MTLNOVEL Chapter 16 - Classes Begin - 5
Mikhail is the same kind of being as herself. Though she didn’t know where he came from, he must also be someone from another world. Since the original novel was a Korean one, perhaps he was Korean? This was more intuition than deduction, based solely on the fact that Mikhail’s actions differed from the original story. Yet Seol-ah had absolute faith in her reasoning. She was actually correct. So far, Mikhail was the only one showing movements different from the original novel she knew.
Throughout the morning, Seol-ah had tried to recreate the methods Lily used to approach Mikhail in the original novel whenever she encountered him. First, she approached him, suggested they be friends, and settled on calling him Mikhail. Just now, she had smiled softly with her eyes and stood very close while looking up at him.
However, Mikhail pushed her away with cold determination. In the original story, Mikhail was uncomfortable around women. At this point in the story, Mikhail had been dumped by his fiancée because he couldn’t properly feel emotions. He had no friends because of his cold personality. But the moment he saw Lily, he began to understand what emotions were. It was an obvious and cliché setup, but flipped around, it was a classic and stable premise. Mikhail would be confused about why his heart raced when he saw Lily.
Naturally, Mikhail’s role in the early stages was to awkwardly accept everything when Lily approached him. But what about the Mikhail walking behind her now with his fiancée? He hadn’t broken off his engagement, he seemed to have something like a friend in Cordelia, and he completely rejected Lily’s advances.
Judging by how his face reddened whenever she flirted and fluttered her eyelashes, he clearly wasn’t completely unaffected. It felt more like his body was responding rather than his mind. Perhaps even though his soul was someone else’s, his heart remained Mikhail’s? Similar to how she naturally became a specialist in lies and acting whenever she followed the original story.
Seol-ah no longer wished to wait. Originally, she had planned to observe for a few more days. But he didn’t seem to have any intention of hiding that he was different from the original Mikhail, and in just one day, he had perfectly proven he was a different person. His emotions were abundant, he hadn’t broken off his engagement, and he had a friend. He was actively rejecting Lily after hearing Cordelia’s story. All of these were impossible for the Mikhail of the original story.
Of course, in the process of confirming this, there had been some “minor” conflicts with the women close to him. But Seol-ah was confident. If he was just slightly different due to butterfly effects caused by her presence, and was still the Mikhail she knew from the novel, he would eventually choose her. Even if he was the same kind of being as her—someone from outside this world—it would be the same. This world was fake. A world inside a book. All characters were merely fictional people created by an author. The only real ones were Seol-ah herself and Mikhail, who she suspected was also a transmigrated soul.
Seol-ah was convinced that Mikhail, or rather that unnamed person, would eventually choose her, even if he pushed her away now.
After entering an alley in front of the school and walking a bit further, a decent-looking restaurant welcomed the group.
“Here it is.”
Seol-ah led the way into the restaurant. Inside, the place was packed with students from the Academy. It must be a popular spot. She was also secretly surprised, as this was her first time actually visiting this restaurant.
“How many in your party?”
“Four of us.”
“This way, please.”
Following the waiter’s guidance, they sat at an empty table. Seol-ah took a seat first. The other three froze, needing to hold an emergency meeting about who would sit next to her. She smirked at the sight.
‘I guess I pulled a bit too much aggro.’
After their brief discussion, Mikhail apparently decided to sit next to her. Seol-ah was somewhat surprised by this unexpected outcome, having thought that Hestia, Mikhail’s fiancée, would take that spot.
“I didn’t expect Mikhail to sit next to me. I thought Lady Gracia would.”
Seol-ah whispered to Mikhail.
“That’s how it turned out.”
Mikhail swallowed the words that Hestia and Cordelia would rather die than sit next to Lily, so he had no choice.
An awkward silence followed. The atmosphere was downright hostile. At this rate, they’d all get indigestion. Seol-ah broke the silence.
“What would you all like to order?”
“I’ll have this lamb rib steak.”
Only Mikhail answered her question. The other two remained silent as if their lips were sewn shut. She had provoked them enough to join Mikhail for a meal, but she hadn’t expected them to be this averse. Seol-ah asked them again.
“What about you two?”
“I’ll have the bacon potato soup.”
“Me too.”
Hestia and Cordelia reluctantly answered after briefly examining the menu.
Seol-ah called the waiter and placed the orders. One pasta, one lamb rib steak, and two bacon potato soups. After the waiter left, silence fell over the group again. With the menu decided, there was truly nothing to talk about. Unable to bear the awkward atmosphere, Mikhail spoke up. He addressed Cordelia, whose expression had been sour since earlier.
“Lady Deneb, have you thought about which club to join?”
“Me? Well, I haven’t really thought about it yet. I want to try something physical.”
“Between that and the swordsmanship class, you seem to like those types of activities.”
“It’s because I’ve never been able to do those things before. People naturally want what they’re told not to do, right? What about you, Mikhail? What are you thinking of joining?”
“I’m thinking of joining the Travel Club with Hestia. It sounds fun.”
“Oh, you two are joining together?”
Cordelia poked Hestia in the side. Hestia, apparently accustomed to her friend’s teasing, showed little reaction.
Seol-ah was about to join their conversation but decided against it. Until now, she had deliberately approached him to gauge his reaction, but now that she was certain, such actions were meaningless. If anything, forcing her way into the conversation might only make the atmosphere awkward and make it harder to win Mikhail over.
