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[Translator - Tangrine ]
[Proofreader - Seeker ]
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Chapter - 27: Destruction X Destruction
I had a dream. In the dream, I was sitting in front of a computer.
For some reason, I was so frustrated that I slammed the keyboard with my fist in a fit of rage.
I clutched my head and screamed like a madman.
Now, I fully understand why my past self was acting that way.
“These dev team bastards are insane.”
[The world has perished.]
[You failed to protect this world.]
[Seek a possibility where destruction does not occur.]
Endless.
A legendary trash game where every ending leads to the destruction of the world.
The message displayed on the screen announced the world’s end.
Judging by the fact that I still had the energy to be angry, I’d probably trigger the destruction twice.
“Come on, this is just cruel! What did Zara even do wrong?!”
"There's something wrong.”
Knowing no one would hear, I muttered to myself.
Yeah. Zara did do something wrong.
She was born to bear all the world’s misfortunes as a scapegoat, and yet she dared to try to be happy.
“Hoo. Fine, let’s keep going. There’s got to be a better ending. I just haven’t found the true ending yet.”
“That’s what I thought too—but it doesn’t exist.”
In the dream, I kept playing the game.
Killed the hero, killed the witch, tormented the unfortunate girl, killed the demon king, and did all sorts of things.
But once again, the world perished, and I struggled again to stop that destruction.
“Fucking trash game……”
“You should’ve just deleted it by now. Persistent bastard. What’s so fun about a trash game like this?”
“I’ll find this game’s true ending no matter what.”
“Lunatic.”
So that’s what I looked like.
It was a strange sensation, watching myself from a third-person perspective.
Why had I been so obsessed with that trash game?
“…This is just too pitiful.”
“Hm?”
“Priscilla was just scared of dying, that’s all. Zara may have been born evil, but she always tried to be good. Noah only ever wanted people to be happy. And…”
“You’re way too immersed, man.”
I really said something that was embarrassing to myself.
Thank the heavens no one was around to hear it.
If someone had heard, I’d have jumped into the Han River from sheer humiliation.
“…Gigachad. Do you think I can do this?”
Please, just stop talking to yourself. Embarrassment belongs to the listener.
How long is this damned dream going to last, anyway?
“You’re right, Gigachad. I’ll see it through to the end.”
Yeah, yeah. The great man found comfort talking to his imaginary inner friend.
And even that imaginary friend lacked originality and piggybacked on a meme.
Damn endless loop…
“…What was it that Gigachad said to me back then?”
I can’t quite remember.
Surely…
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To the day Priscilla received her baptism.
Priscilla witnessed the truth.
A Transcendent──seated on a worn-out chair, adjusting the world through a radiant window.
The fate that had been set, she ultimately failed to attain eternal life.
No. It wasn’t just that she failed to become immortal—
She caused a horrendous catastrophe, bringing ruin to all other beings, and ended in utter fiasco.
“Ugh…! Guh, bleaargh…”
Disgusting. The truth was so unbearably repulsive that her stomach churned.
The priestess patted Priscilla’s back.
The holy water of the baptismal chamber was fouled with vomit, completely defiled.
Only after retching up everything inside her did Priscilla finally manage to calm down.
“Are you all right?”
“…Did you know?”
“I don’t know what you saw in there. If your thoughts surged strongly enough, I might have been able to read them… but only you can understand the weight of the scales laid before you.”
“……”
She was afraid of dying. She hated death. Death only ever took everything away from her.
In her first life, fire took everything away from her.
In her second life, the plague took everything away from her.
“…It was all my fault. I… destroyed the world.”
Priscilla feared death.
The greatest reason she feared it… was that everything she loved always died before she did.
Thanatophobia.
She hated death. Not just her own—she hated all death.
She feared death finding its way to her so desperately that she created a dreadful curse.
“Ugh…”
And if that curse was the reason everyone died—
Then what on earth…
What had she been trying to do?
"……."
Once again, the nausea rose up, but she had already thrown up everything inside.
Nothing came out.
Just like her soul, now utterly hollowed out.
She who had survived by devouring the lives of others—
As if she had discarded everything to stand here now.
