The next day.

Fortunately.

The unfortunate incident of Alon regaining control of his body while Yutia was still telling her story the previous night did not occur.

...Even if it had, he wouldn’t have moved anyway.

In any case, Yutia hadn’t spent the entire time only padding her own interests.

With genuine worry in her voice, she’d calmly shared memories with Alon as well.

Each time, she’d attached very detailed annotations about how old she’d been back then...

But it wasn’t a big problem.

Alon had simply realized something.

How much, deep down, Yutia cared about her age.

‘...But is Yutia’s age really that much?’

Alon newly tried to gauge it.

To be honest, he’d never thought much about it until now, but he’d assumed she was around twenty.

In Psychedelia to begin with, Yutia’s settings hadn’t been revealed much.

Since the only backstory shown in-game was her unfortunate future, as Alon pondered her age, a small question suddenly arose.

It wasn’t a big one.

For example—

If her age really was that high, then why, both in the game and in this world, did Yutia always appear about ten years younger?

As he mulled it over in the darkness of his mind, the door creaked open.

“Master!”

It was Seollang.

Her characteristically bright voice was unchanged.

She plopped down on Alon’s bed in a single quick step and immediately began rustling.

She was clearly doing something.

“Mmm—this is a bit disappointing...”

What was she doing?

Since Alon quite literally had only his consciousness back, he couldn’t tell exactly, but from the soft sliding sounds, he could at least tell she was doing something with his arm.

How much time passed like that?

“Master—did you know?”

Seollang began talking.

Like Yutia, it was about memories with Alon.

If there was one difference from Yutia, it was that she didn’t deliberately mention ages.

How much time had passed?

“Ahem—”

Seollang’s voice, which had been busily piling up memories until just before, softened.

It became calm, as if preparing something.

And then—

“You know? Master liked me the most.”

Seollang began whispering in Alon’s ear as if proclaiming a secret.

“You know? Master thought I was the cutest. He didn’t like that horned dumb kid, or the one who does weird stuff without even changing expression.”

Seollang began her slander.

Honestly, Alon wanted to reply What are you even talking about...?

But unfortunately, he still had no control over his body.

“They try to act all fox-like on purpose to get into Master’s good graces—you didn’t know, right? That horned brat even waits until Master comes out and times it to show up.”

Shouldn’t you stop that kind of defamation?

—As Alon thought that, Ryang-a’s face suddenly rose in his mind.

In the enormous Marquis estate, where you wouldn’t easily cross paths unless your routes overlapped, every time he stepped out of his office, he’d inevitably run into Ryang-a once.

So that had all been on purpose...?

While he was still thinking Ryang-a...? in mild disbelief, Seollang, who’d been enthusiastically slandering Ryang-a and Historia’s duplicity for quite some time, finally said—

“Ahem—anyway, so that means the one Master has to play with the most is me!”

She laughed fufu, sounding triumphant, as if she’d succeeded at something.

“So when you wake up, you’ll play with me first, okay?”

She added it in a tone pressing down tears.

Unlike the lively voice she’d had until now, there was a slight heaviness in it.

...Alon decided that once he woke up, he would diligently give Seollang plenty of ear-pinches.

A brief silence followed.

“I’m going—!”

Seollang, who’d been sitting still for quite a while, greeted him again in a bright voice and left.

It wasn’t long before the quiet room grew noisy again.

“Ahem—”

The one who came in this time was Ryang-a.

And—

“...Why are you sniff-sniff breathing like that?”

Blue-Eared One.

“Shut up.”

Ryang-a’s cold voice.

“No, I’m just saying—he’s unconscious, so why are you that tense?”

“Shut up. And they said he might have consciousness.”

“Then doesn’t that mean you shouldn’t be doing that in front of me either? He could be listening to all of—gak—!”

Blue-Eared One’s sulky voice and a loud Bwaaak—! sound rang almost at the same time.

The two had suddenly arrived and were doing a skit.

But only briefly.

“Ahem—Boss, they said it’d be good to tell memories, so I came. Um—honestly, our memories aren’t good ones, though.”

At ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) Ryang-a’s awkward little laugh, Alon felt his heart grow heavy.

Because he knew her past.

And that their memories together had been made in the saddest period of her life.

“So... it’s been a while.”

Yet as if it was fine to recall even those sad memories, Ryang-a calmly began recounting when they first met.

How she was first saved by Alon, how they gathered companions to escape Baarma, how they fled desperately, shook off Baarma’s army, and finally returned to the village.

How she’d cried, begging him to kill Baarma, and he, not knowing what to say, had only nodded.

And then—

“Back then, remember? Boss promised, right? That I—looked pretty—”

...Alon told Ryang-a she looked pretty...?

???

A question mark bloomed in his mind.

Had he ever said something like that?

“Ahem—But back then the situation wasn’t good, so you said we’d talk about this after everything was over, remember?”

With Ryang-a’s continued words, the number of question marks in Alon’s head began multiplying.

Naturally, Alon had never said anything like that to Ryang-a.

No—more fundamentally, that kind of situation should never have happened.

The current Ryang-a might, in outward appearance, be an adult, but back then she’d been small.

So small her height barely reached his waist.

