This should have been just a novel.
Rayhan blinked, his head throbbing as if he had been hit by a giant hammer. His consciousness slowly returned, putting together the scattered fragments of memory. He remembered falling asleep in his apartment after finishing the last chapter of his favorite novel, "Demon Tamer"—a fantasy novel that tells the adventures of Leon, the Beastmaster with a stunning golden lion.
But this wasn't his room.
The pungent scent of spices and firewood filled the air. A coarse wool blanket replaced the cotton sheets he usually used. And the sunlight that penetrated the small window in the corner of the room was too real, too bright, and had a golden color that he had never seen in the real world.
"Kiran! Wake up, you lazy bum! Customers are starting to arrive!"
A middle-aged woman's voice broke the silence, followed by a loud knock on the wooden door. Rayhan flinched. Kiran? That wasn't his name.
Or... was that his name?
Suddenly, his head was filled with two overlapping sets of memories. As Rayhan, a 27-year-old book editor who lived a boring life in Jakarta. And as Kiran, a 19-year-old waiter at the Silver Wind Inn in Veridian City.
Veridian City. From the novel Demon Tamer.
"It can't be," he whispered, his own voice sounding foreign to his ears. Deeper, rougher.
With shaking hands, he threw back the blanket and stood up. His body felt different—taller, stronger, with muscles he'd never had before. The cracked mirror in the corner of the room reflected a face that was half familiar, half foreign. A stronger jaw, darker eyes, and messy black hair that fell over his forehead.
"Kiran!"
"Yes, Mrs. Meira. Just a moment!" he answered automatically, the name and response falling from his lips without thinking.
Panic began to creep up his spine. He remembered these details. Mrs. Meira, the plump innkeeper with a stern face but a soft heart. The Silver Wind Inn, a popular stopover on the edge of Veridian City. Everything was exactly as it had been written on page 27 of the Demon Tamer novel.
And Kiran—an NPC character who only appeared briefly in chapter 3, giving Leon vital information about the location of the Whispering Forest, then died horribly in chapter 8 to motivate the protagonist to continue his journey.
"I've become a book character who's going to die," he whispered, feeling his body shiver despite the warm air around him.
Outside his room, the sounds of the inn's visitors began to be heard. Conversation, laughter, the clinking of glasses and plates. It all sounded too real to be a dream.
With stiff movements, he put on his butler's clothes—a worn white shirt and brown pants with a black vest bearing the inn's emblem. His finger touched the emblem—a silver bird with outstretched wings.
Rayhan—no, Kiran—remembered that in the novel, this emblem was the symbol of the inn blessed by the Wind Beast, a spiritual being in the form of a silver bird that had been the companion of the Meira family for three generations.
Beast. The thought sent a wave of new awareness. In this world, every human being had a Beast—a spiritual being tied to their soul, a manifestation of their hidden nature and potential. The power to fight, protect, and survive.
Trembling, Kiran closed his eyes and tried to feel the presence of the Beast within him. Emptiness. Complete emptiness. No energy resonance, no spiritual bond described in the novel.
"I don't even have a Beast," he muttered bitterly. "Of course. An unimportant side character doesn't need such details."
But if he really had become Kiran, shouldn't he have a Beast like the other humans in this world? Or was the absence of a Beast a sign that he was different—a foreign soul trapped in an NPC's body?
"KIRAN!"
Mrs. Meira's shout brought him out of his reverie. With a deep breath, Kiran opened the door to his room and stepped into a world that should only exist in the pages of a novel.
The Silver Wind Inn was exactly as he had imagined it to be when reading the novel—a large room with large wooden beams supporting the high ceiling, a stone fireplace on the side of the room radiating warmth, long tables almost entirely occupied by visitors in traveler's clothes, merchants, and adventurers.
The aroma of freshly baked bread and meat cooked with spices filled the air.
"Finally you show up," grumbled Mrs. Meira, a stocky woman with tightly coiled hair and an apron that always looked clean even though she was busy in the kitchen all day. "Take the orders to tables three and five. And don't forget to smile at the customers!"
