Summer immediately grabbed Fei’s arms and pleaded.

“Please tell me… I absolutely cannot live in this world. Please!”

Fei quietly looked down at Summer. Normally, wouldn’t one be happy when waking up in a new world and having the protagonists like them?

Now Summer is one of the important figures in this world. Because the world has recognized her.

Fei gently placed her hand on Summer’s head, who was clinging to her, to get her attention.

Only then did the strength slowly leave the hands gripping Fei.

“There’s something you need to know.”

“…What is it?”

“It’s not the way you want. It’s not a concept of space.”

“I’m not in the mood for wordplay!”

“I can turn back time.”

“…What did you say?”

Summer’s eyes widened. It was said like a passing breeze, but was there really a way?

Fei sat Summer down on the edge of the bed with a kind but firm attitude, then dusted off her hands.

“I said I can turn back time. To a world where you don’t exist.”

“How would you do that?”

“I want to go back. I want to turn back time!”

Even as she said this, Summer felt a strange sense of déjà vu. Where had she seen this scene before?

It didn’t take long to find the answer.

The night she fell into this world and struggled in terror, when she first met Fei who quietly entered through the open window.

It was the same as that day. The night sky, the atmosphere, Fei in front of her, and even her own despairing soul. Exactly the same.

This time too, Summer had no choice but to take Fei’s hand.

“How do I do it?”

“It’s the same.”

“…The same? You don’t mean…”

Would she have to end it in this world again? Summer’s eyes trembled.

She felt she couldn’t live in this world anyway.

She wanted to close this book with still a long way to go until the ending.

She wanted to take her hands off this book now.

“Turning back time is essentially going against the laws of the world. You know that too, right?”

Fei began speaking in a slightly more serious tone than usual.

“I know. So this time too, I have to…”

“No. This time it’s not just you.”

“Then what?”

Not just me? Anxiety bloomed in her chest.

She was ready to breathe her last in this world now. She had already done it once before. But what else was there after that?

It felt ominous.

And at Fei’s next words, Summer jumped up in shock.

“A sacrifice is needed. A sacrifice the world will be satisfied with.”

“What are you saying! Sacrifice? I can’t commit murder!”

Summer, who had been screaming, quickly glanced towards the door and lowered her voice drastically.

If by chance a servant heard, Russell would come in right away. That couldn’t happen. Summer had a lot to talk about with Fei right now.

“Didn’t you say you’d do anything to go back?”

“But how can I murder…”

Fei replied cynically to Summer’s words.

“You said this world is fiction anyway. Why are you hesitating? And there are only three that can be offered as sacrifices.”

“Three?”

“The protagonist Julian, the black-haired one, and the blue-haired one.”

“…You mean Ian and Russell?”

Fei, who had been quietly watching Summer’s eyes gradually fill with shock, opened her mouth again.

“Yes. The life of one of those three is needed. We need their blood to create the magic circle.”

“How…”

She couldn’t do that. She could end herself, but she couldn’t harm someone else. Those were two different matters.

“What’s different? You don’t value your own life that much anyway.”

Fei asked in quite an innocent tone. The occasionally emerging innocent tone of Fei made Summer’s heart pound in fear.

To say such things with such a round and cute expression. But she couldn’t refute it either.

If, in the original world…

“But how can I… and to the people closest to me in this world…!”

Summer protested as if struggling. This was not directed at Fei, but at herself.

It shouldn’t be.

The reason for her death two years ago in the original world shouldn’t have been just that.

“Wasn’t that about the value you placed on life? What’s the problem? You said you wanted to go back no matter what.”

“How can my life be the same as theirs!”

“What’s different?”

“…Pardon?”

Summer, at a loss for words, just opened and closed her mouth. Fei stood in front of Summer with her arms crossed, irritably asking again.

“I said, what’s different?”

Summer, who had finally thought of something, opened her mouth with a slightly cowed look.

“They’re the protagonists. They’re people this world absolutely needs.”

“And you? Don’t you remember how the world tried to prevent your death even at the cost of breaking causality?”

“…”

It wasn’t wrong. Now the world recognized Summer and needed her.

That’s why it tried to knead Summer’s memories every night, and each time Summer had seizures from the dirty and disgusting sensation.

The protagonists probably went through the same thing.

“How funny. I wonder what that blue-haired lady who cried wishing for you to just live would say if she heard this. What a pitiful unrequited love.”

