[Lawful Player: Since your whole roleplay and identity got exposed from the start anyway, I figure it’s fine. I’ll polish you nice and clean every day and even provide a plush cushion. How about you cooperate?]

A long silence followed.

Hmm, were the conditions too meager? Did my ulterior motive of trying to put you to work for free show through? I was starting to get a little anxious.

[Former Purity: You’re a really weird one, aren’t you?]

Did he really have to diss me out of nowhere?

[Former Purity: No… it’s genuinely strange. You went and brought me out for such a petty reason? Knowing you’d incur the Holy Emperor’s displeasure?]

That was nothing new. ‘Chris’ was the kind of jerk brimming with the courage to be hated by everyone in the world from the start.

[Lawful Player: You’re the one who initiated contact with me first. Was I supposed to just leave you behind while going ‘I’m actually a human’?]

[Former Purity: …….]

[Former Purity: You put on quite the bluff, but in the end, you’re a fool.]

My elbow, which had been resting against the carriage window, nearly slipped. Seriously, no matter what I do, he has something to say.

[Lawful Player: You’ve been taking shots at me for a while now, and here I am, your benefactor who freed you-]

[Former Purity: Right, thank you. Thanks to you, I get to breathe outside air for the first time in ages.]

[Lawful Player: When you put it like that, I don’t have a comeback.]

The way he kept lifting me up and dropping me suggested he was no ordinary entity. I let out a hollow laugh while staring at the chat window, then suddenly remembered something important.

[Lawful Player (hereafter LP): Come to think of it, you’re not a Holy Relic anymore. Shouldn’t you get a new name? Do you remember your real one?]

[Nickname Cannot Be Left Blank: I don’t know. My time as a human is a distant memory. Why don’t you just name me?]

[Nickname Cannot Be Left Blank: *(ꈍ .̮ ꈍ)*:･(shy emoticon)]

First off, anything too long was out. The System seemed to find even displaying six characters for ‘Lawful Player’ tedious.

My naming sense wasn’t that bad, so let’s see…

[LP: You’re a shiny glass bead, so ‘Sparkle’. How about it?]

[Nickname Cannot Be Left Blank: Message could not be sent.]

[LP: What, this kind of error happens too? Resending. ‘Sparkle’ is fine, right?]

[Nickname Cannot Be Left Blank: Message cㅅㅂould not be sent.]

Got it, you jerk. If you don’t like it, just say so.

After a brief war of words, his name was decided as ‘Bead’. He said he’d rather have something intuitive than be called by a childish, flashy name.

[Bead: Well, this meeting must be fate too. Let’s get along, LP?]

[Chris: Let’s just stick with Chris…]

Once the naming was sorted, another system window popped up.

[Hidden Character Discovered. Will be bound to Chris Dotten based on the character’s will.]

[Bead (Holy Relic Grade -> Rare Grade (Downgraded))

Skills Possessed

– Your Excellent Advisor (Constant communication possible.)

– Always Together (Size adjustable for easy carrying.)

– Bead is a Great Throwing Stone (Deals damage when thrown and hits the target.)

– ??? (Raise affinity with the character to unlock.)]

So Bead was essentially a pet that followed the player around, in game terms. It’d be convenient to shrink him down and hang him on a necklace chain.

Seeing as he had four skills when I didn’t even have one, he seemed quite useful…

‘You can even attack by throwing him.’

Of course, I couldn’t say that to Bead.

It’s not me, it’s the System treating you like this, System. Bad System, mean System.

[Bead: Chris, you seem to be breaking out in a cold sweat. Are you alright?]

[Chris: Huh, me? No, I’m fine. It’s just a bit hot. Just hot.]

[Bead: (ㅍ_ㅍ)(emoticon staring suspiciously)]

* * *

After finishing our report to the Principal regarding the Founding Festival, we disbanded.

Princess parted ways at the Holy Kingdom, Lion headed to a tourist destination declaring he was free at last, and Healer left for another region citing volunteer work.

The Protagonist and I, with nowhere to go, were planning to rot away at the Academy, but…

“Professor, do you happen to remember what I said when the Doppelganger appeared?”

That remark about wanting to go somewhere together? I remembered.

“If you have the time, would you accompany me this time?”

I had a pretty good idea where. There were only so many places the Protagonist would visit during summer break.

‘But didn’t he go there with a girlfriend candidate in the original work?’

The author never specified exactly who he went with, so the comment section had exploded with readers insisting it was definitely their favorite heroine.

