323. The ending itself
A small but cozy rooftop room.
Outside the window, the happy laughter of people enjoying the eve festival could be heard.
Just listening to it makes me smile.
Fortunately, Jihwaseong did not end up covered in blood. Although Volk was covered in blood in the middle.
When Volk asked me how I didn’t bleed at all, I said, ‘I have to avoid anything dirty.’ He countered.
In fact, I was quite careful about avoiding blood. Seodanggae also used to cut the sword to recite the good fortune every three years, so I got a knack for it.
“Puh-ha…”
Volk came out soaked in water.
He was called a wild dog, but surprisingly, he seemed to have washed up cleanly on his own.
Howell, who was sitting on a box instead of a chair, carefully asked a question.
“Are we done with our work?”
“For now. All that’s left is to wait for news of victory.”
“Honestly, I didn’t expect it to go as planned without a hitch. That jade flag that persuaded the soldier driving the red horse. Did you know this would happen and save it in advance?”
When Kerap asked that question, I shook my head and opened my mouth.
“No, it was pure luck. I didn’t even know it was the royal jade tablet. Besides, this time it was easier because there was a ‘head’ directing the enemies. If anything, there were fewer variables.”
“Did you receive the jade tablet as a gift directly from the King of Yue?”
“That’s right. It was a farewell gift. Does it have any meaning?”
“From what I know, it is an item that can only be possessed by members of the royal family or people of equivalent status. I think this is the first time it has been given to a stranger other than a person from the Yue Kingdom.”
They are people of the royal family.
If you put it that way, should I say it meets the conditions?
I think Seo Yi-san realized at that time that I was the reincarnation of Baek Cheon-gyeol.
“But why are you solving the problem as if everything is already over? Isn’t the blood demon dead yet?”
Volk, who was drying his hair with a towel, ticked.
I stopped the guy who wanted to watch the festival earlier, saying that washing up was the priority, and he stayed like that ever since.
“He will die soon.”
“What should she do if she becomes a saint?”
“That won’t happen.”
“You could lose, right? Didn’t the saint have a knack for healing people in the first place?”
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“hahahaha, come to think of it, Volk might not know much about the saint.”
“It’s not like I don’t know anything. I’ve searched for information several times to treat my sister.”
“Hoo, what kind of information were you looking for?”
Keraph, who had his arms crossed, shows interest in Volk’s response that he sought information.
“As long as her head isn’t broken, she can be revived from any injury, and it costs a lot of money to get treatment from such a saint?”
“Could that be calculated in gold?”
“At that time, the woman told me that if converted to gold, she would be worth about 100,000 gold. So she gave up on recruiting a saint.”
“It was surprisingly realistic. Although she is not something that can be converted into money in the first place.”
By that woman, does she refer to Shanova, the evil broker who exploited Volk?
‘Anyway, they charged an absurd amount of money.’
Certainly Bernice would have been able to cure Volk’s sister. From Shanova’s point of view, she had to use Volk, so she probably offered a large amount of money because it was not good for her.
“After all, you’re a priest. You heal people with the palm of your hand.”
Where have I seen this before? Volk is making a circle with his palm and pretending to use the holy magic ‘heal’.
“It’s not wrong. The saint is definitely a priest.”
“But? Why is everyone looking at me and smiling like I’m a child who doesn’t know anything about the world?”
At least it’s true that we don’t know the innocent saint Bernice. Only Volk did not know that Howell, who was from the East, also knew.
“Volk, who do you think is the strongest among the Holy Maiden’s Silver Wing Knights?”
“Knights? Of course, they must be the knights’ leader. I heard recently that there were cases where that wasn’t the case… Well, it’s not any other knights’ order, it’s the Saint’s Knights’ Order.”
“Inez, the leader of the Silver Wing Knights. She was a great Holy Knight who showed vast amounts of divine power and outstanding swordsmanship at a young age and became the youngest Knight of the Round Table at the time. Later, the youngest title was given to another person. “He took it.”
Keraph gave a brief explanation about Inez.
Is it because they are demons?
Is it because it is an excellent source of information?
‘I didn’t even know about the youngest title.’
I was suspicious that Keraf knew more about the Silver Wing Knights than I did.
