When I returned to the room, there was a familiar person.

“What’s this, you two?”

“……Fei……?”

Strictly speaking, she’s not a person but a witch. Summer stuttered as if malfunctioning at the sudden appearance of Fei.

Fei’s appearance felt like a dream. Resentment, longing, and joy all burst forth at once, leaving her unable to react.

“Yes.”

“Is it really you, Fei?”

“Can’t you tell by looking?”

Fei was still indifferent and curt, as if she didn’t want to see Summer.

A glimpse of blood was visible on the edge of Fei’s sleeve.

“Why…… Why did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Why did you leave me alone in this terrible world! How much, how much I……”

“You seemed to be dating just fine.”

“It wasn’t dating!”

Summer shouted loudly. She felt wronged. How confused she had been!

Is dying easy? It’s not an easy thing, that’s why everyone struggles to live like this.

Even during those difficult times, Summer had never once tried to die. That’s why she hesitated more and was afraid.

This terrible world was frightening, but the only way to return to the original world was also frightening.

“Fei. Why did you come?”

“I guess I’ve been away for quite a while. Seeing you whine like that.”

“I’m a coward……”

Summer retorted, roughly wiping her tear-stained cheeks.

“Well. If you think you’re a coward for not being able to die, that’s not great.”

“……”

“Don’t think like that. It seems a lot happened while I was busy, but forget it.”

“The lake failed, and the poison failed too.”

“I know.”

“How?”

“You never took off your necklace.”

Fei approached and tapped the necklace around Summer’s neck.

“I’ve been watching you through that. So don’t feel too hurt, black hair.”

“You can… see me through this?”

“Yes.”

Fei had no choice but to leave Summer alone while dealing with an urgent matter in the northern forest.

As long as Summer exists in this world, disasters will continue to occur. It’s like a foreign substance has entered.

This world was trying its best to annihilate Summer. Or completely absorb her.

Fei’s job was to prevent the world from distorting, but this time it was closer to preventing Summer from reaching any kind of conclusion at the end of the distortion.

“I wonder why.”

“What?”

“Why am I somehow delaying the distortion? I should just help you leave within four months.”

Fei opened her eyes wide as if genuinely asking Summer out of curiosity.

Summer was the one who was dumbfounded.

“Why are you asking me that?”

“Sometimes this happens. Not choosing efficiency and going in circles unnecessarily.”

“……”

“I wonder what’s making me hesitate.”

“Well. If it’s about hesitation, I have that too.”

Summer recalled the moment she was about to inhale the Breath of Blengkis. Was she really relieved?

It’s a lie.

She pretended to be relieved. In fact, she wanted to cry. Could there be someone who would smile until the very end, their last breath?

Even those who have accepted death gasp at the feeling of being choked.

Both the spire and the hill above the Grand Temple were beautiful places, but they had another thing in common.

People could be seen. It was the desire not to end things alone.

If she really intended to end it quickly, she should have found a place without people, but Summer always chose places where she could see people below.

“Black hair. Remember what I said about not rushing?”

“Yes.”

“If it gets urgent, I’ll let you know, so don’t worry. If there’s a point where you hesitate, think it through and decide.”

“What if I get absorbed into this world?”

“That won’t happen. Because I’m preventing it.”

“What if I really……”

If I get even a little attached to this world, it will be even harder to leave. Is that okay?

Summer closed her mouth, thinking her question was absurd even to herself.

It would be nice if resolve and emotions were the same. She pretended to be relieved, pretended to be cynical, but Summer wasn’t skilled at deceiving her own feelings.

The feeling of having to die when you don’t want to was close to despair. To think this is how to return to the original world.

“Black hair. There’s still time. If it doesn’t work out, why don’t you ask that handsome young man?”

“He’s a person with pain.”

“You asked me to kill you last time.”

“……”

It was a silence of affirmation. Summer remembered that day too. Honestly, she wasn’t in her right mind. It was close to an impulsive act caused by an ugly mix of fear and hesitation.

“I can’t kill you.”

“……Why? Don’t tell me you’ve grown fond of me now.”

“Well, that’s about as unlikely as humans getting attached to cockroaches, so don’t expect anything like affection and listen.”

“……”

“You’re right. This world is too strict. As if someone has designed it well. Witches are actually more like outsiders.”

“Outsiders……?”

“We couldn’t assimilate among humans. And humans are the protagonists of this world.”

“No way.”

