Chapter 101. Beggar Siblings – Tattoo
[ You have died. 3/4 ]
[ Achievement: Third Death – Player’s assimilation with Leo slows down. ]
‘This is ridiculous.’
As Leo died and disappeared, Minseo came to the forefront. Now a round orb, he stared blankly into the darkness, his focus lost.
Leo, reduced to a pool of blood, was nowhere to be seen.
They had almost succeeded. They had come so close to certain victory. But,
‘This is really absurd.’
They had failed. Miserably.
Minseo felt his mind slipping.
‘How on earth… how are we supposed to clear this?’
After all the struggles to reach level 30 and enter the boss battle, it felt like facing a level 3000 boss.
It was overwhelming. No, it was suffocating.
This merciless game had snuffed out even the faintest glimmer of hope. Leo, following the {Bloodline} event, had died horribly, and Lena…
‘Oh no! Lena! Please!’
Minseo anxiously read the floating ending text in the air.
[ Thank you for playing Raise Lena. ]
[ Lena de Yeriel ]
[ Final Job: Duchess of Yeriel ]
[ Marriage Partner: Engaged to Vivian de Isadora ]
[ Leo de Yeriel ]
[ Final Job: Unemployed ]
[ Marriage Partner: Single ]
[ Beggar Siblings Ending: Fallen Royal Family ]
– Lena, born in the Rutina royal palace… (abridged) …waited in her room for three days. Unable to bear the hunger, she went outside and was captured by a thug but was rescued by Alvin. Afterward, with the help of Alvin and a few knights, she attempted to reclaim her position as a princess. However, she couldn’t ascend to the throne due to opposition from the nobles, fearful of the vengeful returned princess and Bishop Berg who defeated the demonic Prince Eric. The king passed away, and the Kingdom of Conrad was renamed the Grania Holy Kingdom by Bishop Berg. Lena inherited part of the Yeriel family’s wealth, becoming the Duchess of Yeriel. She declared a territorial war against the weakened Tertan Duchy, annexed it, and became the Duchess of Yeriel. Lena, striving to reclaim the throne, was engaged to Vivian de Isadora, the first prince of the Kingdom of Eisel, but was assassinated on her way to Eisel by assassins sent by the Eisel kingdom’s great mage, Angelica Lydia Kyrgyz. –
– Leo, born in the Rutina royal palace, had an unhappy childhood. Taken by people and hidden with Lena in a vast field, he woke up to a field filled with corpses. Later, Leo… (abridged) …led knights to attack the Rutina royal palace, but died under the curse of Oriax, the evil god served by Eric de Yeriel. –
A photo of Lena appeared.
Though it wasn’t the palace, Lena stood proudly in front of a vast mansion. Dressed in an elegant yet practical uniform, her hair was cut short, surrounded by numerous retainers kneeling and awaiting her command.
Lena, beautiful and imposing to the point of making one’s heart pound.
She looked directly at the camera, her golden eyes gleaming with malice, her tightly set lips brimming with anger.
Minseo’s heart ached.
Despite Lena’s overwhelming aura of a ruler, she only appeared as a struggling little sister to him. He knew too well that if she saw her brother, she would cast aside all authority and run to him crying, “Brother!”
And that Lena, who struggled alone, was assassinated.
Knowing the future of the Lena in that photograph made it even more heartbreaking, but at least it was a slight relief. Minseo was relieved that the worst tragedy he had imagined didn’t come to pass.
Thanks to Alvin, a knight of the 3rd Order who had refused to swear loyalty and a close friend of Sir Bart.
Unable to kill his friend, Bart had asked to send another knight instead. Feeling sorry for him, Minseo spared Alvin. Though he had thought it a risky decision, he couldn’t push Bart any further.
In the end, it was a good choice. There was no betrayal as feared, and Alvin had prevented Lena’s tragedy. Without him, Lena captured by the thug would have…
The floating orb trembled.
Minseo steadied himself and repeatedly read Lena’s ending. The previously dark vision brightened slightly.
This ending was quite long. He knew it, but Lena had potential. Given time and resources, she would flourish in some way.
Back when she had run to the bordello…
Remembering the old photograph of a naive, mocking Lena with her innocent, naked body and seductive eyes made him sick.
