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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: The Muffin Ordeal
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I threw myself back into eating the muffins.
I devoured them one after another, as if my sole purpose was to empty the basket.
“You think that’ll make me trust you?”
I knew he found my crude method pathetic.
“I don’t have a choice.”
“What?”
“This is the only thing I can do right now.”
“…….”
He didn’t say another word. I focused on the muffins again.
My chest felt tight. I couldn’t tell if it was from the muffins’ dense texture or from the way he was looking at me.
I just kept swallowing, swallowing again.
No matter how shamelessly I’d acted before, Crown Prince Luciano had always watched me with indifference or pity.
Even that felt like a buff from becoming the heroine.
In this class-based society, my reckless behavior was an enormous rudeness.
Right now, I believed Crown Prince Luciano was slowly warming up to me, even if he was still putting up walls.
But that wasn’t the case.
This was the first time Crown Prince Luciano had shown such sharp, chilling emotion.
That meant even he couldn’t tolerate a threat to his life like poison.
Thinking about it, it was simple.
Could anyone stay relaxed when their life was truly at stake?
Could I live casually knowing someone was plotting to kill me?
No matter how young I was, I wouldn’t ignore real danger or hostility.
No, because I was young, I’d be even more sensitive and sharp.
Stupidly, I’d taken the whole situation lightly.
Because to me, it was just a novel.
I hadn’t thought of ‘life’ as something difficult.
Crown Prince Luciano would survive anyway, and eventually become the world’s strongest.
I’d brushed off everything happening to him as mere plot devices to spice up the story.
So, I’d existed as a mere spectator.
That was my clear mistake.
To someone desperate and earnest, my attitude must have seemed like deception.
Crown Prince Luciano had survived day by day in abject misery.
So my actions probably looked like mere pretense.
My constant beaming smiles must have seemed endlessly frivolous, unworthy of trust.
How could he believe or rely on someone like that?
I hadn’t approached him with sincerity first, yet here I was resenting him for not trusting me. That was pure selfishness.
All this time, I’d selfishly and arrogantly poured out only my own feelings.
The dense muffin felt like it was lodging in my throat.
Even one muffin filled you up subtly.
By the third, my stomach was full, and I was breathing heavily.
It felt like the forced swallows had filled my chest.
But under Crown Prince Luciano’s cold gaze, I kept eating.
I was anxious not knowing what he was thinking.
His face was like a mask, always icy.
He just kept staring at me.
I did the only thing I could.
I took bite after bite of the muffin that wouldn’t go down easily, swallowing without hesitation.
By the fourth, the limit was approaching; eating itself was becoming agonizing.
Still, I kept chewing and swallowing.
The vivid suffering I was experiencing for the first time made me belatedly realize this was ‘reality.’
Not just a novel—I was part of this place too.
It had almost been a year since I’d possessed this world, and only now did I feel it.
This was reality. My life.
Suddenly, I felt sorrowful and scared.
I belatedly worried if I could survive in this world.
The excitement of possession faded, replaced by despair and helplessness that brought tears to my eyes.
But I held back, not letting them fall.
Crying would just make me look even more annoying to someone who already disliked me.
I swallowed the muffin soaked in my mixed feelings of guilt toward Crown Prince Luciano and this newfound sense of reality.
As I kept eating without stopping, my stomach churned violently.
Complex emotions I couldn’t define, mixed with the overeaten muffins, kept rising up.
And as the muffins dwindled, resentment built up too.
‘Why did I have to choose muffins, of all things?’
Something like cookies wouldn’t have filled me up so much.
My throat was clogged, and my stomach felt like it would burst. It was torture.
Even after eating so much, several muffins still remained in the basket.
‘Why did I pack so many out of nosiness?’
I should’ve brought just two, enough for one each.
Emptying the whole basket was too much.
My stomach felt ready to explode, but his gaze pinned me—I couldn’t stop.
Why did I possess this body? Why did I pack so many muffins? Why did I create this situation?
All sorts of emotions piled up, making me feel wronged.
I was holding back tears, but my body was starting to betray my will.
“Stop eating.”
Noticing me forcing them down, Crown Prince Luciano finally spoke to stop me.
But I couldn’t obey so easily.
“No. I’ll eat them all.”
I’d already eaten most, with only three left.
Stopping now would waste all I’d endured.
Of course, since I’d reached my limit, I could’ve taken his offer.
But that wouldn’t fully dispel his suspicions.
He might pity me now and let it go.
But deep down, he might still wonder, ‘What if the remaining ones were poisoned?’
Since I was proving my innocence, I’d go all the way.
I suppressed my roiling stomach and kept eating.
“I said stop.”
