Chapter Index





    Ch.97Aftermath – 3

    Episode 1463.

    Honestly, it was too vast to fully comprehend. If it had stopped at just over 100 times like Priscilla’s case, I could have at least offered some consolation like “you’ve been through so much.”

    But nearly 1500 times… it was such an absurd number that I couldn’t casually share in her sorrow, empathize, or comfort her. Just considering the time she’d lived through, it would be over 7000 years, wouldn’t it?

    [Now you understand why I placed a triple seal on my memories, right? I wasn’t confident I could handle all that time without breaking. I believe you understand completely. Even if you don’t, well, there’s nothing you can do but accept it. The fact that you’re reading this means you haven’t accessed the third seal yet, right?]

    [This is advice for my own sake, but it wouldn’t be bad to never recover these memories. Accepting how I broke down while repeating and repeating and repeating the world of my own novel 1463 times would be a cruel thing to do, even from my current perspective. If I could return to the original world, that might be different… but honestly, I’m not sure if that’s possible.]

    [Still, if you insist on recovering these memories, I won’t stop you. It was my choice after all. And I have one request. I don’t know who did this to me, but if you get the chance, give whoever did this to me a good punch. Multiple punches would be even better. Got it?]

    [Finally, something I must never forget. My name is Lee Seo-ah. Born March 8, 2000. Understand? I’m not Imperial Princess Laura Ercarencia Crescenne von Yuperantis Bellium, I’m Lee Seo-ah. Never forget who you really are. No matter what happens.]

    [Never.]

    After reading the final word, which was not only written with firm pressure but also underlined and marked with asterisks for emphasis, I closed the notebook. Laura, or rather, the possessor Seo-ah, was staring at me from the side.

    “So you have no memories of the past at all? You said the memories of the regressions are still sealed.”

    “I don’t have the memories themselves, but the feelings remain. Like the emotions I felt in this place.”

    That explained why she had screamed at the sight of the servants when she first woke up, and why she had tried to destroy and burn everything here. The imperial palace must have been nothing short of hell for Laura during those regressions.

    Perhaps sensing my pitying gaze, Laura responded flatly.

    “Save your sympathy for when I eventually recover my memories. The current me doesn’t deserve or have reason for such looks.”

    “Recover your memories?”

    “…To be honest, I’m not sure. I can roughly guess what my emotions must have been like. Even now, just feeling the impressions is difficult enough, so I can imagine what might happen if I fully recover those memories.”

    I heard a small sigh. Her hand was trembling slightly.

    “Can we talk about something else? I don’t want to discuss old stories right now.”

    “There’s plenty else to talk about. Like the content of the original novel you wrote. Would that be okay?”

    Laura nodded.

    “So about this novel you wrote. Um, what was it called again…?”

    “‘How to Survive as the Hero’s Childhood Friend.'”

    “Right, that one. I feel a bit bad saying this in front of the author, but I’ve only read the prologue. So I was wondering, what genre was it exactly? Other possessors told me it was ‘primarily’ a yuri romance fantasy. That ‘primarily’ qualifier has been bothering me.”

    “Primarily a yuri romance fantasy… Yes. That’s an extremely accurate description.”

    The corner of her mouth turned up slightly in self-mockery.

    “This was the second work I ever wrote. The problem was, my first work was a dark fantasy with extreme suffering. The protagonist endured endless torment, everyone around them became increasingly miserable, and just when one problem seemed resolved, they’d plunge into endless suffering again.”

    At the mention of dark fantasy with extreme suffering, I reflexively thought of the first world and quietly composed myself. I suppose I should be grateful I wasn’t dragged into her first work.

    Nothing could be more horrifying than escaping one dark fantasy world of suffering only to be dragged into another.

    “After writing over 300 episodes of that kind of story, I suddenly tried to write a sweet yuri romance fantasy, and naturally it didn’t go well. No, ‘didn’t go well’ is too elegant a way to put it. It just failed. Completely and utterly. To give you an idea, if you divide what I earned from start to finish, it was about 40,000-50,000 won per month? And that was only because I had some readers from my previous work at the beginning. Otherwise, it would have been around 10,000 won.”

    Perhaps because she could talk about her past for the first time in thousands of years, Laura’s expression was much brighter than before, despite discussing something unpleasant.

    Not just her expression, but her manner of speaking had changed completely. She even seemed excited.

    “The reason I stubbornly kept writing it was because I wanted to. Before I was a writer, I was a reader. I was reading other romance fantasies when suddenly I desperately wanted to write one, so I came up with settings on the spot and started writing. So… I didn’t do proper research, and since it was the first yuri work I’d ever seen, I didn’t know much about the genre and broke many taboos.”

    “Like not setting the academy as an all-girls school?”

    “That was the first mistake. I didn’t know it was better not to include men at all in yuri works, and above all, I failed to control the level of suffering. I thought I was including mild suffering, but readers were apparently horrified. I guess my threshold had risen too high because my first work was explicitly that kind of genre.”

    “…”

    “Still, there were people who kept reading, so I continued the series, but at some point, my interest dropped sharply. How could I continue a work that I started out of interest when that interest was gone? I just wrapped it up with the demon lord being killed and the two protagonists getting together.”

