Two arrows embedded in his body, it looked just like his final moments before death, as depicted in the latest chapter.

Iseo blankly drew closer to him and stared down at his face, drenched in cold sweat.

The greatest villain of all, Huslan, lay collapsed in a completely disheveled state.

The sight of him bleeding and letting out low groans of pain was devastatingly striking.

‘I must have been so deeply absorbed in the novel to be having a dream like this…….’

Watching Huslan die alone in such a desolate place, Iseo suddenly felt a surge of emotion and tears began to leak from her eyes.

“I liked you so much……. That’s why I told you to do evil things in moderation…….”

Huslan was the kind of guy who had kidnapped the female lead, Lariette, and locked her away in the Grand Ducal estate, showing the very extremes of obsession in order to possess her.

Having suffered from deprivation his entire life, he could never be satisfied unless he obtained whatever he desired, and those who stood in his way were dealt with silently through hired hands, without a trace.

Like a mob boss of this world, he ran a loan shark operation in the shadows and was trailed by all manner of sinister rumors.

But Iseo was certain that the phrase ‘s*xy villain character’ must have been coined with him in mind.

Even from her perspective as someone who dreamed of becoming a writer, she could tell just from the descriptions alone that the author secretly adored this character.

That’s right. Huslan was undoubtedly a character even the author cherished.

Aside from his personality, he was a cold-blooded, handsome man with looks rivaling the male lead, born carrying a whole bundle of tragic backstory that could have belonged to the male lead, he was a character who lived and breathed entirely on his own terms, with nothing to hold him back.

And yet, to kill him off so senselessly like this…….

She couldn’t shake the feeling that the author had raised the white flag under pressure from reader backlash.

Then again, even leaving a comment saying you liked him would earn you a torrent of insults, so the author probably had no other choice.

His death was the ending that everyone wanted, the characters within the novel, and even the readers outside of it.

Everyone except for her, the one who was here right now.

Iseo sank down onto the floor and wrapped her arms around Huslan’s large body as it grew cold.

It was an incredibly vivid dream, but since it was a dream either way, she wanted to comfort him, at least as herself, as he died alone in solitude.

“If it were me, I wouldn’t have let you die…….”

Her eyes welled up with tears.

If she had truly been the author, she would have made him the male lead instead of Yurian. No matter how much criticism she received, she would have protected his life until the very end.

“If there’s a next life, make sure you survive in it. And live a little more kindly.”

Drunk, Iseo had no idea what she was babbling as she sobbed openly and cradled his face in her arms, whispering into his ear.

Huslan, who had been breaking out in a cold sweat in her arms, soon went still, as though he had died.

His body, held in her embrace, was terribly cold and rigid.

Iseo’s eyes went wide, and then her face crumpled as she burst into tears.

In the cave, his breathing could no longer be heard, only the sound of her weeping echoed through the space.

– – –

Hearing someone cry loudly enough beside him to burst his eardrums, Huslan furrowed his brow slightly. It was truly a thunderous sound, like a bull bellowing.

When he slowly opened his eyes at last, a familiar ceiling came into view. As always, it was the all-black, antique atmosphere of his bedroom.

His eyes went wide as he abruptly pushed himself upright in bed.

‘What is this? Did I just have a dream……?’

Huslan hurriedly looked down at his hands, and upon finding no blood on them, he opened his robe and checked his abdomen.

His entire body was covered in old scars, but the marks from the arrows and the stab wound on his stomach were cleanly gone.

[After all that, when the sun rises, won’t he just spring right back up as if nothing happened?]

Iseo hadn’t known it, but this was the moment her words had taken root and sprouted within the novel.

Just then, a knock came from outside the door, followed by the butler’s voice.

“Are you awake, Your Highness the Grand Duke?”

Huslan flinched and looked toward the door. But an unpleasant memory surfaced almost immediately, and his expression soured.

“Come in.”

Butler Beryl entered the room respectfully and bowed his head.

“You were sleeping in, so I deliberately refrained from waking you.”

“……Butler.”

“Yes?”

Huslan stared at him fixedly and asked in a low voice.

“What is today’s date?”

“Today is March 16th, Your Highness.”

“……What?”

Huslan was taken aback. At the impossible date, he asked again with a stiffened expression.

“What year?”

“It is the year 1302 of the Imperial Calendar.”

After being still for a moment, he closed his eyes, let out a quiet laugh, and pressed his hand to his forehead as his bangs fell forward.

‘Don’t tell me I’ve returned to the past……?’

At that reaction, the butler glanced over at him with a look of fear. Huslan asked in an even lower voice.

“Just one more question. Where is my younger brother right now?”

“Pardon? If you mean His Highness the Crown Prince, I believe he set out on a demon subjugation campaign and has not yet returned…….”

The butler’s face grew increasingly pale.

And with good reason, there had not been a single time, not once, that Huslan had ever sought out his younger brother or shown any concern for his wellbeing.

The two were brothers, but their relationship was as terrible as that of sworn enemies. Or more precisely, it was the older brother, Huslan, who harbored intense hatred toward his younger brother, Yurian.

While the butler stood in confusion, Huslan also calmed his own turbulent thoughts and sank into deep contemplation.

Fragmented memories surfaced, of being attacked by Yurian and his knights, falling down a hillside, and slipping into a cave to hide.

And then, faintly, the face of the woman he had met in the cave just before his death came to mind.

His vision had been blurred and his mind hazy, so he hadn’t been able to make out her features clearly, but she was a woman who had shone with dazzling golden hair in the darkness, gazing at him with green eyes as she wept…….

The words she had spoken drifted hazily at the edges of his hearing, spreading like ink in water.

[I liked you so much……. That’s why I told you to do evil things in moderation…….]

“Just who is that woman……?”

At Huslan’s murmur, the butler racked his brain and quickly answered.

“If you are referring to the young lady from yesterday, she is Lady Lariette of the Count’s household.”

Caught off guard for just a moment by that suddenly appearing name, he was brought up short by the title ‘young lady,’ and a short laugh escaped him.

“So I haven’t even married Lariette yet?”

“Pardon?”

The butler stared at him with wide eyes.

“Y-Your Highness the Grand Duke…….”

As he spoke with an expression of deep concern, Huslan glared at him and said,

“My mind is perfectly clear, so stop looking at me like that.”

“S-sorry!”

The butler hastily bowed his head, but Huslan’s eyes as they regarded him were nothing but cold.

Butler Beryl was someone who had played a part in selling him out.

Always trembling like that in front of him, yet he had reported every secret of the Grand Ducal estate to his younger brother and ultimately betrayed him in the most cruel manner.

Just seeing the face of such a person again made nausea rise from within him and stirred a murderous impulse. His hands were trembling uncontrollably, shaking like a seizure, when once again the woman’s words reached him.

[If it were me, I wouldn’t have let you die……. If there’s a next life, make sure you survive in it. And live a little more kindly.]

Huslan chewed over her final words and barely managed to suppress his rage.

‘Could it be that woman’s doing? It seems I’ve returned to the past alone…….’

He felt an emotion that was deeply unfamiliar to him.

He had thought there was no one on his side, yet the gentle touch of someone who had willingly offered him her embrace and stroked his face as he lay dying had not been unwelcome.

No, to be honest, it had been moving enough to make him feel a surge of emotion.

Although he had been alone even when returning to the past, perhaps she was the one woman in this world who might become his ally.

He wondered if perhaps she, too, had returned to the past alongside him. The thought struck him with sudden curiosity, and he asked,

“……Butler, did I attend a social party yesterday?”