[I’ve Been a Possessor for Ten Years, and This Is My First Time Seeing a System Window.]
A woman with golden hair cascading like the shining sun.
The moment I recognized her, I promptly buried my head and threw myself facedown.
“Long live Her Majesty the Empress! I greet the Sun of the Empire, who warmly shines upon all her subjects!”
* …….
There was no answer from beyond the crystal ball.
“…….”
The gaze boring into the back of my head stung.
She had probably seen all the glass shards scattered around, too.
She must have seen the soot spreading across the walls as well.
Her wise Majesty had surely grasped the entire situation from those fragments of information alone.
The fact that I had tried to divine my fate.
The fact that Hans had gotten caught up in it and the liquor bottle had shattered.
She must have noticed all of it.
Then how would Her Majesty react?
I didn't even need to see it.
‘Arrest him.’
‘As you command.’
I could hear the imagined voices of Her Majesty issuing the order and Hans responding.
Then the visions continued.
Hans putting handcuffs on me.
The Golden Mane Knights being dispatched from the Imperial Capital.
And a future where I was imprisoned in the Imperial Palace and raised in captivity.
* …….
The silence was heavy.
So heavy that I felt as if I would drown!
How could I get out of this situation?
Desperately racking my brain, I suddenly raised my head.
“It’s been a while, Hir.”
Casual speech and an affectionate nickname that no one could possibly imagine being directed at the Empress of the Empire.
If anyone in the Imperial Palace heard this exchange, my neck probably wouldn't survive.
Yet the beautiful woman beyond the crystal ball smiled as though satisfied.
For now, that seemed to be the correct answer.
* That was close, Louie. If you had used honorifics one more time, I would have leaked your location to Kanibara.
“Eek.”
Kanibara.
Known as the Gray Storm among the Five-Colored Heroes, she was humanity's strongest fighting force.
The instant that name came up, my shoulders trembled on reflex.
“Really?”
* It was a joke. I have no intention of handing you over to that uncivilized drunkard of a mercenary.
“She is a mercenary, and she is a drunkard, but calling her uncivilized is….”
The corners of Hildegard's eyes rose.
The moment warning lights flashed in my head, my mouth reacted on its own.
“Ah, I don't particularly want to see her, either. Her drunken rambling is truly terrifying. It’s exhausting being around her. And the way she tries to make people train—does she think everyone is like her?”
* Do you really think that?
“I may be good at flattery, but I can't lie!”
* All right. I’m due to meet Kanibara soon for a summit, so I’ll be sure to tell her that.
The corners of Hildegard's eyes curved into an arc.
Kanibara wasn't merely strong as an individual.
She was also the Mercenary Queen and the unifier of the Desert Tribal Alliance.
If Kanibara came looking for me in a blind rage?
“…Then I might really die.”
I could picture huge tattooed men crowding around my cabin.
Like dark mages offering a sacrifice to an evil god, they would kidnap me and present me before Kanibara.
No. Maybe Kanibara would come herself.
Then little, delicate me would be swallowed whole in one bite.
“Should I write a will….”
* Hehe. That was a joke, too.
Hildegard covered her mouth and laughed.
* It feels nice to talk comfortably after so long. Though one person doesn't seem very comfortable.
Hildegard's eyes seemed to pierce straight through me.
“Well….”
* You're still performing readings these days, aren't you?
So she had noticed long ago.
Feeling awkward like a child caught while playing a prank, I scratched my head.
* Are you still curious about where your ‘present’ is?
“…….”
* Louie. You’re here right now. It isn't some paltry fortune that affirms your existence—I do. If a god denies your existence, then….
Hildegard's words snapped me fully awake, and I hurriedly cut in.
“Blah, blah, blah! Hiss! You’re saying something that could get us killed!”
The Teruna Theocracy stood right beside the Afernia Empire.
It even had a genuine saint who had received divine power.
Yet the Empress was going to deny a god?
