Epilogue
Two weeks had passed since the commotion caused by my runaway episode had died down. I was taking a stroll down the streets of one of the towns in Dolkness County with Patrick at my side. Winter was approaching, which made the mornings cold, but the chill had given way to a warm afternoon.
Our plan had been to spend the morning together and then return before noon, but we’d had an unexpected guest whose presence had pushed back our plans, and so our morning stroll had been extended into the afternoon.
“I didn’t expect Linus to show up,” I remarked.
“That disguise of his was incredible,” Patrick agreed.
Our surprise guest had been Linus, the agent from Lemlaesta. A man who’d appeared to be a stout merchant had shown up at the estate, but to my surprise, he had transformed into a thin young man before our very eyes. He could’ve just sent a messenger who wasn’t known by sight in Valschein, but Linus was a dutiful man, and he’d insisted on coming himself since he felt responsible for putting me in danger in the first place. He’d traveled all this way to update us on the current state of Lemlaestan affairs.
“I don’t really care how Lemlaesta is doing,” I admitted, “but I guess it’s good that things worked out in favor of Linus and his faction.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Patrick responded. “Lemlaesta’s power in terms of magi-technology is now cemented on the international stage, so I’m uncertain how to feel about that in terms of what it means for the Kingdom of Valschein.”
Linus and the other members of the first prince’s faction had succeeded in fulfilling many of their goals. It had pretty much been decided that the next king of Lemlaesta would be the first prince. Of course, he’d promised to continue supporting the First Armory, Lemlaesta’s premiere magical-instrument research facility. The original plan had been for the first prince’s faction to achieve an obvious victory over the Ashbatten Mark, thus allowing them to gain an advantage in the succession conflict, but they’d actually retreated from the battle without winning anything. Apparently, they’d just straight-up lied about their victory.
“I still can’t believe they said that they were the ones who stopped the rampage of a god of destruction...” I muttered.
Even if they were going to lie, couldn’t they have come up with something a little more plausible?
Despite the ridiculous nature of their story, the first prince’s propaganda campaign had been very successful within Lemlaesta. The faction had also used a natural phenomenon, which had coincidentally occurred at the same time, to bolster their story and add to its credibility.
Two weeks ago, right before I had returned home from Lemlaesta, there had apparently been some kind of abnormal weather occurrence. I could only say “apparently” because I’d missed the whole thing and hadn’t seen it for myself. I was a bit disappointed that I hadn’t had the chance to see this rare natural phenomenon.
Regardless, Lemlaesta had been able to point to the abnormal weather as their basis for declaring that they’d stopped a god of destruction right before it descended onto the planet.
Hold on, Patrick hasn’t responded to me, I thought. I turned to look at Patrick and noticed that he was grimacing.
“Is something wrong, Patrick?”
“Huh? Oh, sorry. What were we talking about?”
“About how there was actually no god of destruction.”
“Linus is from an enemy kingdom, but he’s someone we can trust...” Patrick responded after a short pause. “It’s rare to get candid news from Lemlaesta like we did from him.”
Excuse me, I was talking about a god of destruction? I guess he’s ignoring it because it’s so ridiculous, he doesn’t want to even entertain the thought of it. Still, I feel like he was listening intently when we were talking about Linus.
I agreed with Patrick that Linus was trustworthy, but something had seemed strange about Linus’s report.
“He told us some really unnecessary rumors, though, like those urban legends,” I mused.
“You mean like the one about the woman who showed up at a blacksmith’s shop and crushed a sword in her fist?” Patrick asked.
“Yeah, that one. What was the point of telling us about a trending fictional story from a neighboring kingdom?”
Linus had included some oddly off-topic information when he was updating us on how things were going in Lemlaesta. The incident with the blacksmith, for instance, was a side-story that had nothing to do with the main plot, yet he went out of his way to include it in his report.
I don’t think Patrick knows yet... He wasn’t actually there, so he shouldn’t be able to make the connection that the bizarre, sword-crushing woman was, in fact, me.
He gave me a sidelong glance. “That was you, wasn’t it?”
