Fated to Die in an Academy Novel – Chapter 133

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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A little over a year had passed since I possessed this child’s body.

A lot has happened in this new life of mine.

I practiced walking as soon as I had enough strength to at least stand, and I practiced talking when my tongue started to move.

At least I didn’t pronounce “What the hell” as “Aub” anymore, and I could walk now too, albeit with a toddler’s waddle.

The problem was my family’s reaction.

“Our child is a genius…!!!”

I wasn’t a genius, but a transmigrator.

Kang Hyun-woo, who was bragging exaggeratedly, called someone and boasted for a long time.

“Hey, Cheon, your son can’t walk yet, can he!? My son not only spoke early but also walked early!”

I couldn’t hear what the other person was saying, but judging by his attitude, it probably wasn’t anything nice.

“Yeah, that’s a pathetic excuse! Haha! Thanks for the congratulations, but I have to talk to my son now, so I’m hanging up!”

He was teabagging over this…?

Yoo Ha-na was even more dramatic.

“So-hyun! You can talk well now! Say ‘Mommy’ again! Please? Mo~mmy~! Mo! Mmy!”

“Momma.”

“Ah, really, I’m so happy. I love hearing it! Do you know how worried I was because you called Daddy and Noona but not Mommy~?”

I had decided to call her ‘Mommy’ a while ago.

Well, there wasn’t any grand reason.

I still didn’t really want to, but it was strange for a child to not call their mother, and my refusal to call her ‘Mommy’ just because I didn’t want to seemed like proof that I still had lingering feelings for my old family.

And although it couldn’t atone for stealing her son’s body, I felt like I should at least do what her son should have done in this case.

It started with just that.

“My son~”

Was she really that happy about it?

I did it without much thought, but for some reason, seeing her smile made my heart feel ticklish.

Sometimes, perhaps because of my young body, I wanted to act like a child and approach her for no reason.

But every time, the thought that I wasn’t their real family and that she was a character destined to die held me back.

Time flew by as I harbored these mixed feelings.

“Mommy needs to get healthy soon.”

Contrary to her usual words, Yoo Ha-na grew weaker day by day after giving birth to Kang So-hyun.

And perhaps because I felt sorry for her, I tried to act like a good son even more.

“Mommy~ Why are you sick~?”

It was embarrassing to do this at my mental age, but what was a little embarrassment here? She was going to die soon anyway. I could at least do this much, right?

Even though I wasn’t her real son, I thought I could at least give her the memory of being loved by her son before she died. Then I wouldn’t have to feel guilty.

Yeah, this much was fine.

Sometimes, when I made her flower crowns or rings, she would be so happy, it was as if she had received a treasure.

“Thanks to So-hyun, Mommy will get healthy soon!”

Of course, she was happy, but she never got healthy.

Because of that, my father… Kang Hyun-woo… also started to become gloomier.

Was it because he couldn’t stand seeing the woman he loved grow weaker?

He bought all sorts of elixirs and invited all the famous doctors, but it was always only for a short while, and she remained weak.

Thanks to that, by the time I turned four, my sister was the one who spent the most time with me.

My sister, a superhuman who had already awakened her talent at a young age, seemed to resent me for her mother’s weakening health and didn’t seem to enjoy playing with me as much as before.

“[Fly.]”

Perhaps she needed someone to take her anger out on.

…If I were a real four-year-old, I would have cried and thrown a fit, but I could somehow endure it.

The feeling of being thrown into the air by magical power wasn’t pleasant for a child, but it was bearable if I thought of it as a roller coaster ride.

Ah, I’ve never been on a roller coaster. This was child abuse.

Anyway, I smiled even when I was treated like that.

I wanted to have a good relationship with her.

Unlike my mother, who I expected to die from illness, my sister was a character who survived in the original story.

…If she went dark after Kang So-hyun’s death, she probably didn’t truly hate him, and since I wasn’t planning on dying, she wouldn’t become a villain.

If we were going to see each other for a long time, it would be better for me to be on good terms with her.

“…Tsk.”

But the more I did that, the harsher she was to me.

