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Life is a story. And just as every story has an end, my story will also end someday.

And I thought that my ending would be far from happiness.

Isn’t that right? Happiness for someone like me, who killed my father and went to prison? Even if I did it to protect my younger sibling, killing my family, my parents, is an unforgivable sin. Of course, I don’t regret what I did back then. My father was a scumbag who deserved to die.

But even that reason can’t justify my murder. The stigma and judgment of being a murderer are things I must bear, and the guilt I feel will be something I carry for the rest of my life.

Since then, I’ve always thought that I would live unhappily for the rest of my life. No, I thought I *should* live unhappily. A sinner who committed murder doesn’t deserve to be happy.

My happiness doesn’t matter. But at least for Sora, my innocent younger sibling, I wanted her to be happy.

After all, it’s the life of a sinner. I decided to live for my precious sibling. If Sora could be happy, I could do anything. No matter how hard it was, I could endure it, and I could withstand the cold stares of my neighbors and the prejudiced gaze of the world.

Yes. Until now, my happiness was the same as Sora’s happiness. Ironically, it was when I became Tristan that I started thinking about my own happiness.

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“L-Lord Count! L-Let’s go together…!”

Wendy, the clumsy maid who cries easily.

“Tristan. Don’t you have anything to say to me? Like how pretty I am.”

Bella, the proud and prickly one.

“Lord Count… Um… N-Never mind.”

Blanshe, Bella’s shadow, blunt and stoic.

“Everything I have belongs to you, Lord Count.”

Even Helga, who was loyal but often caused trouble due to her excessive obsession…

They were all the ones who taught me what happiness is. If it weren’t for them, I would never have realized it. They were my saviors and, at the same time, my happiness itself.

‘I never thought I would have people precious to me other than my sibling…’

I thought I would live a lonely life and die alone. I thought that was fine, even too much for me. But now, as I become the World Tree, the emotion I feel is regret.

The year I lived as Tristan was filled with moments of near-death and pain, but it was also filled with just as much happiness.

I wished for a happy ending with everyone. But that was impossible. We couldn’t be together.

My chest ached.

Tristan, who was devoid of blood and tears, a man of dry emotions. His characteristics made me as cold as ice. But they melted my heart.

They taught me the emotion called love.

“If possible, I would have liked to see this sight with you all…”

Before my eyes, the scenery created by the growing World Tree unfolded. It was truly a dazzlingly beautiful sight.

The gloomy world, covered in battle lines and machinery, was being painted over with light. Like a landscape painted with oil paints. Sprouts grew wherever the roots and branches spread, soon forming lush grasslands. As the warm sunlight shone on the grass, the green scenery seemed to ripple.

The World Tree, nourished by my imagination, was erasing the remnants of the system. It was an incredibly beautiful sight, but I could feel the sensation in my arms and legs gradually fading.

“Is this as far as I go…?”

I was becoming the World Tree that would sustain this world. This was the best way I could save their world.

Even if I’m not in the final conclusion of this story, I hope they can live on…

I closed my eyes.

—

*Thud!*

The magic soldiers’ formulas spewed fire simultaneously. The players holding shields in the front were blown back, unable to withstand the explosion and heat. The Imperial Army didn’t miss the opportunity.

“Fire the second volley!”

“Uwaaah!”

The Imperial Army rained arrows on the faltering players. Their coordinated attacks turned the players into dust, screaming in agony.

The defensive line built to protect the Empire was a mix of Imperial soldiers, noble private soldiers, volunteers from all over, and wandering mercenaries. Thanks to the overwhelming firepower of magic, the Empire had the upper hand. Their defense was so solid that they had never been pushed back from the defensive line. But even that was reaching its limit.

For the past few days, the players’ offensive had never ceased. They charged relentlessly, day and night, and those who had died reappeared after just a few hours. They were like zombies, resurrecting endlessly.

The Empire fought in shifts, but there was a limit to how long they could sustain the battle. The endless fighting and the fear of the endlessly resurrecting players wore them down both physically and mentally.

To make matters worse, the players who had died multiple times no longer cared about dying.

