I sat in the wagon, thinking about my next move. Now that I was out of the picture, the Duchess of Babyloa would surely be thrilled to see Lennox and Sheria marry. But who knew? Perhaps the Duchess would still want to get rid of me completely to prevent any lingering complications.
'Well, it's a possibility.'
I nodded, recalling Meldenique's past actions. Therefore, before even thinking about opening a stationery store, I needed to secure the best possible escort right away. The first step I chose to avoid death was to meet Dominic, the greatest swordsman in the Empire, hailed as a hero.
In the rattling carriage, my thoughts turned to Dominic, the hero of the sword. Dominic, the brave young knight who saved the Empire at the tender age of seventeen. So long ago, heroic tales and epic stories about him had filled the entire Empire. About a thousand years prior, demons, exiled from the God Realm, had summoned monsters to conquer the human world, throwing the entire Empire into chaos. At that critical moment, a boy knight had suddenly appeared on the battlefield. He discovered a way to sacrifice himself to seal the demons: by sealing himself within a magic sword. The Empire regained peace through Dominic's sacrifice. Of course, Dominic had to endure a thousand years trapped in the sword, hoping someone would summon him and break the seal that imprisoned him.
'In the original story, Lennox received even more praise for acquiring Dominic like this.'
He summoned a great hero from an ancient sword and even secretly plotted to make him emperor. As such, Dominic was a powerful and symbolic figure. If things had gone as they were supposed to, Dominic would have been reborn as a true hero and protector of the Empire...
'Now, Dominic will be mine.' I hummed.
"If I summon Dominic, the Empire's strongest knight, with such great power, Hildegard won't be able to kill me easily." Whether the adulterous couple's glorious future disappeared was none of my concern. I had to live first, right?
Meanwhile, my wagon finally reached the slum. Looking at the area, which was filled with a chilling atmosphere, I chuckled inwardly. Then I knocked on the carriage window.
"I'm getting off here."
"Yes?"
When I stated my intention to disembark, the coachman stopped the carriage but looked quite flustered. Leaving his grumbling horse, he stood in front of the carriage window and whispered with a restless expression.
"Lady, do you truly wish to get off here?"
"Yes."
"But this is the spookiest cemetery in the slums..."
It was certainly not a place for an aristocratic young lady to stop by in the middle of the night. But I smiled at him and looked out the carriage window. The chill clung to my cheeks, and weeds threatened to mess up my dress.
"You've come to the perfect place."
"Yes?"
This was a slum cemetery, abandoned due to famous ghost rumors. And if I remembered correctly, the magic sword Dominic would be in front of the largest tombstone here.
"I know." I replied coolly, handed the coachman his wages, and stepped out of the carriage.
He looked at me as if I were astonishing, and I gave a slight wink.
"It's already evening... You, there might be ghosts, so please be careful." The coachman worriedly drove his horse away.
I glanced at the back of the quickly departing carriage, shrugged my shoulders, and picked up my simple package from the ground. 'I'm dead and possessed, so how can I be afraid of ghosts?' After all, I was a ghost too.
I walked into the cemetery, carrying my luggage with both hands. With each step, the chill seeped into my dress. However, since this body had already died once, the cold was hardly a big deal. I savored this peculiar situation and leisurely looked around.
"Where are you, Dominic, the hero?"
No one would have thought that the sword which sealed the hero was stuck in a mere cemetery. Perhaps because of this, the male protagonist, Lennox, who was Dominic's contractor in the original work, also discovered this sword belatedly.
"Even after he found it, it took him a long time to summon the magic sword."
People tend to think that great things must be hard to acquire. However, sometimes the easiest and simplest solution is the best one. In fact, there wasn't much to do to summon Dominic and sign a contract.
"To summon Dominic from the sword, you just need to draw the sword."
He simply had to draw it, yet Lennox struggled for a long time because he didn't know how to summon Dominic after learning its location. After briefly lamenting his struggles in the original story, I walked through the cold, deserted cemetery. After a few laps, and with my fingertips growing cold, I finally stood in front of the biggest tombstone.
'I found it.'
In front of the tombstone, carved from a large stone, was a moss-covered bayonet. I didn't mind the moss and placed my hand on the sword's hilt. Perhaps it was just my imagination, but I felt a mysterious power in my hands. And without a second thought, I drew the sword in one swift motion. My wrist hurt slightly, but I finally pulled it free from the black earth.
Suddenly, a pure white light began to dominate my vision.
The light that had consumed my vision resolved into pure white, standing directly before me. I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them again. In front of the tombstone, a young man, much taller than me, appeared without a sound.
'Is the summoning successful?'
I offered him the sword in my hand. He took it with a displeased expression. The sword then shimmered and faded from his hand like mist.
