"…Mary."
There was uncertainty in Summer's voice. Summer still found the suddenly changed Mary strange and uncomfortable.
It was like witnessing a robot melt down in front of her and transform into a human.
Neither truly human nor a character, but an ambiguous existence. That was Mary.
And in fact, Summer herself was the same kind of being. This was a form of self-loathing.
"Miss. Is there something you need?"
"Do you have any party invitations?"
"Of course. I'll bring them."
"If it's a party Lady Dudley will be attending, even better."
Summer gave the instructions in a deliberately stiff voice, not even meeting Mary's eyes.
Nevertheless, Mary quickly returned with a stack of invitations.
"That many?"
Summer sighed at the sheer number of invitations.
During the social season, various families hosted numerous parties to foster interactions among the nobility. And in this empire, there were an overwhelming number of families. Thus, tonight was doomed.
As expected, Summer had to spend the entire day sorting through the invitations.
By the time she had narrowed it down to families that appeared frequently in the novel, it was already late into the evening.
"Wow, I'm really exhausted…"
"How about some lemon tea?"
Startled by the sudden voice, Summer looked up. Mary, with her round face dotted with freckles, stood there.
"Oh, Mary. It's okay. Just deliver this and then you can go rest too."
"Understood. Have a good night, Miss."
Mary gathered the sorted invitations and left the room. Summer, utterly exhausted, collapsed onto the desk, unable to make it to the bed.
"Staring at handwriting even here."
Suddenly, Summer felt like crying.
It was a world inside a novel anyway. Wouldn't everything proceed as the original work if she just messed around?
Just like Countess Lindsey, who recited her lines no matter what Summer said, wouldn't everyone else act according to their predetermined roles?
"Yeah. Why should I care?"
A world that was just text. What would it matter if it all went wrong? Being criticized for breaking etiquette? They weren't even truly alive, so what did it matter if they cursed her?
She just wanted to go home. Oh, but she wanted to meet Julian once before she did.
"If I get her autograph… could I take it home…"
Sleepiness heavily tinged Summer's muttering voice. No. Could she even go home in the first place?
Traveling abroad was confusing enough, but she was in an entirely different world now. She had no idea how to leave.
Soon, Summer succumbed to fatigue and fell asleep right there.
* * *
About an hour after she had fallen asleep, the window in Summer's room was carefully opened.
The cold air seeping in through the open window caused Summer to shiver slightly in her sleep.
Gradually waking up, Summer rubbed her still sleepy eyes. At that moment, something warm and soft pressed against her arm.
“Eek!”
Fully awake in an instant, Summer fell backward with a loud thud. Despite the noise, no one came running since it was an event outside the original story.
From her position on the floor, Summer stared at the intruder.
The intruder, who had entered through the window, was a jet-black cat with mysterious purple eyes.
Seeing it, Summer immediately thought of Coco, the cat from her family home.
“Coco?”
“Sorry, but that’s not my name.”
Dear God. The cat spoke. It spoke like a person, and very fluently at that. Summer quickly scrambled onto her bed, curling up in fear.
The cat, meanwhile, licked its front paws leisurely, then jumped down from the desk.
“Hello, Summer. Are you the one I’ve been looking for?”
“Do you… know me?”
“Of course.”
The cat, now standing in front of Summer, suddenly raised its two front paws. Its body began to grow and transform until it took the shape of a human.
The human-turned-cat was a young girl with purple eyes and purple hair.
“Who… who are you?”
Summer asked, terrified. The girl replied cheerfully.
“Me? I’m the greatest witch in this world. You can call me Fey.”
The witch spoke proudly, puffing out her chest.
The fact that a cat had turned into a human was shocking enough, but introducing herself as a witch with such pride was even more startling.
“A witch?”
“Yes, you poor soul who wandered into the wrong world.”
“You can see my true form? You can actually talk to me? Is that right?”
Summer leaned forward, almost bursting with excitement at the witch’s words. This witch knew.
She knew that Summer was a soul that had wandered into the wrong world.
