I Killed the Male Lead

Clang- The dagger fell out of my grasp and onto the floor. Unable to pick it up, I blankly stared at the scene in front of me.

A man was lying on the floor, with blood dripping everywhere.

I hesitated and took a step back. I almost slipped because of the blood on the floor.

'This…’

Is it because it's too unrealistic? Rather, things were quickly being sorted out.

I was holding a dagger until just now. The man lying on the ground was bleeding as if he had been stabbed by a knife. Therefore, I, killed... this man?

There were more problems. It was that I had no idea where the hell this place was or who this man was.

I searched for the last memory. It was a very normal day. Going home after work...

'How did I get home?'

From that point on, the memory was sparsely cut off. I frowned and unconsciously lowered my gaze, but I saw an unfamiliar outfit.

It was an old dark dress. It was not a dress you see often, but a dress that looked like it was something out of a movie.

'Why am I wearing something like this?'

The clothes of the man on the ground were the same. It was hard to see because it was soaked in blood, but the white shirt the man was wearing was not ordinary.

It was fastened with a string, and the collar and sleeves were rounded. The pants also had no zippers or buttons to be seen.

Come to think of it, so was the atmosphere in the room. The furniture had no paint marks, and the locks on the doors and the shape of the window frames were different from what I was familiar with.

'Where the hell is this place?'

At first glance, it looked like a set for filming a movie or play, but I couldn't erase the thrill that only reality gave.

Above all, I couldn't see the scene in front of me as something someone had made up. The man lying on the ground was staring at the ceiling with his eyes wide open. There was no color on his face, and his body was hardening.

'If he had at least closed his eyes, I would have hoped just in case…'

Even I, who had never actually seen a corpse before, could tell that this man was really dead.

Looking around with a confused expression, I was startled to see a strange face reflected in the window. After barely covering my mouth to stop my screams, I couldn't help but be even more shocked to realize that my face reflected in the window was also covering the mouth.

I waved my hand. The hand reflected in the window waved. I shook my head. The head reflected in the window moved left and right.

'This is me?'

I felt an unfamiliar sensation that I had been pretending not to notice. My body was not like my own, as if I had entered someone else's body.

As I was about to approach the window to take a closer look, I heard a voice outside the room.

The creaking of the floorboards and the clanking of metal against each other grew louder and louder. Then, soon, a knock was heard on the door.

I was so stiff that I forgot to even breathe. My heart started beating like it was going to jump out.

'What if someone enters this room right now?'

It was just me and the dead body. There was blood splattered on my clothes and the body on the ground looked like it had just been stabbed. It was a situation sufficient enough for me to be suspected of being a murderer. There wouldn’t be any excuse for not remembering or not knowing where this place was.

“Your Excellency, are you there?”

A man's voice was heard through the door. I was still holding my breath and couldn't move.

“Your Excellency? Your Excellency?”

There were a few more knocks on the door, and the man spoke.

“…Sir, I’m coming in. Please forgive the rudeness.”

The doorknob turned and the door rattled. Fortunately, it seemed that the door was locked.

“Tsk…”

After checking a few more times, the man soon turned around. Only after the presence outside the door completely disappeared did I let out the breath I had been holding back.

But I couldn't be relieved. The man might have gone back to find a key, and he could come back any time.

'I have to run, I have to run away.'

The thought of getting out of here dominated my mind.

I quickly scanned the room again. The only way out is the door beyond the corpse and the large window on the right.

I don't know who I'll run into if I go out the door, and the scenery outside the window said that this place was at least three stories high. If I jumped down, I should be prepared for my bones breaking in a few places.

Moreover, there was no guarantee that even if I left this building, I would be able to pass through that vast garden.

Nervously, I clenched and opened my fists. My head was spinning faster than ever, but no solution came to mind.

That was the moment a voice rang in my head.

<Julia Reitz moved hurriedly.>

Surprised, I hurriedly looked around, covering my mouth with both hands to keep from screaming.

