“Sister, can’t you find a different job? I just don’t think this household is safe. You go to the butcher’s shop you were originally going to, and I’ll take the next opportunity……”

The anxious Sella got straight to the point. Her voice was quiet enough that the female lead couldn’t hear, of course.

“Sella, why do you keep doing this! You’re not sick somewhere again, are you?”

The original Sella, on the day Sera had transmigrated three years ago, had run such a high fever that you could feel the heat just from getting near her.

Betty, who had nursed Sella through the night until dawn, said she had been crying out of fear that her younger sister might die, and had nodded off for a moment. When she woke again, Sella’s fever had completely broken and her body was back to normal, but Sella, who couldn’t remember anything, had been looking down at her.

Most likely, the original Sella had died that day, and Sera from Korea had entered Sella’s body. Seeing her younger sister, who didn’t even know who she was, Betty had cried for a long time, saying “Thank you, Sella,” simply grateful that her sister had survived without dying.

After that, all of Sella’s memories and emotions were gradually absorbed and integrated, and Sera slowly became Sella. But even as she found her footing, from that point on, Betty had always tended to worry about Sella’s health.

Just like right now. Watching her younger sister with that look of concern, as she did things that made no sense.

“I’m not sick, I just want Sister to come back. Please come back.”

Knowing all of Betty’s worries about her, Sella could never say things like “possession” or “novel.”

She could only say it like this.

“Why do you keep doing this? We agreed to work hard now.”

Betty glanced at the female lead once and scolded her in a stern voice.

Because Betty was both a sister and a mother to Sella.

“Betty, are you almost done? The appointment time to go try on dresses at ‘Bliss’ is almost here.”

Kesseleia pressed her.

“Yes! Miss, let’s go! Sella, I have to go now.”

Betty answered Kesseleia loudly, then spoke to Sella right after.

“Sister, please! Please come back to the orphanage with me, okay? We can find a different job. This household is really not okay. Please.”

“Sella, you’re not a child anymore. Don’t you think the director has been lenient with you and me all this time? If we stay any longer, only truly terrible job offers might come in! We need to earn money as fast as we can……”

“Sister, I know you won’t believe me, but you could die……”

Sella, who had become utterly desperate at her sister’s firm stance, was about to blurt out the contents of the original story.

“Betty!”

But she was cut off again by the female lead’s sharp call.

“Sella, why are you really acting like a child again! Do you think I enjoy being separated from you? You’re twenty years old now, so you need to get yourself together! Haa, you’re really not sick somewhere, are you?”

Her sister, who had been flushed and angry, suddenly wore a worried expression. She seemed to have thought of Sella again from right after the possession.

“…… No, I’m not. Then…… where is the woodcutter’s lodging where you used to buy firewood for the orphanage? From now on I’ll be the one placing the order instead of you.”

With no other choice, Sella suppressed her impatience and brought up her other purpose. She had to buy the wood and go back, after all.

It seemed she would have to wait for the next opportunity to persuade her sister. With the mistress urging her to hurry, would her words even reach her?

She also didn’t want to add to the worries of her sister, who was already struggling to adjust to a new job, by making her think her younger sister might be sick again.

“Goodness, why did you end up having to do that job too! Well, anyway, when you get to the entrance of Mount Tolto and reach a fork in the road, go right. From there, go right again, then at the next fork go left, then right again after that, and finally right one more time. There’s a mountain lodge there where the woodcutter lives. If you place the order with that woodcutter, he’ll bring it over the morning after next.”

Betty’s words grew faster and faster as she kept glancing at Kesseleia.

By now, Kesseleia had her arms folded and her head tilted to one side. She was showing with her whole body that she was quite displeased.

“Right, right……”

“Say hello to Rodi for me.”

As Sella was repeating the route to herself since Betty’s explanation had been fast and the way seemed complicated, her sister suddenly spoke with a slightly brighter expression.

“Rodi?”

“Yes, that’s the woodcutter’s name. You’ll be able to recognize him right away when you see him. He has a really handsome face, and a really great body too.”

Does she think that counts as helpful directions?