That would mark the beginning of a religious war, with all sorts of things exploding everywhere.
And the history books would probably name me as the cause.
Would they write that some Rasputin-like bastard corrupted the Empress and started a continent-wide religious war?
* Of course, it was a joke.
“It doesn't seem like one at all.”
* It would be even better if you understood my sincerity.
“I’m just going to think of it as a joke.”
* What a pity.
Hildegard's eyes curved beautifully.
But her smile soon changed into a serious expression.
* Enough joking. Let’s get to the point, Louie. I found the person you told me about before.
My expression became serious as well.
“Peris?”
* Yes. We received a report that he was on the list of entrants for Gloria Academy. The Special Affairs Bureau has also completed its identity verification.
The protagonist of the game I had possessed into.
He had appeared at Gloria Academy, the setting of the game.
‘Come to think of it, I’d forgotten about that for a while.’
Gloria Academy.
In the original game, it was merely a place that served as the setting.
Once the chapters progressed, the setting moved across the entire continent.
But the name held a special meaning for me.
It was like the fruit borne from my long adventure of ten years.
“I thought it would take longer. Is the construction already finished?”
Moments like this truly made it feel like a fantasy world.
It was called an academy, but it was a massive project to convert an entire city into one.
I had heard that its goal was to create a place where humans, elves, and spirits could live in harmony.
And they had accomplished that in barely more than a year.
* The elves and spirits helped greatly. It was as though they had erased the time needed for the foundational work. They also took care of their own districts themselves.
At Hildegard's words, I nodded unconsciously.
If that was the case, everything afterward must have gone smoothly.
Every Imperial mage was versatile heavy machinery in human form.
They destroyed what needed destroying.
Moved what needed moving.
Raised what needed raising.
After hammering away for a few months, converting a city into an academy would have been quick work.
As I nodded quietly, Hildegard continued.
* Are you thinking of going to the academy?
“Hmm….”
I couldn't answer easily.
Honestly, I didn't want to go.
I'd been worked hard enough over the last ten years.
Now I wanted to loaf around in my cabin and wait for the day I could return home.
‘It is strange that there hasn't been any news even though a year has already passed since the war with the demonfolk ended….’
But it wasn't something I could do anything about.
No one had promised to send me back when I was kidnapped into this world.
I'd been abducted without knowing why, then struggled alone to change a bleak future.
‘If I can’t go back anyway, I just want to quietly rest as an unemployed bum for the rest of my life.’
Hildegard added weight to my concern.
* The entire continent is watching the academy right now. Your identity is bound to be exposed someday. Then….
“Visitors will come. A great many of them, too.”
I could accept that old comrades who believed I was dead would come rushing over and make a fuss.
I wouldn't have anything to say if that was simply my karmic due.
But I couldn't handle the demonfolk who wanted to burst my heart.
* Of course, I’ll protect you thoroughly. The demonfolk won't be able to touch a single hair on your head.
“Then can you stop Kanibara, too?”
* She is a natural disaster. The kind humans cannot stop.
Hildegard immediately shook her head.
Calling a person a natural disaster was a little harsh, but I agreed that humans couldn't stop her.
The problem was that there was a high chance I would become ‘Kanibara’s own little Lewis’ the moment I met her.
* There have been rumors that her personality has changed a little recently, though….
“Really?”
* I heard she has learned to use her head. Whether that is true or not, we will have to see in person.
Goosebumps rose on the back of my hand.
A natural disaster that used its brain.
* In any case, weren’t you waiting for news about the academy?
“That’s true. It is, but….”
The current situation was very different from the original work.
To be specific, it was about as different as a post-apocalyptic shelter story and a comedic romantic fantasy.
The continent that had been fated to overflow with blood, flames, and screams was currently enjoying peace.
That was the price of my ten years of bone-breaking effort.
Since the story couldn't possibly unfold as it had in the original, was there really any need for me to go there myself?
‘Though I am curious about the academy….’
