Chapter 95
When I opened my eyes, my vision was blurry.
“……Sister!”
My weakened senses gradually became clearer.
“Sister! Are you awake?”
I raised my upper body and looked around.
It was the infirmary inside the monastery, where patients were cared for.
“You collapsed from overwork.”
“……”
I briefly held my head.
What was I doing before I collapsed?
……I couldn’t remember.
“You fell together with Saintess Arowell, so I was really startled.”
“……Arowell?”
When I asked, the nun gestured toward somewhere nearby.
I saw Arowell on the bed right next to mine.
Fortunately, she seemed fine, peacefully asleep without any serious problems.
After resting on the bed for a while, I stood up.
Step, step……
I walked up the stairs and entered the chapel on the second floor.
Under the gentle sunlight streaming between the windows and the brightly colored stained glass.
Inside the vast chapel, not a single person was present, and it was very quiet.
I sat on a pew where the sunlight fell and quietly inhaled.
How holy and sacred this place was.
Whenever I came here, I would gather my heart in reverence.
I clasped my hands together and closed my eyes.
‘Please forgive me.’
……The sin of being blinded by the desire to become a saintess rather than answering the call of God.
The sin of envying Arowell, who had become the saintess.
I offered up my prayer from the depths of my heart.
It was said that when God answered prayers, He did not directly speak.
He delivered them through some recollection or realization.
Just then, something surfaced from deep within me.
If you wish to repent, then repent.
If it wasn’t my imagination, it sounded like Brother Villed’s voice.
But I had no idea where or when I had heard it.
‘Why does that voice keep lingering in my head?’
At the same time, an image of a man wearing a black mask flickered in my mind.
I had seen him in the newspaper. He was probably the one called the ‘Black Knight’.
‘Why? Why are these things surfacing in my mind?’
……I didn’t know for sure.
But perhaps it was God’s message, telling me that if I repented, He would cleanse my sins.
Thinking that way eased my heart.
I would regret my wrongdoings and never repeat them.
I would not torment myself with excessive guilt, nor fall into despair.
I would reflect on myself and move forward.
I tightened my clasped hands and prayed earnestly.
……A few days later.
Arowell looked straight ahead.
‘Mother Superior’s Office’. That was what the sign in front of her read.
“Phew……”
After taking a deep breath as if making up her mind, she knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
When she opened the door, she saw the Mother Superior, who had a benevolent expression.
As Arowell bowed her head, the Mother Superior gestured for her to sit on the sofa.
“Saintess Arowell, welcome. Please, sit here.”
Sitting modestly on the sofa, Arowell carefully opened her mouth.
“Mother Superior.”
Arowell unclasped the necklace hanging from her neck.
Then, she placed it in the hands of the Mother Superior.
“No matter how many times I prayed to the Goddess, I am not suited to be the saintess……”
After much struggle, Arowell gave up the position of saintess.
The ability to lead and manage the nuns, the exemplary attitude that came with it, and leadership.
Arowell lacked the capacity to shoulder all of that.
Wasn’t she just a first-year who had skipped a grade?
She fell behind many of her seniors in ability.
It was a time for her to learn, not to lead from the front.
Especially every time she received help from Angela, she felt more and more that the role of saintess was far too much for her.
So she returned the necklace.
“……”
The Mother Superior looked at the necklace for a while before finally nodding.
“I understand. That too must be God’s guidance. You have worked hard until now.”
With Arowell’s renunciation of the saintess position, a reassessment of the Saintess Succession Ceremony was conducted.
A week later, the 87th Saintess Succession Ceremony was held again at the Briarflower Monastery.
The chapel was filled with hundreds of nuns seated in rows.
At that moment, as everyone looked toward the Mother Superior standing on the altar.
“……The 87th Saintess is.”
The Mother Superior smiled warmly and gazed at a certain student.
The one who met the Mother Superior’s eyes was the exemplary nun who had been called the most likely candidate for saintess.
“Adrian Angela.”
The moment her name was called, applause burst forth.
Friday evening.
After finishing her meal, Lapin squatted in front of a washbasin.
“♬~ ♩~.”
She hummed a tune while washing the dishes.
‘She’s good at it now.’
I watched the girl skillfully washing the dishes with soapy water in the basin.
In return for the meals I prepared, I had taught her to do the dishes.
At first, Lapin seemed reluctant, but now she seemed to have gotten used to it.
“Villed, I’m done.”
Lapin showed me the dishes with a V sign made with her fingers.
Not only were the dishes spotless as if new, but she had also dried them with a cloth until no trace of water remained.
“Well done.”
“Can I play now?”
When I nodded, Lapin grabbed a lantern and immediately dashed outside the livestock shed.
Every Friday night, Lapin came to the farm to play.
Then she would hug the animals and fall asleep each time.
– Baa~.
As Lapin entered the pasture, I heard the cries of the animals welcoming her happily.
Hearing that, I opened the Animal Farm system.
– Squeak, squeak……!
Boogie’s cries were louder than usual.
He had been saying since earlier that his body felt strange.
I knew why he was acting like that.
“Don’t worry. You must be about to evolve too.”
– Squeak?
His expression asked, Like Hwayo?
When I nodded, Boogie glanced at Hwayo for a moment.
He seemed happy at the thought of evolving splendidly like Hwayo.
I sat down comfortably and looked up at the night sky outside the storage room.