If only she hadn’t lost her sight…
Thinking of the photo of his sister anxiously searching for her absent brother on her wedding day, Minseo stopped his thoughts.
She was someone he had to protect no matter what. She was his beloved sister, whom he cherished immensely, perhaps because of their blood ties or due to his own guilt for past mistakes.
Moreover, in the Beggar Siblings scenario, he had neither the time nor the means to teach Lena.
Kadric de Yeriel, the King of Conrad, would be succeeded by Prince Eric upon his death. When that happened, the knights who had reluctantly rallied around Leo would abandon him.
In other words, the Beggar Siblings scenario imposed a restriction: they had to reclaim their bloodline within a year and a half from the start.
As Minseo read through Lena’s ending, his thoughts shifted to another concern.
Forcing himself to forget the decayed Leo and the cold, transformed Lena, he focused on something else.
‘Bishop Berg. There was something off about him.’
The bishop had defeated Prince Eric. Then he renamed the kingdom the Grania Holy Kingdom.
‘Did this man know that Prince Eric was tainted by an evil god? evil god? Whatever it was. Was that why he kept the king alive for over ten years and then tried to pit Leo against him when Leo appeared? Did he plan to take over the kingdom himself?’
Questions spiraled in his mind.
‘Grania Holy Kingdom? Grania? That sounds familiar.’
Minseo racked his brain for information.
He remembered countless stories he had overheard while gathering knights, hoping to find something useful, and a memory surfaced.
– “Grania Orphanage is planning to reduce the number of children they take in next year due to financial difficulties…”
A thug had brought him this information while he was dealing with an informant.
‘Wait. The bishop said something similar, didn’t he?’
When asked why he had poured divine power into keeping the king alive, cornered by the [Universal Priest Theory] he himself proposed, the Bishop had replied:
– “…It’s an old matter. Alright, I’ll be honest. It was for the treatment fees. With that money, I could help many others. But that ends next year too.”
Grania Orphanage. An orphanage is a place where children without parents are taken in, raised, and educated.
Something smelled fishy.
What if the Grania Orphanage was established by Bishop Berg? What if he was up to something with the treatment fees he received from the royal family?
‘Count Gustav Peter was indeed the key. It’s almost certain they are father and son…’
Minseo’s mind raced with hope, but he soon hit a wall.
The two didn’t seem to have a good relationship. From the Bishop’s attitude, it didn’t seem like he would help Leo, and Count Peter had immediately reported Leo to Marquis Tatian upon recognizing him.
What are they expecting me to do?
It wasn’t a new feeling, but the frustration was killing him.
This game didn’t tell you what to do, how to do it, or why. You had to deduce everything, and the moment you failed, you were plunged into the abyss.
There was no mercy in its difficulty. Minseo sighed, recalling the evil god, Oriax.
A chilling existence.
Like thinking of fighting the sun in the sky, Oriax was an object of reverence, not something you could oppose.
‘Sure, this world has divine power and gods, but this is too much…’
Lamenting, Minseo barely held onto his sanity.
If he gave up, it would truly be over. This game really intended to kill him.
[ 12/21 ]
Cassia. Thanks to her, he was somewhat relieved.
Clearing Cassia’s quest had increased his retry limit by one. And, as he noticed earlier, his death count had increased too.
[ You have died. 3/4 ]
He avoided immediate disaster, but the increased limit hinted at something significant. It indirectly answered his question: ‘What happens when that count fills or exceeds?’
If he didn’t adhere to that limit, he would… die. This merciless game wouldn’t spare him.
‘I can’t die like this. I still have things I haven’t done…’
He wanted to return.
If he could return, he would live his life earnestly. He would be filial to his parents, call them daily, apologize to Chae-ha for the wrongs he had done, and become a reliable support.
He would leave behind the days of being holed up in a gosiwon playing games and live his life. So please…
He prayed earnestly, but the surroundings remained dark and silent.
Seeing the ending text slowly scrolling up, Minseo grew desperate. He didn’t even have time to lament.
As if telling him to shut up and prepare for the next round, the game’s indifference made Minseo think quickly. He recalled the moment Leo confronted Prince Eric.
‘It’s an absurd difficulty, but… there are some flaws.’
Unlike Leo, who was terrified and trembling after encountering Oriax, Minseo could analyze the situation objectively from a step back.
