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Chapter 3
I stared in shock at the dark crimson crack stretching across the center of the sky.
As I stood there silently looking upward, Sir Ulver, who had been following behind me, tilted his head in confusion and looked up as well.
“Sir Ulver, what in the world is that?”
“What are you referring to, my lady?”
“That red thing.”
“Red? The sky looks completely blue to me.”
“What?”
Could it be that Sir Ulver couldn’t see the crack?
Flustered, I lowered my head—
And suddenly, along with a sharp warning sound, a system window appeared before my eyes.
[5% until the destruction of the world]
The gauge had risen.
Instinctively, I realized that the percentage until the world’s destruction and the red crack in the sky were closely connected.
“Where is Beatrice right now?”
“She is in her bedroom, but at the moment…”
I immediately headed toward the heroine’s room.
I could hear servants shouting from behind that it was dangerous right now, but I ignored them.
“Sir Ulver, wait here!”
As if he never intended to follow me in the first place, Sir Ulver let out a huge yawn and nodded.
What was I supposed to do with that level of laziness?
After sending away even the servants trying to follow me, I lifted my dress and ran up the stairs two steps at a time now that nobody was watching.
As I hurried toward the second floor, I suddenly heard something smashing from the far end of the hallway.
That startled me.
“You bastards! Open the door!”
Beatrice’s furious voice echoed all the way to the staircase where I stood.
Maybe because she was the heroine, even her voice carried amazingly well.
After climbing the remaining stairs, I spotted a middle-aged man standing at the end of the hallway.
Holding the doorknob with a troubled expression was Marquis Rockwood, Beatrice’s biological father.
Unlike Count Sauver, who always walked around with a stiff expression, the Marquis had always welcomed his daughter’s friend with a warm smile.
But today, his face looked dark and exhausted.
Well, his daughter had suddenly gone insane overnight. Of course he would feel terrible.
Quietly sighing inwardly, I carefully approached him.
“Marquis.”
“Ah, Renée. You’ve come.”
The Marquis greeted me with an awkward smile.
Bang—!
At the same time, more sounds of things breaking echoed from behind the door.
Pretending to be startled, I glanced at the tightly shut door.
“I heard Beatrice was ill, so I came to visit her…”
Crash—!
How terrifying.
I looked at the Marquis with a confused expression before glancing back at the door again.
At that, the Marquis, who had kept his mouth tightly shut until now, let out a deep sigh and finally explained what happened.
“It seems Beatrice has lost her memory.”
“Beatrice lost her memory?”
“Yes.”
Not only did she fail to recognize him, her own father, but she also failed to recognize the maids who had cared for her since childhood.
He said she had been like this ever since the spring banquet, but he had no idea what caused it.
As I listened to the Marquis with a serious expression, I noticed something strange.
In the original novel, Beatrice was described as naturally kind-hearted.
And the Beatrice I met after transmigrating had been exactly like that too.
If she had merely lost her memory, there was no way she would suddenly become this violent.
That meant there was another problem the Marquis hadn’t noticed.
Sensing it instinctively, I first persuaded the Marquis to let me meet Beatrice.
The Marquis tried to stop me, saying Beatrice was far too agitated and dangerous right now, but I was fine.
In my previous life, I had successfully tamed notoriously vicious stray cats using treats.
Calming down a delicate heroine should’ve been easy.
At least, that was what I thought…
“And what are you supposed to be?”
Mm. She’s scarier than I expected.
Carefully slipping through the slightly opened door, I immediately froze.
Standing in the middle of the dark room was Beatrice, her hair completely disheveled.
Seeing her made me want to bite my tongue after confidently assuring the Marquis that everything would be alright.
First, let’s take a deep breath.
I calmly steadied my breathing and gave Beatrice, who was glaring at me warily, a gentle smile.
“Beatrice, it’s me. Renée.”
“What’s this Beatrice and Renée nonsense?”
“Beatrice is your name, and Renée is mine. We’re friends, by the way. The Marquis told me you lost your memory.”
I tried soothing Beatrice the same way one would calm a feral stray cat.
But Beatrice refused to lower her guard.
“Beatrice is my name? Don’t make me laugh. My name is Gye Deokho. Not Beatrice or whatever.”
Beatrice picked up a candlestick from the bedside table and raised it threateningly.
But my attention was focused somewhere entirely different from the candlestick that looked ready to fly at my face any second.
Gye Deokho?
That was a Korean name.
At that moment, a very convincing theory popped into my head.
What if, just like me, someone else had transmigrated into Beatrice’s body?
[Correct answer.]
Ding—!
A system notification appeared.
I got it right!
Clap!
I smacked my hands together.
Right. Someone transmigrated into her just like I did!
Thinking about it that way, everything made sense.
The heroine suddenly becoming violent, not recognizing anyone around her, even calling herself Gye Deokho—
Everything!
Still clapping excitedly, I approached Beatrice—
No, Mr. Gye Deokho.
As I got closer, he raised the candlestick even higher, but I ignored it.
“My name is Ham Suyeong. I’m Korean too.”
“Korean? You’re Korean? You look completely foreign though…”
“I transmigrated. Just like you, Mr. Gye Deokho.”
“What? Transmigrated? What’s that?”
“You don’t know what transmigration is?”
“No.”
“Ah… it’s complicated to explain…”
I sat down properly and explained transmigration to him.
And on top of that, I carefully explained everything else too—
That this world was inside an R-19 dark reverse harem novel, and that he had entered the body of the heroine, Beatrice.
Mr. Gye Deokho listened intently before eventually making a bewildered face.
“So you’re saying this is a world inside a novel, and I entered the body of some heroine named Beatrice or whatever?”
“Yes. Exactly.”
“And you expect me to believe that?”
“What else are you going to do if you don’t?”
Whether he believed it or not, Mr. Gye Deokho was already inside Beatrice’s body.
Just like how I had transmigrated into Renée Sauver.
At this point, it wasn’t a matter of belief anymore.
It was a matter of acceptance.
“Try looking in a mirror.”
“I already did.”
“And you still can’t believe it?”
At my words, Mr. Gye Deokho irritably ruffled his hair.
Even he probably realized there was no explanation for his sudden change in appearance besides transmigration.
“I know it’s hard to believe. But you have to accept it.”
“Ha…”
Throwing the candlestick aside, Mr. Gye Deokho ran both hands through his shining golden hair.
At first glance, my own hair looked silver, but in reality it was closer to ash-gray, dull like storm clouds if you looked carefully.
Compared to his, it was heaven and earth.
Even the heroine’s hair was beautiful.
I was busy having such pointless thoughts when suddenly Mr. Gye Deokho’s eyes widened.
“You said this world is inside a novel, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then… is there no way to return to the original world?”
As far as I knew, among all the romance fantasy novels I’d read, no transmigrator had ever returned to their original world.
They all ended up living happily with either the male lead or the second male lead.
“There’s probably no way.”
[Wrong answer.]
Huh?
There was a way to return to the original world?
Then what was it?
But as if mocking me, the system window gave no answer at all.
I glanced sideways at the system window before looking back at Mr. Gye Deokho, who was still pulling at his hair.
“Aaagh! This is driving me crazy!”
He clearly couldn’t accept the fact that he now had to live as the heroine of an R-19 dark reverse harem novel.
By the way…
Couldn’t Mr. Gye Deokho see the system window?
We were both transmigrators, after all.
Curious, I lightly tapped his shoulder.
Still clutching at his hair, he abruptly lifted his head.
“What?”
