"Author-nim, what the hell is that...?"
[D-Damn... What an amazing scene...!]
"We can talk about that later! Just answer me—what is that?!"
Before I knew it, I was shouting at Author-nim.
She had clearly said it. That the protagonist couldn’t win.
So as soon as I barely managed to shake off the tiger, I rushed over here... but—
The scene before my eyes was nothing like what Author-nim had described.
Yu Siwoo wasn’t just losing instantly to the villain—instead, the villain was flustered, and Yu Siwoo was dodging every single attack with ease.
"What the hell is that?! You said he couldn’t win!"
[Hmm? Siwoo seems stronger than I thought!]
"...What?"
[I figured he’d just get hit once and die. But at this rate, maybe it’s okay to get my hopes up!]
Author-nim didn’t know everything.
That was something I knew better than anyone.
After all, she was the type to cause accidents whenever you forgot about her.
But the Author-nim I knew wasn’t as stupid as she seemed.
Sure, she did stupid things often, but she paid a *lot* of attention to the protagonist.
Because he was the core character of the novel. Because he was the main character.
There was no way Author-nim didn’t know about Yu Siwoo.
So the only possible conclusion was—
She had thrown in some last-minute setting to save the protagonist, and it turned out to be stronger than expected.
There was no other explanation.
"...Ah, aha. Author-nim, you must have—"
[Hmm?]
"You added a new setting to Yu Siwoo, right? What did you even give him to make him like that...?"
[I didn’t add anything like that.]
"...What did you just say?"
[I’ve never inserted any special settings for him.]
Wrong.
It was wrong.
My one and only deduction had been completely wrong.
...What? What the hell was going on here?
Countless thoughts swirled in my head, then vanished.
Even now, Yu Siwoo was slowly closing in on the villain, dodging every attack, sometimes even deflecting them.
That couldn’t be right.
The Yu Siwoo I’d seen up until now wasn’t this strong.
Dorothy. The thought of her crossed my mind for a second, but I dismissed it. Even with Dorothy’s enhancement, it wouldn’t make him this strong.
I’d already seen it once before. That enhancement had side effects, sure, but it didn’t make him *this* powerful.
Wait—was it not that Yu Siwoo was dodging the attacks, but that the attacks themselves were *avoiding* him? That was the feeling I was getting.
This couldn’t just be some kind of enhancement. There had to be something else...!
[Hmm, maybe the variables were bigger than I thought...]
"...Variables?"
[Well, the thing is, the protagonist doesn’t accept edits. I wasn’t planning on making big changes anyway, but it’s been a little inconvenient.]
Author-nim casually dropped that line.
The moment I heard it, my thoughts froze.
What the hell had I just heard?
It felt like the world was collapsing, then reassembling itself.
Like everything I’d taken for granted wasn’t actually that simple.
"...Yu Siwoo... can’t be edited?"
[Yep. Hmm, I don’t really know why. It’s never happened before.]
I blankly watched Yu Siwoo fight the villain.
It was a battle he clearly couldn’t win, and he looked half out of it, but he was still slowly advancing.
Even the dragon race villain, panicked by the unexpected situation, was unleashing desperate, full-powered attacks—but it made no difference.
Relentlessly, I kept moving forward.
[Normally, he wouldn’t have even been able to approach, let alone win… But, well, this is cool too, right? As expected of a protagonist, overcoming adversity…!]
The Author started rambling excitedly about how cool the scene was, but I couldn’t hear a word of it.
All I could see was Yu Siwoo.
His eyes were closed, and he staggered as if he might collapse at any moment—but he didn’t.
In this world where the Author twisted everything to their whim.
In this world where everyone was under the Author’s influence.
A world where a person who had lived virtuously their whole life could become a villain with a single tweak to their setting, and a villain could become a good person with a tragic backstory with another tweak.
In this world like a puppet show played by a child, where everyone was a puppet… I had thought I was the only human.
But I couldn’t look away from him as he advanced toward the enemy the Author had declared impossible to defeat.
It was dangerous. He was bound to lose.
I had to help him, right now.
The Author was delighted, saying this was the protagonist’s moment to shine, but he was going to lose for sure.
He looked like he was in critical condition. A protagonist wasn’t invincible. He might die.
…And yet, I couldn’t take a single step forward.
What if what I was thinking wasn’t true?
What if I was wrong?
And then, the sight that shattered my hesitation entered my eyes.
"…I hit him."
[It really happened! Wow, I got such a great scene!]
He had attacked.
Even though I had been certain he couldn’t win.
