Episode 3
Lindsay quickly realized it would be pointless and shook her head.
“Forget it. If I erase his memory and he notices the gap, it’ll just be more annoying.”
[Not if you cover the hole with fake memories. Then he wouldn’t notice.]
“Yeah, but Lionel’s too sharp. He’d figure it out. Better to let him wear himself out and give up.”
After all, Lionel wasn’t just some random side character.
Even if the novel called him a sub male lead, he was the master of the Mage Tower—the place every mage dreamed of entering.
He had insane amounts of mana, perfect control, and all the talent in the world.
Basically, the top magician of their age. If she could actually get him to help her, life would be so much easier…
But she didn’t have the proof to convince him yet.
With a sigh, Lindsay put the cat down and started cooking instead.
From the cupboard, she pulled out a bottle filled with a thick, red paste.
Nero’s pupils dilated in alarm.
[…Wait. You’re not about to make that, are you?]
“…Make what?”
[Tteokbokki.]
Lindsay blinked.
“Wow, you guessed it just from the ingredients?”
[Let’s… eat something else today.]
He turned his head away, avoiding the red chili paste in her hand.
That reaction shocked Lindsay, who clearly remembered Nero happily eating tteokbokki in the past.
“…What’s with you? You like tteokbokki.”
[I used to. That was before you started putting spicy stuff in it.]
Oh. He can’t handle spicy food.
It only took her a hundred years to figure that out.
She thought back—yeah, his appetite dropped right around when she’d started cooking Korean food with chili and spices.
So it wasn’t that he was picky… he just couldn’t eat spicy.
Feeling guilty, she put the chili paste back in the cupboard.
“You could’ve just said so.”
[And what? Ruin your mood while you cried from spiciness, too?]
His blunt answer made her scratch her head in embarrassment.
She quickly changed the dinner plan.
She filled a pot with water, set it on the mana-powered stove, and the flame flickered to life.
The pot went on top.
“…Let’s do kalguksu. Anchovy noodle soup.”
[Good choice, meow.]
Nero plopped down comfortably on the floor while Lindsay prepped anchovies and tossed them into the boiling pot.
The broth soon bubbled, anchovies swirling around in the foam.
While the soup cooked, she took out the dough she’d kneaded earlier and rolled it flat with a wooden pin.
Her hands moved automatically as she asked:
“Nero, can you make a quick trip to the Demon Realm? It’ll take me about twenty minutes to finish this.”
[What? I just went there for ingredients not long ago.]
“I need a couple more, urgently.”
She folded the dough three times and sliced it into neat strips—homemade noodles.
[What do you need this time?]
“Webbed feet from a Sulfur Hell Duck… and Hellweed.”
Nero narrowed his eyes.
He knew exactly what those ingredients were used for.
His little witch wasn’t like other witches—she was born differently.
Witches weren’t born from mothers like humans.
They came from laurel tree fruit. Inside the fruit, they shaped their vessel, absorbed moonlight, and emerged with their magic.
The amount of moonlight determined their lifelong mana.
But Lindsay… she was born on the new moon.
No moonlight, no mana. A witch with nothing.
Still, she hadn’t given up.
She tried every possible method to gain magic power.
One of them was a mana-enhancement potion made from exactly those two ingredients.
[Why that potion? It doesn’t work on you. You’ve got no mana at all.]
He was right.
The potion only boosted existing mana.
It couldn’t create mana where there was none. For her, it was useless.
“…I think I might need it soon.”
[‘Might’?]
He pressed, clearly suspicious. She rolled her eyes.
“Nero, you’re extra nosy today.”
[If you want me to fetch it, tell me why.]
He was going to do it anyway.
She knew him too well.
After over a hundred years together, she’d long since figured out this supposedly cold-hearted demon was actually a softie.
“…Fine. To sell on the black market.”
[Hmm. Still sounds suspicious.]
Ugh. Why was he sharp at the worst times?
Her lie didn’t land, so she switched tactics—the pity card.
“Well… what else can I do? That potion sells for a fortune… I just wanted to make a little money, you know? Things are so tight right now…”
Her voice trailed off pitifully.
Nero twitched an ear. Hooked.
[…What a pain.]
He jumped down. On the floor, a black circle appeared under his paws, lines stretching out until a six-pointed star formed.
[Don’t forget to save the anchovies after you take them out of the broth.]
Black smoke rose, and Nero vanished.
“Anchovies, huh…”
Following his words, Lindsay scooped them out into a small bowl.
Out of curiosity, she popped one into her mouth—then spat it right back out.
“…Huh. Tastes weird. Am I getting cat taste buds, too?”
After a century with a cat-shaped demon, maybe she was turning into one herself.
Shaking her head, she prepped toppings—stir-fried zucchini, egg strips, thin-sliced scallions.
When everything was ready, she waved her hand.
The messy kitchen cleaned itself.
The cutting board and knives floated into a basin, water poured itself in, and scrubbers made from enchanted bark scrubbed them clean.
She leaned on the counter, watching absentmindedly.
“…Is this what they mean by dishwashing ASMR?”
Her new life didn’t feel so out of place anymore.
It had only been a month since her past-life memories returned—memories of Earth, and of the romance novel she’d read right before she died.
The moment she saw the Empire’s name and the noble houses from the story, she knew.
And conveniently, her memories returned right as the novel’s plot began.
So she’d left “home” and settled here, in the Roman Empire’s capital—the very stage where the story would unfold.
Her reasons were two-fold:
First, to confirm if this really was the novel’s world.
Second, if it was… then to save the humans who were destined to die in the coming disasters.
And Lionel—his condition matched perfectly.
Just like in the book, he was suffering from mana corruption. That sealed it for her.
This really is the story world.
She groaned, remembering the ending.
For a “romance novel,” it had a brutal twist. Lionel—the sub male lead—died suddenly after getting rejected by the heroine.
“If only I’d quit reading there… maybe I wouldn’t have reincarnated here at all.”
Running her fingers through her hair in frustration, she muttered:
“…First, I’ll keep the heroine alive.”
Because if the heroine survived, she’d pick up Lionel, cure his mana problem, and escape her doomed fate.
And maybe, just maybe, that would keep the story from spiraling into tragedy again.
