Asleep, Seojin shivered as the cold bit his skin.
The cold of morning winter.
But it's the season of Autumn. Winter was still a month away.
Seojin groaned, still asleep, as he reached for his warm, cozy, and dirty blanket that hadn't been washed for seven years.
But it's not there.
Instead, his hand was met by a rough surface—stone, marble, bricks, or it felt like the floor of his room.
'Did I fall off my bed?'
Seojin forced his eyes open, and he immediately squinted them from the brightness of unfamiliar light.
Unfamiliar sight.
"What the fudge?!"
Seojin wasn't in his bedroom, but in the middle of the ground, laying carefully as if he's relaxing with the world. Standing up, he had no idea where the place was.
Stone fountain in the middle. Stone pillars. Knight armors. Swords. Banners…
"Banner…"
Somehow, the banner looked familiar.
"Where the fudge am—"
Seojin paused even before he could finish. Unfamiliar voice. It wasn't his. He raised his hands to his face, and it was a pair that wasn't his either.
Slender.
Pale.
Cyan-colored fingernails.
He ran towards the stone fountain. He leaned forward, and met the reflection staring back at him.
Blackish-brown hair.
Dusty blue eyes.
Almond skin tone.
His overall appearance carried an aristocratic sharpness.
"No way…"
It belonged to a face he recognized.
"This… is Seven."
He stumbled back. Seven Hart, the seventh child of the Hart Dukedom. A minor extra that only appeared in the backstory of his older sister who was one of the female leads.
Even the author only mentioned his name seven times, though he posted what he looked like when someone asked in the comment section.
"Is this… the so-called possession?"
Seojin recalled the words written in both final chapter and email:
[You've read enough. It's now your turn to live it.]
To confirm it's not a dream, he pinched his cheeks.
"Aww!"
It hurt. Seojin was not dreaming. This was the world of sevens he had been reading forever.
He paced the courtyard.
"Okay. I am now Seven Hart. Dies early at roughly fifteen. Which means…"
Seven slowed and brought a finger to his forehead as if pinching something.
"I'm screwed…"
The world of sevens is not a quiet and peaceful place. It is filled with wars, territorial disputes, and monsters commonly found within the fantasy-genre novels.
Sigh.
But the character he possessed had no other role but dying.
"...Unless I could change the story."
Seven might be an extra character, but that doesn't mean he had to stay that way.
Knowledge.
Perks of reading seven thousand chapters.
The only thing he wasn't sure about was… Eden Hart. If Seven survives, how will Eden progress? If…
He cut his thoughts abruptly.
'Let's think about that after I really survive.'
He thought about the seven artifacts. If his memory served him right, he might actually be lucky—despite being cursed with a fate to die.
After all, the seventh artifact, the most powerful of them all, was hidden somewhere within the Hart Dukedom.
And he would take it. No one else would lay a hand on it.
'No one else, but me.'
That's who he was as Seojin. No plans for tomorrow. Just go-with-the-flow kind of person.
Selfish.
Ignorant.
That's what people used to call him back on Earth. But even if those nicknames will still be used on him in this world, he doesn't care.
'If I want to live, I should only care about myself.'
Seven glanced at the person approaching him.
'Like I always did.'
It was a girl, about the same age as him. She was wearing a maid outfit and holding a basket in her hand, smiling at Seven.
"Young lord, it's time for your medication."
The maid stepped aside and gestured towards the mansion.
'Beautiful.'
It was the only thought Seven had after seeing her—or rather, the mansion.
The way the pillars rose to the sky, the carvings on the entrance, the gray-colored window panes matching the environment, and the swords that hung on the wall.
They weren't mentioned in the novel in such detail, except just a few vague descriptions.
Step.
Seven followed the girl inside the mansion. It was silent. There were no knights guarding it, nor his other siblings roaming the place around.
It was just him and the maid.
But as the faint light of the dying sun pierced through the window and touched his face, Seven froze completely.
A scene from the novel suddenly surfaced in his mind, and a system window materialized before him.
It displayed the text.
[On the seventh day of the seventh season, Seven Hart's body lay sprawled on the stone ground, his heartbeat fading in rhythm with the sun's light.]
[As the sun finally set, so did he.]
[Eden, cradling the body of his beloved younger brother, cried out his name over and over, begging him to wake up and smile like he always did.]
[But Seven didn't wake up.]
[Just as the sun disappeared behind the clouds, he slipped away beyond the reach of Eden's tears.]
["I'm sorry…" Eden cried, piercing her sword against the pond formed by her tears. "If only I arrived a little earlier."]
It was the death scene of Seven Hart. The very body he now inhabited.
He wasn't surprised by the System's appearance. After all, he had been transmigrated here. In this world. That alone had been enough of a shock.
A system was just cliché at this point.
Instead, he ran his fingers through his messy black-brown hair, then stepped toward the window and leaned against it.
The maid, noticing him, halted as well.
"Young Lord, is something wrong?"
"What season is it today?"
"Excuse me?"
Seven stayed silent, his expression unreadable. The servant hesitated but realized the young lord was serious.
"Ah... the season? It's the seventh, young lord."
"And the day?"
"The seventh as well. May I ask why—"
Before she could finish, Seven rushed out of the mansion without another word.
Today is the seventh day of the seventh season.
Today is the day Seven Hart is fated to die.