Chapter 107
Chapter 107
Episode 107
"Come here."
Kassel jerked his chin, signaling me to come over at once.
I had a mountain of things to do, starting with the chat with the developers.
An anxiety washed over me that if this kept up, I'd be stuck kowtowing in front of Kassel and Adam and waste the entire day.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
Then, as if I hadn't seen them at all, I muttered loudly to myself.
"Ah, that's right! I left without giving the Saintess her medicine? Idiot! I have to hurry back and give it to her!"
Tapping my head with my fist, I put on the performance of a lifetime and turned right around.
And I quickly started to leave the East Wing.
"Ha, hey."
Whether it was Kassel or Adam, I heard someone let out a dry laugh and call me, but I absolutely did not look back.
Once I reached the Central Hall, bustling with people visiting the Temple, I just broke into a run.
'Agh, I don't care. I'm running first!'
Afraid the bastards would catch up to me right away, I scrambled out of the Temple.
And I quickly ducked into the alley that was the teleport scroll point.
I looked around just in case, but thankfully, no one had followed me.
I'm just playing a game, so why do I feel like I'm aging 10 years every day?
"Hoo..."
Letting out a sigh of relief, I confirmed there was no one in the alley, then took out a low-grade health potion from my pocket and drank it.
'HP +200'
HP 999
I hadn't been attacked, but my health had dropped a little while I was swallowed by the Eyeball Monster.
It wasn't a huge drop, so I left it to regenerate on its own, but for some reason, my health wasn't refilling automatically.
Those dregs were monsters too, so it seemed to be a type of penalty.
My heart easing at the sight of my full health bar, I immediately opened the chat window.
Me: I get it, the main scenario, the quests, everything's been moved up.
Me: But why did Nise become a man??????????
That was the part I couldn't understand the most.
The character settings might not have explicitly stated a gender, but didn't Nise look as slender and delicate as a woman to anyone who looked?
Of course, since this game is an RPG, there weren't many romance scenes between the two.
But in the gameplay videos, Kassel clearly protected and doted on Nise, more so than any other colleague.
How many posts were there on the community forums fawning over those two, and how mesmerizing was the fan art from the 'golden hands' (talented artists)?
Even I, an operator, knew them as the official couple...
'How, how can the main character's gender just change!'
'Don't tell me...'
Me: Then what about Kassel?!?!? Is it forbidden love?!
Me: Wait, but this game is rated 15+, are you allowed to have that?!
GM Ari: Shari-nim! All people of the world are equal before God.
GM Ari: What do gender identity and age have to do with anything? ㅠ
GM Sera: Ahem. Calm yourself, hoobae.
GM Jinu: It's not that. Anyway, it's not.
GM Jinu: There's nothing in the settings about the royal family and forbidden love.
GM Jinu: --
Thankfully, a confident answer came back from Jinu.
For some reason, my heart, which had dropped a little, settled down.
Me: No, then why did Nise suddenly become a man?
Me: You said he was the Female Lead. The Female Lead!
GM Jinu: He was always a male character. Humans like you misunderstood and just made up that he was a female character and spread it around.
Me: Does that make any sense?!
GM Sera: Why does it not make sense, hoobae?
GM Sera: Have you never heard the words ★ Fan Creation ☆?
I, who had been fuming, went blank at Sera's words.
"Fan creation...?"
As I muttered 'fan creation' awkwardly, like someone hearing it for the first time, Sera explained in detail.
GM Sera: Originally, for a long time now, all kinds of stories have been passed down with the added desires of people who want ♥ Love ♡.
GM Sera: It's like a time-honored tradition.
GM Ari: Our Nise is quite pretty, isn't he?
My mind went white at the chat full of fan adoration.
So, what they're saying is that the developers made Nise's appearance pretty and beautiful to generate interest.
Most users, like me, mistook Nise for a woman, and the people making fan creations fueled that.
And on top of that, the developers didn't bother to correct the misunderstanding.
Well... he's a twin who looks exactly like Liv, so I guess it's possible.
But.
'Then did Kassel also think Nise was a woman?'
When my thoughts reached that point, I couldn't understand why I was feeling this indescribable emotion.
I definitely didn't think anything of it when I remembered they were the game's official pairing...
Me: Then why did Kassel dote on Nise so much?
I barely managed to accept that Nise was actually a man, and that the love line with Kassel had become official because of mistaken users.
However, there was still an unresolved question.
I glared suspiciously at the chat window and asked again.
Me: If you look at the gameplay videos users posted, he always excluded only Nise from danger or protected him.
Me: And later, when Nise died, he immediately went dark!
GM Jinu: Think about how you also coddled Nise like a baby, saying he didn't have to go because you were afraid he'd die.
GM Jinu: You even got a kiss, didn't you? Keke
Me: It wasn't a kiss, okay? Don't you know the curse removal skill?
"Seriously, people only see what they're thinking of..."
As if it were ages ago that I felt weirdness from receiving a hand-kiss from the Female Lead, I grumbled complainingly.
Of course, I said it deliberately for that bastard Jinu to hear.
