ICSF 01

CHAPTER 01

Golden Family’s Golden-Surname Siblings Obsessed Fan

I’m part of the advance party. I binge-read all 130 launched chapters in just one day.

The male lead is completely obsessed, and the female lead is utterly tragic.

No-regrets obsessive, possessive confinement-trash goodness. Yummy (⋆ˆ ³ ˆ)♥

You won’t regret taking off with this one. Ah, but there’s one thing that’s a little strange…

What is this?

I was completely dumbfounded by the hallucination floating before my eyes. And for good reason—there were words written on a translucent panel, almost like a dragonfly’s wings, floating in midair.

Thanks to my family’s wealth, I had seen all sorts of unusual things, but this was the first time I had ever seen something that was transparent enough to see straight through, yet wasn’t a window.

Judging by how elaborate it seemed to be, the panel must have taken quite a bit of effort and money to make. Yet most of the writing on it was completely incomprehensible, which only made the whole situation more absurd.

“I have no idea what this means. What did they binge-read to have something called an ‘advance party’? Is it some kind of code…?”

I tentatively raised my hand. I tried to pick up the panel covered in writing, but my fingertips passed right through it, touching nothing but empty air. I recoiled in shock.

My eyes widened, and I trembled slightly before waving my hand through it again, but the letters and the panel still remained completely untouchable.

“What the…?”

There were only two possible explanations for something this incomprehensible happening. Either I had gone insane, or some crazy magician was playing a prank on me. I briefly considered the possibility that an esper was responsible, but quickly dismissed it.

‘There are only a handful of espers, and they’re supposed to be in the Imperial Palace. There’s no reason for one to come all the way to our territory—which isn’t even a frontier—and pull something like this.’

That left only one option. Unfortunately, the first possibility wasn’t exactly advantageous to me, so I had no choice but to assume it was the second.

“Who exactly are you? Why are you making fun of me?”

I spoke to the crazy magician who I assumed was watching me, my voice trembling, but no one appeared.

“Hello? Can you hear me?”

I called out desperately several more times, but the person I was looking for never showed themselves.

“My lady? Did you call me?”

Instead, my personal maid, Ena, entered the room with a puzzled expression.

Apparently, after repeatedly calling out to someone, I must have given the impression that I was summoning her. I waved my hand to tell her no, but then a thought occurred to me, so I asked:

“Ena, can you see this?”

“See what?”

“This. This right here.”

I pointed repeatedly at the panel, but Ena still looked utterly confused. When she actually asked what was there, I found myself at a loss for words and was forced to make something up.

“…Dust. It’s sparkling in rainbow colors.”

“Gasp! There’s dust? But I cleaned yesterday! I’m so sorry, my lady. I’ll clean it again right now!”

The thing sparkling in rainbow colors was actually the strange panel, of course…

Apparently unable to see it, Ena panicked at my excuse and hurried outside.

Left alone, I felt my vision grow dim.

The more time passed, the more convinced I became that the panel wasn’t some crazy magician’s prank but was actually a symptom of my own insanity.

Before long, Ena returned carrying cleaning tools and promptly kicked me out of the room, saying she needed to clean.

Unfortunately, the panel followed me wherever I went.

I felt like I was about to cry.

After being kicked out of my room, I shut myself away in my private study and examined the panel.

The situation was frightening and horrifying because I couldn’t make any sense of it, but ignoring it wouldn’t make it disappear. If I wanted to solve this problem, I had no choice but to face it.

‘I can’t keep asking other people whether they can see it…’

If I did, rumors might immediately spread that the eldest daughter of Count Estarotte had gone insane and was seeing things.

So I had to solve this on my own as much as possible.

After examining the transparent panel carefully, I determined that it was about the size of two of my hands placed together, roughly the size of a sheet of stationery.

That was why I had initially wondered whether someone had used magic to send me a secret letter.

I racked my brain as hard as I could and began analyzing the mysterious sentences.

“‘Golden Family’… Does that mean a wealthy family? If there’s an advance party heading somewhere from there… could it mean a newly developing frontier? Or perhaps a letter meant for another family was accidentally sent to me?”

Looking at the incomprehensible, code-like sentences, I suspected that might be the case.

In any event, I just hoped I wasn’t actually going insane…

As I painstakingly examined each individual word, searching for hidden meanings, I noticed a mysterious number written beneath the final sentence, which ended abruptly.

“What is this? Why 78?”

What could the number be indicating?

Whenever I got lost in thought, I had a habit of tapping things repeatedly. Without thinking, I raised my finger and pressed the number.

Naturally, I expected my finger to simply pass through the translucent panel.

But something astonishing happened.

“Gasp!”

The panel was mostly blank because only a few sentences were written on it, leaving plenty of empty space. But the moment I pressed the number, another sentence suddenly unfolded beneath it, appearing in a cascading line.

└ [Golden Family’s Golden-Surname Siblings Obsessed Fan]

(Spoiler warning) I can’t tell whether the author is obsessed with setting details or just has a character they want to torment besides the female lead, but they keep mentioning characters other than the protagonists.