“I heard that’s true?”
Volk shrugs his shoulders.
However, Keraf did not recite Inez’s explanation to help Volk’s opinion.
“Even if ten Inez come, they won’t be able to defeat the saint.”
“What…?”
“That’s because the strongest person in the Saint’s Knights is the Saint, not anyone else.”
“…Then what is the treatment?”
“Do you also provide treatment?”
“You can heal, but you’re also good at fighting? Something like that…”
“So doesn’t that mean he’s strong?”
I chuckled and burst into laughter at Volk’s puzzled voice.
I think I’ve finally realized how much of a ‘fraud’ ‘Saint Bernice of the Innocent’ is.
It can fire artillery fire from afar, but its specialty is close combat.
Then is it lacking in staying power?
Not at all.
As everyone knows, the saint’s divine power is truly infinite. Unless her mental strength is weakened for some reason, she will be able to stay up all night and fight all day.
Among the stories related to Bernice that were passed around among users who were playing the game, there was also such a hypothesis.
‘Bernice ending theory.’
The so-called ‘stagnant users’ who chewed, chewed, tasted and enjoyed the game for a long time had many complaints about the volume of the game.
The volume, that is, the amount, is small.
Honestly, it wasn’t necessarily that the volume was smaller than other games.
Immense content.
Free and colorful progression method.
Because it wasn’t that common to find a game that had all of those elements.
To put it simply, it was not a ‘dung game’ but a ‘God game’.
Despite this, users’ complaints did not stop.
Why is there no course after graduation?
The Demon King hasn’t even died yet, so is it okay for the ending to happen like this?
An opposing opinion was that ‘It was an academy genre game, and since you graduated from the academy, isn’t it right that the game is over?’
Actually, I wasn’t really considering that.
The explanation and interpretation of their complaints is as follows.
Give me a sequel.
The users who enjoyed the game made it this good, and it sold like hotcakes, so they thought, ‘If we wait, of course there will be a sequel, right?’ It was something like that.
If the sequel they had hoped for had come out, hypotheses such as the ‘Bernice ending theory’ would not have emerged.
It was impossible.
Even after several years, a sequel was not released.
Users were not even waiting for the release date to arrive at some point. It’s just, ‘We’re preparing a sequel.’ I was hoping to hear at least some brief news like this.
At the time, I gave up on the sequel early and was playing the ‘Save Eisel’ content, but other users didn’t seem to think so.
Users who were tired of waiting were busy posting posts on the community with delusions about a sequel.
In the meantime, a user writes a post.
‘Tell us why there is no sequel.’
It was an article with that title.
It was an article that was expected to contain obvious repertoire that you would have seen several times if you stayed in the community all day, but wouldn’t it be a good idea to inertially click on it even though you know what is written in human psychology?
In fact, the reason written in the article was a completely new approach.
I don’t remember the details of the article, but I clearly remember the beginning of the article.
‘It’s all because of this b*tch.’
Under the screenshot of Bernice smiling brightly, such a sentence was written.
My memory is vague, but the contents were roughly as follows.
The development team was so crazy about the concept of a saint that they created an all-purpose character who could heal and fight on her own without thinking… Bernice beat up the Demon King until he was about to die, and the reincarnated warrior Ray held the Demon King’s neck with a sword. The devil would die if plugged in, so there would be no story for players to enjoy in the sequel.
Behind the plausible hypothesis, evidence included the fact that the ‘overbalanced’ Bernice is not a companion character that can be included in the party, the fact that he cannot join the knights, and the fact that there is no sequel.
‘Just this b*tch Bernice is the ending of the sequel itself.’
Finally, the short sentence written at the end of the article… Although it is a bit vulgar, leaves no room for refutation. Due to this user’s hypothesis, it is called the ‘Bernice Ending Theory’.
It was normally funny at the time, but for some reason I can’t laugh now.
I certainly have a close relationship with her Bernice, and speaking from my impressions as I have used her a few times, it is an undeniable fact that she is a kind of ‘cheat’.
However, there is one thing we must not forget.
Others may not know, but they know as much as I do.
Bernice’s ending theory is wrong.
Contrary to the hypothesis advanced by the anonymous user, Bernice will not be able to break the ‘bridle’.