Automatically, her hands took the tray containing the bowl of hot soup and bread. Kiran's body seemed to move by itself, knowing this routine as if she had been doing it for years.
As he moved between the tables, his eyes swept the room, searching for signs of the familiar plot. Had Leon arrived? According to the novel, the protagonist's first encounter occurred during a great storm that swept through Veridian, prompting Leon to seek shelter at this inn.
Kiran set the bowl of soup in front of a large merchant. His mind raced, calculating the possibilities. If he really was in the novel, where exactly was he in the plot? And more importantly, could he change his own destiny?
"Hey, young man," the merchant's hoarse voice startled him. "Any news from the capital? I hear the King is seeking a talented Beastmaster for an expedition to the North."
Kiran nearly choked. The expedition to the North—that had happened in chapter 20, long after his character had died in the novel.
"Excuse me, sir. I don't know much about it," he replied, finding his voice calmer than he had expected.
"Hmph, useless," the merchant grumbled, then turned his attention back to his soup.
Kiran continued his task, his mind racing. He knew this story—every plot twist, every character, every death. Including his own. In the novel, Kiran was killed by bandits after giving Leon information about the Whispering Forest. A tragic but quick death, it only served to give Leon the motivation for revenge and a clue to continue his journey.
A sad fate for an existence.
"Can I change it?" he whispered to himself, a question that would haunt his life in this new world.
Just then, the inn door swung open with a loud bang, accompanied by a strong gust of wind and a trickle of rain. Kiran turned, and his heart stopped beating.
In the doorway stood a tall young man with bright blond hair and piercing blue eyes. A dark green traveling cloak protected his body from the rain, and beside him—a beast even more magnificent than Rayhan had imagined when reading the novel.
A golden lion with fur that seemed to be made of precious metal, eyes radiating unimaginable intelligence and power.
Leon, the protagonist, and his legendary beast, Solarion.
And according to the novel, they would meet officially the next morning when Leon asked about the route to the Whispering Forest, setting off a chain of events that would end with Kiran's death.
Those blue eyes met Kiran's. That was when she felt a strange sensation on the back of her neck—cold, like icy fingers touching her spine. Instinctively, Kiran turned her head back.
There was no one there. But for a split second, she was sure she saw her shadow move in an unnatural way, as if connected by invisible strings pulled by an invisible hand.
And out of the corner of her eye, Kiran caught the figure of a white-haired woman sitting in the darkest corner of the inn, watching her with a gaze that was too sharp and too knowing. A woman who did not exist in the novel she had read.
"Welcome to the Silver Wind Inn," Mrs. Meira greeted Leon cheerfully. "Just in time before the storm got worse!"
Kiran swallowed hard. Her destiny had begun. But this time, she was determined to rewrite her own ending.
That night, Kiran lay in her hard bed, listening to the sound of rain hitting the roof. In another room in the inn, protagonist Leon must have been resting as well, unaware that the NPC who was supposed to be a mere stepping stone in her adventure now had a mind and will of her own.
"I won't die in chapter 8," Kiran whispered into the darkness.
As if in response, the shadow on the wall seemed to tremble, thicken, and for a moment—very brief but real—formed the silhouette of a red-eyed creature that stared back at her from the depths of the darkness.
Kiran sat up, her heart pounding. The shadow returned to normal in an instant, but she knew what she saw. Somehow, in a world where everyone had a Beast, she wasn't as alone as she thought.
Something in the darkness was keeping her company. Something that hadn't been in the pages of the original novel.
And somewhere deep in her mind, Kiran wondered—had her existence in this world begun to change the story that was supposed to be written? Or were there other forces at play, pulling at the threads of fate that even she didn't know about?
Outside the window, lightning flashed, illuminating the figure of a white-haired woman standing in the rain, staring straight at Kiran's window with an unreadable expression.
A new game had begun.