The Romance Fantasy Novel MC is Only Into Me

“You’ve been caught well.”
Thunk!
The months-old stinging slap finally found its target.

Several flower decorations embroidered on the tied-up hair fluttered down with a soft rustle.
“...Ran... sir? Why, why are you, here...?”
Marigold, tears brimming in her eyes, grabbed her head.

Ransell savored the feeling as if the heaviness in his chest, festering for so long, suddenly lifted.
No. It wasn’t enough. Ransell pressed both of Marigold’s cheeks firmly with his hands.
“Ugh!”

The face that had been cold and serious just moments ago scrunched up awkwardly and pulled inward.
Ransell’s face, with veins bulging red, finally broke into a smile—a rather chilling one.
“Trying to run away?”
“Ugh!”

“Abandoning someone and running away?”
“Uhh!”
“What’s with ‘don’t look for me’? If you tell me not to come, should I just do that?”

“I—I wrote that tearful letter after agonizing for years...”
“Thanks to that, I spent months with a headache.”
Marigold stepped back, sniffling, slipping from Ransell’s grip.

She raised her hand to cover her face.
“You have the wrong person, sir. I am not Mary Merry.”
“Then where did you get that ring, lady?”

On her finger still sat a cheap-looking jeweled ring—the exact same model as Ransell’s.
At a loss for words, Marigold parted her lips.
“I... found it.”

A completely unconvincing excuse.
As veins bulged again on Ransell’s forehead, Marigold suddenly glanced up at him.
“...Ransell sir, actually...”

“...?”
Despite her drooping eyes, a sharp look flashed in them.
“You were hanging around another noblewoman. Clinging close…”

“What are you talking about?”
“...As soon as I disappeared, you started going around with another woman… No matter what, my feelings are a little... though ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ I know it’s not my place to say, as someone who ran away...!”
Only then did Ransell realize she had been watching him.
It was true that after arriving here, he had stuck close to the First Princess.

Even his brother had misunderstood, so if Marigold saw that, she wouldn’t have felt much differently.
Of course, he had no intention to explain. They would soon know it wasn’t like that.
“Hmph.”

Instead, Ransell raised one corner of his mouth, and with a long-practiced rogue’s sneer, he let it show openly to the wary Marigold.
“If you run away twice, I’ll live with two women.”
“Ransell sir?!”

“Three times, three women; four times, four women.”
“Eeeeek!”
“You have to return what you took to be satisfied. This is the life of debauchery you made. If you’re confident enough to accept it, then try running away again.”

Marigold’s expression turned pale.
The fantasy of Ransell living surrounded by countless women seemed to overwhelm her imagination.
With drained color, biting her nails, Marigold looked utterly defeated.

Ransell took a step closer.
“Since it’s come to this, shall we go home? The third-rate tragedy that would be discarded in the script stage even at the Theatrical Capital ends today, lady.”
“I...”

Marigold stepped back a step.
“Ransell sir, I... I...!”
As Ransell followed, she retreated two steps.

He quickly closed the gap by three steps, until Marigold finally turned her back.
“Ugh!”
“Running away?”

Marigold kicked off her shoes and ran down the royal ballroom corridor.
Ransell, momentarily stunned, immediately chased after her.
“You’re asking for a beating, Marigold!”

 
“Heh heh, call me the abandoned woman.”
Rio Dante wiped sweat from his brow as he looked at the veiled woman.
Since Ransell had left her alone and disappeared somewhere, she’d been like this the whole time.
“Let’s get up and walk a bit.”

The hand reaching out to her received no response.
“Shh.”
She put a finger to her lips and slowly looked around the ballroom.

The music stopped.
The murmurs growing around were clearly audible even to Rio Dante’s ears.
“What’s going on?”

“I know who I am! Hey! Are you deaf?”
“Hey! Move aside!”

The disturbance was at the ballroom entrance.

Armored knights suddenly blocked the entrance.
“We have been ordered to control movement temporarily. If you have complaints, take them to His Highness the Prince.”
“What? To pour cold water on the heated ball like this... There’s a limit to how much you can spoil the mood.”

“From now on, anyone leaving will be considered insubordinate. Please sit and rest.”
The atmosphere was tense.
“The hot-headed fool finally made the first move.”

The voice came from the veiled woman.
Rio Dante did not understand the meaning.
“Brother?”

A familiar face appeared.
“Kyle!”
His younger brother Kyle Dante in armor.

Meeting two younger brothers in a row at the Capital’s ball was a surprise even for Rio.
Kyle’s armor was steaming with heat from running around.
“Kyle, what are you doing here? Why are you sweating so much?”

“The Prince ordered us to find someone... Weren’t you here for the same reason?”
“What?”
“A woman named Marigold, with blond hair and green eyes. His Highness went wild looking for her, so here we are.”

Kyle took off his helmet and wiped sweat from his forehead.
“If necessary, we were told to use force to catch her and bring her back. You were here for that too, right?”
“How do you know that...?”

They exchanged bewildered glances.
At that moment, the veiled woman stood up.
“Rio Dante, Kyle Dante.”

They both looked toward her.
“I need you to help me. I will speak on behalf of the despicable Ransell Dante who abandoned me and ran away.”
A faint bitterness laced her voice as she cast off the veil.

