St. Marianne told her that she needed Jun’s ability to save the only possible hero who could protect the world.
She needed her! For her, St. Marianne was directly sagacious!
That fact alone was enough to make Jun full of elation… At the same time, a dreadful feeling came over him.
“I-I’m not confident. It’s a huge responsibility.”
[Jun Karentia. You can do it.]
“I’m scared! I’m scared that I have to give my soul to someone I don’t even know… Besides… What if it doesn’t go right and I just die?”
[I believe in your potential that she discovered.]
St. Marianne then showed Jun the existence of another world that she had to save, the hero she would become.
The stranger was painted as if she could see the stranger in front of her. She spoke passionately, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.
Jun saw a stranger laugh and call her name constantly. Perhaps more times than her parents had called my name since she was born.
Jun Karentia was not a good enough person to willingly endure sacrifice for the world. It was because she knew that sacrificing herself like that would make no one pay attention to her.
But at least that person would… If it was that person who first recognized me…
I wonder if they would remember my sacrifice?
Won’t they have to chew on the idea that there was someone called me?
After a few moments of pondering, Jun decided to sacrifice, not for the world, but for her as she lay dying on the cold floor.
Jun raised her head. Her crimson eyes shone with certainty as she gazed at the white, holy St. Marianne.
“I will try. If I… had that kind of ability.”
[Okay. I’ll give you the ultimate weapon… Thank you for your tough decision, Jun. Karentia.]
She used the ultimate technique in such a way that she was prepared to die, but when Jun opened her eyes and woke up, she was inside the body of the hero.
A completely different world.
Her family all welcomed her. They said they really thought she was going to die, and cried out loud that there was no other filial woman.
Jun sat in a daze, not knowing what was going on or what she was supposed to do.
They all thought he had amnesia due to the aftereffects of the accident.
“But that doesn’t matter. She’s still alive.”
Embracing her, Yoon Jo-ri’s mother’s words restrained Jun’s conscience, which was not real.
Should I say? I’m not her…
However, Jun could not muster the courage to say the words when faced with the affection and warmth of a family, which she was feeling for the first time.
Time passed in that way. The friend who had always been with her in the memories of the hero Jun saw visited her for a long time after that.
And they talked consistently about their past memories from beginning to end, as if they were trying to revive her memories somehow.
Although the word “useless” was at the end of her neck, the favor of my first peer was so sweet that Jun continued to lie about amnesia.
Then one day, the friend brought up an unexpected story.
“You know the game you used to play often.”
“Huh?”
“Oh, sorry. You don’t remember… It’s called The Holy Demon War. It’s a game you really liked before the accident.“
It wasn’t that Jun didn’t know anything about the game.
Through the memories that St. Marianne had shown her, she knew that the hero would accept information about his world in that way.
But she was taken aback because she did not expect it to suddenly pop up from here and now.
The friend who thought Jun didn’t know anything started explaining step by step.
“You loved the character Jun there, but… there’s a weird rumor going around in the community.”
“What kind of rumors?”
Jun’s heart skipped a beat for no reason. Jun tried to act nonchalant.
“There’s a rumor that there’s a hidden route. There’s a saying that if you get a full level of Jun, it opens… You’re the only one who got Jun’s full level, so I actually thought you posted it.”
“…that Holy Demon War, how do you do it?”
As the hidden route opens, Jun Karentia becomes the main character, and Meyer turns into a playable character.
It was questionable why the terms of the hidden route were her…
Fortunately, Jun had existing data left behind by the hero, and all she had to do was start a new game.
“There really was a hidden route! Honestly, I thought it was just a fishing text circulating on the web…”
Her friend rolled their tongue in surprise. They then fussed, “Frankly, I wasn’t sure I could get Jun to the 99th level,” they said, “I get to see a hidden route thanks to you.”
“I think the balance is appropriate because Jun is a fixed character, which makes the difficulty that much higher, but Meyer is the strongest character.”
Most of the words she didn’t catch in her friend’s words, but the general background was perfectly familiar. Jun was immediately hooked on the game.
It was very strange to see herself moving around in the little box.
It was like she was playing as an expedition herself.
‘Come to think of it, how did the hero survive? Did she defeat the Demon King…?”
There was much to wonder about, but there was no way for Jun to know. She just vaguely prayed that it would work out.
It wasn’t easy just because it was a game. Dying and being defeated… But Jun did not give up.
After several months of concentrating on the game in this way, the second Demon King also collapsed.
Despite the fact that it was through the screen, Jun clenched her fists in accomplishment, as if she had done it herself.
In the game, Jun had become the hero who had defeated the Demon King… She crouched on her old bed, still dreaming of it every night.
The game ended and the ending scroll went up.
A briefly written afterword. Jun looked back at the words floating on the screen in a daze.
“Jun Karentia became Jun Liteitia, built an empire, and lived happily ever after…”
At that moment, the white letters on a black background blurred and widened for a moment. Then it quickly changed to other letters.
[Thanks to your ability, we were able to defeat the Demon King.]
The letters that floated as if typing one by one seemed as if they were speaking to Jun. Jun’s hand on the gamepad was straining.
The hero.
This was the message she gave her. Jun snuggled up so that she could get into the screen and carved each letter that came to mind into her eyes as she chewed and swallowed.
[I’ll live here as Jun, so live there as much as you want.]
It was then that Jun realized that the Hidden Route she had just played was after she had used the “Soul Scale” and the hero had revived in her own body.
It really was real…
She had become a hero.
Unknowingly, tears spilled down her cheeks. Jun looked at the monitor screen, unable even to wipe her tears.
The image of herself on the black screen was no longer the gray-haired Jun Karentia.
Knowing that she was no longer Jun Karentia, knowing that she had to adapt to this body…
She could not easily admit this fact because she felt guilty that she might have taken the hero’s body.
Perhaps the hero had guessed all of this and was therefore sending such a message.
Jun wiped her tears with the back of her hand but continued to stare at the monitor.
She wondered if the moment she blinked, a message she couldn’t see would pass her by.
She did not forget her sacrifice. She cared about her to the end, even to the point of sending her such a message…
That alone was worth her sacrifice.
Jun whispered quietly, smiling.
[Thank you.]
“Thank you.”
CHAPTER 25. DLC: 3 Years of the Emperor Litetia
Five years after the end of the Holy Demon War, the Litetian dynasty was in its third year before I knew it.
At first I knew nothing about what I was supposed to do as emperor, but two years of overnight and infusion-style education made me able to imitate an emperor, even if only roughly.
As soon as the emperor thought I had learned enough to deserve it, he gave it over to me and received a quiet country estate that was a distance from the capital.
No longer the only emperor, but one of the nobility, enjoying his old age freely, he seemed as emphatic as if he had a huge load on his shoulders.
Recently, he had gotten a taste for the chess game I taught him, and every time he saw me, he thrust a chessboard in my face, but his ability had progressed day by day every time we meet.
At first I had no particular bond with the prior emperor, but perhaps because I had studied with him for two years on the qualities of an emperor, I was more likely to trust and rely on him.
The previous emperor also thought of me as his own granddaughter or child, since he did not have another bloodline.
‘Come to think of it, it hasn’t been looked for this year.’
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