Chapter 54: Originally, it is not easy to save the princess

“You’re good at ripping off manga lines and skill names, but why are you trying to use a resurrection cliché?!”

[Huuuuff… I-I was so excited, thinking I’d finally finished the story of Greed, that I just couldn’t help myself…]

The Notification Window, which had almost used the forbidden skill ‘Resurrection of the Dead,’ was completely cowed.

[Huuuh… I am a useless Notification Window…]

‘If I don’t comfort it, it’ll stay negative for ages. Ugh, I give up, I give up.’

Sihyun let out a deep sigh and approached the Notification Window.

“Don’t talk like that again. Thanks to your narrative restructuring, Luna’s story could be set straight. So don’t say you’re useless or anything like that. You’re a big help to me.”

–*Whoosh.*

Sihyun gently stroked the gloomy-looking Notification Window.

[Sniffle…! R-Reallyyyy…?]

“It’s true, so please stop crying. What are you going to do if you cry all the time?”

[Hehe… Still, I’m glad I have Sihyun-nim who always comforts me.]

‘It has severe mood swings… but it’s cute, so I’ll let it slide.’

“By the way, Greed is gone, so is it all over now?”

The system immediately responded to Sihyun’s question.

*Ding!*

[Narrative Restructuring: The story of Greed has been extinguished, and Luna’s story has been set straight.]

–*Shimmer!*

With the system’s declaration, the golden fragments filling the void began to gather in one place.

From the first fragment to the last, like puzzles with a will of their own, they began to fit together.

“This is… a book?”

The fragments became ink droplets, forming letters, and the letters gradually turned into sentences.

Elegant and beautiful sentences formed a page of the story, and these pages finally completed a single book.

–*Twinkle.*

As if to indicate it was Luna’s story, a small, glowing crescent moon jewel was embedded on the book’s cover.

Sihyun carefully took the book floating in the air and opened it.

“This is…”

Inside, it told the story of Luna, laughing brightly and playing with her friends.

– “Aah?! P-Princess! Did you secretly come down from the castle again?”

– “Shhh! Be quiet! Do you know how boring it is to have etiquette lessons every day? Sometimes, I want to run and play too!”

– “Our princess loves to play so much, I worry about her future.”

Luna and the children playing together looked incredibly happy.

“……That’s amazing. To think Luna was such a bright, smiling child when she was young. She’s always expressionless now.”

[Luna lost her emotions and became a ghost story. In fact, her reactions now, like asking for a hug or holding onto Sihyun-nim, are close to a miracle. It was only possible because Sihyun-nim consistently tried to teach Luna emotions.]

“Don’t go calling it a miracle. I just wanted to see Luna cry and laugh at least once. Now that Greed is gone, Luna can live happily, right?”

Sihyun continued to turn the pages, scanning Luna’s story.

– “Aah! That’s my cake! Put it down right now, pigeon!”

– “Do I have to learn about dancing again today? I’m really good now, can we just skip it today, please?”

– “Lucian always leaves for so long… I’m really not going to let him off the hook when he comes back this time.”

[Hehe, Sihyun-nim. Luna was quite a tomboy, unlike her pretty face.]

“Haha, most kids are like that when they’re young.”

Sihyun’s hand, which had been continuously turning the pages, stopped at a page that looked slightly scorched black.

“What is this? Surely all the stories twisted by Greed should have been fixed.”

As Sihyun looked through the book, the story of Greed was completely gone from Seleneum.

Everything should have returned to normal. What in the world was this black page?

“Could there be a hidden quest or something—”

The moment Sihyun touched the page, which emanated a dark crimson aura.

*Ding!*

[Please save the princess who is transforming into destruction herself.]

*Thump.*

He felt his heart drop to the floor and then rise again.

He had clearly finished the story of Greed.

Narrative Restructuring was an ability that tampered with causality.

Since the cause, Greed, had been removed, shouldn’t the result of Luna being a ghost story also have disappeared?

