The Romance Fantasy Novel MC is Only Into Me

Ransell imagined the first day of this round that Marigold, as a returner, would face.
The flood of countless memories of life all at once.

He pictured the shock and despair she would feel, believing that he was the cause of all her misfortune.
Those three empty years — perhaps she endured each day in agony.
In a place where he was absent.

Shut away alone.
“Last time.”
“This is the last time.”

“If this is the last time, then it’s enough.”
“So, no regrets left behind...”
Ransell vividly pictured Marigold finally sitting at her desk and raising her pen.
Her small notebook in front of her, a smile must have finally appeared on her face.

Then, slowly, with determination, she wrote down one by one.
The things she wanted to do in this life.
The memories she wanted to share one last time.

Ransell somehow clearly recalled the image of Marigold who, after sorting out all her feelings, took the long journey toward the Dante family.
“...You shouldn’t be with me, Ransell.”
Marigold’s emotions avoiding him might have been fear.

Fear of shaking the heart she had painstakingly arranged, fear of passing the same misfortune back to Ransell.
Fear. Fear. Fear.
“You’ll be unhappy.”

Ransell clenched his teeth tightly.
“I’m just saying, be selfish and happy, Marigold.”
His grip on Marigold’s wrist tightened. His expression grew stern.

“Just be with me, go to festivals, drink expensive alcohol and eat rich food, buy clothes, collect jewels, raise animals in a big mansion — just be happy like that, simply and easily.”
What was he saying?
Even Ransell didn’t understand his own words.

“I’m telling you, I’ll be with you. Whatever you want to do, wherever you want to go, whatever you want to eat, I’ll be right by your side.”
He was just rambling whatever came to mind.
“If I’m saying I’ll do everything I can, why are you sulking and running °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° away alone?”

Marigold, biting her lip, opened her mouth.
“It’s fine. I’ve already done everything I wanted to, so I have no regrets...”
“I’ve seen you not even halfway through that list.”
Ransell rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a tattered notebook.

Marigold’s eyes widened in surprise.
“W-where did you get that?!”
“There’s a place where you get everything. Sorry, Marigold. You’re in my palm.”

“Give it back! It’s mine...!”
“By whose permission?”
He pulled his hand back, clutching the notebook.

Ignoring Marigold’s struggling attempts to grab it back, he began flipping through the pages aloud.
“Number 31, raise a pet. 32, run a business together and save travel funds. 33, spend a night on a cruise ship together.”
“Ah! Aaaah! Aaaahhhh!”

“34, spend a spooky night in a cave. 35, sneak around an alley where people walk by...? Pass on that one.”
“Aaagh!”
“36, spend a night among the merchants. 37, on a running horse... physically possible?”

“Ugh!”
Marigold screamed.
Her shameful desires spilled out of Ransell’s mouth.

“Number 60, dress me up as a woman and attend the village festival? No way. Absolutely not.”
“Eeek!”
“61.”

“Gulp.”
After reading up to number 70, Ransell looked back at Marigold.
“You’re not even halfway there.”

He pocketed the notebook and looked at her.
Her tear-stained face was flushed bright red.
“Still no regrets? Really?”

“No...”
“Look me in the eyes and say it.”
Grabbing her shoulders, he brought their faces close.
Marigold and Ransell faced each other closer than ever before.

“Do you really have no regrets now? Is it really okay if we never see each other again? Forever? In every life, never see me again?”
“I...”

“Or did you start to hate me?”

“...!”
Her eyes opened wide.
“If you say you hate me right here, right now... I’ll leave without any regrets. If not, don’t ever put on an act in front of me again. Now, speak.”

Marigold’s face once again fell into a sad expression as she spoke sincerely.
“...I hate...”
“Say it.”

“...I, I, I h-hate...”
“I can’t hear you.”
You just have to say it.

Marigold knew that.
Ransell was sincere now.
“Ha... hate...”

His lips kept moving. It was an endless process, as if fighting something inside his heart.
Ransell patiently waited.
“...no...”

Marigold lowered her head.
“I hate you.”
Her arms, which had only been pushing him away, weakly wrapped around Ransell.

“I hate not seeing you too.”
From her embrace came her feeble voice.
“But still. I hate it more when you’re unhappy.”

Ransell tightened his hold around her back.
He felt the boiling tension inside slowly subside. Calmness returned to him.
“I told you, Marigold.”

He wrapped his hand around the back of her head.
Her whole body was hot with fever. The back of her head felt especially warm.
As he stroked the crown, he felt a slight bump. Had he hit her too hard with a flick? It seemed like a lump had formed.

