78 – Soleil’s Dungeon (2)
Guardian John was said to be a mixture of me and Dior.
First of all, his hair color was the same brilliant blonde as mine, and like Dior, he had an overall gentle personality.
As he was a guard knight of the Holy Kingdom, he always treated Cynthia, a saint, with respect, and was as generous to the common people as Dior.
So, he was a target of many people who were very popular, saying he looked like a golden retriever.
Of course, in my past life, I hated him for flattering women, and now I hate him for being a spy of the Holy Kingdom.
He was definitely someone I disliked, but I didn’t want him to not appear at all.
“First, we will have to interview sequentially. Did you say escort driver Miles? I will interview you first. Cynthia. “Please go out and wait for a moment.”
“Yes, student council president.”
“Could you please wait a moment? I am an escort driver. “The duty to stay by the saint’s side at any moment”
“This is Soleil, where public access is strictly controlled. Do you believe that an unpleasant accident will occur in a place like this?”
“Miles. “This is an empire, not a Holy Kingdom.”
“… Yes, I understand.”
The dark-haired, cold-looking man bowed to Cynthia, bowing to her like he was holding her flip phone.
It was a polite attitude that was not seen even by the crown prince of the empire.
Perhaps because he had someone to compare him to, John, he was a man I felt even more unlikable.
“Yes, escort driver Miles. “The reason I entered Soleil was to protect Saint Cynthia.”
“Yes, student council president.”
I think the man named Miles may have previously worked as an inquisitor.
It was a cold impression that did not show any emotion, to the extent that you might think so.
Should I say that if you let her hair hang down and give her a sword in her hand, she will appear as the final boss of the subculture.
‘It’s suspicious.’
He suddenly appeared, taking Yohan’s place, so I couldn’t have any good feelings about him.
I looked sideways at Miles and read his profile.
There were no particularly noticeable problems.
However, I was concerned about the fact that he was 16 years old, the same age as me.
‘Why not John?’
Among the targets of the Garden of Thorns, the only one who is in a different grade is me, Maximilian.
However, Yohan, the target of the attack and a guard knight, appears in the story as a 17-year-old.
This is not that much of a problem.
Even among the students attending Soleil, there are some students who entered the school a year late or a year early due to unavoidable circumstances.
The problem was that they did not know the reason why a man named Lee Miles was admitted, not John, who was the same age as him.
I understand that in the Garden of Thorns, John was appointed as a guard knight because he was the most outstanding paladin candidate among his peers….
“There is a part in your request that you want to take the same classes as Saint Cynthia.”
“I hope that part is accepted.”
“Okay, I’ll allow this level of convenience.”
“Thank you.”
It was a greeting that did not convey any sense of gratitude.
This is─
‘It’s a physiological feeling of disgust.’
As I was looking at this man, I remembered the mental patients in my past life who would ask me if I knew the Tao that I hated.
This was literally close to physiological disgust.
I felt like I had one more reason not to get involved with the saint.
“Go out.”
“Yes.”
I took turns with Miles and made Saint Cynthia sit in her chair.
“Saint Cynthia. “I’m 16 years old.”
“hahahaha….”
“You’re starting by blatantly manipulating documents.”
“I don’t know my age because I’m an orphan….”
There is no use in inciting sympathy.
It doesn’t look like it hurts at all.
“What is this guy?”
“I don’t know either….”
Cynthia let out her sigh with a frustrated expression.
“Where is this man named John?”
“I also asked King Seong, but I received the answer that there is no such person.”
“No?”
“Yes….”
It was a story that made no sense.
According to the setting, John is a Holy Knight candidate who was raised in the Holy Kingdom from a young age.
She must have been a promising enough person to be selected as the escort knight for a saint….
“As expected, it is very different from the Thorn Garden….”
Saint Cynthia looked nervous as she said this.
“If things don’t go as planned, this continent might be destroyed….”
Her words seemed to rebuke me.
“Are you saying that I should have ignored the death right in front of me?”
“… “If something goes wrong, the entire continent could be destroyed.”
In the past, I would have been in a situation where I could have screamed and verbally abused Cynthia.