“No...” I tried to deny it.
Patrick shrugged. “I’m assuming that Linus told us about that incident since stories about what you did while you were there spread throughout the kingdom. There’s no way that was anyone but you. The timing is right too.”
There was a long pause before I reluctantly admitted, “Yes, it was me.”
“It’s one thing to do that here, but... No, actually, you shouldn’t be doing that anywhere... Why did you do something that would make you stand out like that in a foreign kingdom?” He sounded a bit upset.
All I have to say to that is that I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, Patrick. Still, I didn’t realize that Linus knew that it was me in those stories. Speaking of unknown identities...
I decided to change the subject, since it seemed like Patrick might continue nagging me otherwise.
“Oh yeah, when I met Linus in the Lemlaestan Royal Capital, he didn’t tell me that Gilbert was your older brother. Isn’t that strange?”
“I think most people would have realized who he was. His name is Gilbert, and he looks a bit like me. I don’t think Linus ever considered the possibility that you two thought you were strangers.”
“Oh, I see. I just thought Linus was a little ditzy.”
Patrick rolled his eyes. “In this particular case, you’re the ditzy one,” he teased.
“Hey,” I protested. “You could say the same about Gilbert. He didn’t realize who I was until I said my name.”
“You’re right; my brother’s a pretty severe case too.”
That brother of his still had some very basic misunderstandings about our relationship. He thought that Patrick was stopping me from destroying the world by making me his girlfriend and subduing me, which was, of course, wildly incorrect.
The one who destroyed a world is 2, who’s living happily in a parallel world. The Yumiella right here right now has never once plotted to destroy the world. Man, my life is really plagued by people’s misconceptions about me.
In the end, my relationship with Gilbert had gotten worse instead of better—at this point, it was probably the worst it could be.
“He’s still attending the wedding, though, right?” I asked.
“Yeah, looks like he took this whole situation too far acting on his own, and he ended up getting pretty severely chewed out.”
Dealing with the recent incident with Lemlaesta had been a task assigned to Gilbert by his father, but the margrave felt that his eldest son had taken it too far when he’d involved me in his plan. And so the margrave had severely chewed him out, his eccentric mother had eccentrically scolded him, and even his beloved younger brother had complained to him about his behavior... Eventually, Gilbert had apologized to me with bitter tears, and he’d promised to attend our wedding.
It was clear as day that he wasn’t happy about it, but if one looked only at the results, one could say our problem was solved. Still, regardless of the status of Gilbert’s attendance, the wedding continued to be an annoyance to me. After all, it was only a few days ago that the wedding cake had been proved a lie.
I know Patrick doesn’t really like formal ceremonies that much either. I wonder why he’s being so stubborn about the wedding. Is it because it’s considered common sense to have one, or is it because it’s a social obligation? I’ve been assuming that it was one of those two possibilities, but maybe there’s a different reason he insists on having the wedding.
“Why do you want to have a wedding so badly, Patrick?” I asked him. “Is there any benefit to you?”
“A benefit...?” He blinked at me. “Is it not enough that marrying you would make me happy?”
“We could get married without the ceremony,” I pointed out.
“Then... It’s nice because I get to see you in a wedding dress.”
A wedding dress...
After we humans had lost most of our body hair through evolution, we’d invented clothing so we could regulate our temperature and protect our skin. Depending on the local climate and weather patterns, styles of clothing differed wildly, but generally, the ability to move freely in a given outfit was an important consideration regardless of other factors.
As for wedding dresses, they offered what was absolutely the least degree of freedom of movement, to the point that they didn’t even deserve to be called “clothes.” In fact, wedding dresses were more an item of restraint than they were clothing.
With all that said, it was obvious why I found Patrick strange for wanting to see me in a wedding dress.
Suddenly it hit me. “Oh, I get it now...”
“You’re thinking something weird, aren’t you,” Patrick said with an exasperated sigh.
