728. [Side Story] For the finale,
“Shall we go on a picnic tomorrow, Ada?”
When did it happen?
Ader, who was tired of being a fake prince, was completely exhausted and was sitting on the sofa when Ariel, who was sitting in the front seat with refreshments, asked:
Ader asked with wide eyes.
“A picnic?”
“yes. There is a hill in the suburbs where I often went to play with my brother when I was young. There is a large zelkova tree and flowers bloom in the summer…”
Ariel smiled awkwardly.
“Because you are working hard for me and the royal family. “I don’t have any plans for tomorrow… Well, if you don’t like it or are tired, you can refuse.”
“No no! “I don’t hate it at all!”
Ader waved his hand hastily and smiled awkwardly.
“Thank you for inviting me, princess. Tomorrow… I’ll be happy to wait!”
But the next day, the two were unable to go on a picnic to the countryside.
Because it rained suddenly.
So instead of going on a picnic, we sat side by side in the pavilion in the royal castle’s courtyard…
and watched the rain fall together.
A memory of an ordinary day, nothing special.
What is the reason why it remains so deeply in my heart?
***
“Huh! Cluck, cluck, cluck!”
The moment the lake kingdom sank. Lakeside.
Ader fell under the first curse – the curse of eternal life.
The second and third curses imposed on the Lake Kingdom by the princess’s banishment order were not received and were thrown out of the Lake Kingdom.
And from the lakeside, he had to watch as the entire Lake Kingdom sank, with no one but himself escaping in the process.
“….”
In the face of the destruction of a world, Ader, who was just a small human, was overwhelmed.
The great kingdom disappeared like foam beneath the lake. Ader could not do anything as she stared blankly at this scene.
After the entire kingdom had completely sunk and all the vibrations and noises that shook the heavens and earth had stopped.
A thought came to Ader’s mind belatedly.
‘What should I do now?’
If you think about it carefully, there was no need for you to do anything for the Lake Kingdom.
He was just a slave in the Lake Kingdom and not even a citizen. After doing dirty and dirty work all his life, he was brought in and had to act as a substitute just because he resembled a prince.
No family, no friends. There is no connection or relationship.
Just shake it off like this and leave.
Just as I was thinking that.
Rattling.
Something made a noise in Ader’s pocket. Ader looked puzzled and reached into his pocket and took it out.
It was a hopae (號牌) made of black wood.
‘this is…?’
It was Princess Ariel’s trophy.
Her name and identity were engraved on it, and as luxuriously as a royal tablet, it was made of a piece of Everblack.
‘When on earth…’
It seemed like Ariel handed it to Ader at the moment the deportation order was issued.
Why?
Why did the princess take herself out of the Lake Kingdom at that moment, and why did she give her the most precious thing she had at that moment?
– Ader.
Suddenly, the image of Ariel smiling brightly passed before my eyes.
The person who gave himself a name.
And for the first time… someone who treated him like a ‘person’.
– Shall we go on a picnic tomorrow?
“….”
I know.
That the warmth is not directed entirely towards yourself.
The fact is that the princess merely projected onto herself the image of her brother, with whom she had a good relationship during their childhood.
Royalty, slaves, citizens and non-citizens….
That there is a greater distance between her and herself than heaven and earth.
But nonetheless.
‘I want to save it.’
Even if the whole world is destroyed, only you.
‘I just want to save you…’
After carefully taking the trophy handed over by the princess into my arms.
Ader stood up unsteadily.
“I don’t know what I should do, but…”
With determination reflected on her weak face,
“I will try anything, princess.”
Ader quietly looked down at the surface of the lake, which was gradually turning black and turbid.
“So… please wait a moment.”
like that.
To save the destroyed kingdom, the false prince began a long wandering.
***
“…After that, it’s just a repetition of a boring story.”
Ader finished talking and looked at me.
“At first, I just held my sword and fought. “The three wise men who placed the curse… I thought the situation would be resolved if I killed the Demon King and all his associates.”
“So you succeeded in killing him?”
As I was listening to the story while picking up popcorn (it may seem a bit rude, but the story should be longer), I asked in surprise.
Then Ader nodded.
“yes. Two of them were knocked down. After a really long and terrible fight… we were able to defeat the two who had set up their respective bases at the end of the continent. “Both of them were on a higher level, so it was very difficult to take them down.”
“wow.”
To be honest, this guy, Ada, looks shabby, has a pale face, and even as a joke, I don’t think he’s the type to fight on the front lines. I guess I hit it a bit in the past?
“If you have eternal life and an unbreakable will, anyone can accomplish something like this.”
“No, it’s because my will usually breaks…”
Don’t say it in an easy way, like you’re explaining a recipe to someone living alone.
“Did you see that only the left and right sides of the three statues in the Lake Kingdom were broken? That statue was erected after the Demon King took over, but I defeated the other two wise men…” “
The statues on the left and right are broken. “It was something like that.”
Ader let out a light sigh.
“That’s how the second and third curses were lifted. However, there are very few people left who can get out of the Lake Kingdom, and since the Lake Kingdom has already sunk under the water, there is no power left to bring it back to the surface.”
“….”
“Besides, we couldn’t defeat the most important demon lord.”
So, if you ask me.
Is this just ‘the first time’ for Ader?
“Time passes helplessly, and in the end, monsters pour out of the Lake Kingdom, which is saturated with malice, and the world is destroyed…”
Even though it must be a heartbreaking story for me.
Ader calmly explained the past.
“When all lives were lost and I became the last man on earth, I received two offers at the same time.”
“two?”
“First and foremost, the goddess. “He offered me the position of tribal god.”
I remembered something Ader said a long time ago.