My heart wavered somewhere between curiosity and laziness.
* It doesn't seem you have a reason you absolutely must go.
“Yeah. I only thought I might visit once….”
The moment I was about to say that I didn't need to decide right away.
[Chapter 1. Gloria Academy]
[The Main Quest will begin upon traveling to Gloria Academy!]
The System Window, said to be an indispensable element for regressors, possessors, and reincarnators.
The System Window that hadn't even shown its face when I became a possessor!
It had finally appeared before me after ten whole years!
“What the f….”
Wouldn't it be legal to speak F-language in front of the Empress?
“Hoo….”
A cloud of white breath drifted from my mouth.
Even though it obscured the view in front of me, the Message Window floating there remained perfectly clear.
“Damn it. Why is this only appearing now?”
It hadn't shown its face even once when I wanted it so desperately.
THUMP!
I kicked the innocent snowbank because my mood had soured for no reason.
Then I recalled the time when I had desperately wished for a Message Window.
It was the very moment I first regained consciousness in this world.
‘Was it winter with snow falling heavily like this back then, too….? No. Maybe it was only ash drifting down?’
Everything had been so chaotic that my memory was hazy.
Yet even after ten years, the memory of that time remained shocking beyond words.
A possessor regaining consciousness between a burned village and piles of frozen corpses.
That was my first memory in this world.
At first, I was too dazed to grasp the situation properly.
Then the memories of the body I had possessed came rushing in, and I nearly lost my mind.
Fear. Terror. Despair. Grief.
All manner of emotions slashed at my mind, and I couldn't endure them.
‘I think I saw something like a light then….’
My memories from that point onward were vague.
By the time I had properly regained my senses, I had awakened the ability I called Arcana.
A tarot deck was clutched in my hand, and Arcana 0, ‘The Fool,’ lay faceup at the top.
“I screamed for a Status Window like crazy back then….”
Any twenty-first-century Korean would have done the same.
You suddenly landed in what seemed to be another world and gained a suspicious ability?
The first thing you did was open a Status Window.
But no matter how much I shouted, no Status Window ever opened.
“Status Window! Stats Window! System Window! Message Window! Information Window! Attributes! System Call! And so on!”
I screamed every phrase I could think of at the top of my lungs.
But none of them appeared.
“Yet you ignored me when I was screaming for you like crazy, and now you show up?”
It went beyond being absurd.
A rebellious urge suddenly reared its head.
At first, I hadn't even known whether this place was the Teruna Continent, the setting of the game I had played, Arcana Spirit.
I only learned that after barely sorting through the memories of the body I had possessed.
At the time, I had been one step away from freezing to death.
If people from a neighboring village hadn't come after seeing the flames rising high in the middle of winter, I would certainly have frozen to death.
Even afterward, I kept muttering about Status Windows, Message Windows, and quests.
Enough that the villagers who had saved me misunderstood and thought I had developed a mental illness.
Honestly, who liked being looked at that way?
But I had been desperate.
I had learned that this was the Teruna Continent and that it was ten years before the story began.
I had also remembered that the massacre of my family and the villagers had been the demonfolk's doing.
If the entire continent would be engulfed in the hellfire of war if I did nothing, how could I stay still?
The obsession that I had to do something seized my entire body.
‘Thinking about it now, I was a little out of my mind.’
No one had asked me to save the continent.
No one had forced me to save it.
Yet I had begun the challenge of changing the fate of the world.
Believing optimistically that it would somehow work out.
Thinking about it now, perhaps I had done it because I was afraid.
No. How could I not be?
If I didn't step in, it would be the beginning of a continent-wide war where all sorts of things exploded everywhere!
I knew full well that the future would be a bizarre mess, with everything from people's heads to their sense of ethics exploding in otherworldly ways. How could I do nothing?
Of course, if there had been somewhere to run, I might have quietly hidden myself.
But there was no place like that.
The entire continent would be engulfed in the hellfire of war.
