“I’m sorry but you must be mistaking me for someone else. I don’t have a husband.”

While Elina responded coldly, they stepped back to observe the situation.

Kiriel tapped his index finger against his thumb. As soon as the sound-blocking magic spread, his words quickened.

“Kana, why isn’t the mission complete when the female and male protagonists have safely met and are talking?”

“Though it wasn’t mentioned in the notification text, perhaps there’s a required amount of dialogue or time that hasn’t been met……”

Kana, who had been glancing at the air wondering the same thing, trailed off.

Usually if there were requirements to fulfill, they would be told in the notification text or implanted information, but some novels skipped this. In those cases, the answer was to wait and see the situation.

Kiriel’s eyes narrowed.

“Hmm, is that so.”

“Let’s wait a bit longer.”

“Alright.”

He nodded slowly and snapped his fingers. The sound-blocking magic dissolved. Just as their conversation ended, the protagonists’ paused dialogue continued perfectly.

Kyle gave Elina an intense look.

“Elina, stop pretending not to know when you’ve already recognized me. Do you think I wouldn’t know my own wife’s face?”

“……Why did you come? We’re already over.”

Elina bit her lip while glaring at the man she had loved. Kyle gritted his teeth and shot back while looking at her with blazing eyes.

“After secretly leaving papers in my office and running away? That’s not valid.”

“I was tired. Please don’t disturb someone who’s living well when you don’t even have feelings for them.”

Though Elina turned her head away, Kyle turned it back to face him. Celia moved closer to her contractor while speaking sarcastically.

[My goodness, what an intense atmosphere. Do they not think about the people around them?]

‘Of course not. He probably can’t see anything but the female lead right now. Usually, regretful male leads come with keywords like arrogant, prickly, obsessive, villain, etc.’

Kana responded indifferently while stroking the spirit. The cloud-shaped wind spirit puffed up its cheeks.

[Goodness, how is he a regretful male lead? He just seems to be pressuring the female lead by putting his own feelings first.]

‘I see it that way too, but that’s what the keywords say. We just have to accept it.’

Kana’s eyes gradually grew distant. Though they were watching the dragging, frustrating scene, the mission completion text they were waiting for in the air still hadn’t appeared.

‘Ah, how long do we have to wait.’

As she grumbled internally, Kiriel’s hand rested on her shoulder. Kana slightly raised the corners of her mouth while looking at him quietly comforting her.

Meanwhile, Kyle, who had been hesitating with a serious expression, repeatedly rubbed his face before speaking with difficulty.

“I haven’t been able to sleep properly since you disappeared. I realized just how important you were to me.”

“What? Why are you saying this now when you showed no interest in me during our marriage……”

Elina was shouting and gasping for breath when suddenly she staggered and collapsed powerlessly. Kyle hurriedly caught her falling body in his arms.

“Elina?”

No matter how much he shook her, Elina wouldn’t open her eyes. Kana and Kiriel, who had been quietly observing and waiting, approached the female protagonist with hardened expressions at this sudden development.

Kyle narrowed his eyes while looking at the two who had been talking with his wife.

“You two……”

“Be quiet.”

Kana cut off his words sharply and checked Elina’s pulse. Kiriel carefully asked while looking at her frowning face.

“How is it?”

“……Her pulse is a bit unstable and weak. I have an ominous feeling about this.”

Just as Kana finished speaking, the scenery unnaturally froze. Suddenly, black smoke began pouring out from around Elina’s chest and started gathering in the air. Kyle’s eyebrows twitched.

“What in the……”

“Hey, that energy feels dangerous.”

“Could that be the true culprit?”

While they each spoke a line, the mass of smoke began taking shape as it swirled like a whirlwind.

Gently curved black horns, a massive head, ruby-red eyes, and smooth, glossy purple scales.

The texture looked closer to mineral than living creature. Kana’s eyes grew round.

Before the smoke could fully take form, Kiriel grabbed and embraced her, teleporting away from the spot.

In the distorting scenery, an eerie red warning message appeared.

〈Warning! The female protagonist has died, unable to withstand the magic dragon’s energy. Returning to the beginning. 5 chances remain.〉

‘Damn, why is a being that should be in a fantasy genre here? It came to the wrong genre and is breaking this world’s balance.’

Kana squeezed her eyes shut.