“Kill them! Kill all the NPCs!”

“Don’t be afraid of the death penalty, just push forward!”

“Yeah! We can recover that much experience by killing more NPCs anyway!”

With their fear of death gone, they became even bolder. The Empire’s casualties grew, and they began to be pushed back from the defensive line they had held so well.

“Gah! Magic soldiers! Is the magic not ready yet?!”

“20 seconds… no, just 10 more seconds!”

“10 seconds is too long! Their momentum is too strong…!”

No matter how powerful their magic was, they couldn’t stop the swarm of players charging like locusts. The Imperial Army’s morale was breaking in various places.

“Hold the line! Hold it!”

“Ugh! I can’t… anymore!”

“Don’t retreat!”

Amid the faltering Imperial soldiers, a dignified woman’s voice rang out.

*Crack!*

A chill spread between the Imperial soldiers and the players, and ice spikes shot up instantly. The charging players were impaled and turned to dust in an instant.

“Knights of the Empire! We must hold this place together!”

“Lady Blanshe…!”

Blanshe, who had used ice magic, shouted to the knights. The knights who recognized her lit up with hope. As the bodyguard knight of the Izakhel Family, she was known as a powerhouse who could take on a hundred enemies alone. Especially during this war, the Imperial knights who had witnessed her strength firsthand held her in awe.

“Just hold on a little longer! Reinforcements will arrive soon! We must hold this place until then!”

“Yes, yes!”

“Of course! We will definitely hold it!”

The knights, encouraged by Blanshe’s words, held their ground, and the crumbling defensive line stabilized. But it was only a temporary measure. She knew it wouldn’t change the tide of the battle.

Still, Blanshe couldn’t stop boosting morale. There was someone here she had to protect, even at the cost of her life.

“My lady!”

Blanshe spotted Bella among the Izakhel knights and approached her.

“Are you feeling alright?”

“Ah, yes… I’m fine.”

But Bella’s complexion didn’t look good. Her silver hair was disheveled, and dark circles had formed under her once-bright eyes.

Bella had been holding her position for days without rest.

“My lady… It would be better if you rested a bit more and left this place to me.”

“I’m fine. This much is nothing.”

“You’ll collapse if you keep this up. Just a little rest…”

“I sleep on my horse whenever I have time, so don’t worry. I need to hold my position, especially now.”

Bella forced a smile. But her exhausted appearance only made it more heartbreaking.

Indeed, Bella, the descendant of a national hero and of noble birth, being on this battlefield alone boosted the soldiers’ morale to the skies. Despite being outnumbered, they had fought well until now, thanks to both magic and Bella’s presence. As long as Bella was with them, this place wouldn’t fall easily. No, it would never fall. That’s what all the soldiers fighting here believed.

But to Blanshe, Bella looked dangerously fragile.

Bella was a woman with stronger mental fortitude than anyone. Her exhaustion wasn’t due to lack of rest. Something was troubling her heart.

Blanshe thought she knew why.

“My lady… Is it because of Lord Count?”

“……”

Bella’s face darkened as Blanshe hit the mark.

Bella couldn’t shake the feeling that something had happened to Tristan. It wasn’t just a woman’s intuition.

A few days ago, the bear doll Tristan had given her, Dmitri, had taken an arrow meant for her. If it were just a doll being hit by an arrow, she wouldn’t have been so concerned, but Dmitri was like Tristan’s avatar. Every time something bad happened to Tristan, something would inevitably happen to Dmitri. The seams would come undone, or the stuffing would spill out.

So Bella was almost certain that something had happened to Tristan this time as well.

Honestly, the reason she hadn’t been able to rest properly for days wasn’t just because of her duty to stand on the battlefield. It was mostly because of Tristan.

When she closed her eyes, Tristan’s face would appear. His face, his cold but sweet voice, the warm touch of his hand on her cheek…

But when she opened her eyes, Tristan wasn’t there. It was as if it had all been a dream. He wasn’t by her side. That fact was so painful that Bella couldn’t sleep.