I’d figured out the truth, though. In the kinds of mobile games that featured beautiful girls, there were seasonal gachas that ran for a limited time. During the summer, for instance, characters might be in swimsuits, and in the winter, they would be in Santa-themed outfits. School uniforms and traditional Japanese clothes were also common specialty costumes. The existing characters would don these outfits, and at times, they might appear in the gacha as separate characters with better abilities than their original forms.
In these games, the costume changes were the most important part. In other words, it was in a man’s nature to enjoy seeing a girl in clothes different from those she usually wore.
Out of all the various costumes he could have a fetish for, Patrick apparently liked wedding dresses.
“I have a question for you, Sir Patrick.”
“What’s with the sudden formality?”
“Out of the following, which would you like me to wear: a sailor uniform, a swimsuit, a Santa-themed outfit, a shrine maiden costume, or a wedding dress...?” He looked at me blankly, so I encouraged him, “Go on, pick one!”
“I don’t know what half of those are.”
It was going to be difficult to explain them since I didn’t have any of the actual outfits on hand, but I was confident in my ability to describe things. It would be an easy task to give him a mostly accurate understanding using only my words.
“Sailor uniforms were originally worn by the navy,” I began. “Their most distinctive feature is a square collar that drapes down in the back. You pull it up behind your head to create a sound-reflective surface that helps you to hear others better when you’re on a ship at sea.”
“So it has a large collar? I wouldn’t want you to wear such a weird outfit.”
“A Santa-themed outfit is one based on what Santa Claus wears,” I went on. “Santa Claus is an old man who sneaks into children’s homes during this particular holiday that I hate. Also, he’s completely red from head to toe.”
“Is he a criminal?! And why is he red?! Is this a horror story?”
“A shrine maiden wears a more traditional-looking outfit,” I continued. “If you wear it left-front...or rather, if you mix up the order of which side of the collar wraps around on top, you die. Now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t actually know which side of the collar is left-front.”
“What kind of curse is that? Clothing that has a fifty percent chance of killing you sounds bad.”
“You know what swimsuits and wedding dresses are, right?”
“Yeah, but...” Patrick shook his head in wonder. “The rest all sound crazy.”
I don’t think sailor uniforms or shrine maiden costumes are that crazy...
Since I had so thoroughly explained things, if Patrick wasn’t understanding, then it was because his own comprehension skills were lacking.
I repeated the options and asked again which he’d like to see me wear. He answered as if the choice were an obvious one.
“Out of those options, I guess I’d naturally go with the wedding dress.”
“I knew it!” I gloated. “I was right all along.”
“What are you talking about?”
Despite having just exposed his niche fetish to the world, Patrick didn’t seem to be appreciating the gravity of this admission.
I see, so he likes wedding dresses. I guess he’s the type who would keep drawing the gacha until he went bankrupt if they released a limited-time-only five-star Yumiella (Wedding Dress ver.). Sure, if you want to see it that badly, I guess I’ll have to give you a five-star guarantee draw.
“I guess we have to have the wedding, then, so you can see me in a wedding dress.”
“I’m happy to hear that, but I feel like you’re misunderstanding something here.”
“I’m not,” I insisted.
I wonder how he’ll react to seeing me in a wedding dress. Maybe his love will overflow to the point that something crazy happens. Specifically, he’ll... Wait, no! It’s too embarrassing!
Now that I had these thoughts running through my mind, I was starting to get excited about the wedding.
We drew closer to the estate as we chatted. I’d lately been going out on my own and coming home on my own too, so it was fun to have company for a change.
Today, Patrick and I had gone out on our kind of date—in other words, we’d headed into a dungeon together.
I turned to look at my fiancé. “Oh right, I wanted to ask, why did you come with me today? Your level isn’t going to go up any more, so there’s no point in you going dungeon crawling, is there?”
“I just had a bad feeling...” He shrugged. “Though, seeing how you were today, it seems like I didn’t need to worry at all.”
“What kind of reason is that?”
For the past two weeks, I’d been going dungeon crawling every day. Normally I’d be scolded for having nothing but my level on my mind, but it was actually Patrick’s recommendation that I go out.
Patrick thought that it might be a good idea for me to level up to the point that the lower two digits of my level were in the nineties, because it would invite fewer questions if my level looked high when someone happened to see my level assessment on a crystal with only a two-digit display.