But because Cynthia did Dior a favor, she was able to accept her story a little calmly.
“Do you want to say I have a share in John’s disappearance?”
“Well, that’s…” .”
“Johann Laines. He was an orphan born in the Holy Kingdom, and was trained as a Holy Knight candidate due to his natural physique and character. Although he was not as good as Kyle, he was a promising talent even in the Holy Kingdom. It is said that from the age of 10, he received attention as a candidate to become the leader of the Holy Knights. “You probably know that too, right?”
I recited the profile of the target, Yohan, verbatim.
“The Holy King does not know such an object? “It’s nonsense.”
In other words—
“It means that even if I wasn’t involved in the first place, the story of this world is already progressing differently from the Garden of Thorns.”
“So…” Will it work….”
“I will not deny your judgment. “You and I have different backgrounds.”
In my past life, I was the type of person who hated self-help books.
The book he particularly disliked was a self-help book about a man who had succeeded in a certain business, and the man had already had a background as a parent who had already succeeded in business.
“People are not equal from birth. For some, it may be a gamble, risking everything, but for others, it may be just one of many attempts.”
Let’s say you need 30 million won to start a business.
Those who have a solid background from the beginning take on the challenge of investing 30 million won in a business with the thought of learning about life.
Even if you fail, you have a strong background, so you can use failure as an experience to try again.
But for those who have nothing, this 30 million won is everything in life.
You must jump in with the thought that if you fail, there is no going back.
Even if you try your best, you fail, and you cannot use that failure as an experience to take on a new challenge.
I have already spent 30 million won, everything in my life.
There is such a difference between me and Cynthia.
I am a member of the royal family, the highest rank among nobles, and she was an orphan, the lowest class among commoners.
Unlike me, who was able to find another way even if she failed, a single failure is fatal to her.
The difference must be acknowledged.
If it were me in the past, I would never have admitted it, but the memories of my past life, my improved relationship with Dior, and the improved perception of commoners due to the bounty system must have had an influence.
“… Student president. “Do you happen to know Miss Priscilla’s identity?”
Cynthia asked that question with a confident expression.
I flinch.
Then Priscilla, who was squatting under the student council president’s table and eavesdropping on the conversation, reacted by flinching.
I nudged Priscilla with my leg, signaling her not to move.
“In my past life, I skipped most of the story and don’t know the details. However, I did see a scene where Priscilla appeared as an enemy in the Maximilian route. From there, the difficulty level increased rapidly, and I had an accident while leveling, so I don’t know the story after that.”
“So you kept them nearby even though you knew they were enemies?”
“To put it that way, the Prime Minister is also an enemy of the empire.”
“… “That was such an unfortunate accident for the Prime Minister—”
“If you think about it that way, Priscilla is the same. Cynthia, how much do you know about Priscilla?”
Cynthia looked worried for a moment in response to my question, then her face hardened and she closed her mouth.
“Didn’t you know that you will be dumped by me in a year?”
“… Other than that, she comes across as someone who behaves a bit prickly. “Like a villainess.”
“Priscilla and I met six years ago and promised each other a future.”
“Huh? She said it was for political reasons in the Garden of Thorns….”
“I was 6 years ago… No, I lost my memories from 7 years ago. So she must have been under the illusion that Priscilla became her fiancé for political reasons.”
“Is that possible? I don’t know the details, but I understand that Priscilla’s family is a small noble family….”
“The imperial family prefers nominal noble families that are far from politics, such as the Count Arvest family. “It’s because I get tired when I focus my energy unnecessarily on my mother’s family.”
“… “It’s a pretty complicated situation for a game.”
Cynthia said and let out her sigh.
‘Game?’
“Did you say it was a game?”
“Yes. “This is the world of games, right?”
Cynthia tilted her head with an expression that asked why she was asking such an obvious question.
She had no choice but to realize it there.
‘The perspective from which I first looked at this world was different.’
Based on the memories of her past life, Cynthia believes that this world is a game world and that she has been reincarnated in that game world.
Based on my memories of my past life, I believe that this world is reality and that the Thorn Garden was an entertainment center based on this world.
