“Fei. Do you remember the day you said you heard the voice of God in the temple?”

“Yes.”

Summer sat comfortably in an armchair with her eyes gently closed. On her lap, Fei, transformed into a black cat, was purring.

“It seems this world hasn’t reached its conclusion yet.”

“Not reached its conclusion?”

Fei asked fiercely, thumping her tail against the chair’s armrest.

“Yes. It felt like they wrote ‘and they lived happily ever after’ as an ending, but then started a side story.”

Summer added, gently stroking Fei.

“Isn’t a book without a set ending too empty?”

“Well. You might know the ending, but the rest of us live each day without knowing our conclusion.”

Summer paused her caress, as if suddenly surprised. To Summer, this world was fiction, a novel, text.

The people living in this world were all moving forward without knowing anything like an ending.

“Why… didn’t I think of that?”

“You didn’t consider us as beings capable of thought, that’s why.”

Fei jumped down from Summer’s lap and wandered distractedly around the room.

“If what you say is true, then causality must be applied extremely strictly here.”

“That’s right.”

“Black Hair. If your time left here is running short, what will you do?”

“Is it running short?”

“Do you still want to return to your original world?”

Why ask such an obvious question now? Summer felt a bit uneasy at Fei’s words but nodded to indicate agreement.

She wanted to go back. Still. She had never heard of living trapped in a book, let alone stories of humans who lived in books and returned.

The fear of living in this world was still greater. Compared to her original world, this one was so small and strict.

“If you want to return to your original world, go back quickly.”

“…What do you mean?”

“Don’t worry about Summer.”

Fei’s expression was serious. Even if she was just a cat.

“When you say don’t worry, do I understand correctly? Right now, Summer… I mean, the owner of this body…”

“If a creator exists in this world, and if an ending exists for this world. The creator would probably just create another person to fill the gap left by one missing person.”

“What on earth are you saying…!”

“You. You’ve gotten too close to that protagonist woman, haven’t you?”

She couldn’t refute that.

“I went through all that trouble to try to stop the rift, but you’ve now accelerated it. Hmm, it’s been brought forward by about three months.”

That meant only one month remained now.

She had complacently thought there were four months left, but suddenly having it reduced like this, she couldn’t hide her bewilderment.

“I didn’t… know.”

“From the moment you drank that poison. A change so great occurred in the world that all witches could feel it.”

Come to think of it, it was one of the important events, and Summer had been able to intervene. That transparent and solid wall suddenly became soft, and her arm went right through it.

“Is it because I acted for Julian’s sake?”

“Looks like you experienced something too? Seeing as you’re not surprised.”

“…Yes. It was the first time I intervened in the predetermined story.”

“So, did it change?”

“Yes.”

Fei meowed once as if troubled, then stretched out fully.

“You should just go back. As soon as possible, before you assimilate into this world.”

“What about Summer? I mean, that ghost?”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not important anyway.”

“Fei!”

Summer shouted loudly. For a moment, a chilling silence filled the room. Summer collapsed in front of Fei and clutched her head.

“How could a newly created soul be exactly the same as the current Summer… I don’t mind if I die, but because of me, Summer…”

“Weren’t you not supposed to care about such things?”

“…”

“Give up. From your world’s perspective, we’re not really alive anyway.”

What Fei was saying was quite selfish. It meant sacrificing Summer’s soul so that Summer could safely return to her original world.

Fei stared at the distressed Summer with utter indifference.

“We are mere illusions. We can appear and disappear at will. Don’t attach meaning to it. If what you say is true, this isn’t a real world.”

“But Fei, you’re not…”

“Who knows.”

Fei curled her tail and settled on the sofa.

“Who knows if we’re all just characters made of letters?”

With those words, Fei closed her eyes and began to snore softly.

Summer couldn’t sleep until dawn broke. Sitting on the terrace, watching the slowly emerging blue light.

She felt strange. So strange that she couldn’t find any other way to express it.

Summer’s piercingly blue eyes, gazing at the blue dawn light, glimmered oddly.

Fei is right.

Everything that exists here is all fiction. Because a novel can never become reality.

One can’t live as fiction. One must exist in reality, no matter what it takes.

Even if it means trampling on Summer’s soul. Summer slowly got up and opened the door. The corridor was still empty.

The place Summer headed was the Count’s office. As expected, it was terribly lax, not being the mansion of a main character.

Summer easily entered the office and looked around.

As nobles often do, Count Lindsey had hung a splendid sword on the wall that he had never even used once.

The blade gleamed a fierce blue in the light. Yes. Don’t hesitate. Perhaps all of this had happened because of hesitation until now.

