“My lady. Have a good trip.”
“…..”
Mary stared intently at Summer as she bid farewell. Summer, seated in the carriage, looked at Mary with troubled eyes and silently averted her gaze.
Knowing everything. If things went according to Summer’s expectations, ‘I’ would not return to this mansion.
The carriage that had been running along the smooth road came to a stop. Summer, who got out of the carriage, gaped at the spectacle unfolding before her eyes.
The imperial palace was even larger and more magnificent than the grand temple.
From the fountain as big as a house to the orchestra performing brilliant music, the colorful and splendid flowers and beautiful landscaping were more beautiful than anything Summer had seen in her life.
“Wow…..”
An exclamation of admiration flowed out involuntarily.
As if trying to show the extreme of luxury, everyone was wearing clothes studded with jewels and laughing heartily while holding expensive crystal glasses.
Summer stood still, unable to mingle among them. Suddenly, she missed Julian.
“I wonder when our protagonist will arrive.”
Summer, who had been glancing at the arriving carriages, couldn’t resist her hunger and approached the buffet.
It was a thousand blessings that she had entered a novel written by a Korean author.
As Koreans say, food is strength, and the food was fantastically delicious.
As her stomach filled, she began to feel more at ease.
Summer now had the leisure to observe her surroundings while nodding to the rhythm of the music.
She ate, drank, listened to music, and waited for the protagonist. And for the ‘real’ Summer too.
“Duke Lancaster has arrived!”
‘What, I didn’t have anything like that.’
It seems the treatment is different for the protagonist. The hall buzzed with excitement at the entrance of the male protagonist, Ian Lancaster.
Summer also stretched her neck out. Soon after, Ian Lancaster made his appearance.
“Oh my.”
The author must have put their heart and soul into this. With jet-black hair and wolf-like gray eyes.
Ian Lancaster was the epitome of a cold, handsome man. If anything, he was the perfect winter.
“Duke Lancaster. Isn’t he just amazing? I wonder who will become his partner?”
“Indeed.”
Regardless of what the nobles were chattering about, Summer observed Duke Lancaster as if watching a celebrity.
He was so much more handsome than she had imagined while reading the novel that it was almost bewildering.
“Look, Lady Dudley is here too!”
“Oh my, how vulgar. Did she leave her manners at home?”
Julian Dudley. The bright and cheerful protagonist of this world from the Dudley earldom. As expected of a protagonist, she was cool and beautiful.
So naturally, Ian Lancaster and Julian Dudley would fall in love without a single error, right?
The original story begins on the day of the banquet, with Ian Lancaster taking interest in Julian Dudley, who is being pointed at by everyone. Just like now.
“They really look like a picture.”
Summer muttered, stuffing her mouth full of crepe.
Summer Lindsey watched and cheered for their love as if watching a movie.
From the start, it was impossible for a supporting character to become the protagonist or for an extra to suddenly jump out and take the protagonist’s place, like in a romance novel.
Their love was solid and perfect.
And, it was strange.
Usually, Julian Dudley would have looked for Summer as soon as she entered, but now she was drinking champagne alone as if there were no acquaintances here.
“Julian!”
It was when Summer, feeling something was off, tried to approach Julian.
“…What?”
Her body froze with a tingling sensation, as if electricity was running through it.
Surprised, Summer endured the pain and stretched her hand out a little more. Then she felt an invisible, transparent barrier through her fingertips.
Summer couldn’t approach Julian Dudley. Because she was an extra.
A sense of misery and inexplicable shame rushed over her simultaneously. She had been arrogant.
She had never been a protagonist in her life, but it seems she thought she had become something while being with Julian.
“Ha, hahaha…..”
A bitter laugh escaped through her teeth. To discriminate to this extent. Not even allowing her to approach.
Now the event will start. With Summer thoroughly excluded.
Just as in the original work, a thoughtless noble lady bumped into Julian. The thin champagne glass that fell to the floor shattered with a loud noise.
“Oh my, Lady Dudley. I made a mistake. Are you alright?”
“…..”
Julian, whose clothes were ruined, closed her eyes tightly. She seemed to be suppressing her anger. But Summer knew the next line.
“It’s not a mistake if it’s done on purpose.”
“It’s not a mistake if it’s done on purpose.”
Summer and Julian’s voices spoke simultaneously.
After that scene, the male protagonist will become interested in Julian. He will accidentally meet Julian resting on the terrace today, and his interest will grow even deeper.
Summer glanced around the banquet hall. And made direct eye contact.
“……?”
Summer hesitated, startled. Due to the power of the original work, even Julian couldn’t recognize Summer at all. Not to mention Duke Ian Lancaster.
But why that person? The man who was approaching Summer, looking straight at her, was Duke Russell Bertrand.
“Lindsey y……”
As he opened his mouth towards Summer, a piercing voice rang through the banquet hall.
“Wh-What are you saying! Are you suggesting that I deliberately bumped into the lady? That’s going too far!”
In response to Julian’s sneer, the face of the opposing noble had turned completely red.
“What you did, my lady, was a wrongdoing, not a mistake. So please apologize again.”
“Lady Dudley! How dare you!”
“How dare I?”
Julian stepped closer to the opposing noble. Then, without hesitation, she picked up a piece of cake from the table and pressed it against the noble woman’s face.
“Aack!”