"Who are you?"
His voice, deep and resonant, confirmed the success of the summoning. The man before me perfectly matched Dominic's description from the novel: a handsome man with black hair and jewel-blue eyes. He had an unusually high nose and soft hair, yet his innocent eyes hinted at a rebellious spirit, making him a strikingly beautiful youth.
'Just like the magic sword Dominic depicted in the original.'
Convinced that the man in front of me was indeed Dominic, I spoke to him. "I call myself Meldenique Babyloa, or simply Mel. You're Dominic, the hero's sword, aren't you? The great hero who sealed the demon."
His expression, which had shown a flicker of interest, turned cold. "You know me, Mel. What did you want by calling me?"
"Let's sign a contract with me."
However, as soon as Dominic heard the word "contract," he lost interest and sat down casually in front of the large tombstone. "A contract... It's so obvious and uninteresting. You're predictable too. You'll try to use me to satisfy your own self-interest."
Dominic was unexpectedly cynical. I merely shrugged. "That's right."
"...You admit it immediately?"
"Yes." It was true; I was trying to satisfy my selfish desires.
Dominic looked up at me with a blank face. "...Alright. What is your wish? I'll decide whether or not to sign a contract based on that."
I replied quickly, as if I had been waiting for the question: "Please protect my life. Protect me from Hildegard!"
"...Of course, I will risk my life to protect my contractor. Other than that? What can I give him?"
That was all I had in mind for the contract. "Other than that...?" I tilted my head. What else did I need? "Not really."
"...Not really? Why? You said you'd satisfy your selfish desires."
He seemed speechless. This was likely because most people who had tried to summon him for a contract in the past wanted to conquer entire continents. But I just wanted to live a simple life.
"So that's why you asked me to protect you, right?" he asked, looking at me with a puzzled expression. "What? You just want me to protect you? From whom? Are you trying to conquer the empire but can't say it?"
"No, I don't need an empire."
He looked at me, a flicker of irritation in his eyes. "Well, then? What do you want?"
Suddenly, I realized I did have something I wanted. Come to think of it, there was indeed something. "Actually, I am a bit ambitious and driven."
He chuckled cynically, as if he'd known all along. Looking down at Dominic, I relayed what I had said to the maid earlier. "I'm going to be the owner of a stationery store in front of the academy. And you'll be my—and our stationery store's—sturdy escort."
A strong escort knight. I chuckled. The seventeen-year-old boy, who had been staring at my smile, nodded vigorously.
"Stationery store...? Ah, now I understand."
Oh, he's a sword that has lived for a long time, so he knows what a stationery store is? I looked at him with sparkling eyes, filled with hope.
"In order to create a new empire, I think you're going to call it 'Stationery Shop.' The naming sense is terrible. Is there any other name?"
What was he talking about? Had he gone crazy from being confined to the sword? I didn't want to be the owner of an empire; I just wanted to be the owner of a stationery store! Of course, I did dream of becoming a stationery store owner who would serve children from all over the continent. However, Dominic's abilities were power-oriented; aside from basic magic, he was a "zero-gem soldier" when it came to commerce. So, even if I wished to "become a colossus," I wouldn't be able to achieve it through Dominic. All I wanted from him was to save my life!
I smiled brightly at him and replied, "A stationery store is like a general store. The difference is that they sell food for children, school supplies for children, and miscellaneous goods. Sounds fun, right?"
"Fun?"
"Yes." I nodded vigorously. "It's so easy for you. You've always wanted to get out of the sword."
The hero's sword, Dominic's dream, was to escape from the sword. And there was only one condition for Dominic to get out of the sword: perfectly granting the wishes of the contractor.
"I know that if you grant the contractor's wish perfectly, you can get out of the sword and become a real human."
Dominic frowned. "How do you know that?"
...This sword is sharp, isn't it? However, I couldn't say that I read it in the original, not even if I died. I decided to quickly change the subject. "It doesn't matter how I knew. The important thing is that as long as you protect me and my stationery store, you can escape from that sword."
And my strategy worked. Although he had lived for more than a thousand years, the young hero, who had spent that time confined in the sword, nodded his head vigorously.
"...Yes, that's right. It's a really easy and comfortable way. It's a bit disappointing..."
He looked at me with a face that was half dumbfounded and half regretful, then jumped to his feet. I really liked seeing him taken by surprise in the original.
"Anyway, thank you, Mel."
I was satisfied to see the joy on his face. Now, let's talk about the stationery store.
"The building for the stationery store is already ready."
I rummaged through the clutch bag I was carrying on my arm and handed him a small apron. Dominic looked at me in bewilderment at my quick action.
"Now, let's put on an apron and make Dalgona first."
Just like that, the magic sword, Dominic, took the apron from me without hesitation.