“I can’t intervene with you. After all, your body belongs to Summer, a human of this world.”

“Does that mean witches can’t harm me?”

“Yes. I’m not allowed to kill you. But characters in this world might be able to kill you. Ah, what’s this.”

Fei, who had been explaining earnestly, belatedly noticed the blood on her sleeve and frowned.

Then she suddenly transformed into a black cat.

“Black hair. The world is trying to push you out.”

“I guess so. I’m a foreign substance after all.”

“But the people in the world want you to live.”

“How do you know that?”

“Every time you tried to die, major characters from the world appeared to stop you. That’s not a coincidence.”

“Then……”

“If this world is a book written by someone, as you assume, you should look for plausibility.”

“Plausibility.”

“Yes. Plausibility for your death.”

After finishing her words, Fei hopped onto the windowsill. She opened the window with her tail and glanced back at Summer.

Summer seemed to be deep in thought about something. She always does something crazy after that. Fei momentarily felt the urge to stop Summer, then was startled.

What was she thinking, about a foreign substance that would be grateful if it died on its own?

Fei hurriedly jumped onto a tree and left the mansion. She felt she should reduce the time observing Summer through the necklace for a while.

Unaware that Fei had left, Summer was lost in thought.

Plausibility. It made sense. This world isn’t reality, so death would need plausibility too.

The world wants to drive out the uninvited guest, herself, but at the same time, it wants plausibility to be given to that act.

So maybe that’s why the major characters that the world can manipulate keep paying close attention to Summer’s death.

“I’m not dying, I’m being killed.”

That might be possible.

It might even be less frightening.

Only then did Summer recall where she was in the content of the book. The royal banquet episode and Ferotia’s atrocities had ended.

After that, Ian, in his pursuit of finding the woman who healed him as a child, reaches a clue that she had been adopted into a noble family.

Just then, a rumor spreads. A saint with healing powers has appeared, but someone wary of the temple is concealing this.

Summer, who came from outside this world, knows who this woman is – the one with all those special abilities and coincidences, who healed Ian as a child and is now living in hiding with her healing power after being adopted into a noble family.

“Julian……”

Time-wise, Summer would have to leave without seeing the satisfying scenes of Julian standing up against the villains and showing her abilities.

“Mary!”

Summer, who was about to pull the bell rope, stopped her hand and called out towards the door.

The door creaked open and Mary entered with a calm face. Instead of scolding her for eavesdropping at the door, Summer conveyed the urgent matter.

“Mary. Bring me an invitation.”

“You could go anywhere without an invitation, though.”

“Still. It would be a big problem if I couldn’t enter by any chance.”

“Is there a party you want to attend?”

“Legacy. Send an intention to attend the party at the Legacy Duke’s mansion.”

Why didn’t she think of this even while buying the Breath of Blengkis?

In a few days, the turning point of the original story begins. From this event, Ian and Julian grow much closer, and Ian starts to wonder if Julian might be the child who saved him when he was young.

The Julian poisoning attempt incident.

After coming of age, each family holds a grand coming-of-age ceremony at their mansion to celebrate.

This party is perfect for showing off the family’s prestige, so everyone puts great effort into making it splendid.

As Ferotia Legacy is the highest-ranking lady after the royal family, it will be grand and even grander.

Here, Ferotia Legacy asks everyone to drink red wine together as a sign of congratulations for her coming of age.

What’s in that glass is the Breath of Blengkis. The poison Julian will drink.

Here, even after drinking the poison that would have caused instant death for an ordinary person, Julian survives, causing people to start suspecting her identity one by one.

“I must go.”

“Alright. I’ll prepare it.”

As always, Mary didn’t question Summer. She just acted as if anything was fine as long as Summer didn’t leave.

Even after Mary left, Summer stared blankly into space for a long time.

If it were instant death, it might have been bearable, but Julian suffered so severely from drinking the poison at this time that she was bedridden for days as if dead.

If Summer could twist this event even a little, if she could make Ferotia Legacy target her instead of Julian because of this.

It would kill two birds with one stone. Julian wouldn’t drink the poison, and Summer would die at the hands of the villain Ferotia, regardless of her own feelings.

“……Still trembling.”

Summer looked down at her slightly shaking hands and let out a hollow laugh.

Tightly clasping her trembling hands together, Summer pulled up the corners of her mouth in a grotesque smile.

“Smile. You’re going back.”

In the empty room, Summer’s muttering dispersed lonely.