The Eye of Regulation gazed at the blind girl.
Even with the all-observing Eye of Regulation, she appeared hazy, as if hidden behind a curtain.
Like the visage of Jong-eon.
However, one thing was clear.
That blind girl was not me.
Unlike when I regained consciousness in Alrba, that girl was in a place I had seen countless times in the game.
She was in the Lunaria Spire, the place where the tutorial begins upon character creation.
As I slowly approached the golden sphere illuminating the world, memories of the black sun’s tutorial resurfaced.
Surely, against the Order of knights killing those infected by the plague—
[Stop.]
Thud.
In an instant, a familiar yet strange voice emerged, flipping my field of vision.
*
“…Huh?”
A changed landscape.
It was a place I had never seen before, yet Sirin’s memories told me where it was.
Hablan.
Gulp—swallowing my dry saliva, I took slow steps.
Unlike where Sirin resided, my footsteps made no sound.
I bent down to pick up a stone rolling on the ground. However, whoosh—just like when I touched Sirin’s body, my hand merely passed through the stone.
Once again, would I have no choice but to observe?
There was no other way. I was in a position to steal a glance at Sirin’s memories.
Shaking my head, I pushed the useless thoughts to the back of my mind.
After walking for a while, I found a young man and a slightly younger girl.
They were also unfamiliar faces, but Sirin’s memory told me who they were.
Luchi and Lux.
Luchi was not one-eyed. He wasn’t serious either.
With a mischievous expression, he was happily laughing with his slightly more dignified little brother.
His smile was the same as the one he had just before dying.
The black sword hanging from his waist was the sword he wielded when he severed the world.
I moved toward Luchi.
At the same time.
*
Everything changed.
In the empty village filled with dust.
Gone were the sounds of happy laughter; only howls soaked in despair filled the ruins.
In the center of that ruin stood Carpen, holding onto his dead little brother, while Luchi—
And.
Sirin.
Holding back the sobs escaping through clenched teeth, I staggered toward Sirin.
The closer I got to her, I saw long, extended blood stains. I noticed the clotted blood stuck to her hand and the flesh of a beast adhered to the Great Sword.
When I stood next to Sirin, I saw the chains of Regulation scattered messily around her.
Could it be that Sirin was the root of all this?
Had she orchestrated despair to complete the world, just as she had up to now?
Not Erden.
Not the Nameless One.
Sirin?
“Ah, cough…”
In the end, a sob I couldn’t hold back escaped.
*
The scenery changed again.
What appeared through my tear-filled, blurry vision was a small village that had succumbed to beasts.
Just like before, Sirin’s memory revealed to me where this place was.
A hunter’s village, Rochester.
Unwanted memories flooded into my mind. I turned my gaze to follow those memories.
There was a gaunt man who had lost everything. He was tearing beasts apart with his bare hands. He picked up the beasts’ weapons to crush their skulls. He was slicing their limbs with a machete.
“Hah… Heinzel uncle.”
Finally, my trembling knees buckled.
As soon as my kneecaps hit the ground, I saw Sirin hiding within the woods.
And.
*
The vision flipped.
I saw the life of Hermila, who lost her family to the beasts and was taken in by her teacher, Aaron.
I glimpsed the life of Yuria, whose parents were executed by the knights of Erden under false charges.
I witnessed Alex’s life as he watched his parents executed for giving birth to a noble’s child, despite being a mere woman working in a tavern.
I saw the life of Delia, who could only watch her sister being violated by beasts.
I witnessed Mia’s life, where she had no choice but to kill her parents when famine struck and they sought to eat her.
*
And then, Ser.
I watched as Sirin extended her hand to Ser, who had lost everything to spirits and was dying.
When Ser took Sirin’s hand, the chains entwined around her body snapped.
When Ser learned from Sirin, countless chains piled up around her.
When Ser became the head of the Mage Tower, the chains around Sirin’s body fell off in heaps.
Looking down at that, Sirin smiled.
With that smile.
*
I found myself sitting in a completely different place.
A small village on the outskirts of the empire.
A place where even guards and adventurers had no reason to visit.
The village where a girl destined to become a shaman lived.
The moment that information flowed into my mind, I whipped my trembling legs and stood up.
After getting up and stumbling several times, I finally managed to start moving.
To find the shaman, Rubia.
I didn’t know where she was. But that was no problem. The village was so small that even my short legs could quickly make a round.
And before ten minutes could pass, I found her. A girl, with blond hair of a completely different color from now, Rubia.
“Rub… ia.”
Rubia was smiling in front of a desolate grave, together with her sister, sharing the same hair color.
Rubia’s smile had a completely different vibe than now.
A mischievous, playful smile.
Her sister bore the same expression.
Both looked incredibly happy.
It seemed they were enjoying the moment, without worry for the future.
*
A flash of light appeared before my eyes.
It was a night with a slightly crooked moon.
The pleasant sounds of crickets and the crackling of a blazing torch filled the night air.
On a night when all the villagers should go to sleep, promising to face another day.
[KRUU…]
The beasts came crashing in.
There weren’t many of them—maybe around 15 at most. A number that two decent adventurers could easily handle, but even such a small group of beasts was a disaster for this village.
In a little village that wasn’t worth defending, not even the common guard or adventurers remained.
Soon, the beasts that invaded the village began slaughtering the people.
Screams echoed, almost tearing apart the air.
The sounds of human flesh being ripped and bones breaking drowned out the screams, spreading despair through the little village.
Watching this devastation, I instinctively moved forward.
I did not want to go. I did not want to see. Yet my legs moved at a speed that didn’t seem to care.
When I arrived,
I found a dazed Rubia and her little sister, who had been smiling beside her, butchered and dead.
For a moment.
Everything rushed by.
Night turned into morning.
The beasts became the knights of Erden.
The blond hair turned to silver.
The ordinary girl became a shaman.
I stiffly turned my head.
There was Sirin.
Her hands were stained with the blood of beasts.
And then, a drop of blood from her fingertips fell.
*
It was a view of a village I had never seen but felt far too familiar.
Alrba.
Swallowing my trembling breath, I took steps forward.
I opened the creaking door typical of a guild.
Surveying the place filled with the scent of adventurers.
Inside the guild, faces I had never seen filled the hall.
Yet I knew everyone present here.
The blue-haired girl sitting in the corner, leaning on her bow was Mia.
The two men loudly chatting while raising their beer mugs were Luchi and Heinzel.
The man chattering in front of Hermila was Alex.
The woman quietly writing papers next to her was Yuria.
And the girl with twin tails, watching Heinzel from afar, was Delia.
And besides them,
All those present were people who had gathered in Cartia under the name of the Liberation Army.
As Sirin’s memories swirled in my mind, I slowly traced through them.
All of them had lost something precious.
All of them had gathered in Alrba with the same purpose.
All of them had miraculously survived and learned the truth of Erden, the world.
How could such people gather in Alrba? I had no idea. A thick veil of fog had blocked my path forward.
While I held my throbbing head as I attempted to organize these memories,
A blurry figure, which I could barely see, headed toward Hermila.
That figure handed Hermila a small note, and as soon as she received it, she raised her purple magical power, staring into the air.
Not long after, Hermila bolted out of the guild.
Her destination was a field not far from Alrba.
When Hermila arrived there, she smashed all the beasts that had settled in, cradling a small person they were surrounding, and picked up the Great Sword lying beside her.
The shape of the person in Hermila’s arms was unclear, but I knew who it was.
That person was me, who had just arrived in this world.
Not the “me” I first saw.
But the “me” I am now.