If the Alon of that time had said something like that to Ryang-a?

...No matter how he thought about it, only ruin came to mind.

What on earth are you talking about, Ryang-a... he desperately wanted to protest—

but since his body was still beyond his control, he could only lie there in dizzy horror for a moment.

“D-does it have meaning if you tremble that sweetly while saying it?”

“W-what?!”

Blue-Eared One, who’d been quiet, suddenly cut in.

Ryang-a responded in fluster.

At that, Blue-Eared One sighed.

“And if you’re going to fabricate, you should go all the way—this isn’t some children’s fairy tale you’re writing—gk!”

But unfortunately, Blue-Eared One couldn’t finish.

Clicking his tongue in exasperation, he abruptly fell silent with a tremendous Kwaa-shang—! crash.

And after that, thirty minutes.

“Please... be a little careful?”

“I’m sorry...”

In Yutia’s floating, gentle tone that nevertheless carried a pressure even Alon found chilling, Ryang-a finished apologizing, and the room grew quiet again.

And then another day passed.

“Hyungnim.”

“...Marquis.”

The ones who entered were Deus and Radan.

Unlike the others, Deus began speaking of memories with Alon in a slightly subdued tone.

Radan as well.

Half-expecting fabrication like with Ryang-a, Alon listened with unconscious tension.

Fortunately, just as he realized their stories were indeed simply memories and let out a sigh of relief—

“While the Marquis has been bedridden, the situation is being slowly brought under control.”

Deus suddenly began speaking of matters other than memories.

It was exactly what Alon had been hoping for, so he focused his ears.

Before long, through Deus, Alon could grasp the current situation without difficulty.

‘...The fall of Ashtalon, and the monsters...’

The news Deus calmly conveyed wasn’t good from Alon’s perspective.

Of course, he’d already realized the fall of Ashtalon to some extent.

From the moment Elivan killed several key nobles of Ashtalon and the capital was blown away, it would have been extremely difficult for the kingdom to continue existing as a kingdom.

But what he hadn’t expected was the monsters.

‘Since the Milky Way fell, the number of monsters has increased exponentially...’

From what Deus described, it didn’t seem like a mere increase at all, so Alon wanted to hear more—

but unfortunately there wasn’t much information on that.

Instead, what he heard was—

“Marquis, as soon as you awaken, we will prepare a new statue for you, who saved the Allied Kingdoms this time. Since you are very fond of statues.”

...Had he ever said anything like that about statues? was the thought that came to Alon.

But undeterred by Alon’s inner denial,

Deus spoke with strange fervor as if Alon absolutely had to like statues, and after about thirty minutes of passionate explanation, finally left.

####

Several days after Deus and Radan left the room.

In the meantime, Alon had received an enormous number of visitors while only his consciousness was awake.

And at the same time, during those few days, he’d begun to understand a little what the visitors coming to see him wanted from him.

For example, Sili, who came right after the others left—

brought a new scripture, saying she had “completed all preparations for when he awakens” and had “newly written the great epic of the god,” and read it aloud to him.

Needless to say, most of it contained things Alon had absolutely no memory of...

Thinking about it, he couldn’t tell whether she wanted him to believe it, or genuinely believed it herself.

It was a little puzzling.

Next was Penia.

She came in and told Alon that in truth he had always cherished and respected her very deeply.

And in Evan’s case, he said he had been receiving only half the salary he was originally supposed to receive.

...Of course, the moment he heard that, Alon decided to cut Evan’s salary to a quarter.

Nangwon and Historia also came.

In Nangwon’s case, Nangwon quietly shared memories and left, and Historia only delivered the simple words, “Get better soon.”

And today.

By now, his body had essentially fully recovered, and control was gradually returning.

“You’re awake.”

At the voice, Alon naturally opened his eyes.

There, against the backdrop of a darkened window, stood Rine, smiling.

“How did you know?”

He hadn’t shown the slightest sign, yet she’d noticed immediately.

When Alon asked in surprise, she laughed softly.

“Mmm—intuition?”

“...Intuition?”

“Is that strange?”

“...For an answer coming from you?”

Rine smiled faintly and gave the real answer.

“I actually knew.”

“When I’d wake up?”

“Yes. Fairly precisely. So I was waiting in advance.”

“...Why?”

“Because I wanted you to see my face first?”

At Rine’s teasing words spoken with a gentle smile, Alon couldn’t help a small chuckle.

Then he tilted his head slightly.

Because a few days ago, Rine had clearly told the others

that it wasn’t certain when Alon would wake.

“Godfather. May I ask you something?”

So before Alon could question her, Rine’s question came faster.

Alon reflexively nodded.

“What is it?”

“Between a person who acts with a clear conscience and a person who acts without one—which do you prefer more?”

She asked calmly.

Caught off guard by the sudden topic, Alon looked puzzled.

“...Rine.”

“Yes?”

“...It’s not just that you knew when I’d wake, is it?”

He looked into her eyes.

At that—

“...Who knows?”

The smile that had never left her face deepened.

Unlike before, now tinged faintly with mischief.

“Anyway—welcome back, Godfather.”

And at Rine’s greeting that followed,

Alon naturally returned it with a smile that rose on its own.