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“Wasn’t this supposed to be a strategy game?”

“Eden, get up! It’s time for morning prayer!”

Jiwon woke up to the same relentless, alarm-like voice from yesterday, not a single word changed. Seeing the ceiling, which was completely different from her own room, she let out a sigh of acceptance. It had already been a month.

‘Damn. Here we go again.’

Raising her heavy body, she looked out the window to see some faint morning stars twinkling in the dark blue sky—an incredibly beautiful sight you’d never see in the city.

No, she wouldn’t be awake early enough in the city to notice this.

“Hurry up!”

Eden saw a woman, with red curly hair and cute freckles, bustling around to get ready. It was Rita, the girl who had been sharing a room with her for a month now.

“Okay, okay.”

Finally, Jiwon got up, and despite feeling totally groggy, she began to prepare for morning prayer. As she stood in front of the table, half-lidded eyes looking in the mirror reflected a face that was now as familiar as the ceiling of her accommodation.

Pale skin, long brown hair cascading down to her waist, and oddly beautiful grayish-brown eyes stared back at her with a sleepy indifference.

Eden Lilliart.

That was the name of the girl in the mirror and the new name given to Jiwon.

‘This is bad. I’m getting more used to the name Eden than my own.’

She picked up the Holy Scripture that lay sprawled on the table.

Getting up at this horrifyingly early hour for morning prayers, studying scripture, and cleaning was starting to feel like second nature—even the new face and name that should have felt utterly foreign were becoming familiar.

Even the situation she found herself in.

However, there was one thing she could not wrap her head around.

“Hidden character, huh….”

As Eden muttered that while biting her lip, Rita turned to look at her.

“Huh? What did you say?”

Eden shook her head.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Let’s go pray.”

Arriving at the Great Temple’s chapel, what awaited Eden was the familiar sound of kneeling and starting morning prayers.

Bang—bang—.

The solemn and grand bell sound brought a sense of peace to her heart.

As the sacred silence settled in the massive chapel, Eden half-opened her eyes to look around. Her roommate, Rita, was fervently praying with her eyes closed.

‘Ha…….’

Sighing inwardly, Eden closed her eyes again, slowly recalling her current situation.

This all started when she downloaded that cursed game; that was the beginning of this ridiculous hardship.

No, perhaps it was when she chose the hidden character without warning that this mess began.

It was a story so unbelievable even Eden herself had trouble believing it, but she was currently trapped in a game. A game where she had to choose a prince and make him emperor—Last Kingmaker.

‘And I’m stuck playing a pathetic Apprentice Priest.’

And that was the most infuriating part.

‘What the heck makes this a hidden character? Seriously?!’

Eden bit her lip in frustration and tightened her grip around her hands. Then, she remembered the profile window that appeared beside her the first moment she looked in the mirror.

“……”

Is this a joke?

Even after repeating it, the ridiculous stats felt like a scam.

As far as she knew, the highest stat cap was 99, and characters she had played so far had at least all stats over 50.

The best stats usually climbed over 80, so it was evident how pitiful Eden Lilliart’s stats were.

The problem was that this character was labeled ‘hidden.’

‘Damn, what hidden character has such pathetic stats?!’

Eden felt once more how terrible the balance of this game was.

“No matter how you look at it, this is excessive….”

As Eden muttered through clenched teeth, she could feel the eyes of surrounding priests glancing at her. Sensing their stares, Eden clasped her hands desperately and put on a serious expression.

“O holy one, please save this world from evil, repel the wicked monsters, and grant peace to the dear populace….”

With her heartfelt prayer, the priests’ faces softened with emotion, and their curious gazes were averted. Stealing a glance at the murmuring priests, Eden relaxed her tense hands and sighed quietly.

At first, she tried to deny it, thinking it was a dream or questioning her sanity, but after a month, Eden found some peace.

This was clearly ‘inside a game,’ and there was only one way to get out.

To completely clear this game with a 0% clear rate.

Then it happened.

Beep.

Beep.

A clear notification chimed in the sacred and quiet chapel, causing Eden to jump and look up into the air.

Indeed, a quest window sparkled in front of her. It popped up every two days, urging her to clear it without fail and making her crazy.

