Chapter 3
It’s a romance fantasy!
After the female protagonist dies, the story continues!
And in the end, even the male protagonist dies!
Thanks to the huge shocking ending, the story became a hot topic in every community, and there were numerous comments on the final chapter.
[Is this the novel where both protagonists die? The one where only the last chapter matters?]
[┗ No, you don’t even need to read the last chapter. Refund me all the money I spent on this, you jerks!]
[Seriously, is the author insane? Did they just give up on the story? Is this the end of Part 1? Is there going to be a Part 2? Honestly, this makes no sense! Author, at least release a side story! No side stories either? That’s just ridiculous!]
[┗ Hahaha, are you really going to pay for a side story like this? Are you a fool or what?]
Having also been following along and enduring the “sweet potato” (frustrating) moments in the story for 300 chapters, I couldn’t help but join in and vent my own frustration in the comments.
[What kind of ending is this? What is the author even doing!?]
‘…Is this why I reincarnated into this story?!’
But I wasn’t the only one leaving such comments. So why was I the only one?!
I momentarily looked at the world that had become my reality. The handsome male protagonist standing beside me, the late summer heat, the delicious tropical fruits exuding fragrance. I turned to the shopkeeper who was waiting for my order.
“Four mangoes, two bunches of grapes, four kiwis, and one bunch of bananas, please.”
The shopkeeper swiftly packed everything into a bag, and Davin pulled out a small glass bottle filled with silver needles from his coat. He began poking the fruit the shopkeeper handed me, sticking the needle deep into each one. The shopkeeper was surprised to see him stabbing the perfectly good fruit with needles, but I quickly handed over some silver coins.
“Keep the change…”
The shopkeeper politely accepted the coins and didn’t seem to care anymore whether Davin poked the fruits with needles or not.
Davin continued to poke every piece of fruit with the silver needles. When he was about to poke each grape, I stopped him.
“Let’s poke those later when we eat them. It’ll be a hassle if the juice starts dripping while we carry them.”
Davin agreed with my suggestion and carefully repacked the fruit in the bag. I looked at the stuffed paper bag and felt a slight regret.
“Did I buy too much?”
“No, it’s fine. It’s not heavy.”
Then Davin bent his arm and extended it toward me to escort me. I placed my hand on his arm. I could feel the crisp texture of his perfectly pressed uniform on my hand.
Although I felt good being treated so respectfully, I couldn’t help but feel guilty.
Since he always had to be ready to draw his sword, I held the bag with my left hand and used my right to hold his arm when there were no enemies around. When enemies showed up, he would unsheathe his sword…
‘…Hmm, I don’t know if I can keep living like this.’
I felt a bit suffocated.
Davin had been enduring the assassins’ attacks and handing them over to the police, but the situation hadn’t improved at all.
‘I still haven’t resolved why they’re trying to kill me…’
In the original story, the one who killed Anis was Duke Laphtan, who wanted to place his daughter on the throne as empress. He assassinated Anis because she was the emperor’s fiancée.
‘And I’m still not dead.’
Letting out a sigh without realizing it, Davin turned to me and asked,
“Is something bothering you?”
“Ah, I was just thinking about what to do next…”
I trailed off as I spoke to Davin. As I hesitated, Davin’s face stiffened, likely recalling the difficult situation we were in.
“We can’t keep living like this. Shouldn’t we just run away?”
I couldn’t hide the anxiety in my voice and begged Davin. I wanted to escape this crumbling empire with the protagonists as soon as possible.
If I don’t die, the protagonists won’t try to avenge Anis’s death, and I don’t care if the empire falls or not.
I didn’t see a reason to protect the original story, which had caused such a heated reaction over its tragic ending!
So, I thought it would be best to escape this empire as soon as possible.
But,
“No, it’s not too late to decide after contacting His Majesty. We’ve successfully gone out to the city today, so next time, we’ll find a safe way to the imperial palace.”
Once again, Davin opposed my idea with a firm expression.
“…I really think it’d be better to just escape.”
I subtly protested as I didn’t trust the emperor at all. Davin shook his head.
