Chapter 1

[Attention player, according to system detection, your mission has failed. Since you did not complete any successful routes, the system will now erase you.]

The system’s voice echoed in my mind as I stood in the shadows, secretly watching the wedding.

Inside the grand hall, Michael Brosnan and Faye Summer exchanged a smile before kissing amid the playful cheers of the crowd.

That wedding had been the final lifeline the system gave me.

Now, it too had slipped through my hands.

Back then, when I entered the body of a three-year-old child, I signed the system’s contract: within twenty years, as long as I captured the heart of any one of the three male leads, I would return to my original world.

But twenty years had passed, and I had not succeeded.

Perhaps this was the ending fate had arranged for me.

I left the hall and walked toward the crowded overpass.

The system told me that after reporting my failure to its superiors, it would erase me.

I stared at the endless stream of cars below.

My mind replayed the faces of the three male leads over the past two decades—always twisted with contempt whenever they looked at me.

All of them had scorned me for the same reason: Faye Summer.

She was the dazzling heroine of this world, the one every man loved.

The system once consoled me, saying that because she carried the heroine’s halo, the male leads could not help but fall for her.

I tilted my head toward the heavy, clouded sky. Was it because I was an outsider here, a vicious supporting character meant only to set off the heroine’s brilliance, that I was destined for such an end?

So be it.

At this point, what else was there to think about?

I would die regardless.

Dazed, I stepped into traffic.

If I were to be erased, better to leave behind a broken body than to vanish silently. Let them bury me despite their hatred, swallowing their disgust as they lay me to rest.

In the next instant, the screech of brakes tore through the air as a harsh, all-too-familiar voice followed.

“If you want to die, Luna, then do it where no one can see you. Don’t disgrace yourself in public.”

I looked up and saw him—my half-brother..

Peter Northstar was my only remaining family in this world.

I had no one else to rely on.

It was his small gestures of care and fleeting warmth that made me trust him completely and believe he was the only person here who would ever treat me kindly.

But at some point, he fell under Faye’s spell.

Because she claimed that I had led others in bullying her at school, Peter believed her without question.

From then on, he began to hate me.

Peter dragged me into his car, drove to a deserted road, and yanked me out. Then he slapped me across the face.

“If you’re going to kill yourself, then do it where no one can see. Otherwise, someone else will have to clean up your mess after you’re gone.

“Here’s a good place. If you want to die, then do it now. Don’t waste my time.”

My ears rang from the blow, but I forced myself to stay upright.

Of course. This wasn’t the first time I had tried to kill myself in front of him.

He must have grown accustomed to it by now.

Back then, his heart and eyes were for Faye alone.

I only wanted to know that he still cared for me as family, that he would hear me out—I never truly wanted to die.

So now, he felt certain I was bluffing again, just as before.

“Why are you here anyway? Weren’t you at Faye’s wedding just now?

“Was it because you were worried about me?”

I stared at him, my eyes brimming with hope even as my voice carried a bitterness I could not hide.

I had seen him at the wedding just moments ago. Could it be he had followed me out of concern?

Though he had disappointed me countless times, a part of me still clung to that fragile dream.