I Killed the Male Lead

After holding my breath for a while, I realized that it had just been a dream.

"Ha…”

The first thing I felt when I woke up here was the feeling of a dagger slipping from my hand.

So even though I couldn't remember the stabbing of Russell Bolev, the events in my dream were as vivid as if I had experienced them myself. Even the feeling of the blade digging into the corpse...

‘Is it really just a nightmare? Or is it a memory engraved in this body?'

The hand that didn't belong to me trembled. To stab someone with this hand...

Even when I saw the body in front of my eyes and thought that I might have committed murder, I didn't really realize it. Because I thought it was only the owner of this body, not me.

But, perhaps because I had an overly vivid dream, it seemed as if the memory had been incorporated into me.

'It's like I really killed a person...’

I swallowed dry saliva and groped under the pillow. When I grabbed the dagger I had hidden last night, the cool feel gave me fear and a contradictory sense of relief.

***

Meanwhile, people in white uniforms gathered in Russell Bolev's bedroom, where Julia left.

Two people stood upright and motionless next to Russell's decaying corpse. At first glance, you might mistakenly think that they were rigid because of the corpse’s terrible appearance, but it was actually because of their superior.

They didn't know what kind of sound they would hear if they moved and even touched the tip of their hair.

The boss, Amon Spencer, was intent on looking around the room.

From the floor to the walls, window frames, and furniture, he meticulously inspected and recorded each thing. Not only bloodstains, but also traces of meaningless marks to traces of dust were not left out.

At the same time, he never touched anything on the spot. It was thanks to the tactful movements that didn't suit his tall height.

“It’s awful.”

Another man, Carlisle, who was kneeling on the floor and examining the corpse, murmured.

“What did you get?”

Amon, who was examining the dust on the window frame, asked as if he had been waiting.

“Well, I would like to move the body and examine it, but one thing is certain. This wound, whoever stabbed him didn't kill him."

“What does that mean?”

Amon walked over to the corpse and looked over the wound. It was hard to see that the stabber had no intent to kill, since the cuts were deep enough to show his organs to bloodstains that formed wide puddles.

“He was stabbed after he had already died.”

'He was stabbed after he died?'

There was only one reason to so brutally mutilate someone who was already dead: murder driven by bitter grudge.

Amon stared at the ceiling and peered into Russell's bulging eyes, then asked again.

“Then what is the direct cause of death?”

“I can’t see it with my eyes. There is no sign of strangulation, and there is a wound on the back of the head, but it seems to have been caused by a fall.”

“What about poisons?”

“I don’t see any signs of poisoning.”

“That means he died of unknown causes, then lost his strength and fell to the floor, then he was hacked to death with a knife.”

“Yes, that.”

“Isn’t that strange?”

“It is very strange.”

Carlisle got up from the floor and continued.

“To kill him without leaving any traces and stab him with a knife. Just…”

He hesitated for a moment, looking at Amon's notice, then shrugged.

"It would have been an opportunity to insist on a heart attack or something.”

At those words, Amon hesitated. His expressionless face hardened even more. His blue eyes darkened and his jaw tightened stiffly.

Carlisle tapped Amon on the shoulder as if he was expecting it. Carlisle nodded his head and sent out the two low-level knights who were standing still, and continued in the room where only the two of them were left.

"No, it's not."

"What?"

"It’s not the same guy you're looking for."

Amon stared at Carlisle in silence. It was a face that seemed to be sure.

“The body was damaged. The method is different. If it was the same guy, it would have ended neatly with a heart attack.”

“…”

“I haven't looked at the body properly yet. I don’t know what will come next.”

“…Yes."

He replied reluctantly, but Amon's expression remained dark. As if comforting, Carlisle hit his shoulder a couple of times and knocked on the door from inside. Then, the two waiting knights hesitantly entered the room again.

“Take away the body. Find out more.”

"Yes."

