Chapter 207
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 207
“Hey! Have you lost your mind?!”
The harsh words burst out of me instinctively, bypassing my brain entirely.
What?
I’m supposed to hurt the male leads, just like the original Tulia did?
And not just a little, but serious emotional damage?
“You’re basically telling me to go die! I won’t do it! No way!”
[SYSTEM] Success Reward Information
• You will be able to check Favorability as numerical values.
• All current Curses will be lifted.
• You will obtain the Benefit ‘Secret Key.’
• All deferred and temporary stats will be acquired permanently.
• You will meet ‘Corico.’
[SYSTEM] Failure Penalty Information
• You will lose all your current Coins.
“……”
Trying to buy me with money? Not a chance!
…Is what I’d like to say, but it was just too much money…
Why did that line come to mind right now?
My feelings were a tangled mess. While I couldn't tear my eyes away from the reward list, more messages appeared.
[SYSTEM] Due to the success of the <Linked Quest> ‘Unavoidable Foundation,’ you are granted an opportunity to obtain a Special Benefit!
[SYSTEM] A Special Benefit will be granted if you fulfill the quest according to the Guide!
[SYSTEM] Limited Special Benefit Details
• Corico’s status will be demoted from Female Lead to ???.
“…!”
I already had so many questions regarding Corico.
More importantly, while I had my suspicions, I lacked any real information about her.
In such a disadvantageous situation, a Special Benefit that could demote Corico’s position?
This was a benefit I had to obtain, if only for my own survival.
[SYSTEM] Do you wish to accept the quest?
I felt a bit depressed knowing things I’d rather have stayed ignorant of, but there was no helping it. Fine. What else could I do?
The rewards are just too massive to give up.
Come to think of it, I still had that ‘Shield x2’ benefit I’d picked up a while ago!
If a male lead, wounded by my words, tried to swing a sword or strangle me, I could just use that and bolt!
“Accept!”
As I shouted with all my might, light instantly flooded back into the gray, frozen world.
Klaus, who had been frozen mid-kneel, returned to normal as well.
And then…
This male lead, Klaus Rocheva—unaware of that moment where time had stopped, a moment that had vanished for everyone but me—was still looking up at me with eyes full of intense affection.
It was so fierce that, for a moment, even my cheeks flushed.
Perhaps within that soft, romantic word ‘devotion,’ there also lies a certain degree of violence.
Klaus’s bright eyes were as blue as a full moon.
“Marry me.”
“……”
“Be my queen, Tulia.”
I had never seen Klaus’s proposal in The Milk Bread.
Consequently, I had never once seen this male lead’s true heart…
So, this is what it’s like.
My heart thudded pointlessly.
His gaze made me feel as though he wasn’t asking for my hand in marriage, but entrusting me with his very soul.
I realized only now that another person’s deep sincerity, while romantic, also has the power to make one feel a bit melancholy.
Like how one can suddenly feel a wave of gloom while staring at a clear full moon in the dark night sky, or when being lured by the endless, pitch-black expanse of the open sea.
Caught in an inexplicable mood, I looked down at Klaus blankly.
Isn't it funny? It was truly ridiculous.
Yes. I was mocking my past self.
What ‘god’? What ‘arrogant sense of victory’ from being his god for a fleeting moment?
The truth was, I knew nothing.
By sheer luck, I had foreseen a mere two sentences Klaus would say to me—nothing more than a few ripples on the surface of the water.
I had been so smug just because I’d anticipated a few words, yet I hadn't even properly grasped the emotions hidden beneath the surface.
I had dared to feel superior, thinking I had become his god.
And because of that, I had presumed to judge Klaus’s feelings so easily…
“I love you. I want to give you everything.”
“……”
“So, I… yes. I want you to be my companion forever…”
“……”
“…That’s what I wanted to say. I don’t know. You can be a bit childlike, so you might not have noticed my feelings at all. But still. This is how I feel about you, Tulia Frezier.”
“……”
I felt as if I had climbed a small mountain with Klaus.
I thought what he would show me was just a small spring. But I was wrong. What lay behind the ridge we had climbed was a vast ocean.
An open sea so deep that even if thousands, tens of thousands of springs threw themselves into it, it wouldn't leave a single mark.
How had Klaus hidden his feelings for me so well?
Or had I simply failed to notice?
Was it because he was just a Hidden Male Lead, and I was just a piece of trash with too much karma, struggling to survive while bound by quests?
Had my eyes been bound along with my fate?
What had I been thinking this world was?
My eyes dropped to the bouquet Klaus was holding out. My voice trembled slightly.
“Klaus, I…”
Even as I spoke, a hollow laugh escaped me.
I wasn't laughing at Klaus.
I was laughing at myself—no, at my situation.
Because I finally realized that the problem wasn't whether I could run away from a potential outbreak of violence.
Yes.
The reason I couldn't accept this world as a complete, singular reality wasn't just because I had entered a ‘game world.’
Quests.
The quest that suddenly appeared right before Klaus proposed, as if it had anticipated everything.
This mysterious quest that restricted and predicted my every move, dragging me in the direction it desired…
Yes, if there truly is a god, isn't this quest window that god?
Even if it can’t influence the rest of the world, it reigns perfectly over me, watching my every move and manipulating me to its will.
Holding my life in its hands, shaking me with my fears, and making me rejoice over the mysterious powers it tosses me as rewards—has there ever been a time I felt so pathetic?
As I tried to hide my hollow laughter, that mysterious, immortal existence—the System window I dared not touch—remained majestically before my eyes.
[SYSTEM] Inevitable Quest <3 Nights> begins!
[SYSTEM] Within 3 nights, inflict serious emotional damage on all Male Leads, just like Tulia in Why Did That Lady Give the Handsome Man Milk Bread?
[SYSTEM] The limited Special Benefit ‘Guide,’ linked to the Inevitable Quest <3 Nights>, has appeared!
[SYSTEM] Guide: Please respond to the ‘Male Lead’ Klaus with the following sentences.
[SYSTEM] Guide Content 1
• I don’t love you.
In that moment, I couldn't even count how many conflicts and worries flashed through my mind.
“…I don’t love you.”
However, following the Guide and speaking to Klaus was easy.
Yes.
Up to that point, honestly, it was easy.
[SYSTEM] Guide Content 2
• Everyone who has proposed to me is either a Crown Prince or a Prince… but what about you?
I think it was from that moment that my heart began to race uncontrollably and my hands and feet grew cold.
It was a sentence so infuriating that I wanted to stop time again if I could.
No, seriously, isn't this too much?
Why was it making me say such wicked things?
Because it was a quest to cause pain?
For the first time, I looked back at my quests.
Was the thing the quest wanted to torment not actually me, but the people of this world?
The male leads?
Or the people who suffered because of Tulia?
Did it want to kick them while they were down?
Finally, my doubts about what this world was began to shift toward the quest window itself.
Not that the quest would go easy on me just because I questioned its existence.
As always.
I eventually tightened my fists and continued.
“Everyone who has proposed to me is…”
“……”
“…either a Crown Prince or a Prince. But… what about you?”
My throat felt as scratchy as if I had swallowed a mouthful of sand.
A silence as desolate as a desert night swept over us.