TNMN 03

Chapter 03

“Huh? That’s the first victim’s boyfriend. He showed up everywhere the incidents occurred. It seems like he’s been searching for the killer who murdered his girlfriend.”

“Are you certain he was really her boyfriend?”

“He knew the layout of the first victim’s house, and we found gifts he’d supposedly given her inside. There were also witnesses who often saw him around her. So… probably.”

Alosha fell silent.

The man gave off an unmistakably suspicious aura—even she could feel it.

The fact that Alexis couldn’t see it only reinforced her impression that this wasn’t a true detective novel.

The author’s limitations were painfully obvious.

Seriously… if they were only going to write romance anyway, why bother throwing mystery into the mix?

“What about the victim’s closest friend? Didn’t they say anything about him?”

“Apparently the relationship was a secret. Even her closest friend didn’t seem to know.”

The moment Alexis said that, familiar background music—the kind that always played whenever a mystery reached its solution—began echoing in Alosha’s head.

“What? That’s ridiculous! She kept her relationship secret even from her best friend? When you’re in love, your heart races! You want to tell the whole world that person is yours! People naturally end up showing they’re a couple without even realizing it. That’s what dating is. But she hid it from her closest friend?”

“…Is that so?”

“Besides, didn’t you say he’s one of the suspects? Aren’t you trusting his story a little too easily?”

Alexis looked as though someone had smacked him in the back of the head.

He quickly opened his notebook.

“And out of the five suspects, he’s the only one who appeared every single time another murder happened. Obviously, he should be the primary suspect.”

“…Now that you mention it, you’re right.”

Authors often simplified the thinking of supporting characters to make the protagonist look smarter.

Even so, Alosha couldn’t understand how everyone had accepted the word of someone this suspicious without question.

‘Is this… some kind of original story correction?’

Whatever the reason, the case was basically solved.

Now all that remained was enjoying the romance.

Just as that satisfied thought crossed her mind—

“Alosha!”

Her name echoed loudly across the Order of Knights.

Startled, she turned toward the voice.

In the distance, she saw Alexis rushing toward her in a complete mess, as though he’d been rolling around on the ground.

Beside him walked a strikingly handsome man with crimson hair and golden eyes.

‘Who’s that handsome guy?’

He was around six feet one, broad-shouldered, yet somehow possessed an incredibly small face.

His perfectly sculpted features looked so flawless that he resembled an idol who had stepped straight out of a fashion magazine.

Proof of that?

Alosha’s heart suddenly began beating faster.

A smile unconsciously spread across her lips.

Someone that attractive couldn’t possibly be a mere extra.

‘Is he the protagonist?’

She couldn’t take her eyes off the red-haired man.

He, too, stared back at her.

His gaze was filled with longing…

And sadness.

‘What’s with that look? Why is he staring at me so wistfully?’

Noticing the strange atmosphere between them, Alexis grinned mischievously.

He nudged Alosha with his elbow.

“What’s with you two? Why are you just standing there staring?”

“Ah…”

Then Alexis turned toward Alosha with a playful smile.

“Have you… been well?”

“Y-Yes…”

…Who are you?

“He was supposed to be training, but as soon as Dain heard you’d come to the Order, he ran all the way over here.”

The instant she registered the name—

Dain.

Every neuron in Alosha’s brain fired at once.

Within less than five seconds, countless pieces of information connected together.

‘Wait… Dain?’

Crimson hair.

Golden eyes.

Extraordinary looks.

And the name…

Dain.

Suddenly, countless novel titles flipped through her mind like the pages of a book before stopping on one.

‘No way… It can’t be. Right? No… It’s probably just someone with the same name. T-There’s no way…’

No matter the world—

“Surely not.”

“It can’t be.”

Those words were always magical phrases people used before confirming the reality they desperately wanted to deny.

No matter how fiercely Alosha rejected it, the sentences she’d once read began replaying in her mind against her will.

[The very first place Dain visited after traveling back in time was the Nocturne estate, where Alexis and Alosha had both been murdered by the villain, Whistler.]

‘Stop! Stop playing the story inside my head! Not this novel!’

She screamed internally.

Her brain ignored her completely.

Instead, more memories surfaced.

[‘Without the Nocturne family’s support, I won’t have enough allies to stand against Whistler!’

He had to gather companions and eliminate Whistler.

He refused to die a meaningless death again like he had in his previous life.

When Dain visited the Nocturne estate to discuss the future with Alexis, Alosha appeared to greet him, wearing a blue dress with her long hair neatly braided.]

‘I said stop remembering!’