The witch covered her ears in response to Summer’s barrage of questions and waved her hand once.
“What did you just do?”
“I cast a soundproof spell. You never know who might be listening.”
“Don’t worry. No one will come.”
Summer looked down with a bitter expression. The witch nodded knowingly.
“Yeah, I suppose so. The rules here are quite strict.”
“Did you come to… rescue me?”
“Well, something like that. Summer, do you want to go back to your original world?”
“Of course! This place is horrible!”
The witch smiled satisfactorily at Summer’s response. A chilling glint flickered in her purple eyes for a moment.
“There is one way.”
The witch’s voice was enchanting, and under the moonlight, she looked both cheerful and mysterious.
“You can trust me. I’m the greatest witch and the one who will save you.”
With a flick of her hand, a teapot and teacup appeared in mid-air.
Pouring tea into the cup, the witch began to speak in an excited tone, as if something wonderful had happened.
“The natural order of everything has been disrupted. I’ve been searching for the cause. Do you know what it is? It’s you! Summer Lindsey!”
The witch was more excited than ever.
Because of this one girl, the laws and rules were broken. In the land where witches lived, water suddenly flowed backward.
The moon appeared during the day, and the sun at night. Clocks ran backward, then fast, doing whatever they wanted.
Even the dead began to move, and the living started to die.
To solve this, the witch had come to this filthy human land to find the soul that had wandered in by mistake.
“What do I need to do?”
That soul was Summer. The witch, calming her excitement, sipped her tea.
Summer Lindsey, full of confusion, watched the witch before covering her face with her hands.
“You need to fully accept this body, or go back to your original world.”
Seeing Summer’s desperate behavior, the witch softened a bit. She must be very confused. This was something that even witches found alarming.
In the midst of such chaos, it was a miracle she hadn’t gone mad yet.
“What will you do?”
Her voice softened naturally. At the witch’s question, Summer Lindsey slowly lowered her hands.
What was revealed was joy. The witch shuddered slightly.
Summer Lindsey’s face was stretched into a bizarrely wide grin. Feeling a chill, the witch took a step back.
Had she already gone mad?
“I want to go back to my original world!”
“Won’t you regret it? This world is actually quite livable.”
“I don’t care. I have to go back, no matter what.”
“Why?”
Was this world so terrible that she would respond so immediately like that?
The human possessed by the black-haired soul was a noble lady.
She was wealthy and stable, and both of her parents doted on her as their precious only daughter.
How good could her original world have been for her to answer so vehemently despite these favorable circumstances? The witch couldn’t fathom it.
“What do you mean, why? There are no computers, and no cell phones in this world. My family, my friends, and my darned acceptance letter aren’t here! Do you know how hard I worked just to get that piece of paper?”
“Wha… what?”
What kind of strange words were those? Summer's voice filled with incomprehensible words and phrases hammered at the witch’s ears.
Regardless of anything else, it was clear that this soul despised this world.
The witch had thought she had somewhat adapted to living here. Perhaps this was why the body and soul still hadn’t fully integrated.
“A monarchy! I hate it! How can someone like me, who lived in South Korea, adapt to a society like this? What if I get beheaded? No, seriously, how can a king just cut off someone’s head? Why did I have to read this? I should’ve read a rom-com instead!”
She really had gone mad. The witch shook her head sadly.
She needed to send this poor soul back to her original world as soon as possible.
While Summer calmed down from her outburst, the witch jumped up and perched herself on the windowsill.
Dangling her legs, the witch watched Summer Lindsey with the curiosity one might have for a strange animal.
“I really want to go back… Please, please, I can go back, right? Please tell me. How can I return to my original world?”
Having calmed down, Summer was now sitting and crying.
“Screaming and crying all by yourself.”
Whether the black-haired soul had really gone mad or not didn’t matter. The witch’s task was to restore this world to its proper state.
To the witch, the black-haired soul was like a frog used in a potion.
“Curious about how to go back?”
The witch’s smile stretched wide. Foolish human.
That night, the witch told Summer Lindsey the way. The only way to return to her original world.
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