Chapter 2

He steadied his rough breathing. His breaths echoed in the silence-filled dining room.

The Duke pointed his finger at me as if to poke my eyes out and sternly commanded.

“Get out immediately.”

“……”

“It seems you don’t understand even when I tell you that you’re not meant to be here.”

“……”

“Since you seem too dull to remember, I’ll say it again. You should exist here as if you don’t, without making even a sound, like a dead mouse.”

His violet eyes were filled with contempt. Next to him, Saren was mocking me. A pair of identical violet gazes looked down on me.

For a moment, anger surged to the top of my head, then subsided to a frightening degree.

Ha. I lightly licked my lips with my tongue. Although they hadn’t burst, I could feel them swelling, perhaps not underestimating the strength of an adult man.

‘Should I endure this or not?’

In my heart, I wanted to grab him by the hair and ask if he knew who I was, like a chaebol’s second son in front of the police, but let’s look at the situation objectively. I’m merely in the position of this man’s daughter, and on top of that, an illegitimate child with no abilities.

If I showed the essence of a madman, it would indeed be dangerous.

“Can’t you hear me?”

“……No.”

“Then what are you doing not leaving immediately?”

He sighed irritably, caught his breath, and turned his body. I heard Saren saying something to him, but I couldn’t be bothered to care.

“I don’t know what wind blew you here today, but if you act like today one more time, know that I’ll throw you into the stables.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Just you wait, you bastard.

With superhuman strength, I endured the urge to flip him off right in his face and left the dining room.

“Pfft.”

The maid who conveyed the order to come down to the dining room today laughed at me. Damn. I vowed to get back at her later and headed to my room.

❖ ❖ ❖

I clearly told her to get lost, so why she insisted on gracing us with her presence again, I really don’t know.

“What wind blew today? The one who was quietly staying away suddenly came to the dining room.”

“I just wanted to see it once.”

“Really? Well, that can happen.”

Saren answered indifferently in front of the bookshelf.

My room existed even if just for appearances. A bed with a mattress as hard as a rock, a blanket as thin as A4 paper, a large window open to the cold wind, and a chipped bookshelf at the level of a decoration. Anyway, it existed.

Damn. I clearly used a good room for Shuneria.

Judging by everything being lower in quality than my writing (especially the level of character), maybe it’s because I wrote it well that it’s at least this much.

“Ha, when are they coming… I can’t wait.”

“Then don’t wait.”

“Are you really crazy today?”

“Is that your way of introducing yourself, sister?”

When a person is half-enlightened, they become like this. Saren opened her mouth in disbelief at my emotionless mumbling.

“Wasn’t getting hit by Father enough, or did you lose your mind from it?”

“Honestly, I half let it go.”

“You seem to understand your place in these matters…”

“Why don’t you try it too, sister? I’d recommend it.”

I answered soullessly.

Before telling others, let’s look at ourselves. It’s a very simple common sense, but for the current Saren in front of me, that common sense was her only flaw. Ah, if common sense is a flaw, then there’s simply no answer.

Saren muttered as if talking to herself.

“Fine, you’re bound to die later anyway, so if I just endure until then…”

“Why would I die?”

This is a bit tricky to overlook.

It was a tone filled with a subtle certainty that I would die due to reasons other than her simply announcing a murder.

When I asked, Saren raised the corners of her mouth into a sneer.

“What, are you scared of dying?”

“No. Why would I die, when there’s no reason to? Are you going to kill me, sister?”

“Why would I bother?”

She approached me with exaggerated steps. Then, as if bestowing mercy, she murmured in a tone as if a creator was speaking to a creature.

“You wouldn’t understand, but you’ll die later. At the hands of the ‘people coming soon’ that I mentioned earlier.”

“‘People coming soon’?”

“The protagonists of this world. Ah, since I’m the protagonist, maybe that’s not it.”

Saren laughed softly. Though she pressed down on my head with her fingers, I didn’t care about that at all.

‘Protagonist? Protagonist? In this world?’

It wasn’t a narcissistic delusion overflowing with self-love.

For the first time, breaking my indifferent expression, I wore a look of astonishment, but Saren was spinning around in the middle of the room, holding the hem of her red dress, seemingly delighted.

‘You…!’

And I silently screamed as I watched her.

‘Were you a transmigrator?!’

……A reader who possessed the protagonist is tormenting me, the author. I need recommendations on what to do.

At least I know that hitting her on the back once or twice soon would be just the beginning.

Saren, no. Let’s not insult my angelic character.

Having confirmed that ‘Saren Kolhart’ is currently a possessed character, I calmly started drafting a revenge list. Should I start by shouting ‘I didn’t raise you like this’?

‘Or maybe “I’m the author” might be okay too.’

I was quickly recovering from the panic and was thinking somewhat seriously when Saren snorted.

“What? Are you shocked?”

“……Yeah.”

“Still, you seem scared of dying? Don’t worry, there’s still quite some time left.”

Don’t I know that, I wrote it myself.

