Summer Must Die (16 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 9
“Oh! There’s Lady Holst!”
“Yeah, right? Wow, so that’s what she looks like.”
As they walked through the garden toward a quieter spot, a familiar figure came into view. Summer curiously observed Lady Holst with wonder-filled eyes.
It was at least somewhat entertaining to finally put faces to the names she’d occasionally seen in the novel.
Later, when the party extended into the night, she’d quietly slip away with Julian and hide somewhere appropriate to chatter together.
Julian was far kinder in person than she’d been described in the book.
She had an open personality but never wavered. Thoughtful by nature, she never crossed the line into becoming burdensome.
Summer quietly gazed into Julian’s pink eyes shimmering beneath the night sky.
She felt a little wistful. Once she returned to her original world, she wouldn’t be able to see Julian again.
“Huh? Summer, is there something on my face?”
“Yes. Lots of it.”
“That’s weird—I haven’t eaten anything today!”
“It’s cuteness, cuteness. You’re sparkling even under the night sky.”
At Summer’s words, Julian burst into laughter. Just then, cheerful music drifted out from the mansion behind them.
“You’re the most precious person to me, Summer.”
“…Thank you.”
Summer couldn’t bring herself to say that she felt the same. After all, she’d be leaving soon.
According to Summer’s prediction, her soul would appear at the imperial banquet a week from now. At that moment, she would depart.
“Summer! Look over there!”
“This party seems larger than usual—so many nobles have attended.”
This cursed party showed no sign of ending. Far off at the main gate, carriages were lining up again. It wasn’t even an after-party—it was draining just to look at.
The host of this party was Marquis Sefer, a man intimately connected to Ian Lancaster.
So, when she’d first entered the party and spotted him, she’d felt like she was seeing a celebrity.
Julian tugged on Summer’s tired arm.
“Shall we go take a quick look at who’s arrived and come right back?”
“Okay.”
Now that she knew this world was part of a novel—and that the way back to her original world was clear—Summer felt more at ease than ever before.
Enough to actually enjoy this fictional world, if only a little.
Returning to the party hall, they found a large group of Ian Lancaster’s close aides gathered together.
“So that’s what they look like.”
Summer murmured to herself, amazed. This wasn’t even a live-action adaptation—it was exactly as the author had imagined while writing, making it, in a way, a perfect realization.
“…Huh?”
Summer’s eyes widened as she spotted someone. The man standing at the center of the densest cluster of nobles was someone she knew well.
Blue hair with violet-tinged eyes. A face as pure and delicate as an orchid, yet carrying an air of coldness and detachment, simultaneously thoughtful and cultured but also sensitive and distant.
“Russell Bertrand.”
He was the third most important character in the story, after Julian and Ian. Sensing someone’s gaze, Duke Russell Bertrand slowly turned his head.
“Summer! What are you spacing out about so deeply?”
“Oh.”
Jolted back to reality by Julian’s voice, Summer quickly averted her eyes from Russell.
They might have briefly made eye contact, but as a mere extra, he surely wouldn’t think anything special of her.
“Julian, do you see those people?”
Summer shielded her face with a fan and pointed at each one individually.
“Yes.”
“They’ll be helpful to you. Be sure to remember them.”
Duke Russell Bertrand, Marquis Sefer—along with a few others who would prove useful to Julian—were visible here and there.
“Summer?”
“And over there—see the group gathered around Earl Holst?”
“Yes, I see them.”
“If you get the chance, get rid of them. They’ll self-destruct eventually, but they’re definitely villains.”
Summer whispered into Julian’s ear. It was partly impulsive. Now, Summer was genuinely concerned about the hardships Julian would soon face.
She just wanted Julian to stay happy, as she was now. So she rattled off information, hoping Julian wouldn’t have to walk an overly painful path.
“Summer, why are you suddenly telling me all this?”
“Because it’ll help you. You don’t have to believe it—just keep it in mind.”
“No, that’s not what I meant. I trust you, Summer. It’s just that the look on your face right now…”
“What about my face?”
“You look exactly like someone about to leave, and it made me a little sad.”
Julian’s simple, honest words caught in Summer’s throat—because it was true.
“The dessert here is delicious.”
So Summer quickly changed the subject and forced a smile.
Leaving Julian alone in this harsh world was starting to weigh on her heart. It was serious—Summer knew all too well the trials Julian would go through.
