Summer Must Die (16 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 14
“I have many people I love.”
“No way.”
Duke Lancaster sneered lightly and stepped away.
Summer felt wronged, but lacking the energy to protest, she clamped her mouth shut and sharply turned her body.
What a weird male lead. He should hurry up and fall in love with Julian Dudley already.
Summer pouted.
Yet the very Ian Lancaster who said that couldn’t love anyone until he met Julian Dudley.
Suddenly, she felt a little sorry for only focusing on Julian’s storyline when reading the novel and skimming over Ian’s.
Summer walked into the mansion with a slightly heavier heart.
“He put on all sorts of airs.”
How am I supposed to face Mary now.
But as soon as Summer entered the mansion, something strange happened. Earl Lindsey and his wife came running and cried out.
“Summer! Where did you put the dress and come back in that outfit! You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
The countess was horrified and on the verge of tears, while the earl stood with a grave expression.
Summer paused for a moment.
This is strange. This wasn’t in the original story.
Right now, Earl Lindsey and his wife were precisely referring to the changed appearance of Summer Lindsey.
Goosebumps rose all over her body.
“Did Duke Lancaster perhaps… did he… Summer, don’t worry and tell us. Did he harm you? Did he threaten you by flaunting his power?”
Their eyes looking at her were overflowing with affection. As if they were truly her parents.
Summer swallowed dryly.
They are not my parents. They are merely marionettes acting out their assigned roles.
My real parents are far away in my original world. In South Korea.
Summer changed her expression to a blank one and brushed past the earl and countess.
“I just took it off because it was stuffy.”
“Then how did His Grace escort you?”
At the countess’s shout, Summer turned around with a bored expression.
“I don’t know what lewd imagination you’re having, but it wasn’t like that. Unfortunately.”
“Summer!”
“His Grace was kind. Excessively kind, to the point it was a problem. Of course, this isn’t a metaphor. Really, nothing happened between His Grace and me.”
The moment she reached her room, Summer yanked off her jacket as if tearing it and threw it onto the bed.
The pinned hairpins bent with a crunch and clattered to the floor, rolling around.
Even with her eyes bloodshot red, Summer did not let a single tear fall.
No matter what it takes, I will go back. To the world where my family, my friends, my life are.
The first attempt ended in failure like that.
[This is the timeline separator]When she pulled the bell cord to change clothes and opened the door, Mary, who had been standing in front of it, slowly raised her head and met Summer’s eyes.
“Oh, Mary. You’re back.”
“…….”
“Ahem, well, I’m going to rest then.”
Summer subtly avoided Mary’s gaze.
What she had clearly given Mary was a farewell for eternity. But returning as if nothing had happened felt a little—no, very—embarrassing.
Mary opened her mouth while continuing to stare at Summer with an expressionless face.
“Miss.”
“Y-yes?”
At Mary’s call, Summer flinched in surprise and shuddered. She felt unnecessarily guilty.
Fay and Mary must have had to make some kind of resolution for this day. Yet Summer, who was entrusted with the most important task, had accomplished nothing properly.
Is she going to mock me for saying goodbye and then coming back? As Summer thought that, an emotionless voice pierced her ears.
“Welcome back. Please rest.”
Then Mary smiled brightly. Feeling strange, Summer hurriedly turned away from her.
Only after slamming the door shut did the tension finally ease away.
Summer collapsed right there and blankly stared into space. That was when she noticed something on the chair.
“……Summer Lindsey?”
Tied to the chair was a woman with dazzling blonde hair and blue eyes. That hazy soul was bound to the chair, unconscious.
Summer turned her head. It was perfectly identical to her own face reflected in the mirror.
What do you call a soul that has lost its body?
Right. A ghost.
“Kyaaaaah!”
Summer instinctively screamed and fell backward.
At the same moment, the window burst open and Fay, in the form of a black cat, lightly landed on the carpet.
Muddy cat paws stamped onto the carpet like seals.
Mary’s going to have a hard time cleaning that!
“Be quiet.”
“Fa-Fay. Over there!”
“Yes. The Summer Lindsey who should have entered that body long ago.”
“…….”
Summer couldn’t even make a sound and only moved her lips silently.
Fay, seeming frustrated with her, thumped her tail hard against the floor.
“More importantly, why did you stop? I waited the whole time!”
At Fay’s sharp voice, Summer snapped back to her senses.
Fay transformed into human form, climbed onto Summer, grabbed her by the collar, and shook her vigorously.
“The male lead stopped me.”
“……What?”