Following that, I bluntly refuted the slander-like accusation that I treated Nise 'like a baby'.
Me: And besides, that's because Nise has the 'sunfish' setting where he dies easily, so it couldn't be helped.
GM Jinu: Same for the Crown Prince.
"Ah."
I made a dumbfounded sound at the immediate reply.
'So... because Nise is a weak-minded sunfish who dies easily, that personality-defective bastard took good care of him?'
It was a reason that made a certain amount of sense.
Because if even one of the main characters died, they wouldn't be able to beat the final boss...
As I accepted Nise's real gender, a scene flashed through my mind.
'Ha. Then the reason Nise was so sharp with me back then...'
"Y-you, please leave for a moment too."
"R-right now... I, I don't want to see your face. Please, I'm begging you."
[The One Forsaken by God feels a slight disappointment toward you.]
At the time, I thought I really couldn't understand it...
Thinking back, I was sitting there adamantly insisting he was a woman, right to his face. How absurd must he have found it?
And yet, seeing as he still removed the curse, Nise was clearly good-natured to a fault.
'I should apologize as soon as I see him again.'
Me: You should have at least made an announcement that he's a man...
GM Ari: We always respect our adventurers' infinite imagination and creative freedom.
GM Sera: Hear, hear! If they spend this arduous journey just stiffly among men, what fun would there be?
GM Sera: We need a lot of those kinds of creations.
GM Jinu: I was against it. I said we should tell them, but those nims blocked it.
"Hah..."
Just as I was holding my forehead and sighing, Sera said something out of the blue.
GM Sera: Hoobae. Still, thanks to you, this dry journey will proceed quite warmly and excitingly.
GM Sera: Ggeol-ggeol, back in my day...
Me: ? What do you mean?
GM Ari: Ah, Shari-nim!
GM Ari: By the way, what are you planning to do now?
GM Ari: It seems the Temple's final boss appearance has been moved up to the tournament opening ceremony.
While I was bewildered, not understanding what he meant, Ari urgently sent consecutive chat messages.
The final boss's appearance being moved up was, of course, something I had already expected.
But even if he asked, it wasn't like I had any brilliant solution.
Me: I don't know either... This time, you guys tell me a solution.
GM Ari: (Typing...)
GM Sera: (Typing...)
GM Jinu: (Typing...)
"Ugh, I shouldn't even bother talking."
I glared at the developers' chats, all of them using evasion skills yet again today, before finally closing the chat window.
And I took out a teleport scroll.
It was true I ran away to avoid Adam and Kassel, but I had been planning to go see Elaine around this time anyway.
Riiip.
As I tore the scroll to teleport to the hotel, a belated question suddenly occurred to me.
'But... how did Kassel know Nise was a sunfish who dies easily, and take good care of him?'
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
"Teacher Apothecary-noona!"
[Elaine Griselda feels a trace of gladness toward you.]
Elaine, whom I hadn't seen in a while, was the same as ever.
"Why is it so hard to see your face! The Temple is right nearby."
"Tell me about it..."
When I headed to the Temple, I had no idea I'd end up living this breathlessly.
As soon as I entered the hotel room, I threw my body, which felt heavy as lead, onto the sofa, and Elaine immediately sat down after me.
"Noona, I think I've got the hang of it now."
"Oh yeah? Looks like you've been doing well, then?"
"Of course! I'll show you."
Elaine shot up from his seat and took out something hidden in his clothes.
A necklace with a green gemstone the size of a coin.
[Lv.999 Belisser's Eye]
"Uuuugh...!"
Closing his eyes and gripping the gemstone tightly, Elaine soon began to make strange groaning sounds.
He was clearly trying his best, but I couldn't help but look at him with slightly pathetic eyes.
'It might be a good thing I'm wearing a hood.'
While I was at the Temple, I had, of course, given Elaine something to do.
It was to figure out a way to use Belisser's Eye, no matter what.
It was ridiculous that we couldn't use an artifact we'd risked our lives to steal, just because he couldn't cry.
Regardless of how Green Mask was in the original scenario, I was planning to beat him until he cried if I had to.
As I approached, rolling my fists with that thought, the guy had looked utterly wronged and boasted that he'd rather go learn from Lucy.
"Uuuuuuugh...!"
I didn't have high expectations, so I was watching him rather indifferently as he trembled head to toe, tensing his whole body.
Suddenly, Elaine's eyes flashed open.
And he pulled down the skin under his eye, revealing a slightly moistened eyeball.
"Look at this, noona! You see it, right? Tears!"
"Where?"
"Ah, it's right here!"
At my thoroughly unimpressed voice, the guy wiped the inner corner of his eye with his finger and thrust it at me.
And surprisingly, a tiny amount of moisture, not even a full drop, was indeed on it.
"I told you I'd learn how!"
Elaine excitedly rubbed it straight onto the gemstone on the necklace.
And.
"...Huh?"
Shocked at his form, which vanished in an instant, I sat up from where I was lying, my eyes wide.
"Wow... it really works?"
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