Summer, seeming to have made up her mind, reached out her arm to touch the sword.

“Summer. At this rate, is your goal to die right before my eyes?”

Hearing the low voice from behind, Summer’s shoulders trembled and she quickly turned around.

Through the dim darkness, he revealed himself.

“…Lord Russell.”

“Earlier, there were people around so I couldn’t ask properly, so I stayed at the mansion. It seems that was the right decision.”

“Please, just this once, couldn’t you pretend you didn’t see me?”

No. No. Summer fell to her knees with a thud. Then, with desperate feelings, she pressed her forehead to the floor.

Please. Don’t make me waver at the moment I’ve decided. Just leave me be. She prayed earnestly.

“Please, Lord Russell. Just this once, just one time, please pass me by…”

Russell quietly gazed at the round back of Summer’s head prostrated before him and spoke.

“It’s quite strange, isn’t it?”

“…”

“Summer. Every time you try to die, or more precisely, I get the feeling that I need to stop something, even if I don’t know exactly what.”

The golden hair like sunlight, the eyes bluer and colder than a lake. It was stuck in his mind as if engraved, refusing to leave.

“Stop it, you say.”

“So when I follow that feeling and move my feet, you’re always there.”

“Ha, haha… ha…”

Summer burst into a bitter laugh. The laugh soon turned into suppressed crying.

I see.

It wasn’t just Summer who had intervened in the world. The world had intervened with Summer too.

“How did you know that Lady Legacy was trying to poison Lady Dudley?”

“…”

“Can you not answer this either? Then, did you know that the poison was the breath of Blengkis?”

“…”

“Did you also know that it was a deadly poison that could instantly kill a person with a single breath?”

“…Yes.”

“You knew and still drank it?”

“Yes.”

“Why on earth?”

“…”

“Why on earth!”

Russell raised his voice, then roughly ran a hand through his hair as if trying to calm himself.

His fine blue hair, reminiscent of dawn, slid smoothly back.

A straight forehead. Straight eyebrows. The part that best revealed his rational and cool-headed personality.

But Russell’s current appearance before Summer, slightly trembling hands trying hard to calm himself, was so far from the original work.

“Lord Russell. I’m not a person of this world.”

“Then who on earth are you? If you’re not Summer Lindsey, who are you?”

“…”

“Will you tell me nothing until the end? Even though I’m a person who has witnessed your final moments trying to die several times, what is it that makes you hesitate so much?”

“…It’s…”

“Summer! Please, please tell me something. I feel like I want to open up your head and look inside.”

“I don’t know either.”

“…What?”

Russell was so dumbfounded that he suddenly used informal speech, which he never used with anyone.

“I’m – not.”

“…?”

“I don’t know who I am. That’s why I need to find out who I am, that’s why I’m trying to go back.”

Russell realized that he suddenly couldn’t hear Summer’s voice as he felt a piercing pain in his ears.

Could it be a coincidence? They say if something happens three times, it’s fate.

Instinctively stopping her every time Summer tried to die, her constantly bothering him.

Suddenly getting involved with her more frequently. Even the fact that whenever she seemed determined to tell him something, he would feel a pain as if someone was stabbing his ears and couldn’t hear anything.

“Summer. Calm down and listen to me.”

“…Yes.”

“I’ll believe you. Even if you point at a bird and call it a fish, I’ll believe you.”

“What?”

“So let’s play a nonsense game. We’ll take turns saying nonsense. Everything we say right now is all lies and boasts.”

It was a method Russell had come up with. To hear Summer’s voice completely.

“Alright.”

Fortunately, Summer seemed to have caught on. Russell unconsciously smiled with satisfaction and knelt on one knee in front of Summer.

“Wh-What!”

Then he swiftly picked Summer up and gently set her down on the office sofa. Summer’s hair, like golden threads, scattered across the sofa.

“I’ll start first. First, I have stayed in the slums before.”

That Russell Bertrand? There was no such story in the original work. Russell was the only character with almost no narrative.

Could it be he really wants to play a lying game? But judging from Russell’s demeanor, it was clearly a ruse to hide from the creator.

Summer trembled her lips several times before slowly speaking.

“I… studied for a very long time for an exam.”

“Good. That’s a terribly bad lie. It’s my turn. I’m not actually the legitimate heir.”

Russell sat opposite Summer, leaning forward and quietly waiting for her to open her mouth.

This time, Summer gathered a bit more courage.

“This world is fiction.”

After saying this, Summer carefully observed Russell’s reaction. Did he hear?

“You mean it doesn’t really exist?”

He heard. Her voice. This time clearly.