The original work was absolute.
Everyone spoke predetermined words and made predetermined expressions. Not a single person frowned.
The Lindsay earldom was perfect in every sense of the word. Summer was now feeling with her whole body just how chilling that perfection was.
“My lady! Good morning!”
“…Get lost.”
“Shall I prepare rose tea? They say it just came in today!”
Despite Summer’s cold curse, the maid spoke in a lively voice as she left.
Not a single maid showed any sign of fatigue. They just moved mechanically, without any complaints.
After a month of repeating the same routine, Summer realized this was inside a novel and came to find this place horrifying. There were three main reasons.
One was that everyone was like a puppet. Puppets that only repeated the same words and actions.
“My lady, I’ve brought your tea.”
“What’s your name?”
“Is it to your liking?”
“I asked what your name is.”
“I’m so glad it suits your taste!”
“Get out of here.”
“Then please call for me again whenever you need anything.”
Summer irritably gulped down the rose tea, regardless of whether the maid left or not.
Second. Anyone who wasn’t a main character had no facial features, like an egg ghost.
At first, it was just a vague feeling of not being able to remember faces, so she didn’t think much of it.
But after realizing this was inside a novel, she suddenly saw their faces anew.
Everyone except Earl Lindsay, Lady Lindsay, and Summer Lindsay had blurry facial features. Sometimes they had none at all.
Summer was going mad in isolation. And very quickly at that.
“This is insane.”
Summer coldly stared down at the teacup before hurling it at the wall.
There was a loud crash, but not a single person came in. Summer slowly walked through the scattered shards.
Small fragments pierced her skin with a stinging pain, but she paid it no mind.
The third reason this world was horrifying.
Anything that deviated from the set parameters would reset the next day.
These wounds too, being ill-suited for the pampered and beloved Summer Lindsay who grew up cherished, would be cleanly gone by tomorrow.
“…”
Summer took a deep breath as she looked out the window, then held it. Just like this. If only everything could stop just like this.
But her body instinctively exhaled roughly.
In this world perfectly created by others, Summer could not answer what she should do, what she could do, or what she wanted to do.
It was terrifying, frightening, and infuriating.
But the fact that she could do nothing ultimately made Summer miserable.
[This is the timeline separator]“Summer. Wake up, dear. The sun is already high in the sky.”
The day started again, familiar to the point of cruelty.
“I’m already awake, what are you talking about?”
“Yes, my season, my beloved daughter. Hurry and get ready, then come down. We should eat together.”
“For heaven’s sake, say something different for once!”
Summer tried snapping at Lady Lindsay who came in every morning, but Lady Lindsay finished her role like an actor reciting set lines and left the room.
Summer gingerly traced where her wounds had been with her fingertips.
“…”
The skin was smooth without a single wound. Clearly Summer had been in pain yesterday, but there were no wounds.
As Summer expressionlessly looked down at her unblemished skin, a maid approached and spoke warmly.
“My lady, the weather is lovely today. How about visiting the greenhouse?”
“I don’t really feel like it. Leave me alone.”
“I’ll prepare right away!”
The damned maids only said their lines too. If Summer deviated from her role, the maids would mutter their lines to thin air while gesturing.
Witnessing that was quite eerie. It was similar to the bizarre feeling, fear, and disgust felt when encountering someone blindly devoted to something, like a cult.
Having lost her will, Summer was eventually led by the maids’ hands to the greenhouse, wearing a parasol.
She came to hate the pretty dresses, the maids following her, the beautiful garden and massive greenhouse. Ever since realizing they were all preset parameters.
“Hey. What’s your name?”
Asking the maid’s name before entering the greenhouse was purely impulsive. She wouldn’t get an answer anyway.
Summer asked offhandedly without even looking at the maid. What were common maid names again?
Mary or Poppy maybe? She suddenly thought a maid would probably have slightly tanned skin with freckles dotted here and there, and round eyes.
“Ugh…”
Summer turned around at the strange sound from behind her. Then she immediately stepped back with a pale face.
“What is this…”
The maid who had been following shuddered as if the system had malfunctioned, then froze stiff like a wooden doll.
Summer was speechless at the sight before her. Should this be called a miracle? But it was too horrifying to be a miracle.
The maid’s face melted, then her skin began to bubble. Then eyes, a nose, and a mouth formed in order.
“My lady, my name is Mary.”
Then the maid smiled brightly. Her cheerful voice alone remained the same.
“Mary.”
Summer murmured. Slightly tanned skin, cute freckles dotted here and there, round eyes. The maid’s face was exactly as Summer had imagined for a fleeting moment.
But why? Summer backed away from the maid with a confused expression. Joy and terror were mixed.
“Mary.”
“Yes, my lady. My name is Mary.”
The joy of hearing someone answer her for the first time in this world, and the fear of this somehow grotesque situation, shook Summer’s mind in a jumble.
In the end, Summer couldn’t bear the nausea and ran out covering her mouth.
Mary gazed silently at Summer, then vanished without a trace. Like an actor disappearing behind the curtain after finishing their role.
“Urgh! Ugh, hnngh…”
After fleeing from the maid, Summer crouched in a corner and kept retching up bile. Her body trembled and her head felt cold.
A human had been created exactly as Summer had imagined for that fleeting moment, with that appearance and name. It was terrifying. She wanted to run away.
Damn this possession, damn this system.
“I want to go back…”
Summer sat down on the grass and buried her face in her hands.
