Evelin's heart was pounding. The door began to open slowly.
Urano reminded himself that although he temporarily had access to the original owner's abilities, he had never actually used his combat techniques.
Meanwhile, Evelin recalled her father's words from when she was a child in training:
"Never make rash decisions. The moment you lose control of yourself, you lose control of everything. Try to breathe deeply."
When the door fully opened, two girls slipped in and quickly shut it behind them.
One was the multi-eyed demon girl, and the other was the elf who had helped them during the infiltration plan.
However, their presence didn't ease Urano's tension—if anything, it heightened it.
—"What are you doing here?"
—"Ah! Please don't be alarmed… We mean no harm," said the elf in a nervous but kind voice.
Immediately, the demon woman stepped protectively in front of her.
—"We want to leave with you… Please," said the spider-demon woman firmly. "We have no reason to stay anymore."
They quickly explained their situation.
Most of the women in the brothel were there because their families had fallen into disgrace or crushing debt. These two were no exception.
They had sold themselves into voluntary servitude for a month to support their respective tribes financially.
However, tragedy struck sooner than expected.
The spider woman's tribe had been wiped out by a group of explorers who deemed them dangerous, despite existing peace treaties.
The elf's tribe had also been displaced by other explorers and forced to migrate aimlessly to a distant region.
Their tribes used to live near each other. A friend of the elf, disguised as a client, had come to deliver the tragic news.
Both women were now determined to escape.
The poison they had used was originally intended for an old nobleman obsessed with the spider demon.
He had struck a deal with the brothel owner to acquire her illegally, planning to place a cursed "slave ring" on her finger—an artifact strictly prohibited, but with money, anything was possible.
Urano, Evelin, and Nora discussed the situation.
It wasn't that they wanted to take them along… but leaving them behind could jeopardize their own escape.
Even with three people, the escape was already complicated. Now, with five, it would be almost impossible to remain unnoticed.
There was no time to make a new plan.
They handed the girls plain clothes to help them blend in, then sneaked through the corridors.
Their progress was slow. They had to hide in rooms while guards ran past with buckets of water or evacuated other girls to safer areas.
What helped them was the fire—it wasn't dying out. It had grown more than expected, partly because Evelin had accidentally shattered several bottles of flammable liquor.
They didn't know that, but the chaos played to their advantage.
Leaving the building wasn't particularly hard. The real problem was finding a place to hide.
They had only rented two rooms at the inn… and now there were five of them.
How could they explain that to the landlord?
—"Each room has a window... if we climb up from the outside," Urano suggested.
Evelin paused for a moment. She couldn't think of a better idea, so she agreed.
One person would wait in the back, one would distract the innkeeper, and another would help with the rope.
As they walked down the hall, the innkeeper opened the door. When he saw them, his eyes widened.
The girl beside them laughed, a bit flushed.
The man cleared his throat. Evelin and Urano looked at each other, confused by his reaction.
—"Don't worry, sir… Here, we respect all preferences," the innkeeper said, trying to sound diplomatic.
Urano had no idea what he meant—until Evelin pulled him close and whispered:
—"Remember, you're still dressed as a woman."
Urano's eyes went wide. It felt like being punched in the gut.
That wasn't true! Or... was it?
They had fled the brothel in such a hurry, carrying extra people, that they hadn't had time to buy new clothes.
But he wasn't a crossdresser. He wasn't!
Urano felt like his soul was draining through his feet… until Evelin pulled him again to snap him out of it.
—"Excuse us for the late hour… Do you have anything in the café?" Urano asked.
The inn had a small kitchen open to guests.
—"Oh, of course, sir… madam. Right this way," said the receptionist, looking slightly confused.
Evelin was about to help someone climb the building from outside. Urano had used a rope to lower someone earlier, so now it was his turn to stay down… in a very awkward situation.
The receptionist led Urano and the innkeeper toward the kitchen.
From afar, Evelin could barely hear the innkeeper telling him a long story about a "friend who also liked that sort of thing," reassuring him that it was a very inclusive establishment.
Meanwhile, the receptionist seemed interested in poking the dress's chest area—as if trying to confirm whether it was real.
Evelin barely managed to suppress her laughter at the absurd scene before slipping away.
Upstairs, she began crafting a makeshift rope from the bedsheets.
Her father had forced her to join the scouts as a child, so knot-tying was no problem.
She secured the rope to the bed, opened the window, and gave the signal:
—"Coo-coo," she whispered.
Three figures emerged from the shadows.
—"Come on, climb one by one. We don't have much time. My handsome fiancé's identity is fading fast," she said as she gripped the rope tighter.
She paused for a moment...
Fiancé?
At best, they were just friends.
Could it be that characters retained some internal sense of identity, even after being rewritten?
She pondered it for a moment.
It wasn't that she wasn't herself—but something buried deep in her personality seemed to surface in certain moments.
As she pondered, the spider-demon girl leapt up effortlessly in just three bounds.
Nora climbed up too, though she was still half in disguise.
The only one who struggled was the elf girl.
"We can't keep calling them 'elf girl' and 'spider demon'… What are their names?" Evelin asked.
"My name is Sara," replied the elf.
"Jana… And sorry about earlier. About reading your thoughts," said the spider-demon girl, offering an embarrassed smile.
"Forget the past. Focus on what you're going to do now."