That was the Teruna Continent at the point when the original story began.
‘Well. I knew the broad outline of the story and all the absolute powerhouses, so I was confident.’
Naturally, it wasn't easy.
Sometimes I was hurt.
Sometimes my comrades were hurt, or died.
Before I could even shake off the pain of a loss, I had to comfort someone else.
After suffering, suffering, and suffering some more, I finally managed to drive the demonfolk back into the Underworld just last year.
“And now, of all times, a Message Window? A Main Quest?”
No matter how calmly I thought about it, I couldn't understand its intentions at all.
“Hey! Teruna! Say something, at least! Why are you doing this to me?!”
If it wasn't going to send me home, then it could at least leave me alone!
What, had the last ten years just been a loading screen?
Or had it not interfered because I was handling everything fine, only to get irritated because I'd spent a year loafing around?
The more I thought about it, the angrier I became.
“I’m not doing it! I’m not! A Main Quest? Fuck off! There isn't anything else I need to do!”
I rolled around in the snowbank and shouted like a child throwing a tantrum.
“Did you think I’d follow you around, panting like
Chapter 2
[It’s Been Ten Years Since I Became a Possessor, and I’m Seeing the System Window for the First Time.]
A woman with golden hair cascading like the shining sun.
The moment I recognized her, I promptly buried my head and threw myself facedown.
“Long live Her Majesty the Empress! I greet the Sun of the Empire, who warmly shines upon all its people!”
* …….
There was no response from beyond the crystal ball.
“…….”
The gaze boring into the back of my head stung.
She must have seen all the glass shards scattered around, right?
And the soot smeared across the walls.
Her wise Majesty had surely grasped the situation from those few pieces of information alone.
That I had attempted to divine my fate.
That Hans had gotten caught up in it and shattered the liquor bottle.
She must have noticed all of it.
And how would Her Majesty respond?
It was obvious without even looking.
‘Arrest him.’
‘As you command.’
I could hear the phantom voices of Her Majesty giving the order and Hans responding.
The vision continued afterward.
Hans putting handcuffs on me.
The Golden Mane Knights deploying from the Imperial Capital.
And even a future where I was imprisoned in the Imperial Palace and raised like livestock.
* …….
The silence was heavy.
So heavy that I felt like I might drown in it!
How could I escape this situation?
Desperately racking my brain, I suddenly raised my head.
“It’s been a while, Hir.”
Casual speech and a pet name that no one could possibly imagine being directed at the Empress of the Empire.
If anyone in the Imperial Palace heard this conversation, my neck wouldn't survive.
Yet the beautiful woman beyond the crystal ball smiled in satisfaction when she heard it.
For now, it seemed I had given the right answer.
* That was close, Louie. One more honorific, and I would have leaked your location to Kanibara.
“Eek.”
Kanibara.
Known as the Gray Storm among the Five-Colored Heroes, she was humanity's strongest fighting force.
The instant her name came up, my shoulders trembled on reflex.
“Really?”
* It’s a joke. I have no intention of handing you over to that uncivilized drunkard of a mercenary.
“She is a mercenary, and she is a drunk, but calling her uncivilized is….”
The corners of Hildegard's eyes rose.
The warning lights in my head went off, and my mouth reacted immediately.
“Ugh, I don't want to meet her either. Her drunken behavior is seriously terrifying. Being around her is exhausting. And she always tries to make me train. Does she think everyone is like her?”
* Do you really think that?
“I may be good at flattery, but I can't lie!”
* I have a meeting with Kanibara soon. I’ll be sure to tell her exactly that.
The corners of Hildegard's eyes curved into a smile.
Kanibara wasn't merely powerful as an individual.
She was also the Mercenary Queen and the unifier of the Desert Tribal Alliance.
What if Kanibara came looking for me in a rage?
“…Then I might actually die.”
I could picture bulky, tattooed men crowding in front of my cabin.
Like black magicians presenting an offering to an evil god, they would kidnap me and bring me before Kanibara.