‘Getting close to the Protagonist isn’t a bad thing, though.’

I looked at the system window floating blatantly right next to the Protagonist.

[Main Quest: Request of the Earth God 2-6]

[Michael has made the first move and proposed to you. This is a good thing. Accept his invitation, spend quality time in the village where Michael lived as a child, console the spirits of those who remain, and return. That’s all you need to do. Probably. Really.]

Success Reward: Item Combination Recipe

Upon Failure: Wander the mortal realm with them

Time Remaining: 3 Days 00:00:00]

I was starting to get it. The quests were focused on my relationship with the Protagonist.

‘As if it wants me to become close with the Protagonist.’

With my life on the line, I had no choice but to comply for now, but I needed to figure out the System’s ulterior motives going forward.

That was what I was thinking as I accompanied the Protagonist on his trip home, but…

‘How did things end up like this.’

“Professor… can I take off my clothes now?”

“Lady Chris, if you stay still, I can make you plenty hot myself.”

The sound of a waterfall, a cave below the cliff, three soaked men and women, a campfire burning quietly.

I never dreamed this quest would lead to such an insane situation.

I think I’m moving way too fast, I feel like I’m going to lose my job, what do I do?

* * *

Even when we arrived at the village where the Protagonist lived as a child, I never imagined things would turn out like this.

That was because the scene unfolding before the Protagonist and me was devastating.

Some places had sprouted new growth with the passage of time, but that was it. This place had not yet recovered from the fire—a ghost village in every sense.

‘Well, it wasn’t an ordinary fire, it was the Protagonist’s fire, so I suppose that’s expected.’

“……”

The Protagonist bit his lip in pain but didn’t look away. I could feel his will to face his sins head-on.

Watching him, I felt a bit sorry for him, but…

‘Honestly, the Protagonist didn’t really have a reason to feel this guilty.’

In fantasy novels, a protagonist killing many people as a child could alienate readers.

Therefore, there were cases where a twist revealed the protagonist wasn’t actually the murderer.

<Hero Rampage> was no different.

‘The villagers were already all killed by the Demon Lord. That’s why no one could respond to the Protagonist’s calls for help. Strictly speaking, the Protagonist’s crime was arson and the resulting desecration of corpses…’

By Earth standards, that alone would be a serious crime, but this was another world, and more importantly, he had simply lost control from the shock of his mother’s death and burned everything.

“I’m sorry, Professor. You must have been surprised when I suddenly asked you to come to a place like this.”

Perhaps his thoughts had finally organized, the Protagonist spoke up.

I pretended to stare ahead without saying anything. This wasn’t a situation that required comfort.

“This is, as you saw within my mental world, the village where I lived. When I was very young, with my mother…”

And the story that followed was entirely about memories with his mother.

She was delighted when he made her a flower crown in spring, they shared ripe berries in summer, watched autumn leaves from the windowsill in fall, and in winter…

[Bead: Good grief. From the sound of it, you couldn’t ask for a better mother.]

But I knew the truth. The Protagonist’s mother didn’t love him. She was simply an adult who couldn’t bring herself to abandon a child and leave.

[Bead: Well, from a child’s perspective, the adult beside them is their entire world.]

The Protagonist rambled on alone for quite some time, then fell silent upon realizing he had no more memories to share. Instead, he said there was something he wanted to show me and led me somewhere.

It was the place I expected. A cluster of red flowers spread through the forest a short distance from the village. With the sun setting, the scenery was even more wistful.

“Occasionally, my mother and I would come here to look at the flowers. They only bloom like this for one week in summer, so we always had to hurry. I really wanted to see this scenery again, but I was too scared to come alone…”

This too was a line I had read in the original work.

But seeing and hearing it in person hit a bit differently.

[Bead: What’s this, did that get to you?]

Ugh, shut up. Don’t you have a favorite novel or anything? Am I the only otaku here?

[Bead: What’s that, otherworlder…]

[Bead: Though I have to admit, it is quite a sight. Those flowers are a species called Mimir, and they’re not commonly seen. Even I’m seeing them in this scale for the first time.]

Oh, really? I didn’t know the flower species. They didn’t appear in the original work, so they probably weren’t that important…

[Bead: Their nickname is Corpse Flower. They typically grow using monster corpses as fertilizer. In other words, this area is crawling with monsters. Oh.]

…they are! Mother, where on earth did you go flower-viewing with your son!