Despite leaving with firm mental preparation, I continued to feel anxious.

Was that woman really Serena Tianel?

If so, how could she speak Korean?

Surely she wouldn’t try to kill me after being the one who asked to meet?

“You’re fidgeting nervously, human woman.”

“You said you’re confident about running away, right?”

Martin nodded at my question and swished his long tail.

“I am a cheetah beastman. I’m confident in running away!”

Then he quickly circled around me.

I sighed and pressed my forehead.

All I could do was pray that she wouldn’t bring that damn Archmage.

Calix had clearly said that only the current Archmage, a Grand Magician, could break through the temple’s barrier and even penetrate the highest-level magic, Meteor.

But would bringing Martin be effective at all?

I had the necklace Calix gave me, but against a Grand Magician, I would obviously be subdued before I could even put it in my mouth.

“……Excuse me. I get it, so stop spinning.”

“Understood!”

I searched for the dagger in my leather bag, which was almost tattered from overuse, and gripped it tightly.

And I brainwashed myself.

I’m someone who defeated even that supposedly great Oracle of Fate and returned! An Archmage is nothing……!

“Let’s go.”

“I just need to take you outside the imperial palace?”

“Probably.”

I clutched my rapidly beating heart from tension and climbed onto Martin’s back.

I had to face this head-on.

If Serena Tianel were Korean like me, we could communicate.

We had to.

“I’m jumping down from here, human. Hold tight!”

As soon as I got on, Martin leaped out the window.

“Aaaahhhh!”

I thought things might have gone a little wrong.

I screamed too loudly…

As I expected, Calix in the next room slid open his window and looked outside.

And incredibly, our eyes met.

Ah, not just a little wrong—this is really bad.

“Your Highness! I’m sorryyyy!”

“Rose Estanya!”

Calix called my name urgently with an incredulous face.

“Where are you going, damn it!”

“Don’t follow me! Please!”

“Stop right there!”

“I’ll explain when I get back!”

Fortunately, Martin was really fast. We hadn’t gone far, but Calix’s shouts were already fading.

“Hmm, human woman. We were caught by the master. What should we do?”

Martin’s running was so fast that I couldn’t keep my eyes open because of the wind. Before I could answer, he urged again.

“Still, you’ll give me four chickens. You promised, human woman!”

“Geez, you keep saying ‘human woman, human woman’! Call me Rose!”

“Understood!”

I’m doomed. I felt like crying.

What am I going to tell Calix when I get back?

Damn it.

***

As soon as we passed through the imperial palace gates, the brown-haired woman I had seen before appeared before me, as if she had been waiting.

She was hanging from the wall with her hair dangling down.

“I believed you would come.”

“Ahhh!”

The woman grabbed my shoulder firmly. Instantly, the space around us began to flip.

Soon, what appeared before my eyes was a messily cluttered reception room.

I had been dropped into an unfamiliar space while still riding on Martin. The woman who brought me here was looking at me with an excited face.

Of course, as I had ominously predicted, the Archmage from that day was also present.

“Please sit comfortably.”

I was dumbfounded. Sit comfortably? In this situation?

Martin, who had been carrying me, quickly assessed the woman in front of me and, apparently deciding she had no intention to attack, put me down on the floor.

First, I sat down as the woman suggested and stared at her quietly.

What on earth did she want to talk about that she called me here? And what was her relationship with the Archmage standing crookedly over there?

“First, I’m sorry about last time. The situation was too complicated then……”

“What do you mean?”

At my words, the woman gulped and gestured to the Archmage standing beside her to leave.

He obediently left, and the woman stared at the floor for a while before speaking with difficulty.

“Aren’t you also someone summoned by Kemesis?”

For a moment, I was speechless.

‘What is she talking about? Kemesis?’

One thing seemed certain. Coming to meet this woman despite the risk had been quite a good choice.

“……Kemesis summoned you?”

