The Woman Found the Will I Wrote

1 – Encounter

“Please…please stop.”

A voice that seemed choked with sobs.

I could regain my senses at such a voice.

Her delicate white shoulders, her wet reddened eyes, her swollen red cheeks.

Seeing a woman who reminded me of a flower on the verge of breaking, writhing under my hand, my eyes took in her pain.

Looking on blankly in a situation I couldn’t understand even if I tried to,

Faint crying and minute trembling were transmitted to my palms.

As soon as I quickly withdrew my hand, the woman who had been pinned down wrapped her body and moved away from me as far as possible.

‘What the hell is happening?’

I was reading a novel half asleep on the bus after meaningless overtime work.

I couldn’t understand how I ended up in a fancy place that seemed unrelated to me, trying to do something inhumane.

Even while watching the crying woman, I had an inkling that something was terribly wrong.

Suddenly, I noticed something strange.

‘…A face I’ve seen a lot.’

Even though I knew that it was strange to think about this in such a situation,

I was certain that her face was etched deep enough within my memory to come up even in this situation.

As I squeezed my eyes shut with these thoughts, a single word flashed through my mind.

‘Heroine.’

She looked exactly like the heroine of the novel I had been reading.

Not only did she resemble, but even the accessories that the heroine in the illustrations was using were the same as hers.

With these facts in mind, I quickly approached the mirror installed at a distance to look at my face.

“……”

Instead of my reflection, another person’s face… to be exact, the face of the villain character from the novel I had been reading was reflected in the mirror.

I find myself laughing hollowly in a situation so surreal that it feels like a dream.

Suddenly, a few pieces of information about the novel in question come to mind.

A wretched female lead, the scenes of her rolling in pain, defeating the demon king only to die – a sad ending, a cancerous novel.

I am trapped in this suffocating novel.

I have become Derun, a character who is the nightmare and trauma of the female lead.

* * * * *

The main culprit who turned the lead female into a wretch, the major contributor to the tragic ending of the novel, the number one villain everyone wants to kill.

After briefly describing the character I’ve possessed, it feels even more hopeless.

I feel dizzy and sigh.

The sound of the main female character sobbing faintly from the distance reaches my ears.

Hearing that sound strangely cleared my complicated mind and made me face reality.

I sigh lightly and decide to piece together the current situation.

The title of the novel I’m trapped in is ‘The Female Lead Rolls!’.

As the title indicates, the female lead faces all sorts of problems and ends up rolling in pain countless times, pitifully so.

The character Derun is about to rape her right from the start of the novel, though thankfully that doesn’t actually happen, given the novel’s age rating.

I recall from a spoiler comment that the violence and verbal abuse from the character Derun towards the female lead continues until the end of the novel.

I suddenly recall the last part of a spoiler comment, “Ah! And don’t worry too much, that bastard Derun dies horribly at the hands of the female lead in the latter part. ^^”

And I can’t help but frown deeply.

I was momentarily forgetting due to the bewildering situation.

According to the spoiler comment, the character I possessed was destined to die horribly at the hands of the female lead.

After remembering this, I look at the female lead again.

Though her cheek is swollen, she doesn’t seem to be severely injured otherwise, and the fact that her bed is still somewhat in order suggests she hasn’t been here long.

Although it’s uncertain whether this should be considered good fortune in the midst of misfortune.

At least the worst hasn’t happened yet, I think, as I avert my gaze.

Knowing that leaving matters as they are will lead to my character’s death, I want to fix the situation and sever the vicious cycle if possible.

The problem is that no solution comes to mind.

No one can touch the character because of his strong family background, and he has grown up lawless, constantly causing trouble. Even if he suddenly came to his senses and apologized… it would be unrealistic to expect any change in perception.

Just not feeling disgusted would be lucky.

People often feel enormous discomfort with what they can’t understand.

Which is why apologizing here would be meaningless.

I decide it’s best to stop here and move on without going any further.

