CH 1

In the noisy tavern, the innkeeper kept checking the wall clock with her head stretched out.

She had been glancing at the clock so much that she had wiped the same glass about five times.

People were each having conversations, seemingly all talking about the same subject.

“When is she coming? I’m dying of curiosity…!”

“Why, who? Who’s coming?”

“She’s a regular here, but she’s quite unusual. She knows all sorts of stories. And she’s quite… cute.”

“But she’s not from around here! She drinks some really strange stuff….”

“Right! Something like so-maek?”

At that moment,

a person with a suspicious aura entered the tavern.

The boisterous noise quieted down, and everyone’s eyes focused on her.

The strange atmosphere she exuded made people automatically hold their breath.

A small figure wrapped in a thick cloak.

“You’ve finally arrived!”

The innkeeper, who had been wiping the glass, shouted cheerfully as if she had been waiting.

“What news do you bring this time?”

The innkeeper’s busy hands started mixing various liquors in a hurry.

She seemed to be struggling to make a drink that wasn’t even on the menu. It looked like it was for the stranger.

As the suspicious person walked into the center, people made their way, naturally creating a spot for her.

Many in the tavern gathered around her. Some approached familiarly, while others hovered nearby out of curiosity.

“Hmm.”

She cleared her throat softly. Her gentle voice didn’t match her somewhat rough appearance.

“Heather, how have you been? Where did we leave off?”

Her soft, cheerful, and warm voice instantly dispelled the eerie atmosphere that had surrounded her.

If you had seen her often in this tavern, you would be familiar with it, but if not, it was quite a surprising voice.

“Oh right, today’s story will be really interesting.”

As she spoke, she lowered the hood of her cloak that had been covering her face, revealing a lush auburn hair.

It was messily tied down, but the wavy strands sticking out to the side stood out.

It was unmistakably a woman.

A small exclamation of surprise came from those waiting for the storyteller, most of them admiring her beauty.

The innkeeper, looking proud for no reason, placed the specially made drink in front of her.

“Well, any story you tell couldn’t be uninteresting.”

She was undoubtedly the only one in this country who drank such a concoction.

Somaek, or whatever it’s called.¹소맥 is a South Korean beer cocktail made with soju and beer

“I don’t know if it turned out well this time….”

“Thank you.”

She lifted the glass, which looked bigger than her face, and lightly tasted it.

The innkeeper, with an expectant look, watched her closely.

“How is it…?”

After taking a sip and swallowing a few gulps, she looked at the innkeeper with sparkling eyes.

“You’re getting better and better, Heather! It’s really delicious!”

Her clear and mysterious green eyes shone even brighter with satisfaction.

“Hahaha! That’s a relief.”

The innkeeper laughed heartily and looked at her.

“For some reason, I always want to hear more praise from you.”

She gave the innkeeper a bright smile and lifted her glass again.

From the moment you first saw her, it was like that. Probably everyone felt the same way.

Even though she was a stranger, she was inexplicably likable, and the more you talked to her, the more you got drawn in.

She was unique and mysterious, unlike anyone else. She used expressions you’d never heard before and knew a lot of things.

These traits only enhanced her mysterious aura, so it didn’t feel strange at all.

She wiped the foam from the beer off her lips with her sleeve.

“So, what story are you going to tell today?”

She smiled at the people urging her and looked around.

“Is there anyone here from Trinade?”

It probably doesn’t matter….

She mumbled softly, then after a brief pause, she began to speak.

“Has anyone here heard of the Duke of Tranade?”

The Duke of Trinade… Kaiel Ceder?

People nodded. How could they not know the second son of the Emperor of this empire?

“Then why do you think someone as high-ranking as the Emperor’s second son is living as a Duke in the cold and harsh Tranade instead of here in Sheriton?”

People looked puzzled. They each tried to guess why in their heads.

“Why is that?”

A man, unable to contain his curiosity, asked.

Everyone listened intently, and even the innkeeper stopped what he was doing to listen closely.

After a moment of suspense, she spoke softly.

