Transmigrated as the Cuck.... WTF!!!-Chapter 193. Uncanny Resemblance

At the upper floors of the grand library, Kaelira wandered aimlessly, hands tucked lazily into the pockets of her hoodie. The faint creaking of wooden floorboards echoed under her boots as she roamed.

She was trying—against every fiber of her being—to find anything remotely useful. Preferably something about Amethyst Lightning... or maybe even the world’s goddamn history.

She winced at the thought.

’Ugh... history is literally my worst subject. I never even went to a real school and I still hate it!’

Her nose scrunched up as she groaned. But despite her dramatic distaste, she kept walking. There was... something driving her. A stubborn itch beneath her skin that refused to leave.

More precisely, it was him—that fog-shrouded form of Cassius. Something about it made her feel like she was being pulled into a dream she didn’t understand. A silent, divine terror.

That form.

That form wasn’t normal. It wasn’t even remotely human. It was something beyond—unknowable and monstrous, yet so impossibly elegant. Holy and blasphemous all at once.

Just thinking about it gave her chills. Her spine tingled in the worst (and best) way imaginable.

It wasn’t just fascination anymore.

She was obsessed.

"...Tch. I’ll even study boring-ass history if that’s what it takes to understand it," she muttered, hugging herself with a little shudder, but there was a maniac glint in her eyes. "All for the thrill of the game."

With a theatrical Hmph! and her nose raised high, she resumed her self-imposed mission.

But her enthusiasm didn’t last long.

She wandered through section after section—row after row of towering shelves. Her reward?

Stories. Endless shelves of fiction.

Romance. Horror. Tragedy. Comedy. Some weird book about a chicken that learned to sing opera.

Not a single goddamn book about history.

Even worse, she stumbled upon dusty academic texts that looked like they were written by old men who hadn’t seen daylight in centuries. The kind of books that stretched a thousand pages and still said nothing. Books thicker than bricks.

Just looking at them made her soul wilt.

"...Nope."

She slapped her own cheeks hard. Smack!

"C’mon Kaelira! The new textbooks are thinner now! And you don’t even need to study—technically!"

She tried to pep-talk herself.

It didn’t work.

Then it hit her.

She would be studying here.

Here. At Rose Academy.

The thought alone made her wince as if someone had kicked her in the gut. She dropped to her knees with a soft thud, her arms hanging limp like a broken doll.

A soft, pitiful sob escaped her throat.

"...Fuck..."

Tears welled up as she sniffled and cried into her sleeves.

"These people... these fucking people are so cruel. How can they expect children like us to study shit like this?! Look at these damn books!" she bawled, kicking the floor. "You’re so trash!! Trash!"

It would’ve been a deeply emotional moment... if she wasn’t twenty-three years old.

After her dramatic Oscar-worthy breakdown ended, she got up slowly with a long groan. Her eyes puffy, her mood ruined, her willpower on its last legs.

But she pressed on.

Because she was Kaelira, and Kaelira didn’t give up just because the world was stupid.

Unfortunately, the next shelf she stumbled upon made her regret everything again.

"The pinkness is Pink, so let’s pink pong~"

"...What?"

"The Love of the Rabbit~!"

"Why is there a sequel—"

"The Tortoise wins... but at what cost~"

"Oh my god..."

"Race is but a race... you can choose what you want~"

"Kill me."

"The Magic of the Dancing Prince~"

"I WILL BURN THIS LIBRARY DOWN."

"The Boot Didn’t Fit, So He Found a Princess~"

"...No, seriously. Who let these authors live?"

"Once Upon a Time, I Was Transmigrated to a World with an Utter Lack of Magic!"

And of course—

"The Love of the Rabbit sequel~ The Tortoise Returns!"

Kaelira stood frozen, eyes twitching violently. Her brain was frying. Literal sparks of migraine zipped through her temples as she stared blankly at the titles.

"This is a crime against literature," she whispered darkly. "These are so cringe. How the fuck can anyone read this? I swear to every god above—I’ll kill the bastards responsible for polluting humanity’s collective IQ!"

She let out a primal scream of rage and kicked the shelf.

CRASH!

The entire row toppled like dominoes. Dust exploded into the air, books fell like a paper avalanche, and—

—a hidden wall clicked, revealing a narrow path behind the bookshelf.

A secret corridor.

Completely untouched by light, history, or life.

Cobwebs hung like curtains. Dust clung to the air like fog. An eerie silence stretched endlessly beyond the threshold.

Kaelira blinked.

Then gulped.

Her curiosity, previously simmering, roared into a wildfire.

This.

This was what she was meant to find.

Her heart pounded, and her steps hesitated. But something inside her—her maniac side—urged her forward. There was something in there. Something thrilling.

