Chapter 4 – Da Capo al Fine

Ｒｅａｄ ｏｎ​ ＫａｔＲｅａｄ​ｉｎｇ​Ｃａ​ｆｅ

 

Reincarnation in another world.

That was the first phrase that came to mind.

 

The place was a garden.

A structure resembling a temple, made of pristine white marble.

In the center stood a large tree, surrounded by various kinds of blooming flowers.

I absentmindedly looked up at the sky and froze.

Above me was the ocean.

Not just a large puddle of water, but an actual ocean.

Fish swimming through the water.

Transparent jellyfish and even a massive whale could be seen.

I didn’t know where this place was, but it was clearly no ordinary location.

 

As I looked around, I noticed something.

Someone was sitting under the large tree in the center of the garden.

A woman sitting at a white table and chair, holding a teacup.

Her beautiful red hair cascaded like a waterfall, and her body was as flawless as a marble sculpture.

She was too mature to be called a girl, yet too youthful to be called a woman.

If a goddess from mythology were to exist, it would surely be her.

That was the impression she gave off.

 

As I stared at her in a daze, our eyes met at some point.

She smiled gently, as if she had been waiting for me.

Her gesture, as if beckoning me to come closer, made my feet move on their own.

Before I knew it, I was standing beside the table where she sat.

 

“Long time no see. Come on, sit down. I’ve been waiting for you.”

She was someone I had never seen before.

Yet, she greeted me as if she knew me well.

I don’t know you, though.

I gave her a look that conveyed that thought, but she just smiled without saying a word.

 

“Sit down and let’s talk. Lieselotte.”

She pointed to the chair across from her as she spoke.

“…My name isn’t Lieselotte.”

I sat down as she suggested and corrected her about my name.

But no response came.

She just looked at me with a meaningful gaze.

 

Something felt off.

Looking at her expression, I felt that something was wrong.

With a sinking feeling, I looked down at my body.

“…”

I was speechless.

The clothes I was wearing were unfamiliar.

A white blouse, a blue jacket, and a dark blue ribbon caught my eye.

It was a uniform-like design.

And my chest was so large that it obscured my legs.

I was definitely a man, but this body was unmistakably female.

I raised my hand to check.

The hand I was used to seeing was gone, replaced by a slender, pale, feminine hand.

 

“This is…”

I was stunned.

I couldn’t understand what had happened.

This wasn’t the body I remembered.

I grabbed my hair to check.

It was pink, with a texture like cotton candy.

Lieselotte—that was the name the woman in front of me had been calling me.

I knew that name.

It belonged to a character from a recent simulation game I had played, Dust Flowers and Digitalis.

Not the protagonist, nor the antagonist, but a supporting character.

Depending on the route, she could play a major role, but her endings were often tragic.

She was infamous for dying off-screen in most routes.

And for some reason, my body had now become Lieselotte’s.

 

“You are Lieselotte.”

Her voice reached me as I was drowning in confusion.

Cautiously, I looked up and met her gaze.

I wasn’t sure, but somehow, I knew the reason.

No, it was so obvious that I didn’t even need to ask.

I swallowed hard and slowly opened my mouth to ask a question.

“…Did you do this?”

“No. I didn’t do anything.”

She denied my question.

Really?

No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t help but suspect her.

As I silently stared at her, she spoke again.

 

“Tea? Or coffee?”

“…Coffee. An iced americano, please…”

(tl: fact of the day: the most popular drink in korea is iced americano)

She suddenly asked what I wanted to drink, so I requested coffee.

She hummed a tune and gestured, and before I knew it, a teacup was placed in front of me.

“Here, drink up.”

I picked up the cup and checked its contents.

For some reason, it was a teacup, and as I suspected, it contained warm black tea.

Not iced, and definitely not an americano.

“I asked for coffee…”

I pointed it out in a voice tinged with dissatisfaction.

But the response I got was as absurd as I expected.

“So?”

“Fine, I’ll just drink this…”

Why did you even ask if you weren’t going to listen?

That was the vibe I got.

Why bother asking if it was coffee or tea if you were just going to give me tea anyway?

I wanted to say something, but it didn’t seem like she would listen, so I gave up.

 

“Oh…”

It was surprisingly good.

I didn’t have many opportunities to drink black tea, so I didn’t know much about it, but it suited my taste.

Above all, it felt strangely familiar.

“Lieselotte loves black tea, after all.”

As I savored the aroma of the tea, her voice reached me.

Was that part of her character setting?

Since she was a supporting character, I didn’t know much about her detailed background.

She wasn’t a character I particularly liked, so I hadn’t looked up much information about her.

Not that I disliked Lieselotte, of course.

She just wasn’t my favorite or my type.

 

“So, who are you?”

“I’m a goddess.”

Yeah, I figured as much.

It was a cliché, really.

A common trope in reincarnation stories.

But there was one thing I didn’t understand.

“Why me?”

Yeah, I couldn’t figure out the reason.

I hadn’t been hit by a truck, nor had I died of a heart attack from rolling gacha.

I hadn’t left a 5,700-character review or cursed out the developers.

I had streamed the game, but nothing special had happened.

There were plenty of other streamers besides me.

So why, out of all those people, out of all those streamers, was it me?

That was the question.

 

“Hmm?”

That was the response I got.

It didn’t seem like she was going to give me a proper answer.

No matter how much I asked, she probably wouldn’t answer.

“So, what am I supposed to do?”

So, I decided to get to the point.

“Do I need to stop the world’s destruction? Or save the protagonist?”

She must have summoned me here for a reason.

She must have turned me into this for a purpose.

I posed the obvious question to the self-proclaimed goddess.

 

“No, nothing like that. This is just a game.”

But the answer I got was different from what I expected.

A game?

