A Troublesome One Has Latched On
An unfamiliar ceiling.
I never thought I would live long enough to use that tired old line, yet the moment I opened my eyes I finally understood why people said it.
Because it really was a ceiling I had never seen before.
“Where… is this place?”
Blinking rare, wide-awake eyes, I pushed myself upright—only to realize the room around me was oddly bustling.
“I hope nothing’s wrong with her…”
“Don’t worry so much. Her breathing was normal, and they said there was nothing wrong with her mana circuits. Just overwork, apparently.”
“Overwork?”
The voices drifting past the curtain were familiar.
Probably Roxanna… and Adrian?
That was when it came back to me.
I had lost consciousness while watching Adrian’s spar with Glen.
Subtle differences—events that no longer matched the ones I knew. Where exactly had the story begun to twist?
Perhaps I had already come too far to turn back.
The dark thoughts rising in every corner of my mind crashed over me as crushing stress. And I, it seemed, had grown too weak to bear them.
Come to think of it, I’ve only been sleeping four hours a night…
I had expected this from the day before the entrance ceremony. Balancing studies and a restaurant would be grueling. I had done each separately before, but never both at once. And while academics were one thing, running a kitchen demanded both stamina and sheer stubbornness—it was, in truth, hard physical labor.
…I really have been pushing myself, haven’t I?
I looked down. A slender white hand filled my vision—still unbelievably delicate even after living in this body for some time. I clenched and unclenched it a few times, trying to feel that it was truly mine.
A thought struck me: perhaps this work had always been too much for the fragile frame of a noble young lady.
But… it was necessary.
The world does not wait for anyone. Time slips through one’s fingers like sand, merciless and unstoppable. I understood my situation well enough. Abandoned by my house, without a single backer, if I wanted to survive at the academy… this level of effort was simply what was required.
Well… at least it hasn’t been all bad. I suppose that’s something.
I opened my status window, just to confirm once more that this was no dream.
◈ A guidepost leading toward a different ending. Collect a certain number of fragments and something special will occur.
◈ Remaining Fragments: 1/5
In my inventory, a jewel fragment glowed a deep red. Seeing it, I managed a small smile.
In the moment I had been certain I was hurtling down the wrong path and nearly died of fright, the mysterious reward I received for feeding Adrian shashlik had finally revealed its true nature.
A different ending… that can only mean one thing.
Every ending in Chronicles of Lodoros led to the same event: the Tyrant Ending. Adrian, become a tyrant, declares war on the entire world and marches on the protagonists at the head of grotesque monsters. The final cutscene of the game—characters drawing their weapons and preparing for the coming war—was called The End of the World.
When I played the game I had thought it merely teased a sequel. Living inside it, I now knew it was a future that truly meant the end of everything.
In that light, this item was hope itself.
If I gather five of them… what will happen?
A different ending. I rolled the words around on my tongue, tasting them. A phrase of infinite possibility. It could lead to something worse than the original fate—or to something far more optimistic.
But… how do I obtain the rest?
The first fragment had come from cooking for Adrian. There might have been other conditions, but if I looked only at the facts, my task remained the same: show my cooking to more people.
That much I can do as much as anyone likes.
By pure chance, it was also the thing I did best. The thought gave me strength, as though the world itself had just told me that everything I had done so far had not been a mistake.
I was still wearing that faint smile when—
“Oh! Carmilla, you’re awake!”
The curtain was yanked aside and Roxanna’s face popped into view.
“Ah, I seem to have caused you needless worry.”
“Worry… well, yes, but more importantly, think of yourself. The nurse said you collapsed from overwork.”
“Now that you mention it, I have been short on sleep lately…”
I rolled my shoulders and twisted my torso experimentally. The result was surprising.
I felt fantastic.
“What are you doing all of a sudden?”
“I suppose one could say I finally got a proper night’s rest.”
A few extra hours of sleep and I felt brand-new. Was this the recovery power of a teenager?