“I’m sorry. I’ll definitely succeed next time.”
Summer rubbed her face hard with both hands. It felt like only a dry wash could bring her back to her senses.
Noticing Summer’s poor condition, Fay quietly calmed her excitement and got down.
The soul with black hair rippled like a lake after a stone was thrown into it.
“Have you thought about the next plan?”
“I have to think about it. I didn’t expect to fail like this either.”
Summer apologized to Fay again. Fay felt uncomfortable seeing Summer send her apologetic eyes.
She knows nothing. Apologizing so innocently.
Fay had never lied to Summer, but she hadn’t told her everything either.
This matter wasn’t for Summer’s sake. It was thoroughly for the preservation of this world.
It was merely an act to prevent a small crack from possibly bringing about a great catastrophe.
Fay quietly lowered her gaze. Every time she looked at that pure black-haired girl, her conscience pricked sharply.
“I’ll definitely succeed next time.”
“Think slowly. There are still a few months left.”
Summer let out a silent scream and clutched her hair, pulling it.
It was a feeling close to despair, impossible to express merely as disappointment. There had been an easy chance to return to South Korea, and she had let it slip herself.
Fay watched Summer silently for a while, then turned back into a cat. She magically opened the window and quietly left.
Ha. Windows aren’t doors.
Summer needed time to think. More precisely, she needed time to recover from the sense of defeat.
Realizing Fay had left, Summer suddenly raised her head. Strands of her hair were sticking up here and there. At the end of her gaze was an empty wooden chair.
“Ha…… haha…….”
It seemed Fay had taken Summer’s soul with her. That was rather fortunate. She wasn’t brave enough to share a room with a ghost.
Summer flopped onto the bed. Her head felt like it was going to explode. All the heat seemed to rush to her head, while her hands and feet grew coldly numb.
When Summer lost consciousness and then opened her eyes again, Countess Lindsey had come in and spoke in a gentle, bright voice.
“Summer. Wake up, dear. The sun is already high in the sky.”
Summer let out a laugh at how ridiculous her situation was.
Was it because her body hurt, or because her mind was going mad? Laughter kept leaking out in stifled bursts.
Countess Lindsey recited her scripted lines, stroked Summer’s head, and then left.
No one paid any attention to Summer. As if a broken role could simply be discarded.
It was pitiful, yet comical.
Her consciousness gradually faded, then abruptly cut off.
[This is the timeline separator]After the banquet, Summer lay sick for days on end. It was largely due to the shock of failing to return to her original world.
The agony and despair of being able to go back yet failing, mixed with self-reproach, sank her like a swamp.
She couldn’t eat properly, and even when forced to take soup, she vomited it all up. It was awful.
The faces of her family, the voices of her friends, were gradually becoming blurry.
It was terrifying. The fear that she too might be swallowed by this vast world and become a puppet reciting predetermined lines and actions.
“…….”
Today, too, the damn sunlight was warm. Spring sunlight.
Ah. I want to jump into anywhere.
Her hollow eyes lost focus and swayed dizzily.
Summer slowly got up from the bed. Fortunately, perhaps because the weather was nice today, she felt somewhat energetic.
Summer’s steps halted. The transparent window where yellow sunlight poured in.
Click. There was no hesitation in the dry fingers unlocking the window latch.
“Miss!”
Mary, rushing in urgently, grabbed Summer’s waist and clung desperately. Judging by the snap sound, at least a ligament had stretched.
Ah.
Only then did Summer realize she had already been about to throw herself out the open window.
Am I really going mad.
More shocking than that was Mary’s reaction. Mary, who always wore the weary face of a jaded worker, clung to Summer with desperate fervor.
“Miss! Where are you going, leaving me behind!”
“Let go! I’m going back!”
“If Miss dies, what about me! What am I supposed to do! Whatever it is, it’s all my fault! So come down!”
Mary pulled at Summer, half-hanging on the window frame, with a cry close to a scream.
Summer pushed Mary away with an annoyed expression and grabbed the window frame again.
“We’re all just accessories anyway. If we disappear, surely something else will casually replace us!”
Even as she spoke, Summer flinched.
She had meant it about the world inside the story, but what came to mind instead was a certain autumn when she failed by just two points.
The emotion she felt then wasn’t the grief of effort betrayed, but fear.
The terror of living forever as a rusted, ill-fitting accessory—that was horribly frightening.
“……Mary?”
Male lead is a Love-Obsessed Merman
When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
_____
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Hahaha what a stubborn male lead, leave her alone.
They’re always like this, thay think it is always about the male lead.