'This, what is this?'

It was different from the man who had just knocked on the door. This voice felt strange, as if it was going directly to my head rather than through my ears. I don't know if I could call this a voice.

<There was only one way for her to leave the Bolev family. Finding the secret passage known in advance.>

The calm voice continued, as if not paying attention to my figure as I quickly turned my head to the floor and ceiling to find the source.

Even in this ridiculous situation, I tried to understand the content of the voice.

'Are you saying I can get out of here if I find the secret passage?'

Prior to who Julia Reitz was and what the identity of that voice was, that was the most important information for me.

I held my breath and waited for the next part from the voice. Intuitively, I realized that this voice was the only rope that could save me.

<Julia looked around the room. She had to find a cabinet with three candles on it.>

Coincidentally or not, just as the voice described, a candlestick with three candles was placed right behind my back.

'Is there a secret passage behind this?'

I gently touched the cabinet, but it didn't budge.

<First, Julia blows out all the lights from the candles.>

Fortunately, the voice began to tell me the next step.

<Then, she turned the candle on the far right three turns clockwise, then one turn counterclockwise.>

As the voice instructed, I blew out the lights and turned the candles. I was worried about what would happen if my excessively trembling hands broke the candle, but fortunately, soon, the cabinet rose slightly upward with a weak vibration.

When I pushed it with my hand, it pushed smoothly unlike before. Behind it, there was a large space that could accommodate one person.

I was about to take my steps without thinking about it more, but the voice that I heard again caught me.

<Julia didn't forget to pack her dagger. It meant more than destroying evidence. No one knew what would happen next.>

'Dagger…!’

It would have been a clue about me if I left it like this. As the voice said, I needed a tool to protect myself in this unfamiliar place.

I closed my eyes and walked over to the corpse to grab the fallen dagger. After making a quick check to see if I had dropped anything else, I entered the secret passage.

Then, when I pushed the cabinet back to its original position from the inside, I felt a slight vibration as before. Soon after, the cabinet came crashing down.

The entrance was completely hidden, and I found myself in pitch-black darkness.

“Hah…”

My legs gave out and I sat down. Normally, a space without a single light would have been a place of fear, but it was different now.

Could it have been because I was separated from the corpse, or because the danger that someone would attack me immediately disappeared? Once inside, I felt a sense of safety.

'It definitely said it was a secret passage, not a secret space.'

That would mean this space leads somewhere to the outside. I looked around with eyes accustomed to the darkness.

I saw a long way ahead. The endless pathway swallowed by darkness was enough to make me feel afraid again.

Still… It was better than standing still. The agony was short. I started moving forward. Inwardly, I tried to understand the absurd situation.

Where the hell is this world, and who does this body belong to? How did I end up here and what is the voice in my head? It wasn't just one or two questions.

'But, I have a clue.'

The name Julia Reitz, the Duke of Bolev, the title 'Your Excellency', and the tone of that voice, as if reading a passage of a novel.

'It would be correct to think that Julia Reitz is the name of this body I’m in.'

It was, of course, a name I had never heard of before.

Next, the Duke of Bolev and the title of ‘Your Excellency’. The man outside the door knocking was looking for him. There was a high possibility that the place I had just been in was the Duke's room.

I thought that the person named Julia Reitz might have been 'Your Excellency', but the dress I was wearing was too old for that. On the other hand, the fallen man's clothes were well-maintained at a glance.

If so, the fallen man must be Duke Bolev himself, or at least someone closely related.

‘Bolev…something is familiar about it. Where did I hear it?'

I tried to recall the appearance of the man who had fallen. Black hair, red eyes, shirt untied as if it was a habit.

‘Bolev, Bolev… Bolev?'

After repeating the familiar name over and over again, I stood still in the dark.

Russell Bolev. That was the name of the male protagonist in the novel 『The Trap and the Swamp』.