Chapter 13
It was a rare, peaceful moment.
The usual troublemakers who always picked fights with Leotis—Limon and his gang—were too busy playing in the bushes to bother anyone. The headmistress, who was supposed to be supervising the children, had wandered off after running into a noblewoman for a chat.
“Don’t go too far,” she’d warned before leaving.
Thankfully, besides Limon’s group, the other children were quietly rolling around on the grass and chatting. Selena and Leotis were no different.
“Selena noona.”
Leotis called out to her while she was peacefully enjoying the fresh air.
“Hmm?”
“This.”
He’d been fiddling with his hands for a while beside her.
Leotis held out a flower bracelet clumsily woven from strands of grass. For something made purely by touch, it looked surprisingly decent.
“You made this for me?”
“Yeah.”
“Thank you, Leo.”
A soft pink hue bloomed on Leotis’s cheeks.
He gently reached out to put the flower bracelet on Selena’s wrist—
“Aaaahhh!”
A loud scream suddenly rang out.
One of the boys from Limon’s group had collapsed and was trembling with fear. His pale face was frozen in horror as he muttered in a daze.
“A m-monster… a monster…”
A monster?
Selena quickly scanned the surroundings.
‘Limon and Jack are missing.’
“Colen, calm down. What happened?”
Selena approached the panicked boy and asked. His eyes were unfocused, as if he’d seen something truly terrifying.
“The m-monster… it… it took Limon and Jack…”
“What kind of monster?”
“It was black… and huge… and…”
“And?”
“Its eyes…”
“What about its eyes?”
Suddenly, Colen’s gaze turned to Leotis.
With a trembling hand, he pointed at him.
“It—it looked like him!”
A huge, black monster that appeared out of nowhere in the forest. Limon and Jack had been taken by it.
‘Isn’t this that scene? The one where the heroine shows her purification powers for the first time in the original story?’
In the original story, the heroine was living a peaceful life, surrounded by love and affection from her family. One day, she happened to overhear her parents talking.
“Two kids from the neighboring village went missing?”
“Yes. They were from an orphanage, went to gather firewood and never came back. There’ve been a lot of strange rumors lately… it’s worrisome.”
The rumors spoke of a monster appearing in the forest behind Trice Village. Although the Imperial Monster Subjugation Squad had investigated, they found no traces of it.
The heroine’s father brushed it off, thinking it was nothing to worry about since Trice was quite far from their home.
But due to a certain event, the heroine ends up going into that forest. There, in the dead of night, she encounters the monster.
And then…
‘I don’t care how the heroine dealt with it. What matters is that the kids who disappeared without a trace in the original story… are us!’
“W-what do we do?”
“Should we run?”
“What if the monster comes here?”
“But the teacher said we had to stay here…”
Panic spread among the children as they spoke over one another, their fear intensifying.
‘No. This isn’t the time to just sit here.’
“Everyone, it’s too dangerous here. We need to go back to the village.”
The kids exchanged nervous looks, then nodded at Selena’s firm tone.
“Who are you to boss us around?!”
Colen, who had finally snapped out of his daze, shouted.
Ugh. Dumb Colen. Can’t he read the room?
Selena leaned in and whispered quietly, just for him to hear.
“Colen, I’m the only one who’s noticed your pants are wet. You’d better go dry them before the others see… unless you want everyone calling you a scaredy-cat who peed himself.”
She glanced meaningfully at the dark stain on his pants and gave a sly smile. Colen’s face turned blue as he frantically nodded.
‘Okay, that’s handled. Now…’
Selena hesitated.
Should she run away with the other kids? Or go after Limon and Jack?
If she were a typical heroine, she would’ve run straight into danger to save her friends without hesitation.
‘But I’m not that kind of heroine.’
She was just a little girl—one without any powers or special abilities. Her mental age might be older, but fear didn’t discriminate.
She knew what the monster was, but not how to fight it.
‘I don’t have purification powers like the heroine.’
Logically, the right choice was to escape with the others.
‘I’m not even that righteous of a person. And it’s not like I’m close to Limon or Jack anyway.’
Yeah. They were just bullies. She didn’t need to risk her life for them.
Even so…
“Leo, go down the mountain first.”
Her mouth said something her mind hadn’t decided on.
“…Noona?”
“I’m going to get those idiots.”
Selena knew they were still alive.
The original novel said that when the heroine found them, their bodies were still warm—meaning they had just died.
‘Of all the details to remember clearly…’
It was strange.
Words she had only skimmed while reading the novel were now playing vividly in her head, like someone was reading them aloud.
She didn’t know how to fight the monster, but she did know how to save them.
‘I can’t just ignore it when I know how to stop them from dying.’
Forget justice or righteousness.
This was just… the right thing to do.
“No. Noona. Don’t go. I don’t want you to.”
Leotis shook his head and clung tightly to her clothes.
Most of the other kids had already run down the mountain. Selena didn’t have time to explain everything.
“I’m sorry, Leo. I’ll be back soon. Colen, I’m counting on you to watch Leo.”
And then she leaned in close to Colen’s ear and whispered:
“If you don’t get Leotis to safety, I’ll tell everyone you peed your pants.”
‘This sucks…’
Selena trudged through the damp earth, her heart pounding.
Should she just give up and go back?
She wanted nothing more than to turn around, grab Leotis’s hand, and run away with him.
But deep down, her conscience kept pulling her forward.
‘Okay, fine. I’ll just take a quick look. If it seems bad, I’ll bolt.’
Rustle.
‘…Huh?’
She flinched at the sound behind her.
The thick bushes rustled. She slowly backed away.
Hop!
A small rabbit leapt out and scampered away.
‘Geez, it’s just a rabbit.’
She clutched her chest, calming her nerves, and kept walking.
Rustle!
The bushes rustled again. This time, she wasn’t startled. Probably another rabbit or something.
–Awoo!
‘Huh. Was that a wolf?’
The sound was too soft to be a wolf’s.
–Awuu! Awoo!
The cries grew louder, as if calling her.
‘Do I check it out or not?’
Heroines in novels always got in trouble for checking out strange noises…
–Awooooo!
‘Wait a second… that sounds like a person!’
She cautiously stepped toward the noise.
After pushing past the dense undergrowth—
‘Huh?’
–Awoo! Awoo!
The source of the sound—a young boy—began crying louder when he saw Selena. He was tied up, hands and feet bound, a cloth gag in his mouth. His whole body struggled as he locked eyes with her.
Selena froze.
She knew who this boy was.
‘Black hair, blue eyes… There’s no doubt. He’s one of the sub male leads from the original story.’
The boy the heroine finds lost in the woods.
The timing matched perfectly. He had to be the same character.
‘This is a problem.’
If she didn’t know who he was, she would’ve run over and untied him without a second thought. But knowing he was a major side character, she hesitated.
‘Why did I have to run into him of all people?’
If she saved him now, it would mess up the story.
‘He’s supposed to lie here for a few more days and get rescued just in time by the heroine… That’s their first meeting. It’s a super important moment.’
‘Sorry, heroine… I think I’ll just walk right past him—’
–Awoo… Awoo…
His face was a mess, covered in dirt. His wrists were red and raw from struggling against the ropes. His blue eyes looked up at her, filled with desperation.
Ugh.
From the moment she stepped in this direction, her decision had already been made.
Sure, she knew the boy would survive eventually in the original. But seeing him like this, she couldn’t just ignore him.
‘I’m sorry, heroine.’
Selena sighed, picked up a sharp rock nearby, and started cutting the ropes and removing the gag.
At that moment, a scene from the original novel flashed vividly in her mind…
