The Confession Attack (7)
After the Save & Load occurred, there was only one thing I truly wanted to know.
‘Will Mirne remember this, or won’t she?’
The Save & Load function had indeed displayed an absurdly overpowered effect. But no matter how one looked at it, it was impossible to claim Mirne had activated it of her own will.
The moment it triggered—right before her death, following the Covenant Seizure judgment that made meaningful damage against her possible—it was clearly not something she had chosen to invoke.
‘A system intervention at the brink of death? Naturally, it must be the protagonist’s system.’
It didn’t take deep thought to realize that what protected Mirne was the system itself. The way it had burst forth in panic the instant her neck was about to be severed made that obvious. Still, calling it flawless felt somewhat ambiguous.
‘I definitely cut her cleanly.’
The very phrase “I cut the system” sounded bizarre, yet the sensation in my hand had been unmistakable. The power of the Crown Prince combined with the sword that Gilbart had forged at the Crown Prince’s request.
When those two forces merged, I had moved within a frozen world and resisted the system.
‘Is this what the Crown Prince meant by “the next step”?’
Having realized he could never win through ordinary means, had this been the answer he reached after countless regressions?
“What’s certain is that there’s one more person behind Mirne.”
And behind that person is the system—an entity whose sole purpose is to force the situation to follow the original story as closely as possible.
‘Then what about the system attached to me?’
Could the system clinging to me not actually be a system at all? Various possibilities swirled through my mind when—
“Your Highness’s First Staff, Teo, has returned after perfectly completing his mission! May this Teo deliver his report immediately?”
Teo entered in an extremely formal posture and began his report.
“Report! After observing Mirne’s movements, there were no notable actions. She spent the entire time pondering only how to end the war peacefully!”
The order I had given Teo was to watch Mirne’s every move. Through this, I had hoped to determine whether she retained her memories from before the Save & Load.
“Furthermore, her physical condition is perfectly fine. She appeared exceptionally healthy!”
After listening to Teo’s report, I became certain.
‘Her memories have been erased.’
The system messages right before the Save & Load had clearly stated “erasing past actions” and “modifying the past.” If she had kept her memories, problems would inevitably arise during that erasure and modification process.
Moreover, Mirne—who hadn’t even fought once—had suffered a fatal wound immediately before the Save & Load. To simply return to the past and be completely fine in that state? Absolutely impossible.
The moment pain remained in her mind, she should have been trembling in constant terror. The fact that she showed none of that and focused solely on the war meant her memories had been completely wiped.
‘Normally, my memories should have been erased as well.’
If memory erasure was the default, then my current situation was clearly a bug. And the cause of that bug was obviously the Crown Prince’s power and the power of the sword.
‘Then does Mirne have no intention of using Arveda at all now, and believes the Fire Spirit simply never existed?’
In the case of the Fire Spirit, something that had existed was made to never have existed. I wondered what kind of judgment the system had applied. But those thoughts lasted only a moment.
“Rolling, rolling, ungh! Hee! Hee!”
I looked at Arveda, who was rolling around on my bed while playing with a doll. When I had subdued her earlier—when she had flown off toward the Maserin Kingdom as if possessed—I had felt truly complicated. But seeing her playing so happily now put my mind completely at ease.
“Arveda.”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
She answered energetically the moment I called her. Perhaps because she was the first Executioner I had met, or because we had taken our first walk together. Or maybe it was because she somehow felt like a little sister to me. I reached out and stroked her hair, then turned my gaze toward Teo.
“Summon Pavan, Gilbart, and Luminix.”
“This Teo! Command received! Where shall I have them gather?”
“The garden behind the palace.”
Today, I would resolve Arveda’s Covenant.
Arveda’s Covenant
📍 Target: Arveda Liraberi Danium
🎁 Reward: Empire military power restored · Ruin probability reduced
Arveda was a dragon, yet not a dragon.
‘…….’
It was because she did not properly know her own name. A name was identity and proof of the soul. She could not remember when she had lost it. According to the Covenant, it was a contract made with the Great Prophet. But the dragons who had told her that story had all vanished by the time she came to her senses.
“Where is everyone going?”
“When the time of the promise arrives… or when the promise is broken. For that moment, we must enter slumber.”
“Why?”
“Because that was the promise.”
“Then… why are you leaving me behind?”
“Because you are the dragon who will inherit this generation’s Covenant.”
That was the last conversation Arveda remembered having with the other dragons. Even that was only the words she recalled; no other information came to mind. Why they had left, where they had gone—none of it remained in her head.
What filled the traces where nothing was left was solitude. A terrible loneliness. To fill that void, she had tried all sorts of things. She had read books on the advice of a tin can, and she had tried making things after listening to a hairy dwarf. But none of it felt right.