* * *

In an instant, time and setting returned to their initial state. In the room were two people sitting on a sofa and one wind spirit.

In the heavy silence that settled, Kana’s lips slowly parted.

“……We were so close to mission completion, what a shame.”

“Still, we discovered the hidden keyword and the identity of what the female protagonist was carrying, so it wasn’t a complete loss.”

Kiriel gently patted her troubled back. Kana blinked slowly while receiving his encouragement.

“That’s true. A magic dragon……”

“So that was both the hidden keyword and what the female protagonist was carrying. It seems meeting the male protagonist triggered it.”

“Yes, our guess was half right. In a way, the magic dragon is the true mastermind. The sub male lead was just a secondary factor.”

Kana let out a hollow laugh. The core element of the mission to prevent the female protagonist’s death seemed to be the magic dragon.

Kiriel nodded seriously and added.

“Yeah. And since the female protagonist dies when the magic dragon fully awakens, we need to stop it before it takes complete form.”

“Right. Should we try disrupting its energy to prevent it from gathering while it’s in smoke form, then somehow seal it with magic or magic tools before eliminating it?”

Kana furrowed her brows while carelessly brushing back her neat hair. She couldn’t think of any other methods. Kiriel accepted her suggestion with a nod.

“That would probably be better. I happen to have a magic tool for sealing monsters—think it’ll work?”

“Since a magic dragon would roughly be classified as a monster, shouldn’t it work? I think it’s worth trying.”

Kana brightened up and clasped her hands while her eyes sparkled. Kiriel smiled slightly before taking out the monster-sealing magic tool from subspace. It was a palm-sized translucent gray cube.

She stared at the magic tool before blurting out.

“That’s the monster-sealing magic tool?”

“Yeah. Though it looks crude on the outside, it’s quite useful. Not sure if it can handle a magic dragon though.”

The translucent gray cube spun at his fingertips before floating up and falling back into his palm.

After watching his nearly magical hand movements, Kana asked seriously.

“Hmm, is there any way to reinforce that aspect?”

“It would be possible with magic stones, but unfortunately I don’t have any on hand right now.”

Kiriel shook his head regretfully. Since magic stones were kept around Magic Towers, private mansions, and family workshop areas to be taken out when needed, there was no reason to carry them around.

As Kana sighed and expressed his regret, she suddenly recalled the magic stones she had prepared for reputation-building tasks.

After searching through her ring’s subspace, she successfully found the pouch containing magic stones.

“I packed these just in case but never used them. Would these be enough?”

“Of course. I’ll pack them in with minimal mana loss.”

Kiriel happily accepted the magic stone pouch she handed over. While Kana silently smiled and nodded, he put the cube and magic stone pouch into subspace.

With the magic tool issue roughly solved, she clapped her hands and mentioned the plan’s framework.

“Then shall we envision the situation?”

“Sure.”

“First, I’ll restrain the smoke with Celia. I’ll use wind spirit arts to prevent it from dispersing while simultaneously using spirit energy to disrupt the gathering energy.”

Kana drew circles in the air while weakly operating spirit arts, then stabbed up and down through the air. Kiriel understood not only her explanation but also why she wanted to take the lead.

“Because spirit energy is closest to natural energy, right? And you think my mana would be better used for other things.”

“Exactly. While I buy time, I’d like you to focus on using the magic tool and magic to concentrate on sealing the magic dragon and protecting us and the protagonists.”

“Got it. That’s a good division of labor.”

Kiriel readily accepted her plan. Even between close people, conflicts or clashing opinions would normally arise by this point, but their teamwork was perfectly in sync.

‘He’s really reliable.’

Kana’s gaze toward him naturally softened. Kiriel fiddled with her hair before suddenly speaking up.

“Oh right, Kana.”

“Yes?”

“Has your spirit energy decreased?”

“No.”

Her spirit energy hadn’t changed. She thought the spirit energy gained from the snow essence would disappear when they returned to the initial state, but it remained. Kiriel tilted his head.

“Oh, really? When I checked subspace to take out the monster-sealing magic tool, I saw the snow essence was still there, so I thought the spirit energy from the previous round had disappeared.”

“……Huh?”

Kana’s eyes grew round as she rarely stumbled over her words. Celia, who had been quietly observing their conversation, flew around excitedly.

[The snow essence gets copied? That means we can increase spirit energy even more!]