<CHAPTER 3>
“Oh? The first murder victim’s boyfriend. He’s been spotted at every crime scene so far. It looks like he’s searching for the person who killed his girlfriend.”
“Are we even sure he was really her boyfriend?”
“He knew the layout of the first victim’s house, and they found gifts he supposedly gave her inside. There were also witnesses who said they often saw him around the victim. So… probably?”
Alosha quietly closed her mouth.
The fact that Alexis couldn’t sense the overwhelming feeling that something was terribly wrong—something even she could easily pick up on—made her painfully aware of the author’s limitations.
Well, this isn’t exactly a professional mystery novel.
Honestly, the author should’ve just stuck to romance. Why force a detective plot into it?
“What about the victim’s closest friend? Didn’t they say anything about him?”
“It seems they were dating in secret. Even her best friend didn’t know.”
The moment Alexis finished speaking, a familiar background soundtrack—the kind that always played when mysteries were solved—started echoing inside Alosha’s head.
“What? That’s impossible. They kept their relationship a secret even from her best friend? When people fall in love, don’t they naturally want to tell everyone? You get excited, your heart races, and you want the whole world to know, This person is mine! Even if you don’t say it outright, couples always end up giving themselves away. That’s what dating is. But hiding it from your closest friend?”
“…Is that so?”
“And besides, wasn’t he one of the suspects? Aren’t you trusting his testimony way too easily?”
Alexis stared blankly for a moment before hurriedly opening his notebook, looking as if someone had smacked him across the back of the head.
“And out of all five suspects, he’s the only one who showed up every single time a murder happened. Shouldn’t he be the first person you suspect?”
“…Now that you mention it… you’re right.”
Authors often simplified the intelligence of supporting characters just to make the protagonist seem more brilliant.
Even so, Alosha simply couldn’t understand how everyone could unquestioningly believe someone this suspicious.
Is this… the original story forcing things to happen?
Well, whatever the reason, the mystery had been solved.
So now all that remained was to enjoy the romance.
Smiling to herself, she had just begun relaxing—
“Alosha!”
Her name thundered through the Knights’ headquarters.
Startled, she whipped her head toward the voice.
Alexis, looking as though he’d just rolled down a mountain, was hurrying toward her.
Beside him walked an incredibly handsome man with crimson hair and brilliant golden eyes.
Who’s… that?
He had to be around six feet one, with broad shoulders and a powerful build.
Yet somehow, his face was astonishingly small.
Every feature on that perfectly sculpted face was so striking that he looked less like a human being and more like an idol who had stepped straight out of a fashion magazine.
Just looking at him made Alosha’s heart beat a little faster.
A smile kept creeping onto her lips.
There was no way someone with looks like that was just another extra.
Is he… the male lead?
She couldn’t take her eyes off the red-haired man.
He, too, was staring at her.
His gaze overflowed with longing…
…and sorrow.
What’s with that look? Why is he staring at me like that?
Sensing the strange tension between them, Alexis smirked mischievously before nudging Alosha with his elbow.
“So? What’s going on between you two? Why are you both staring at each other like you’ve lost your souls?”
“Ah…”
Turning toward Alosha with a teasing grin, Alexis said,
“Have you… been well?”
“Yes…”
…But who are you?
“You were supposed to be training, but I guess Dain heard you’d come to the Knights and rushed all the way here.”
The instant Alosha heard the name—
Dain.
Every neuron in her frontal lobe fired at once.
In less than five seconds, her brain pieced everything together.
Wait… Dain?
Red hair.
Golden eyes.
Ridiculously handsome.
And his name…
Dain.
Countless novel titles flashed through her mind like strips of film before stopping on one.
No way.
It can’t be.
Right… It has to be someone else with the same name.
There’s no way…
No matter the world, Surely not… was always the magic phrase people used when they desperately wanted reality to prove them wrong.
Whether she denied it or not, the lines she’d once read began replaying inside her mind.
> The first place Dain visited after returning through time was House Nocturne, where Alexis and his younger sister Alosha had been murdered by the villain, Whistler.
Stop! Don’t keep advancing the story inside my head!
Not this novel! Anything but this one!
Her desperate scream went unheard.
Her memories continued dragging sentence after sentence back into consciousness.
> “We need House Nocturne’s support if we’re going to build a force capable of opposing Whistler!”
> He had to gather allies and eliminate Whistler.
> He refused to die another meaningless death like in his previous life.
> When Dain visited Alexis and House Nocturne to discuss the future, Alosha came out to greet him, wearing a blue dress with her long hair beautifully braided.