She sat quietly, watching the three of them converse. Throughout their conversation, Mikhail wore a subtle smile. After watching for a while, she felt a twinge of annoyance. ‘He’s so stiff when talking to me, but he smiles so freely at mere characters from a novel?’
Seol-ah was well aware that staying quiet would be beneficial right now. Rather than making a scene in front of those two, it would be faster and more efficient to seduce him when they were alone. She knew this perfectly well. And everything she was doing now was calculated, not emotional. Seol-ah finished her lengthy self-rationalization.
“Hmm… Maybe I should join the Travel Club too?”
“What are you doing?”
Seol-ah gently placed her hand on Mikhail’s thigh. It wouldn’t be visible from across the table. Mikhail flinched noticeably. Being in front of his fiancée and her friend, he became restless and tried to remove her hand.
“What am I doing? It’s my choice which club I join, isn’t it?”
“I’m not talking about that, and you know it… I need to use the restroom for a moment.”
Fortunately, the two women across the table didn’t seem to notice what had happened under the table. Mikhail, who had been startled by the sudden touch, eventually stood up, saying he needed to use the restroom. The others might not have noticed, but Seol-ah’s eyes couldn’t be deceived. Mikhail’s pants were pitching a tent large enough for a family of four to go camping.
‘How cute.’
Seol-ah caught herself unconsciously licking her lips and was startled by her own behavior. No matter how much of a temptress Lily was supposed to be, this wasn’t the gesture of an innocent virgin who had never known a man.
In fact, in the original story, it was Mikhail who took Lily’s first experience. Tired of Wilhelm’s obsession, she tried to use Mikhail to keep him in check, but they ended up falling for each other and things naturally progressed. Seol-ah herself didn’t care who took Lily’s first time, but she remembered the comments section burning with questions about why the main female protagonist’s first partner was the secondary male lead Mikhail rather than the main male lead Wilhelm.
Seol-ah suddenly wondered why she was thinking about such things and shook her head vigorously.
‘Are you really going crazy, Han Seol-ah?’
Mikhail returned to his seat shortly after. Like any protagonist, but especially according to the original description, he was quite virile, so he probably hadn’t relieved himself—he must have just tried to calm down by thinking of other things. Seol-ah found herself thinking such thoughts without realizing it.
Seol-ah stared at Mikhail as he sat down. Sensing her gaze, he turned to look at her. Seeing his face, her mischievous mood vanished. She felt somewhat embarrassed. Besides, she was frightened by Lily’s potential to immediately spiral into such thoughts and lick her lips at the sight of a tent just from lightly touching his thigh.
So she decided to sit quietly until the food arrived. Mikhail kept adjusting his posture, seemingly conscious of her due to the earlier incident, but nothing else happened.
Shortly after, the food they ordered arrived. The rich aroma and rising steam stimulated their appetites.
Mikhail, who had ordered lamb ribs, used his knife to cut the meat into bite-sized pieces. Hestia and Cordelia also took spoonfuls of their soup.
Seol-ah too began eating, twirling her pasta around her fork.
“This is really delicious.”
Mikhail exclaimed. Though Hestia and Cordelia remained silent, their expressions showed they were surprised by how good the food was.
Seol-ah felt the same. She had confidently brought them here because it was frequently mentioned as a great restaurant in the original story, but this was her first time visiting too. Her already large eyes widened at the unfamiliar taste. The food was far better than she had expected.
The three engaged in light conversation while eating. Seol-ah didn’t try to join in and focused only on her meal. Whatever had possessed her earlier was gone, and she’d have plenty of time to talk with him alone after today. She felt no need to converse with the other two.
Since seeing Mikhail, she hadn’t felt any emotion toward the characters in this world. She realized this after feeling nothing when seeing Wilhelm this morning. At first, she thought it was just her mood, but it was the same when dealing with other people. Experiencing the world turn gray is a terrible experience. In a world filled with black and white, only Mikhail and herself seemed to shine. She wondered if Mikhail would change like her after learning his true identity.
As the meal was nearly finished, Hestia addressed Seol-ah. The atmosphere was quite serious.
“Lady Adamas.”
“Yes?”
“Call it jealousy or whatever you like, but please stop approaching Mikhail.”
Oh my. Seol-ah remained silent at Hestia’s sudden statement. She hadn’t expected her to be so assertive. That’s because Hestia was a character who didn’t even appear in the original story.
More than that, telling her not to approach him—who did she think she was, some chaebol’s mother? Seol-ah found it absurd, but she couldn’t ignore those words. The Mikhail she had seen yesterday and today thoroughly cherished and protected his fiancée. If she told him to keep his distance, he would do so even more strictly than now. It would be difficult to meet and talk to him separately.
Seol-ah decided to act a little faster than planned. Originally, she had intended to casually drop it when the Academy was over and no one was around.
“Isn’t that for me to decide?”
“Mikhail?”
Hearing Seol-ah’s words, Hestia looked at Mikhail. As if asking him to say something. From what she had seen earlier, Mikhail was the one pursuing her one-sidedly, and she didn’t seem to reciprocate as much, yet strangely, she had strong possessive tendencies. Quite presumptuous for a mere character.
Just as Mikhail was about to say something to Seol-ah, she whispered in his ear.
[8 o’clock, behind the auditorium.]
For the first time since coming to this world, Seol-ah spoke in the language of her original world. In English, just in case he might be from a different country.
Mikhail’s pupils shook violently.
Bingo