Chapter 19
In the dead of night, when everyone was asleep, a creaking sound echoed through the hallway as the wooden floorboards slowly pressed under someone’s weight.
‘If someone’s sneaking around this late… it has to be the teacher!’
I immediately pressed my ear to the door.
I heard the quiet sound of someone exiting another room and gently closing the door. Then, the soft tread of footsteps trying not to make any noise moved down the hallway.
Those footsteps were headed toward the front door.
‘Going out at night?’
Or… a midnight escape?
If someone was fleeing after embezzling funds, they wouldn’t be leaving empty-handed.
‘What if he’s trying to crack open the director’s safe before fleeing?’
I couldn’t let the orphanage go under.
Not just for the sake of the children who lived here…
‘If the director ends up penniless and quits, he’ll go hunting down Count Torto again!’
To return his daughter and collect a reward!
I couldn’t allow the same adoption fraud incident from before my regression to happen again.
I carefully crept out into the hallway to check where the teacher was headed and pressed myself against the window near the front door.
└ [Don’t do anything dangerous—just go get an adult;;]
I’m not even sure it’s a real escape yet. It could just be another smoke break.
If it turns out to be nothing, I might make things worse by overreacting.
Still, I kept watching carefully, ready to run to the director’s office if needed.
It was dark, so I couldn’t see everything clearly, but I could make out shapes. He was carrying something heavy under one arm.
‘A bag?’
No, it was drooping oddly, and I could vaguely see hair…
‘…Jeff?!’
The teacher was kidnapping Jeff!
└ [Whoa, maybe he switched targets since he couldn’t grab Rose]
No wonder Jeff kept nodding off all day!
‘Was that because of drugs?!’
I quickly scanned the area and saw a horse waiting a little distance away.
Premeditated crime! Emergency alert! Pweeet—!
I reached for my whistle and was about to dash to the director’s office on the second floor.
‘Ugh, these short legs!’
Before I could even make it up the stairs, the front door opened again, so I dove into the shadows beneath the staircase.
Creak… creeeak… The sound of footsteps on wood got closer and closer.
Gasp.
When the feet stopped right in front of me, I nearly let out a breath I was holding behind my hand.
Luckily, he paced around a bit on the first floor and then hurried back out the door.
Then came the sound of the door closing again.
└ [Did we finally get him this time?]
└ [Please don’t jinx it, I’m begging youㅠㅠ]
Just in case, I waited a bit longer, then put the whistle back to my lips.
Before the kidnapper escapes, I have to get the director—
“You little rat, so here you were.”
“Ah, mmph!”
└ [Oh nooo ♪♩
!!]♪]
└ [Ahhh ♬
└ [He just said “rat” raw like that—no filter, what about us poor readers!]
I dropped the whistle on the floor, and instead, the comment fairies started singing loudly inside my head.
I squirmed with all my might, but I couldn’t overcome an adult’s strength.
He dragged me to the storage shed where he’d stashed the bag and the dazed Jeff, and then threw me in.
“Ah!”
“Shut it. Hmph. No one will hear you scream out here.”
Just as he said, the shed was far from the main orphanage building. No wonder he snuck here for his smoke breaks.
“Damn. What do I do now? I can’t take both of you. And you saw my face.”
“J-Jeff…”
If I can’t win with strength, I’ll try words. Even if he’s not someone I can reason with, I might buy some time to think.
“Jeff hasn’t done anything wrong. Not that I have either! But what are you planning to do with a kid who has nothing to do with this?”
At this point, whatever happens, happens.
“Just let Jeff go. Take me instead—!”
I was thinking maybe I had a better chance of escaping since I had an adult’s mind when—
“What are you even saying?”
“Huh?”
“Brats like you, who talk back, never end up well.”
…Wait, huh?
So that means…
‘He never planned to kidnap me in the first place?!’
But I thought for sure I was the target!
└ [Huh?]
└ [Didn’t he say it’d be a pretty and obedient kid?]
└ [Wait… Is Jeff the “pretty one”?]
Looks like the comment fairies sometimes see a different timeline… or they add a lot of their own interpretation.
└ [Is Jeff secretly good-looking??]
Who cares about looks right now?!