“Anyway, soon I won’t have to see you, and I’ll ask them to spare you.”

How very kind of you. I gritted my teeth and muttered inwardly.

It seemed like something she would say thinking I wouldn’t know, but I know everything, you brat.

‘Remember. Today, March 16th. The day I vowed revenge on you.’

I ended the curse while sneakily looking at the calendar.

Knock-knock-

There was a sound of knocking on the door.

“Come in.”

Saren said familiarly. The maid who entered bowed urgently and reported.

“Miss Saren, they, they have arrived!”

“What? Who?”

“The people you told us to inform you immediately if they come to the Duke’s residence! One just left, but still…”

“Is that true, right now?!”

The maid nodded hurriedly.

“Oh my!”

Saren covered her mouth. It was almost a scream-like exclamation.

Of course, my feelings were the exact opposite.

‘Wait, no way…’

There weren’t many people she would genuinely welcome with that personality. Moreover, she had just said she was ‘waiting,’ so even more so.

‘One of those five has come here?’

No, since she said ‘people,’ it’s at least more than one?

In the story I wrote, Saren meets the protagonists one by one, but there was no situation like this.

Now, confused for another reason, Saren fussed about needing to change her clothes immediately.

“Oh, the nuisance!”

When she was about to dash out of the room, she turned to me as if she had just remembered.

“The people who came now are the ones who might kill you later.”

“……”

“Now I won’t have to see your tiresome face. Goodbye, I guess?”

Bang.

Saren, who smiled annoyingly until the end, disappeared beyond the room.

That, that damn thing.

I ruffled my hair in frustration and shifted my thoughts.

‘This isn’t the original, nor the story I wrote.’

Already, the fact that Saren is a transmigrator and her character is ruined is a problem.

Originally, Saren died instead of me, Shuneria. And because of that, the five, who were howling with anger and sorrow, were supposed to react with something like ‘It’s because of you that Saren died!’ and kill me…

With the current Saren, instead of dying in my place, it wouldn’t be strange if she begged the five to kill me.

‘Wouldn’t it be nice if the protagonists didn’t fall for that personality.’

Of course, Saren would act sweetly towards them. They were charming protagonists in the original, and the same in my fan fiction.

There was no reason for her to be disliked by them.

‘Is it likely they’ll fall for her…’

Even if I concede a hundred times and say that happens, there’s still a high possibility I’ll die in a new way. For example, if Saren asks them to kill me.

‘Either way, it’s a death route for me. Damn.’

Still, with a desperate heart, I thought of meeting them and approached the door.

Click.

“……Huh?”

I tried turning the doorknob, but absurdly, it wouldn’t turn beyond a certain point. It was clearly locked from the outside by the maid. Whether by Saren’s order or that of the man called Father.

‘Nothing is going right.’

I’m the author, yet this world isn’t helping me.

Shouting the futility of life, I climbed onto the windowsill. My reflection showed a face with black hair and orange eyes mixed with gold.

‘……I should have set the eye color the same.’

Among the members of the Kolhart ducal family, known for their black hair and purple eyes, only I had such eyes. I clearly set them as orange, but since I possessed this body, gold was mixed in.

And this was fuel for discrimination.

‘Well, if we’re being picky, I shouldn’t have set the illegitimate child setting in the first place.’

The regret, if you could call it that, was brief. Nothing changes anyway.

‘Saren… no, anyway, once I leave the mansion soon, things will be easier. Then I should at least become independent.’

Escaping from this crazy household was the most realistic goal.

It’s ridiculous that I’m an adult yet have to risk my life just to gain independence.

It’s also absurd that I don’t even have money despite being from a Duke’s family, but isn’t reality always harsh (though it was especially harsh for me now. It felt like poison).

“Ha…”

My lips stung. The cheek that was hit earlier was now definitely swollen and bruised. It would surely last for days.

As I leaned my head against the cold window,

Flash-

A bright blue light flashed before my eyes. Specifically, in the air outside the window.

Before I could react, a person appeared in the air with the light.

Azure hair fluttered in the wind. Beneath it, eyes as black as the night sky were visible. Though it was a common color combination, the man’s aura and appearance were anything but ordinary.

“Oh…?”

A dumbfounded murmur escaped my lips. That person is….

In less than a few seconds, our eyes met precisely. I saw a graceful smile forming on the man’s lips.

At that moment, the man was enveloped in blue light again and disappeared, then…

Flash-

Reappeared inside my room.

I gasped at the event that happened in the blink of an eye.

“Found you quicker than I thought. That’s fortunate.”

The man murmured. I saw him briefly scanning the room and letting out a short chuckle, but that didn’t register in my mind.

The man in front of me was no ordinary person. Moreover, he shouldn’t be here, he mustn’t be here.

‘Why is he here?!’

Isaac. One of the five from the original story, a person with the ability of ‘space.’

Highly intelligent and pragmatic, he had a rather dirty personality, capable of killing everyone and burying it cleanly if things went wrong.