The woman sighed deeply and pressed her forehead at my question.

She seemed troubled, too.

“You’re Korean, right?”

The woman began speaking in Korean with a serious expression.

She seemed worried that Martin, sitting blankly beside me, swishing his tail, would report to Calix.

In response, I took off my necklace, put it in my bag, and spoke in Korean.

“Who are you? Why did you suddenly try to kill the Crown Prince?”

The woman answered my question.

“Who are you? Why were you sticking by the Crown Prince’s side?”

Then silence fell. Instinctively, I knew we were curious about the same things. Who the other person was. What were they moving for?

I looked at the woman quietly before speaking.

“Isn’t it polite to identify yourself first when you’ve invited someone?”

The woman bit her lip firmly, then closed her eyes tightly before opening them and answering my question.

“Fine. You’re right. This is embarrassing, but… do you know about ‘The Empire of the Blood Moon’?”

As the woman finished speaking, the atmosphere became solemn.

“……You know about it.”

“……Yes.”

The woman frowned once as if troubled, then looked me in the eye with a resolute expression as if she had made some decision.

“Then you can probably guess who I am, right?”

“Serena Tianel. Correct?”

The woman nodded at my words.

“Yes. But more precisely, I’m another person who possessed Serena Tianel.”

She gritted her teeth.

“Forcibly, at that.”

I could see her fists trembling, white with tension. She continued in a low voice.

“Kemesis destroyed Serena Tianel’s soul and put me in this body. I, who was living perfectly fine. I wasn’t even hit by some reincarnation truck or anything. I was just reading that novel in my bed. Quietly.”

I frowned. Wait, does that mean she didn’t die? The woman sighed deeply and spoke to me.

“Maybe that’s why I sometimes see my body lying in a hospital. I’m definitely still alive.”

The diary said my body disappeared.

And I was hit by a car and came here. I died, but this woman is saying she’s still alive?

The Oracle of Fate clearly said that bringing a perfectly healthy person required many constraints.

Then, with what power did Kemesis bring her here when she was perfectly alive?

“What do you mean?”

The woman laughed hollowly at my question and answered.

“Just as I was reading the last page of the book, someone grabbed the back of my neck.”

The woman started trembling with what seemed like anger.

“When I came to my senses, I was inside this woman’s body. I was really dumbfounded.”

I listened to the woman’s story silently.

“They told me that I was a soul chosen by the main god and that I would change the fate of this world or something.”

The woman smiled slightly and said to me.

“If you’re in the same situation as me, I believe you’ll understand perfectly why I burned down the temple and why I tried to kill the male lead.”

Yes. I could understand the woman’s feelings.

If I had become Serena Tianel, I would have been angry at being suddenly abducted, too.

Since the original ending had no dreams or hope, I would have wanted to somehow deal with the dangerous factor, Calix.

Above all, according to the original work, Serena Tianel’s end was terrible.

Still, I was angry. No matter how much I understood her, she had tried to kill Calix.

“……How much do you know?”

I asked carefully.

“How much do you know?”

My head was spinning.

So, to summarize, the woman in front of me was forcibly summoned by Kemesis.

Unlike Morisias, who prepared Rose’s body over 400 years, Kemesis killed the soul of the perfectly alive Serena Tianel and put this world’s soul into her.

She knows. That Morisias summoned me.

I sighed briefly and looked straight at the woman.

“If you promise me one thing, I’ll tell you what I know.”

The woman smiled slightly at my words and said.

“Let’s hear it first.”

I glanced toward the door. The Archmage was outside.

I don’t know how this woman came to move together with the Archmage, but…

“Cooperate with us. I need to help the Crown Prince.”

The woman frowned as if she didn’t understand.

“Why? The male lead was clearly a notorious tyrant in the original work. Everyone around him dies.”

I shrugged at the woman’s words.

“I’m perfectly alive.”

And I gave her a slight smile.