This is a story of how Kylen preparing for the written exam.
"How many times do I have to tell you..." I grit my teeth, locking eyes with Bi Hong across the chaos that used to be my living room.
But then I sighed, rubbing my temples. "She's just a child, Kylen. You can handle this. You have to handle this."
The floor was buried under a warzone of paper — magical theory notes, monster classification charts, and a half-complete essay titled 'The Moral Philosophy of Heroes and Villains in Post-Modern Atlas Society'. A noble title, really. Too bad it was now crumpled next to a suspicious puddle of juice.
Somehow, one of the papers was stuck to the ceiling. How? I had no idea. At this point, I was scared to ask.
Kneeling down, I started picking up the sheets one by one, trying to sort them back into their original order. Meanwhile, Bi Hong — my newborn cloud dragon who had hatched only two days ago — zipped happily through the apartment.
She giggled like a wind chime as she drifted toward the kitchen sink. My freshly cleaned dishes gleamed in the morning light.
And then…
Crash.
Bi Hong bumped into the dish rack. Porcelain met porcelain. One plate survived. Barely.
"You—!" I started, standing up halfway with a half-crumpled essay still in hand. But then I saw her.
She turned toward me, her fluffy white body trembling slightly, tiny cloud cheeks puffed up in fear.
Her eyes sparkled with guilt and confusion. "Bibi...?"
That one word.
I deflated like a balloon.
"...Never mind," I muttered, kneeling back down. "It's fine. Just... go sit somewhere and try not to destroy the house, okay?"
She floated over to the couch and wrapped herself in one of my oversized jackets like a burrito, peeking her head out to watch me work.
I tried to focus again. But every time I reread a sentence, my brain replaced the words with "Bibi~" in different emotional tones.
Exhaustion. That's what this was.
Still, something in me smiled.
This wasn't just about passing the test anymore. It was about getting us through this — together. No matter how chaotic, how impossible it all felt, I couldn't let Bi Hong down.
Because whether I liked it or not…
I was her father now.
Filler End...
◇◇◇
A girl the same age as SAS Kylen sprinted around the block, her ponytail whipping side to side, shoes pounding against the pavement with practiced rhythm.
Her breath came out in sharp bursts, but she didn't slow down.
She couldn't.
She had to stay fit until the day of the entrance test.
Not because she was obsessed with training…
But because it was her duty.
This girl's name was Han Seora — a once ordinary college student from modern Korea. She had loved novels, adored webtoons, and practically worshipped the webnovel [The Hero Is Actually the Heroin!!!] — a romantic fantasy tale she had read over and over again.
But then, one fateful day, she fell asleep reading the latest chapter.
And woke up in the world of the story.
Not as the main heroine.
Not as a princess, a noble, or even a background character.
She had become the nameless student of a down-bad, penniless, washed-up mage known only by three words: "That Weird Guy."
The kind of NPC you'd usually skip past in a visual novel.
The kind of man who wasn't supposed to have a student.
But he did.
And it was her.
"One more lap," she whispered between breaths, sweat clinging to her neck. "One more lap and I'm done!"
Her arms pumped harder as she pushed herself for a final sprint. Around the block, again. The city lights blurred past her — but she didn't notice. She wasn't running for fun.
She was running because she had something to prove.
Ever since her strange new master picked her up off the streets with nothing but a crumpled cloak and a cracked wand, she'd made a promise — to carry his burden, and to push the story toward its true ending.
After all, she had read the story.
She knew the heroine was supposed to awaken a god-tier power someday.
She knew the ending was meant to be beautiful, perfect, radiant.
But the version she was now inside?
It felt… different.
Characters were off.
Timelines were unstable.
Even the villains were acting weird.
Which meant if she wanted to reach the true ending — her real ending — she needed to be stronger than the original protagonist.
No excuses.
"Just you wait," she muttered under her breath, picking up speed. "I'll get there. Even if I have to rewrite the entire plot with my own hands."
As she reached the end of her last lap, she stopped, panting and bent over at the waist.
Her pulse thundered in her ears, but she smiled.
Behind her, a faint, ghostly glow flickered — a small constellation of stars only she could see. A magic that hadn't awakened yet… but would soon.
She straightened up and gazed up at the sky, fists clenched.
"I'm not just the reader anymore."
"I'm the heroine now."
To Be Continued...