“What in the world is——”

The moment Sihyun opened his mouth to question the system about what was happening,

–*CRAAASH!*

The floor of the void instantly crumbled, swallowing Sihyun.

“Oh, seriously, stop messing with me! What is it this timeeeeeee—!”

In the void crumbling like shattered glass, the final message from the system window echoed in Sihyun’s ears.

[May fortune be with you, who cherishes the princess more than yourself.]

****

–*Whoosh!*

*Splash!*

Sihyun, forcibly moved by the system, arrived at Cheonggyecheon, next to Bosingak, where destruction was actively underway.

“Ack, it’s cold!! Of all places, why drop me here?! Damn system!”

*Ding!*

[Sihyun-nim! Are you okay??]

“Yeah, I’m alive, but… Notification Window, I think I told you this last time? Don’t force me to move.”

[Ugh, that’s unfair! I wasn’t the one who moved you this time! It was the Narrative Restructuring System!]

“What, you created this ability, but you don’t even have master authority? What is this, seriously! My clothes are all wet.”

Sihyun climbed out of the water, shook his wet clothes, and argued with the Notification Window.

[W-Well… if I forcibly take authority, there’s a rebound… so when the ability is active, I can’t control it haphazardly.]

“Oh, right. You once forcibly took the beginner package authority and were knocked out for a long time, like you’d been hit by a million volts.”

When Eclipse got super mad, comparing the beginner package to destruction,

the Notification Window, which had forcibly taken authority, was knocked down in less than 10 seconds.

“Haa, anyway, that’s not what’s important right now.”

Sihyun recalled the system’s last words he heard as the floor of the void crumbled.

[Please save the princess who is transforming into destruction herself.]

“At first, I thought it was nonsense… but seeing that, I finally understand what it means.”

–*CRAAAASH.*

A black sphere, growing increasingly solid as if protecting itself, came into view.

“When something like that is right before your eyes, even a fool has no choice but to accept it. The fact that Luna is turning into destruction.”

Collector’s Ability, Stage 2.

The fact that the black sphere remained even after Greed was extinguished meant that the story of destruction was not yet over.

[Sihyun-nim, that is purely the result of Luna’s emotions and truth intertwining.]

“What exactly does that mean? Explain it simply.”

[Greed has certainly been extinguished. But Luna… realized the truth that she killed the man she loved with her own hands, that she couldn’t trust her parents and doubted them, and finally, that she led Seleneum to destruction with her own hands. And there’s one more factor that exacerbated the problem: Luna’s emotions.]

“What?”

[More precisely, it’s due to a ‘sudden wave of emotions.’ The moment Luna realized the truth, too many emotions—despair, guilt, sadness, loneliness, and more—rushed into the void of her heart all at once.]

“Luna, who learned the truth she didn’t want to know, along with emotions she had forgotten… is now falling… becoming a ghost story.”

At his words, the Notification Window nodded slightly, confirming.

Sihyun knew the process of a ghost story’s birth all too well.

That damn setting that had appeared constantly in the novels he’d read for two years.

《Humans who cannot endure irrationality soon fall. And the story created by that fallen existence becomes a ‘ghost story.’》

《Ghost stories cannot end their own narratives. And they will not stop until they make their surroundings like themselves.》

“Greed, you son of a b*tch…! You’re tormenting Luna until the very end?”

Greed had been with Luna for a long time.

During that long time, Greed had planted another seed of destruction within Luna.

To one day turn the princess into a new destruction.

Greed’s plan was to make the girl equal to itself, to ‘possess’ her in the true sense.

“To want Luna that much… this guy’s even more of a pedophile than me.”

He had to save Luna as quickly as possible before things got worse.

If he delayed even a little, Luna might transform into destruction.

“There’s only one way, I guess. I have no choice but to go in myself and save Luna.”

Sihyun ran without hesitation towards the sphere where dark crimson auras raged.