Eden felt a chill run down her spine. Asmun Decland was the chosen 3rd Prince, meaning she had no choice but to go find him and suggest an alliance.

But the chilling phrase, ‘survive,’ added to the quest was…

“……”

Eden recalled Asmun’s traits.

Probability of becoming a tyrant: 90%.

In other words, she was supposed to suggest an alliance to a future tyrant with a pathetic Apprentice Priest character and somehow survive—that was the first quest of this game.

The moment she saw this first quest, Eden’s intuition kicked in.

‘This won’t be easy.’

Of course, considering it was a game with a 0% clear rate, that was a given.

Confused by the crazy situation of being trapped in a game, Eden decided to stop wasting time and started planning immediately.

‘Who would have thought nine rounds of playing would be the blessing I needed.’

Fortunately, her previous experience playing as Kiris allowed Eden to predict many aspects of the world and the events to come, giving her a chance to gauge the perfect time to meet Asmun.

This was the Empire of Hesmor, a nation ravaged by wild monster attacks year after year. Under the palace’s command, priests from the Great Temple, sorcerers from the Magic Tower, and valiant knights protected the empire, but they were struggling against increasingly powerful monsters.

‘And yet, there were three grown princes, yet no crown prince had been appointed.’

The princes had been granted land titles and sent out to protect the empire, not too far from the capital.

This chaotic setting was apparently a way to create tension for the essence of the game known as Kingmaker.

Moreover, with a state religion believing in the god Hamun, the Great Temple Eden was in was the largest and most influential in the empire, right in the heart of the capital.

Thus, it was close to the Imperial Palace.

Eden recalled the quests bestowed upon her.

Raising Divine Power and persuading Asmun.

‘What a crazy difficulty right from the start. It feels like a trash game.’

First, meeting a prince as a pathetic Priest was no small feat. Even if she managed to meet him, convincing a cold Asmun with this weak character seemed nearly impossible.

But she had to try. She couldn’t stay locked in this temple, praying to the nonexistent Hamun every dawn forever.

Besides, if she didn’t clear this game, there were two possible endings awaiting her:

Either the empire would be destroyed by the rampaging Great Mage Hagen’ti or endure eternal suffering under the tyranny of Asmun.

‘I’ll make it work.’

Heavy with the burden of this mission, a cold sweat trickled down Eden’s back.

Bang—. Bang—.

Just then, the gigantic and grand bell announcing the time rang out, and Rita, having finished her prayer, approached Eden and whispered,

“Eden, it’s done. Let’s go eat.”

“Sure.”

As Eden went to breakfast with Rita, her mind kept spinning.

After a month of frantically gathering information, Eden had a rough idea of where she was in time.

“Rita, you said the founding anniversary is three days from now?”

“Yeah. I’ve already answered that ten times.”

“Thanks for the tenth time. Love you.”

After throwing in a heartfelt ‘I love you’ to Rita, Eden’s eyes sparkled as she scooped some potato soup.

The Empire’s Founding Day.

Eden remembered this day precisely because it was when the founding banquet was held at the Imperial Palace. And on this day, Asmun would face a little embarrassment thanks to the schemes of the 1st Prince.

She couldn’t forget it. She had made him face humiliation seven times in her previous plays, after all.

‘I couldn’t help it! The first quest is to test Asmun, what can I do?’

Feeling a bit guilty, Eden rationalized her thoughts and sank back into contemplation.

That was an episode from the early game, which meant now was before the actual game officially started.

The only information Eden had painstakingly gathered was this, and she was plotting a plan based on this flimsy information.

A plan to engrave her existence on Asmun and convince him to clear the first quest.

‘If I fail, I’ll probably die. After all, I’m just a low-tier Apprentice Priest.’

A chilling thought made the back of Eden’s neck tingle.

‘What happens if I die here?’

Maybe that could be a way back to my world. But the variables were just too numerous to trust that faint possibility. Most importantly, she didn’t want to fail in clearing this amazing opportunity.

Eden realized she was far more competitive now that she was part of this world than when she played games on her phone or computer.

Therefore, she had to clear this. No dying or running away—she needed to confront her challenges head-on and succeed.

 

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