‘It’s boring. It’s not fun.’
She simply wanted to make friends and play. But since she had never done so before, she had no idea how. She couldn’t do anything at all.
Then one day—
“Can I… call you older brother? Or father…? Later, if the chance comes…!”
She had been given the chance to take a walk with the Crown Prince, and Arveda had been overjoyed. Finally she wouldn’t be bored. She wouldn’t have to be lonely. Moreover, the Crown Prince was an incredibly strong person who didn’t seem like he would ever disappear. So she wanted to stay by his side forever, and eventually she had even gathered the courage to claim a spot in his bed.
She had thought that if things continued like this, she wouldn’t envy anything or feel afraid of anything.
But—
“Arveda, I shall fulfill your Covenant.”
“…Eh?”
The current situation was something Arveda had never even imagined. Only minutes ago, the Crown Prince—who had been with her—had suddenly declared that he had found her true name. Then he had summoned her to the garden behind the imperial palace along with the three Executioners.
“I have found your true name. So we should resolve the Covenant right away.”
“…Uh, uhh…”
Arveda’s eyes spun in circles. Resolving the Covenant was a good thing, and finding her true name was correct, but somehow she had a strong feeling that things could never be the same as before.
‘Even if the Covenant is fulfilled, it doesn’t mean I can’t stay in the Empire anymore…’
She had already dispelled that worry after seeing Luminix. Even after resolving the Covenant, one could continue to remain in the Empire. In fact, one could belong to the Empire even more perfectly. It was unconditionally good. Yet the worry that finding her name might mean she could no longer act as she had before lingered.
At the same time, she couldn’t bring herself to give up on finding her true name. Those complicated feelings mixed together until she finally reached one conclusion.
“…Your Highness.”
“Hm?”
“This lady… if I regain my name, I might stop using formal speech…!”
The moment the Crown Prince heard that, he burst out laughing.
“You’re acting like a teenager going through puberty. I understand. Luminix was the same when her Covenant was resolved.”
“…Y-Your Highness, I…”
At the Crown Prince’s words, Luminix hung her head deeply. Seeing that, the Crown Prince—Bellon—continued.
“I know, I know. It was a joke, so you don’t have to make such a gloomy face.”
While comforting Luminix, the Crown Prince looked at Arveda.
“No matter how you change, you are still you, and the Empire will never abandon you.”
At the Crown Prince’s assurance that she didn’t need to feel anxious, Arveda slowly nodded.
“Will Your Highness the Crown Prince not abandon me either?”
“I am the Empire itself. So cast aside all worries.”
With that answer, Arveda closed her eyes. Taking that as the signal, Bellon spoke her true name.
“Arveda Liraberi Danium.”
The instant the true name was spoken—
“U-uhh, Y-Your Highness!”
Arveda’s body was enveloped in light. Then—
Flash!
A tremendous radiance burst forth. Bellon was just raising his power, wondering how to respond, when—
Thud.
As if it had all been a lie, the light vanished completely.
“Eh?”
Arveda looked around with a bewildered expression. For a moment she wondered if the Covenant hadn’t been fulfilled, but—
“Um… the Covenant has been resolved.”
Instinctively, Arveda realized that the Covenant she had made with the Great Prophet had been completed. She had expected something tremendous to happen, yet it had ended with nothing but a flash of light?
“It feels… a bit… anticlimactic?”
Arveda’s expression of having been scared for nothing lasted only a moment.
Kuuuung—!
A massive sound suddenly rang out from the sky above.
“The true birth of the Dragon Princess has come. All dragons shall remain in your places.”
Along with those abrupt words, countless dragons revealed their presence in the heavens.
+++++
—The Dragon Princess is special.
—Finding her name is an act of bestowing grace upon the entire dragon race.
—Therefore, her name must be restored without fail.
The Crown Prince’s memories replayed naturally in his mind. And in the midst of that replay—
Thud. Thud. Thud.
One by one, the dragons displayed their enormous weight as they descended to the ground.
“Hah.”
Mirne, did you know this would happen when you so casually called out Arveda’s true name? Did you intend to suddenly drag the dragons into a war justified by love in order to end it?
‘You really are insane.’
Watching what was unfolding before me, I smiled deeply.
‘Thank you for telling me Arveda’s true name.’
You keep getting hit by confession attacks. Meanwhile, I’ll keep strengthening the Empire’s forces.
And as if to echo my true feelings, the system greeted me.
Arveda’s Covenant has been resolved.
The Empire’s military power is beginning to reclaim its former glory.
The Empire’s ruin probability has decreased by 10%.
Current Empire Ruin Probability: 30%
The Empire does not appear likely to fall within the next 5 years.
‘This is only the beginning.’
Just wait. I’ll show you what a real mess looks like.