I arrived at school in a daze.
The campus, bustling with crowds, looked no different than any other day. Familiar dark-haired students brushed past my field of vision.
I let my shoulders slump, the weight of my bag pulling me down.
My heart, which had been pounding, slowly began to steady itself, and only then did I feel like I could breathe.
……Right. This is reality.
I took in the familiar scenery, reassuring myself.
Soothing my fluttering chest, I opened the door to the lecture hall.
Immediately, a familiar voice greeted me.
“Yoon Seohyun! You’re here?”
A female student with black hair waved her hand along with a bright voice.
Gang Gongi.
With her neat bob cut and slightly drooping eyes, she was a friend with a puppy-like, cute impression.
She was in the same department—though she was double-majoring—and we naturally became close thanks to her uniquely bright personality.
You could say she had a personality that knew how to narrow the social distance on its own.
Sitting next to her, resting her chin on her hand, another woman looked up at me.
“Hi, Hyun.”
A female student with long, flowing auburn hair.
Jang Ian.
With her calm impression and chic aura, her sharp, cat-like eyes looked haughty, but a completely different personality would pop out the moment she opened her mouth.
“You’re only just getting here?” Ian said, her lips curling slightly in a sly manner.
She sounded indifferent, yet there was a strange playfulness mixed into the end of her words.
I raised my hand at them.
Gongi and Ian were always together.
They were university friends who naturally approached me, even though I wasn’t the type to take the initiative myself.
But their reactions were different today.
Ian approached and scanned my face closely, then frowned slightly.
“Why do you look so bad?”
At those words, Gang Gongi squinted and tapped my shoulder.
“Seriously, what did you do all night?”
……Sometimes their excessive tension was a burden.
Before I could even open my mouth, exhaustion washed over me all at once.
I felt as if the strength holding my body upright was slowly draining away.
As I let out a sigh with a drained expression, Gang Gongi read the room and chuckled, then began whispering to Ian.
Even though their conversation was happening right next to me, it felt like it was getting further and further away.
It was as if I were listening to them underwater; my ears felt blocked, and the sounds were muffled and dull.
Was it because I ran?
Or was it just simple fatigue?
Since when was it?
The occasional hearing loss seemed especially severe today.
And even now, the voices of the two people chatting right beside me sounded faint, like muffled noise.
I should have been able to clearly understand what they were saying, but the words were crushed, and the sentences were tangled together, making it impossible to hear properly.
I slowly buried my face in the desk.
A heavy headache rolled in, dizziness spread, and I felt like I would fall asleep right there if I closed my eyes.
Then, the two of them approached again, looking concerned.
A voice heard vaguely.
“She seems really tired, doesn’t she? Did something happen?”
“Ah, you said the game Yoon Seohyun likes was shutting down yesterday, right?”
Thanks to the two of them starting a conversation, my fading consciousness sharpened for a moment.
Game shut down.
At those words, I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, then spat out shortly.
“The game…… a piece of trash game. Don’t you guys ever play games.”
The two looked at each other, wearing expressions as if something were strange.
My reaction must have been sharper than usual, that much was clear.
I ignored their gaze and lowered my head.
I buried my face in the desk, forcing myself to cut off my senses.
Gongi and Ian checked on me for a while, then started heading to the front seats without another word.
They must have been considerate since I didn’t look well.
I was grateful, but…….
My head was too complex.
Just then, I heard a rustling sound from the seat right next to me.
Following that, the sound of a metal chair being pulled.
……If it was someone arriving now, there was only one person.
My childhood friend, Kim Semo.
He was someone I had been close with since we were young, and we even went to the same university together.
I just waved my hand roughly to signal a greeting and buried my head again.
I was so tired that I wanted to close my eyes and forget reality for even a moment.
But then, I felt a warm heat grazing my ear.
At first, I thought it was just a misunderstanding.
But this was clearly a touch.
A very gentle and cautious movement.
It was a hand gesture, softly brushing me, as if he were worried about me.
A chill ran down my spine in an instant.
This is…… a big man’s hand.
And Semo didn’t have hands this big.
Feeling a sudden, ominous sensation, I squeezed my eyes shut and then slowly opened them.
Because my face was buried, my vision was still blurry, but the sensation touching my fingertips was strangely vivid.
A large, solid hand.
Each finger was brushing against me with an excessive lack of tension.
It’s strange.
Was there anyone among the guys I knew who would engage in skinship this naturally?
……No, there isn’t.
A chill ran down my spine.
I jerked my body up, shook off the hand, and went into a defensive stance.
I raised my head slowly, fully tense.
“……Kim Semo?”
I called out just in case.
If it were that bastard, he was the type who would joke around like this if I looked tired.