And that character is such a frustrating idiot. A farmer who’s having a bumper harvest of sweet potatoes. A sweet-potato villain stuffing sweet potatoes down everyone’s throat…

It was weird how often they kept appearing, so I’ve been keeping an eye on them. At least up through Chapter 130, there hasn’t been anything particularly strange. They haven’t even met the female or male lead yet, so I have no idea why they keep getting mentioned.

I’ve even wondered whether they’re secretly the mastermind behind everything, but if that were the case, they’re acting way too weird.

└ [PleaseLookAtEvilWhiteLotusㅠㅠ]

OMG, Obsessed Fan, I see you here too. How many serializations are you binge-reading at once?

└ [MyProfilePicIsTheDemonKingSaveAlbert]

I heard this person is actually an AI bot…

└ [I’mGettingOffAtThisTranslation]

Ah, you mean that count’s family, the one with the “Estarotte-whatever” name? I’m reading it too, and they are kind of strange. I have no idea why the author even included them lol.

We’re here because we want to read about the male and female leads. We do. NOT. want. to. read. about. some. unimportant. extra. character. Author-nim. ^^

└ [M/M Mathematics Academy Director M/M]

Ah, that one lol. But don’t you think they gave her a pretty half-assed name? “Lovely”? What even is that? lol

As I continued reading, I came across several words that made my mouth fall open.

“Estarotte-whatever,” “that count’s daughter,” and the name “Lovely.”

None of those words seemed particularly meaningful on their own, but when they were put together, they clearly pointed to something.

“…Are they talking about me?”

They were.

I was Seiana Lovely Estarotte, the eldest daughter of Count Estarotte, with the nickname Lovey.

I was a little offended by the comment saying my name had been chosen without effort, but I suppressed my irritation and continued reading the text with a trembling heart.

At first, I thought it was something written by a single person. But the more I read, the more it seemed like I was looking at a transcript of a conversation between several people.

“They really are talking about me, aren’t they?”

It wasn’t as though I was the only person in the world named Lovely, but I was certainly the only Lovely in the House of Estarotte.

I was the first daughter born to the count’s family in a hundred years, so my parents, unable to contain their joy, had chosen the word meaning “lovely” as my middle name.

As a result, people often called me Lovely—or my nickname, Lovey—instead of using my actual name.

Besides, there wasn’t a single other woman among my close relatives, and the word would have been far too embarrassing to use for a man, so there was practically no chance of anyone else having the same name.

But there was something strange.

“Year 224? It’s only 220 right now…”

The year mentioned in their conversation wasn’t the present. It was the future.

There were occasional references to events further in the past, but most of the conversations took place after the year 224.

While reading, I reached another point where the sentence had been cut off. I was wondering how I could see the rest when I noticed something new on the right side of the translucent panel.

A short, bar-like object had appeared near the upper-right corner. On a whim, I lightly touched it, and discovered that I could drag it downward.

As I pulled it down, the hidden sentences slowly appeared.

‘So this is how I can see what comes next.’

Fascinated, I continued reading until I had gone through all 78 conversations.

At that point, the panel floating in midair slowly melted away and disappeared.

“Ah…”

Until just moments ago, I had been desperately wondering how to get rid of it. Yet now that it was gone, I found myself strangely flustered.

It vanished cleanly and without hesitation, as if it had no further business with me, leaving me with an unexpected sense of disappointment.

I took some paper and a pen from my desk drawer.

‘If I’m not insane, and this really is a conversation telling me about events in the future…’

As I organized the chaotic thoughts in my head, I wrote down everything I had learned.

If I was simply losing my mind, then all of this would be a waste of time. But if it was real, I needed to write everything down before my memory faded.

There would be plenty of time to doubt it later.

‘It begins in the year 224.’

Four years from now, in summer.

Perhaps the people having those conversations were beings who observed this world.

Even from a rough count, there seemed to be more than ten people watching the world I lived in. The thought made me uncomfortable.

Feeling the gaze of strangers while walking down the street was unpleasant enough, but imagining beings from a higher dimension—perhaps gods—watching me was more than unpleasant.

It was frightening.

“At least there’s one good thing. They haven’t realized that I noticed them watching me.”

According to ancient myths, gods were notoriously petty and regarded humans as insignificant creatures.

They enjoyed peeking into the lives of mortals, yet were extremely disdainful when the situation was reversed. They were selfish beings who expected only one side to be allowed to watch.

A famous example was the story of a traveler who accidentally saw a virgin goddess bathing and ended up losing both of his eyes.

‘She could have just bathed in her own temple. Why did she have to bathe in some random lake…?’

It was one of the most infuriating and unfair myths I had ever heard.

The traveler hadn’t even intentionally looked at her, yet she showed no mercy and took away both his eyes.

If these beings realized that I had been secretly reading their conversation, I couldn’t even imagine what they might take from me.

“…Especially since the contents of their conversation are prophecies.”

It certainly wouldn’t end with my eyes.

I was almost beginning to think that it would be far better if I really were insane and merely hallucinating.

With a sigh, I looked down at the sheet of paper where I had written my notes.

The story they were talking about began in the year 224.

It began with the person they called the female lead meeting the person they called the male lead.

I didn’t know whether “female lead” and “male lead” were their actual names, or whether those terms referred collectively to the roles in a fate that the gods had predetermined…