*
Pitter patter. The smell of wet earth stings her nostrils.
Whoooosh—.
A gray world. In this colorless realm stood Pina Grancia all alone.
“This is… inside Licht’s emotions.”
A trial in a shrine where others’ feelings become a maze. She narrowed her eyes at the warped stairs and endless doors.
Looking up at the sky, it was dark and starless within his feelings. Only a dim, eerie moon hung overhead, creating a chilling ambiance.
When did she begin to know Licht? A vague thought brushed her mind.
“The one who said it was okay to be weak.”
At first, she started attending the academy to grow stronger. She thought that if she was weak, she couldn’t protect others and wouldn’t repeat the mistakes of her childhood.
Was it compassion? Or perhaps pity? On a rainy day like today, she had offered Licht an umbrella.
If such a chance meeting hadn’t occurred, could miracles like this have happened?
Raindrops splattered onto her palm. The cold sensation jolted her senses awake.
They were similar yet different. Pina possessed strength from the beginning, while Licht, conversely, was not built for swordsmanship.
His already twisted hands and the scars covering his body were proof of that.
There was no respite; he wielded his sword constantly.
“The Hero of Conviction and the Hero of Affection.”
Their twisted fates gnawed at each other. But the Black Knight saw hope, claiming he returned here to turn back time amidst a bleak future.
Pina led a life regretting being chosen as a hero.
Her heart, once empty like a shattered glass, had now filled up with the dark port of Licht.
Now, even if the rain drenched her cheeks, she could push forward.
What should she find here to restore Licht’s memories and awaken as the prophesied hero?
“I said I could break the future the Hero Church desires.”
Bringing the dead back to life. A taboo that even Healing Magic couldn’t achieve.
“What do the Demon King of the Hero Church want that for?”
She thought they would rather resurrect the Demon God to conquer this world.
Pina took a step forward. Winding paths and gray buildings.
It resembled another world she had seen in Tardun’s trial rather than a proper maze.
Considering she was someone from another world, it made sense.
Puddles splashing at her toes made a splash! sound.
According to the Black Knight, her future self would have everything taken away by the Demon Kings.
“…The Nameless Saintess.”
She had no name, no memories of herself, and the powerful ability inherited from the Emperor Rock would vanish.
He claimed to have had a secret crush on such a blank slate.
If it were Licht, it would indeed be Licht.
Even revealing the fact that he came to stop Pina from dying ten years from now.
It was such a far-off tale that she could hardly grasp it.
“I relied on Licht to always protect me.”
She placed her hand on her chest. The tightening sensation felt uncomfortable. Why did thinking of him make her uneasy? Was it truly not a sickness?
“……”
The drop felt severe.
Her heart hurt like needles pricking, and occasionally ballooned upward like it was floating.
Love, as expressed in the books, was always beautiful and shining brightly.
But her feelings for the Black Knight were too heavy to express in such words.
She thought that by speaking, it would become light as a feather, so Pina kept her mouth shut.
Bitten on her lower lip, she ran. An uncontrollable heart pushed her forward. Her racing heart felt differently than usual.
“…No. It can’t be.”
She wanted to deny it.
Her breath hitched at her chin. It was hard to breathe.
Her body, already drenched from head to toe, felt like a lead weight.
If this is love, when exactly did she start liking Licht?
*
Running and running towards a destination.
As if guided by something, she eventually arrived at a place she had been to before.
“…Licht?”
Someone walked through the hesitation of Pina.
A boy with black hair, head bowed and drenched in the rain, looked gloomy.
He seemed a bit taller than when she last saw him.
Dressed in black, opposite to the academy’s attire.
No helmet, so she could clearly see his hair.
Next to him, as if indifferent, Pina followed right after him into the opened door.
“I’m back.”
“…Excuse me.”
A youthful voice and a higher tone overlapped.
Pina felt something odd in the hollowed-out shoe rack and oddly silent home.
There was no warmth of a person. When she had come before, her parents surely welcomed her…
“…Ah.”
She recalled the story Lee Soo-hyun had told her.
His parents had perished in a fire. That meant this was after that time frame.
The young man’s childhood, darkened by flames.
In that moment, Pina felt as if she had set foot in that actual moment.
Lee Soo-hyun, back home, went into his room without even eating.
The bright expression he had once was gone, and his hollow eyes burned with pain.
“Night Heart…?”
Following behind the boy into his room.
She saw posters of Kainel, Ariel, Dennis, and the Celestial Demon from the game.
“Saintess, I’m here.”
The small room was filled with white items resembling snow.
