Chapter Index





    Ch.9Change – 3

    Priscilla Agnes’s, no, the possessor Hayun’s world was gray.

    A world without even a hint of light, where everything was no different from a puppet show, a gray world where nothing could have its own color.

    Hayun merely drifted through the grayness. For several hundred years, no less.

    She didn’t think of herself as weak. It was clear that even if it wasn’t Hayun but someone else, they would end up the same way after being trapped in a world with a fixed ending and repeating an infinite regression.

    ‘I was happy when I first came here.’

    When she first opened her eyes as Priscilla Agnes after being possessed into the romance fantasy novel she enjoyed reading, she felt her heart flutter anew. But it was all just an illusion.

    It took twenty long years to realize that this wasn’t an opportunity but a curse. Four cycles of being possessed as 15-year-old Priscilla and ending her life as 20-year-old Priscilla.

    Unable to break free from the original story and move on her own, with no one approaching her, no friends to open her heart to, no lover to share emotions with.

    Just a daily routine of repeating what she had always seen and always done.

    Hayun’s role was that of a supporting character who ends her colorless gray world with death, not even allowed to witness the happy ending of the original protagonist from the sidelines.

    ‘I hate this.’

    At first, she despaired, struggled, and tried to find a way out. She desperately tried to break the infinitely repeating cycle.

    It took a very long time for that desperate effort to transform into the modest hope of just wanting to move her body according to her own will.

    ‘…I want to die.’

    When all attempts and struggles ended in failure, and the regression started again as usual—dying at 20 and returning to 15—Hayun thought this for the first time.

    Even after taking the Dark Lord’s curse meant for Aria April and feeling her flesh rot while alive, slowly melting into a mushy lump of meat over and over again, Priscilla Agnes did not die.

    She just opened her eyes in bed on her 15th birthday, as always.

    ‘It doesn’t hurt.’

    At some point, she couldn’t feel anything even while dying from the curse. She only felt the sensation of her body turning mushy.

    Hayun thought this happened after something inside her had snapped. And she realized that she was on the verge of breaking beyond repair.

    ‘Hayun. My name.’

    So she desperately clung to her name. She absolutely refused to let go of her name.

    She felt that if she forgot this too, if she lost even her own name to time, everything would truly shatter. So within the story she had always seen, Hayun gritted her teeth and repeated her name.

    ‘…Hayun. My… name…?’

    But even that had clear limits. By the time the number of times she had opened her eyes on her 15th birthday surpassed three digits, making counting meaningless, Hayun was just mechanically repeating her name.

    She even questioned herself why she needed to remember it.

    She couldn’t even remember when she had last moved her body by her own will. Yet she continued to live as Priscilla.

    So perhaps she wasn’t Hayun but Priscilla Agnes after all.

    ‘Ah.’

    The moment she had this thought, Hayun gave up everything else. It was after this that she began to focus solely on counting time. Now Priscilla Agnes was no longer suffering.

    And then one day, as only meaningless numbers repeated in the gray world, a miracle suddenly occurred.

    “I’m the top student in the first year. You know that, right?”

    It wasn’t the original protagonist Aria April, but a boy with a face she had never seen before. Truly a face she had never seen in this infinite world.

    ‘No.’

    I don’t know you. As Priscilla was about to say this, she realized that she was speaking words “not in the original novel.”

    At first, she didn’t understand the single color that appeared in a world that had lost its light. She thought she was just feeling wrong.

    “Hic… hnnng…”

    But when she heard that voice again, when she realized that all of this was real, Priscilla couldn’t help but burst into tears, pouring out all the sorrow she had been holding in.

    It was the day when Priscilla Agnes’s, no, the possessor Hayun’s world regained its color.

    ‘So this… is what it feels like.’

    The sensation of moving by her own will. The feeling of moving where she wanted to go, not where the story wanted her to. People who didn’t just speak predetermined lines. All of it felt strangely unfamiliar.

    Hayun took a step forward with her own strength. And just like that, the world changed so easily. It began to move in directions unknown to Hayun.

    She thought she was happy.

    ‘…I’m cold.’

    Until she was left alone in her dormitory room after parting with the possessor who introduced himself as Mira Crate.

    When left alone, a terrible coldness enveloped her entire body. Even after raising the room temperature with magic and wrapping herself in blankets, the cold wouldn’t go away.

    Hayun knew what this coldness was.

    ‘It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay…’

    It was fear.

    Fear that all of this might just be a dream. And that when she opened her eyes, she might be back in that cycle again.

    Left alone in the dormitory, Hayun spent the night curled up in bed, shivering under the blankets, and felt all the coldness disappear as soon as she met Mira Crate the next day.

    She newly realized that a world without color was terribly cold. And she also realized that Mira Crate’s hand was very warm.

    ‘It’s warm.’

