Chapter 107: The Price of Crossing Worlds
Chapter 107: The Price of Crossing Worlds
The room gradually settled into silence after Lilith’s playful introduction.
For the first time since they arrived, no one felt the need to speak immediately. Celia remained seated on the sofa, still stealing occasional glances toward the five men as though she feared they might disappear if she looked away for too long.
The sight of them still felt surreal. Just a few weeks ago, she had convinced herself that they had been nothing more than memories created by a sleeping mind.
Now they sat only a few feet away from her.
Real and breathing, watching her with the same eyes she had memorized in another world.
Lilith noticed the countless questions lingering in everyone’s expressions and finally let out a quiet sigh.
"Well," she began, folding her hands together, "I suppose it’s time I explain everything from the start once again."
No one interrupted her.
Even Damien, who had looked ready to ask a hundred questions only moments ago, quietly leaned back and allowed her to continue.
And so...
Lilith told them everything.
She spoke of the days following Celia’s collapse, when she had completely abandoned writing because she could no longer concentrate on anything except visiting the hospital. Every morning before work, every evening after work, and nearly every weekend, she sat beside her sister’s bed praying for the day she would finally wake up.
Writing no longer mattered.
Nothing did.
Eventually, hoping to distract herself from the fear that never seemed to leave her heart, she reopened the fantasy novel she had abandoned months earlier.
She had expected to find comfort in reading something familiar.
Instead...
She found something impossible.
The manuscript had changed.
Lilith explained once again how entire conversations no longer matched the ones she remembered writing. Certain scenes had become longer. Others had disappeared altogether. The personalities of several characters had shifted so drastically that they no longer resembled the outlines she had originally created.
At first, she assumed exhaustion had simply clouded her memory.
She searched every folder on her computer.
She checked any other backups she had.
She compared previous drafts.
She even convinced herself she must have accidentally edited the story during one of her sleepless nights at the hospital.
Yet every version told exactly the same story.
None of them matched the novel she remembered writing.
Then she reached a Chapter describing the villainess secretly dreaming of opening her own fashion boutique.
Lilith slowly realized she never wrote something like that before glancing at Celia, knowing that dream belonged to her.
The room fell silent once again.
Lilith admitted that was the first moment she began questioning everything she believed.
She refused to accept such an absurd conclusion without proof.
So...
She experimented.
Instead of continuing the novel normally, she deliberately altered the plot. She introduced new political conflicts, rewrote conversations, removed scenes she originally liked, and inserted completely new ideas simply to see whether the manuscript would accept them.
Some changes remained.
Others vanished overnight.
Then curiosity pushed her even further.
She created an entirely new character, Aelith.
The following morning, the manuscript acknowledged his existence.
Not exactly as she had written him...
But he was there.
More importantly, he began making choices Lilith had never planned.
That was when she understood something remarkable.
She wasn’t controlling the story.
She was simply influencing it.
Every Chapter she wrote became less like an author’s command and more like a suggestion offered to another world.
Sometimes that world accepted her ideas.
Sometimes it completely rejected them.
The people inside that world possessed thoughts, emotions, and decisions entirely independent of her writing.
They weren’t fictional and defiantly not depended on whatever she writes.
They were alive.
From then onward, she stopped trying to force the story toward its original ending.
Instead, she simply observed.
Occasionally she added new possibilities, watching how events unfolded afterward.
Every morning she discovered new conversations she had never written, new reactions she had never imagined, and new futures created entirely by the people living inside that world.
Then...
One question entered her mind.
"What if..."
Lilith smiled awkwardly.
"...the connection between our worlds could work both ways?"
Everyone listened intently.
She explained that she had spent days researching theories surrounding information, consciousness, and parallel realities. Although nothing she found provided concrete answers, several scientific hypotheses proposed that information itself could never truly disappear and that parallel universes might occasionally influence one another under extraordinary circumstances.
None of it proved magic.
But it offered a possibility.
Perhaps the manuscript had become an anchor.
Not because it possessed supernatural power...
But because Celia’s consciousness had existed between two realities while trapped in her coma.
That connection transformed the unfinished novel into a bridge through which information flowed naturally.
The more she wrote...
The stronger that bridge became.
Until...
She made one final experiment.
"I wrote a scene," Lilith breathed as she finally admitted, "where the five male leads found a path leading into another world."
She laughed softly.
"I wasn’t trying to summon anyone. I only wanted to know whether the manuscript would reject the idea." She paused and glanced at the men.
"Instead... The following morning, five unconscious men appeared outside my apartment and the manuscript disappeared completely." She continued.
"As what I told you earlier, every Chapter, every backup, every draft were gone. As though the bridge had consumed itself after fulfilling its purpose."
Ezekiel let out a slow whistle.
"So that explains why we woke up in your...a-part-ment."
Lilith nodded with an awkward laughter.
"I nearly called the police."
"You screamed," Sebastian corrected calmly.
"I absolutely screamed."
Matthias nodded once. "Very loudly."
Even Damien allowed himself a faint smile.
"The neighbors were concerned."