Betty, who had added a thoroughly non-objective description, disappeared with Kesseleia shortly after.

“Rodi……”

Sella, who had been staring blankly at Betty’s retreating figure, muttered the woodcutter’s name and eventually set off for Mount Tolto.

***

“Right, right…… Ah!”

At the third fork in the road, Sella stopped dead in her tracks.

It was because the fork, which had only split in two directions until now, was splitting into three.

I think she said left…… is it the far left, or the middle? Should I try the far left first and come back if it’s wrong?

She was deliberating between the middle path and the left path just then.

Someone was walking along the middle path. A man who appeared to be quite tall drew closer and closer, and……

“Um…… excuse……”

Sella was struck speechless the moment she saw the man’s face.

Beneath dark blackish-brown hair, a truly sculpted face that was hard to look away from, somehow seductive red eyes, a nose that ran in a straight line, lips far redder than his eyes.

Across both worlds she had lived in, she had never seen a man with looks like that. Not even among foreign actors in films had she ever seen looks that matched his. He was a man with that level of perfect beauty.

“What?”

“No…… ah……”

“You’ll be able to recognize him right away when you see him. He has a really handsome face, and a really great body too.”

Betty’s words suddenly came to mind, and Sella looked the man up and down.

“Wow……”

A perfect height, proportions, and build that made her forget even the face she had just seen!

It was hard to say whether his face was more beautiful or his body was more beautiful. He was truly perfect from head to toe.

This is the man!

She understood why her sister had described the woodcutter the way she had.

That was an extremely objective and accurate description!

“What are you?”

But the man’s manner of speaking was far from refined compared to his looks. Perhaps living in the mountains made him somewhat guarded toward strangers.

“Hello, I’m Sella from the Bishell Orphanage.”

“Orphanage?”

“Yes, may I ask your name……”

“My name? Rodi…… why would I need to tell you my name?”

The man, who had been answering without thinking, put up a wall again. He was clearly wary of strangers.

“Ah, just as I thought! You must be Rodi! I knew it. It’s nice to meet you.”

Sella greeted him even more warmly to ease the man’s wariness.

Since they would keep seeing each other, it would be better to get along well.

“What?”

“I’ve come to place this week’s wood order, Rodi!”

“Wood?”

“Yes, firewood for our orphanage. Ah, Betty, who used to come, has gotten a job, so starting today I’ll be the one coming to place the wood order……”

“Hey, what are you talking about right now……”

“Gasp! Shh!”

It was just at the moment the man was about to say something. Sella, who had suddenly frozen stiff, whispered in a low voice.

It was because a black bear had appeared behind the man’s back.

So the rumors about bears were true! Even so, why did it have to show up right when she came!

Her luck was truly terrible.

Her body trembled with fear and it felt like her hair was standing on end, but it was precisely at times like this that she had to keep her wits about her.

“What are you doing right now?”

“Quiet! A bear has appeared behind you, Rodi. Don’t turn around suddenly; turn your body slowly. Standing with your back to a bear is dangerous. I heard you have to face the bear and slowly move away.”

Making sudden movements or loud noises could provoke the bear into attacking.

Still, black bears were said to be less aggressive than other bears, so if they were careful……

“Rodi!”

But at that moment, Rodi tried to spin his body around sharply. Sella, startled out of her wits, reflexively grabbed the man’s hand.

“Let go of this……”

The man, who had been scowling and about to say something, had his eyes widen for a moment. His gaze moved to his own hand caught in Sella’s grip.

“I said you can’t move so suddenly.”

The man was looking down at Sella’s hand, or perhaps his own hand, as if her words weren’t reaching him at all.

It seemed like the man’s eyes were growing wider and wider.

Why does he have that expression?

The man’s expression, which looked like he had received a shock, was strange, but this was not the time to be reading this man’s feelings.

It was time to read the bear’s feelings.

“The bear is quite a distance away from us, but if we……”

But at that moment, the man completely ignored Sella’s words and snapped his head around to look at the bear again.

Really, this person……!

“Oh!”

The bear, which had been approaching the direction where Sella and the man were, suddenly turned and went into the forest.