Chapter 89

“That girl was the very maid I had been searching for. We’ve only just reunited, and it’s so regretful that we must part again so soon. I wish to be with her, even if it’s only like this…”

“…That is indeed a pity.”

I didn’t feel sorry for him at all, but I said it anyway.

“In truth, I’d like to personally invite her to the Imperial Palace, but I’m worried she might find it burdensome.”

He overthinks things; he could just not invite her.

“So, I was wondering… could you perhaps persuade Lita for me, Saintess?”

Since I was already scheduled to head to the Imperial Palace with the Crown Prince, his request was essentially already fulfilled. However, as long as the Crown Prince remained unaware of this, the situation existed in a subtle state of being both granted and ungranted. I spoke kindly, a generous smile on my lips.

“I will look into it first. But do not get your hopes too high. The maid’s own will must be respected.”

“That—!”

Ding!

Before I could even finish reading the cluster of blue windows, the Crown Prince suddenly stopped talking, like a doll whose strings had been cut. The light faded from his eyes. Then, with a mechanical expression, he spoke.

“…It is as you say. I was too hasty. I shall do as you wish, Saintess.”

‘Did the system just forcibly brainwash the Crown Prince?’

The unnatural shift in emotion was eerie and gave me the creeps. Even though this was a game world, I had never once felt that the people around me were anything other than human. If anything, they felt so real it was disconcerting. Now, in the most unexpected way, I poignantly felt the fact that this place was not reality…

‘And there’s something else strange.’

The Crown Prince doesn’t know I’m Belita, yet the persuasion trait worked on a statement I made while appearing as the Saintess. This means that a person’s true feelings and their Affection Level are treated as completely separate entities. I don’t know if this world is entirely fake or if the System is a being with god-like power over this universe, but my resolve to cut ties and escape as quickly as possible only grew firmer.

“Then, I shall see you the day after tomorrow. It will be a long journey, so please prepare yourself mentally.”

The focus had returned to the Crown Prince’s pupils before I knew it, and he spoke with his usual composed demeanor. I forced myself to give an affirmative answer and left the room as if fleeing.

To Brother Hereis,

Brother, I want you to know that helping Professor Edelina wasn’t entirely my own idea. Even if it hadn’t been me, there were plenty of classmates who wanted to help her. What I’m saying is, there’s no need to thank me. I wanted to see you in person, but I’m sending a letter instead to avoid any rumors. I’d like to decline any strange misunderstandings.

Also, Brother, you’re close with the Saintess, right? I really want to meet her just once—could you make that happen? There’s something I desperately want to confess. If I can, I might feel like I could actually fly through the sky!

ps. It’s not like I did this to get on my sister-in-law’s good side! It just happened that way unintentionally!

From Oscar, who is very, very desperate for a confession.

Edelina and Hereis read through every word of the playful, slightly childish letter.

“I guess what I saw wasn’t an illusion. To think Oscar stood up as a witness…”

A faint, pleased smile played on Hereis’s lips, while Edelina looked relieved, finally grasping how the situation had unfolded.

“And here I thought my desperation had conjured up a hallucination.”

As Edelina muttered in a daze, still unable to process how she had survived, Hereis couldn’t help but burst into laughter. He quickly lowered the corners of his mouth when she glared at him.

“Ahem! I felt the same way.”

“Right? I don’t know how to thank these kids. Or the Saintess, for that matter.”

As she spoke with a much lighter voice, Hereis stared intently at her.

“What?”

“No, I just thought… it’s a relief.”

“What is? Winning the trial?”

Hereis shook his head.

“No.”

“Then what?”

“That you’ve returned to your usual self.”

His tone was brimming with tenderness. With an expression that mirrored his sincerity, it felt as if flowers were fluttering around him.

‘He always says heart-fluttering things out of nowhere…’

Hiding her tingling heart, Edelina answered as if it were nothing.

“Of course. I’ve cleared my name, after all.”

“That’s true.”

“But you know, my reputation within the Academy is actually quite bad. Why did they suddenly testify in my favor? Hereis… did you perhaps ask Oscar for a favor?”

“Pfft! Ah, hahahahaha!”

“Wh-what? Why are you laughing?!”

“Edelina. You really don’t know yourself, do you?”

Edelina demanded to know what he meant by that.

“Don’t underestimate yourself so much. From what I’ve heard, you were a wonderful teacher.”

“R-really?”

“Just as there are people who think you’re strange, there are bound to be people who like you. The students who wrote those statements belong to the latter group.”

…!

Hereis patted Edelina on the back and continued.

“You saved yourself. No one else.”

“…”

“Ahem! I—I know that! It was worth the effort I put into teaching!”

“Right. But don’t make it obvious. If you go buying the students things to thank them, it’ll lead to the ‘unnecessary misunderstandings’ Oscar mentioned…”

“I know that too!”

Having narrowly escaped death, Edelina shook her head violently, wanting to avoid suspicion at all costs. Hereis watched her with an affectionate look before turning his gaze back to the letter.

“Anyway, that brat Oscar. ‘Sister-in-law’…”

He looked awkward, his face turning a shade of red.