No. Kanibara herself might come instead.
Then little, delicate me would be swallowed in a single bite.
“Should I write a will…?”
* Hehe. That was another joke.
Hildegard covered her mouth and laughed.
* It’s nice to talk comfortably after so long. Though someone doesn't seem very comfortable.
Hildegard's eyes looked as though they could pierce straight through me.
“Well….”
* You’re still performing readings these days, aren't you?
So she had figured it out long ago.
Feeling like a child who had been caught misbehaving, I scratched my head sheepishly.
* Are you still curious about where your ‘present’ is?
“…….”
* Louie. You are here right now. Not some worthless fortune—I affirm your existence. If a god denies your existence, then….
Hildegard's words jolted me awake, and I hurriedly cut in.
“Blah, blah, blah! Hiss! You’re saying something that could get us killed!”
Right next to the Afernia Empire was the Teruna Theocracy.
The theocracy even had a genuine Saint who had received divine power.
And the Empress was denying a god?
That would start a religious war, with all manner of things exploding from that very day onward.
And the history books would surely point to me as the cause.
Would they write that some Rasputin-like bastard had corrupted the Empress and started a continent-wide religious war?
* Of course, it’s a joke.
“It really doesn't sound like one.”
* It would be even better if you understood my sincerity.
“I'll just think of it as a joke.”
* What a shame.
Hildegard's eyes curved gently.
However, her smile soon changed into a serious expression.
* Enough joking. Let us get to the point, Louie. I found the person you told me about before.
My expression turned serious as well.
“Peris?”
* Yes. We received a report that he was listed among the incoming students at Gloria Academy. The Special Affairs Bureau has confirmed his identity as well.
The protagonist of the game I had possessed.
He had appeared at Gloria Academy, the academy that would become the game's setting.
‘Come to think of it, I'd forgotten about it for a while.’
Gloria Academy.
In the original game, it was merely a setting.
Once the chapters advanced, the setting moved across the entire continent.
But the name held special meaning for me.
It was like the fruit borne from ten long years of adventure.
“I thought construction would take longer. It’s already finished?”
Moments like this truly made me feel that I was in a fantasy world.
It was called an academy, but it was a massive undertaking to convert an entire city into one.
I'd heard that its goal was to create a space where humans, elves, and spirits could live in harmony.
And they had completed that in just over a year.
* The elves and spirits helped greatly. They practically eliminated the time needed for the foundational work. They also took care of their own districts themselves.
I couldn't help but nod at Hildegard's words.
If that was the case, the rest must have progressed smoothly.
Each Imperial mage was a piece of versatile heavy machinery.
They smashed what needed smashing.
Moved what needed moving.
Raised what needed raising.
After working away for a few months, converting a city into an academy must have been quick enough.
When I nodded quietly, Hildegard continued.
* Are you thinking of going to the academy?
“Hmm….”
I couldn't answer easily.
Honestly, I didn't want to go.
I'd been through enough over the past ten years.
Now, I wanted to loaf around in my cabin and wait for the day I could return home.
‘Though it is strange that there hasn't been any news, even though a year has already passed since the war against the demonfolk ended….’
It wasn't something I could do anything about.
No one had promised to send me back when I was abducted into this world.
I had been dragged here without knowing why, then struggled alone to change that grim future.
‘If I can’t go back anyway, I just want to quietly rest as an unemployed bum for the rest of my life.’
Hildegard added weight to my concern.
* Right now, all eyes on the continent are focused on the academy. Your identity will inevitably be discovered someday. And then….
“Visitors will come. A great many of them.”
If old comrades who thought I was dead came running in and made a huge fuss, then so be it.
I couldn't complain, even if it was the karma I deserved.
But I couldn't handle the demonfolk who wanted to make my heart explode.
* Of course, I’ll guard you thoroughly. The demonfolk won't be able to touch a single hair on your head.
“Then can you stop Kanibara, too?”
