* * *
If my eyes weren’t deceiving me, the person smiling gently at me was undoubtedly Karen.
Only then did the situation begin to make sense.
If it was Karen, a master of high-level illusion magic, she could have easily shown Goran a fake Oberon.
But what baffled me was her motive.
Covered in the blood of beasts, Karen no longer exuded the gentle nature she once had.
All I could sense from her was pure malice.
“What did you do to her?”
It was hard to believe someone could change so drastically overnight.
The most plausible explanation was that, like Freya, her body had been taken over by a demon.
Karen, who had been staring at me, spoke brightly.
“They said if I gave them my body, I could get what I wanted.”
“….”
“They said if I gave them my body, I could get what I wanted.”
Karen kept murmuring the same words over and over.
Clutching the sheep’s head like a child with a toy, she mumbled to herself.
“Of course, I was jealous. I fought desperately in the void, stammering and struggling, but no one ever noticed me because of my lowly origins. No one cared. It’s unfair.”
“What’s so unfair?”
“Someone like you shouldn’t be a hero!”
Her shrill voice pierced my ears, making me wince.
Grinding her teeth, Karen abruptly calmed down and smiled again.
“If you become a hero, it invalidates my belief that I was ignored because of my lowly birth. So you can’t be a hero, nor should Jerome ever love you.”
“…”
“I worked as hard as you! Just as hard!”
I had tried desperately to change the original story. I didn’t want to face execution.
Thanks to my efforts, I became a hero.
Yet, I had overlooked the possibility that someone like Karen, hailing from the same lowly origins, might resent Jeanne for achieving what she couldn’t.
A sharp headache gripped me.
“Even if Karen harbored such thoughts, you’re the one who pushed her to act on them. Who are you? Are you related to the entity that possessed Freya?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“What?”
“It doesn’t matter. Everyone will die anyway.”
The chilling sincerity in Karen’s words sent a shiver down my spine. S
he threw the sheep’s head into the pond, and from its depths, something moss-covered began to rise.
Guuuuu…
A massive figure emerged, its ashen hair tangled, one fairy wing completely shredded.
Its bleached eyes and a crown of thorns marked it unmistakably as Oberon, the Fairy King.
Despite its humanoid form, it emanated an otherworldly dread unlike any divine beast I’d seen.
Oberon began scanning its surroundings as if searching for something.
‘Could it be the World Tree?’
As Oberon straightened its enormous frame, fairies swarmed to its body.
They clung to him like a writhing mass as he began to move.
Everywhere he passed, plants withered to ash.
Desperately, I aimed Maya’s bow at him.
“You won’t succeed.”
Karen, who had somehow crept up behind me, wrapped her arms around my neck.
Crimson vines sprouted from her body, coiling around me and piercing my skin with their thorns.
My vision blurred as consciousness slipped away.
Karen’s glowing eyes watched me intently, her voice laced with mockery.
“Let’s only see the good things. Yes, only the good things…”
✽ ✽ ✽
Jerome clicked his tongue as he continued fending off the unending swarm of fairies.
Despite the piles of fairy corpses accumulating on the ground, there was no end in sight.
Had he been in his original physical condition, he could have lasted at least half a day, but now his body was little better than a corpse, pushing him to his limits.
The fact that the Moon King Blade hadn’t responded to his summons for a while now only added to his frustration.
‘So, it’s come to this. It won’t heed the call of a master who’s barely clinging to life.’
If he stopped fighting now, he might survive a few more months.
He might even get to see Jeanne’s lovely face for a bit longer.
The Jerome of the past would have chosen to live those extra months, he realized.
But after a moment of deliberation, Jerome turned to Goron, who was busy battling the fairies alongside him.
“Goron, the temple knights who accompanied us are in Temtera Village. Return to the village immediately and bring them here. I’ll handle things on my own until then.”
“What? You… You dare order me around? Do you even know who I am?!”
Without a word, Jerome simply stared at Goron.
In Jerome’s calm, ash-gray eyes, Goron saw an unshakable resolve and faltered, averting his gaze.
Grinding his teeth, Goron shouted in exasperation.
“Damn it, fine! Fine! I’m faster than you anyway, you slowpoke!”
Goron turned swiftly and bolted away, his rabbit-like ears bouncing with every step.
Jerome chuckled faintly at the sight of Goron’s retreating figure, then lightly tapped the tip of his sword against the ground.