What had already been emptied could not be filled again.
And there was nothing more left to pour out.
It was a miserable thing.
She was a miserable person.
"……Gigachad."
And it was Gigachad who had pulled her out of that pit when she was about to fall into endless misery.
When she was about to plummet into ruin, he was the one who caught her.
["Prippy. I wasn’t the one who changed you. Only you can change yourself."]
"…Liar."
She was someone who could not change. A wretched human being, hopeless beyond help.
And the one who knew that best… was him.
That’s why.
She had to find him—Gigachad.
She had to find him and tell him.
That she was sorry. Sorry for destroying the world. Sorry for becoming a witch, for fearing death, for making things so hard for him… sorry.
She had to apologize.
This sin would never be forgiven… but even so, she had to beg.
"Calm yourself, Priscilla."
"…You know, don’t you? You know where Gigachad is."
Even though she now knew the truth, Priscilla still had no idea who Gigachad was, or what he was doing, or where he was now.
All she had seen was a small, worn-down room.
The radiant window that tuned the world, and the click-clack of a typewriter—
That was all she had glimpsed of ‘Gigachad.’
"Please, tell me. You know… You do know where Gigachad is. Please, tell me!"
That’s why she pleaded with the priestess.
Clung to her legs. Bowed her head.
Screamed incoherently, then apologized through tears.
The priestess shook her head. Priscilla couldn’t see her face, but the priestess made her refusal clear with both words and gesture.
"Spilled water cannot be gathered again.
The reason you were allowed to understand him… was only because you had lost him.
If you find him again, the Libra will take back the power they once entrusted to you."
"I don’t care. Even if I lose my power—"
"You’ll forget. Everything you learned today."
"…What?"
"These are memories granted in exchange for loss. If you want something, then you must lose something."
Libra is fair.
To one who has lost their legs, they grant wings.
To one who has lost their sight, they offer a staff.
To give up one thing and receive another—that is the power of Libra.
If you have regained what you once lost, isn’t it only fair to return what you received in return?
"…Then what do you want me to do? Just become a priestess and live earnestly like this? Rejoice in the fact that I’ve escaped a dreadful fate? That’s… not fair at all. Isn’t the god of Libra supposed to be the fairest of all? They could at least give me a chance to apologize…"
Priscilla sank to the ground.
She couldn’t see anything.
Not because she was blind, but because she had no face left to lift her head and look forward.
The priestess’s answer to her was simple.
"Wait."
"…What?"
"He is still fighting to stop the destruction. The Pantheon cannot interfere in his affairs due to the contract… but once everything is over, it will be different."
"…"
"The god of Libra is fair. Even matters after the end of a contract… are being prepared fairly."
"…Ha."
"No contract lasts forever. After the contract period ends… It’s no longer our responsibility, is it?"
The priestess laughed with a voice full of playful teasing.
Priscilla couldn’t see that smile.
But the power she had gained in exchange for her loss told her that those words were true.
"…Now that I think about it, I hated the gods even before I became a witch."
"What a coincidence. So did I."
.
.
.
And so, several more months passed.
On the day Zara decided to walk around the Earth to find ‘Gigachad’—
Zara met a blind woman holding a staff, her hood pulled low.
"Hello!"
"Hello. You must be Zara?"
"Yes!"
"My name is Priscilla. I’ve been wanting to meet you."
"…Huh?"
The blind woman smiled.
The power of Libra etched into her soul sparkled like starlight.
It was ‘the power to not be hated.’
Even in distant foreign lands, Priscilla easily won favor.
Spend just a day with her, and she would be as dear as family.
"Huh?"
"Does something feel strange?"
"Yes! Very strange! Strangely… I don’t dislike you at all, sister…"
"I'm glad."
"You’re a strange person, sister."
For the first time, Zara had met a companion she didn’t want to kill.
Zara’s malice fell silent.
"Perhaps… we might be able to walk this path together."
A long journey needs a companion.
If that companion is someone heading toward the same person, then they are more than enough to walk the road together.
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[Translator - Tangrine ]
[Proofreader - Seeker ]
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