“That’s because that Duke is a complete… piece of trash.”

Thud.

The innkeeper dropped the cup he was holding. Was he shocked by the vulgarity that came out of her mouth?

At that moment,

Ding.

A notification sound broke the brief silence.

However, she was the only one who heard it; no one else heard the notification sound.

Of course, it was a virtual sound that only she could hear.

Soon, something magical happened.

A flat, translucent window appeared before her eyes.

[You have tarnished the reputation of the villain Kaiel.]
[Plausibility score increases by 3 points.]

This window was also a virtual one that only she could see.

She quickly checked the window that appeared before her eyes and sighed inwardly.

‘Sorry, Kaiel. I have no choice.’

The light reflecting in her eyes from the window faded away.

Delia Averbit.

Just as the innkeeper Heather and others felt about her, she was unique, mysterious, and anything but ordinary.

The many stories, knowledge, and interesting expressions she shared were not things that could be known in this world.

Because she was a person from another world, from the 21st century in a place called South Korea.

***

One evening when the night sky was unusually pitch black, she finished writing a novel she had been serializing for over a year.

<Lapocia>.

A fantasy novel with a common storyline where a righteous protagonist defeats an evil and cruel villain, filled with fights, death, betrayal, and conspiracies.

Even though it was a cliché story, she had quite a few readers because of her excellent writing skills.

She started writing it to include all her preferences, so the ending was also purely to her taste.

‘No matter what the readers say, it’s my story, so I’ll do it my way!’

Even during serialization, she completely ignored readers’ opinions and dug her own tunnel stubbornly, so the ending was no different.

From around the middle of the novel, she had one concern,

‘Kaiel Ceder.’

A character in the villain position in the novel. He was the problem.

Most novels have the basic and core structure where the protagonist defeats the villain. In other words, the villain must be defeated.

However, perhaps because the villain was a character drawn purely to her taste,

she became excessively attached to the villain character ‘Kaiel Ceder.’

Due to her petty preference, the story that had been progressing well suddenly took a sharp turn into a plot where the villain prospered.

Readers thought this was the frustrating part, hoping for a satisfying resolution.

But.

‘Sorry, readers. I’m really sorry.’

The words she typed eventually created a failed work where the villain killed the protagonist and ruled as the strongest in the world.

It was an absurd ending without properly unraveling the villain’s reasons and backstory.

And the day after the final episode was uploaded.

[Author, come out. Are you kidding?]

[tlqkf]²If you write the Korean word ‘시발’ (which means ‘f*ck’ or ‘wtf’) with forgetting to change Korean keyboard mode to English mode, it will be written as ‘tlqkf’ (urban dictionary)

[Hahahahaha Did I pay to read this until now for this? Hahahaha]

[It’s just a failed work. I should have dropped it when it started getting frustrating after the middle…]

[It was such a mess that I only watched the last episode and it’s legendary lol I praise myself for dropping it early.]

…….

She was doing her best to ignore the comments pouring in without a break.

Ding.

Until an unrealistic hologram-like window appeared before her eyes.

[Plausibility destruction, plausibility destruction. The readers’ intense resentment and heated curses have activated the ‘Author Takes Responsibility’ system.]

“What, what is this?”

[Enter the novel and change the ending yourself.]
[Automatic teleportation to the novel world in 10 seconds.]

“What?”

[10, 9, 8, 7….]

“No-.”

[6, 5, 4….]

“I don’t want to!”

[3, 2, 1.]

“I don’t….”

Before she could finish speaking, her surroundings turned into a pitch-black space.

[Assist the protagonist ‘Niol Roches’ to secure plausibility and eliminate the villain ‘Kaiel Ceder’.]
[However, the villain’s life must be taken by the author’s own hands. Only then can the author fulfill their responsibility.]

Only the blue light of the system window glowed softly in the darkness.

[Once the author fulfills their responsibility, the ‘Author Takes Responsibility’ system will be terminated.]

Thus, she began her journey to change the ending by possessing the failed novel she wrote.

***