“I have many people I love.”

“That can’t be.”

Duke Lancaster snickered and lightly walked away.

Summer felt wronged but didn’t have the energy to argue, so she clenched her mouth shut and turned her body abruptly.

What a strange male protagonist. He should hurry up and fall in love with himself or Julian Dudley.

Summer pouted her lips.

The very Ian Lancaster who said that couldn’t love anyone until he met Julian Dudley.

She suddenly felt a bit sorry that she had only focused on Julian’s narrative when reading the novel, and had just skimmed over Ian’s story.

Summer walked into the mansion with a slightly heavier heart.

“He put on all sorts of airs.”

I wonder how Mary’s face will look.

But when Summer entered the mansion, a strange thing happened. The Count and Countess Lindsey came running and shouted.

“Summer! Where did you put your dress and why are you dressed like that! You’re not hurt, are you?”

The Countess cried out in shock, and the Count stood with a gloomy face.

Summer paused for a moment.

This is strange. There was nothing like this in the original work.

Right now, the Count and Countess Lindsey were talking exactly about the changed appearance of Summer Lindsey.

Goosebumps rose all over her body.

“Did Duke Lancaster perhaps, perhaps… Summer, don’t worry and tell me. Did he hurt you? Did he threaten you using his power?”

The look in their eyes was so full of affection. As if they were really her parents.

Summer swallowed dryly.

They are not her parents. They are just marionettes acting out their assigned roles.

Her real parents are there in the original world far away. In South Korea.

Summer changed her expression to a bland one and brushed past the Count and Countess.

“I just took it off because it was stuffy.”

“Then how did the Duke see you off?”

At the Countess’s cry, Summer turned her body with an expression full of boredom.

“I don’t know what lewd imagination you have, but it’s not like that. Unfortunately.”

“Summer!”

“The Duke was kind. Too kind, that was the problem. Of course, this isn’t a metaphorical expression. Really, nothing happened between the Duke and me.”

As soon as she reached her room, Summer tore off her jacket as if ripping it and threw it on the bed.

The fixed pins bent with a crunch and clattered to the floor with a clang.

Summer’s eyes were bloodshot red, but she still didn’t shed tears.

I will return by any means necessary. To the world where my family, my friends, my life are.

The first attempt, thus, failed.

When she pulled the bell rope to change clothes in her room and opened the door, Mary, who was standing in front of the door, slowly raised her head and faced Summer.

“Oh, Mary. You’re back.”

“……”

“Hmm, then I’ll rest.”

Summer furtively avoided Mary’s eyes.

Clearly, what Summer had given Mary was an eternal farewell. But it was a little, very embarrassing to have returned as if nothing had happened.

Mary opened her mouth while continuing to stare at Summer with an expressionless face.

“Miss.”

“Hmm?”

Summer’s shoulders trembled in surprise at Mary’s call. She felt needlessly guilty.

For this day, Fei and Mary must have had to make some decisions. Yet Summer, who was entrusted with the most important task, had not properly performed anything.

Will she mock me for coming back after saying goodbye? As Summer was thinking this, an emotionless voice pierced her ear.

“Welcome back. Please rest.”

And then, Mary smiled brightly. Summer felt strange and quickly turned her back on Mary.

Only after closing the door with a bang did the tension finally melt away.

Summer sat down and blankly stared into space. That’s when it happened. When she saw something on the chair.

“……Summer Lindsey?”

What was tied to the chair was a woman with dazzling blonde hair and blue eyes. That hazy soul was tied to the chair, unconscious.

Summer turned her head. It was exactly the same as her face reflected in the mirror.

What do you call a soul that has lost its body?

Right. A ghost.

“Kyaaaak!”

Summer instinctively screamed and fell backwards.

At the same time, the window flew open and Fei, in the form of a black cat, lightly landed on the carpet.

Muddy cat paw prints stamped on the carpet like a seal.

Mary will have a hard time cleaning!

“Noisy.”

“F-Fei. There!”

“Yes. That’s Summer Lindsey who should have entered that body earlier.”

“……”

Summer could only move her lips without making a sound.

Fei, seeing Summer like this, seemed frustrated and slapped her tail on the floor.

“More importantly, why did you quit? I’ve been waiting all this time!”

At Fei’s sharp voice, Summer suddenly came to her senses.

Fei, transformed into human form, straddled Summer’s body and grabbed her collar, shaking it.