The Moonstone embedded in the hilt dimmed and glimmered intermittently.
‘Come on, get up. Don’t give up on me now—I’m not dead yet.’
But no matter how many times he called, the Moon King Blade remained silent.
Jerome raised an eyebrow as he glanced at the blade, but before he could contemplate further, another horde of fairies descended upon him.
Hundreds of fairies plunged at him like daggers, their collective swarm trembling ominously.
A piercing shriek rang out.
With a brilliant flash of moonlight, the ground split apart.
Fairies caught in the light let out grotesque cries as they burned to ash.
Jerome, wielding the glowing Moon King Blade, emerged from the swarm but stumbled after only a few steps, dropping to one knee.
If not for the sword he drove into the ground for support, he would have collapsed entirely.
Coughing up blood, he let out a bitter laugh.
‘No good… I already proposed, you know.’
If someone asked him whether he feared death, Jerome could answer without hesitation.
He didn’t fear it at all.
If anything, the ability to die at any time felt like a kind of blessing.
Death was one of the few things in life one could choose for themselves.
From his birth to becoming a hero, Jerome had rarely chosen anything of his own volition.
‘So, really… none of it mattered. None of it was ever my choice anyway.’
Wiping the blood dripping through his fingers on his pants, Jerome struggled to his feet.
Amid the pounding sound of footsteps, he caught sight of Oberon advancing toward the World Tree.
Watching Oberon with a blank expression, Jerome shifted his steps toward where he sensed Jeanne’s soul.
‘It didn’t matter what happened. My mother’s death didn’t grieve me much. The death of my comrades was tragic, but part of me thought it was inevitable.’
The scent of burning wood stung his nose, and screams—whose they were, he couldn’t tell—pierced his ears.
Even as the Empire crumbled around him, his sole focus remained on Jeanne.
That fact disgusted him a little.
“Jeanne.”
Jerome’s steps halted as he moved, entranced, toward a faint presence.
Feeling his approach, Karen raised her head.
Jeanne, wrapped in thorny rose vines, rested peacefully in Karen’s arms.
Gently stroking Jeanne’s hair, Karen murmured softly.
“Don’t worry. She’s not dead. She’s just dreaming a sweet dream.”
“Just like the illusion you showed me, I suppose.”
Karen nodded silently.
“I sacrificed the World Tree to summon Oberon. If things continue, he’ll open the gate to the otherworld. Thousands of monsters will pour through, and your homeland will fall into ruin.”
“…”
“But if you abandon her and rush to stop Oberon, you might be able to prevent your country’s destruction. So, make your choice.”
Jerome’s gaze fell on Jeanne’s hand, pierced by the thorns and bleeding.
Watching him with amused curiosity, Karen smirked.
“The Empire’s fall… or the life of the girl you love.”
It might have sounded like a cruel proposition, but to Jerome, who had already made up his mind, it felt like a hollow joke.
His laughter erupted, loud and unabashed, wiping the smile off Karen’s face.
When he finally stopped laughing, Jerome spoke with a strangely liberated expression.
“Life is truly cruel. Choosing one thing means inevitably forsaking another.”
“…”
“In that sense, loving something is… deciding to abandon everything else. It’s a vow not to desire anything else. And I realized that far too late.”
Jerome strode toward Karen and thrust a dagger into her pale neck.
As he withdrew the blade, blood spurted from the wound, and Karen released Jeanne in shock.
Clutching her throat, she stared at Jerome in disbelief.
“She’s… cough… she’s just an innocent girl possessed by me.”
“I know.”
“Then how… how could you kill her?”
“The decision to abandon everything for Jeanne included my humanity.”
Jerome tenderly brushed Karen’s cheek as her complexion grew ashen.
He knew he would undoubtedly burn in hell for killing Karen, an innocent victim possessed by a demon.
As Karen collapsed to the ground, laughing hoarsely, she glared at him with bloodshot eyes and shouted.
“You fool… go ahead, try all you like. That girl already chose to live in the illusion I showed her. Even if it’s fake, she decided to stay there forever.”
“…”
‘She chose the false world.’
Ignoring Karen’s taunt, Jerome held Jeanne in his arms and walked away.
Karen, watching his retreating figure, slowly closed her eyes.
Her body turned to ash, scattering into the wind.
With a faint laugh, she whispered her final words.
“And you’ll never defeat that world.”
* * *