* That is a natural disaster. It is the kind human beings cannot stop.
Hildegard immediately shook her head.
Calling a person a natural disaster was a bit harsh, but I agreed that humans couldn't stop her.
The problem was that the moment I met Kanibara, there was a high chance I would become ‘my own little Lewis.’
* There are rumors that her personality has changed a little recently, though….
“Really?”
* I heard she has learned to use her head. Whether it is true or not, we will have to see for ourselves.
Goosebumps rose on the back of my hand.
A natural disaster that used its brain.
* Anyway. Weren't you waiting for news of the academy?
“That’s true. It is, but….”
The current situation differed greatly from the original work.
To be specific, it was about as different as a post-apocalyptic shelter story and a comedic romantic fantasy.
The continent, which had been destined to fill with blood, flame, and screams, was now enjoying peace.
It was all the price of the bone-grinding effort I'd put in for ten years.
The same story as the original work was unlikely to unfold, so didn't that mean I had no reason to go personally?
‘Of course, I am curious about the academy….’
Curiosity and laziness.
My heart wavered somewhere between the two.
* It doesn't seem that you have a reason you absolutely must go.
“Yeah. I’m only thinking that I might take a look once….”
The instant I was about to say that I didn't need to decide right away.
[Chapter 1. Gloria Academy]
[The Main Quest Begins Upon Traveling to Gloria Academy!]
The System Window—an indispensable element for regressors, possessors, and reincarnators alike.
The System Window, which hadn't shown even the slightest sign of appearing when I became a possessor!
It had finally appeared before me after ten whole years!
“Fuck….”
Didn't that make it legal to speak F-language in front of the Empress?
“Hoo….”
A cloud of white breath spread before me.
Yet even though it blocked my view, the Message Window floating in front of me remained perfectly clear.
“Damn it. Why is this appearing only now?”
It hadn't shown even the slightest sign when I had wanted it desperately.
THUMP!
My mood twisted for no reason, and I kicked the innocent snowfield.
Suddenly, I remembered the time when I had longed so desperately for a Message Window.
It had been the very moment I first regained consciousness in this world.
‘It was winter then, too, with snow falling heavily…. No. Was it ash drifting down instead?’
My memories were vague because I had been in such a state of chaos.
But even ten years later, those memories were shocking beyond words.
A possessor regaining consciousness between a burned-out village and piles of frozen corpses.
That was my first memory in this world.
At first, I couldn't even grasp the situation properly and simply sat there dazed.
Then the memories belonging to the body I had possessed came rushing in, and I nearly lost my mind.
Terror. Fear. Despair. Grief.
Every kind of emotion slashed through my mind, and I couldn't endure it.
‘I think I saw something like a light after that….’
From there, my memory was hazy.
By the time I properly regained my senses, I had already awakened the ability I called Arcana.
A tarot deck was clutched in my hand, and Arcana 0, ‘The Fool,’ lay turned over on top.
“I screamed for a Status Window like crazy back then….”
Anyone from twenty-first-century Korea would have done the same.
You fell into a place that looked like another world and gained a suspicious ability?
The first thing you did was open the Status Window.
But no matter how much I shouted, the Status Window never opened.
“Status Window. Stats Window. System Window. Message Window. Information Window. Attributes. System Call. And so on.”
I shouted every term I could think of at the top of my lungs.
But none of them appeared.
“Yet when I screamed for one like a madman, you ignored me. And now you show up?”
It had gone beyond being absurd, and a rebellious spirit suddenly rose up within me.
At first, I hadn't even known that this was the Teruna Continent, the setting of the game I had played, Arcana Spirit.
I had learned it only after barely combing through the memories of the body I had possessed.
At the time, I had been only one step away from freezing to death.
If the people from a neighboring village hadn't come after seeing the flames soaring in the middle of winter, I would certainly have frozen to death.
Even after that, I kept muttering about a Status Window, Message Window, and quests.