“…Julian cried?”

“She even came to the Black Forest.”

“What did you say?”

Fei, seeing the surprised Summer, sighed quietly and said,

“That friend of yours came all the way to the Black Forest looking for me. She said your maid told her she could hear a story if she met a witch.”

“Don’t tell me that maid is Mary?”

“Right. She’s the only one who can see me. Well, not anymore.”

Fei clicked her tongue once as if annoyed.

“What do you mean by not anymore?”

“Everyone can see me now. The reason I came here secretly like this is because I was worried the people in this mansion would find me suspicious if they discovered me.”

“Does that mean Fei is being recognized now too?”

“Yes. Thanks to you, or because of you, the world has accepted my existence. Originally, we were abandoned beings who could only live in abandoned lands, but after you visited the original world, all beings started to recognize the existence of witches.”

Summer closed her eyes and buried her face in her hands, feeling dizzy. Her vision went white and a sharp ringing sounded in her ears.

She could go back. She could go back. By turning back time.

The price for turning back time was Summer’s life and the life of one of the protagonists.

She had to achieve her goal by sacrificing not something else, but life itself. Was that okay? For someone like her? Sharp fragments of worry stabbed at Summer’s mind.

“Do we really, really have to kill someone…”

“It’s not holy power.”

“…Pardon?”

“What I’m attempting this time isn’t using holy power. That’s why we need the blood of a being the world loves.”

“…You’re saying it’s not holy power?”

“Right. God took away my holy power long ago. I used up the last traces of it that day in the prayer room.”

“Then what?”

“It’s a power I cultivated. Yes, it might really be the evil power of witches that people talk about.”

“That can’t be…”

Is it possible to have such mysterious power unknown to God? Why was Fei telling such an incredible story with such a nonchalant face?

Her stomach churned. Everything was a mess. It was difficult to think clearly.

Is it worth killing someone to go back? Can’t I just quietly leave this world?

But, if I could see my parents’ faces one more time? My room, my bed, the books with my fingerprints, the CDs I secretly collected, the precious memories stacked neatly in a small jewelry box.

If I could see that. No, if I could go back to a world where that was everyday life.

Desire and morality clashed.

It felt like sparks were flying in front of her eyes and her brain was melting. She felt like she was going to die.

And Fei, who had been watching Summer with a complicated expression, sighed.

Summer was too young. She’d probably tremble even if told to kill a single sparrow.

“Anyway. Be clear. About who you’ll sacrifice.”

“I…”

I can’t choose. Summer didn’t have that right. Summer repeatedly rubbed her face with a pained expression, not realizing that the red lipstick the maid had applied in the morning was smearing.

“I need time to think.”

“You know well that there isn’t much time.”

“Still, just a moment, just a moment please.”

“Fine, whatever. I don’t intend to force you either. It’s your heart, after all. Think it over carefully. I’ve clearly told you the method.”

“My life and the life of one protagonist.”

“Yes. And you can’t offer that life yourself.”

“Why is that?”

“The world is reacting sensitively to you. It will notice the moment you have such thoughts. Make sure to borrow someone else’s hand.”

“…”

That seems even more difficult. Should I go lurk in some alley known for being very dangerous?

Or should I go out on the street, grab anyone, and provoke them by telling them to kill me?

“Ah, and there is a way without offering a sacrifice.”

“You should have taught me that first!”

Summer, who had been seriously contemplating, looked up at Fei reproachfully.

While someone was struggling in shock and racking their brains. Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?

“You can go back temporarily.”

“Temporarily?”

“If I perform the spell with just your life, you can stay in the time you want for about a day at most.”

“A day, you say.”

A day was too short. If it’s temporary, it’s almost just visiting, isn’t it? Summer wanted to go back. Not just drop by.

She wanted to tell her friends, her parents, her cat Coco. That she was sorry, that she didn’t mean it that way, that she didn’t want to hurt them.

And she wanted to undo it. The choice. A certain impulse she had firmly believed was her choice.

“Think about it. But you’ll have to decide as quickly as possible. I’m losing my power bit by bit due to the world’s intervention.”

“You too, Fei?”

“I’ve already lost my holy power, and the power I cultivated is being taken away too.”

“…”

“Unfortunately, there isn’t much time left, poor soul. Black-haired one.”

Fei gently stroked Summer’s golden hair. The full moon shining brightly was exceptionally white and bright.