Even though the Author had said he wouldn’t even be able to approach, let alone win.
As I heard the Author’s voice, delighted that this was a good development in its own way, I laughed.
"A, ahaha. Ahahaha…! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
[W-What the?! Why are you laughing like that? …It was cool, but was it that funny?]
"A, ahaha! AHAHAHAHA!"
I couldn’t stop laughing. It felt like I would burst if I didn’t.
Just one.
Only one.
I had been certain that I was the only human in this world.
Everyone else was just a puppet in human form.
A puppet pulled by the strings of fate, swayed by the childish whims of the Author.
I had thought the protagonist was no different. Or rather, I had thought he was a puppet precisely *because* he was the protagonist.
I had thought of him as a special puppet, like a favorite toy.
…I was wrong. All of it was wrong.
He wasn’t some puppet. He was nothing like those things.
The Author had said it.
He wouldn’t even be able to approach, let alone win.
But Yu Siwoo had moved.
He had approached the villain. He had swung his sword.
Staggering steps. A body drenched in blood.
Even in the worst of circumstances, Yu Siwoo had moved—not because the Author’s strings of fate had forced him to, but by his own will.
"…Ah, you’re amazing, Yu Siwoo."
[Right?! This is what a protagonist should be like, don’t you think?! This development isn’t bad at all!]
The smile on my lips showed no sign of fading.
Because I had found it. In this world of puppets… a real person.
"W-What the hell is this?! H-Hey, what the—?!"
I grabbed my throbbing head, which ached from the blow, and shouted.
He had been nothing but a weak, pathetic rookie.
Even with the woman’s reinforcement beside me, I should have been able to handle this brat easily.
Yet in that instant, I felt my life threatened.
If this bastard had held on for just one more second, I—
"How dare you, how *dare* you…! I was going to toy with you for fun, and now—!"
I glared at the bloodied brat lying on the ground.
To think I genuinely believed I might die to someone like *this*.
A greenhorn with no real combat experience, still attending the Academy.
"…This is dangerous."
I nearly died to a kid who hadn’t even grown into his own yet.
I couldn’t let him live.
Who knew if this Academy-attending, hero-wannabe brat would come back to interfere again?
What if we met once more after he’d grown a little stronger?
I could tell myself it was just my guard dropping that put me in danger, but Mir refused to lie to herself.
She had to admit the truth: this kid was dangerous.
If she let him live and he grew stronger, the next time they met, she might truly lose.
Mir humbly accepted that possibility.
"…You were lucky. Not you—*me*."
Maybe every time Arakné had interfered before, it was all leading to this moment of survival.
Shaking off the chill creeping into her heart, Mir condensed wind in her palm.
To kill that dangerous boy.
If he grew stronger, he’d be a real threat. The way he’d dodged her invisible attacks as if he could see them meant ambushes wouldn’t work either.
By then, it would be too late. She had to finish him *now*.
"D—!"
"…What are you doing, puppet?"
"?!"
At the voice in her ear, she frantically tried to unleash her ability to attack her surroundings.
But maybe it was the blow to her head—there was a brief opening, and her opponent didn’t miss it.
"Kya—KYAAAAAAH—!"
"Do you even know who you were trying to kill? Someone way beyond your league."
"Nngh, kuh—! Y-you, you—!"
It had been a surprise attack, a fleeting gap, but in an instant, her right arm was severed.
What—what the *hell* was this?!
Gritting her teeth, she forced the scattered wind to hold together and turned to face the assailant.
Tattered clothing. And the threads scattered around.
Threads—an item that had no place on a battlefield. Yet the identity was obvious.
"Those threads…! So it’s *you*, Arakné! But Rang was supposed to stop you!"
"Rang? Oh, that guy? Beats me. Probably dead. Don’t care."
Arakné didn’t seem to give a damn about her.
Her gaze was fixed solely on the boy who had just fallen.
Ignoring her, even though she was critically wounded.
A humiliation she’d never experienced before sent a surge of irritation through her.
"Don’t… ignore me…!"
"I’m not ignoring you, Weaver Man. You’re just dangerous."
In a flash, threads shot toward her. She tried to counter with her ability, but—
The world tilted again, and the wind veered off in the wrong direction.
In that moment, she realized: this was the end.
Her fatal mistake—letting excitement over finally obtaining her lifelong goal make her careless for just a second.
And that one mistake had cost her everything.
"…Guhk."
"A puppet shouldn’t hurt people. You crossed the line."
Through her blurring vision, she saw Annie desperately running toward her, clutching something.
Sorry, Annie.
She’d wanted to create a new world.