How I Swapped Places with the Villainess, Beat Up Her Fiancé, and Found True Love Vol.2, page 20
“How nostalgic,” I said with a laugh.
As neon signs flickered to life, I marveled at everything while walking down the city street. Then, I noticed a group of people a little farther ahead. When I squinted to get a better look, a gaggle of squealing girls around my age ran past me.
“Is Embert really here?” one of the girls asked. “It’s not every day you meet a famous model.”
“He should be,” another girl replied. “I saw it trending on social media.”
I came to a halt, my eyes widening. “Embert?” I muttered to myself. “As in my Em?”
Yes, this had to be a dream. How could Embert exist on Earth, after all? Curiosity piqued, I ran towards the crowd. Upon arriving, a sea of people surrounded me. Of course, I couldn’t see the person in the center of the commotion. Only the staff’s warnings of “Don’t push!” and “No flash photography!” reached my ears.
“This isn’t going to work,” I grumbled.
Why couldn’t I see what I wanted to in my own dream? As a test, I wished for the crowd to part, but nothing happened. Giving up, I turned to leave. At that moment, I crossed paths with a woman muttering to herself in a white, one-piece dress. I strained to better hear what she was saying.
“My Embert, my Embert, my Embert,” she murmured over and over again.
Her abnormal aura caught my attention, and I couldn’t help but follow her with my eyes.
“Get your hands off my Embert!” she shrieked all of a sudden.
A momentary hush fell over the area. Before long, screams rose from the crowd, and people shoved each other to get away from the woman. At that moment, I spotted a large knife in her hands. With the crowd pulling away from the woman, I could see the man standing opposite her.
Yeah, that’s definitely Em.
A man too beautiful for this world stood behind two bodyguards in black suits. He had emerald eyes and silver hair that shimmered like moonlight. He wore a Chesterfield coat, a white T-shirt, and black trousers. A pair of sunglasses hung from the collar of his shirt, and he wore a scarf that matched his eyes around his neck.
“Wow, Em looks amazing in this world’s fashion, too,” I said. “He’s even more divine than I imagined.”
Though his appearance captivated me, I returned my gaze to the woman. We had bigger fish to fry right now.
“These people are in your way, right?” the woman asked, her breath ragged. “I’ll free you from them.”
With that, she dashed towards Embert, swinging her knife around wildly. Her erratic movements made it impossible for anyone to approach. As a result, Embert and his bodyguards had no choice but to retreat. The rest of the crowd kept their distance as well, sensing the woman’s madness. Meanwhile, I sneaked up on her from behind with silent footsteps. After closing in on her, I grabbed her wrist and squeezed. When she dropped her knife due to pain and pressure, I twisted her arm behind her back.
“What the hell are you doing?!” she shrieked, struggling to break free.
I twisted her arm even harder, and she fell to her knees, unable to withstand the pain. Finally, one of the bodyguards took over, binding her wrists with something like zip ties. The woman hung her head, face contorted with frustration. A moment later, the crowd erupted in cheers.
“That was amazing, miss!”
“You’re hella strong!”
“Weren’t you scared?”
As various people called out to me, I waved off their compliments. “No, no, it was nothing,” I replied.
I sensed someone standing in front of me. I expected it to be one of the bodyguards, but when I looked up, sparkling emerald eyes stared down at me.
“Thank you very much,” Embert said. “You saved my life.”
It was strange to hear him speaking fluent Japanese in his familiar voice. I couldn’t help but stare at him, as the situation felt so surreal.
“Would you mind telling me your name?” Embert asked. “I would love to thank you properly.”
Oh, of course, I thought, my chest aching. He doesn’t recognize my old self.
Though Embert looked the same as usual, I’d returned to my previous self. I was neither a holy woman nor particularly beautiful. Even so, I’d foolishly hoped that Embert would recognize me. When that hope turned into pain, I grit my teeth to hold back my tears.
“N-No, it’s not that big of a deal,” I said, straining to speak each word.
I bolted from the busy street.
A little while later, I found myself in a park.
“A swing set…” I muttered to myself.
The relatively large park had all the usual playground equipment. Feeling somewhat wistful, I sat on one of the swings. Without lifting my feet off the ground, I rocked back and forth lightly, heaving a deep sigh.
“How silly to get hurt in a dream,” I continued muttering to myself.
Yes, this was most certainly a dream. Embert’s reaction shouldn’t have bothered me. Despite knowing this, I heaved another sigh.
“Phew,” an unmistakable voice called from behind. “I finally caught up with you.”
“Why…?” I mumbled.
Embert circled around and placed his hand on my cheek. “I thought you might be crying. It worried me so much that I chased after you.”