Evelin paused to think.
Even though they were technically a duke and a princess, they had no one to ask for real help.
As side characters in the original story, they barely knew their supposed allies—or who they could actually trust.
Worst of all: they didn't have the memories of their bodies' original owners.
For the first time, Evelin felt jealous of those typical protagonists in novels who wake up remembering everything.
Until an idea hit her.
"If you don't have anywhere to go… why don't you work with us? We'll treat you well," she said with a warm smile.
Sure, trusting strangers was risky.
But having two runaway slave girls relying completely on them meant at least they wouldn't be betrayed…
Especially not if they were now the villains of this story.
The girls asked for one night to think it over.
Shortly after, Urano walked in through the door looking so tired it seemed like he had aged ten years in just a few hours. He collapsed into a chair and muttered:
"My dignity…"
Nora approached silently and began to gently remove his wig and makeup.
The other two girls stared in shock as they realized the "mute girl"… wasn't a girl at all.
And that he was letting another woman undress him like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Evelin watched the scene and confirmed her suspicion:
She didn't believe that Urano, in his previous life, had ever had a maid or servant.
But the way Nora cared for him felt so natural, almost instinctive.
That could only mean one thing: his personality and thoughts were being influenced—at least partially—by the body's original owner.
She leaned in and whispered her theory to Urano.
Just then, she noticed that Nora was already removing his underwear.
Urano finally snapped out of his trance, jumped back, grabbed a cushion to cover himself, and yelled:
"What are you doing?!"
It was like the connection to the character had intensified… and then shattered like cold water to the face.
Embarrassed, he asked the girls to leave and nearly shoved Nora into the next room.
Only Evelin remained in the room.
They needed to plan for the next day.
Urano dressed in silence while Evelin watched him closely. She nodded to herself, proud of her creation. After all, she'd helped design the characters in this story—and seeing him now, with that perfectly toned, inverted-triangle-shaped body… well, it didn't hurt to sneak a peek.
Urano noticed and started dressing faster, grumbling:
"Could you not stare so… intensely?"
"Oh, come on. We're not kids anymore. It's nothing I haven't seen before. A good body is always appreciated," Evelin replied casually.
Urano was stunned. He had never met a girl this shameless.
He wasn't someone who embarrassed easily, but he felt like he was being devoured by her gaze.
He had to admit, when he first arrived in this world and saw himself in the mirror, even he was surprised to have a protagonist's body. He even posed a little.
But being watched like that by someone else… that was a whole different story.
He changed the subject.
"Tomorrow the whole city will be looking for us. You do realize that by escaping and leaving with those girls… we technically committed kidnapping and theft, right?"
"If we stay at this inn too long, we won't be safe… Besides, you might have two new assistants," Evelin said, trying to sound composed.
"New assistants?" Urano repeated, confused.
After Evelin explained everything that had happened with Jana and Sara, a tense silence filled the room.
Until Urano finally spoke.
"You couldn't have told me sooner? That's not something you get to decide alone."
"Oh, come on. It's not a bad idea," Evelin replied, not understanding why he was so upset.
"This isn't just your life anymore! Mine's at stake too. You can't keep making decisions on your own," Urano said, raising his voice more than he intended.
The stress of the last few days was clearly wearing him down.
"Why do you seem so okay with all of this? With your life constantly in danger, in a world you don't know, in a body that's not even yours?"
"And what exactly do you want me to do? We're already here!" Evelin snapped back, her voice rising too.
But as soon as she spoke, guilt crept in. She knew this was all her fault. She had to tell him.
"…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. It's just… sometimes, all of this is just too much."
Urano collapsed onto the bed. Evelin sat beside him.
"You know… I was just a normal writer. The most stressful thing I ever lived through was a college entrance exam.
I'm just an ordinary person. That's why I loved writing.
Sometimes it felt like writing made ordinary life more vibrant."
Evelin looked at him sadly. She wanted to hold his hand.
She wanted to tell him the truth.
Two months ago, she had received a strange link in her email.
When she clicked it, she was sucked into a story—one she had written.
Just like this one. She had helped create this world too.
But during her arrival, struggling to survive the plot, she was stabbed.
She nearly died.
Then the system appeared.
It offered her a second chance.
Desperate, she accepted.
Then a spinning wheel appeared, showing the names of people she knew, like a roulette...
And the name chosen was Urano.
Then the system spoke:
System:
Congratulations! The "Growing+PN: Project of New Dreams" thanks you for inviting a new participant.
As a special reward: One extra life.
This narrative will now pause to transfer the guest to the next story.
He will arrive one month before execution.
Before your guest.
You will decide whether to help him or not.
Make the most of it. Build a better story.
We wish you luck.
She never wanted this to happen.
She never truly understood what the "Project of New Dreams" was, or why she had been chosen…
But in the end, it was her fault that Urano ended up here.
And now, she wasn't even sure if she had the right to comfort him.
"…Don't worry. At least you're not alone," she whispered softly. "We're here. Together."
Urano smiled faintly.
Before all of this, he'd barely spoken to Evelin.
They could barely be called acquaintances who had worked together once or twice.
And now… she was the only person who truly understood him.
That day ended quietly:
A man with a bit of peace,
a woman carrying silent guilt,
and a starry night that seemed to watch them… in silence.