sorry, can you heal me? I can’t make it to the palace in this condition, my horse is dead, my coachman is dead, and I’ll have to collect the remains and walk back.’

‘Cure?’

‘……?’

Sensing something was amiss, Freehi lifted his head and looked up at Sierra.

She was smiling at him, her back to the sunset. A smile he’d never seen before.

‘You’re supposed to die here, and you ask me to heal you. It hurts.’

‘Sierra……?’

‘I purposely got a high-powered bomb, but I didn’t expect you to be alive with such severe wounds. Is it because you’re imperial?’

‘What is this all about? Are you saying that you intentionally blew up the carriage? Is that right?’

‘Yes. I’m finally getting some answers.’

Hearing Freeh’s voice tremble, Sierra strode up and drew the sword at his waist.

She sliced through the tendons in his legs and arms.

‘Don’t blame him too much. At least you’re dying at the hands of someone you love, so that’s good.’

‘Ugh, ouch! Stop!’

Freehi screamed at the pain as the sharp blades sliced through his muscles.

‘I’ve had enough of making love to kill you.’

‘What……?’

‘Your knights are all clinging to you, trying to escort you. It was hard to keep them apart. You need to let your guard down a bit.’

‘……!’

‘I didn’t think you’d be so wary of me now that you’re a crown princess. I thought you’d be easier to kill once we were married.’

Sierra’s smile was so dazzling that my heart clenched in my chest.

It hurt worse than a severed limb.

Her words cut into him sharper than a knife.