Chapter 75: Manager Yuena Lousiana

Julian carried a secret in his life. Not just a secret, but a trauma too, one that had shaped him into someone almost entirely uninterested in romance or anything resembling it.

It was a trauma he kept hidden, known only to himself and his manager.

Back when Julian was still an actor, he’d been a genuinely cheerful, naive young man when it came to relationships with women. He had zero experience, so one day, while drinking with his manager, a woman, she’d suddenly asked him.

—Julian, want to sleep with me?

Julian, naive and curious about physical intimacy with a woman, was of course immediately interested. Long story short, both he and his manager were virgins, and they had sex, something Julian experienced for the very first time.

At first, it had all felt wonderful. His manager was beautiful, her body fully matured, and she’d treated him remarkably well.

At least, until that moment, when his manager suddenly said this:

—Julian, there’s something I’d like to try, is that alright?

Well, as a man experiencing this kind of pleasure with a woman for the first time, Julian obviously couldn’t refuse.

He simply craved more of his manager, and her words seemed to answer exactly that, promising to give him even more of what he needed. But what Julian had expected to become more pleasant experiences instead turned into an absolute hell for him.

I mean, why wouldn’t it?

It was genuinely terrifying, to the point where Julian found himself wondering.

’Is this what real sex is actually like?’

His entire body bound with thick red rope, both hands tied above his head, secured to the bedframe, his eyes covered with a thick cloth so he couldn’t see a thing, until eventually his mouth was gagged too, leaving him unable to protest at all.

In that darkness, all he could do was register and listen to his manager enjoying herself, saying genuinely terrifying things like...

—How about I strangle your throat a little? Ah, I’ve got a whip here too, hmm... how about some melted candle wax dripping down?

That was... a genuinely horrifying experience.

His manager had been so terrifying that, by the time Julian fully registered it, he’d already grown deeply afraid of having sex with any woman, his relationship with his manager growing distant, at least in his own view.

Because his manager seemed entirely indifferent to it, continuing to act exactly as she always had.

Ever since that day, Julian had actively avoided any physical relationship with any woman who might offer herself to him.

All of it purely because of the trauma from that harrowing experience.

So, why did Julian suddenly find himself recalling all of this again?

What was the actual reason?

Well, the reason was simple.

"Ah, so it really is my beloved Julian~"

That particular nickname had only ever been used by one single person, and Julian couldn’t recall ever meeting anyone in this world who’d address him that way.

So, hearing exactly what Aveela had just said, Julian couldn’t help but freeze completely on the spot, cold sweat pouring down his face.

Aveela’s smile grew even more mischievous watching Julian freeze up, but her expression suddenly twitched, as though she hadn’t gotten the reaction she’d been hoping for.

"What’s with that reaction? I don’t remember my darling Julian being this stiff."

One more confirmation left Julian unable to deny the possibility any longer, that... the person standing before him might genuinely be his manager.

"Manager?"

Manager Yuena Lousiana.

Julian’s personal manager, who’d always helped him through every problem he’d ever faced during his acting career, to the point where it was fair enough to say her role had also included serving as Julian’s personal assistant.

"Hehe~ surprised? But why don’t you look surprised?" Aveela laughed, amused, but that laughter faded, replaced by a thin smirk on her face.

She was a woman who knew Julian well, but what she was seeing right now clearly wasn’t the Julian she remembered.

She wasn’t looking at a cheerful Julian, an energetic, lively Julian, all she saw was a man who’d lost every ounce of emotion, showing no expression whatsoever beyond a completely flat face.

"Hmm..." Aveela assumed Julian simply wasn’t surprised, since that’s exactly how he appeared from her perspective, so she simply let out a small sigh and looked at Julian once more. "But Julian, darling, how exactly did you end up here? You didn’t reincarnate, you came here with your original body?"

She tilted her head slightly, her hair falling to reveal strands of faint pink woven through her purple locks.

Aveela wore only a loosely fitted pajama set, so that simple movement caused it to slip slightly off her shoulder, revealing skin as pale as milk.

"This is genuinely strange..." She seemed lost in thought, while on the other side, Julian remained equally lost in his own thoughts, unmoving.

He was still stunned by his manager’s presence here. Fortunately, he didn’t let himself sink too deep into it, steadying himself, taking a long breath before speaking:

"...Manager, what happened to you?"

First of all, his manager right now was still, unmistakably, his manager, yet her name and body were nothing like what Julian recognized.

That was exactly why he hadn’t immediately recognized her as his manager the first time he’d seen that face on social media.

Meanwhile, his manager glanced at him briefly. "Do you remember what happened while we were on set that day?"

"...What happened?"

Julian couldn’t recall, since that had been the moment he’d taken a break and dozed off for a few minutes. Then, when he woke up, he’d already found himself in this world.

So what exactly had happened?

Aveela looked at Julian with visibly stunned eyes, her lips twitching.

"Seriously? You don’t know?" She wanted to laugh, but held herself back, explaining instead. "Apparently a Breach connected straight into our world, and what happened after that... well, I ended up getting killed by those ugly Aliens."

A Breach?

’A Breach existed in my old world too?’

That was shocking, he’d never imagined something like that had happened while he was asleep. And how on earth had he managed to sleep right through it?

Then, hearing that his manager had died because of that left Julian feeling genuinely displeased, without quite knowing why.

He hesitated for a moment, looking at his manager, understanding now exactly why she was no longer in her original body.

This was a fairly familiar trope, wasn’t it?

"...So, you reincarnated into this world, manager?"

That was exactly the right answer.

Aveela nodded. "Yes. I reincarnated roughly a few decades ago, right around twenty years before the Breach crisis began."

That meant his current manager was actually far older than she appeared. Julian registered that, and was about to ask something, but his manager cut him off first.

"What about you, darling? I have no idea how you ended up here, in your own original body, no less, and what’s with your face right now? Why are you so stiff?"