But there was no answer.
No, to be more precise, the person in front of me was not Kim Semo.
Red hair.
Clear, ruby-like red eyes.
Features as sharp as a sculpture.
A face powerfully engraved in my memory.
It’s familiar.
It’s so familiar, but since it’s a face that shouldn’t be here, I couldn’t remember who he was for a moment.
I instinctively froze, staring at the man in front of me.
“…No, what is this-”
I blurted out like a scream, but because his well-groomed features were dazzling for a moment, I instinctively closed and opened my eyes.
But reality did not change.
A strange, handsome man was still in front of me.
“Why are you like this?” he asked, narrowing his brows as if concerned.
At those words, all my senses stood on edge.
It was a strangely familiar face, and even his tone was incredibly intimate.
On top of that, he naturally reached out to touch my forehead.
I reflexively pulled my body back and stuck it against the chair.
The man hesitated as if flustered, then smiled awkwardly and said, “What, did I do something wrong?”
Only then did Gang Gongi, who was sitting in the front seat, look back, tilting her head.
“What’s going on?”
With trembling fingertips, I pointed at the man in front of me and struggled to open my mouth.
“Where is Kim Semo?”
As soon as I finished speaking, the man’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
Gang Gongi smiled and furrowed her brows with a look of amusement, replying far too naturally.
“You always call Cedric ‘Kim Semo’, don’t you?”
……Cedric?
My head went white for a moment.
A familiar name.
A name so familiar that it lacked all sense of reality.
“You call me Kim Semo every time you’re upset with me,” he said, tilting his head with a familiar smile.
His deep red eyes looked straight at me.
“Did I do something wrong?”
Only then did I realize. Red hair. Red eyes. A typical protagonist-like appearance.
Cedric Leonhardt Crown.
The 2nd Prince of the Crown Empire in Crown Maker.
Perhaps, a character more like a standard protagonist than even the ‘Main Shou’.
A moment later, the character summary posts I had seen before playing the game flashed through my mind.
[Crown Maker Gallery]
[[Chat] Cedric is the easiest character to play (of course, by Crown Maker standards)]
Cedric is the easiest character to get the ‘main route’ for. But as you know, Crown Maker is a game where you make the ‘Main Shou’ the Emperor.
If you play Cedric wrong, you end up abandoning the Main Shou and he becomes the Emperor himself lol. So you have to be careful with a few things.
But why is it easy? F*ck, the others are extreme difficulty. Cedric would be hell in other games, but he’s the best among the capture characters.
But the problem is, since he’s a typical protagonist style, the conditions he demands from the Main Shou are insanely strict.
Main Shou Action Tips (When selecting Cedric)
I’ll divide them into Main Shou actions / Player action tips.
If the Main Shou cries or becomes weak X → Affection drops, and you board the Cedric Emperor route.
Main Shou practices swords in the Knights/Goes to the Knights → Affection rises.
Main Shou reads books in the library/Goes to the library → If the Main Shou’s intelligence increases, an additional event opens.
If you visit too often, it backfires / You have to twist the path once → You have to play hard-to-get once.
I went to him a few times while changing clothes to stimulate the Main Shou’s protective instinct, but he kicked me out saying, “How undignified.”
And he gossiped behind my back, “To think such a wild child is trying to become Emperor.
It’s a disgrace to the Imperial Family.”
F*ck lol.
└ Ha, f*ck, I went to him every time the Main Shou cried…….
└ lololol You went every time he cried? That’s just a Bed Ending route lol.
└ Cedric: ‘A guy who wants to be Emperor is blubbering?’ → He becomes the Emperor himself lol.
└ In the first place, the 1st Prince is a total disaster, so haha. Go to Ludger when you cry.
└ I saw this and chose the option to have Ludger go to him every time the Main Shou cried, and he locked him up.
└ └ Crazy lololol You have to go in moderation;;
└ But Cedric doesn’t completely hate tears. If you cry at MAX affection, you hit the standard route.
└ └ └ True lol. If you go to Ludger while crying, he says “You’re moist,” and a harassment flag triggers lol.
└ But Cedric isn’t the type to like praise even if his affection is high. He only reacts if you show him skills he’s forced to acknowledge.
└ Conclusion: Cedric’s route was a route where the Main Shou becomes stronger to become Emperor lol.
“Yoon Seohyun.”
But Kim Semo became Cedric?
……In the first place, Kim Semo and Cedric only share one character in their names.
Not even the size of a pinky nail is similar; their faces don’t look like each other at all.
But the man standing in front of me was looking at me with those familiar red hair and eyes.
As if he had just popped out of the game.
Is he actually insane? Am I still dreaming?