    Fortunately, Mira accepted Hayun without showing any signs of annoyance, and as the time she spent seeking warmth by sticking close to him increased, the coldness she felt when left alone grew proportionally.

    So she boldly moved forward. Thinking that if she accepted more warmth, she might be able to endure a little better when alone.

    ‘…This isn’t enough.’

    But it wasn’t. Rather, the emptiness only felt more intense, not helping at all.

    In this growing dependency, today Hayun felt anxiety for the first time even with Mira Crate by her side. The cause was a monster that appeared near the department store.

    ‘…A development different from the original story makes me anxious? Why?’

    She was also confused. She should be happy, she should be glad that it wasn’t the same development she had seen so tiresomely many times, so why did she feel anxious?

    ‘I see.’

    Hayun soon understood. If a new development occurred, she couldn’t tell him the outcome. So naturally, Mira Crate couldn’t prepare countermeasures.

    The source of her anxiety was this contradictory feeling of wanting to experience new developments while not wanting those new developments to cause Mira Crate to die or get hurt.

    And she also realized the solution.

    ‘I’ll do it.’

    So that the sun wouldn’t get hurt. So that would never happen.

    I’ll protect him.

    I will.

    “…”

    Priscilla stood impassively facing the air that was so hot it was suffocating, and I was looking at her back, reflecting on the traces of destruction I had just witnessed.

    When we went outside, the monster had just finished emerging from the black dimensional gate. And it melted away before it could do anything, thanks to Priscilla.

    The reddened stones on the roadside and the soil that had turned glossy like pottery from the extreme heat were the only evidence of what had just happened here.

    There was no damage to buildings or people. This was thanks to Priscilla, who had precisely dropped a fireball on the monster’s head while also placing magical barriers in all areas where the aftermath might reach.

    ‘So that’s what it takes to hold the top position at Bellium Academy.’

    “Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

    Priscilla, who had been staring at where the monster had disappeared with turbid eyes, approached me with a worried question as soon as our eyes met, as if she had never had such a look.

    “How could I be? You did everything, Priscilla.”

    “…I’m glad.”

    Priscilla smiled faintly and brought my hand to her cheek. My palm almost completely covered her cheek.

    “It’s warm…”

    “…?”

    I looked strangely at Priscilla, who was rubbing her cheek against my palm. The air heated by the aftermath of the fireball that had just struck down hadn’t even cooled yet.

    “Isn’t it warmer around us?”

    “No. Not at all.”

    Priscilla shook her head firmly.

    “Only you can keep me warm.”

    “Oh my… goodness…”

    At words that could almost sound like a love confession, Beatrice made a fuss. Her gaze toward us sparkled.

    Pushed back into the department store by Beatrice, who had somehow been switched on and told us not to worry as she would take care of the aftermath, we encountered Aria and Brunhild who were rushing out urgently.

    “…What, we’re too late. We came running as fast as we could.”

    “Priscilla handled it. It died without making a sound. The situation’s over, so let’s go back. They’ll take care of the cleanup.”

    “It felt like quite a large monster… You’ve already dealt with it?”

    “She’s the top student in the second year. She can handle that much easily. There were no casualties, so don’t feel guilty.”

    I pushed Brunhild’s back with one hand while leading Priscilla with the other toward the staff waiting in the distance. Aria followed us closely.

    For a moment, a very brief strange gleam passed through those blue eyes.

    The day after Aria and Brunhild returned half-dazed after receiving a discount of up to 125%, Priscilla was in my room as if it were the most natural thing.

    She was wearing the casual clothes I had bought her yesterday.

    “Does that mean a saint might visit soon?”

    “Yes. Strictly speaking, not a saint but a saint candidate. And ‘soon’ according to the original timeline, but in reality we’ll have to wait almost a month.”

    Of course, it wasn’t to show off her clothes. It was to explain the flow of episodes that would unfold after the monster incident.

    As I expected, a monster appearing in the imperial capital was something that should have happened next year when the Demon King’s power strengthened.

    After the incident, the need for a hero rapidly surfaces, and finally, the last event of Part 1 serves as the decisive factor, leading to early graduation and the beginning of Part 2 as they leave the academy with a few supporting characters.

    The woman being strongly pushed as a saint candidate by the church entering Bellium Academy was also part of that series of events.

    “That person can’t become a saint anyway. The schedule gets messed up and a divine revelation comes down at the academy, but the goddess chooses Aria, not that woman.”

    “Really?”

    “Yes. Because Aria is the protagonist.”

    Well, she was a person with a rather unfortunate fate predetermined. Unless the original story changed and that woman was chosen as the saint instead.

    “I think the future where Aria is chosen as the saint won’t change. If I were the goddess, I would have chosen Aria over that woman too.”

    Reading my expression, Priscilla spoke first.

    “What kind of person is she?”

    “…To sum it up in one word.”

    Priscilla paused slightly here. Then, shaking her head, she continued.

    “A crazy bitch, you could say.”


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