DTRAF 02

Chapter 2

I Don’t Accept the Male Lead’s Love Advice!

“…So… something went wrong, didn’t it?”

That little “Huh?” wasn’t the kind of sound someone made over nothing.

It was the sort of involuntary exclamation you let out when, say, you poured melted butter into beaten eggs while baking and accidentally cooked the eggs instead.

The kind that escaped your lips when everything had gone completely wrong.

Sure enough, Mokki immediately burst into a panic.

He stared so hard at his smartphone it looked like he was trying to bore a hole through the screen, then fluttered around the room in frantic circles.

“Just how bad is this mistake?”

I reached out and grabbed the restless little bird.

Mokki fit perfectly in both of my hands.

He drooped miserably, his tiny wings hanging limply.

“I-I think… the team leader is going to kill me…”

“It’s that serious?”

Apparently, he wasn’t exaggerating.

Tiny tears had already begun welling up in his little eyes.

Where did that confident bird from earlier disappear to?

When Mokki first started panicking, I had been anxious and irritated because I had no idea what he’d done.

But now that he was crying huge teardrops, I couldn’t bring myself to yell at him.

“Everyone makes mistakes at work. You’ve probably done well until now. Maybe they’ll overlook it this once?”

“Y-You’re… my very first customer…”

“Oh…”

“So you’re a rookie employee.”

“If you’re new, making mistakes is normal.”

“B-But… since the company was founded, no guide has ever made a mistake like this!”

“…Maybe it’s time to start looking for a new job.”

Yeah.

If the mistake was that catastrophic, changing careers sounded like the better option.

People always said that if a job wasn’t right for you, it was best to move on sooner rather than later.

It was healthier—for both yourself and your coworkers.

“I can’t! This is my dream job!”

“Hmm…”

A dream job?

One of the older girls I’d worked part-time with always insisted places like that didn’t actually exist.

“Then the first thing you should do is send me back where I belong.”

“Huh?”

“You said people are only transported into novels they’ve already read.”

“Th-That’s right…”

“So just send me into the correct novel. Fixing your mistake is the least you can do.”

…Why was he avoiding my eyes?

When I asked, Mokki subtly looked away.

Even when I poked him with my finger, he stubbornly pretended not to notice.

Deliberately and repeatedly ignoring me is making Han Yuna very anxious.

I’d softened earlier because of his tears.

But this time, I couldn’t just let it slide.

I slowly closed my fingers around him.

“S-Squeak!”

“If you make a mistake, you take responsibility for it!”

“S-Squeak! P-Please calm down!”

“Would you stay calm? I got thrown into a world I know nothing about!”

If that huge commotion earlier was because I’d been sent to the wrong novel, then I wasn’t accepting this!

Bring me your manager!

Even if I’d entered a novel I’d read before, there was no guarantee I’d reach the ending.

Who knew what kind of butterfly effect my presence would cause?

On top of that, the ending reward let me return to reality and have one wish granted.

But if I failed…

I’d go back to being someone lying in a coma, with no idea whether I’d ever wake up.

There was only one option.

No matter what happened, I had to survive and reach the ending.

“What about my reward?! My reward!”

“S-Squeak! I’m going to burst at this rate! I-I’ll call my team leader!”

You should’ve done that from the beginning.

Hearing that he’d finally summon his supervisor calmed me down enough to loosen my grip.

Mokki seized the opportunity, slipped free, and flew up to the chandelier.

“J-Just give me a moment, please…”

Realizing how upset I was, he moved with remarkable speed.

Tap. Tap-tap-tap.

The cheerful notification sounds clashed horribly with the frozen atmosphere.

He was probably messaging his team leader through KakaoTalk.

Wait… what if someone comes in?

Watching him hold a smartphone that clearly didn’t belong in this fantasy world suddenly made me nervous.

I’d just spent the last several minutes shouting at a talking bird.

What if someone walked in now?

Imagine a noble lady talking to an empty room…

Only for the person she was talking to to be a tiny bird.

And not just any bird—but one carrying a smartphone almost as large as itself.

I had no idea what kind of fantasy world this was.

For all I knew, I’d be accused of being a witch and executed on the spot.

“Tell them to get here immediately. If someone walks in and this turns into an even bigger mess, I’ll be heading straight for the bad ending.”

