"So, when are you going to start telling me the truth? I can't stay here all day waiting for this, thanks to you and that girl I have something serious to solve." My aunt was starting to get impatient.
And to be honest, I was so afraid to tell her about the reincarnation that my voice was not coming out.
I started to feel a lot of sweat running down my whole body, I was shaking and I was starting to get sick of nervousness, I never thought I would feel it again.
The last time I had such an uncomfortable feeling was when I was born here or had those nightmares daily. But even then, I couldn't compare that to those things that happened.
Even though it's difficult to say, it doesn't come close to torture, does it?
"I...I .." I tried to say something but my voice didn't come out, I started to sweat even more. I just wanted to tell her at once that I was a reincarnated person and that I knew Michelle from another life.
But how stupid can that look in her eyes? Not only stupid, but it can be something scary for her since she took care of an unknown person for so many years.
"Okay ... I get it. I'm going to wait for you to calm down a little but be prepared for this conversation until the night comes. If I keep forcing you to talk here, you'll end up passing out, I've never seen you sweat so much before."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't worry, I'm sure there is something very strange going on here, but forcing you to speak wouldn't be the best choice. So ... When you're comfortable you can tell everything, okay?"
"Listen ... I can tell you now but promise me you won't be scared or you will hate me, okay?"
"Do not tell me..."
"Just promise me, please."
"..." She remained silent and didn't seem to want to make that promise, and that made me even more apprehensive, I started to imagine that she would be thinking about my involvement in the attack.
"What I have to say is not about the attack, I didn't even know it was going to happen, it's even worse than that."
"Even worst?"
"Well, how would you react if a person you love is not really what you imagine?"
"Hmm, that's a curious question. It depends a lot, if the person I love is actually a horrible person, I would honestly feel bad."
"I understand..."
"But what do you mean by that question, are you telling me that you are a horrible person, is that it?"
"I will not deny this, to some extent this may be true since I have hidden it from you for years." With my sentence, my aunt seemed surprised, but soon after she became a little uneasy and started to pressure me about it.
"What did you hide, tell me soon." I started to sweat even more, but I was calmer than before, at least I was able to say something. Interrupting my aunt's questions, I decided to say it all at once.
"I actually stole your niece's body, that's what I mean."
"What?" My aunt released my shoulders with my absurd statement and then looked me deeply in the eyes, seeing her face so close, I couldn't help feeling great guilt.
If I hadn't entered your niece's body, at this point they would be a real family, but I stole your 'Family' and your 'Happiness'. When I realized this, the feeling of guilt started to eat away at me, something I had never felt in all these years.
Not when I slept with her, or when my aunt took care of me. In none of those moments did I feel guilty for stealing the place that would belong to her real niece.
But now that I was having this conversation, I was almost going crazy, it was like the feeling of guilt and sadness mixed.
With my tears streaming down my face, and the way my lips trembled when I tried to continue my story, my aunt realized how badly I was feeling.
She approached me with an expressionless face and hugged me with all her strength.
"I'm sorry ... I'm sorry ..."
"Why are you apologizing? I still don't understand."
"I just ask you to forgive me for deceiving you, you took care of a stranger for so long, I stole the place of the person who would be important to you."
"What are you saying? You didn't steal anyone's place, you are the person who is important to me."
"I stole your niece's place, I shouldn't be here, I should be dead, you still don't understand? How can you still hug me in this situation? You took care of an adult all this time, don't you think it's disgusting? "
"I didn't take care of an adult, I took care of my niece. Even if you are someone else, you are my sister's daughter, you came out of it, you have my blood. So don't think that I will hate you for something thus."
"But ... But ... I can't stand this anymore, being reincarnated was like a punishment for me, I went through situations that no conscious person should have to go through, it was like I was in hell."
"I understand ..." My aunt hugged me even more tightly.
"Everything in this world is hell for me, you know? I am suffering since I arrived in this place, there were moments when I just wanted to die."
"I understand..."
"I just wanted to rest in peace, it wasn't my intention to steal your niece's place, I should have refused that proposal."
"I understand." I hugged her and cried on her shoulder. Unlike me, she was smiling, as if everything she was listening to didn't have much impact on her.
"Why are you smiling? I'm not the person you thought I was, I'm admitting that this world is hell and I wish I didn't come to this place, why the hell do you keep smiling like that?" I moved away from my aunt, but she continued with her soft smile on her face.
"You know, I always found your way of talking and acting kind of weird, so deep down I knew there was something wrong, but I didn't think it was that absurd. But I said before, I don't care about any of that."