At Carlisle's command, the knights began to move Russell's body. Amon stood tall, motionless, looking at the small table near the window.

Looking at the clean tables and chairs with no traces of anyone touching them, a realistic fantasy unfolded in Amon's mind.

Russell Bolev sits at a table and drinks tea while looking out the window. There was poison in the tea, and he soon plummets to the floor complaining of his pain.

After that, someone changed the scene and removed the poison by moving tables and chairs back to their original positions. No poison was detected, and the case ended in a heart attack.

There was a good chance it was the same person. The one he had been chasing since he was ten years old.

'The body is damaged, so the technique is different.'

Thinking that far, Carlisle's determined words broke into Amon's daydream. He was right. Someone had mutilated the corpse, so the fantasy just now didn't make sense.

The time from when Russell collapsed until the scene was tampered with…

‘If only there was a way to fill that void…’

Absentment, desperation, and maybe obsession. Those things were all sunk in Amon.

***

Light streamed in through the small window. It was already morning.

Opening my eyes, I looked around. I saw the scenery of the old inn. The dress hanging on the wall and the dagger I touched under the pillow were still the same.

All of this made me realize that I was still in an unknown world. Even if the night had passed, there was no luck in returning to my original world.

I barely managed to lift myself up. The fatigue didn't go away, but I couldn't lie still.

After washing in fresh bath water, I looked in the mirror. At least I looked better than yesterday. My dark chestnut hair fell to my waist, and the lighter brown eyes were staring straight at me.

Am I in my early to mid twenties? It was not a good look to look back to when I walked along the street, but it seemed that no one would refuse me if I approached someone first.

'It would have been a little better if I wasn't as haggard as I am now.'

I tied my hair into a loosely tied knot. No matter how it was managed, this hair, which was randomly tangled, could not be calmed down no matter how much I combed it.

This tousled hair must also be one of the pieces of evidence of sudden poverty. In a world like this, if there wasn't someone else to take care of it, I wouldn't have grown my hair this long in the first place.

I sewed the clothes I bought yesterday and put them on again. It was a dress that covered everything from the shoulders to the ankles, but the bonyness was not hidden. Rather than suffering from a disease, it seemed that I was simply undernourished overall.

‘Long hair, a thin body, an old but luxurious dress, an expensive necklace…’

Something must have happened to Julia Reitz. What happened when she had to suffer sudden poverty?

This was all I could tell from appearances, so I had no choice but to look for something else.

I looked at the paper on the bedside table. It was an insignificant piece of paper to have left after giving away an expensive necklace.

'That necklace could also be a clue.'

It was better to get it back if possible. Even after doing this, there was a high possibility that it was a valuable item if the original body owner didn't sell it and still had it.

I put the paper and the dagger in my arms and went down to the first floor of the inn where the restaurant was. Even though it was early in the morning, several guests were already eating at the wide wooden table.

It wasn't long before my share of breakfast was ready. A few slices of crusty bread and a bowl of soup were all there was. When I took a bite of the bread soaked in the soup, warmth spread through my body. I only ate a piece of bread like that, but my stomach was full in no time.

'With a skinny body like this, it's hard to respond no matter what happens.'

I dipped another piece in the soup and stuffed it into my mouth. It doesn't seem like I have been in poverty for a long time, so if I take care of myself a little, I'll be back in good health.

As I was trying to clear things up like that, I saw the person sitting next to me leaving a wad of paper as he left his seat. On the paper, pictures and letters were densely printed under large titles.

'Newspaper?'

Newspapers were one of the best ways to keep track of the world.

In fact, I knew very little about this world, even if I combined the memory of reading the novel and the experience of the night before.

The only thing I knew was that the area I was staying in was an empire named ‘Nilton’, and that the Bolev Duke had such tremendous power that they once ruled the dukedom.

I quickly picked up the ownerless newspaper and read through the news that was nothing special. Then, I soon noticed a short article in the corner.