No, she wasn’t incredibly harsh.

She took care of what needed to be taken care of and often shared her favorite snacks with me.

She only rejected and tormented me when I tried to approach her first and on the days when my mother was seriously ill.

It was more like a childish tantrum than simple bullying.

She probably had her own standards, but I couldn’t figure them out.

Time passed. Yoo Ha-na grew weaker, and Kang Hyun-woo became more distressed.

And on my fourth birthday…

…I had a strange experience.

I found her cooking in the kitchen.

My mother… Yoo Ha-na… was clumsily chopping soaked seaweed while looking back and forth between a recipe and the dish.

“I wonder if So-hyun will like it~? Hmm, the taste is a bit bland.”

…What was a sick person doing here?

She should be resting.

“…Ah, I was supposed to stir-fry the beef first, but I just put it in. This should be fine, right?”

…She didn’t have to go through all this trouble for me, who wasn’t even her real son.

“Mommy, what are you doing?”

I tried to stop her.

“Mommy!? So-hyun, why are you up so early? Ah, you must be excited because it’s your birthday!”

No, I just woke up early because I had a strange fever and felt weird since morning.

“I was going to keep it a secret, but you caught me.”

Her playful smile looked mischievous, but she couldn’t hide her exhaustion.

Her strangely blue lips and pale complexion…

She must have snuck out of bed.

“…I’m telling Daddy.”

She visibly panicked when I said that.

“Huh!? So-hyun, wait! Please! Just until I finish cooking!”

“No.”

“I just have to make galbi-jjim, japchae, and seaweed soup~!”

…Then you haven’t done anything yet but cook rice.

Well, she didn’t look like she was used to cooking.

“If you’re sick, rest.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t move, just rest.”

I wasn’t trying to talk like a child, but the words came out that way naturally.

Was I really being influenced by this body and becoming a child?

“…Are you worried about Mommy?”

…Was I?

Maybe.

I always treated her as someone who would die soon, but I strangely didn’t want to see her sick. What a hypocrite I am.

“Aww, our So-hyun is so cute!”

The sick woman carelessly stroked my head again.

“But So-hyun, Mommy is really okay. I used to cook for Na-hyun on her birthday every year. But So-hyun, you’ve never had that because Mommy was always sick, right?”

Never.

I couldn’t remember ever having homemade seaweed soup even before I transmigrated here.

I knew people ate seaweed soup on their birthdays, but I didn’t think it was necessary since it wasn’t that delicious. And even though there were people who celebrated my birthday, they didn’t care about things like that.

This was a new kind of emotion for me.

“These little things will become memories for you later. It would break Mommy’s heart if So-hyun was the only one who didn’t have these memories~ So please let me do this just once!”

She continued cooking while talking to me in a playful tone.

“No, I’m telling him.”

Well, of course, that didn’t mean that I’d just let her be.

“Huh!? So-hyun, wait! Mommy is really okay today!?”

Being touched was one thing, but a patient had to rest.

“…You’re so mean. This is a betrayal. Mommy’s hurt. I’ll sulk if you don’t give me a kiss.”

In the end, she had to go back to bed after Kang Hyun-woo came running at my call.

…I ignored her whining and headed to the kitchen.

While Kang Hyun-woo was scolding Yoo Ha-na, I ate the beef short ribs and seaweed soup she made, which were barely seasoned.

“This tastes awful.”

She must have used salt instead of soy sauce. It tasted funny.

Yes, it tasted bad, but I forced myself to eat a few more spoonfuls.

A lukewarm, unpleasant feeling rose in my chest with every bite, but I still silently ate the tasteless seaweed soup while complaining.

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That day, after a small family birthday party, I couldn’t sleep because my body was still hot, so I was wandering around and found Kang Hyun-woo drinking alone.

As I approached him, he looked at me with surprise for a moment, but he quickly put down his glass and looked at me seriously while trying to calm himself down.

Was the tremor in his eyes due to guilt towards me, or was it resentment?

“…Son, can’t you sleep? Daddy can’t either.”

