Episode 264
"Mmm..."
"Frey? What is that ring?"
"Master?"
I obtained an unexpected harvest.
"Ah, it's nothing."
The ring I'm now wearing on my right hand, judging by both its design and the way mana is accumulating, is undoubtedly the Ring of Oath.
According to the Ancestor's prophecy book, this ring that can be obtained at an extremely low probability is a ring that allows me to issue 'commands' to those who have sworn loyalty to me.
As expected for a ring with such powerful abilities, the acquisition method is truly bizarre. Among the routes notorious for their difficulty, one had to complete Isollet's route before entering the second year to have a certain probability of receiving it from her.
Of course, this isn't even a solo Isollet route right now, and since this ring has the lowest acquisition probability among all in-game items, I had more or less given up on obtaining it. I never imagined I would get it now.
With just this, game progression will become much easier.
Just where exactly did Isollet obtain such a fraudulent ring?
'Right now... would it be around level 1?'
Having just put on the ring with mana only starting to accumulate, I would only be able to issue commands to Isollet or those who have made the 'Blood Oath.'
However, as more mana accumulates, the range of people I can command will gradually expand.
"Mmm..."
I was grinning as I looked at such a fraudulent ring, but then I furrowed my expression and fell into thought.
'Perhaps... it could be a trap.'
No matter how I think about it, the appearance of this ring when this isn't even an Isollet solo route is suspicious. Moreover, they said it had the lowest probability in the game.
Could it be that something about the ring changed due to DLC or something?
Whenever something good happens in the scenario, I need to be suspicious first.
"Do you know anything about this ring?"
"Ah, y-yes, that's... hmm..."
"...Do you know?"
"I'm sorry..."
I tried asking the Sun God who was riding beside the carriage, wondering if she might know something, but as expected, that 'divinity' seems to be the problem.
"S-see, I did wrong... since I did wrong, please hit somewhere other than my forehead..."
Thanks to me sighing, the goddess who was watching my expression gets up from her seat and kneels on the floor.
"S-see, as expected, Master is..."
"........"
Of course, in the appearance of the youngest saint.
Thanks to this, Lulu's respect, which had already reached maximum, is breaking through limits, and Serena, who had been sitting quietly until just now, looks at her with an displeased expression.
"We'll talk in a bit, so please stand up..."
"N-no, I'll just stay like this. I'm a useless and incompetent goddess who can't even help a creature I created..."
I tried to whisper in her ear and make her stand up since it felt wrong to have a goddess kneel before me, but she started saying things she shouldn't say with an expression full of guilt.
"...Hic!"
"You seem to know your place well."
"Uuu..."
Thanks to that, I improvised by stepping on her head and pressing her to the floor, and the goddess who was trembling with a crying expression soon gently closed her eyes and assumed a motionless posture with her head pressed against the floor.
- I-if doing this eases your anger even a little... I'll endure anything. After all, all damage to this body right now goes to me who's possessing it.
"No, I'm fine..."
- S-so... y-you can treat me even more roughly... Hero...
And the Sun God's quite dangerous statement echoing in my head.
"...Sigh."
Thanks to that, my villainous side rose to the top of my head, so I leaned back in my chair and started taking deep breaths.
Then Lulu's eyes began shining even brighter, and Serena started looking back and forth between me and the goddess with an anxious expression.
'......How did things end up like this?'
I can't exactly say that a goddess is possessing a saint's body, so it seems I'll have to keep acting like this for a while, as if I've subdued the saint.
"Lulu, analyze this."
"Yes..."
Thus, committing the rudeness of stepping on the head of what was this world's chief deity, I quietly held out the Ring of Oath to Lulu.
"Hmm... this is..."
Then, after frowning and looking at the ring for a while, she speaks in a low voice.
"It's, it's too complicated so I don't really understand it right now... It seems like I'll need to analyze it together with Irina..."
Seeing that, it's indeed not an ordinary ring.
"U-um... Frey."
"...Yes?"
I was frowning and looking at the ring when suddenly Serena shakes my shoulder.
"H-how did this happen...?"
".......!"
Thanks to that, when I turned my gaze to her, I saw the purity ring on her finger that had turned black, and my eyes went wide.
