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Chapter 2
“Shall we?”
After confirming that I had finished adjusting my appearance, Davin held out his hand to me. Smiling, I placed mine in his.
“Mm, let’s go. Mr. Smith, I’ll see you next time, then.”
Behind his desk, Mr. Smith sniffled with a dazed expression and bowed his head. I gave him a smile before leaving the office under Davin’s escort.
The peak of summer had passed, but the season was still closer to summer than autumn.
The moment I stepped outside, the heat hit me all at once. Fanning the back of my neck, I turned to Davin.
“It’s hot. I want shaved ice. Aren’t you hot, Davin?”
“I’m fine. If you’d like shaved ice, shall I guide you to the shop you used to like?”
Hmm.
Shaved ice… shaved ice…
Red bean shaved ice, fruit shaved ice, mango shaved ice…
As images of countless varieties of shaved ice filled my mind, I swallowed unconsciously. But would I really be able to sit leisurely in a dessert shop and enjoy it? At this rate, it felt like enemies would show up again.
“…Actually, let’s just buy fruit and go home. I’ll ask Lana to make shaved ice for me.”
The moment I visibly backed down, Davin stopped walking altogether and stared at me.
I blinked, and he spoke in a stern voice.
“Do you remember what I told you, Lady Anise?”
“Hm? Yes. Of course I do.”
With that serious look on his face, Davin repeated what he had emphasized over and over before we left today.
“You may go wherever you wish with peace of mind. Protecting you is my duty, so please don’t let fear stop you.”
Seeing how seriously he cared for me, I broke into a grin.
Davin—the male lead of the original novel.
A man so dazzlingly handsome that looking at him for too long felt like it might blind you, yet despite that beauty, he possessed overwhelming power. Later, he would become the vanguard of the revolutionary army and cut down every one of the Empire’s strongest knights who stood in the Emperor’s defense.
Assassins every day.
Hidden arrows.
Poisoned food.
If that kind of life continued, most people would cower in terror and barricade themselves in their room.
At first, I had been exactly like that.
“There is nothing for you to worry about. I am by your side.”
Encouraging me whenever I shrank back in fear, Davin protected me without fail.
After several weeks of that, I gradually regained my composure.
Right. Davin is the strongest.
The original novel had once described that if Davin had been beside Anise at the moment of her death, she would never have died.
At first, I’d thought that was an exaggeration.
Now?
Not at all.
After witnessing his unbelievable abilities firsthand over and over again, I had gotten used to it.
I gazed at his silver hair, glowing pale gold beneath the summer sunlight, and his violet eyes that sparkled like amethysts, then smiled brightly.
Yes.
A fantasy romance male lead should absolutely be handsome enough to tear reality apart.
“I should probably ask about what happened to Mr. Smith’s office too, but if the shaved ice shop gets wrecked as well, wouldn’t that be excessive spending? And it would scare the other customers. I have no intention of giving up on shaved ice, though.”
Davin was silent for a moment before nodding.
“Understood. Then let us buy fruit instead. There should be ice in the kitchen.”
He escorted me properly, walking on the outer side of the road.
I couldn’t help grinning foolishly.
I crossed dimensions, and now the world’s strongest male lead was protecting me.
If this wasn’t the ultimate success of a fangirl, then what was?
Because it was summer, the fruit stand was overflowing with tropical fruits. While browsing, I turned to Davin.
“What kind of fruit do you like?”
“Anything is fine for me. Please choose whatever you’d like, Lady Anise.”
I frowned.
Seriously. As expected of a fantasy romance male lead.
Davin had zero interest in sweets.
I complained dramatically.
“How can someone dislike sweet things?”
Wasn’t liking sweets a basic human instinct?
Was I the only glutton here?
When I pouted, Davin let out a soft chuckle.
“Haha… You used to say that before as well.”
“…I did?”
“Yes. Even before you lost your memory.”
As he said that, he looked at me warmly.
I smiled back awkwardly.
The doctor had diagnosed me with amnesia because I remembered absolutely nothing about Anise’s life.
But the truth was different.
On the very day Anise Miller of the original novel drowned in the lake—
I possessed her body.
At first, I had panicked.
But the moment I saw the protagonists around me, I immediately realized which novel I had transmigrated into.
And little by little, under the warm care of the main characters, my heart softened.
Of course, they were kind to me because they believed I was Anise.
Still…
The real Anise’s soul had likely already departed.
So maybe…
Maybe I could take her place and make these people happy instead.
…Though seriously.
Of all novels, why did it have to be this one?
I felt sorry for the warm and kind protagonists, but honestly, transmigrating into this story was enough to make anyone sigh.
Because the original work was painfully tragic.
The heroine, Lana, was the maid of Countess Anise Miller—the Emperor’s fiancée.
Anise, who had once saved Lana from the slums as a child, was suddenly murdered one day.
The death of the lady who had saved her life was already devastating enough—
But despite clear evidence, the Emperor buried Anise’s murder as suicide because he was too conscious of noble opinion.
The nobles had always criticized Anise Miller as unworthy of becoming Empress.
The fact that the Emperor had chosen a woman of lower birth followed her everywhere like a curse, and every single thing Anise did became fuel for their ridicule.
“Look at that! She has no qualifications to be Empress!”
When Anise died unjustly, they sneered that she had overreached for a place she never deserved and met her fitting end.
Everything was finally as it should be, they said.
“If my lady hadn’t saved me, I would have died long ago. I’ll dedicate this life she saved to avenging her!”
Consumed by rage over Anise’s death, Lana resolved to take up the sword herself.
And after uncovering the truth behind Anise’s death, she sought out Davin—who had also gathered evidence, only to have it all confiscated.
“Teach me how to wield a sword. I want revenge for my lady.”
“…The path you imagine will be far harsher than you think. Even so, will you still walk it?”
Davin asked her that because he, too, had already lost faith in serving the Empire.
On the very day Anise died, Davin had been absent.
Suspicious of that timing, he investigated relentlessly and uncovered proof that Anise had been assassinated—not suicidal.
But when he presented the evidence—
The Emperor seized it all and officially declared Anise’s death a suicide.
Furious beyond words, Davin listened as Lana swore her unwavering resolve.
“Understood. Then I will teach you.”
He cast aside his title as an Imperial Knight and joined the rebels—who would later become the revolutionary army—alongside Lana.
And so, seven years passed.
Through endless internal and external wars, the Logrant Empire completely collapsed.
At long last, the protagonists avenged Anise’s unjust death.
But—
In the process, both Lana and Davin also died.
Just remembering the original ending made me feel faint.
Everyone dies in a ruin ending?
Was the author insane?!
It had been a serialized novel of over 300 chapters.
Every reader who followed it in real time had become deeply attached to Lana and Davin, sincerely wishing for their happiness.
When Lana—now a master swordswoman—died due to Empress Lanie’s cowardly schemes, readers were devastated.
But because the story kept going, everyone naturally assumed—
Lana would come back, right?
Surely Davin, the male lead, would find a way to save her?
Even readers who had spent ages criticizing Davin for being emotionally distant and always using Lana finally cried out in unison:
[We never truly acknowledged you as the male lead before, but if you save Lana, Davin, we’ll 인정 you as the real male lead!]
But in cruel mockery of everyone’s desperate hopes—
Lana never returned.
And after killing the Emperor, Davin himself died to the Emperor’s own cowardly final scheme.
And then—
The single word appeared:
The End.
Every reader was horrified.
