The Main Episode Comes to an End
I couldn't help but widen my eyes at the flood of messages. It wasn't as if reward messages had never appeared before. The system had always given me rewards every time I cleared a quest. But there had never been this many reward messages pouring in at once. Just how much was it planning to give me?
Calculating rewards. Player, please wait a moment...
What could it possibly be preparing that it needs me to wait?
As that question crossed my mind, a voice called out.
“Is everyone alright?”
Luden and her group had finished dealing with Jack and now stood before us. I glanced at Luden. Their clothes were caked in dust and grime, clear evidence of the fierce battle they had endured. I nodded at her question.
“Yes. Miss Kanya has fainted, but no one is seriously injured.”
“That’s a relief…”
Luden pressed a hand to her chest. She must have been worried about leaving us behind.
“Now that I think about it, where’s Sherry?”
She looked around. I did the same, but Sherry was already gone. She must have slipped away at some point.
“Could she be getting interrogated…”
“There’s no way. We all know she was brainwashed by the demons. Who would interrogate her for that?”
The other students nodded in agreement. Sherry’s good reputation was what allowed for such understanding. If she had been a terrible person, their reactions would have been far less forgiving. Of course, the fact that she was a victim herself played a part too.
“More than that, I’m worried about the professors.”
Luden quietly shifted her gaze. Even after Jack’s defeat, the instructors were still locked in combat. The fight was so intense that we could feel the aftershocks even through the barrier. Still, knowing the outcome, I wasn’t particularly concerned. No matter how strong King was among the Demon Army’s executives, defeating every professor at once was simply impossible.
As we watched the barrier, it happened.
-BOOOOM!
The barrier on the academy side finally shattered. Its destruction was as good as announcing King’s death. Just to be sure, I observed the scene through Mind’s Eye.
As expected.
King’s severed head lay on the ground. I turned back to Luden. It was time to find Sherry, who was hiding somewhere.
“Miss Luden, could I ask you to handle the cleanup?”
“Huh?”
“I have somewhere I need to be for a short while. I’d appreciate it.”
I gave a polite bow and walked toward the spot where Sherry was hiding.
Roughly a minute had passed. Even if she had run, I knew she wouldn’t have gone far.
In the original story, she hid after the incident wrapped up too.
Baran used Mind’s Eye to slowly scan the area. He soon spotted Sherry crouching behind a tree. He walked over and sat down on the other side of the trunk she was leaning against.
-Flinch!
Her shoulders twitched. Baran didn’t look at her. He simply leaned against the tree in silence.
“......”
“......”
An awkward silence settled between them. After a moment, Sherry spoke first.
“Why did you come?”
Her tone was casual, nothing like her usual speech. Baran remained quiet. In a watery voice, she continued.
“Shall I tell you a story?”
It was such a sudden suggestion. Most people would have asked why she was bringing it up out of nowhere, but Baran simply nodded without a word.
She began.
“There was once a girl from a very wealthy family.”
“Her house lacked for nothing. But honestly, she wasn’t very happy. Do you know why?”
“The girl’s mother had died. Before that, she had been just as happy as any other family. But after her mother passed, her father changed completely.”
“So the girl tried everything she could to bring her father back to the way he used to be. She changed her speech and manners to things that didn’t suit her at all. But no matter what, she never earned his approval.”
“As she kept failing to be acknowledged, her goal slowly changed. It was no longer about changing her father. It became about receiving recognition. But of course she only kept disappointing him, and her heart grew tired. That was when a certain blind man appeared.”
“Even though the blind man couldn’t see, he worked harder than anyone and showed incredible results. For some reason, her eyes kept drifting to him. Before long, the girl’s goal had become that blind man.”
“She worked hard to surpass him, but naturally failed every time. When she was completely exhausted, she received recognition from the blind man in the middle of everything. He probably only meant to give light advice, but to the girl it was incredibly precious. It felt like all her effort until then had finally been rewarded.”
After that, Sherry continued recounting everything that had happened from the girl’s point of view up to the present.
Only after hearing the whole story did the question lingering in Baran’s mind finally find its answer.
So that’s how it was…
After their two-on-two duel, Sherry would always look downcast whenever she saw him. At the time, he hadn’t thought deeply about it and had simply avoided her. After all, Sherry was destined to become the mid-boss of Act 1. No matter what he did, the outcome wouldn’t change. Everyone would only be happy if the story followed the original plot. He had rationalized it that way and hadn’t considered it further. He had assumed the protagonist would resolve everything according to the original story again.
But there had been plenty of chances to change things. What if he hadn’t avoided her? What if he had helped her instead? If he had acted boldly without worrying about the original plot, perhaps things would have turned out differently.
Yes. That’s probably true.
In most games, no matter what choices you made, you eventually reached the same ending. Even this game had always led to the same conclusion regardless of the route. But this wasn’t a game. It was reality. The person telling her story right in front of him wasn’t a character. She was a living, breathing person.
I had unconsciously been treating it like a game.
Should he consider himself lucky to have realized it now? After this incident, he needed to change his approach. Instead of simply watching from afar to see whether events followed the original story, he would need to take direct action, even if it created a butterfly effect.
“What’s going to happen to me now?”
“The academy will probably call you in to handle the aftermath.”
“...Will I be expelled?”
“It won’t be expulsion.”
Even though she had blocked the students, Sherry was a victim too. It wasn’t as if she had wanted to stop them. Besides, there was no way Gray, head of the Patrick family, would stand by quietly. At worst, she would receive probation. Nothing more.
“Do you know something?”
“Yes?”
“Right before I gave up while I was being brainwashed, I strangely heard your voice.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. You said you’d come save me right away.”
He had indeed said those words. But he never imagined she had actually heard them.
As Baran scratched his cheek, feeling awkward, Sherry lowered her head and murmured.
“When I think about it now, I seem really pathetic.”
“Pardon?”
“At first I was jealous of you and Luden. Later I was happy just because you acknowledged me. I really hate myself.”
She buried her face in her knees. Baran called out to her softly.
“Miss Sherry.”
“Yes?”
“What does it matter if someone is a little pathetic or jealous? Everyone feels that way. I’m the same.”
People were bound to feel jealousy. Hadn’t he himself felt it while watching successful colleagues at his company?
At his words, Sherry hugged her knees even tighter. Then, in a trembling voice, she answered.
“Thank you…”
And so the final act of Part 1 of the Main Episode came to an end.
Through this incident, one girl burned once more with vengeance against the demons. Another girl began to calculate things with cold precision. And one boy gained enlightenment from the event and resolved to change the way he acted.
-WHOOSH!
At that moment, sunlight poured down on them. As if praising the two for their hard work.
Baran slowly looked up at the rays of light. He had cleared the Main Episode of Part 1 countless times before. But this was the first time he had ever thought this.
That a part of someone’s story—not a character’s, but a real person’s—had finally reached its end.
Reward calculation has been completed.
Page 1
You defeated the Sand Golem through the optimal route!
Reward: Massive amount of experience points granted to the player.
Page 2
You saved the mid-boss Sherry von Patrick without defeating her!
Reward: 10,000 points granted to the player.
Page 3
You successfully defeated Jack, the final boss of Part 1!
Reward: The player’s trait Divine Archer has leveled up.