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a pause button inside her brain.

The memories continued.

[Alexis jokingly teased Dain and his younger sister, but Dain never heard a word.

Remembering Alosha’s severed head in his previous life, Dain’s eyes grew moist with relief and guilt upon seeing her alive again.]

That single remembered paragraph left Alosha feeling as hopeless as someone watching twenty thousand words of writing disappear after a sudden power outage.

‘I’m screwed… This wasn’t even a romance fantasy.’

This novel—

No.

This was the work written by her best friend from her previous life.

The brutal fantasy epic spanning 560 chapters.

The Count’s Good-for-Nothing Son Who Regressed Saves the World from the Villain.

She’d desperately hoped she was wrong.

But deep down, she knew she wasn’t.

Alosha bit her lower lip hard.

So…

This was what people meant when they said the sky was falling.

Her despair soon transformed into fury directed toward a single person.

‘That horrible woman! She ruined my entire romance fantasy life!’

Like every transmigration story ever written, Alosha naturally began recalling the conversation she’d had with that sworn enemy of a friend the day before arriving in this world.

* * *

“I got torn apart again because of my worldbuilding and plot consistency.”

“See? You should stop writing stories that make your brain hurt and just write romance fantasy like I do.”

“No thanks! That cheesy stuff isn’t for me. I want to become a bestselling fantasy author!”

Watching her friend Se-ah slump over the dining table, Hyojoo shook her head while taking a sip of cola.

From Hyojoo’s perspective, the romance fantasy market wasn’t exactly easy either.

But fantasy readers were far harsher.

They scrutinized every setting.

Argued endlessly over realism.

Filled comment sections with keyboard warriors.

She genuinely admired Se-ah for stubbornly continuing down the path of traditional fantasy despite all of that.

“Still, at least you finished it. What was the title again?”

She’d asked honestly.

Se-ah slowly lifted her head from the table with an expression of utter betrayal.

“Wow. A friend wrote it and you care this little?”

“I still read fifty chapters because you wrote it. You know I don’t read anything except romance. Besides, you never read my novels either because you said they made your skin crawl.”

After pouting for a moment, Se-ah sighed.

“Fair point.”

“So? What’s it called?”

“The Count’s Good-for-Nothing Son Who Regressed Saves the World from the Villain.”

As Se-ah tossed chicken bones into a bag, she answered casually.

The title sounded like any other generic fantasy web novel.

But Hyojoo knew nearly all of Se-ah’s works were heavy, serious fantasy stories.

She simply shook her head.

‘Honestly… I bet people got baited by the title.’

Lighthearted novels were popular.

But there were undoubtedly readers who loved stories exactly like Se-ah’s.

Even if Hyojoo didn’t enjoy the genre herself, she believed every fan should respect other people’s tastes.

Trying to comfort her depressed friend, she recalled what she’d read up through Chapter Fifty.

“So… it was the Nocturne family, right? That younger sister of the protagonist’s friend. Does she end up with the main character?”

“Ah! Alosha? Of course I killed her. Around Chapter Sixty, I think. She got caught helping the protagonist against Duke Whistler, so the entire family got wiped out as an example.”

Se-ah casually dragged two fingers across her throat.

Hyojoo was speechless.

“Seriously? Why? She was one of the only parts of your novel I actually liked!”

“I had to. The protagonist needed that tragedy to awaken.”

For fifty chapters, Alosha had been the woman who appeared beside Dain more often than anyone else.

And Se-ah had simply killed her off as fuel for the protagonist’s growth.

Hyojoo couldn’t understand it.

“You killed her that early? The protagonist cared about her so much that I thought they were going to get married!”

In a romance fantasy, fifty chapters was more than enough time for the main couple to have kissed—

Or gone even further.

If not, readers would’ve practically dragged the author to the guillotine in the comments.

“Fantasy isn’t romance fantasy. Plenty of people fall for the protagonist, but that doesn’t mean it ends in love.”

“Still… that’s such a waste. They looked so good together. So who does the protagonist marry?”

“Hey, you don’t even date in real life. Why are you trying to live through fictional characters? If you want romance so badly, why don’t you date someone yourself?”

Hyojoo froze.

Her mouth slowly fell open.

“Excuse me? Isn’t that going too far? You’re telling a pure-blooded otaku like me to have a real relationship? What a terrifying thing to say. I’m not interested in any man who isn’t inside a monitor.”

When Hyojoo answered with complete seriousness, Se-ah simply clicked her tongue.

Writing romance while showing absolutely no interest in real-life dating…

That was what Se-ah found most astonishing of all.