“Well, you look healthy, so that’s a relief.”
Apparently more than one person had been watching my little drama.
“Prince Adrian is here as well, I see.”
“Naturally. When the owner of one’s favorite restaurant collapses, one tends to worry.”
“As you can see, I am perfectly fine. More importantly…”
I studied Adrian’s face. Even for someone as strong as he was, losing a spar had to sting. I expected at least a shadow of gloom.
“Hm? Is there something on my face?”
“To be honest, I thought Your Highness would be rather downcast after losing the duel.”
Adrian answered as if it were nothing at all, his voice bright.
“Master Glen is strong. And I learned a great deal from that strength. Why should I be downcast?”
“But it was such a shame! You’ve been making so much progress in training lately—I truly believed Your Highness might win…”
Roxanna looked more frustrated than he did. My prediction had been completely off the mark.
“Mm. There is some regret, I admit. Lately my body has felt unusually light.”
He clenched his fist, testing it.
“The sword in my hand was light, my footwork feather-soft… it was as if my body moved at the speed of thought. I had never experienced anything like it, so I wondered if I had reached some new realm.”
Ah… hearing that left me with complicated feelings. Was the buff from Monarch of Gastronomy really that powerful?
“But the moment our blades met, I understood. His strength exists on an entirely different plane from mine. Thinking I could defeat a swordsman like that was pure arrogance.”
There was not a shred of lingering attachment in his voice.
“Ahh. It feels exactly like meeting a wall I desperately want to climb.”
“Yes, that is a fine mindset indeed.”
“To turn even defeat into nourishment… as expected of Your Highness!”
It felt strangely new. The ending version of him had been so vivid that I had almost forgotten he was capable of expressions like this.
“Heh… then perhaps I should throw a defeat-commemoration party for you.”
“Whoa, that’s a combination I’ve never heard in my life.”
“Are you sure? You collapsed from overwork only today.”
“After a good nap I am quite restored.”
And so I found myself a little happy. They might not be my ultimate favorite like Angelica, but spending time with these two regulars had become its own kind of pleasure.
“If you come to my restaurant tonight, I shall prepare something special.”
“Heeh, so we get to eat that again?”
“Somehow I find myself craving a wild, meaty dish tonight…”
Chatting about such trivial things, the day slowly drew to a close.
Clatter—!
Some noise came from outside the infirmary, but… well, it was probably nothing important.
Elyse di Rosenberg.
Eldest daughter of the Rosenberg family, a house that had long served the kingdom as inspectors rooting out corruption among its officials. True to her blood, she was a ruthless stickler for principle.
Principles over instinct. Strict punishment over leniency. That rigid way of thinking, which might have seemed inflexible at first glance, was paradoxically perfect for the student council of an academy that gathered every race under the sun. Such a place needed ironclad rules to hold everyone together.
And so Elyse was busy again today. As Student Council President of St. Celestia Academy, she was a young woman crushed daily under a mountain of work.
That was precisely why the sight of her slipping out of the academy grounds under cover of night was so rare. Moving with the secretive air of someone tailing a target, her eyes were fixed on a single student.
Carmilla de Valin.
The girl who had once used the old faculty kitchen without permission, then had the gall to shove some ridiculous object at her and try to break Elyse’s iron rule that there was no negotiating with criminals. A student who had committed a serious offense.
Elyse had almost forgotten about her—until today, when a certain piece of information reached her ears.
Tonight, Carmilla would be hosting a banquet at a restaurant outside the academy walls. And the way she spoke of it, she seemed remarkably close to the Imperial Crown Prince himself.
The moment those circumstances lined up, the blood of the Rosenberg family stirred. She smelled it instinctively—corruption, bribery, collusion!
“Carmilla… tonight I will finally expose the filthy backer you have been hiding.”
With that vow, Elyse di Rosenberg resolved to do something she had never done in her life: follow someone in secret.