Chapter 254
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 254
‘It’s time to fight.’
It was time to beat Corico to a pulp, just like Mom did!
I slapped my cheeks, trying to snap out of it, naturally assuming I’d return to my original, grown-up body...
[SYSTEM] You, who have faced the most difficult and arduous struggle of all the successors of Beta Crucis!
A new option is provided to you as you face the ultimate difficulty!
I stared, wide-eyed and flabbergasted, waiting for more options only to realize that was it.
‘This... this is highway robbery!’
They’re taking that many coins, and the probability is only 50%?
Are you kidding me?
If I didn’t have infinite coins, does this mean I would’ve had to return to the real world with a measly 10% chance to fight those lunatics?
I shouted immediately.
‘Number 2!’
[SYSTEM] You have selected Option 2.
[SYSTEM] While staying for an additional hour, ‘The Reason They Risk Their Lives for You’ will be played.
[SYSTEM] 999,999,999 Coins will be consumed!
‘So that’s why I had to stay an extra hour—because the playback is an hour long.’
Even with infinite coins, the sheer number being drained made my head spin.
Just as my fists began to tremble with rage—
Beep—!
A warning sound blared, filling my ears.
I was startled. I’d had countless interactions with the system window, but this was the first time it had issued a direct warning sound.
Was it because I was currently in soul form? Or...
Had something terrible happened?
[SYSTEM] A system error has occurred!
[SYSTEM] A system error has occurred!
[SYSTEM] A system error has occurred!
Bright red text flooded my vision. The blaring warning sound didn't stop.
‘What? What is it?’
I stared with wide eyes, feeling like a passenger on a spaceship seconds away from crashing.
[SYSTEM] The system window is being attacked by the fanatics' magic!
[SYSTEM] Being attacked!
[SYSTEM] Under attack! Under att-att-attacked attack! Attack the attack attack! Attack attack attack attack attack attack attack attack attack attack attack being attacked being attacked!
.
.
.
[SYSTEM] The fanatics' attack is causing errors in the system window.
The text, which had been a mess of errors, slowly returned to its proper place, only to display something nonsensical.
[SYSTEM] 3 of the male leads will die at random.
* * *
“Gasp!”
I sat up with a shudder. However, my surroundings were bleak and desolate.
‘A prison...’
Why a prison? Still?
Reflexively, I looked down at my hands. This time, they weren't the hands of a baby.
But they weren't my usual slender lady’s hands either. They were much rougher and, above all, younger...
‘Ten years old? Maybe nine?’
“And my voice is coming out...”
When I was in soul form, no matter what I did, my voice never made a sound.
Where on earth was I?
What about the system window?
I snapped my head up. Fortunately, Jjapddongbyeol was floating leisurely above me.
Only then did I feel relieved enough to look around.
“...Benjamin?”
I must have been truly out of it. I hadn't even realized that a young Benjamin was trembling beside me.
Benjamin, who was even smaller and thinner than I was now, had a face covered in wounds. His skin was leaden and pale, as if he hadn't seen the sun in a long time.
“Tulia, are you okay? Tulia...”
He barely managed to pull me into an embrace. I could feel his gaunt frame against me.
‘It’s the past. This is the past too.’
Except it was a different point in time than before.
‘But what does showing me this past have to do with my win rate? You crazy system window, you moron, you mutt, you dimwit, you idiot...’
Perhaps it couldn't stand me hurling all those insults internally.
[SYSTEM] ‘The Reason They Risk Their Lives for You’ is playing!
The system window flashed text in the air as if telling me to shut up.
I was afraid it would be full of errors again, but fortunately, this time it was a normal rainbow hue.
[SYSTEM] The divine power of the entire continent has already been exhausted.
[SYSTEM] The High Priests realized that their god had weakened.
[SYSTEM] Fearing they would no longer be revered by the believers, the High Priests began researching brainwashing magic.
[SYSTEM] The result of that research is the system window.
‘...What?’
The system window was brainwashing magic?
Created by the Grand Temple?
I frowned.
‘I’ve never heard that the continent’s divine power was exhausted. No one ever said anything like that.’
Of course, the Grand Temple would have intentionally hidden it.
‘Wait...’
A thought suddenly occurred to me.
‘Is that why Ferdinand...?’
It was a well-known fact that Empress Olivia had poured a staggering amount of money into divine power to save Ferdinand while he was in her womb.
Was that why the High Priests had been so kind to Ferdinand all this time?
