A vast empire. In a hidden location somewhere within, a meeting was taking place.
A roundtable conference involving the leaders of each race.
From the emperor of the empire to the elven queen and the leader of the beastmen.
Those who could be called great, to the point of it being a historic moment, had gathered in one place.
“I said be responsible!”
The king of the beastmen, Bahkt, slammed his fist down on the round table, raising his voice.
The elven queen also looked at the emperor with a deeply troubled expression.
“Bordin, you were the one who insisted we could finally end the Demon Race this time. But what is this?”
With sorrowful eyes, the queen continued her words.
“Are you aware of how many of our elite warriors have died because of your misguided judgment?”
“Indeed! Our brave warriors also wasted their lives because of you!”
Faced with the intense pressure from the two leaders, Bordin frowned.
“Of course, I proposed it, but didn’t you all agree to my words and support the troops?”
“What?!”
The king of the beastmen bit his lip and snarled, yet the emperor continued to speak calmly.
“To ignore it now and shift the blame onto others… it shows a lack of responsibility for a king.”
BANG-!
“Didn’t you assure me that we would definitely win?!”
Finally unable to hold back his anger, the king of the beastmen flipped the round table and grabbed the emperor by the collar.
The emperor’s knights immediately drew their swords against the beastman king, and in response, the beastmen’s guards revealed their sharp claws.
“Stop it!”
In the middle of the standoff, at any moment a fight could break out, the elven queen raised her voice.
However, as the tension remained taut, she held her throbbing head.
“Don’t you see that if we fight among ourselves in this situation, it only helps the Demon Race?”
“…Tch.”
The beastman king, unable to counter the elven queen’s words, released his grip on the emperor’s collar and turned his back to leave the meeting room.
“I won’t blame anyone. But from now on, we beastmen will not follow your thoughts. It would be best if you no longer expected our help.”
Leaving behind only an unspoken message of breaking the alliance, the beastmen departed from the meeting room.
Once they left, only a serene silence remained in the conference room.
After a moment of stillness, it was the elven queen who broke the silence.
“We elves have no intention of breaking our alliance, but for the time being, we will be erecting a barrier in the forest and establishing a defensive line, so we cannot offer assistance.”
“I don’t see the difference from what the beastman king said.”
“Though we share some blame, over half of our elite warriors died due to your order. Will you evade that responsibility as well?”
“…..”
As Bordin fell silent, the elven queen let out a short sigh and stood up.
“Though you have Athena on your side, we are currently in a critical situation after losing our troops.”
“…I understand.”
At the emperor’s words, the elven queen nodded once and offered him a bow.
“I will pray to the World Tree for us to meet again alive. Farewell.”
After the queen’s last words, one by one, the elven soldiers began to leave.
Left in the meeting room, Bordin leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling.
“….. I feel hopeless.”
—
“Cough.. cough..!”
As I fell to the ground coughing, a taste of blood welled up in my mouth.
“Ha… heh…”
Seeing the sunlight pouring in, I realized morning had come.
I couldn’t even remember what time I had gone to bed the previous night.
I certainly treated people until dawn and barely made it home.
After that, my memory became a blur.
“Ugh…”
Have I been overdoing it recently?
I felt slight pain in my heart.
Looking in the mirror, I couldn’t even say I looked good.
My hair was frizzy… dark circles under my eyes… my lips were pale.
“….I want to rest a little.”
I wondered how my companions were doing now.
They were all kind folks, so they must be living under the goddess’s protection.
…A bit envious.
—
BANG-BANG-BANG-!
– Saintess! We have injured arriving at the front line!
Outside, a soldier’s urgent voice called for me.
“Yes… I will be right there.”
I steadied my wobbly legs and began to prepare to head out again.
No matter how hard it was, I had no choice.
The longer I stayed at ease, the closer death would creep upon others.
This is what I must do.
My duty as a saintess.
Of course, I had no intention of slacking off.
But why…
The words spoken by Athena continued to echo in my mind.
– Live a little for yourself. What do you get in return for striving for others?
‘Pull yourself together, Iris.’
You are a saintess.
Your mission is to prevent everyone from dying.
With such weak thoughts, I won’t be able to achieve anything.
At last, I approached my door.
