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Chapter 02
“Shall we go?”
After confirming that I had finished fixing my appearance, Davin held out his hand to me, and I smiled as I took it.
“Yeah, let’s go. Mr. Smith, then I’ll see you next time.”
From behind his desk, Mr. Smith sniffled with a dazed expression and bowed his head to me. I gave him a smile and left the office under Davin’s escort.
The peak of summer had passed, but the season still felt closer to summer than autumn.
As soon as I stepped out of the building, the heat rushed over me. Fanning the back of my neck, I asked 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.
I want shaved ice. Red bean shaved ice, fruit shaved ice, mango shaved ice…
As I imagined all kinds of shaved ice, I swallowed unconsciously. But would I really be able to sit comfortably in a dessert shop and enjoy it? It felt like enemies would come swarming again.
“…Actually, let’s just buy fruit and go home. I’ll ask Rana to make shaved ice for me.”
The moment I backed down first, Davin stopped walking abruptly and stared straight at me. I blinked, and he spoke in an irritated voice.
“Do you remember what I told you, Lady Anise?”
“Hm? Yeah. I remember.”
Then Davin repeated the words he had emphasized over and over before we went out today.
“You may go wherever you want with peace of mind. Protecting you is my duty, so please don’t frighten yourself in advance.”
Seeing him look so serious while worrying over me, I broke into a soft smile.
Davin, the male lead of the original novel. A man whose appearance was so radiant it could blind anyone who looked at him. Unlike his beautiful face, he possessed overwhelming strength. Later, he would become the vanguard commander of the revolutionary army and cut down all the empire’s greatest knights protecting the emperor—the strongest man in this world.
Daggers aimed at me every day, arrows, poisoned food. If those kinds of days continued, most people would become terrified and lock themselves in their rooms. At first, I had been the same.
“There is nothing for you to worry about. I am by your side.”
Encouraging me whenever I shrank back in fear, Davin continued protecting me. After several weeks passed like that, I gradually regained my composure.
‘Right. Davin is the strongest!’
The original story had described that if Davin had been beside Anise at the moment she died, she absolutely would not have died—and that description was not an exaggeration at all. In the beginning, I had been shocked countless times by the unbelievable sights unfolding before my eyes, but now I was used to them.
Bathed in the summer sunlight, his silver hair gleamed like pale gold, and his violet eyes sparkled like amethysts. Looking at him, I smiled brightly.
Yeah, the male lead of a romance fantasy should be handsome enough to tear the world apart.
“I should probably ask about what happened to Mr. Smith’s office too, but if the shaved ice shop gets destroyed as well, wouldn’t that be excessive spending? And the people eating there would get startled too. But I have no intention of giving up shaved ice.”
Davin stayed silent for a moment before nodding.
“Understood. Then let us buy fruit and head back. There should be ice in the kitchen.”
Davin escorted me while walking on the outer side of the street. I grinned happily at the courteous escort from the original novel’s male lead.
‘After crossing dimensions, the world’s strongest male lead protects me.’
If this wasn’t the dream of a devoted fan come true, then what was?
Since it was summer, the fruit shop displayed many tropical fruits. While picking fruit, I turned to Davin and asked,
“What kind of fruit do you like, Davin?”
“I’m fine with anything. Please choose whatever you wish to eat, Lady Anise.”
I frowned.
Just what you’d expect from a romance fantasy male lead. Davin had no interest in sweets. I complained dramatically.
“How can someone dislike sweets?”
Wasn’t liking sweet things human instinct? Am I the only pig here? As I pouted, Davin quietly laughed.
“Hehe, you used to say that before as well.”
“…I did?”
“Yes. Even before you lost your memories.”
As he said that, Davin looked at me warmly, but I could only return an awkward smile.
The doctor had diagnosed me with amnesia because I possessed none of Anise’s memories. After that, everyone working at the mansion pitied me, but the truth was different.
On the day the original Anise Miller drowned in the lake, I transmigrated into her body.
At first, I panicked, but after seeing the protagonists around me, I quickly realized which novel I had transmigrated into. And under the warm care of the protagonists, my heart slowly softened.
Of course, they were kind to me because they believed I was Anise, but…
‘The real Anise’s soul has probably already departed.’
Wouldn’t it be enough if I made these people happy in place of the original Anise?
‘Still, why did I have to transmigrate into this story of all things?’
As warm and kind as the protagonists were, honestly, transmigrating into this novel was enough to make me sigh. Because the original story was extremely painful and tragic.
The protagonist, Rana, was the maid of Countess Anise Miller, the emperor’s fiancée. Anise, who had rescued Rana from the slums as a child, was suddenly murdered one day.
The young lady who had saved her life was dead, and despite clear evidence, the emperor—conscious of noble opinion—covered up Anise’s death as suicide rather than assassination.
The nobles had always criticized Anise Miller as unfit to become empress. They mocked the emperor of the empire for attempting a marriage that crossed class boundaries, and Anise constantly suffered from their scorn. Whenever she did anything, the nobles would seize upon it and attack her.
“Look at that! She is unworthy of becoming empress!”
Regarding Anise’s unjust death, they spat cruel words, saying she had overreached for a position beyond her station and destroyed herself, that everything had been set right.
“If milady hadn’t saved me, I would have died long ago. I’ll dedicate this life to avenging her!”
Consumed with rage over Anise’s death, Rana resolved to take up the sword herself. After successfully uncovering clues about Anise’s cause of death, she sought out Davin, who had lost all the evidence he gathered. She asked him to teach her swordsmanship so she could avenge her lady.
“…The road ahead will be far harsher than you imagine. Will you still walk it?”
Even Davin, who asked her this question, no longer intended to live as an imperial knight.
It deeply bothered him that Anise had died on the very day he happened to be absent. He searched thoroughly for evidence and discovered that Anise had not committed suicide, but had been assassinated. However, the emperor confiscated all the evidence and officially announced her death as suicide.
Filled with furious resentment toward the emperor, Davin accepted after hearing Rana’s unwavering resolve.
“Understood. I will teach you the sword.”
And so Davin cast aside his imperial knighthood and joined the rebel faction opposing the empire’s system—a group that would later become the revolutionary army—together with Rana.
Seven years passed after that. Through wars both internal and external, the Logrant Empire completely collapsed. The protagonists finally achieved revenge for Anise’s unjust death.
But in the process, both Rana and Davin ultimately died as well.
Remembering the ending of the original novel made me feel faint.
‘A ruin ending where everyone dies? Was the author insane?’
It had been a serial with over 300 chapters. Every reader following it in real time had become deeply attached to Rana and Davin and sincerely wished for their happiness.
The day the protagonist Rana—who had grown into an exceptional swordswoman—died to Empress Ranie’s cowardly scheme, every reader was shocked. But as the story continued afterward, everyone naturally expected the same thing.
Rana would come back to life, right? Davin, the male lead, would surely find a way to revive her, right?
Until then, readers had often complained about Davin, saying he wasn’t affectionate toward Rana and only used her whenever convenient. Yet all of them shouted together:
[We never truly acknowledged you as the male lead before, but if you save Rana, Davin, then we’ll finally 인정 you as the male lead!]
But as if mocking everyone’s desperate hopes, Rana never came back to life. And after killing the emperor, Davin himself died to one of the emperor’s cowardly schemes.
Then appeared the single word:
〈The End〉
Every reader was horrified.