"What do you mean, you don't care? Everything you lived with me was a lie."
"Of course it was not a lie, you are still a child, and so is my niece. You are a very special person to me and especially to Benjamin, so don't say it was all a lie, you would be offending his memories, no It's?"
"Yea..."
"So even if you already lived another life before you got here, or whatever it is, there is probably a reason for you to be here, isn't it?"
"I have no idea..."
"You don't know, but surely there must be a reason. So even though you reincarnated here, you are still my niece and I will continue to love you equally, okay?" My aunt opened her arms again.
Running up to her, I hugged her tight, it wasn't like the previous hug. This hug was even more welcoming, it seems that a great burden had been lifted from my conscience. The person most important to me now knows who I am, and she accepted me.
This is probably the only happy moment I have had since I got here.
fence that cruel story I see where it is going.
the aunt must die ?? must the elven people be completely annihilated?for yukina to escape with his girlfriend??
@IgorRSAW
it's ok even fate is not written in stone (or on paper? haha) and every time you see the future changes (there is rubber and pencil haha do not use ink) I am currently reading a novel of 300 chapters with that theme.
@IgorRSAW The MCs of isekai put destiny in a chaotic state because they do not belong to that world they can alter the written history and overwrite the future with their actions if there are too many heroes the destiny is so confused that even the gods who see the future go crazy by not to be able to see so many timelines.
Name of me novel: Spoiler:
Clearing an Isekai with the Zero-Believers Goddess – The Weakest Mage among the Classmates
"I actually stole your niece's body, that's what I mean."
If I hadn't entered your niece's body, at this point they would be a real family, but I stole your 'Family' and your 'Happiness'.
"I stole your niece's place, I shouldn't be here, I should be dead, you still don't understand?"
IMO, those sentences are *horribly* worded, especially the "entered your niece's body" and "stole your niece's place" parts.
I can get that the MC has had this huge guilt and needed to let it out. And I can see how the MC's thinking is skewed and cloudy. But those sentences not only sound wrong, but are extremely misleading - especially without reader knowledge (such as her aunt).
The only literal interpretation of those sentences that make sense is that she is claiming that the personality now speaking is of the spirit of a reincarnated person which possessed and replaced the soul of her niece at some point during childhood. But this is totally inaccurate as the reincarnated soul was the one inside the body of Yukina from even before birth.
In contrast, those sentences are very strongly paralleled by a conversation in "Ascendance of a Bookworm" (anime, LN and manga) between the MC and her boy friend. In that story, the MC also died and got isekai'd to a fantasy world. However, unlike here, the MC's soul got swapped out with that of a very young girl (about 5 years, I think) while said girl was on the verge of death from fever and illness. In this case, the original soul of this girl was suffering from the illness and begged to leave the body for the afterlife.
Around 1 or 2 years later, the boy who had a crush on the girl before she came down with that fever confronted her by accusing her of being an imposter because of how different she was now as compared to before. At that point, she broke down crying and confessed what happened, similar to here. The boy eventually forgave her and came to terms with it, but it did not happen overnight.
Anyway, if you replaced "niece's" with "friend's", then I'd say the sentences I quoted are a much better fit for "Ascendance of a Bookworm" than this story because they would portray what happened far more accurately.(Though, even in that story, it wasn't the MC's fault.)
Oh, I know this novel and I really like it, and I understand your point very well. I'll try to change the dialog to see if it improves a little, thank you very much.
@IgorRSAW
Friendly suggestions: Maybe it would work by starting with a phrase like "I can't help but think that..." or "feel like" before something like "I stole your 'Family' and your 'Happiness'. " Perhaps you could use something along the lines of "Sometimes I feel like an imposter who doesn't really belong (in this world or this village)"?
I found it strange that the word "memories" only comes up once in this chapter - and that was coming from the aunt when talking about the memory of her husband / MC's uncle. (The word "memories" or "memory" is not even used in the next chapter.) Shouldn't the MC have started by saying she has the memories of a different life? Even if the aunt had never even *heard* of the concept of "reincarnation" before (which, in our world, tends to have religious connotations), that would be one way of explaining it.
I'm not sure what the aunt or adult elves know about "reincarnation". I'm surprised they even have a word for it if it's that rare or it's not part of their own religion. However, Lucy should be too young to know about it. I highly doubt it came up in conversation before where Lucy grasped the meaning or asked. But Lucy should get the gist of it if she hears talk of having memories of being someone else or having lived another life.
suki suki
