Amanda’s Internal Monologue:
HAHAHAHAHAHA! DID YOU SEE THEIR FACES?! “The Last Supreme Keeper”! “The Grove of Oblivion”! Oh my god, Yamada, you are a GENIUS! This is pure trash-tier isekai drama at its finest! And they’re BUYING IT! Look—Hikari is actually crying! Sayuri is staring at me like I’m a museum exhibit! And that nerd Ren Jinja is about two seconds away from a brain aneurysm from information overload! HAHAHAHA! I didn’t just get out of it—I built myself a legend straight out of some over-the-top anime mashup! I’m going to die laughing right here under this stupid mask! I have to remember every single detail so I can tell Leo and Torglin later… Oh crap, they’re probably invisible in some corner right now, choking on their own laughter. Torglin, if you hiccup right now, I swear—!
Amanda’s External Appearance:
If anyone could have peeked behind the mask, they would have seen a face contorted in the desperate fight to contain hysterical laughter—tears of mirth shining in her eyes, lips twitching in a barely-suppressed grin. But from the outside… perfection.
She stood utterly still, her posture the very embodiment of tragic dignity. Her head was tilted ever so slightly, as though bowed beneath the unbearable weight of memories of a people who had never existed. The fingers wrapped around her glass were relaxed, betraying not the slightest tremor. Her chest rose and fell in slow, perfectly controlled breaths—the only sign of the monumental effort it took to keep from bursting. And her eyes… those crimson eyes visible through the slits of the mask burned with such fathomless, cosmic sorrow that looking into them made hearts clench. She was the living image of the last dragon slumbering upon the ruins of its fallen empire.
The Reaction of Those Around Her:
The initial shock began to ebb, giving way to an awed, almost religious reverence.
Hikari, discreetly wiping away a tear, whispered:
“Forgive me… I… I had no idea… Such a loss…”
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Sayuri, still speechless, simply bowed her head in the deepest, most informal show of respect she had ever given. Her analytical mind lay in ruins. How does one analyze the extinction of an entire civilization?
Aoi Midori took a step forward. Her green eyes shone with quiet, unshakable resolve.
“By the leaves and roots of my house, Lady Keeper,” she said, voice trembling yet firm, “while you stand beneath our roof, you will not be alone. We… we cannot bring your people back. But we can become your… sanctuary.”
SANCTUARY! HAHAHAHAHA! She said “sanctuary”! I’m going to explode!
Amanda was internally shrieking with laughter, while on the outside she merely inclined her head slowly, graciously, forever touched by eternal sorrow.
Even Ren Jinja, having recovered from the first wave of shock, stepped closer. He no longer looked at her as a phenomenon. He looked at her as… history.
“Lady Keeper,” he said, voice unusually soft and reverent, “if… if you should ever wish… to share. Even the smallest fragment of knowledge about your people… House Jinja will place all its archives and scribes at your disposal. So that the memory… does not vanish into oblivion completely.”
Oh my god, he’s offering to let me dictate memoirs about a nonexistent civilization! This is brilliant! I can make up absolute nonsense and they’ll transcribe it like holy scripture!
At that moment Randell joined the group. His expression was grave, but a strange new tenderness glowed in his eyes. Looking at Amanda, he felt—for the first time—that he truly understood the reason behind her peculiar behavior, her distance. She wasn’t arrogant. She was… wounded by centuries of solitude.
“Keeper,” he said gently, “perhaps fate did not bring you here only to save me. Perhaps… to give you the chance to find something resembling a home.”
YES, A HOME WITH FREE FOOD AND LUXURY QUARTERS! HA!
Amanda crowed internally, while externally she allowed herself one more tiny, sorrowful nod.
She raised her glass. The motion was fluid, filled with inexpressible grace.
“To memory,” she intoned in that mechanical voice, which somehow seemed to carry the lament of an entire universe. “And to… new beginnings.”
As though enchanted, everyone around her lifted their glasses in response.
In that moment Amanda was no longer merely deceiving them.
She was conducting their emotions, playing upon the strings of their souls like a master virtuoso.
And the greatest secret of all was that behind the mask of the tragic goddess hid an ordinary guy desperately trying not to snort with laughter and ruin the single most epic con in history.