“Daughter, are you still sleeping?”

I groggily sat up in bed at the sound of my mother’s voice.

“I’m up.”

Mom came and sat next to me.

“Aren’t you hungry? You didn’t eat breakfast or lunch, you should at least have dinner.”

“I’ll eat later.”

Mom didn’t scold me, even though she knew this was my excuse, which had been going on for days.

“Alright, there’s food, so eat when you want to. Okay?”

“Yes.”

After Mom left, I lay back down on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

“No more luxurious and spacious bed, no canopy, no gold-plated cabinets.”

There’s no man deliberately sleeping on my right side, no large or small animals hugging my body and rubbing against my lower half.

“This is my room.”

I no longer share a room with anyone, nor does anyone come and lie down next to me while I’m sleeping.

But this situation felt so unfamiliar that I spread out my arms.

Nothing touches my fingertips. Not even the priest who seemed to have sold his soul for knowledge.

I should feel unburdened, but why do I feel like I’m sinking into a bottomless pit?

“One, two, three, four…”

As I counted numbers while looking at the white wallpaper, it felt like I was lying in a monastery in some quiet place.

This is the room of the priest who said he would observe one part of my body each day.

He probably won’t do anything while I’m sleeping since he hasn’t observed everything yet.

I fell asleep feeling reassured.

Without fail, I dream as soon as I barely fall asleep.

“Author, author. Look at me.”

A muscular, large knight pants as he grips my lower body. Tired, I pretend not to notice and keep my eyes closed, but the blue-haired knight grabs and shakes me.

“I know you’re not sleeping.”

What a damn human detector.

Cursing inwardly, I open my eyes, and as if he’s been waiting for this, the man lowers his pants.

“Come on, look.”

At this point, I’m starting to suspect this guy might have exhibitionism.

“Me too! I’m here too!”

A cute man with bright golden hair appears and raises his hand enthusiastically.

“Look at me too, Lili. Even better if you touch!”

And then, as if he can’t lose to the blue-haired man, he grabs his waistband… Ah, please stop.

Shaking my head, I roll vigorously to the side to escape the bed.

Leaving the room with the two men, I enter another room and lay down on pristine white sheets.

Lastly, a red-haired man appears.

A man breathtakingly beautiful with his coy smile.

Seth Milan.

I can tell he’s getting closer to me as the scent I like becomes stronger.

“Master, are you asleep?”

I was lying on my side with my eyes tightly shut.

“If you don’t answer, I’m going to do something bad, you know?”

Good heavens, for Seth to warn about doing something bad, how bad could it be?

As I continued to pretend to sleep, Seth’s hand slips inside my top. I pretend not to notice, telling myself I’m no longer surprised by the hand gently pressing on my br*ast.

But then the soft palm moves more boldly, and I finally open my eyes.

“Why! Why, why!”

“If you weren’t sleeping, why didn’t you answer?”

His gentle voice sent a tingle down my spine, but I didn’t show it.

“I’m not sleeping, so stop… ugh. Stop touching me.”

“Don’t you like it when I touch you?”

Seth asks, tilting his head to the side, he’s so incredibly beautiful that I’m momentarily speechless.

The truth is, I like it.

I wish he would touch me more. I wish he would kiss me with those soft lips.

I want to have a deeper relationship with you.

But I’m not the female protagonist. So if I do as you wish, it will be over at that moment.

Because Seth Milan, you’re the type of man who loses interest and abandons without looking back.

No, since I’ve already escaped from that place, none of them would even remember me.

This won’t happen. Yes, they know me because this is a dream.

“…I don’t like it, so stop.”

“Your answer was delayed, do you really dislike it?”

“Yes.”

Even to my ears, the tone was cold. However, he didn’t remove his hand, so I had no choice but to straighten up and push Seth’s hand away.

I’m sure I did that, but there’s nothing for my hand to touch.

“Am I dreaming right now?”

I chuckle and turn to my side, but still, there’s no one there. Only the neat white wallpaper greets me.

“Ah.”

Only then do I realize. This is reality.

It’s strange.

Not even once have I ever perceived ‘that place’ as my home.

I acknowledged that ‘it wasn’t a virtual space,’ but I never considered it a place where I should live.

Only at the very last moment did I admit that the people there weren’t paper dolls, but they held no value for me.

Yet now, for me, the situation of lying in my own room felt just like a dream.

“Which is reality…?”

Did I dream of Lietrie, or did Lietrie dream of me?

I was confused.

So I tried to figure out whether this situation was a dream or not, but I couldn’t come to a conclusion.

I’ve been repeating this kind of life for a month since the day I came back.

* * *

A month ago, I was reported to the authorities when I collapsed on the main street wearing strange clothes.

The police arrived and interrogated me, but without an ID, identity confirmation was impossible. Although I wasn’t carrying any weapons, the police said they couldn’t just let me go since they had responded to a report.

They told me to contact a guardian, but the problem was that I had forgotten my parents’ contact information.

After some complications, it was confirmed that I was a person reported as missing, and my parents came to take me home.

Mom looked even thinner than I had seen in my dreams, which pained my heart.

“What happened to you, hm?”

“Yes, what on earth happened?”

I didn’t answer the questions from my tearful mom and my dad with his serious expression.

No, I couldn’t.

I couldn’t just tell them I had entered the 19+ rated, depressing, impoverished novel I had written, could I?

If I did, they would surely think I had gone mad, so I chose silence, and my family assumed I had been kidnapped and then rescued.

Of course, since I had disappeared from home, from a room that had become a sealed room, they knew it wasn’t actually like that, but it meant they treated me carefully while being very anxious.

Nearly two months had passed during my absence.

Fortunately, with the help of my department head professor, I was given a special leave of absence, so I became an ordinary student on break. Just someone taking time off due to family circumstances.

My close friends probably noticed something strange since my contact suddenly stopped.