“Gah!”
I woke up drenched in cold sweat.
My heart hammered at the vivid memory.
The scene around me was one thing, but I still couldn't forget Lucas's chilling gaze.
“Haa…… What kind of fucked-up dream was that…….”
I started to sit up in search of water, then noticed something felt strange.
‘Did I fall asleep with my glasses on?’
My vision was remarkably clear.
It wasn't because of my glasses.
Even with glasses, I'd never experienced such a wide-open field of vision.
Come to think of it, the bedding beneath me was incredibly soft.
It was a softness I could never have felt in my studio apartment, where I slept with nothing but a thin blanket beneath me.
Only then did my surroundings come into view.
A penthouse that was the very height of luxury, the complete opposite of my shitty studio apartment.
I knew this place well.
‘……Lucas's room.’
More precisely, it was the interior of the mansion Lucas had been granted by the king after surviving the Eastern Front, receiving the title ‘Hero of the Eastern Front,’ and being ennobled in Aerok. I'd described it in considerable detail to show just how much he'd managed to squeeze out of misunderstandings. On top of that, I remembered it even better because I'd poured all my fantasies about the perfect home into this place.
‘Why am I…….’
The problem was why I was here.
I pulled my cheek as hard as I could.
It hurt.
I slammed my head hard against the wall.
It hurt like fucking hell.
That fucked-up dream I'd had yesterday wasn't a dream.
-I made a decision. I would make you the same as me. I would make you feel the exact same pain I felt.
-Now, it's your turn.
The curse he'd poured over me in that chilling voice, with that dizzying presence, had become reality before my eyes.
And the atrocities I'd committed against Lucas in text began flashing through my mind.
After slowly retracing my memories, I reached one conclusion.
‘I'm. So. Fucked!’
I was fucked now.
***
It took quite a while before I managed to bring the panic that had surged back up under control.
If I thought about it calmly, the situation wasn't all bad.
This was right after Lucas had been ennobled in Aerok.
In other words, it was before he'd taken up his position as a professor at the academy.
The academy where Lucas would serve as a professor—Grasco—wasn't reduced to ruins until about two years after his appointment, according to my setting, so I still had quite a lot of time.
Living leisurely and enjoying the wealth Lucas had wrung out of all those misunderstandings wasn't a bad option either……
└A remake? You're remaking this trash? Author, please go die (meaning, please go out and die) lol
└Ah…… I didn't remove it from my Favorites, so I got the remake message. Deleting it.
[Favorites Change Notification]
[36->35]
[LIFE TIME : 36 months->35 months]
“Wh-what the hell is that?”
Thirty-six months left? Thirty-six months from now is when…… the villains invade Grasco…… huh?
└Author, thanks for reminding me to remove this from my Favorites.
[Favorites Change Notification]
[35->34]
[LIFE TIME : 35 months->34 months]
The number was dropping fast.
From 36 to 35. From 35 to 34, 33, 32…….
[LIFE TIME : 8 months->7 months]
The number that had started at 36 had already fallen into the single digits.
I had a horrible suspicion, but was that really the amount of time I had left to live? Come on. Don't bullshit me.
[LIFE TIME : 7 months->6 months]
Ah, the panic was closing in again…….
“Fuuuck.”
***
The situation suddenly became neatly ‘understood.’
It wasn't because I was a genius or quick on the uptake.
It was because the current situation had been organized clearly in my head, as if someone had entered the information directly into it.
In summary, it went like this.
First, I'd possessed a character in the novel I'd ended with a trainwreck finale.
Second, of all people, I'd possessed the utterly useless character I'd created as comic relief.
Third, that decreasing number was connected to my work's Favorites, and LIFE TIME was the amount of time I could stay alive.
Fourth, whatever I did would become the story of the work itself.
Fifth, for some reason, I could ‘see’ the comments being posted on my work.
And the most important sixth point. The current comments section was completely fucked. The rapidly shrinking LIFE TIME was proof of that.
[LIFE TIME : 4 months->3 months]
The LIFE TIME that had started at 36 months had already been cut down to one-tenth of that.
└Even with a remake, I don't think this'll be much fun…… I'm removing it from my Favorites.
[LIFE TIME : 3 months->2 months]
└I stuck with it to the end out of affection, and that fucking ending lol. Ptooey. Never reading this again.
[LIFE TIME : 2 months->1 month]
Now there was only a single Favorite left.
The problem was……
‘I removed my own novel from my Favorites yesterday too!’
Which meant that one Favorite, left by someone I didn't even know, had become my last lifeline.
My entire body trembled, and I couldn't tear my eyes away.
‘Am I going to die like this? Did I really commit a crime bad enough to deserve death?’
‘Ah…… right. I did. To Lucas, I'm someone who deserves to die. But I don't want to die like this.’
As countless thoughts tangled together in my head, a new comment appeared.
└Is the new protagonist Lucas? I personally liked that character. I'm looking forward to seeing how you bring him back. I'll leave it in my Favorites for now. I'll come back once some chapters pile up.
“Haaah!”
The strength left my legs, and I collapsed where I stood.
***
THUD!
At the heavy sound that shook the mansion, the servants hurried toward its source.
It had come from the room of Lucas, their new master, who had recently been granted the surname Kraus and the rank of Count by the king.
“Is something the mat…… Hup!”
They'd already been seeing him for several days, but they still couldn't get used to that razor-sharp pressure peculiar to the strong.
‘The sun hasn't even risen yet, and he's already drenched in sweat! As expected of a powerful man. He never neglects his training!’
‘Just look at those piercing eyes. He doesn't lower his guard even around those close to him! He's truly different!’