I said stop thinking about it!
Unfortunately, there was no pause button for the human brain.
No matter how loudly she protested, the movie in her head refused to stop.
> Alexis said something teasing while looking back and forth between Dain and his younger sister.
> Dain never heard a word.
> He still remembered Alosha’s final moments—her head severed from her body.
> Seeing her alive again filled him with overwhelming relief… and unbearable guilt.
That single paragraph alone made Alosha feel like someone watching twenty thousand words of unsaved manuscript vanish in a sudden blackout.
I’m screwed.
This… wasn’t a romance fantasy at all, was it?
This wasn’t the romance novel she’d thought she’d entered.
It was the bleak fantasy epic her closest author friend had written all the way to Chapter 560—
.
She’d hoped she was wrong.
But now she knew she wasn’t.
Alosha bit down hard on her lower lip.
So this… is what it feels like when the sky falls.
Before long, despair transformed into burning anger directed at one very specific person.
You evil witch! How could you ruin my perfect romance-fantasy life like this?!
As was customary in every possession story, memories of the day before she arrived in this world naturally resurfaced.
—
“I got roasted again because of the worldbuilding and plot consistency.”
“I told you. Stop writing stories that make your brain hurt and just write romance fantasy like I do.”
“No way! That cheesy stuff isn’t for me. I want to become a bestselling fantasy author!”
Watching her friend Sea bury her face in the dining table, Hyoju shook her head before taking another sip of cola.
Romance fantasy certainly had its own challenges.
But traditional fantasy—read by people of every age—was far more unforgiving.
Readers obsessed over every tiny detail of the setting.
Self-proclaimed experts appeared out of nowhere to criticize historical accuracy.
Keyboard warriors camped in the comment section twenty-four hours a day.
Yet despite all that, Sea stubbornly refused to abandon traditional fantasy.
Hyoju honestly admired her determination.
“Still, at least you finished it. What was the title again?”
She had genuinely forgotten.
Sea slowly lifted her head from the table, looking utterly betrayed.
“Wow. Your own friend’s novel, and you don’t even remember the title?”
“I read fifty chapters because it was your novel. You know I don’t really read anything except romance. Besides, you never read my books because you said they gave you secondhand embarrassment.”
Sea looked hurt for a second before sighing in reluctant agreement.
“Well… that’s true.”
“So? What’s it called?”
“The Regressed Count’s Good-for-Nothing Son Saves the World from the Villain.”
As Sea tossed the leftover chicken bones into the trash bag, she answered casually.
The title sounded like countless generic fantasy web novels.
But Hyoju knew every one of Sea’s works was actually a serious, heavy traditional fantasy.
I bet people only cursed it because they got tricked by the title…
Lighthearted novels might have been the trend.
Still, there would always be readers who considered Sea’s novels their favorite comfort food.
Even if fantasy wasn’t her preferred genre, Hyoju believed every fan should respect different tastes.
Trying to comfort her discouraged friend, she recalled what she’d read through Chapter Fifty.
“So… House Nocturne, right? The male lead’s friend’s little sister… what was her name? Did she and the male lead end up together?”
“Oh! Alosha? Of course I killed her. Around Chapter Sixty, she got caught helping the male lead against Duke Whistler… so the entire family got wiped out as an example.”
Sea casually drew a finger across her throat.
Hyoju was speechless.
“What?! Why? She was the only part of your novel that actually interested me!”
“I had to. Otherwise the male lead wouldn’t awaken.”
For fifty chapters, Alosha had been the only woman constantly appearing beside Dain.
Hyoju couldn’t understand why her friend had reduced her to nothing more than a tragic sacrifice for the hero’s development.
“She died that early? The male lead cared about her so much that I thought they’d end up getting married!”
In a romance fantasy, fifty chapters was more than enough time for the leads to kiss—
—or even go much further.
If that didn’t happen, readers would metaphorically drag the author to the guillotine in the comments and burn them at the stake.
“Fantasy isn’t like romance fantasy. There may be people who fall for the hero, but romantic endings aren’t all that common.”
“Still… what a waste. They looked so perfect together. Then who does the male lead marry?”
“Hey, you’ve never even dated yourself, so why are you trying to live vicariously through fictional characters? If you’re that desperate for romance, why don’t you just date someone?”
Hyoju froze in utter disbelief.
“What?! That’s way too harsh! You’re telling a pure-blooded otaku like me to have a real relationship? Do you have any idea how horrifying that sounds? I’m only interested in men who live inside my monitor.”
Seeing Hyoju answer with complete seriousness, Sea clicked her tongue in exasperation.