Embert’s hand was as gentle as ever. At last, the tears spilled from my eyes despite all my efforts to hold them back.
“Sorry,” I apologized. “It’s only natural that you wouldn’t recognize me, Em. I shouldn’t have let myself get hurt like this.”
In all likelihood, he wouldn’t understand what I was saying. Though he did look at me with a puzzled expression, he reacted to something entirely different than I expected.
“Um, did you just call me Em?” he asked.
Jolting, I averted my gaze from him. Only I—or rather, Ally—called him by that name. When I tried to run away again, overcome by an indescribable sense of discomfort, Embert grabbed my wrist.
“Why do you keep running away?” he asked. “And why do I hate the idea of letting you go?”
These words caused me to stop in my tracks.
Still holding my wrist, Embert circled around to face me. “Who on earth are you?” he asked. “Why am I so reluctant to let go of your hand when this is the first time we’ve met?”
He didn’t appear to be lying and didn’t let go of my hand, either. Thus, we stared at each other without moving. At that moment, someone called out from behind, “It’s time to move to the next site, Mr. Bartis.”
Embert lifted my hand. “This might seem abrupt, but would you take this?” While speaking, he took something golden out of his coat pocket. “I found this in a shop earlier and felt an overwhelming impulse to buy it. Yet, for some reason, I want you to have it now.”
With that, he placed an adorable, miniature golden birdcage in my hand.
“Why?” I asked.
Embert grinned. “Let’s meet again. No matter what, I’ll come find you.”
With that, he jogged over to the person calling for him.
“Em,” I mumbled. Heart racing, I stared down at the birdcage he’d given me. It appeared to be a small container. “This is cute, but something about it being a birdcage bothers me…”
I continued staring at it with somewhat mixed emotions. No sooner than I opened the tiny door with my finger, a blinding light engulfed me.
“Wha—?” I asked.
When the light disappeared, I found myself inside a large birdcage with terrifyingly elaborate decorations.
Embert placed a hand on one of the bars from outside the birdcage. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked with a chuckle, looking at me with rapt attention. “I had the finest artisan in the capital craft it for me. Now, I can keep you to myself forever.”
Without another word, Embert turned around, walked away, and vanished into empty space.
“Wait!” I exclaimed, reaching a hand through the bars.
Though I should have been alone, I felt someone grab my hand. As I jolted awake, an unfamiliar ceiling filled my vision.
“Wait, what?” I mumbled.
While I struggled to grasp the situation, a familiar voice asked me, “Are you okay?”
Turning towards the voice, I found Embert sitting in a chair beside me and holding my hand.
“Embert?” I asked.
“That’s right,” he replied. “You seemed to be having a bad dream. Are you okay?”
“Oh, um, yeah. I’m fine. More importantly, where are we?”
I sat up and looked around but still didn’t recognize the room. Even so, Custode and Squishy were also sleeping on my pillow. As I looked at their adorable faces, Embert hit me with a most unexpected response.
“It’s my bedroom,” he said.
“Come again?” I asked. “You’re joking, right? Why am I here?”
How did I wind up here, of all places? This has to be some kind of prank.
“It’s not a joke,” Embert assured me with a charming smile. “You fell asleep during the ball, as you appeared to be quite tired, and I carried you here. Heh, you certainly looked adorable sleeping on my bed. I had trouble restraining myself…”
Okay, got it. This is definitely a dream.
“Oh, wow, is that right?” I responded carefreely after coming to this realization.
At that moment, a familiar roar echoed from the other side of the door.
“Move aside!” Father bellowed. “If you stand in my way, I’ll cut the lot of you down along with this door!”
Wait, what? I thought, panic starting to set in. This is still a dream, right? Yeah, definitely. I’m not wrong about that, am I? No, I can’t be. If this isn’t a dream, I’m screwed.
“Tempting me first thing in the morning?” Embert asked, his grin changing into an altogether different expression. “Very well then, I’ll respond accordingly. I’ll rub those adorable fox ears to my heart’s content. Perhaps we should show your father.”
Embert approached me with an ecstatic expression, the bed creaking under his weight.
Is this what it means for a nightmare to become reality?
“Calm down, Em, okay?” I pleaded. “Look, let’s just go back to sleep. That way, we’ll wake up for real.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Embert replied. “Yes, I’ll let you sleep as much as you want after I’ve finished doting on you.”
This is bad. No matter what I say, nothing will get through to him right now.
Embert continued approaching me, finally driving me to the edge of the bed.
I might be in serious danger.
“Custode, Squishy, wake up!” I cried at the top of my lungs.
BlueBlue, How I Swapped Places with the Villainess, Beat Up Her Fiancé, and Found True Love Vol.2