“Three left.”
“Right now, ha…….”
“It’s fine. Two left.”
After swallowing those, as I picked up the last muffin, Crown Prince Luciano glared fiercely.
But I had no time to mind his gaze.
It was truly my limit; I desperately shoved in the muffin.
I felt nauseous from overeating, my vision blurring.
My head even hurt.
Overeating was this terrifying.
My stomach churned, acids rising constantly, and my nerves were firing strangely all over my body.
If I ate more, something bad would happen, but I couldn’t give up on the last one.
If I ate this, I could clear my name, so I forced it down.
I stuffed my cheeks full and chewed laboriously.
Once every last muffin was gone from my mouth, Crown Prince Luciano’s expression twisted.
He looked incredulous, frustrated, and somehow angry. I finally swallowed the muffin in my mouth.
Gulp!
The final large lump barely slid down my throat.
Holding back my churning stomach, I declared my innocence.
“I ate them all. See? I’m fine. There was no poison!”
I spoke confidently, then clamped my mouth shut.
Instinctively, I knew I was in trouble.
‘I can’t hold this.’
It wasn’t something my will could endure!
Cold sweat poured down my back.
I wanted to run out, but moving felt dangerous.
As my eyes met Crown Prince Luciano’s—he seemed puzzled by my sudden silence.
I knew I shouldn’t, but my body betrayed me.
“Urk!”
With a wretched sound, the muffins surged back up.
Crown Prince Luciano’s face hardened as he watched it happen right in front of him.
This wasn’t it!
For some reason, my first thought was that he’d misunderstand me.
Amid the upheaval, I desperately explained.
“Urk, this, erk, isn’t the, erk, poison, eerk!”
His brows furrowed deeply at my frantic excuse.
Under his disgusted gaze, I felt everything was ruined.
This would stick in his memory more vividly than anything before.
“Really, urk, no poison, uurrk!”
And then I couldn’t think anymore.
The reflux worsened.
It was like the muffins had multiplied inside me; they kept coming up.
I wanted to flee, but it wouldn’t stop.
Tears and snot streamed down amid the agony.
Crown Prince Luciano watched my pathetic state without moving aside.
Fortunately, the misery left no room for embarrassment.
I heaved and heaved until exhaustion claimed me, and I passed out.
* * *
My stomach roiled madly, and the world blurred around me.
I seemed to be lying down, but I couldn’t move a fingertip.
My body felt floaty.
I couldn’t tell if I was awake or dreaming.
‘Why am I like this?’
My insides twisted in pain, my throat felt torn.
My head buzzed like flies swarming inside.
Then, my last memory flashed by.
My pathetic blunder.
‘I’m insane…….’
And the reason for that blunder came back too.
My real mistake.
The foolish end where I’d been too busy explaining to apologize.
I could almost see Crown Prince Luciano’s fierce face.
‘No? Is that real?’
In my hazy vision, his rigid face floated.
My sight was too blurred to know if it was a hallucination or if he was really watching me.
I desperately moved my lips.
“Sorry, I’m sorry.”
I truly hadn’t meant to deceive him.
To protect myself, I’d denied reality and acted on my whims.
It was all because I was foolish and selfish.
I was so sorry for unknowingly hurting others that tears welled up.
“Sniff, I’m sorry. I’m sorry…….”
Had my young body made my mind childish too?
I despised myself for not considering the still-young him.
I regretted acting so pathetically.
Once the tears burst, they flowed like a faucet.
They streamed down, blurring my vision.
Overwhelmed by shame and guilt, I cried and kept apologizing.
It felt like I’d only said sorry while sobbing for ages.
Then I remembered the poison.
“Sniff, really, hik, no poison. Gasp, it’s not that.”
Saying it out loud made the poison misunderstanding feel so unjust.
I hated even being suspected of that.
This time, I wailed loudly, repeating that it wasn’t poison.
“Wah, it’s unfair……. Why me, waaah, only me, waaaaah.”
Then I felt wronged about possessing this body at all.
Everything hurt, so everything felt sad.
“Euk, hik, now, gasp, what do I do……. Kek, Mom.”
My future felt hopeless; I worried.
How would I live now?
I was scared. What to do.
Sorry. What to do.
“Hic, hic, I’m sorry. Ngh, no poison. Waaaah.”
Like a child, I bawled about the injustice, repeating apologies and denials of poison.
Then fever rose, and my mind grew hazier.
Exhausted, I had no strength to speak, and my tears dried up from dehydration.
Feeling my body sink, I let go and closed my eyes.
Finally, a warm touch fell on my feverish eyelids.
It felt like someone else’s hand. Feeling that, I released my last thread.