“...!”
Both men froze at the sight of her face.
Behind the veil was possibly the most famous person in the Capital.

One of the faces hung framed throughout the palace and empire.
“Y-Your Highness...!”
Watching the men’s startled reactions, she smiled gently.

“Escort me to the Imperial Palace. Before my unworthy brothers take extreme measures, we must find Marigold quickly.”
 
“Kyah!”
“Careful!”

“Who’s there?!”
Marigold nimbly ran through the narrow corridor.
Maidservants carrying laundry screamed and stepped back as they barely fit on the stairs, while guards and knights shouted, but Marigold was always one step ahead.

“Ugh! Don’t follow me, Ransell sir!”
“You run away fast, Marigold!”
Ransell chased her, keeping a distance where he might catch her.

“Oh!”
“Danger!”
“Don’t run on the stairs!”

Maids carrying laundry fell over, scattering cloth pieces down the stairs.
Ransell avoided the fabric pouring over his face and leapt two or three steps at a time.
He closed the distance until he could almost touch Marigold’s back.

“Eek!”
“Got you.”
Cheering, he grabbed her arm and spun her around.

Her tear-filled eyes looked back at Ransell.
Whiiiing!
The top of the bell tower.

An eight-story high tower overlooking the illuminated festival street of the Capital.
Ransell barely caught Marigold’s arm and back from tumbling off the cliff edge.
“That’s dangerous.”

“If I jump from here... then you won’t chase me anymore?”
Ransell frowned, watching her sobbing expression.
“Why go to such lengths to shake me off? Do you hate me?”

“That’s...!”
Startled, Marigold burst out loud.
“There’s no way. The only person left in my life is you, Ransell sir.”

“Then why do you keep running away from the only person left in your life? That’s what I’m asking.”
Marigold avoided his gaze.
“It’s not because I hate you.”

“Then what is it? Was being with me a disadvantage for you?”
“No!”
“Got bored after marriage?”

“Nonsense!”
“Getting a little tired of me because we’re so close?”

“No, no! That’s impossible, Ransell sir!”

“Then why, exactly?”
Grabbing her shoulders and questioning, Ransell saw her eyes finally overwhelmed by tears.
Looking back, she was always honest with her feelings—but now she was hiding her true self.

Ransell didn’t like that. He wasn’t going to leave without hearing her answer.
He pressed deliberately.
“If it’s not hate, boredom, or disadvantage, then what is it?”

At that moment, Ransell’s gaze faltered at Marigold’s reaction.
Sniff.
Marigold—

Like a child—was crying.
Sobbing intermittently, unable to hold back tears, sniffling.
Words trapped in her breath, repeatedly turning back.

She couldn’t control her emotions.
When she finally spoke, her answer was completely unexpected.
“When I’m with you, Ransell sir, you become unhappy.”

Ransell was puzzled.
His expression blank.
“Unhappy?”

Marigold, panting with her arm over her eyes.
A noble lady of the Marigold family.
Former imperial princess.

A returner.
No, just a crybaby.
“If I’m not there, Ransell sir will live happily. But whenever he’s with me, he’s always unhappy.”

“That’s nonsense. Who’s unhappy?”
“He is.”
That couldn’t be.

He was just busy.
Marigold was such a wild card that she made life a little chaotic, that’s all. Unhappy? No way.
“He dies because of me, loses out because of me, gets hurt because of me, dragged around by hopeless me, always has nothing but bad things while by my side...!”

“That’s nonsense.”
“It’s true...”
Marigold shouted, stifled.

“It’s true... In my memories, Ransell sir has always...”
Ransell was speechless.
All the memories with Marigold flashed through his mind.

“If only I weren’t there, Ransell sir would...”
Once again, Ransell looked at himself through Marigold’s eyes.
“...”

Young nobleman, Ransell Dante.
A person who always existed in her memories.
He lived for her, died for her, drew his sword for her.

He was the one who moved his heavy, lazy body by nature for her.
That was the Ransell Dante in Marigold’s memories.
“I...”

He was at a loss for words.
He almost said, “I did everything for you.”
But even that wouldn’t be an answer for Marigold.

It would rather trap him.
‘Could it be...?’
Watching Marigold cry like a child, Ransell finally realized his greatest mistake.

‘Was it because of me?’
Yes.
All his actions intended to make Marigold happy had instead made her unhappy.

All the things that seemed like losses were actually weighing heavier on Marigold with each cycle.
Cycles ended.
Started again.

Ended.
Started again.
Piling endlessly in her memories might have been Ransell’s own tragedy.

Piling and piling until nothing but that was left.
And the returning Marigold opened her eyes.
Finally remembering everything.

What thoughts did she have amid the pouring memories? Thinking of Ransell’s countless tragedies, what did she feel?
Guilt? Regret? Maybe self-blame?
Honestly, it was unclear.

She was that kind of person.
“...You must not stay with me, Ransell sir...”
She pleaded. It was closer to begging.

“...I must not be by Ransell sir’s side. It only brings unhappiness. Sniff...”
It was all Ransell’s own fault.
“...”

At the top of the bell tower overlooking the Capital’s festival,
Amidst the lantern-filled scenery, Marigold wept.
‘Mary.’

Ransell finally realized what he had done wrong.
Marigold’s happiness was never meant to come.