“Oh, don’t worry! Time doesn’t flow while I’m explaining the service.”

Looking around, I realized he was right.

The second hand on the clock had stopped moving.

Even the birds outside the window were frozen in mid-flight.

“…You’re right.”

“I may have made one enormous mistake, but something like thi—”

“Mokkiii!”

Smack!

Something suddenly flew across the room and slammed straight into him.

The newcomer was a larger brown bird that knocked Mokki unconscious with a headbutt.

“…A sparrow?”

I didn’t know much about birds.

It just looked like a slightly oversized sparrow to me.

The furious bird immediately snapped its head toward me.

“I’m not a sparrow! I’m a kestrel!”

“Oh… a kestrel.”

No wonder it had such an attitude for such a small bird.

Even though it was tiny, it was still a falcon.

It had a certain intimidating presence.

Still…

I was the customer here.

“That’s not the important part. I heard something went wrong while I was being transported.”

“Ahem. That’s correct.”

“I’m Jjorong, the Team Leader of the Special Possession Service Division.”

After introducing himself, Jjorong handed me a business card with crisp, professional movements.

It was the size of a normal human business card.

Just what kind of anatomy do these birds have?

They kept pulling objects bigger than themselves out of nowhere.

Are they all Doraemon or something?

“You may call me Team Leader Jjo.”

“Fine. Team Leader Jjo.”

Whether he was a blue robotic cat or a kestrel didn’t matter.

The important thing was that he was in charge.

“Can’t you send me into the correct novel? One I’ve actually read?”

“I’m afraid that’s impossible.”

“The service officially began the moment you awakened in Amelie Garnet’s body.”

Easy for him to say.

If Mokki avoided answering, Team Leader Jjo responded with textbook corporate professionalism.

In other words—

Completely useless.

“Then I’m starting with an enormous handicap compared to everyone else!”

“W-Which is why, under my authority as team leader, I’ll be offering you compensation!”

“It had better be good compensation.”

Otherwise…

I might just deep-fry the two of you.

I muttered the last part quietly, but both Mokki and Jjorong flinched at exactly the same time.

Apparently they heard it.

“O-Of course!”

“Since you know nothing about the original story, I’ll give you a brief explanation.”

“Tell me about me first.”

“Very well.”

“The person you’ve possessed is Amelie Florel Garnet, the main villainess of the novel Lysa’s Sword.”

I nodded calmly.

Possessing a villainess was such a common trope that I’d already expected it.

“As the title suggests, the heroine is Lysa, who is also Amelie’s friend.”

“Pretty standard setup.”

“And the male lead is—”

Jjorong suddenly stopped talking.

He pulled out an Apple tablet and swiped through the screen.

“Oh!”

“You’ve already met him.”

“…Don’t tell me.”

“That’s right.”

“The man who just left this room is the male lead, Reinhardt Biender.”

“So I’m already on his blacklist.”

I immediately remembered the hatred burning in Reinhardt’s eyes as he stormed out only minutes ago.

Come to think of it… he also mentioned someone named Lysa.

He’d looked absolutely disgusted while talking about her.

Which meant that before I arrived…

The original Amelie must have already done something terrible.

Haha…

This is already a complete mess.

“Don’t worry too much! Amelie isn’t the only villain in the story!”

Seeing my hollow smile, Mokki hurriedly jumped in to comfort me.

“Wow.”

“That’s… incredibly reassuring.”

Not that it actually helped.

“If you’d like more detailed information about Amelie and the main characters, you’ll find a diary in the left drawer of the desk.”

“…Fine.”

“So that’s the story.”

“Now tell me about this compensation.”

“After reviewing your profile, we saw that you worked at a café and interacted with many people.”

“My café became much busier after I started working there.”

“You were known for listening carefully and reacting well, so customers often came to you with their personal problems.”

“They did.”

“Personal problems” sounded nice.

In reality…

I was basically everyone’s emotional dumping ground for trivial relationship drama and everyday complaints.

I’d even developed stress-related bald spots for a while.

My poor hair…

Sacrificed for the sake of loyal customers.

“So we’ve decided to grant you the ability to see people’s worries.”

“…That’s your idea of compensation?”

These feathered idiots really seemed determined to kill me twice.