Summer stuck her head out the window and was hit directly by the wind.
Only then did she come to her senses and realize that the carriage had finally arrived at its destination. “……Here. Please let me down.” Summer hurriedly clutched her dress with one hand and gestured. The coachman noticed Summer's dazed expression and stopped the carriage. “Miss, I…” “Don’t worry. I just plan to look around the store and come back.” Summer, who had jumped out of the carriage in a hurry, swayed heavily for a moment. The surprised coachman tried to support her, but Summer quickly straightened up and smiled as if nothing had happened. “Goodbye.” A firmly drawn line. The coachman, being quite perceptive, bowed deeply in silence and drove away. She couldn’t convey the request to lower her voice next time. Only after the coachman left did Summer stagger freely and plop down on a nearby bench. There was a particularly striking part of his words. My judgment. Summer thought deeply. But no matter how much she thought about it, this wasn’t a matter of life and death, so the words of the characters in the novel were of no use at all. “Right. Today is a good day. I can’t miss it.” Suddenly standing up, Summer recalled an episode from a book. The villainess Legacy Young-ae had come here to buy poison to assassinate Julian. Though she stumbled a bit trying to follow the description in the book, she smoothly arrived at a store that was quite familiar despite being her first visit. “I can’t be stopped.” With a triumphant air, Summer opened the door and stepped inside the store. The shop was dark but fairly tidy. The clerk was surprisingly well-dressed, yet there was an inexplicable sense of suspicion. “What are you looking for?” “Ah, I came to buy Blenkis’ Breath.” Blenkis’ Breath was a deadly poison that would kill you before you even felt pain upon drinking it. Upon hearing Summer’s words, the clerk widened his eyes in surprise and quickly disappeared to the back of the store, only to return shortly after. When the clerk came back, he held an opaque brown bottle in his hand. “Here it is.” “Is this enough for the price?” Summer took off a hair ornament and placed it down. The clerk examined the ornament with sharp eyes, then smiled broadly and accepted it. “That’s sufficient.” “Well then, goodbye.” At a glance, she seemed to have a high status. A polite greeting given to a commoner. The item purchased was a deadly poison. Ding. As Summer exited, the bell rang loudly. The clerk stared at the door for a long time, as if tracking her presence after she left. “What kind of person is that?” The clerk muttered, gazing blankly at the creaking wooden door. He had only seen one person buy that poison before. The other customer who had come for Blenkis’ Breath had sent a servant to make the purchase, and it was obvious that they were a high-ranking noble who knew how to handle people skillfully. From the atmosphere, it seemed like a scene from a romantic drama was about to unfold. But this time, the noblewoman who bought the poison was a bit different. Her dazzling blonde hair and somewhat gloomy blue eyes were etched in his mind. “Could it be…” Surely, it couldn’t be someone crazy enough to use it on herself. * * * After leaving the store, Summer hurried her steps, trying hard to ignore the heaviness in her chest. “This is enough.” Once she drank this, there would be no time to save anyone. This time, she had to return before losing all her memories. Summer tightly gripped the jewel hanging around her neck. The mineral given by Pay was warm. Strangely, touching the necklace reminded her of Mary and Daisy. It was the most trivial things, like Daisy’s bright smile or Mary’s indifferent face. “…….” As Summer headed toward the mansion, she suddenly changed direction. I don’t know. Imagining Mary and Daisy’s horrified faces as they witnessed her own death made something choke in her throat, and she simply couldn’t go to the mansion. Summer recalled the original story again. There was one place. The most beautiful location in the work, but one that was never discovered by anyone except the protagonists. Hailing a carriage, Summer opened her mouth. “Please take me to the Sacred Temple.” * * * Behind the Sacred Temple, there was a hill mentioned in the original work. It was often described as a place where, once you climbed the hill, you could see the entire living scenery, where the female and male protagonists would go on dates or escape when they wanted to flee in sorrow. The reason she thought of this place was not only because it was beautiful but also because it was a consideration for the real Summer who would be reborn in this body. If she returned to her original world, even for a moment, Summer’s body would be in a state of death, and it would be a disaster if people discovered her. A person who died and came back to life. It was a perfect setup for a horror story in a romance fantasy. “It’s refreshing.” Summer leaned against a tree and stretched out her hand. A gentle breeze brushed past her. From this hill, she could truly see the village below. “Looking at it like this, it really feels like I’m alive.” Summer murmured as she rested her head against the tree. Customers haggling in the market, merchants trying to get their fair price, children running by with wooden dolls, maids dressed particularly neatly as if on holiday shopping, laughter, and conversations. Everything felt alive. Feeling as if she had stepped into a movie set all alone, Summer let out a faint smile. “I have to go back.” She took the bottle out of her pocket. When she opened the lid, she saw liquid sloshing inside. Without hesitation, Summer brought the bottle to her lips. This is alcohol. This is alcohol. She chanted to herself. But as the liquid touched her lips, Summer couldn’t help but tightly shut her eyes. Will it hurt? The dead do not speak. How painful is it to die, how much does it hurt? If this deadly poison allows one to die without pain, what if, in reality, dying is extremely painful? Doubt began to spiral endlessly. ‘Still, I have to go back.’ A story is beautiful when it is just a story. Reality… is it beautiful because it is reality? If reality was beautiful, why did I end up reading this work? As Summer let out a weary sigh and opened her closed lips. “What are you doing?” Summer stared blankly at the medicine bottle that had fallen into the grass in the distance. A clear liquid dripped from the bottle’s opening. If she had drunk that, she would surely have died. She could have returned. Turning her head sharply, she first noticed the lavender hair. As the wind blew, the lavender hair parted, revealing the beautiful man’s lavender eyes. “Uh… who are you,” “Why would you wish to take your own life on the sacred ground of the Sacred Temple?” He was white and beautiful, dressed in white garments adorned with golden threads. Someone who could wear such clothes would be, “The Pope…?” “Do you know me? If so, you can trust me. I will provide you with a room inside the temple.” Summer looked up at the Pope with a dazed expression. No matter how she looked at him, he appeared to be in his early twenties. How could someone like that ascend to the position of Pope? The protagonists of the world were Julian Dudley and Ian Langerster. The temple was a political group that acted for its own benefit and served as the antagonist that heightened the tension in the story. Later, they would switch sides to Julian. He was a supporting character. The Pope had less significance than the villain Perotia. “I will follow you.” “You made a good decision.” With a gentle smile, the Pope took off his outer priestly robe and covered Summer with it as they entered the temple. The place the Pope guided her to was none other than the Pope’s bedroom. Summer sat in an armchair, quietly clasping her hands together. It was as if all her energy had drained away, making even breathing feel exhausting. “My name is,” “Your Holiness, right?” Summer cut him off neatly. She didn’t want to get too close to the Pope. Later, Julian would manifest his divine power and switch sides to Julian, but until then, he was the antagonist. And she had initially sided with Julian purely for the temple’s benefit. Above all, in this world, the Pope could not have a name. Names belong to humans, so the Pope lost his name and was simply referred to by his role, like a god. “They say gods have no names. So, Your Holiness, you too, right?” As Summer added her words, she quietly surveyed the room. The Pope’s room was neat and tidy. It was a place that contrasted sharply with the grandeur of the temple. “……Yes. That’s correct.” The Pope’s eyes widened in surprise for a moment, then he chuckled softly in response. Somehow, the Pope exuded a more relaxed atmosphere than a sacred one.