Anyway, if I’m not the target, just a nuisance to get rid of—
“Rose, you’re smarter than I thought.”
The teacher—no, the kidnapper-embezzler—his eyes fully bloodshot, reached for me.
He grabbed the back of my neck and threw me deeper into the storage shed.
“Ugh!”
“I can’t let a kid who’s sure to report me walk free.”
Then he grabbed something from a shelf by the door.
“They’ll suspect me right away if things go missing, so I need to erase all the evidence.”
In his hand was a matchbox, probably left from smoking.
‘Then the fire from before my regression—!’
└ [OMG, is he really starting a fire now?]
└ [Kidnapping, embezzling, abuse, and arson?! This guy’s a walking crime wave.]
└ [This combo pack is just too much]
“Stay safe, Rose. Or maybe I should say… goodbye.”
He packed up Jeff and the bag, tossed a lit match into the pile of stuff in the shed, and shut the door.
Maybe he’d poured oil or something beforehand, because the fire spread rapidly.
‘Didn’t I already die in a fire?!’
So even as a child or an adult… am I just destined to die in flames?
└ [But the main character never dies!]
Why not? I already died once!
└ [Oh, true…]
└ [Is this gonna be another regression?]
└ [Restarting from Life #3 after all this progress?!]
└ [If she doesn’t regress, it’ll be a cliffhanger-ending—something has to happen]
Maybe fairies don’t grasp the concept of death properly. Their way of thinking really is different from humans.
└ [Excuse me??]
Through the small window by the door, I saw that lunatic heading toward the orphanage building.
Just like before my regression—he was planning to set the main building on fire too.
“Cough.”
My only exits were the door and the window next to it, but the fire had already engulfed both.
└ [??: I’m out. I’m quitting this life.]
└ [?]
└ [You say you’re quitting, but you’re still here dropping comments lol]
└ [You claim you’re leaving but you’re watching the comments way too closely]
I’m not trying to die dramatically here! But is it really okay to joke like this while I’m about to burn alive?
‘Now that I think about it, the “I quit” fairy showed up first before I died last time too.’
└ [Was the quitter first comment last time too?]
└ [That’s a true fan, right there]
So that was actual foreshadowing for death?!
The fire started at the doorway and gradually crept inward.
‘This is worse than getting killed by Count Torto. What a pathetic way to die.’
I can’t go out like this.
I searched the shed for a blanket, then braced myself to run through the flames.
The door’s wooden—maybe it’s been weakened by the heat.
I wrapped the blanket around myself. Even though it blocked my vision, I didn’t care. I hurled myself at the door with all my strength.
‘Please, let it open!’
Thud! Thud!
I slammed into it again and again, but it didn’t budge.
‘Please…’
Eventually, even the sound of my body hitting the door grew weaker as I lost strength.
└ [Oh no, baby girlㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
└ [Don’t dieㅠㅠ]
└ [Author-nim, please save her!]
If the fairies are worried, does that mean I really can’t escape death this time?
But…
‘Why… doesn’t it feel as hot as it should?’
Even when the fire touched the part of my leg that had slipped out from the blanket, it didn’t hurt.
Now that I think about it, it was like that last time too—when I died in the noble prison.
I thought I didn’t feel the heat because I died too quickly, but I’m still alive now.
As soon as I sensed something strange—
<■■…■■■….>
Just like before, when the fairies appeared in the flames, a different voice echoed in my head.
But unlike the comment fairies, this voice was calm and resonant.
└ [Huh?]
└ [Whoa, is this an awakening setup?]
└ [Even Minjun sounds calm now]
└ [Those blocked words… It must be a god or a celestial]
└ [Celestial feels too random—probably a god]
‘So now we’re going beyond fairies… a god?’
└ [Ugh, once a god shows up, it’s all downhill from here]
└ [If this becomes worldbuilding-heavy, I’m out]
└ [The anonymous comment fairy says celestial plotlines are better than this]
└ [Ugh, I thought this was different but it’s just another cliché saintess route. I’m out.]
<■……(grrrrk).>
As if the voice heard the fairies, it gurgled and faded like it was drowning underwater.
‘…What the heck?’
The fairies bullied it so hard they exorcised the mysterious voice.
