Chapter 17 – You Don’t Even Like Me, Right?

Evelyn’s green eyes sparkled with hope, and the boy’s own curved gently as he smiled back.

“Of course not.”

Flustered, she furrowed her brows slightly and pressed.

“Why? You don’t even like me, right?”

“This is all a family matter. It has nothing to do with my personal feelings.”

Contrary to his appearance, his mature reply made her pout a little.

“If I don’t like someone, I can’t stand being around them. I guess you’re not like that.”

Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but she had always dreamed of a love like her biological parents had. She had heard how they first met at a party on a ship, overcame their difference in status, and married for love. That was why she had always wanted to marry someone she loved, not just settle for an arranged engagement.

But for some reason, her parents now seemed determined to marry her off to the Valentino family.

Axion’s lips curled into an amused, lazy grin at her words. Thinking he was making fun of her, Evelyn shot him a wary look and asked.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You seem to be more naive than I thought.”

She thought it was even stranger that he could say something like that with such an innocent look on his face.

‘He’s definitely not normal.’

She couldn’t believe she had once tried to be friends with someone like that. She deeply regretted it now.

When she couldn’t hide her annoyed expression, Axion asked her in his usual indifferent voice.

“Isn’t it enough if the conditions are met?”

Evelyn let out a small sigh and shook her head in disbelief.

“You know you’re really strange, right?”

At that, Axion lightly shrugged his shoulders and lifted one corner of his lips.

“You’re not exactly normal either.”

From that day on, Evelyn was sure of one thing: she could never be friends with him.

︵‿୨ ₊‧꒰ა ཐི༏ཋྀ ໒꒱ ˚₊ ୧‿︵

A faint smile touched Evelyn’s lips as she recalled childhood memories she hadn’t thought about in a long time.

She had been engaged to Axion for nearly ten years, but she still couldn’t figure him out. Yet, somehow, she knew things about him that nobody else did. Of course, it wasn’t because she wanted to, but just because she’d had no choice.

“I wonder if the seal will appear soon.”

Glancing absentmindedly at the back of her hand, Evelyn swallowed dryly at the way things were unfolding differently from the original story. Given how unstable her healing powers had become lately, she couldn’t ignore the possibility that her imprinted partner might be nearby.

‘Who could it be?’

Felix, the academy’s student council officer? Or maybe her best friend Chloe’s older brother, Dennis?

Or could it possibly be…

As soon as she thought of one particular man, she grimaced.

“No matter what, it can’t be him.”

Stretching her arms with a big yawn, she closed the window and made her way to bed. Things were only going to get busier tomorrow, so it was time to finally get some rest.

︵‿୨ ₊‧꒰ა ཐི༏ཋྀ ໒꒱ ˚₊ ୧‿︵

Sunlight streamed down from the high glass ceiling, casting a warm glow over the lush greenery.

In the conservatory, where the warm air still lingered, Evelyn moved briskly, checking on her herbs.

This greenhouse was something she had inherited from her birth father, who had lovingly tended it himself. Her father, a talented businessman who had been born a commoner, had always filled the place with visitors.

‘But all that’s in the past now.’

It hadn’t been long since she started visiting this place again.

For a while, before she realized she had been reincarnated, she had avoided the greenhouse since visiting only made her miss her late parents even more. However, after learning this world was actually a novel, and that her story was destined to end in death, she returned without hesitation.

After all, there were still people she cared about that she needed to protect.

Ever since she had realized she was reincarnated, Evelyn had been using her healing abilities to try and create an antidote for the deadly poison.

‘If I remember right, in the original story…’

It was said that the same poison that killed her birth parents had also swept through the whole Inevasel territory. That was why she believed that if she could develop an antidote, she’d not only be able to uncover the truth behind their deaths, but she could also protect her family.

To achieve this, she was determined to twist the original plot in an entirely new direction. For that reason, she planned to twist the original story in a completely different direction.

Eyes filled with resolve, Evelyn made her way to her private space tucked away inside the greenhouse.