[The first scenario, Queen Subjugation, has been completed.]
[In the Queen Search, he selected Gang Yuri from among the four queen candidates as the queen he had to find and subjugate, but failed to identify either the true queen leading to the true ending or the current queen who tormented him. Since he has never harbored hostile feelings toward the other candidates believing them to be the queen, there is nothing that needs to be settled negatively.]
[You have cleared the Queen Subjugation without an S-Battle. The probability of the queen appearing as an enemy from now on has increased.]
[The main factor in the queen conquest was the woman calling herself Iseuka, not Erica. The reward for the Queen Subjugation, 30 Favor, and the reward for the Erica Kidnapping Incident, 50 Favor, are awarded to that woman.]
[Error detected. Favor award failed.]
[Upon analyzing the cause, rather than affection for the one who subjugated the queen that tormented her and the one who rescued her from kidnapping, the feeling of hatred toward that woman’s true identity is overwhelmingly dominant, preventing Favor from increasing.]
[As previously stated, Favor will be unconditionally increased for Erica. The error that has occurred this time will not be mentioned.]
[Erica’s first main scenario, Queen Subjugation, which served as the prologue, concludes safely through this incident. The second main scenario that follows will be decided only after the school trip ends.]
[Gang Yuri’s total number of believers, including the family members resurrected through a believer’s wish, is 455. Erica’s awakening rate is 12%. You have succeeded in concluding the first scenario before the queen’s forces could grow and before the awakening rate exceeded 12%.]
[From now on, Erica will be able to measure her grade. The grades Erica can see are largely divided into three, and currently, the grade she sees for herself is Extra.]
[The main heroine currently chosen by the protagonist Gim Haneul is student council president I Seora, and since heroine Erica was not chosen by the protagonist, her grade cannot be raised above sub-heroine.]
[...If Erica were to check her grade, it would show Extra, but Erica’s current role is Sub-Heroine. Error. An error has occurred. Searching for the cause of the problem. Estimation impossible.]
[To prevent any objections from being raised regarding this error, it has been decided not to display the system window. End. The settlement due to the completion of the first scenario is now concluded.]
*
Up until now, the meals shared between Erica and Yu Inna had proceeded rather smoothly.
Erica did not exactly display sociability, but when she had something she was curious about, she would often ask during their one-on-one meals.
As for Yu Inna, she displayed a sticky, clinging sociability—so much so that it could be called fawning—such that if Erica became curious about something out of the flow of conversation and simply asked, Yu Inna would answer with a smile, or share small stories she had heard.
The reason Erica only asked Yu Inna the things she wondered about was not that she felt close to her, but that the only one who could properly answer her questions was the “childhood friend” who was bound to know about the previous Erica.
Yu Inna harbored a sweet yet heavy heart toward Erica, so when it was just the two of them, the dining table could not have been awkward even if it tried. However, this morning’s breakfast was a much heavier atmosphere, perhaps because one more person had joined.
“Want to eat this?”
“Oh, that’s very considerate of you toward a guest. I’ll enjoy it.”
The chopsticks holding the meat Erica liked were brought to Erica’s lips, but before they could enter her mouth, the woman with a divine visage bit down on them and, chewing the meat, gave a thumbs-up.
At the devastating reality that the dish Yu Inna had prepared since dawn had been eaten not by the girl it was meant for but by that interloper, Yu Inna’s face contorted like a yaksha for an instant, but it returned to normal before Erica’s gaze reached her.
“What do you think you’re doing? Hey, do you want to die?”
That did not mean her anger had subsided. Yu Inna spoke in a slightly lowered voice to the Former Queen, who kept calling herself a “guest” and snatching away the food she made every time she tried to feed Erica.
If Yu Inna still believed that the Former Queen had engaged in “intimacy” with Erica, it would not have ended with merely a lowered voice—she would have enveloped the woman’s body in the grace that helps one receive the world’s love and personally buried her behind the back mountain. But that misunderstanding had already been cleared up.
Erica, her face blank, was currently focusing on picking up and eating meat. If she had done something lewd, she would have shown a shy expression toward the Former Queen. If she had been forced, she would have shown anger or submission toward the Former Queen.
It was not entirely impossible that something had happened to Erica without her knowledge. Her blessing had grown considerably weak—who knew where she had squandered it.
But if that were the case, the collapse of the church said to bear traces of the Former Queen from yesterday could not be explained.
Given the circumstances, it made no sense that Erica, who had won against the Former Queen even while expending her “blessing,” would instead bring her home and end up being taken advantage of without her knowledge.
“Do you know what a preliminary empress is? I kept doing work for this child. Shouldn’t you be thanking me instead?”
At the Former Queen’s voice, which held slightly provocative words as if to interrupt Yu Inna’s thoughts, Yu Inna glared at the Former Queen.
Even though Yu Inna’s misunderstanding had been cleared up, it did not mean the Former Queen’s targeting of Erica had been explained away. It was not even certain if that was something that could be “explained.”
