“Relax.”

The red eyes visible through the brilliant golden hair stared at me.

“N-No, I don’t want to.”

“You know there’s no point in resisting. Your arm will break.”

I know, but if I relax, you’ll pull me in.

Thinking that, I unconsciously bit my lower lip hard.

Then he let go of my wrist and wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me towards him.

“Eek!”

Before I could even resist, my forehead hit his broad, firm chest, and at the same time, his large hand gently cradled my head, patting it soothingly.

“You’re cute, but don’t be too cheeky.”

I quickly took a step back and glared at him.

“I have a fiancé.”

“It’s fine. You won’t have one starting tomorrow.”

He said such an absurd thing so nonchalantly that I had to ask again.

“What? Why?”

“Because he’ll die later.”

What are you saying, you lunatic!

“For now, we’ll just hold hands while sleeping tonight.”

Saying the most unbelievable thing in the world, he roughly pulled at his cravat.

Does this man even have any common sense?

The dark blue cravat fell to the floor with a thud, and at the same time, my heart plummeted.

With each shirt button that came undone, my cheeks grew redder and redder.

Seeing me like that, a small chuckle escaped his lips.

“If you want, we can go further.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Well, we’ll see. I’ll seduce you, so try to resist well.”

“No…!”

Who asked you to seduce me? I said I don’t want to!

But his urgent breaths hotly enveloped my neck as he quickly unbuttoned his shirt.

“Don’t move, it’s exciting.”

“W-Wait a moment…”

“You’re not going anywhere. I’ve decided to have you.”

Why on earth is this man doing this to me?

The person you should be obsessed with is the female lead, not me! Are you mistaking me for someone else?!

You lunatic. Please, let me go.

[This is the timeline separator]

So, half a year ago from now, I died.

On the fourth consecutive day of working overtime until dawn due to files lost by my crazy boss, I was hit by a Porsche on my way home.

Bang! Then darkness.

When I opened my eyes, I was ridiculously sitting inside an unfamiliar carriage.

“Huff, huff!”

Flustered by the strange vibrations of the swaying carriage, I looked around.

And before I could even grasp the situation, I was momentarily stunned by the beauty of the woman in front of me.

A woman with a pure impression and fine brown hair was looking at me with concern.

“Latieana? Are you alright?”

Latieana? Is she talking to me?

“W-Who are you?”

“What’s wrong? Still half asleep? It’s me, Ivy.”

She smiled brightly and grabbed my arm, and at that moment, thoughts whirled in my head and everything came back to me.

“…!”

Damn! No way!

Cold sweat ran down my spine and goosebumps rose all over, making my complexion turn pale.

It’s not even a truck of reincarnation, but a Porsche of possession!

I remembered the contents of the novel I had been reading while waiting for the signal at the crosswalk right before I died.

This was a 19+ tragic novel called “Run Away, Holy Maiden!” with the Great Saint Ivy Violet as the protagonist.

It’s a story about Ivy, who grew up in a rural orphanage, manifesting healing powers and going to the temple, then meeting the male leads and doing this and that.

It was a reverse harem novel, but in the end, Ivy couldn’t choose one among the male leads and ended up with all of them.

Except for just one. The crazy villain. There were 4 male lead candidates, but the villain turned irredeemably evil and seriously lost his mind, so the female lead only ended up with 3 of them.

And my role was…

−Your hair is so pretty. Like cherry blossom petals.

An extra with cherry blossom-colored hair that brown-haired Ivy envied. Latieana Merigold.

Latieana, who appeared briefly at the beginning of the work, was Ivy’s orphanage friend and also had healing powers like her. However, after entering the temple together, she takes a completely different path from Ivy, who was the female lead.

Unlike Ivy, whose healing power was overflowing, Latieana had an ambiguous healing power.

Because of that, Latieana is only used here and there, and eventually loses all her power and dies.

She was an extra without dreams or hope, despite appearing with a full name.

What was Latieana’s last moment like again? When Ivy, who was troubled between the male leads, went to Latieana’s room for a consultation, she found her collapsed in a half-mummy state.

And,

−My friend has died!

…was it?

And the male leads’ lines were…

−Forget what’s not important.

−If you come to me tonight, it will comfort you.

−Isn’t just me enough for you?

…right?

Are you kidding me?

An extra with no influence on the story at all! Not even a face, just pretty hair!

Just rolling around and then a death ending! And even as a mummy!

I tried to suppress the rising indignation as much as possible and asked Ivy.

“I must not be fully awake. So Ivy, where are we going now?”

“Huh? We’re on our way to the temple, of course.”

Is this what it feels like to be hit on the back of the head with words?

I grabbed hold of my crumbling mental state and asked again.

“R-Right now?”

“Are you really okay? Well, it must be tough being stuck in a carriage for 3 days. Just hang in there a little longer. They say we’ll arrive at the portal in two hours. From there, we can quickly move to the capital.”

No! If we go to the capital like this, I’m done for!

Looking out the window, the carriage was passing through a densely wooded forest.