"I, I had a certain dream at night... and that was perhaps... r-really...?"
She must have been stuttering with her face red since earlier because of that.
"Don't worry about that ring."
"...Yes."
I quickly gave her a command with the absolute obedience spell, and then began to feel a slight regret.
This could have been a good opportunity to check if the Ring of Oath works on Serena too...
"F-Frey."
"Yes?"
I was clicking my tongue in regret when Serena speaks to me again with an ambiguous expression.
"T-that... my lower abdomen feels strange."
"What?"
"It feels like... something is... full? That kind of feeling."
"........"
Serena's expression as she said that was gradually turning red.
"It feels tingly... and trembling, and there's a bloated feeling of fullness..."
"W-well... um..."
"But I don't dislike it... somehow there's a sense of fullness? And something like happiness..."
"I-is that so... I'll accept the matter about your lower abdomen naturally."
I looked at her with my own face turning red, then stroked the ring and tried making a 'request.'
Since it's not a 'command,' the absolute obedience spell won't apply, and if the Ring of Oath is real, the request might take effect.
"O-okay... I'll try not to pay attention to it for now?"
"...Hmm."
As a result of making such a request with that intention, Serena answers with an ambiguous expression and starts pressing her lower abdomen.
- Squelch...
"Hic."
Soon after, her small moan follows.
- Squelch, squelch...♡
"...Hehe."
After that, she keeps poking her lower abdomen, and at the continued squelching, she unconsciously makes a happy smile.
'...Did it work?'
I'm not sure, but it seems to have some effect. At least it definitely worked on Isollet.
"I'm jealous..."
I'll test it step by step with Klana, Kania, and Lulu who is now looking at Serena's lower abdomen with an envious expression while blushing, and then make a confirmation.
If this is real, it will be quite helpful in the future.
"Sigh..."
If this ring becomes strong enough, I'll even be able to issue commands that would harm me.
So, it might be useful during the fourth trial.
"I'm going to sleep for a bit, so wake me when we reach the capital."
"Yes..."
Having organized my thoughts, I decided to rest my eyes for a while to cool my head and control the 'villainous side' that was trying to rise again due to Serena's reaction just now.
There are things to do in the capital, and the date with Serena isn't over yet.
'For the next few days... I should just rest properly while dating Serena...'
Thus, I quietly pictured in my mind the joyful and sorrowful events of today, and slowly closed my eyes.
"I, I shouldn't pay attention to it but..."
"Grr..."
"I, I'm sorry... I'll stay still..."
The voice of Serena muttering something while continuously stroking her lower abdomen, and Lulu's voice scolding the Sun God who had started twitching, were penetrating my fading consciousness.
.
"Frey is... the hero..."
A few hours after Frey closed his eyes, in Rosewin's room.
"He was... the only hero who would save this world..."
Rosewin, fixing her gaze on an old document floating among countless pieces of information floating around her, was muttering with a blank expression while kneeling.
"Frey, whom I had been ignoring all this time..."
[Prophecy Book - Darktail Fantasy 2 Complete Guide]
1. Overview
2. Hero's Duties and Purpose
3. Scenario Guide
4. System Guide (Items, Skills, etc.)
.
When she opened 'Everything about the Hero,' what floated before her was none other than a perfect copy of the 'Prophecy Book' that 'Frey' possessed.
Although it was in a form similar to a hologram, even the way various visual materials and videos popped up when touching the prophecy book for Frey's sake was exactly the same.
- Uung...
What was floating around Rosewin were precisely those kinds of materials.
"I, what on earth did I... do?"
She, who had been reading through the prophecy book without missing a single letter for several hours, was already in complete panic.
This was because, even though she had only read the prophecy book corresponding to 'Everything about the Hero' rather than 'Everything he had done,' she could understand all too well what Frey had sacrificed and given up.
"Just what..."
The countless hardships and adversities he would face, the penalties that gnawed away at his lifespan and life force, the 'trials' that were horrifying just to imagine, and finally the end that such a person would meet.
"I should have... assisted..."
If she, as the hero's supporter, had been there, she could have alleviated even a little of that pain.
But hadn't she, who prided herself as the hero's supporter, actually made the true hero suffer even more?
"Uuu..."