“The protagonist stopped me.”

“……What?”

“I’m sorry. I’ll definitely succeed next time.”

Summer rubbed her face vigorously with both hands. She felt like she could barely come to her senses only if she washed her face dry.

Realizing that Summer’s condition was not good, Fei quietly calmed down her excitement and got off.

The black-haired soul rippled like a lake after a stone was thrown.

“Have you thought about the next plan?”

“I have to think about it. I didn’t know I would fail like this either.”

Summer apologized to Fei again. Fei felt uncomfortable with Summer sending her apologetic looks.

While knowing nothing. The sight of her innocently apologizing.

Fei had never lied to Summer, but she hadn’t told her everything either.

This was not for Summer’s sake. It was purely for the maintenance and continuation of this world.

It was an act to prevent a small crack from bringing a great catastrophe.

Fei lowered her gaze slightly. Every time she looked at that pure black-haired girl, her conscience pricked.

“I’ll definitely succeed next time.”

“Think slowly. We still have a few months left, right?”

Summer screamed silently and tore at her hair.

It was a feeling close to despair, beyond what could be expressed as disappointment. She had an easy opportunity to return to South Korea, but she had missed it herself.

Fei watched Summer silently for a while, then turned into a cat. Then she quietly left after opening the window with magic.

Ha. The window is not a door.

Summer needed time to think. More precisely, she needed to gather her sense of defeat.

Realizing that Fei had left, Summer suddenly lifted her head. Parts of her hair were floating up. At the end of Summer’s gaze was an empty wooden chair.

“Ha…… haha……”

It seemed Fei had taken care of Summer’s soul. It was rather fortunate. She wasn’t brave enough to share a room with a ghost.

Summer collapsed onto the bed. Her head felt like it was about to burst. Along with the sensation of all the heat rushing to her head, her hands and feet grew cold.

When Summer lost consciousness like that and opened her eyes again, Countess Lindsey came in and said in a kind and bright voice.

“Summer. Wake up. The sun is already high in the sky.”

Summer laughed at the ridiculousness of her situation.

Was it because her body was sick, or because her mind was going crazy? Laughter kept leaking out.

Countess Lindsey recited her set lines, stroked Summer’s head, and then left.

No one paid attention to Summer. As if they could just discard a broken role.

It was sad, but funny.

Her consciousness grew dimmer and dimmer, then snapped.

After the party, Summer was sick for days. It was due to the great shock of failing to return to the original world.

The pain and despair of not being able to return when she could have, along with self-blame, mixed together and sank Summer like a swamp.

She couldn’t eat properly, and if she was forced to eat soup, she vomited it all out. It was terrible.

The faces of her family members, the voices of her friends, were becoming more and more blurred.

She was scared. Scared that she would be eaten up by this vast world and become a doll that recites set lines and actions.

“……”

Today too, the damn sunlight was warm. The sunlight of a spring day.

Ah. I want to jump into anywhere.

Her sunken eyes lost focus and shook erratically.

Summer slowly got up from bed. Fortunately, maybe because the weather is good today, she feels quite energetic.

Summer’s footsteps stopped. The transparent window where yellow sunlight was pouring in.

Click. There was no hesitation in the dry fingers that unlocked the window latch.

“Miss!”

Mary, who rushed in urgently, grabbed Summer’s waist and clung to her. Judging by the sound of a snap, it seemed at least a ligament had been stretched.

Ah.

Only then did Summer realize that she had already tried to throw herself out of the open window.

Am I really going crazy?

More shocking was Mary’s reaction. Mary, who always had the face of a jaded working adult, desperately held onto Summer.

“Miss! Where are you going leaving me behind!”

“Let go! I’m going back!”

“What will happen to me if you die! What should I do! Whatever it is, it’s all my fault! So come down!”

Mary screamed, almost shrieking, and pulled Summer, who was half hanging on the window frame.

Summer, with an annoyed look on her face, peeled Mary off and grabbed the window frame again.

“We’re all just components anyway. If we disappear, surely something else will replace us without a care!”

Even as she spoke, Summer flinched.

She meant to talk about the world inside the work, but what came to mind was a certain autumn when she failed by a difference of 2 points.

The emotion she felt then was not the bitterness of feeling betrayed by her efforts, but fear.

She was terribly afraid of living forever as a rusty, misfit component like this.

“……Mary?”