It is said that when you become the last survivor of each race, you can ascend to the position of race god.
Because Ader was an immortal, he reached the end and became a tribal god.
“And then the Demon King proposed a deal.”
Ader laughed bitterly.
“Since we were unable to save the person we both wanted to save, let’s play this game of destruction ‘one more time.’”
“….”
“As the representative of the entire destroyed world, I agreed. The world was ‘reset’ to the moment after the sinking of the Lake Kingdom.”
It is said that since the Demon King’s two companions were beings of the same high dimension, they were already defeated even when they returned.
In other words, from the second round, all you had to do was defeat the Demon King.
I did, but…
“I wasn’t successful.”
Ader waved her hands in a casual manner.
“I tried everything, but I couldn’t defeat the Demon King or save the Lake Kingdom. “It was just a continuation of hundreds of years of reckless fighting.”
“….”
“Then, my soul came to a limit and I felt limited in fighting directly, so I looked for a substitute player…”
Ader winked at me.
“After that, whatever you know.”
“Indeed….”
“Because I had a piece of the Everblack, I used it to revive the Everblack Empire, a country that would stop the great invasion of monsters… And then I found you, who had the aptitude for being a returner, and we rubbed shoulders again. “After endless battles, we are here.”
Ader smiled brightly and picked up the cold teacup.
“It was a long story.”
It was a long story.
But Ader’s actual fight would have been a million times longer than this story.
Ader, who had glossed over and crushed so much pain, loneliness, and anguish into a summary, stared at me intently.
“Actually, what meaning does the long story of failure have? “Now all we have to do is succeed in the last battle left.”
“…You’re right, Ader.”
I grinned.
“No matter how much you get beaten up in the beginning, it’s enough to win with a killer kick in the end. yes?”
Even if you lose 9,999 times, what’s the point? A win at the end is the way to live with the feeling that one side won for the rest of your life!
“Hehe. “That is correct.”
We looked at each other for a moment and giggled.
I tapped Ader on the shoulder.
“Anyway, after keeping quiet for so long, it turned out to be a love story. “You innocent bastard.”
Ader looked embarrassed and scratched the back of her head.
“To be exact, it’s unrequited love.”
“Hey, you still admit it, it’s love. “I was preparing to make fun of you in advance because I was afraid you would catch me for saying no.”
“If I had been younger, I wouldn’t have acknowledged it. “He would have denied having such feelings, saying how dare a slave love a princess.”
Ader lowered her aged eyes behind her glasses.
“But I am old, my lord. “I’m older than anyone else in the world.”
“….”
“Now I know very well that those childish feelings back then were love.”
“That feeling at that time?”
I asked cautiously.
“And now?”
“…well.”
Ader was fiddling with the empty teacup.
“I’m curious too. The first feeling that made me decide to save him was unmistakable love. But now…”
He mumbled for a moment, trying to formulate words, but eventually gave up and laughed as if he had lost his temper.
“What are my feelings? “Why did I want to save that person for so long?”
“….”
“Well, the reason doesn’t matter anymore. I just want to see it. “The real ending we will reach.”
There was silence for a moment.
widely.
Ader put down her teacup, put her hands on her chin, and took a deep breath.
“Well, now that we’ve talked about the past, let’s talk about the future.”
I changed the topic.
In a way, this is the main point we should share here.
“The road to the Lake Kingdom was blocked, but has now been opened.”
“huh. So, I was about to send you on a free exploration.”
The next stage is 45.
Boss stage. You need to scout out who your opponent is.
“I will tell you first.”
But Ader told a different story.
“Now, if you enter the Lake Kingdom dungeon, you can encounter the final boss in the deepest part.”
“…?!”
“It was like that in ‘The Game,’ right? “We could have met from this point on.”
I swallowed dry saliva.
“If it’s the final boss….”
“‘The lake princess who can’t sleep’.”
Ader nodded.
“yes. “This is Nameless.”
“…!”
“What is the reason why entry to the Lake Kingdom has been blocked for so long?”
Ader calmly recited the cruel truth.
“It was his process of becoming a monster. The entire Lake Kingdom was covered in darkness. And the transformation is already over.”
The person you have a crush on.
The person I was trying to save after fighting for eons.
The story is that in this final episode, he has already lost his humanity and has become a monster. So calmly.
“He carried the nightmares of everyone in the Lake Kingdom and became the culmination of all those nightmares, becoming a being more powerful than any monster in the world.”
“….”
“And when Stage 50 begins, he will leave the Lake Kingdom and head to Inse.”
Before I knew it, Ader was staring straight at me with cold eyes.
“In the ‘game’, you had to kill him before that in order to stop the monster invasion and win.”
“…!”
“In other words.”
With a voice as cold as your eyes.
Ader spoke of the conditions for winning the game.
“In order to ‘win’, you must kill the Nameless One who has transformed into a monster between now and the start of Stage 50.”
“….”
“Of course.”
Immediately afterwards, Ader smiled brightly.
“This is not the ending I wanted. And it’s probably not the way you thought, my lord.”
Yes.
In my own way, I came up with a strategy to save the unknown and turn this game upside down.
And Ader said she was leaving here to prepare ‘something’.
“From now on, I will prepare one final attack and the strategy the lord has thought of.”
Ader, who was smiling sinisterly like a villain, winked.
“Would you like to put this together… and commit something extravagant?”
“….”
“The most spectacular final ‘play of destruction’ that will astonish the entire universe.”
Ah…
if you say that, who in the world could refuse!
I laughed and stretched out my hand forward.
“Okay! Let’s give it a try, accomplice!”
Ader also held my hand.
We shook hands firmly and laughed evilly.
“The best finale that concludes our tiresome united front…!”
