Mirror of the Past: The Villainess' True End

CHAPTER TWENTY;The Beginning of the End

"Karina."

I halted in my steps upon seeing Achilles Dimitri in front of our clubroom. This is where I found myself after leaving the university courtyard. The rims of his eyes were red, as if he had been crying, and two buttons of his shirt were undone, as if he had to loosen them just to breathe properly—in short, he looked like a mess.

I just looked at him, my brows raised as he took hurried steps toward me. Before I could react, he closed the distance between us, and the next thing he did caught me completely off guard. I stood frozen in place as he pulled me into his arms, holding me tightly—desperately, as if afraid that if he let go, I would disappear all over again.

He buried his face in the crook of my neck, and I felt the warm, damp sensation of water seeping onto my shoulder—he was crying.

My body stiffened, not from shock but from the sheer disgust that crawled beneath my skin. It felt like a snake had coiled around me, tightening with every passing second, suffocating me before it could finally devour me whole.

I tried to push him away, my hands pressing against his chest, but the moment his words reached my ears, my entire body froze.

"I never knew Sol would grant me a chance to be with you again," he wept, his voice trembling with raw emotion.

A cold chill ran down my spine as the weight of his words settled in. My breath hitched, my mind racing to make sense of the impossible. No—it couldn't be. My heart pounded violently against my ribs as I pulled back just enough to meet his eyes.

And that was when I saw it.

The familiar intensity, the way he looked at me as if I was the only thing in his world—just like how that Karina had described him after my death. The way he said Sol—a name that had no place in this reality.

This wasn't just Achilles Dimitri of this world anymore.

This was my Achilles Dimitri. The one from my world.

I pushed him away, and pain flickered in his eyes upon seeing the storm of emotions swirling in mine—fear, hatred, disgust.

"Forgive me, Karina," he uttered in a low voice, his hand reaching out but stopping the moment I flinched. His expression twisted with anguish. "I regret all my stupid decisions. By the time I realized my feelings... you were already gone. No black magic could ever resurrect you."

My eyes widened in disbelief. Achilles Dimitri trying to resurrect me with black magic wasn't written in the book Karina had authored—another plot hole in her story, another missing piece I was never meant to know.

It was as if it had happened after she hastily concluded the main story—after our souls were switched—and the countless plot holes had driven the characters to rebel. As if the main character himself had carved out his own side story, one that even the author herself had never known.

I found myself taking a step back. Even without seeing my own reflection, I knew that my expression couldn't hide the turmoil raging within me.

Achilles Dimitri continued with his confession, unaware of the chaos he had just unleashed upon me.

"I knew that I died in my sleep after failing to summon your soul back from the abyss. So when I woke up in a different place, I was disoriented at first." He looked at me, his eyes unguarded, filled with regret. "Then the memories of who I was to you in this world came back to me. And I hated myself even more—because even here, I am someone unfit to be with you."

The crease on my forehead deepened as I listened to him. If he hadn't used a spell to switch souls with the Achilles Dimitri of this world, then there was only one possibility—his soul had transferred into this world on its own, merging with the version of himself that already existed here.