There was a very critical difference of opinion between Cynthia and me.
“How can this be a game?”
“It doesn’t make sense, does it? For example—”
Cynthia listed the reasons why this world can only be a game.
The most fundamental part was water supply and sewerage.
“Water and sewage systems existed in ancient Rome as well. Why is that not evidence of a game?”
“That! The agriculture part is also strange, isn’t it? That’s—”
“This is something that His Majesty the Third Sun Emperor Graus personally took care of. “I think it’s natural.”
“Besides that!”
Cynthia heard various reasons, but most of them were related to the miracles created by past emperors who embraced the sun.
It seemed like the other routes didn’t provide much information about the emperors who embraced the sun.
“Do you know why I am called the Seventh Dawn of the Empire?”
“He was born with the mana of the sun─”
“Beings who possess the mana of the sun are not simply beings born with special mana. “I think we talked about it last time.”
“So that’s just a setting in the game─”
“This is off topic. Do you truly believe that everything in the world can be expressed with just 4 gigabytes of data? “Even for a commoner, isn’t that too narrow of a perspective?”
When I shrugged my shoulders with an expression of bewilderment, Cynthia looked a little upset and tried to find out why this world was a game.
“The saying that people who have read only one book are more dangerous may be referring to people like you.”
“Uh, uh….”
“Soleil’s library is open to anyone. If you’re bored, read a book there. No matter how much text is written in The Garden of Thorns, it will never exceed 100mb, but if the books in the library are converted into data, it will easily exceed 10 times that amount.”
“….”
Cynthia looked like she was gathering her thoughts for a moment.
“That… “So, would you like to start by telling me that she was engaged to Miss Priscilla?”
Since it was an unfavorable topic, it seemed like he was trying to find another topic.
I decided to accept it as is.
From Noble mtl dot com
Because the key was Priscilla.
I leisurely told Cynthia the complicated story of her relationship with Priscilla.
Then Cynthia showed various expressions, and after hearing the whole story, she glared at me with a mixed expression.
“How could you forget such an important promise… ?”
Do you know?
I don’t even remember that part yet.
I shrugged my shoulders with that in mind.
“I think even I would have been in the dark about this!”
If I said that, I also had nothing to say.
“You made such a precious promise, but you threw it away because you were sick of it… “It’s not a person!”
I think so too.
“Ha, really, ha!”
Cynthia continued to fan her hands with an expression of astonishment.
“Are we done?”
I looked at Cynthia who was continuously pouring out her emotions with her sad expression.
Cynthia must have finally come to her senses and quickly bowed her head.
“I’m sorry….”
“It is done. So, are you willing to cooperate with me?”
“Of course! A reborn villain! “Isn’t this a cliché?!”
Unlike before, it is now possible to separate Cynthia from her castle kingdom and view her as an individual.
Then Cynthia seemed to have felt the same mood, and she started talking in a more lively mood than before.
It was a lively feeling that reminded me of the Triceratops from my past life, and there was something I couldn’t hate even if I tried.
“Then let’s start by finding the sleeping dungeon in Soleil. Guide me.”
“Uh… “Can’t you find it?”
“I searched all suspicious places. “I guess this is the main character’s unique domain.”
“hehehehe…. “Just trust me.”
Cynthia nodded, patting her hand on a spot that was hard to tell whether it was her back or her chest.
“Okay, please take care of me.”
‘I think it would be good to leave Dior in charge.’
“Let me ask you one last question. “Have you heard anything special from the Holy Kingdom?”
“Uh… “They just told me to enroll in Soleil?”
Guardian Miles is probably a watchman appointed by the Holy Kingdom.
Well, I don’t think this kind of thing would suit a person named Yohan.
“Watch out for Miles. “It seems like political issues are involved.”
“Of course. I’m afraid you’ve come this far and won’t even notice that much? “I only have 5 years of Ropane experience?”
Is that something to be proud of?
According to my evaluation in my previous life, Ropan was said to be ‘a bundle of pornographic fonts for women’….
Rather, it felt like my credit rating was plummeting.