Especially since Tristan had once fallen into hell in her place. That event, now a trauma for Bella, had left her so broken that Blanshe and her close aides knew how devastated she had been. If Tristan had never returned, Bella’s life would have truly fallen into ruin.

Knowing that Bella was carrying that fear again, Blanshe wanted to be her strength in any way she could.

“My lady. Lord Count is…”

“R-Report! The right defensive line has just collapsed!”

At that moment, the knights’ shouts rang out. The situation was urgent. Blanshe and Bella no longer had the luxury of conversation.

“Let’s go.”

“…Yes.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, they headed to the right defensive line. There, players and knights were locked in a fierce struggle.

“Gah!”

“Hold them!! Hold them at all costs!”

“Ahh!”

Knights fell, spitting blood. The players who had broken through the Imperial defense moved with extraordinary agility. They were the ones who had broken through the barrage of the magic soldiers. They must have been high-level players.

“Wake up all the resting troops! If we don’t stop them now, they’ll keep coming!”

“Understood!”

Blanshe, who quickly assessed the situation, gave orders to the knights and immediately joined the battle.

“Kahahaha! No matter how many come, it’s useless!”

“Since we’ve come this far, you’re finished!”

The players who charged at Blanshe without knowing any better had their heads fly off. She already had a longsword in her hand.

“What the hell?!”

“You won’t be allowed to run amok as you please.”

“Gah!”

In an instant, the party members who had been laughing carelessly became dust. Blanshe’s longsword flashed, and in that moment, a sharp sword aura mercilessly cut through their necks.

The instincts of her assassin days were returning. Killing players wasn’t much different from killing humans. For Blanshe, who had lived half her life as an assassin for the Ruelberta Family, killing them was an easy task.

“?!”

Blanshe instinctively ducked, thanks to the sharp instincts of an assassin.

“Gah…”

The knight behind Blanshe had a spear stuck in his chest. If she hadn’t ducked, it would have been Blanshe’s chest pierced by the spear. The knight, dead on the spot, fell limply from his horse.

“Huh? You dodged that?”

The man who appeared before Blanshe looked slightly surprised. In his hand was a spear identical to the one that had killed the knight.

“Are you the boss here?”

“…No, I’m not.”

“Huh? You’re not? I thought you were the boss NPC here since you dodged my spear.”

The man scratched his head, grumbling as if he had missed. He seemed careless, but there were no openings.

‘This man… He’s different from the other players.’

Blanshe’s instincts told her. This man was definitely different from the other players. Perhaps he was one of the strongest players she had faced so far. High-level… and annoyingly, the type who enjoyed battle and slaughter.

At the same time, she felt a chill. How many people had he killed to become this strong?

“So if you’re not the boss here, who is?”

“I am the commander here.”

“Oh?”

At that moment, Bella stepped forward. The players who saw her emerge from among the knights were stunned.

“What the… Is she a goddess?”

“Damn… Who is that woman? Her looks are insane.”

“There was an NPC this pretty??”

No matter how disheveled she looked, Bella’s appearance was striking. In terms of setting, she was the most beautiful and noble.

Even the battle-crazed man couldn’t hide his surprise at Bella’s beauty.

“Wow… I didn’t know the boss NPC here was such a beautiful woman.”

“Could you not call us NPCs?”

“Oh? You know what that means?”

“You think this world is a game, right? This isn’t a game. We are living humans.”

Bella had understood what the term “NPC” meant from the players she had fought so far. That they saw this world as fake and killed humans like chess pieces without a second thought.

If she could convince them that this world wasn’t fake, could she stop this war? As Bella pondered this, a loud laugh echoed.

“Puhahaha! Living humans? Are you serious? Did they really make you guys this well?”

“What NPC says they’re human?”

“Who would think they’re real humans?”

The players behind the man burst into laughter. Their reaction made it clear that convincing them was nearly impossible. No… If it had been possible to convince them with words, this war wouldn’t have happened in the first place.

Bella glared at the players with sharp eyes, especially at the man who seemed to be their leader.

“Whoa, whoa. Don’t get so angry, miss. I actually want to believe what you’re saying.”