Ideally, it would be best to remain as a mere memory of a character who once tried to do something wrong.

Unlike the original story, I haven’t yet crossed the point of no return.

The odds are still in my favor, as the numerous incidents that will befall the female lead in the future will help her to forget about me.

So instead of annoyingly bothering the female lead and dying like in the original novel.

I decide to fade from the female lead’s sight and gradually be forgotten.

Suddenly, a passage from the novel flashes through my mind.

[If only… If only he had apologized to me even once, I wouldn’t harbor such hatred towards him.]

A shiver runs down my spine as I recall those words.

Even in this situation, apologizing could cause an adverse effect.

But the original novel suggests an apology.

‘What a headache, being stuck in such a character.’

I sigh inwardly and hesitate for a moment.

Whether she accepts my apology or not, I decide to leave some room for doubt and slowly open my mouth.

“Forgive…”

I tried to say that, but the sight of the tears rolling down her cheeks keeps me from speaking.

While looking at her, I bite my lip hard and then slowly mimic Deren’s tone.

“Don’t.”

“……”

“Don’t forgive me.”

These words are not my intention at all.

I’m not sure if it’s because I felt sympathy for the heroine after reading the novel for a long time, or whether it’s because a character like Deren shouldn’t be forgiven.

But based on the fact that I do not regret it, it might have been the words I always wanted to say to the heroine.

‘After all, this was just a possibility.’

There’s no harm in doing it, nor not doing it.

Deciding not to worry too much about it, I look around.

‘The novel surely mentioned a recovery potion inside a drawer.’

In the original, Deren abuses the heroine and makes her faint.

At that time, a scene is described where he sprinkles a recovery potion, which he took from a drawer, on the unconscious heroine.

‘But because I don’t know the exact location, I have to find it myself.’

The description of the potion being in a glass bottle suggests that searching a reasonably large drawer should yield it.

I open the largest drawer nearby, reaching for the most luxurious-looking glass bottle inside.

[Elexium]

– Top-grade recovery potion.

As I take out the recovery potion, a window appears before my eyes.

It is certainly the first time I’ve seen this system window, but having read so many character-involved novels, it feels strangely familiar rather than surprising.

I place the recovery potion near the heroine and immediately step outside the room.

* * * * *

‘… I feel like I’m going insane.’

A bizarre reality, coupled with urgent matters to handle, I just can’t come to my senses.

I resist the urge to slump down right now and slowly move my feet.

‘Deren… Deren.’

How did I end up in the body of such a miserable wretch?

I wish if I had to inhabit a body, it could have been someone more decent, but the thought quickly passes.

Realizing that the problem was that I had become possessed without my consent, I let out a sigh.

‘Anyhow, I’ll stop worrying about unsolvable problems at this point.’

Now, I had decided to worry about what I was going to do in this body called ‘Derun’, and how I could possibly return to Earth…

‘Does it even necessary to return to Earth?’

Knowing well that I would probably be stuck in a dead-end corporate job with no future prospects, is there a need for me to abandon this life and return?

‘Of course, I do have a family…’

It wasn’t that I missed or longed for my family yet, probably because my family life hadn’t been that great.

I wondered if I were being heartless, but I had been through enough to let such thoughts pass quickly.

‘Disregarding everything else, it’s great to be in good health.’

I found it odd to say this as I was in my mid-20s, but the stress and frequent overtime work had recently taken a toll on my health.

‘When I eat greasy food like black bean noodles for lunch, I feel sick and uncomfortable the whole day, and now I’ve even developed gastroesophageal reflux disease. The pain was unbearable.’

However, this body seemed immune to such minor ailments, so I didn’t feel the discomfort I had felt recently.

I found it absurd that I was actually pleased with this and gave a wry smile, just as I noticed the female lead sneaking out of my room at the end of the hall.

‘She seems to have calmed down.’

I sighed with the thought of returning to my room once the female lead leaves.