“I may not be popular, but I am a person with power. I’ll remember that you used the word ‘dare’ to the Dudley earldom, Lady Mulcheon.”
“You damned chatterbox! A disgrace without a shred of refinement! Lower than a common street rat!”
“My, my. I’ll remember those words too. From the standpoint of the Dudley earldom.”
Julian lightly ignored the woman’s screaming, smiled brightly, and leisurely left the place. Summer, who had been watching with her mouth open, fully immersed, finally let out a breath tinged with laughter.
“Wow, as expected of the protagonist. I really like her……”
Even though it was a scene she already knew, she found herself watching with bated breath. Hoping that Julian wouldn’t get hurt. It was needless worry, though.
Summer, tracing the traces of Julian who had left, muttered dejectedly.
“Can’t even make eye contact once. Novels really are just novels.”
Summer Lindsey’s role ends here. Summer, who had picked up a red wine and downed it in one go, fingered the rough necklace around her neck.
“Lady Fei.”
The original work proceeded smoothly.
Julian Dudley would probably return in a shocking dress, having cut off the part ruined by wine.
And she would naturally adapt to the banquet, and then lead her tired body to the terrace.
On that terrace, Julian would meet Ian.
“Black hair.”
What broke Summer’s reverie was a somewhat swaggering voice. Startled, Summer turned her head to see Fei wearing a deep purple hood pulled low.
“F-Fei…!”
“Shh. Act naturally. People can’t see me.”
“Okay.”
Summer nodded and lowered her voice significantly. Fei looked around and then stood close to Summer.
“I found Summer’s soul.”
“Really?”
“Yes. As you said, it appeared in your room’s bed when the banquet started. For now, I’ve bound Summer’s soul so it can’t go anywhere else.”
“So I just need to do well now, right?”
Summer nervously fidgeted with her hands.
Just then, along with the sound of the tower clock announcing nightfall, the grand finale of the splendid banquet began.
The brilliant music played by the orchestra, the dance of handsome men and beautiful women holding hands and spinning around, the sparkle of the crystal chandeliers.
Summer quietly took in the scene. Just then, Julian, who had gone out, was entering boldly in a shocking midi dress.
The original work was perfect and solid.
“Fei, I’m counting on you.”
“……”
Fei remained silent. Summer thought that perhaps Fei had grown somewhat attached to her, and smiled as she lightly hugged her.
“Thank you. For being by my side.”
“Bl-Black hair.”
“Yes?”
“No, never mind. Take care.”
Having said goodbye to Fei, Summer, like Cinderella running down the stairs at the sound of the clock, held up the hem of her dress with both hands and quickly descended the stairs.
If Cinderella had run away for fear of her transformation wearing off, Summer was running out to undo her transformation.
The wind brushing against her cheeks felt cool. The sensation of grass tickling her feet in shoes, and the music gradually fading away, all made her feel a sense of liberation.
The place Summer headed to was the tower, which they say no one visits.
Why is she running in such a hurry? Fei stared blankly at Summer’s retreating figure. Then, feeling a gaze, she turned her head.
A human with blue hair was looking at the place where Summer had left.
“Summer Lindsey?”
Fei’s eyes widened as she saw the human calling her name accurately.
Strange. There shouldn’t be anyone here who could recognize Summer.
Nobles flocked to the human’s side.
“Duke Bertrand. What’s the matter?”
“Ah, was that lady who just left Summer Lindsey, the daughter of the Lindsey family?”
That human is Duke Bertrand. Fei’s eyes narrowed. But even after observing him closely, he was just an ordinary human.
“Summer Lindsey? That’s a name I’m hearing for the first time. Perhaps you’ve confused her with my daughter?”
One of the nobles smiled slyly and quickly pushed forward his daughter.
“…Something.”
Russell cleanly ignored him and looked again at the place where Summer had left.
“was strange.”
His quiet murmur was scattered, buried in the splendid noise of the banquet hall.
[This is the timeline separator]“Found it. The tower.”
Summer, who had arrived, smiled brightly and lifted her head. No matter how much she raised her head, the top was not visible, it was so high.
Summer threw off her shoes and climbed the stairs without hesitation. She also threw away the annoyingly heavy hair ornaments. Her golden hair fluttered in the air.
As she climbed higher, the air became clearer.
Instead of the intense perfume smell that had numbed her nose, the cool scent of the wind gently enveloped her body.
Halfway up, Summer sat down and struggled with the laces for a while, throwing off the heavy corset and dress.
Underneath, she was wearing only a light fabric dress that Summer liked.
Reaching the top with unhindered steps, Summer breathed heavily.
“Finally arrived.”
It’s really hard to return to the original world.
Summer opened the window of the top floor of the tower and looked down. It had been afternoon when she got out of the carriage, but now it was the middle of the night.
Stars and the moon covered the night sky, glowing hazily.
There were so many stars that it seemed they might spill over at any moment, unable to bear their own weight.
‘Well. It’s hard to see a view like this in Korea.’
Everything looked like dots.
It was like looking at a work where dots come together to create a single painting. All the lights decorating the imperial palace and the splendid flowers were just single dots.
“It is pretty.”
Her heart, which had been pounding with fear, beat even more violently.
With an excited feeling, Summer climbed onto the windowsill. And she stepped one foot into the air.
__________
“Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
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