Tears dampened her palms. She felt lost. It felt like being a doll in a doll shop that had gained self-awareness.
If the soul was human and the body was a doll, was she human or doll?
“Please let me go back, please… *hic* *ugh*… I want to go back…”
Summer cried and cried in fear. Until the setting sun covered the whole world in red.
[This is the timeline separator]Now Summer had nothing to hold her back.
“Summer. Wake up, dear. The sun is already high in the sky.”
“Shut up, you paper doll.”
Summer spat out harshly. Even so, Lady Lindsay just looked at Summer lovingly and stroked her hair.
This is a world inside a novel.
In other words, this woman repeating the same words like a broken doll before her eyes was not human, but fiction.
It meant there was no reason or need to consider the other’s feelings when speaking.
“Yes. My season, my beloved daughter. Hurry and get ready, then come down. We should eat together.”
Summer didn’t go down to the dining room. Instead, she sat at the desk by the window and tried to calm her mind.
“Bring me pen and paper.”
“…”
The maids focused on cleaning as if they hadn’t heard Summer’s words. Of course. The maids only had to do their set tasks every day.
Then one of the maids stood up.
It was Mary.
“Pen and paper are in the drawer, my lady.”
Summer rummaged through the drawer while watching Mary warily. As Mary said, she found paper and pen.
“Thanks.”
“It’s nothing.”
After the conversation ended, Mary blended back in with the maids and tidied the bedroom. Summer quietly watched Mary for a while, then picked up the pen.
It was time to acknowledge it. Even the reason why this place felt so unfamiliar yet familiar.
The first and last romance novel she read on the day she got her final job offer.
She had actually enjoyed reading it, immersing herself in it. She even wanted to meet the female protagonist.
“It’s only fun when you’re the reader…”
Summer muttered coldly, scrunching up her face mercilessly.
The pen dangled in the air.
“And they lived happily ever after or whatever. Is the middle process important?”
As it was the first and last romance novel she’d read, her memory was clear. The problem was, she didn’t know what was important.
For a romance, isn’t it enough to just say they found eternal love at the end?
In the first place, Summer didn’t read this novel to see a prince on a white horse or the romance of the century.
It was for the story of a confident, awesome female lead overcoming hardships or achieving refreshing success.
“Is it because I’m an extra that I can’t meet Julian?”
Summer mumbled dejectedly as she slumped over the desk. While reading the novel, Summer had completely immersed herself in the protagonist Julian.
Julian, who lost her parents very young and was adopted by a village aunt, lived cheerfully and ordinarily.
Until the new lord came and started his tyranny.
When the lord seized farmland and tried to take Julian too, Julian risked her life to escape the village that was like her hometown.
This was the beginning of the original story and the start of Julian’s hardships.
But Julian never lost her inner positivity and strength.
She even healed Ian. It was so awesome.
“I was envious.”
Summer smiled faintly.
Following Julian’s story, she often cried from overwhelming emotions.
How could you stand up again so firmly after enduring such harsh adversity, when even one problem book in front of me is too much?
It was an impossible fantasy, but if she could meet Julian, she wanted to ask.
And she prayed.
For the protagonist to be happy, to succeed, for only peaceful days to repeat from now on without any more hardships.
The romance was just a secondary element for this.
“Protagonist.”
Yes. Protagonist. If it’s the protagonist, things would be different somehow.
Maybe. They might even hold the key to return to the original world.
Isn’t it a cliché in all stories that every event inevitably happens around the protagonist?
Unlike Summer who was an extra, the protagonists would be special somehow, so if she made a connection with them, something might be resolved.
“I’ll meet Julian, and see the party too.”
Summer slightly lifted the corners of her mouth, satisfied with her plan.
The social season had just begun with balls and parties big and small everywhere, so it didn’t seem bad to go around here and there.
To increase the chances, she’d have to wait for the imperial banquet where both protagonists appear, but by then it would already be the starting point of the novel, so the set parameters might become stricter than now.
“Once the original story starts, I might not be able to approach at all.”
The moment the original story begins, the protagonists would be too busy dealing with events without rest to pay attention to an extra suddenly popping up.
Summer tapped the desk with her pen. Her deliberation wasn’t long.
She had to meet the protagonist.
______
In This Life, I Won’t Be Foolish To Lose You Again (Female-dominant)
When Shen Yuan encountered Su Jin again in his previous life, she had already become the Prime Minister of the current dynasty. As for him, the former top young master of the capital, he had long since fallen into the abyss, becoming a singer on a pleasure boat.
After a song ended, he was redeemed and sent to the Su Residence.
Su Jin respected and cherished him, gave him a roof over his head, and bestowed him with warmth. Shen Yuan fell deeper and deeper, but before he could express his feelings, Su Jin passed away.
Shen Yuan died to follow her in death, but instead, he returned to when he was fifteen years old.
At that time, he was not yet engaged, and Su Jin was just a poor scholar.
Shen Yuan gritted his teeth, casting aside all his pride, and thought of ways to coax and entice her every day.
The colder and more indifferent Su Jin was towards him, the more proactive Shen Yuan became.
He was not afraid of being mocked by the world, only wanting to marry his Wife-master early, to hold her hand and never let go for a lifetime.
[Note: This story will not specifically point out the male lead’s reincarnation time point; it’s all in the details. Whenever you feel that the male lead is acting strangely, he has most likely been reincarnated.]
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