Enough for the villagers who had saved me to mistake me for someone with a mental illness.
Honestly, who liked being looked at that way?
But I had been desperate.
I had learned that this place was the Teruna Continent and that it was ten years before the story began.
I had also remembered that the massacre of my family and villagers had been the work of the demonfolk.
If I stayed still, the entire continent would be engulfed in the hellfire of war. How could I do nothing?
The compulsion to do something took hold of my entire body.
‘Thinking back, I was a little out of my mind.’
No one had asked me to save the continent.
No one had forced me to save it.
Yet I began the challenge of changing the fate of the world.
Thinking optimistically that things would somehow work out.
Looking back, I might have done it because I was scared.
No. How could I not have been?
If I didn't act, a continent-wide war would begin, with all kinds of things exploding everywhere!
I could see that future clearly: a future where everything from people's heads to their sense of morality exploded in bizarre, otherworldly ways. How could I simply stay still?
Of course, if there had been somewhere to run, I might have hidden myself quietly.
But there was no such place.
The entire continent would be engulfed in the hellfire of war.
That was the Teruna Continent at the beginning of the original story.
‘Well. I knew the broad strokes of the plot, and I knew all the absolute powerhouses, so I was confident.’
Naturally, it hadn't been easy.
Sometimes I was injured, sometimes my companions were injured, and sometimes they died.
Before I could even shake off the pain of a loss, I had to comfort someone else.
After enduring hardship upon hardship upon miserable hardship, I had finally driven the demonfolk back into the Underworld last year.
“But now? A Message Window? A Main Quest?”
No matter how calmly I thought about it, I couldn't understand the intent behind it at all.
“Hey! Teruna! Say something, at least! Why the hell are you doing this to me?!”
If you weren't going to send me home, then at least leave me alone!
What, had the past ten years just been loading time?
Or had you decided not to interfere because I was handling things on my own, then gotten annoyed after I spent a year loafing around?
The more I thought about it, the angrier I became.
“I’m not doing it! I’m not! A Main Quest? Fuck off! There isn't anything else I need to do!”
I shouted as I rolled around in the snow like a child throwing a tantrum.
“Did you think that I'd follow you around, panting like a dog, just because you showed me a Message Window? I have my pride, you know!”
Honestly, I had half given up on returning to Earth.
It wasn't as though I had family or friends who would welcome me back.
Still, it was my hometown and the place of my memories, so the nostalgia sometimes cut deeply.
But I could endure it well enough.
“I’ll just loaf around in this cabin for the rest of my life…!”
WHOOOOSH—!
“Mmph! Ptoo, ptoo!”
As if telling me to shut up, the snow piled atop a tree poured down and filled my mouth.
There hadn't even been any wind.
The strange phenomena I experienced whenever I performed a reading were happening now even though I wasn't reading anything…?
“Who would be scared of something like….”
Creeeak—
When I turned toward the ominous sound, a coniferous tree rising high into the sky was leaning in my direction.
“Are you insane?!”
CRAAASH—!
WHOOOOSH—!
I avoided the tree by a hair's breadth, but I couldn't escape the snow piled on the ground as it surged toward me like a tidal wave.
“Y-you fucking….”
That fucking god.
That fucking Teruna.
I was about to mutter those words.
Then I saw the word [Death].
It wasn't a Message Window.
Branches that had broken off the fallen conifer had embedded themselves in the snow, forming the word [Death].
“Wow. I never thought I'd live long enough to be threatened with death by a god.”
Even Nia, the Pure White Saint, had only received revelations. She had never received threats.
“…….”
Seriously, why was my life like this…?
Why couldn't I even rest in peace?!
Part of me wanted to resist one more time, but I stopped when a new Message Window appeared in front of me.
DING—
“…You really don't leave me with anything to say.”
I slumped my shoulders and went back into the cabin.
Rolling around in the snow hadn't been enough; I had been buried in it as well, leaving my entire body soaked.