I took a deep breath, clenched my fist, and looked at Ivy with a grave expression.

“Ivy, live happily!”

“…What?”

Better to have a broken leg than to die.

I opened the door of the moving carriage and jumped out without hesitation.

“Kyaaa! Latieana!”

Bang, crash, thud!

I rolled miserably between the trees, making sounds like pounding rice cakes in a poor neighborhood.

The carriage stopped momentarily, and I could sense the knights and Ivy looking for me, but I lay flat on the ground without even breathing, and fortunately, the carriage left.

It was possible because what the temple wanted was Ivy, and I was just a bonus that came along.

‘I really thought I was going to die then.’

But that’s a story of the past.

After that, I got a job at an old castle in the east, far from the capital.

I don’t know what the shy owner of the castle looks like or what kind of person they are.

All I know is that they’re rich and have a weak body, a shut-in?

Because of such an owner, there are no other employees besides me, so the only person I meet is the delivery man who brings food ingredients once every few days.

‘Don’t you feel lonely working alone?’

‘A little. But it’s okay.’

Whenever delivery man Smith asked, I brushed it off vaguely.

Lonely? How could I be! This is such a cushy job.

Just preparing a simple breakfast once, and simple dusting and cleaning work. Yet they pay 1.5 times more than other places for just that.

It’s an old castle, so there would probably be a lot to do if you looked, but there’s no one nagging about not working, and no one interfering saying I’m slow.

It’s truly a healing lifestyle disguised as salary embezzlement!

Thanks to that, the money in my account is piling up, and my future plans are steadily progressing.

If nothing goes wrong, I’ll be able to leave the empire soon.

So, if nothing goes wrong.

[This is the timeline separator]

“…”

After finishing cleaning, I stopped in my tracks on my way to my room on the second floor.

Why? How come?

The tray with breakfast I had left was still in the hallway.

“Master, is something wrong…?”

The routine in this house had never changed.

At least not for the past 3 months.

I wake up at 8 AM, deliver breakfast on a tray to the owner’s door at 9 AM, do housework, and then go to sleep around 10 PM.

The owner checks the breakfast I brought, and shortly after, takes the tray into their room. Then at 11 PM, they put the empty dishes out in the hallway.

Although a shut-in, the owner also had time to come out of the room and be active, which was from 11 PM to 5 AM.

Because it was such an empty castle with few pieces of furniture and no people, even the smallest sounds could be heard very well in the middle of the night.

After tracking their footsteps for the first few weeks, I came to a conclusion.

This person is a bookworm. Because the sound of their footsteps leaving the room and walking outside heads towards the library located on the far right of the castle.

Their room is on the far left, my room is in the middle of the passage, so I could know the other’s movements even better.

Anyway, the owner stays in the library all night and returns to their room before dawn.

Occasionally leaving nosebleeds in the hallway, that is.

A sickly nosebleeding bookworm shut-in who barely digests one meal. I gave them all sorts of weak modifiers.

At first, I was scared because it was so suspicious that I didn’t know what they were doing, but now I was worried if I didn’t hear footsteps at the set time, wondering if something had happened.

“To think I have to confirm life or death by footsteps.”

But today, I have to confirm it by the tray.

Staring silently at the tray, I frowned with a puzzled look.

Wait, did I hear footsteps early this morning?

I quickly headed to the library. Worried that the owner might have fallen asleep or collapsed here.

However, the library was empty.

[This is the timeline separator]

2 PM.

The tray remains the same.

3 PM, 5 PM, 7 PM, 9 PM.

I checked occasionally, but the tray was still in its place.

“…”

They couldn’t have died, right…?

Anxiety crept in. But I couldn’t carelessly open the owner’s room either.

There was a clause in the employment contract that said ‘Do not open the door no matter what happens’.

Eventually, it became 10 PM.

In an hour, it would be the time when the owner is active.

“Please move healthily, shut-in master.”

It’s only one meal a day, but if you’re sickly, wouldn’t there be days when you don’t even want to eat that?

A day when you have no appetite at all. Sincerely hoping today was such a day, I turned off the lights.

And not even 5 minutes later, the sound of footsteps was heard.

My eyes flew open.

You were alive! Shut-in! I believed in you!

I smiled brightly at the relief that finally came.

“But… moving at this time?”

Curious about the earlier than usual movement, I carefully opened my door and went out.

Creak. First, I looked to the left, towards the owner’s room.

But there was only the full moon light pouring abundantly over the corridor through the large window, and no one was there.

This time, I turned my head to the opposite side.

And.

“Kyaaaa!”

I screamed with all my might and froze on the spot.

A large man in a fluttering black cloak was standing in the middle of the corridor, holding a long, shining sword.

Covered all over in red, sticky blood.

Thanks to the bright moonlight, I could see at a glance his handsome face with sparkling blonde hair and blood-red eyes filled with madness.

The man with a chilling atmosphere raised one corner of his mouth grimly as he looked at me.

“Oh my, I’ve been caught.”

What?