Even if Julian’s ending was ultimately happy, Summer couldn’t just stand by and watch.
“Julian.”
“Yes?”
“Why does fleeting happiness always demand so much damn effort to obtain?”
“Because not just happiness—even mere survival is inherently difficult.”
“…”
Summer recalled a passage from the original novel:
A brief backstory explained how Julian, after losing her parents as a child, had lived happily under her village aunt’s care—until the local lord’s tyranny took their farmland, and Julian nearly got sold off while resisting, tragically losing her aunt in the process.
It was then she met Ian Lancaster. Despite her dire circumstances, Julian used her healing magic to save him.
“But Summer, did you know this?”
“…”
“Surviving is easier than you think. The hard part is living well.”
Julian had been adopted after wandering near a charity event hosted by House Dudley and catching their attention.
At the time, she’d been emaciated, dressed in rags, and reeking of filth.
Yet, after entering House Dudley, she suffered deeply—so much so that she contemplated death, something she’d never considered before.
Summer had found it hard to understand—she’d even thought it was a plot inconsistency.
How could Julian, who’d survived begging in slums and scrubbing shop floors barehanded after customers vomited on them, now cry in misery while being loved as a noble?
To Summer, that had seemed like a clear lapse in the author’s logic.
But anyone who saw Julian’s pink eyes at this very moment…
“Would understand that for some people, living is harder than merely surviving—and taking one step forward is harder than simply enduring.”
“…Summer.”
“I understand, Julian.”
Summer thought she simply couldn’t bear not saying those words.
[This is the timeline separator]Today’s party had finally come to an end.
Late at night, Summer smiled and bid farewell to Julian, then rode a carriage back to the mansion. But inside, her heart was more restless than ever.
A place she was destined to leave.
A strange, brilliant world where she shouldn’t form attachments—where she believed she never would.
The moment she entered her room upon arriving at the mansion, she sensed a breeze.
“Fay?”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
Fay slipped in naturally through the window and removed her hood. Her long violet hair shimmered gently in the moonlight. It had been a week.
“Fay!”
Summer rushed forward and tightly embraced her. Fay, startled by the sudden warmth, froze in place.
“Get off.”
Feeling ticklish, Fay deliberately pulled away from Summer with extra harshness.
“Where have you been?”
Ignoring Summer’s indifferent tone, Fay hopped onto the desk with a sullen expression.
“You said this is a world where the protagonist exists. The older sisters know more about things like this.”
“Older sisters?”
“Yeah. They’re all witches like me. Well, technically we’re mages—but you people call us witches.”
“…”
That was strange. For the first time, a natural question popped into Summer’s mind—something she’d never considered before.
In the original story…
There were no witches—not even someone like Fay.
Summer’s eyes narrowed. Fay’s chattering voice sounded distant.
—that book contained neither witches nor mages. The only power system was divine grace.
Thus, the Temple and the Empire constantly checked each other’s power, and currently, the Temple had become little more than a political faction, having nearly lost all divine grace.
Then suddenly, the Empire’s most powerful wielder of divine grace appeared—and that was none other than Julian Dudley, the protagonist of this story.
Summer stared blankly at Fay.
“If what you say is true, then the Creator of this world built everything just for that one woman. So I’ve been thinking about it a bit.”
Fay swung her legs idly in midair, then spoke her mind without a care for Summer’s expression.
“How about visiting the Grand Cathedral?”
“Who even are you?”
“What?”
There were no witches in the book I read. Who the hell are you?
Their sharp gazes clashed in the air.
“There were no such things as magic or witches in this world.”
“If you recorded everything in the world, that’d be a history book—not a story.”
“But magic is a pretty important setting…!”
“Guess God abandoned us. Since we’ve been forsaken by God, it seems we don’t even appear in the story you read.”
Could that really be it? She’d reread the fantasy novel backward and forward just to memorize the unfamiliar names and places, yet never once had it mentioned anything like this.
A crack formed in Summer’s blind faith.
Could she really trust beings who didn’t exist in the original work?
Turns Out He’s Been Secretly in Love with Me
One-line summary: He acts like he doesn’t like her but is actually playing hard to get.
Synopsis:
Xu Muzhou like her. He has liked her for a very long time, and through repeated schemes, he finally closed the distance with her.
But this is still far from enough.
He wants to be the one who stands out among her many suitors, to fight for her attention, and to make her take the initiative to pursue him.
_____
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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.