The reason is simple.
If it had been a problem that had been resolved along the Bernice Line, Heneris wouldn’t have asked me directly.
‘The fact that it is impossible with Bernice also means that the level of difficulty is high…’
My head hurts.
“……”
While reminiscing, I suddenly felt a headache and turned my head to see the face of Keraf, who was a competent informant and ‘demon’.
As I was staring at his face, a question suddenly occurred to me.
“…Keraph, does the saint have a weakness?”
“Suddenly?”
“Suddenly. I’m curious. Isn’t there some kind of black magic that’s going on, like having your tongue cut out if you leak information?”
What are the saint’s weaknesses that her demons have figured out?
“No, it’s not like that in particular… What I do know is that the demons ruled that the innocent saint could not be subjugated. But there must be an alternative.”
“What if there is an alternative?”
“It’s not my field, so I don’t know much about it. I think it felt like they were taking people around them hostage or randomly massacring people in the Holy Kingdom.”
Hostages and massacres.
Are you trying to touch the mental aspect?
It was a method that was demon-like but not demon-like.
“You didn’t even think about subduing him by force?”
“The harm will be greater than the benefit. If the Demon King is resurrected, it will be a different story, but until then, the corps commander’s instructions were to avoid the ‘Innocent Saint’ unconditionally. There is only one way for a demon to touch her first. There will be only one case.”
“Well, it must be war.”
“Exactly.”
In response to my answer, Kheraf nodded his head in the affirmative.
In the meantime, Howell, who became curious, joins the conversation.
“…But Mr. Keraf, how do you know so much about goblins?”
“Because it’s a goblin.”
“W-what…?!”
When Volk answered instead, a surprised Howell stood up from the box and quickly distanced himself from Keraf.
‘Could it be that you still didn’t know?’
I thought the conversation about him would have ended a long time ago as the three of us walked around.
“It’s a bit different from other goblins.”
“For example, I should say that he is a very kind goblin.”
“I’m not particularly nice…”
After Howell explained it in an easy-to-understand way, Volk glared at Keraf and muttered.
“Oh, that’s… I’m sorry. I never imagined that Zeto would be with a goblin…”
From her perspective, I guess she deserved it.
Looking back on the situation, she realized that there may have been a misunderstanding.
Howol probably thought that I was the reincarnation of the Conqueror who went on an expedition to destroy the demons, while Keraf guessed that I was the reincarnation of the demon called the Nameless One.
It was the moment when Howell, who had regained her composure, was about to sit down in her box, which was her own seat.
ㅡBeep beep.
ㅡBeep beep.
The crystal ball in her arms suddenly rang.
Everyone in the room must have had similar questions to me when I heard the beep that came from inside my coat pocket.
‘Already…?’
I calmly took out the crystal ball and infused it with mana.
[ …… ]
The signal turns off and the crystal ball becomes quiet.
I soon opened my mouth first.
“…Saint?”
[ Zeto. ]
“What happened?”
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[What happened? ]
Bernice asks in a blunt voice, as if he doesn’t like something.
“…Are you hurt?”
[I wasn’t hurt. Thanks to you. ]
Thank goodness I got the answer right, seeing as I returned to my normal, simple voice.
Why does she want to hear my worries even though she knows they are lies?
I don’t know the reason.
What’s more important now is.
“Then the blood demon…”
[Ah…]
As soon as we get to the main topic, Bernice immediately drags out the end of her sentence.
Her indifferent voice, heard one after another, made everyone doubt their ears.
[ …I didn’t die as easily as I thought. ]
He doesn’t die easily.
Then what does it mean to die well?
“……”
I was immediately speechless at the words of Bernice, who spoke as if he had caught a tough animal, so I chose to remain silent.
Perhaps ‘that hypothesis’ may be correct only in terms of blood demon Guhwi.
There is no better expression than ‘Bernice ending’ for his simple ending.
***
When the blood demon Guhwi was subjugated by the innocent saint Bernice, the blood religion completely disintegrated without achieving any results.
On the other hand, you might be curious.
What on earth did Bernice’s expression ‘he died poorly’ mean?
In order to understand the meaning even a little better, we need to go back to Bernice’s point of view when he entered the palace.