"Would you be okay with that? You stupid bastard."
Presepe spat out her final choice very accurately and loudly.
Attar didn't reply at all. No, to be precise, it seemed as though he doubted what he had just heard.
Oh my god.
Presepe, her face pale, turned his gaze over Attar's head.
But something was strange.
[Attar Hanan/Affection Level 0]
The affection status window started to get darker and darker.
Then...
[Atar Hanan/Affection???]
It turned into an unknown question mark.
"...Huh?"
Flustered, Presepe opened her eyes wide.
The status window remained intact, but it was so dark, like a turned-off light, that the values could not be checked.
"Lord Attar? Is there something wrong?"
The owner of the voice that startled Presepe was Attar's bodyguard.
"No."
Attar waved his hand without even giving him a glance.
"That is enough, so step aside for a moment."
As Attar spoke with a slightly contorted expression, the guard flinched and moved away from his seat.
"... Young Lady."
Presepe, who had finally come to her senses at Attar's voice, hurriedly pressed her lips together.
"No, um, that’s not what I meant to say."
Then she started rambling.
"It's true. I was just so surprised... that's why I did it. And, uh... uh?"
Presepe paused mid-sentence.
"I'm... talking nonsense...?"
She always did exactly as prescribed, speaking only the lines written in the options she chose. That was all she could do in the game.
No matter how much she tried to scream, it was useless while the game was in progress. But now, that was not the case.
Presepe suddenly grabbed the hem of the dress. Holding it tightly, she... with all her might...
"Young Lady, what are you doing right now?"
"Just stay still for a moment!"
You aren't important right now. Soon, with a whoosh, the hem of the old dress was torn off.
That was all. The torn dress could not return to its original state.
Presepe held it in her hand with a blank expression.
While the game was in progress, everything always... returned to normal...
Even though she had cut her hair short with scissors to make it look like a bird's nest, as the game progressed, her long, glossy silver hair fluttered in the wind as if mocking Presepe, as if nothing had happened.
It was the same even if she cut the clothes. She had even tried burning them, but they returned to their original state in the blink of an eye.
But now...
"It's strange, I can't understand a single thing..."
"Young Lady, please calm down for now. You seem quite shocked."
As he stared intently at Presepe, who was acting like a crazy woman, Attar spoke as if to soothe her.
Come to think of it, it seemed Attar still didn't know who she was. At best, he might know that she was a young lady from a noble family; since this was their first meeting, it was, in a way, only natural.
I'm rather glad.
"In any case, it would be best if you went back. If you don't mind, I will escort you home."
"Ah. No, no!"
'Take me home? What do you mean, take me home?' Presepe, who at best had to return to the tower tucked away in a corner of the imperial palace, shook her head.
"I... I can go by myself. I have truly committed a breach of etiquette. I apologize once again. And thank you... Yes. Well then, I will be going now."
With those words, Presepe hurriedly walked away without looking back. She felt as though she were being watched intently from behind, but that wasn't the issue right now.
Left alone in front of the stairs, Attar silently looked in the direction where Presepe had disappeared, then let out a small chuckle.
Then, he stared intently at the hand that had been gripping Presepe's ankle.
White, slender ankles.
Thick, hard shackles that match well with the...
"Yeah, there was one I had newly made, a very thick one."
He thought it might look quite good if he put it on that woman. Since she has a slender frame overall, she would probably suffer even more being crushed by the heavy iron...
Attar grinned.
Then, he suddenly staggered slightly. It was due to a headache that had struck him suddenly.
[Attar, it hurts.]
For a moment, a tearful voice and a deep groan brushed past his ears.
[...]
Th-that strange woman who had just disappeared—leaning weakly against the wall like a withered flower, staring blankly into the void.
"This is..."
What is this? I have no memory of this. Attar furrowed his brows deeply.
"Lord Attar, it would be best for you to return now. It is already very late..."
The guard standing at a distance glanced cautiously and approached Attar. Attar nodded as if to say he understood, and began walking down the hallway, still looking somewhat puzzled.
While pondering to himself what on earth that hallucination he had just seen and that voice he had heard so clearly were.
Therefore, Attar did not realize. That at the opposite end of the hallway, in the darkness, someone's eyes were staring at him persistently.
***
Presepe returned to the gower in a dazed state.
"..."
Lying limply on an old, dirty bed, Presepe stared intently at something she was holding in her hand.
It was the hem of the dress she had torn with her own hands earlier.
The dress remained torn.
Presepe was trembling with anxiety, not merely because strange things had been happening one after another.
When pursuing the five male characters. That is, before switching to Secret Mode.
Presepe had died a gruesome death even before seeing the ending. And she had died in all sorts of ways. Beheaded, hanged, committed suicide, drank poison, shot with an arrow... the list is endless. It was because she had chosen the wrong option, causing her affection level, which had started at zero, to drop into the negative.
But she came back to life every time. Because at least saving was possible.
But what if there were no such safety mechanism now? Like this torn dress.
What if it couldn't even be saved?
So...
What if dying in the game meant eternal death?
Presepe, who had been sitting blankly, sprang to her feet.
"Save."
Then, she urgently pressed her lips together.
"Save. I'm saving it!"
And as if to prove that Presepe's anxiety was true, a notification window popped up.
[Note: This feature is not available in Secret Mode.]
Presepe made a stupid face.
She still remembered what she had been doing in Normal Mode, but just looking at Dietrich and Attar earlier, the progression had subtly changed.
I met a tragic death while trying to clear the area before, and now you're saying I can't even save myself?
So you're telling me to just die like this?
Suddenly, the information window she had seen earlier flashed through her mind.
[Note: You can pursue a male character you have already seen the ending with again, or you can pursue the true male protagonist. However, it will be very dangerous.]
I think I finally understand a little bit. The true meaning hidden in those words.
Whether to live like this, safely repeating endings with countless other male characters.
Or not...
Find the real male protagonist and take the risk of dying at any moment since there is no save function.
Besides, what on earth is that strange option?
Of course, true to the description of a 'bug-ridden failed game,' Presepe saw hidden bugs even after possessing the game.
As if there were an error, the game would sometimes freeze on its own. Whenever that happened, Presepe was trapped alone in the frozen space, unable to do anything. That is why she had been pathologically saving her progress.
Also, sometimes Siegfried would say lines that Dietrich was supposed to say, and the affection level of Siegfried, who was being pursued, would be swapped with the affection level of Noah, who had already reached the ending.
Once, Ivan's face even changed into Attar's. However, these were all minor bugs, and they would automatically return to normal over time.
Yeah, I guess you could say it was just a minor bug that could be overlooked.
However, the current situation was by no means something that could be overlooked with such generosity.
"What kind of crappy game is this!"
How can you not go bankrupt at this rate?
Presepe shouted loudly while staring into the void.
"I don't even know who the real male lead is... You don't give me a single piece of information, so what am I supposed to do if you don't even do something like this!"
And it was that moment.
Note: In Secret Mode, the save function cannot be used, but other functions are provided.
"...What?"
[Notice: Would you like to activate the new feature?]
Things she had never expected began to reflect in Presepe's violently trembling eyes.
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