The previous master had been unspeakably lazy, irresponsible, and debauched.
He had even made improper advances toward a member of the royal family and eventually been beheaded for it.
But what about their current master?
From the very morning, he never neglected his training, he was as sharp as a well-honed sword, and he even overflowed with charisma.
The servants inwardly compared him to the previous master and felt pleased.
Wasn't the master's reputation also a matter of pride for those who served him?
Lately, their shoulders had been raised as high as they could go.
“It seems you had your morning exercise. We will prepare a change of clothes and bathwater.”
He answered with a nod.
What charisma!
The servants left the room with proud smiles.
***
“What…… are they saying?”
It was one mountain after another.
At this point in time, Lucas still couldn't communicate properly.
I hadn't understood what the servants said at all.
I'd only managed to catch the words for clothes and water, so I'd given them a vague nod.
“How am I supposed to do anything if I can't even understand a word?!”
My head throbbed.
I had only one month left to live.
If I didn't find some way to do something within that time, I was destined to die a dog's death.
First, the language.
I had to learn it.
As fast as possible.
Lucas must have had the same concern, because there were many books in this room. He must have known he'd only improve by reading whatever he could get his hands on and picking up whatever he could hear.
‘I…… have to read all of these, don't I?’
I did love novels, but by now even that had become a memory of the past. Once it became work, I started cramming input into my head as if I were studying, and at some point even taking in input itself became torture. The sight of text had started to disgust me.
So the thought of having to read all those books—and having to read them like an exam taker studying for the foreign-language section—weighed heavily on me, but what choice did I have?
If I wanted to live, I had to do it.
‘Please, dear reader, don't drop this because you think this kind of development is boring. You're my Buddha, my Allah, my one true God…….’
Praying as though to the nameless benefactor who had left that single Favorite, I pulled out the first book.
‘Huh? This is easier than I thought?’…… was not the kind of development that happened.
I stumbled from the very first sentence, and my hands were already itching to close the book.
A little later, the servants who had left returned with fresh clothes and bathwater.
I soaked myself in the bath they'd prepared and continued reading the book.
I understood absolutely none of it, but I brute-forced my way through, sweeping the words into my eyes until something stuck.
When I finished bathing, the servant who had been waiting asked,
“!@%food@!$#@. !$#eat@!%$?”
The instincts I'd built up from years of reading the room let me roughly guess what he meant.
It seemed like he was asking whether I wanted to eat…….
‘As if I can get food down my throat in a situation like this…….’
GRRRR-
Even in a situation like this, I was hungry.
‘Well, they say even a ghost that dies after eating has a healthy glow.’
Yeah. Even if I was going to die, I'd eat first.
***
Tern, the attendant who had been waiting for Lucas to finish bathing, was genuinely astonished.
‘What? He won't even put down such a difficult book while he's bathing?’
The book Lucas was casually reading as he soaked in the bath was ‘Mana and Existence’ by Heinz, the greatest scholar on the continent—a book said to be so difficult to understand that even the continent's foremost intellectuals rarely read it.
Yet he was reading such a book casually while soaking in the tub.
The rustle of turning pages rang out with the steady rhythm of a metronome, only to stop from time to time.
“Tlqkf ejfjqrp djfuqsp.”
At times, he would sink into pained contemplation while muttering words Tern couldn't understand.
In every respect, comparison with the previous master was inevitable.
Tern's respect for his current master, Lucas, was growing by the moment.
‘Impossible!’
And that wasn't the only surprising thing.
His table manners were also the most perfect Tern had ever seen while working in this mansion.
The previous master hadn't given a damn about dignity. He'd thrown aside his fork and knife and shoveled food into his mouth, but Lucas cut his food into pieces far smaller than a single bite and ate slowly, as though savoring every morsel.
He was practically a textbook on etiquette.
Combined with his bearing and appearance, the sight was like a painting.
“Master hasn't put that book down!”
“My, he's so cultured!”
“And what about those noble looks of his! He's like a painting, a painting.”
“I heard other nobles have affairs with maids…… Think we can get our hopes up?”
“Oh, forget it! There's no way someone that dignified would behave as promiscuously as that bastard who got beheaded!”
“You've got a point.”
Not only Tern, but the other servants and maids as well watched Lucas's every move and found their respect for him growing.
***
‘Ah, I'm hungry, but I can't get anything down.’
[Favorites : 1]
[LIFE TIME : 1 month.]
That 1 felt as if it had turned into a knife and was stabbing me in the throat. A feast of delicacies from mountain and sea was spread before me, but none of it would go down. It kept catching in my throat.
I was cutting everything into the smallest pieces possible and picking at it as I forced it down, but it only felt gritty, as if I were chewing sand.
And the way everyone around me kept staring was uncomfortable too.
‘Ha…… one month.’
I couldn't believe one month could feel this short. Time kept passing, and I felt as though I were drying up with every moment.
‘Why the hell did I have to get stuck with a trial like this?’
I forced down my despair along with the food.
Then it happened.
[Favorites Change Notification]
[1->2]
[LIFE TIME : 1 month->2 months]
‘Huh?’
A savior had appeared.
Some unknown reader had added the story to their Favorites!
The number had only gone from 1 to 2, yet my heart instantly relaxed and I felt like I could fly. It wasn't merely one month. They'd given me a whole 30 days, 720 hours, more life.
They were practically my lifesaver. No, they were literally my savior!
‘Nameless reader, thank you so much. May your descendants prosper for generations, may your crypto skyrocket if you invest in it, and may your stocks do nothing but rise. I sincerely pray that…’
While I was offering a heartfelt prayer of thanks to that nameless reader,
[A new notification has arrived.]
Something new appeared.