—Once I receive something, I won’t give it back again.
“I’m not giving it back.”
Yes.

Once a life is taken over, he wouldn’t return it again.
Cold wind wrapped around them.
Silence slowly settled at the top of the bell tower. Only Marigold’s trembling shoulders and hiccups remained.

‘But that bump is really noticeable.’
Ransell fiddled with Marigold’s lump again. It was a little chaotic to control his strength.
 
“Why am I so hopeless at everything, Ransell?”

In the dark shadow of the bell tower, Marigold murmured.
Wiping the tear- and snot-soaked face, only a red nose remained.
“Last time too, and this time as well. Why am I so hopelessly hopeless?”

“...That can happen.”
Honestly, Ransell wasn’t proud of those words either. He wasn’t some great person.
Not now, not even when he first became a returner. There were times when he was much more messed up than her.

There was a time when he grew by always depending on someone else’s help.
This time, it was Marigold’s turn.
“...It’s kind of nice.”

Marigold muttered in a sullen voice.
“Ransell, it’s kind of nice. Sigh.”
“What are you saying?”

His hand brushed Ransell’s rear as he made a strange sound.
“But you’re going to die anyway.”
“I have to try not to die.”

“...You always died before.”
“That sounds like a curse.”
“...This time too, because of me, Ransell...”

Her heart still showed signs of disturbance.
He saw the image of Ransell dying somewhere screaming again.
‘I have to survive first.’

Marigold’s feelings could change at any moment. She was unpredictable.
She might fall into self-pity again and do something useless.
‘Is it really this hard for one person to become happy?’

A sigh escaped.
Ransell was confident he could endure war, pain, death, hunger, and thirst.
From a spoiled knight of a knightly family to an unprecedented hero of the empire’s history, it only took him three rounds.

There was a time he felt like “impossible” didn’t exist for him, as heroes greeted him everywhere he went.

-If I decided, having a statue of me across the empire wouldn’t be a problem.
Of course, that was arrogance.

Thinking about how Ransell’s life collapsed after that, it was impossible.
But he never thought he couldn’t make one person happy.
‘How on earth is it possible?’

He had no clue.
He still saw it as a first step despite pouring in over ten rounds.
Everything was still a blur.

‘Should I just tell her I’m a returner too?’
Ransell opened his mouth.
Words didn’t come easily.

‘Once I say it, I can’t take it back.’
Marigold would remember his words forever.
But was it worth telling her?

Even not knowing what would happen?
“What should I do, Ransell?”
Marigold’s expression blurred.

She still worried about not being able to leave Ransell’s side. Surely, she was anxious about the future.
‘Should I tell her?’
Yes.

Say it.
He thought it was only a matter of time.
“...Haah...”

After some thought, Ransell spoke.
“Mary.”
Suddenly, a piercing scream and uproar echoed.

The sound came from below the bell tower.
“...?”
“Ransell, just now...”

.
.
.

When he went down to the ballroom, the uproar grew louder.
Nobles in party clothes appeared, fleeing with pale faces.
“They’re crazy! They’re all crazy!”

“Save me!”
“Aaahhhh!”
The royal ball’s eve was clearly in chaos just by looking at this.

Ransell frowned at the metallic smell coming from the corridor.
He lifted the red cloth and entered the ballroom’s second floor, immediately seeing the unfolding situation.
“Kill them!”

“Traitors! Kill them all!”
“Traitors? How dare you defy the prince’s orders!”
Knights were tangled in the chaotic ballroom, exchanging blows with their swords.

“This is a mess. A damn broken country.”
A sneer escaped Ransell’s lips.
He had seen the empire’s madness many times, but this was a new kind of mess.

“Save me!”
“Blood... blood’s coming out of my body...!”
The royal ball’s eve had turned into hell.

Knights serving different royal family members repeatedly swung their swords at each other.
Kaaang!
Nobles who hadn’t escaped yet were stumbling around nearby.

“Argh!”
“Aaahhhh!”
The ballroom was a pandemonium.

The floor had long been stained with blood.
“Ransell, the empire is falling apart again! This is what I was telling you...!”
“Did you say that? It’s not fallen yet.”

Yes.
This was still the process of power struggles.
From now on, an even harsher hellscape would unfold ahead for the empire.

Who would grab whose hand was already decided. Though not pleased, there was no one else but that woman.
“Mary. You haven’t stabbed any royals in the back yet, right?”
“...?”

He pulled two ceremonial swords from the bodies of fallen knights. The blades were blunt, but enough.
“Let’s go.”
Ransell’s eyes flashed.

After this was over, he planned to tell her.
His secret.