Pina was shocked by the sight of him manipulating a character with the mouse in front of the monitor.
Another world.
So this is what it meant that this world could be fake. In the monitor, a character resembling Pina was smiling.
‘Is that me from the future?’
A strange jealousy bubbled up inside her.
The boy’s expression, looking at the Nameless Saintess, was now bright, unlike before.
Upon closer inspection, the items filling the room also belonged to her, the pure white Saintess Pina Grancia—not the glass knight princess.
Perhaps because it was the future, everything appeared better than herself.
Unlike her cold and blunt demeanor, his soft face seemed to overflow with charm.
Pina bit her lower lip.
Did all men prefer such bodies?
She was just a lump of flesh, but still, she felt her possibilities were open.
“…Licht. Can you hear me?”
Even after calling out to Lee Soo-hyun, engrossed in the game, he remained unresponsive. She shook his shoulder, but it was no use.
Was it really that good? The boy’s face, which had seemed to be in a trance just a moment ago, was now bright.
Through the monitor, she saw the armored Black Knight and the Saintess.
The two looked happy traveling together while Lee Soo-hyun’s face, once shadowed with dark circles, relaxed.
“It seems he doesn’t hear me…”
She was witnessing events unfolding in a daydream.
The boy spent happy times building memories with another woman while she was completely excluded.
It was certainly her future self, but what was this gloominess boiling in her chest?
It wasn’t exactly betrayal—he was here to save her, after all.
Even if everything was fake, emotions between people were surely not false.
She thought it would be fine.
That even if Licht liked someone else, she could still win.
Something beyond just a precious person.
Heavier than affection and lighter than love weighed on her heart.
‘Jealousy.’
The pain in her chest worsened. She felt a bitter pressure building within her.
Pina once again placed her hand over her heart to feel the racing pulse.
Now she began to understand why the heroines in the novels she loved fought over men.
She felt an anger that was downright detestable.
She thought the Black Knight was her own, yet seeing this made her feel jealous.
“Licht is… mine…”
In the moment she grasped a fact her mind had been slow to catch up on.
She began to understand more or less what her feelings for Licht were.
As she started to unravel the painful truth of her heart’s rhythm, Lee Soo-hyun suddenly spoke.
“I should write in my diary tonight, Saintess.”
“….?”
The still-innocent boy began writing in his notebook.
It was a record that contained everything about the Nameless Saintess.
It was a memo similar to what was presently stored in the academy’s male dormitory.
—June 21, 2012.
I first tried executing the game called Night Heart.
I found the Black Knight class cool, so I tried playing it—it’s just too weak.
Should I start anew tomorrow?
—July 1, 2012.
I met an NPC called the Nameless Saintess.
She could barely use divine power, a clumsy Saintess. She’s somewhat pretty, but that’s all.
However, when she healed me after I was defeated by the Slime Demon King, her words offered some comfort.
I decided to try a little harder.
—January 2, 2013.
A new year dawned alongside the Saintess.
She makes me believe in love. I find it ridiculous.
Still, I realized that the cross proposal is quite a romantic confession.
‘Even as a child, Licht had terrible handwriting. Some things never change.’
The tightly written words were messy but filled with sincerity in the tattered notebook.
It was little Lee Soo-hyun’s diary while playing Night Heart.
As he met the Nameless Saintess, he visibly changed.
At first, pages often stated that he missed his parents.
But as time progressed, it shifted to what events occurred in the game and what conversations had been held.
His notes became full of pure affection, determined to make the Saintess happy by acquiring some item tomorrow.
“…Even when Licht was hurt, the future me made him stew once.”
Even that fact, which hadn’t been directed toward her, made her glance askance.
Reading his diary one by one, Pina began to learn why Licht had started to use formal language.
She uncovered why he was especially sensitive about his burn scars.
She had been scared of not knowing, yet now that she was finding out everything, instead of relief…
‘Licht has always been the one I recognized first. Another vixen stole him away.’
A strange sense of rivalry bubbled within her.
While reading the diary again, she began assessing what experiences she hadn’t had with the Saintess.
The boy’s dual crush on the princess came to her mind; he was at fault there.
Then, another door creaked open in Lee Soo-hyun’s room, revealing a strange space.
Mazes within mazes.
Curious about this new space that appeared, she promptly dove back in as she caught a whiff of a familiar rose scent.
*
“Welcome, Pina Grancia. Here is the ‘Library Where Time and Space Pauses for a Moment’…”
“…..”
“CAAWK!! Why are you suddenly pulling my cheeks? You’re me from the past, aren’t you?!”