Still... her rational mind kicked in at the last second.

Maybe she shouldn’t go in alone.

Her brows furrowed as she glanced back toward the corridor.

"...Tch. Fine."

She turned and took a deep breath.

Then she yelled.

"CASSIUS!! I FOUND SOMETHING!!"

Her voice echoed through the library like a gunshot.

It didn’t take him a full minute to appear in front of her—just a blink. One moment the path was empty, and the next, he stood there.

Cassius’s amethyst bangs fell lazily over his eyes, strands stuck slightly from sweat, and his heavy, uneven breathing echoed softly in the silent corridor. Even panting, there was something stupidly captivating about him—especially that cold, detached gaze of his.

Kaelira let her tongue slip. "Damn. Your cold self is hella sexy, if I say so."

He shot her a look, deadpan.

"Did you call me here to make jokes?" His tone was flat, unimpressed. "Because I’m really not in the mood, Kaelira. If there’s nothing urgent, I’ll—"

He stopped mid-sentence. His eyes narrowed slightly, the tiniest flicker of realization cutting through the indifference.

Kaelira’s smirk widened. "Oh, now you noticed the path." She gestured toward the hidden trail behind her. "Yeah. I stumbled across this odd piece of work. Thought it’d be moronic to wander in alone, so... I rang you."

He nodded slowly, expression unreadable. "Impressive... honestly, I never really thought of you as someone with actual intelligence. But clearly I was mistaken."

She raised an eyebrow.

"At least you have one functioning brain cell," he added.

A vein bulged on her temple.

Kaelira’s hand twitched upward on instinct, ready to strike—but she froze halfway. The vivid memory of him casually snapping Verena’s wrist like a dry twig flashed across her mind. The pain that followed. The look in his eyes.

She slowly lowered her hand, subtly rubbing her own wrist, as if remembering the sensation.

Cassius caught the movement. He said nothing, didn’t acknowledge it. Just turned toward the narrow path and gestured for her to follow with a lazy wave.

She exhaled and trailed behind.

The moment they stepped inside, darkness swallowed them whole. No torches, no natural light. Just a tight, suffocating tunnel that seemed to drag on endlessly. Even their footsteps felt muted in the stillness.

Only a few minutes in, Kaelira groaned. Loudly.

"Ugh. How long is this place? I’m seriously starting to question my decision. Maybe I should’ve just pretended not to see it."

Cassius didn’t even glance back. "No one’s stopping you. You’re free to go. I’m not babysitting. By the way, did you find any leads?"

"Rude," she muttered. "Anyway, nah. I didn’t find any leads either. Just shelves full of novels—unhinged ones. I swear, some of those authors need to be publicly hanged. Not a single decent one. Oh, and a bunch of academic books thicker than tree trunks. Mostly mana theory, though. No history."

He hummed in acknowledgment. "Same. I was hoping to find something valuable, but nope. Just shelves and shelves of garbage novels. Maybe the principal or someone in the staff has a reading addiction. Or a fetish."

Kaelira laughed. "Damn. I didn’t know your principal was that type. Is he some wrinkly old perv hiding behind thick glasses?"

Cassius shrugged. "He’s old. Bald? No idea. Never paid that much attention to him."

Kaelira opened her mouth for a snarky remark—but stopped. Her eyes widened slightly as a soft glow flickered ahead. Faint, but unmistakable.

Light.

Without warning, she bolted ahead, excitement overriding caution.

Cassius reacted instantly. He reached out and grabbed her arm. "Don’t be a moron. Stay close. We don’t know what’s in there."

She shot him a look. "Didn’t you say you’d let me die if needed? What’s with the sudden protectiveness?"

He matched her stare, voice blunt. "You’re still useful. The situation isn’t that bad yet. If things go south, I’ll toss you up front as bait."

Kaelira clicked her tongue but grinned. "I appreciate the honesty, to be fair. Let’s go check it out then, together."

Cassius gave a slight nod. They walked forward, step by cautious step, as the light steadily grew brighter.

Eventually, they reached the source.

A hidden chamber, large and enclosed, sealed from all sides with no hint of an entrance or exit. Pale orbs of condensed mana floated mid-air, casting an eerie, shimmering glow across the room. Their soft radiance gave just enough illumination to see—but not enough to comfort.

There were no cracks, no crevices, no airflow. The space felt dead.

And at the center of it all stood a man—chained.

Amethyst hair, just like Cassius. Amethyst eyes, same sharp shape and hue.

But somehow... different.

Kaelira’s breath caught.

She slowly turned toward Cassius—but even he had stilled, eyes narrowed.

The resemblance was unmistakable.

And yet, the man in front of them felt like something entirely different.