……After that incident, Angela became the saintess.
No one remembered Angela’s corruption.
Not even Angela herself.
‘Because the information spread late, I alone knew that the monastery had been dungeonized.’
If Angela had died, Arowell might have become the next target of corruption.
The scenario would have collapsed beyond control.
Moreover, if Karin hadn’t told me that Arowell had become the saintess, the future would have turned out even more complicated.
‘Should I call this good fortune…….’
Whatever the case, I should be satisfied with the fact that the scenario had no issues.
‘So far, I’ve preserved the scenario, but how long can I maintain this peace?’
In this game, depending on the branching choices, there were dozens of endings.
Among them, three were the most representative.
The bad ending, where everyone died and the world headed toward destruction.
The normal ending, where peace was maintained at the cost of some students’ sacrifices.
And the most difficult one…… the good ending, where not a single student died.
A gamer who had cleared the game multiple times would naturally aim for the hardest good ending.
But I had the desire to achieve something beyond that.
‘The more I think about it, the stranger it seems.’
There was one contradiction.
In the good ending, where no one died.
Lapin’s death was treated as an exception.
‘Even though Lapin died, the good ending’s description said it was a world where no one died.’
The developers never admitted it was a setting error.
Nor did any players point it out as a mistake.
Lapin was forgotten both inside the game and outside of it.
‘Because she’s an artificial chimera. Are they saying she doesn’t even deserve to be treated as a person…….’
I looked at Lapin, who was playing with the animals in the pasture.
‘Three months later, Lapin will become the witch’s subordinate and block Ren’s path.’
Because of Angela, a sudden question came to mind.
‘……Do I really need to kill Lapin?’
She was not a steppingstone to serve as a turning point for Ren, but merely one of the monsters to be defeated and left behind.
It didn’t feel like her death was necessary for the story.
‘Shurk is a good example of that.’
Just like how the scenario still flowed as it should even though I didn’t kill Shurk and instead brought him to the farm.
As long as the pillar of the scenario didn’t collapse, there was no problem.
‘If it doesn’t have a major impact on the scenario, then there’s no need to kill her.’
That was the conclusion I reached.
‘……Even if an unforeseen situation arises, I have a method.’
A method that only I could use.
I looked at the hologram of the Animal Farm.
A new animal friend is within 50m ahead!
‘If I bring Lapin into the farm…… I can definitely save her.’
When I first realized I could bring Lapin into the farm, I hesitated.
But now it was different.
‘In the game, she had no importance and was colorless and odorless. She’s not a bad girl at all.’
Lapin, who was pure enough to play together with the animals.
Her sudden transformation into a monster was not of her own will, but because of strong mind control—just like how Angela had been corrupted.
‘If I bring her into my farm, she might be able to escape that mind control.’
No.
She definitely could.
Just like how bringing Shurk into the farm completely nullified his corruption.
If by chance she were to fall under mind control, I could simply confine her within the farm.
Of course, raising a human inside a farm raised issues of being inhumane.
Anyone who saw it would think I was a kidnapper.
‘Even if I become like a villain, even if I get cursed at.’
Whatever the case, it would be better than Lapin dying.
‘……Let’s bring Lapin into the farm.’
I stood up.
With no thought of delaying, I immediately decided to act.
I stepped outside the storage room and walked toward the pasture.
Sensing me approach, Lapin tilted her head and looked at me.
“Villed?”
Knowing nothing, Lapin wore a puzzled expression as I held her hand.
“Animal registration.”
Late at night, in front of the Royal Academy Yggdrasil Main Building.
A young man in shabby janitor’s clothes picked up trash scattered on the ground.
On the cap he wore, the word “Cleaning” was written.
The man sighed as he looked back and forth between the trash can less than ten meters away and the garbage thrown on the street.
“Do these bastards have no eyes, or no sense?”
He kept muttering curses as he continued to pick up trash.
Clang!
A small piece of metal hit his head.
“Wow, it hit?”
“You actually landed it?”
“No way, I didn’t think I’d hit it in one try.”
Laughter rang out.
When the man turned to look, he saw a group of rough-looking students.
As he stared at them for a moment, the laughing students suddenly hardened their expressions.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and clean that up.”
“Hey, old man. If you slack off, we’ll report you, so move it fast, yeah?”
“Ha…….”
The man sighed again.
Then, with an exasperated face, he picked up the can and threw it into the trash bin.
Bowing his head, he muttered quietly.
“I really want to kill them.”
Clenching his fist, the man let out several more sighs before entering the main building.
Inside the building, no one could be seen.
He rode the elevator up to the 17th floor of the main building’s professor wing.
The man kept glancing around.
In the Mana CCTV installed here and there, red markers floated in the air.
It was the same inside the elevator.
That CCTV would never show his figure.
Walking down the long hallway, the man opened the door to Professor Pascal’s research room, where research on human mana was conducted.
“I’m here.”
The man in janitor’s clothing spoke and looked inside the lab.
In the shadows stood a man wearing a professor’s badge.
A woman wearing a linen hat.
And a female student in uniform, all gathered in one place.
By the moonlight shining through the window, only one person’s face was revealed in full.
“Welcome, Janitor.”
It was Rahan, Professor Ruber’s teaching assistant.
“Thank you for gathering here.”
Through his glasses, a smile flickered in his eyes.