    By the two protagonists, she must mean Aria and Brunhild. As far as I knew, Aria and Brunhild weren’t that close, so it felt strange.

    “On the surface it was a proper ending, but by my standards it was rushed. I tried to make it not look that way, but I couldn’t even introduce the final boss I had set up in the early stages. If any readers had caught the foreshadowing, they would have definitely left at least one comment asking why that character never appeared.”

    When she mentioned setting up foreshadowing for a final boss who never appeared, one thing came to mind: the Demon God that Elisier had mentioned.

    If this Demon God was originally intended to be the final boss of the entire work, it would explain both the source of that strange black energy and why the demon sword talked about judging the demon lord.

    “Was the final boss the Demon God by any chance?”

    “…How did you know? Since the goddess of the Starlight Order wielded light, I was planning to create a contrasting concept that wielded darkness. Has it already appeared? Already?”

    “No, it hasn’t. I’ll explain later.”

    Many of my questions had been answered, but not all of them. Priscilla, Rosaria, and Elisier had all described it as “primarily” a yuri romance fantasy, hesitating as if their memories were vague.

    If that’s what they meant by “primarily,” there would be no reason for them to act as if their memories had disappeared.

    “Oh, and one more thing. Did you also design the Starlight Order’s saint’s robe?”

    I suddenly remembered Rosaria’s attire. That outfit was so ridiculous it was barely recognizable as clothing. Laura tilted her head.

    “Saint’s robe? Oh, what the saint candidate wears? Why do you ask?”

    “What do you mean ‘why’? Don’t you know?”

    “I’m genuinely asking because I don’t know. Wasn’t it a fairly normal design?”

    “…Normal? That thing?”

    Noticing something strange in my reaction, her puzzled expression hardened.

    “Could you draw it for me? I think the saint’s robe I’m thinking of and the one you’re talking about are completely different.”

    I immediately began drawing the saint’s robe that Rosaria used to wear. It had been quite a while since I’d seen her wearing anything other than that sweater woven from starlight threads, but the outfit had been so shocking that it remained vivid in my memory.

    “Um…”

    Laura stared at the drawing I handed her for a long time. Then, with an incredulous expression, she exclaimed:

    “What the hell is this insane outfit?”

    “…?”

    ‘Who would do such a thing…’

    My mind was troubled the entire way to the Mage Association. If Laura hadn’t designed that saint’s robe, then what was going on? It seemed unlikely that everyone’s memories had been collectively distorted.

    There were several other discrepancies between the settings Laura remembered and the actual state of this world. Mainly regarding women’s attire and the succubus race.

    ‘…I don’t know.’

    There was no point in overthinking it. The information I could get from Laura had clear limitations, and there wasn’t even anything I could reasonably guess.

    “You’re here?”

    “…?”

    As I entered the main entrance of the association, the female mage who had been jumping around excitedly about the healing magic was now kneeling on the floor and greeting me with honorifics.

    Doesn’t she feel embarrassed acting like this at her age, regardless of her youthful appearance?

    “What are you doing?”

    “I need to make the best impression possible on Master Mira so that I might receive more knowledge, don’t I?”

    “As if that would work.”

    The female mage, momentarily dejected, quickly regained her enthusiasm.

    “Your clothes! Your new clothes look amazing on you! Is it because they’re supported by the original?”

    I looked down with an inward bitter smile. Instead of the academy uniform I usually wore, I was wearing formal attire delivered directly from the imperial palace.

    The reason for not having my uniform was simple. Laura had taken it.

    Saying she would die of anxiety if left alone in the palace, she had made a makeshift blanket by weaving together my uniform, vest, dress shirt, and pants, then curled up on it and fallen asleep.

    As a result, I had to make various excuses to receive new clothes.

    “And, and also… Ah! Just a moment!”

    Ignoring the female mage who was trying to flatter me further, I entered the grand presentation hall. Despite it being two in the morning, all 53 people were still present.

    I had originally planned to stay with Laura longer, but they were so insistent that I decided it would be better to finish things here quickly.

    “I have a lot to do too, so I’ll tell you quickly and be done. First—”

    “Please wait a moment.”

    As I was about to just draw a few magic circles according to their hierarchy and leave, the mage sitting at the very front knelt down, bowed his head, and spoke. It was uncomfortably formal.

    “I have something to say. This is a question I ask on behalf of everyone gathered here.”

    “Just speak normally. Normally. What is it?”

    “Do you perhaps know of other types of magic that don’t exist in this world?”

    Are they already eyeing what comes after learning healing magic? These people are truly something.

    “I do.”

    There was no particular reason to hide it, so I answered truthfully. Dozens of pairs of eyes instantly lit up.

    “Oh, ohh…! Then…!”

    “But the ones at a disadvantage here aren’t me, but all of you. Isn’t that right?”

    They all nodded desperately, seeming to understand.

    “Is there anything specific you want?”

    “Well…”

    I was about to say I didn’t have anything yet, when I remembered how they had been peeking into our room about every five minutes.

    “Do I really have to spell it out?”

    Maybe I’ll get a little revenge.


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