Lilith buried her face in her hands.
"Please don’t remind me."
Laughter quietly spread throughout the room.
Once it subsided, Lilith’s expression gradually became serious again.
"There is... something else."
The room fell silent.
"When all of you crossed into this world..."
She looked directly at the five men.
"...you couldn’t bring your previous lives with you."
Damien’s smile faded.
Sebastian remained still.
Aelith lowered his gaze.
Lilith continued softly.
"The bridge demanded balance and you couldn’t arrive here carrying kingdoms, titles, or powers that belonged to another reality."
She turned toward Celia.
"They all had to sacrifice something."
Her words settled heavily over everyone present.
"Damien surrendered his claim to the throne." Damien nodded quietly.
"My cousin was far more suited to become king than I ever was. There was no kingdom for me to rule here."
Lilith looked toward Sebastian.
"Sebastian relinquished his title as Duke."
Sebastian smiled faintly. "A title has little value when the person you wish to protect lives elsewhere. The estate deserved someone who intended to remain."
"Matthias resigned from the Order of Knights."
Matthias simply nodded. "I swore my sword to protect people."
His gaze drifted toward Celia. "I merely chose someone else."
"Ezekiel..."
Lilith hesitated.
"...gave up his magic."
For the first time, genuine sadness crossed Ezekiel’s face.
"I no longer remember what mana feels like."
He smiled calmly nonetheless.
"But I remember you, Celia."
"And Aelith..."
Everyone looked toward him.
Lilith smiled gently.
"He sacrificed the greatest amount. He surrendered his kingdom. His people. His race. And he chose to cross into this world as nothing more than an ordinary human."
Aelith’s emerald eyes remained calm.
"I have no regrets."
Not a single word carried hesitation.
"I merely exchanged one life for another."
Lilith finally smiled.
"But I couldn’t bear seeing all of you arrive here with nothing. So..."
She laughed sheepishly.
"...I may have helped a little."
She explained that, although the bridge erased their former identities, she managed to influence what awaited them after their arrival.
Instead of allowing them to begin life from nothing, she unknowingly rewrote their circumstances.
Damien awakened as the heir of one of the country’s oldest business families.
Sebastian became the successor to a powerful international fashion corporation.
Matthias inherited a respected security and defense company built over generations.
Ezekiel emerged as a brilliant researcher and technology entrepreneur whose intellect quickly earned worldwide recognition.
Aelith became the son of a philanthropic family whose influence reached across continents.
"They’re still themselves," Lilith said quietly.
"They simply... received lives worthy of the sacrifices they made."
Her eyes softened as she looked toward Celia.
"I couldn’t return their kingdoms. I couldn’t restore their magic. But..."
She smiled warmly. "I wanted my sister to meet them again. And this time... No one would stand above or below anyone else."
"They could simply be ordinary people," Lilith continued with a gentle smile. "They could choose anyone they wished. They were no longer bound by royal duties, noble obligations, political marriages, or the expectations of an entire kingdom."
She paused for a moment before letting out a quiet chuckle.
"But when I finally asked them what they intended to do now that they were free..."
Her gaze slowly drifted toward the five men seated across the room.
"...every single one of them gave me the same answer."
Celia looked at her, still struggling to process everything she had just heard.
Lilith’s smile widened ever so slightly.
"They chose you."
A heavy silence settled over the room.
"They had wealth, influence, successful careers, and an entirely new life waiting for them. They could have traveled the world, built new dreams, or forgotten everything that happened in the other world."
She shook her head, amusement dancing in her eyes.
"But they didn’t. They all asked me the same question."
Her imitation of their serious expressions almost made her laugh.
"’Where is Celia?’"
"’Is she safe?’"
"’Has she awakened?’"
"’Can we see her?’"
Lilith folded her arms before looking directly at her sister.
"I even asked them if they wanted time to adjust to this world first."
She smiled helplessly.
"They refused. The only thing they wanted..."
She gestured toward the five men.
"...was to see you again."
Celia’s lips parted slightly, but no words came.
Her thoughts had become a tangled mess.
She looked at all of them. But none of them denied a single word Lilith had spoken.
None of them looked embarrassed.
None of them looked away.
Instead, they simply met her gaze with the same certainty she remembered from another lifetime.
Lilith noticed the stunned expression slowly forming on her sister’s face and couldn’t resist teasing her.
"I still don’t understand it, honestly."
She rested her chin against her hand dramatically.
"My sister is stubborn."
Celia frowned.
"Lilith..."
"She complains when she’s sleepy."
"...Lilith."
"She forgets to eat whenever she’s working."
"Lilith."
"She bottles everything up until she suddenly cries in the shower."
"...Stop exposing me."
"And yet..."
Lilith laughed softly before shaking her head.
"You are so loved..."
She leaned closer and lowered her voice conspiratorially.
"I’ve been trying to figure out what kind of spell you cast on them."
Celia stared at her in complete disbelief.
"I didn’t cast anything!"
"I know."
Lilith smiled knowingly before giving her sister a playful wink.