She remembers Frey with a pitiful expression coming to deliver flowers to her every day.
And she recalls herself secretly mocking him while openly throwing the flowers out the window.
"W-what should I do..."
Only now does Rosewin's mind start spinning rapidly.
Was that act, that behavior he had repeated for years, actually some kind of cry for help?
"Could it be that..."
Now everything fits together.
The words Frey said when he held out flowers for the last time begin to overlap. Everything gradually becomes clear. At the same time, cold sweat starts flowing from Rosewin's head.
"He was asking me for help... huh?"
Feeling dizzy, Rosewin, who was muttering like that, soon opens her eyes wide.
- Finally, about Rosewin.
"......?"
This was because her name was written at the very end of the 7th item
- You must absolutely give flowers to Rosewin. Regularly, without fail.
"Flowers... to me?"
Rosewin, who was slowly reading down the text, soon makes a flustered expression.
"W-why...?"
Rather than the reasoning from just now being wrong, she couldn't understand why there was content about giving flowers to her in the prophecy book.
"Then, Frey bringing me flowers so diligently was... because of this content..."
Therefore, Rosewin, who was making one of her old habits of jumping to conclusions while lowering her gaze...
- If Rosewin doesn't carry flowers received from a System holder for a certain period, she dies.
She lost her words upon seeing that message floating before her eyes.
- And there's another reason too... never mind. It's better not to know that one. If you cling to something with zero probability of happening, you'll only suffer...
"............"
Content continued after that, but Rosewin's thoughts had already stopped as she read through them with soulless eyes.
"Those actions were... all... to save me..."
She remembers Frey, who had burst through her door during a storm when she had returned late from an overseas trip, delivering flowers to her as she lay in bed groaning in pain.
"Then that means..."
He, who was wearing a genuinely flustered expression rather than his usual annoying one, kneeling beside her bed and placing flowers in her hand, comes to mind.
After that, she had recovered from her illness as if it had been washed away in just a day.
"To save me..."
According to what was passed down, Frey had apparently asked around everywhere to find her who had gone on a trip.
At that time, she had only felt creeped out... she thought his obsession was only growing day by day...
"I didn't know..."
Tears start welling up in Rosewin's eyes.
"I'm, I'm sorry... Frey..."
Her hollow voice echoes through the room.
- However, still, the act of giving flowers to her should be done 'sincerely' and 'regularly.'
"I was... wrong..."
His giving flowers wasn't the foolish behavior of men who were infatuated with her and trying to woo her.
While facing daily contempt and persecution, and later hypocrisy, he did it purely out of a sense of duty to save her...
"...Wait."
- Who knows? A miracle might happen.
Rosewin's gaze, which was shedding tears and drawing conclusions, suddenly stops.
"What...?"
Her sobbing expression starts turning vacant.
- Miracles don't really matter either way.
This was because she noticed someone's comments meticulously written in every corner of the prophecy book copy she had read so far.
- I just want Rosewin to get better quickly.
The crooked handwriting she had seen a few times when she was young was definitely young Frey's.
- Above all, being healthy is the best.
It was an incredibly calm statement for a child who had known since childhood that she was on a time limit.
But that small note, written calmly, was tormenting Rosewin more than any other content written so far.
"T-this isn't..."
Recalling young Frey who had handed her flowers in her mind, Rosewin began shedding tears profusely.
"This isn't it..."
Thus, quite some time passed.
"N-not yet... it's not over yet..."
Rosewin, who had been shedding tears while clutching her head, soon wipes the tears flowing from her eyes and mutters.
"H-his life or death is unknown, right? Then that means he could be alive. Right? Hmm?"
And getting up from her seat, she staggers toward the entrance.
"M-maybe... he might still be alive... maybe it's not too late yet... s-so... I need to go back there..."
Leaving the room like that, she began heading toward the ruins where restoration was still in progress, with a terrified expression while sobbing.
"It's, it's not too late..."
Behind her, muttering continuously in a low voice, a large newspaper was inserted in the mailbox.
[Breaking News] Frey Raon Starlight, death confirmed.
- Body found in ruins causes 'shock'... currently being transported to hospital
- Unprecedented in history, ducal noble title revocation, will it fade away...