Chapter 21 – The Symbiotic Relationship with the Imprinter

After staying up all night, wide awake, Evelyn headed straight for the Imperial Library as soon as her morning obligations ended. She was worried that if she didn’t do something, she might end up bound to her fiancé through the imprint. Thankfully, as long as she didn’t want the sigil to show, she could keep it hidden.

“Larie, how do my hands look?”
“You didn’t hurt yourself, did you?”
“No, it’s just…”
“Your hands are as beautiful as always, my lady.”

Despite Evelyn purposely showing the back of her hand to her personal maid that morning, Larie hadn’t noticed anything unusual. She felt a wave of relief, knowing she could hide the appearance of the sigil from Axion.

By the time those worries faded, she reached her destination and slipped into the Imperial Library. The vast interior was quiet, the shelves overflowing with ancient tomes.

‘The ancient magic books should be around here, right?’

Evelyn made her way to the shelves and started pulling out every book she could find about imprinting. If there were any recorded cases of imprints being formed incorrectly, she intended to study their solutions.

‘Why would something that never happened in the original story suddenly occur now?’

She let out a heavy sigh, frustration flickering across her face.

To think she had the same sigil as Axion… this wasn’t just wrong, it was catastrophically so.

She found a sunlit table and began flipping through the books she had brought with her. It was generally said that imprinting could fix unstable magic with light physical contact.

‘But that’s only temporary, and… more intimate contact is eventually required…’

Thud—

Evelyn slammed the book shut. Her face was probably about to catch fire from embarrassment.

There was no way she could bring herself to keep reading a book that listed ‘99 Ways to Physically Interact With Your Imprinted Partner.’

‘Seriously, this is explicit.’

She was starting to wonder why this thing didn’t come with a giant red warning label.

Trying to cool her cheeks with her hands, she picked up an old, dust-covered tome called 《 The Symbiotic Relationship with the Imprinter. 》 She carefully opened the brittle pages with an uncertain expression. But even in this book, there was no record of a case where a sigil had formed by mistake.

‘That’s impossible…’

Just in case she had missed anything, she combed through every line carefully, not skipping a single word. Gradually, the library started to get crowded, and before she knew it, all the tables were filled with people.

She was just nearing the end of the dusty ancient book when—

“May I sit here?”

A smooth, deep male voice came from behind her. Seeing the seat beside her was vacant, Evelyn quickly nodded.

“Of course. Please have a—huh?”

As she turned to check who it was, her green eyes went wide as saucers. Golden hair that seemed to capture the burning sunlight, and clear blue eyes like polished gemstones.

‘Khalid Rikeran?’

The man standing before her was none other than the male lead from the original story. In the original story, 《 Eternal Bonds of Salvation 》, the author had totally flipped the usual cliché: black-haired male lead and blonde-haired second male lead, completely breaking the ‘black-haired lead, blond rival’ trope.

Maybe because she had unexpectedly met the protagonist, Evelyn felt a weird sense of excitement and familiarity.

“Wow, it’s really nice to meet you!”

But as soon as she flashed a bright, sunny smile, she realized something was off. According to the story, this was supposed to be their very first meeting.

‘What are you thinking, Evelyn? What do you mean ‘nice to meet you’ like you’ve known him forever…’

Duke Khalid Rikeran almost never came to the capital since he was usually tied up managing the northern territories. In the original story, it was said that he only came to the capital after finishing a monster subjugation and reporting to the Emperor. In other words, hardly anyone in the capital would recognize Khalid, who usually resided in the North.

And sure enough, suspicion flickered in the man’s blue eyes.

“…Do you know me?”

Evelyn was caught off guard, but her quick thinking kicked in.

“Yes, I’m… a devout follower.”

‘Guess I’m a devout believer starting today.’

Since he was the legendary head of the paladins, it made sense to claim she had seen him at the northern Grand Temple a few times.

Khalid’s expression eased, looking a bit reassured by her pious response.

“I see.”