“First, we need to understand who is targeting Anis and why. Until we know that, no matter where we go, they will chase us.”
That was the problem.
I knew who was after me and why, but I still hadn’t figured out a convincing way to explain this to the protagonists, who thought I had lost my memory.
‘I want to tell them… “It’s Duke Laphtan trying to kill me because I’m the emperor’s fiancée, so let’s just break off the engagement and run away!”’
But how could I explain that convincingly to them?
Once I break off the engagement with the emperor, the assassination attempts on me would stop immediately. But since I couldn’t think of a way to explain this to them, I just bit my lip in frustration.
“If His Majesty helps us, the situation will get easier.”
Davin spoke reassuringly, and seeing the confidence in his voice, I felt strange.
When I saw the protagonists, who had once mistrusted the emperor, now trusting him, I couldn’t help but feel like my brain was shaking as a fan of the original story.
After all, even in the original story, Lana and Davin didn’t immediately distrust the emperor. They trusted him at first, only to be betrayed by him later, which made them angry.
Thinking about the emperor troubled me. After all, he had betrayed Anis in the original.
“…What happened to the people we sent to the imperial palace?”
“I’m not sure…”
Davin also couldn’t hide the unease in his voice as he responded weakly to my question.
Since I reincarnated, unlike the original story, Anis didn’t die and the enemies were doing everything they could to kill me quickly. As a result, the protagonists quickly realized I was in danger, and they immediately contacted the emperor.
However, the people who had gone to report this to the palace disappeared without a trace. Later, the knights of the Miller family tried to go to the imperial palace as well, but they also vanished.
The servants of the Miller estate, frightened, quit and left one by one.
Ever since then, I had started to suspect that the emperor might be in league with Duke Laphtan.
In the original story, there was no mention of the emperor being allied with Duke Laphtan. Though the emperor destroyed all the evidence Davin had collected regarding Anis’s assassination, it was portrayed as being due to pressure from the nobility. There was also a scene where the emperor mourned Anis’s death sincerely at her funeral.
In the far future, the emperor would use the accusation of Anis’s murder to oust Empress Lanie from the palace and ruin Duke Laphtan’s family. The protagonists, who were angry about the emperor betraying them, never thought he had been involved in Anis’s death.
But as the people heading to the imperial palace kept disappearing, doubts began to grow in me.
‘Could it be that the emperor is fully aware of Duke Laphtan’s plot to kill Anis and is cooperating with him?’
After all, he’s the final antagonist in the original. He’s the one who severely injured Davin with a cowardly trick, so it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to believe he’s involved in this.
While I was nurturing these suspicions about the emperor in my heart, Davin’s gaze suddenly sharpened. He had the ability to sense when enemies were approaching from afar.
“…It’s the enemies. They’re tightening their encirclement. We need to get out of here quickly.”
“Are we going to fight?”
I asked, not really worried about having to fight. We were standing in the middle of a busy street, and innocent people might get caught in the battle and be hit by poisoned arrows or poisoned swords.
“No, we can avoid them.”
But how could we avoid them when they had already surrounded us? As I blinked in confusion, Davin made a request.
“Anis, may I carry you and run?”
“Huh?”
I was momentarily stunned, but soon nodded. Davin handed me the fruit bag.
“If so, could you hold this for a moment?”
I took the bag and then, without warning, Davin scooped me up into a princess carry and ran off.
Suddenly, his beautiful face was so close to mine that I flinched, but Davin looked completely unbothered and spoke to me calmly.
“Hold onto my neck if you feel like you’re going to fall.”
“Huh? Uh, okay.”
Davin started running, carrying me effortlessly. It felt like he didn’t even notice my weight, and his steps grew faster and faster. When we entered an empty alley, he sprinted like a short-distance runner. No, his speed quickly exceeded that of a sprinter. My eyes widened in shock.
‘…Is this the speed a human can run?’
It felt like we were running at car speed?!
Then, he ran toward some boxes stacked in the corner of the alley and used them as leverage, leaping onto the building’s rooftop. I couldn’t help but gape in awe.
‘Wow…’
