ODMFMH 09

Chapter 9

03. That Man Has a Fated Partner

Lee Yeorae drew a long line across the calendar.

“Eight days…”

Day 8.

It had already been more than a week since she entered Hazel Reeve’s body.

Her hope that she would return home after one week had been completely shattered.

Hazel Reeve had soft brown hair like cocoa and freckles across her nose. Her eyes were large and deep like a deer’s, making her look quite cute.

Compared to Lee Yeorae, she was shorter and a little chubbier. Strangely, her hands and feet were very small, so Yeorae had a hard time getting used to them.

Current date:

March 21, Year 742.

Leandros Julian Therion Etsina. Age 30.

Because her work area was limited, Yeorae had not seen even the tip of Leandros’s golden hair since that day.

The servants she met all warned her never to look directly into the Duke’s eyes.

What exactly would happen if she did?

Thinking of the twenty-year-old Leandros who had whispered words of love to her, the warning was difficult to understand.

Well, after seeing his current self, it made perfect sense.

She hated to admit it, but Leandros’s personality in the novel had been pretty terrible.

But seeing him in person, it was even worse.

The man who had passed by her that day was truly a beast wearing human skin.

A monster hidden behind a human face.

That man who had once seemed like an angel.

“They do say ten years can change everything…”

A worried sigh escaped her lips.

Remembering what she had seen a week ago, she shook her head as if trying to get rid of the memory.

Thanks to Hazel’s experience at a post office—a job Yeorae herself couldn’t remember—she had been assigned to the library.

Her work was organizing books and either throwing away damaged ones or copying them to restore them.

The library was quiet almost all the time.

Thinking about it, nobody had really visited the library in the novel either.

The peaceful work was nice, but after a week, she started feeling like she was trapped alone inside a greenhouse separated from the rest of the world.

The first visitor finally came on the eighth day.

It was near sunset.

The man walked so quietly that she didn’t notice him until their fingertips accidentally touched while she was organizing books.

A strange electric feeling ran through her body.

Yeorae quickly apologized.

“I’m sorry.”

“Oh, this is quite shocking. So this really is a world inside a book. And a romance novel at that?”

…Huh?

Yeorae had lowered her head and was about to walk past him, but she doubted her ears.

The man’s gray eyes, clear like glass marbles, sparkled with interest and curiosity.

“If you’ve read the book, then you already know who I am, Miss Yeorae.”

Good heavens.

“Miss Yeorae.”

She had never expected to hear that name in this world.

Only then did she carefully study him.

Long white hair as thin as threads.

Intelligent gray eyes that were impossible to read.

Long legs.

Silent footsteps that didn’t match them.

Broad shoulders and an unusually slim waist.

“Ah…”

Only then did she realize who he was.

About three hundred years ago, a war had broken out across the continent.

What started as one small kingdom’s greed for territory eventually grew into a massive war that lasted for decades.

The war created countless casualties and refugees.

Some powerless commoners fled by sea, trusting their fate to the ocean currents.

Among them was a small, shabby boat made from patched wooden boards.

The boat was called the Pro Ho.

It carried twelve people before disappearing in a storm at sea.

Two hundred years later, long after everyone had forgotten about it, the boat suddenly reappeared.

Although two hundred years had passed, the twelve passengers looked exactly the same as they had on the day they vanished.

They no longer aged.

And each had gained mysterious powers.

People came to call them collectively the Prophets.

Among them was Gideon, a Prophet who could read thoughts through physical contact.

In the novel, he served as an advisor to the Duke Etsina Family.

Come to think of it, every time he appeared in the story, he was always working.

“For Leandros it was a romance novel, but for you it was basically a work novel…”

“Did you just call it a work novel?”

Gideon lowered his snow-like eyelashes and smiled slightly.

“I thought it was amazing in the novel, but you really can read people’s thoughts just by touching their fingertips.”

“Hair works too. Fabric doesn’t.”

As he spoke, he casually reached up with his long arm and pulled down a book from a high shelf that Yeorae couldn’t reach.

The back cover was slightly damaged.

“You may have been ordinary in your world, but here you’ve become someone special like us. A visitor who knows the future…”

“I have no intention of revealing how this story will unfold.”

“You’ve made the correct choice. If you’re going to leave this world eventually, it’s best to influence it as little as possible.”

“I just wanted to see Leandros’s face one more time. I never imagined he’d become so much older.”

Yeorae pushed the damaged book onto the cart and curled up on a ladder.

“He probably forgot the woman he met briefly ten years ago.”

She suddenly felt very small and insignificant.

It wasn’t even a month.

It had only been one week.

After everything Leandros had experienced over ten years, there was no way he would still remember a woman he had known for only a week.

Yeorae imagined how he would react if she appeared before him.

“Ah, yes… There was a woman like that.”

No.

Maybe it would be more like:

“What was her name again?”

Or perhaps he would simply call her a crazy woman and order someone to throw her out.

“A crazy woman…”

Whether Gideon was watching or not, Yeorae laughed weakly to herself.

The thought was so embarrassing and painful that tears gathered in her eyes.

Her nose stung.

“…”

Gideon tucked the book under his arm and gently picked up a loose strand of her hair.

A bright image appeared in his mind.

A white-haired woman with a cheerful smile.

Lillyanshus Eden.

Of course, it was only the image Yeorae had imagined from reading the novel.

It wasn’t the real Lillyanshus.

“I’ve received news that the woman you’re thinking about—Lillyanshus Eden—will arrive soon. It would be best if you returned to your world before she comes.”

I want to go back too.

Before Lillyanshus arrives.

But it’s not something I can control.

“If only I could at least know what’s happening in my own world.”

With final exams and graduation right around the corner, this situation felt unbelievably cruel.

She needed to return as soon as possible so she could study for her exams.

While Yeorae sat holding her head in worry, Gideon quietly helped with the work beside her.

A visitor from another world…

At that moment, he found himself with a reason to visit the library more often.