He tried to strike my neck with an indifferent expression. At that moment, the carriage that had been standing perfectly fine tilted and toppled over toward where the man was standing.

“Aaaah!”

It happened so suddenly that there was no time to dodge. The man was instantly crushed under the massive carriage. Another absurd situation had occurred, causing such silence that not even a breath could be heard.

Their eyes had become similar to those of the men who had kidnapped me before. They were filled with fear and confusion.

“What, what are you doing?”

Even when Diane shouted, the men didn’t budge. Two of the remaining men cursed “D*mn it!” and suddenly started running away.

“What am I supposed to do if you leave like this?”

Diane screamed frantically at the men’s unexpected behavior, but they didn’t listen to her.

“We can’t receive God’s curse. You handle it yourself!”

They seemed to think they would receive God’s curse the moment they touched me. So they didn’t want to get involved anymore. The remaining men also didn’t seem to want to lay hands on me directly.

“What the hell is this!”

When things didn’t go according to plan, Diane got irritated. She picked up the sword that had fallen to the ground.

“Fine, I have no choice. I’ll have to handle this myself. Go grab her.”

Diane ordered them to hold me so I couldn’t escape, and the men hesitated while glancing at each other before approaching me. I tried to run from them, but being caught was a matter of moments. They each grabbed one of my arms, brought me before Diane, and forced me to kneel.

“You should have just quietly assisted me instead of acting up. You’re completely useless in both your past life and this one!”

I had many words of rebuttal I wanted to say, but I didn’t. My desire not to die was stronger. I was afraid that Diane might actually be able to kill me.

“Let go of me!”

No matter how much I struggled, escaping from the men’s grip was difficult. It felt like there were boulders on both sides of me.

“Help me! Is anyone there?”

I still tried to struggle, but I couldn’t when the sword touched my neck.

“Struggle all you want. There’s no one here to help you. In the original story, you died in this place.”

“What? Being banished wasn’t the end?”

“After being banished, you met bandits while traveling and met a miserable death. You’re a villainess—if you lived well after being banished, wouldn’t readers complain? I kept you by my side to keep you alive, but you didn’t understand my feelings. Really.”

“…”

So in the original story, I wasn’t just banished but died. It was a shocking ending. Was this why my life kept flowing so miserably?

Even though I had become the true saintess, if Diane still had power as the protagonist, could she harm me?

Did I really have to die like this? I just wanted to live happily—was that wrong?

Though I wanted to live, I fell into such deep despair that seemed like a thick wall blocking my path, so I could no longer resist.

“Do… whatever you want.”

Having lost the will to live, I looked at Diane with hazy eyes. Her smiling figure felt like a goddess of victory. I must look like a loser right now, right?

Diane’s sword came toward me just like I expected, but nothing happened. Even though I had become a saintess, I realized I couldn’t defeat Diane.

Should I be grateful that I could feel freedom for the past two months, even though it was short? I waited for my end with a resigned face.

The moment Diane pointed her sword at my neck, a strange scene flashed before my eyes. Her expression and gaze right now… I had seen them somewhere before.

It was the face of the driver of the vehicle that hit me when I had my car accident in my previous life. Goosebumps covered my entire body. Barely opening my mouth that wouldn’t open, I said:

“The culprit who hit me with the car—was that you?”

At that moment, Diane’s grip on the sword weakened. Clang—the sword fell to the ground with a sound. And in my head, memories I had forgotten flashed by like a panorama.

* * *

Just before dying, I saw the face of the drunk driver who hit me. It had been a long time since I saw her face after graduating middle school, but I could recognize her immediately. Kim Hanna—her.

She was the one who had traumatized me, so how could I forget her?

When I thought about how we were connected by bad blood in middle school and even in death we were linked by bad blood, my life felt futile. What kind of persistent bad relationship was this that I had to end my short life because of her?

When I opened my eyes after spending my last moments in the hospital, I was in a pure white world. And where light flowed in, there was God.

‘I will grant you one wish.’

God told me. He would grant me one wish.

‘Can I really make any wish? What right do I have to make a wish?’

‘You and Kim Hanna weren’t originally destined to die, but bad blood developed and suddenly changed your lives.’

God’s words were that originally neither of us was destined to die, but tragic endings occurred because bad blood got entangled.

Originally, Kim Hanna should have called a designated driver and returned home safely, but there seemed to have been an error in that process. The designated driver couldn’t come, Kim Hanna drove herself, hit me, and died instantly on the spot.

Could such an absurd case exist?

‘Did you also grant Kim Hanna’s wish?’

‘Yes. She will become the protagonist of a new world.’

After hitting me with her car, she became the protagonist of a new world? Did that make sense? God didn’t seem like he would give only good things to her who had committed a wrong. I thought there was meaning in him telling me about her news like this.

So I planned to use this as an opportunity for revenge.

‘I want Kim Hanna to fall into despair at her happiest moment. In front of me.’

‘You both made quite interesting wishes. Yes, she too must pay for her sins to be fair. However, I’ll need to use a rather special method—would that be alright?’

‘Anything is fine. As long as I can get revenge.’

‘When she abandoned the protagonist’s life, the original story began to go awry. She pushed her responsibilities onto someone else. If you sacrifice yourself in her place, I will help you achieve the result you want.’

Kim Hanna’s wish was to become the protagonist in a novel. So God made her the protagonist of a novel as an apology for not letting her live her proper lifespan.

And since I wanted revenge on her, I was put into the novel later.

Because we made such wishes, we seemed to have possessed bodies in the world of a book.

‘I don’t intend to interfere much in your affairs. Remember, altering the original story is entirely up to the two of you. Since I’m giving you this opportunity, don’t neglect the mission I’ve assigned. If you fail to fulfill it, I’ll punish you—so you’d better be prepared.’

‘I’ll keep that in mind.’

To be happy, one had to be born with everything, so Kim Hanna became the protagonist, and I possessed Stella, the fake saintess, so I could take everything away from her.

Now I see that God intervened by putting me there because Kim Hanna’s attitude of disobeying God’s will to live according to His intention was displeasing. She changed the original story to avoid difficult work.

However, I didn’t remember my contract with God, and I seemed to have faced the consequence of being punished by going to the brothel for disobeying God’s words.

Our bad blood went round and round and we ended up meeting like this. It was truly surprising.

“You’re a murderer! How could you drunk drive and hit me with your car? My life was shortened because of you!”

After organizing my memories, I poured out everything I wanted to say to Diane without restraint.

“How do you know that…”

Seeing that she was greatly shocked, Kim Hanna seemed not to have known. That the person she hit with her car was me.

“You came to find Stella three years ago and transferred your holy power to her, right? Did you hate working for the empire’s people that much?”

“What’s wrong with someone else solving it? The Alpha Empire’s condition improved, didn’t it?”

“Because of you, I worked my bones off for the past three years and got banished. Do you know that?”

“That’s because you weren’t a saintess.”

I was dumbfounded by Kim Hanna’s shameless attitude. She didn’t seem to feel sorry at all for trying to use me.

“Then you, the saintess, should have done the work! Does it make sense for a saintess to abandon her role? You need to pay for that sin.”