I took a deep breath and opened it.
—
But even at the moment I stepped outside,
I couldn’t erase Athena’s words from my mind.
—
The shifting scenes made me feel nauseous.
“Ugh…”
“Are you okay? Maybe it’s best to rest for a bit.”
With a sick feeling, I covered my mouth, and the goddess gently wrapped her arms around me, patting my back.
I felt dizzy. Not just in my stomach but in my head too.
The images the goddess had shown me wreaked havoc in my mind.
“It could make you feel sick to see the past timelines. At least drink this.”
The goddess handed me a glass filled with water.
It seemed the water wasn’t ordinary; once I drank it, my stomach quickly settled.
“Th… Thank you…”
“No. Anytime you need it, just ask.”
The goddess spoke with a strange expression.
But I couldn’t worry about that now. Once I felt back to normal, I immediately asked her.
“…Was what I just saw truly something that happened in the past?”
In response to my words, the goddess nodded with a serious look.
“Yes, it is the future I’m trying to prevent.”
“T… I see…”
I couldn’t believe it.
The images the goddess had just shown me were so devastating they seemed unbelievable for a story.
The Demon King and a self-destructive party of heroes. But it didn’t end there; calamities appearing in various places.
Countless lives lost because of it.
Was it truly… something that happened in the past?
“Th… That’s strange… It was definitely supposed to be a bright story…”
The writer had said in his own words that the story would end happily.
It should never have taken this route…
“Reader, once more, let me clarify; this is not a world from a novel.”
As the goddess held my cheeks in her hands, her mysterious eyes calming my racing heart slightly.
“The story you read is just one of the tales created by the Heavenly God.”
“Wh… What? A story?”
The goddess nodded at my words.
“The Heavenly God transcends all dimensions of the universe, recording tales from each world. And in some way, shares them with other dimensions.”
“Recording stories…? Like history?”
“Yes, for there’s no such thing as useless history. It was a thought stemming from the Creator God, who valued past experiences highly. Of course, the darker tales of the future are sometimes edited by that god personally…”
While I stared blankly at the goddess, she smiled softly and snapped her fingers, making a snap sound.
Then, a gap began to form in the air, and various books cascaded down around me.
“You’re probably familiar with these stories.”
As the goddess spoke, in a daze, I picked up a book.
“Th… This is…”
– The God of the Sea.
The title looked like it could be a historical fantasy.
But the content within was all too familiar to me.
It was a story of being born in Joseon and a brutal war called the Imjin War.
The tale of a hero who defeated 200 enemy ships with just 13 vessels.
A figure so well-known in South Korea, no one could remain unaware—General Yi Sun-sin.
With trembling hands, I examined another book.
A tale called The Mad Worst Hero; the story of General Hitler.
A book titled The Greatest Failure contained the story of Einstein.
All tales of famous figures from the Earth I lived on.
“Your reading experiences are no different from these. It’s merely a record from a prior timeline.”
“…The story containing Robin?”
“Yes, that’s right. The book you read details the tale of a hero from an earlier era.”
Frankly, it was hard to believe.
But if what the goddess said was true, it would explain the reasons the current situation veered off course from the original story.
The novel I read was set in the first timeline, and the world I was now living in had been reset in time, making it make sense.
The problem was that it didn’t seem like there was much I could do…
Sensing my thoughts, the goddess smiled gently and patted my head.
“Do you wish to see the remaining story?”
“……Please show me.”
Without hesitation, I responded to the goddess.
Yeah… honestly, it was tough to accept.
That the novel I read truly exists in reality.
And that the world has already reset once before.
All of it was beyond what I expected.
But it didn’t matter.
As always, what I longed for most was their happiness. If I could gain that, I needed nothing else.
Their happiness. For that, I had to figure out how the story unfolded in the past.
The serialized content in the novel only reached up to the moment Robin set off to the Demon Realm.
I had no intention of foolishly missing this significant opportunity to unveil the events that followed.
“I want to see it until the end.”
With my resolution-filled voice, the goddess smiled approvingly, placing her hand back on my head.
“If you feel dizzy, just say the word.”
With that, a brilliant light began to radiate around the goddess’s hand, and my consciousness started to be drawn back again, heading toward the past timeline.
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