That’s right. Strangely, my body was hot today, so I couldn’t sleep.

“So-hyun, you don’t like it when Mommy is sick, do you?”

I shook my head.

I didn’t have high expectations for family in the first place, and besides, they weren’t my real family, so I didn’t think I had the right to feel that way.

“It’s okay to be honest. Daddy hates it too when Mommy is sick. I hate that it seems like it’s because of my greed, and I hate wondering if it was all for nothing.”

I see. You regretted having Kang So-hyun.

You wanted a child, but you didn’t want your wife to become so weak.

At this moment, I was glad the original So-hyun couldn’t hear this.

I knew what it was like to be an unwanted child.

Even these people, this cheerful family, eventually blamed you for their misfortune.

Even though you didn’t ask to be born.

They harbored resentment towards a child who couldn’t even resist their emotions.

Well, I was used to it…

“And I hate that I’d probably make the same choice if I could go back in time.”

…What?

“…What was the right answer? Why do I have to choose between my son and my wife? I can’t imagine a life without So-hyun, Na-hyun, or Ha-na now. I hate that one of them is in more pain, so I keep thinking and regretting it. It feels like it’s all my fault. Like I’m not good enough.”

…You don’t resent me?

You should know that her health weakened because I was born, so why are you trying to take the difficult path instead of the easy one?

It was only natural.

I knew, from what I’ve read, that not many parents resented their children.

Even so, I was flustered.

“…I’m drunk. I’m sorry, son. I said something unnecessary. You were scared, right?”

His hand stroked my head.

At first, I was scared of his approaching hand.

In my previous life, my drunk father often threw bottles at me.

-Do you think I wanted to live like this!?

…Was this gentle touch really from a drunk person?

My old family in my memories and the family in front of me were so different that it felt surreal.

I felt an unfamiliar warmth from his arms as he held me while drunk and carried me to my room.

As I was being carried, a thought came to my mind.

Did she really have to die?

It was only natural that the story would change a bit since I, an irregular, would intervene.

Right? She wasn’t a hero or a character with a major impact.

Wouldn’t it be okay to save just one person?

Would something major happen if I used my knowledge of the original story and stole an opportunity, one that wouldn’t cause a major change, to save just one person?

I was sorry to that guy, but if it was to protect this cheerful family’s smiles…

…it would be okay to twist the story a little, right?

And the moment that thought took root, an anomaly occurred.

-The Lord of All Worlds apologizes to you.-

What?

-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen, but I was discovered.-

What are you talking about? Why are you suddenly apologizing after being silent for the past three years?

The heat in my body suddenly intensified.

My heart pounded, and my vision distorted.

“So-hyun…?”

-By the authority of the Creator, your talent awakening is being accelerated.-

…What? Creator’s Authority? What was that?

-The talent designated for your body is A-rank Enhancement. Also, by the authority of the Creator, ??? will awaken from your soul as an additional talent.-

The moment my talent awakened, my body emitted a brilliant light, and I felt as if all my blood vessels were on fire.

-Also, there is a message from the Creator.-

-Hey, you bastard. Did you think I wouldn’t be able to follow you? You just wait there.-

…What? What was going on?

-The Witch of the Time Flower looks at you with interest.-

…Who was this now?

Judging by the name, was she a friend of the Lord of All Worlds?

“…Is this… a talent awakening? He’s only four.”

Kang Hyun-woo’s surprised voice and the light that illuminated the mansion in the middle of the night caused a slight commotion.

-I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to, but they somehow found out.-

-Don’t do anything weird and just wait. You’re dead if you do anything strange before I get there!-

-The Witch of the Time Flower waves at you. She expresses goodwill.-

I couldn’t understand exactly what happened, but I was sure of one thing.

The creator of this world…

…my friend…

…seemed to have followed me into the novel.

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T/N – There we go. The MC got attached. He probably makes a grand plan to save Yoo Ha-na, but it fails spectacularly. It’s probably either the Creator friend of his, this Lord of All Worlds, or the new Witch of the Time Flower character who fucks him up. My money is on the Witch. She’s too friendly.

If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.