Because he was the only person who possessed a large amount of the depleted divine power.
‘It’s possible. That crazy High Priest said it was thanks to the High Priests' help that Ferdinand was dragged to the Summer Continent.’
If they truly cared for Ferdinand, they would never have done that.
So, the High Priests must have cherished Ferdinand like a final savings account!
[SYSTEM] The ultimate goal of the High Priests.
[SYSTEM] It is to apply this system window to all people to receive their eternal submission and obedience.
[SYSTEM] Furthermore, to discard the declining god and create a new god, ‘Animus,’ so that they themselves may be directly respected as the god’s representatives.
‘These bastards, they’re just a cult!’
[SYSTEM] What was needed for this brainwashing magic was the blood of children and the power of the Star’s Divine Tree, Beta Crucis.
[SYSTEM] The High Priests conspired with heretic priests to create a Saintess who was a complete clone of the Divine Tree’s successor.
Simultaneously, images of the past flickered by like a film.
The first thing I saw was none other than Corico.
Not Han Ina, not Tulia, but Corico with her own true face.
[SYSTEM] That Saintess is Corico.
Corico sat in the highest place with the heretics at her feet. Bizarrely, she was scratching her own face mercilessly with her fingernails.
Claw marks were left deep, and blood dripped from the wounds, but Corico simply smiled brightly as if she felt no pain at all.
That smile was the same beautiful smile Corico wore in every happy ending I achieved in The Milk Bread.
And then.
‘I’m dead under that crazy woman’s feet too...’
Because Tulia was always the villainess who died in The Milk Bread, it was never shown where her body went after her death.
I had never wondered about it either.
So her corpse was eventually offered to Corico and used as a sacrifice like that...
[SYSTEM] As regressions were repeated countless times, errors occasionally occurred where the Tulia from outside this world was pulled in.
[SYSTEM] Just like right now.
“Now.”
The moment the video playing in my consciousness cut off.
“It is time to perform the ceremony again today.”
Cold reality was back before my eyes.
The heretic priests, who had suddenly entered the prison cell where I was with Benjamin, wore cruel smiles.
Then, my eyes widened. They began to beat Benjamin mercilessly with cold leather whips.
“Benjamin!”
I tried to rush to him in shock, but other priests had already restrained me.
“What are you doing? Are you all insane?”
“...This happens all the time, but your mouth has become quite foul today, hasn't it?”
‘This happens all the time?’
A priest chuckled.
“That wretched prince kept drinking your blood until he could even use the power of the Divine Tree, didn't he? Look at that thin, useless protective barrier.”
Just as the priests said, a protective barrier as thin as a butterfly's wing was shimmering around Benjamin's body. But it was so fragile it couldn't even properly defend against the whips.
“This is all your fault. You should have just let him starve. No matter how much that pathetic thing was starving, why did you share your blood with him?”
“Tsk, tsk. That prince's mother was a descendant of the most famous mage on the Summer Continent. He should have been used as a sacrifice, but because of your half-baked sympathy, he’s ended up suffering even more.”
I looked at Benjamin, who was curled up and bleeding, yet didn't let out a single scream.
“So, you’re going to keep beating him until that barrier tears? You’re going to do that to Benjamin?”
“Only then can we tear a part of your barrier. Ah, Successor of Beta Crucis. How strong the Divine Tree’s barrier protecting you is... We have to offer sacrifices one by one like this just to weaken the barrier surrounding you.”
The priests, with their glazed eyes, looked like addicts intoxicated by the power of the Divine Tree.
“Right. So you’re beating Benjamin because you need my blood? Because you can’t extort my blood due to the barrier?”
“Beating? This is a sacred cere— Gack!”
Before he could finish his sentence, the priest went rolling. They were only restraining my arms, completely overlooking the fact that my legs were free.
After kicking them in the stomach, I immediately went and kicked the ones beating Benjamin as well.
I let out a hollow laugh and grit my teeth.
“You need the successor’s blood?”
Is that why you beat Benjamin like that? Is that why you’ve been beating him for so long?
“There’s no need for that. I’ll give it to you myself.”
I quickly scanned the area, but none of them had anything sharp.
So, there was only one way to draw blood.
“A woman’s got to have grit. Right.”
It was my fate and my life anyway.
“Watch closely, you filthy, pathetic bastards.”
I charged straight at the iron bars and slammed my head against them.
Ping—.
My vision was dyed red.