Did she just mean it was for fun?

“You just need to collect 22 cards by completing achievements. That’s all there is to it.”

“Achievements…?”

“Like challenges.”

She answered immediately.

“Reach Hero Level 20, collect all legendary weapons, and achieve one ending. You know, stuff like that.”

She continued explaining.

So, I had to fulfill certain conditions to collect 22 cards.

The problem was figuring out what those conditions were.

In a game, anyone could achieve those challenges with enough time and effort, but in reality, it was a different story.

For example, if one of the conditions was to collect all legendary weapons, they wouldn’t just be lying around on the street.

It would take effort to find them, and the biggest problem would be if someone already owned them.

If the owner was a bandit or a monster, I could probably get my hands on them somehow, but what if the owner was the emperor?

There would be no way to obtain them through normal means.

The self-proclaimed goddess made it sound simple, but I was sure it wouldn’t be easy.

And I had to complete not just one or two, but 22 such challenges.

No matter how I thought about it, it felt like I would need multiple playthroughs, like in roguelike games.

 

“…”

While I was pondering the self-proclaimed goddess’s game, I felt a gaze on me.

When I looked up, she was resting her chin on her hands, staring at me with a grin.

She seemed to find something amusing.

I stared back, wondering what she was looking at, but she didn’t move an inch.

I sighed, feeling like this was all ridiculous.

 

“Here.”

When I looked down, a thick book was placed on the table.

“What’s this?”

“Your collaborator.”

This?

It had a very impressive design.

It looked like a grimoire straight out of a fantasy story.

Was it some kind of ego item?

Thinking that, I pulled the book toward me and opened it.

“What is this…?”

Blank pages, blank pages, and more blank pages.

No matter how many pages I flipped through, they were all blank.

There was absolutely nothing written on them.

I had expected something like a sentient magic book.

But what I got was something that looked like a blank notebook.

Was I supposed to use it as a diary?

If something had been written in it, I wouldn’t have been so confused.

I wondered if it was related to the 22 cards I needed to collect, but if that were the case, 22 pages would have been enough.

But this was a thick hardcover with over 200 pages.

Surely she didn’t just give me a diary to write in, right?

Or maybe if I wrote something in it, the self-proclaimed goddess could see it and reply?

This wasn’t an exchange diary, was it?

Various questions swirled in my mind, but no answers came.

I looked at the self-proclaimed goddess, wondering what this was all about, but she just smiled without answering.

What the hell is this?

With that thought, I examined the book in front of me.

It was completely empty inside.

The paper wasn’t the pristine white kind I was used to, but a lower-quality type.

The cover was black, thick, and hard.

From the texture, it seemed to be made of leather.

On the front was a simple yet elegant symbol.

A circle with various shapes drawn inside it, resembling a magic circle.

Still, the texture wasn’t bad.

It felt sturdy and smooth, the kind of thing you’d get used to holding.

 

“Um, excuse me…”

As I absentmindedly fiddled with the cover, someone called out to me.

Of course, the only person here besides me was the self-proclaimed goddess, so I naturally looked up at her.

But her demeanor was strange.

She had a look on her face as if she was wondering why I was staring at her.

You’re the one who called me.

I gave her a look that conveyed that thought, but she just shrugged nonchalantly.

What’s her deal?

I was about to say something when I heard the voice again.

 

“Um, if you keep fiddling like that, it’s kind of… uncomfortable for me…”

It was the same cautious voice that had called out to me earlier.

But it wasn’t coming from the self-proclaimed goddess.

She was just sitting there with her lips sealed, smiling.

Where was the voice coming from?

I looked around in confusion, but there was no one else in this place besides the two of us.

As I was trying to figure out where the voice was coming from, it spoke again.

 

“Hello…?”

“What the f—?! That scared me!”

I couldn’t help but scream in surprise.

The voice was coming from the book the self-proclaimed goddess had given me.

No matter how I looked at it, it was just a thick book.

But apparently, it wasn’t an ordinary object.

 

“Uh… hi?”

It was a cautious greeting.

“Who are you…?”

I asked without thinking.

Asking a book who it was—even I realized how absurd that sounded.

The answer came from elsewhere.

 

“That’s Rota. Your collaborator.”

The self-proclaimed goddess in front of me explained.

So, the book’s name was Rota…

It was a strange pronunciation.

What language was that?

I didn’t know much about linguistics, so I couldn’t tell what it meant.

 

“And the original author.”

…?

What did she just say?

What? The original author?

So, this person is the developer of Dust Flowers and Digitalis?

“She knows that world better than anyone, so she’ll be a great help.”

Well, of course she would be.

Dust Flowers and Digitalis was a solo-developed game, so she must have created all the settings herself.

So, from the story to the hidden elements, no one would know the game better than her.

But isn’t the original author usually the villain in these kinds of stories?

So, what’s the deal with this self-proclaimed goddess?

She’s possessing someone else’s work, and she’s pairing me up with the original author?

The more I thought about it, the more it felt like Rota was the main character here, and I was just a sidekick.

I was filled with confusion at the absurdity of the situation.

 

“Now, work together and collect those 22 cards.”

Of course, the self-proclaimed goddess didn’t care about my feelings and continued her explanation.

“Alright, that’s all for the explanation. Now, do your best!”

Having said her piece, the self-proclaimed goddess smiled brightly and clapped her hands.

Suddenly, I felt something distort.

It was a strange sensation.

My vision twisted, and my head spun.

I felt nauseous from the intense dizziness, but I desperately tried to hold on and shouted.

 

“W-Wait! I still have questions…!!”

And of course, the self-proclaimed goddess had no intention of listening to me.

“Good luck~!”

“Hey, you b—! You bi—! Just wait a sec…!! Bitc-!”

My consciousness faded like that.