Despite the fierce battle of glares between the two, Erica silently ate the meat on the table as if to imply that she, too, had hands.
Regardless of their relationship, she had to go to school soon, and to work hard there, she needed to eat.
In the end, the girl who had prepared the side dishes but had to give up on the fun of feeding Erica, at least for today, maintained a slightly sulky expression. Still, thinking that the drop-out queen would not be able to follow once they left for school, she watched Erica eating heartily with a fond gaze.
However, if things were to end here so uneventfully, Gang Yuri would not have been called a queen—Former Queen or not.
“Hey, landlord? What do you think? I’m specially performing a poison test for you, yet there’s someone who seems dissatisfied by it.”
‘Should I really put poison in it?’
The thought that arose impulsively seemed quite attractive, but she could not actually use real poison, as there was a chance Erica might eat it.
Yu Inna clenched her fist where Erica could not see and quietly cooled her anger. The white-haired girl, chewing meat and glancing at her for a moment, swallowed with a gulp and opened her mouth.
“Stop picking on her.”
She needed to make the queen an ally to have a chance in this fight that had already started a year late.
She had been convinced after listening to Iseuka’s words, but that did not mean she had to take Gang Yuri’s side and abandon Yu Inna, who had shown her kindness since she arrived here.
Yu Inna was one of the two women who had sided with Erica since she entered this world. Though she seemed to harbor impure designs on this body, the fact that Yu Inna was a connection this body possessed remained unchanged.
It was foolish to throw away existing connections to gain new ones. Erica declared to the woman who kept meddling with what she had already obtained:
“If you want me to take you as a companion, Inna is already my best friend.”
They were of different ranks. Erica had spoken with that meaning in mind, but both of their expressions were somehow peculiar. Inna was not purely happy, and Gang Yuri looked pleased despite being treated as a lower rank.
Erica had been prepared to receive unpleasant treatment for dividing people into “ranks” of her own making, but since both showed such strange reactions, she could not help but be flustered.
What on earth had she said wrong? Erica, who considered herself clever, wanted to take a moment to ponder where she and those two had misspoken, but the side she had wanted to calm was nodding her head vigorously.
“Best friends are great~. Got it. I won’t touch our immortal best friend’s nerves anymore.”
Having taken a bite, she would not go back on her word; it was unlikely Gang Yuri would tease Yu Inna any further. Erica thought it had wrapped up reasonably well, but...
Erica glanced sideways to gauge Yu Inna’s complexion as she sat across from her. She looked irritated by the words “immortal best friend.”
But just as Erica was observing Yu Inna’s face, Yu Inna was also observing Erica’s face, swallowing her words.
Since each was holding back words for the other’s sake, it was only natural that the one who was not holding back spoke more. While the two were studying each other’s faces, the Former Queen opened her mouth once more.
“The spot of best friend known as childhood friend has already been taken, so if I’m going to stay here, I’ll have to take a different spot. Right?”
“...You, come outside.”
“Why? I was just saying I want to get closer to our cute Erica in a way different from a best friend. Did you perhaps have a strange thought?”
For someone who had said she wouldn’t touch a nerve earlier, it was a tone close to provocation. Yu Inna spoke with snake-like eyes sharply raised and a voice thick with barely contained anger.
Fighting here would cause trouble for Erica, so it was a demand to go outside and settle this, but of course, there was no reason the Former Queen would comply.
“And you should call me unni, not ‘you.’ I’m older than you. Well, I don’t particularly want to hear ‘unni’ from you either.”
At the two’s unending war of nerves, the white-haired girl stopped eating meat and let out a yawn. She had thought those two would listen if she spoke reasonably since they seemed to care about her, but they would not listen even when she did.
[Currently, 23 hours and 20 minutes remain until your blessing recovers.]
Since the blessing used to threaten Iseuka still had time before it recovered, Erica left the two who would not listen to her to fight or argue as they pleased and rose from her seat.
Mediating was the most bothersome thing, after all. However, before Erica could take a few steps away, her wrist was grabbed.
As a result of the system’s declaration: Yu Inna, who tormented her in order to possess Erica, and Gang Yuri, who wished to see Erica cry.
In a sense, the two who could be called similar grabbed Erica’s wrists simultaneously, each pulling in a different direction.
“Didn’t you want to have that kind of relationship with me? Where are you trying to go? If you abandon me and leave, I’ll just run away too.”
“Let’s just kick this woman out of the house. Huh? I’ll do everything I was trying to do through this woman instead.”
The girl wearing her displeasure openly on her face, as if to say, *Stop trying to drag me into your fight*, eventually had to begin mediating—a task ill-suited to her disposition...
“Hey, are you ignoring me again? Are you pretending not to hear me? No, can’t you hear? Shall I clean your ears? I’ll go buy an ear pick, so will you wait?”
“She says she’s going over there, so let’s just skip school for a day and not open the door. How about it? Good idea, right?”
That was by no means an easy task, however...