“Heh. Hereis. Why… do you like the sound of it?”

Ding!

-Whoaaaaa.

-This is so sweet~

-He’s like, ‘Should we keep listening?’

-LOLOLOL.

…This was an event I knew all too well.

‘To think the affection level rose that much while I looked away for just a split second.’

I knew the cause.

‘It means the story progression rate has climbed significantly.’

It also meant it was about time for choices involving intensified skinship and emotional expression to start appearing. Choices related to affection need to be handled with extreme care because picking the right one can cause affection levels to skyrocket. Specifically, toward the later stages, the developers haphazardly crammed in random affection-pumping events. It was likely because the damn dev team made mental health and affection management so punishingly difficult in the early game that they struggled to balance it, so they just made affection events trigger everywhere you go at the end. As if to say, “Are you seriously still unable to see an ending even with all this?”

‘It was practically a minefield…’

However, this caused another spike in difficulty. Naturally. Most people play the game having already decided on a specific heroine; if you accidentally raise another heroine’s affection level, you might miss out on the ending with the one you were actually aiming for.

‘But right now, the only heroine around is Edelina.’

As long as I deal with Edelina carefully, separate the two of them, and then quickly follow the steps for the ending I’ve prepared, there shouldn’t be a problem.

‘…The problem is that Edelina happens to be Mo Je-won’s favorite.’

To be honest, given the protagonist’s affection for me and how the story had diverged from the original, I thought the romance events might be skipped… I had just confirmed that was not the case.

‘Even though the development of Edelina’s events has changed completely, things like this stay exactly the same.’

It felt unfair. At least there was one silver lining…

‘I am currently standing right in front of their door.’

At the very least, I could now block the upcoming +30 affection event.

‘It’s been a while, let’s go stir up some trouble.’

The state of the world was currently frozen due to a choice window, so I hadn’t entered yet. Normally, there’s no way the protagonist wouldn’t have noticed my presence, but he was so distracted by the romance that he didn’t even know I was there. I clicked my tongue inwardly.

“Ah, but honestly, there are so few of these events with the Saintess that it’s kind of boring. I’m lacking dopamine.”

-LOL, facts.

-It’s a hidden route, just be patient.

-But since she’s the Saintess, you probably can’t do much.

-It’s even less fun because we don’t know the affection level.

“Should we just go with Edelina? Who cares about the hidden route?”

A bolt from the blue came from the faintly glowing screen. Simultaneously, a chill ran down my spine. This is crazy. Why is that guy suddenly acting like that again?

-FR, Edelina was the true heroine all along.

-She is insanely pretty, though~

-Look at this intimacy event. You’re a fool if you don’t pick Edelina.

-No, you have to see the hidden route, are you crazy?

-How can you resist a hidden route?;;

‘The more aggressively he says something that senseless, the more likely it is that he doesn’t actually mean it… probably.’

He was likely just shouting mindlessly and emotionally. Mo Je-won isn’t the type of person who could resist a hidden route. That… is true, right, Hyung?

“Edelina’s affection is currently… wow, 65?”

…That’s high, considering how much I dropped it in the beginning.

‘I need to meet the Emperor quickly and settle this once and for all.’

The required level for Edelina’s Normal Ending is 100. Suddenly, this has turned into a time attack.

-Isn’t that high? Are we looking at an ending?

-Is 100 the cap for affection?

-No, if it’s higher, you can see the Good or Best endings.

-But isn’t there still some left for the overall story progression?

-This is a dating sim, who cares about the story?

-I’m curious about the story, though T_T.

-It’s been a week on this game already, just go for a fast ending.

I see. So it’s been about a week since I was transmigrated.

‘In a week, I would have died of dehydration by now.’

The pipe dream I had before came to mind. The one where all of this was just a mass of my unproductive imagination, and when I woke up, I was in my studio apartment being greeted by my mother.

‘That dream is actually the happy ending.’

But if this isn’t a dream, and unlike the dream, I was simply served a notice of dismissal for being absent without leave for a week? I wasn’t exactly the warm, fuzzy type. I didn’t have the personality to contact my family often. If that’s the case, there’s a high probability I’ve been left in my house for a week in a faint.

Return to reality.

‘Will the system take into account whether my body in the real world is a corpse or not?’

Ding!

Ding!

Ding!

-You tried provoking him and failed, so now you’re begging? LOLOLOL.

I was sinking into sorrowful thoughts when the ‘dinging’ sound of the bickering brought me back to my senses.

“I’m the only one? On the Saintess route right now?”

‘…’

That’s probably the case. It wouldn’t be common to witness a real human entering and tearing the game apart just to survive.

“It’s been a while since the game came out, and no one’s found it yet? Is this a trash game?”

-No, it means you’re doing well.

-Je-won’s Saintess route seems a bit unique.

-I guess there’s someone here who saw the ending for that route.

-Shh, we’re all gonna die if we keep this up~!

“What? A spoiler? Ah, wait a second~.”

-Gasp.

-The execution begins.

-Is that person gone?

-T_T

“So, what should I pick? They all look good except for number 2.”