Eric de Yeriel hadn’t summoned the evil god immediately. He tried to flee first and only revealed his power when cornered.
There had to be significant constraints. There must be a reason why the powerful Oriax only blinked its eyes from behind a narrow gap.
‘And the summoned bull-headed monsters weren’t that strong. Only ten appeared at first. Although Prince Eric healed and summoned additional monsters…’
Prince Eric couldn’t continuously cast the spell to repel the knights. When Leo charged at him again, he was about to be struck by a sword, though the sudden appearance of a protective shield was an issue.
If Minseo interpreted this through the lens of a game he knew well, Prince Eric was playing the role of a summoner who also acted as a healer for his summoned creatures.
He used the power gained from offering sacrifices to summon or heal more monsters.
In gaming terms, it was common for characters in such roles to have abilities to push back nearby enemies or deploy protective shields.
‘If he could use such powers freely, he would have claimed the throne long ago. Why would he have been content with being a prince for over ten years? He must have been conserving his strength… Wait a minute!’
A sudden realization struck Minseo.
The secret passage in Rutina Castle. The ‘Dhub’ laid at the entrance of the passage. The corpses sacrificed by the prince. The prince accumulating power…
The sacrificed corpses decayed rapidly, but what if countless humans had died in that passage? What if that was how Prince Eric stored power?
It felt like the pieces of the puzzle were coming together. Minseo’s thoughts began to accelerate.
‘Moreover, he was eventually caught by Bishop Berg. Maybe it was because the Bishop had something hidden, but it’s possible that the power Prince Eric displayed was all he had. If that’s the case…!’
For a moment, Minseo’s optimism surged, but he soon became despondent again.
No matter what, Eric was too powerful.
While the monsters could be dealt with by the knights, those eyes! The eyes and the shield around Prince Eric were insurmountable obstacles.
[Debuff: Oriax’ Footprint – Provoked, cannot flee. 16 years, 11 months, 29 days, 22 hours, 40 minutes, 22 seconds.]
Leo was the only person free from this ‘provocation’. For some reason, he wasn’t affected by it. The knights, under a wide-area debuff, charged only at the monsters.
Therefore, Prince Eric had to be dealt with by Leo… but the shield was a problem.
How could he break it…
With limited opportunities, he had to be cautious in his attempts. A failed attempt could spell disaster.
Sneaking up on and killing Prince Eric might seem like an option, but the prince had the power to repel anyone approaching him with just a word. Summoning Oriax was instantaneous, and a single mistake would lead to the same ending.
Eventually, Minseo’s thoughts circled back to the beginning.
He needed to uncover what hidden power Bishop Berg possessed and how to secure his help.
That seemed like the logical path.
At that moment, messages appeared.
Lena and Leo’s ending had disappeared, and the message pushed him into the next round, as usual.
[You failed to clear Raising Lena.]
[Leo, you encountered the evil god. For this achievement, you receive information about the {History of the evil god}.]
[Restarting.]
A video of falling from the sky.
It had been a while.
‘Is this the fifth time I’m watching this video?’
[Achievement: ‘13th’ Leo – The rate at which the player assimilates with Leo increases slightly.]
Grumbling about how tedious it was, he saw a sight that he could never tire of.
Lena, peacefully picking berries.
She chatted away cheerfully, “Brother Leslie the monk told me…,” while moving her hands quickly.
It was good to see her again.
Meeting a friend after many years was so overwhelming that he looked up at the sky with tears in his eyes.
‘I’ve returned…’
Leo of Deimos Village felt something at his waist (probably a leather pouch for the berries) and took a deep breath.
Last time, he had set off on a journey to introduce this friend to the prince of the Holy Kingdom and ended up dead at Bart’s hands.
This time, he would never let that happen…
As Leo raised his hand to brush back his bangs, he froze. Chills ran down his spine.
There was a hoofprint stamped on his right palm. It was like a brand marking him as a sinner. The information about the {History of the evil god} flooded his mind, making him see something he had previously overlooked.
The tattoo on his left arm, which had sometimes made people suspect he was a thug.
It was now clear to him, the tattoo of several intersecting trumpets.
Barbatos.
It was the symbol of the evil god served by Leo’s father, a hunter.