****

“It looks really brutal up close, doesn’t it?”

With the black sphere right in front of him, Sihyun paused to catch his breath.

“Luna is inside…”

He could see blades of dark crimson energy swirling within the sphere.

A rampage of emotions, rejecting and pushing everything away.

Just watching it made his heart pound rapidly.

“Phew, it’d be a lie to say I’m not scared at all… but strangely, the option of not going in doesn’t even cross my mind? I guess I really do like our princess.”

The moment Sihyun took a step to enter the dark crimson storm.

*Ding!*

[N-No, Sihyun-nim!! You absolutely… absolutely cannot go in there…!]

The Notification Window blocked Sihyun’s path, speaking in a desperate voice he had never heard before.

“What, I was just about to go in, striking a pose, and now what?”

[N-No! I absolutely can’t let you go…! If you go in there, Sihyun-nim will surely… Sihyun-nim will… *Gasp*…! *Sob*…!]

Seeing the Notification Window desperately trying to hold back its tears, Sihyun immediately knew.

That if he went in there, he wouldn’t be safe.

Up until now, the Notification Window had often forcibly summoned Sihyun into dangerous situations.

But that was because it knew he would never get hurt.

The Notification Window hated Sihyun getting hurt more than anything. No, it feared it so much it couldn’t breathe.

[N-No… absolutely not… I absolutely… can’t let you go…!! *Hiccup*…!]

“I’m seeing you use informal language, so will the sun rise in the west tomorrow? Haha.”

Sihyun deliberately smiled brightly and stroked the Notification Window.

“I’m sorry. No matter how much I think about it, I can’t give up on our Luna.”

[Just wait 3 hours… no, about 2 hours, and the sun will set…! If you use the beginner package, you might be able to save Luna without getting hurt…!]

Sihyun already knew.

That in his ‘Phantom’ form, he could save Luna without risking injury.

However.

“No. In that time, Luna might turn into destruction. And most importantly, I can’t make Luna wait any longer.”

He had broken his promise to return soon.

He had also broken the promise to get engaged under the moonlight.

He had made her wait alone in loneliness for a full day.

“I won’t make Luna wait even for a single minute or second anymore.”

[*Sob*…! *Waaahhh*…!! N-No…! You might… you might die…!!]

Sihyun stretched out his arms and tightly embraced the Notification Window, which was crying so sorrowfully it sounded like it might choke.

–*Hug.*

“You could be hugged too. I didn’t know since I only ever stroked you.”

[…S-Sihyun-nim…?]

Holding the Notification Window, Sihyun began to speak softly.

“My promise to Luna is one thing, but I also promised you, didn’t I? That I’d end the story of destruction. And that I’d happily fix the story you first wrote.”

[Y-Yes, yes…?]

“I told Luna this too. I won’t die, even if I’m killed (?). Don’t worry, I’ll resurrect and come back to life even if I die before keeping my promise!”

[R-Really…? S-Sihyun-nim… you’re not lying, are you…?]

Of course, what Sihyun was saying was a blatant lie.

‘I’m really sorry! I’ll somehow come back alive, so just be fooled this one time.’

However, this was the only way to comfort the Notification Window, which seemed on the verge of choking from crying.

“Don’t you remember? I’m the guy who even has a trump card. Trust me this time too.”

[Huuuh… I-I’ll trust you…! S-So…! You absolutely must save Luna and return… to my side! P-Promise…!]

He raised his pinky finger and gently touched it to the Notification Window.

“Now that we’ve promised, don’t cry and wait nicely. I’ll save Luna and bring her back soon!”

Sihyun smiled brightly at the Notification Window, then turned and leaped into the black sphere.

From where he had left, the Notification Window faintly flickered, watching his retreating back with worry.

[If you… don’t keep your promise to me…! I-I’ll drop meteors on Sihyun-nim’s head… And… five of them…!]

Without even realizing it, Sihyun had gained a compelling reason to keep his promise.