“…?”

“I’d rather you guys were real living humans.”

The man grinned, his lips curling up.

“Because I want to kill real humans.”

“What are you…?”

“Exactly what I said. What I want to hear isn’t recorded mechanical sounds, but real screams. Heh.”

Bella couldn’t help but frown. Was he a psychopath?

But some of the players laughed at his words.

“Damn, that’s a sick concept, lol.”

“Guild Master’s chuunibyou is acting up again.”

“Seriously, stop it. Think about the people listening—”

*Crunch!*

“Gah…”

The player who had been laughing carelessly froze. A spear was embedded in his skull. The man had stabbed his own party member in the head.

The player who had died so meaninglessly turned to dust and disappeared. Bella and Blanshe were stunned. They had thought he was on the same side as the man?

But the players weren’t surprised. It seemed like a familiar occurrence to them.

“Damn, can’t even joke around in front of the Guild Master.”

“Sorry, sorry. The spear was heavy, so my hand slipped.”

“If you’re gonna lie, at least make it believable.”

“Whatever. I killed him because I didn’t like the bastard. Got a problem? Then you be the Guild Master.”

“Ah, that’s our Guild Master for you. I’ve been waiting to kill that idiot.”

“For real. That bastard deserved to die.”

“Right? Hahaha.”

Watching the players laugh and chat casually after their comrade had just died before their eyes, Bella was speechless.

“You… How could you kill your own…?”

“Why not? We just respawn anyway.”

“That’s right! In this world, we’re immortal!”

Their cackling made it clear that further conversation was pointless. Fine. If words don’t work, there’s only one way left.

“I see… I understand.”

Bella drew her sword. Blanshe and the Izakhel knights also prepared for battle.

“I am Bella Izakhel. And you are?”

“Me? I’m Kim Taesik, Guild Master of the ‘Reaper’ Guild.”

Bella and the people of this world didn’t know, but the ‘Reaper’ Guild was infamous for being a guild of lunatics. Not only had they slaughtered countless people in this world to level up, but they were also notorious for not caring about the means to achieve their goals.

Some players even used the fact that they could respawn to kill each other repeatedly, leveling up through pseudo-PvP. Among them, Kim Taesik was the first to reach level 100 by repeatedly killing his own guild members.

Of course, even if Bella had known that, she wouldn’t have backed down.

“Charge!”

“Kill all the NPCs!”

With a roar, the battle began again.

The players who had broken through the defensive line clashed with the Imperial knights. The sharp sound of weapons clashing mixed with the splatter of blood and dust.

“Die!”

“Ugh!”

Blanshe dodged the arrows flying at her and tore through the men’s throats with her dagger. The players who had been admiring her flawless movements were impaled by her ice spikes and turned to dust.

In an instant, five or six players turned to dust, and the remaining players tensed up.

“Ugh…”

“What the hell is this…?!”

With her at the forefront, the players couldn’t easily approach.

“You said you’re the boss here, so don’t disappoint me!”

Bella, of course, faced Kim Taesik. It was a duel between leaders.

“Kahahaha! Try to block this!”

Kim Taesik’s spear, wielded by someone over level 100, was like a flash of light. To those watching, it seemed as if light was flashing. It was a movement possible only for a player who had reached superhuman strength at level 100.

But…

“Crazy… What is this woman? She’s blocking the Guild Master’s attacks…”

Despite Kim Taesik’s relentless thrusts, Bella didn’t retreat. She only moved her upper body, dodging his attacks with ease. Her composure made Kim Taesik grit his teeth.

“Alright…! If you’re the boss, you should be able to handle this. Then try blocking this!”

The spear that had been flying straight suddenly curved. Or at least, it seemed to. By adding elasticity to his grip, Kim Taesik created an optical illusion with his attack. No one had ever blocked this irregular attack before.

*Clang!*

“Ugh?!”

“I thought it was some amazing technique, but it’s just a cheap trick?”

But Bella, who had reached the pinnacle of swordsmanship, wasn’t fooled. Her reflexes, honed beyond human limits, saw

 

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