As for myself, I didn’t care whether the lower two digits were 13 or 99, but if it meant that I got to go dungeon crawling every day without sneaking around, then there was no reason to squander this opportunity.
“You’re assessing your level every day, right?” Patrick asked. “You must be close to 90.”
I thought for a moment before responding, “Yeah, I think it’ll happen soon.” It terrified me that Patrick was so spot-on in his estimate, but I maintained a calm facade. He didn’t seem to notice and continued our conversation.
“After that, you’ll have to return to your regular work as the lord.”
“Yeah, and as the lord of Dolkness County, I also need to figure out if the abnormal weather affected any of the citizens.”
“Oh, that.” Patrick looked uncomfortable.
I was incredibly interested in the abnormal weather that had occurred two weeks ago, the same weather that had been referenced in the first prince of Lemlaesta’s propaganda campaign. Apparently, a black pattern had spread across the entire sky, one that had been visible to the whole world. I believed that it had to have been some kind of astronomical event, like a solar eclipse.
It was standard for people to theorize that the end of the world was coming when things like solar eclipses occurred or Halley’s comet appeared... So of course supernatural stories had spread through word of mouth about how the end of days had begun or that the phenomenon was the aftershock of an evil being descending onto the planet.
Man, I’m really sad I didn’t get to see it. From what I’ve heard, there was a pattern like Saturn’s rings in the sky.
“You got to see it, right? I’m so jealous.” I sighed. “I wonder if it’ll happen again.”
“I pray it never happens again.”
That’s fair, since we can’t say definitively if it’s affected crops or not. That’s why it needs to be researched...
Since the phenomenon had occurred all across the world, I would likely be able to get information from elsewhere even if I didn’t actually put in the work to research it myself, but it still didn’t feel right to sit around and do nothing about the incident.
Still, I don’t know what would be the best way to investigate it.
I considered the pros and cons of different research methods, but my thoughts were interrupted when we arrived at the estate.
Patrick turned down the hallway. “I’ll be right back,” he said over his shoulder. “I need to do some light blade maintenance.”
“Okay.”
After Patrick and I returned home and went our separate ways, I continued to think about the mysterious natural phenomenon. I kept hoping it would happen again, and I looked up at the sky through the window. Suddenly, Eleanora appeared behind me.
“What’s wrong, Yumiella? Is there something in the sky?”
“You saw it too, right, Lady Eleanora? I was hoping the thing from the other day would show up again...”
“What?! You’re going to do that again?!”
“Again...?” I looked at her in confusion before I realized what she must have meant. “Oh, no, I wasn’t talking about running away from home. I meant the black stripes that were in the sky.”
How unlucky of me. It looks like I’m the only one who didn’t get to see it. Everyone else did, and I’m the only one left out, I thought, sulking by the window.
“I don’t want to see that thing ever again,” Eleanora said decisively, puffing her cheeks, her mouth a thin line of displeasure. “I’ll have you know I was terribly worried about you!”
“I wonder what caused it.” I sighed wistfully. “Everyone else got to see it but me. I’m out of the loop.”
“Rather than out of the loop, I would say you were at the center of it... So I believe it would have been difficult for you to observe it.”
“Huh...? I feel like Patrick said something similar to me before, something about how it was impossible for me to see it. Why is that?”
“Oh, well...” Eleanora considered. “I believe it’s like how you can’t see your own face when you’re asleep.”
In a world without cameras, it was, of course, impossible to observe your own face as you slept. In other words...? At this point, I had asked various people close to me about this incident, and it felt like everyone was hiding something from me.
I’ve been wondering this for a while, but was the root of the phenomenon actually...me?
“Did I do something again?” I asked.
“Of course not!” Eleanora exclaimed, a little too hastily. “You can’t grow wings, can you?”
“Wings...? This is the first time I’m hearing of wings.”
There was a short pause, and then Eleanora burst out with enthusiasm, “Oh, Ryuu’s wings are just so lovely!”
Ryuu consumed my thoughts at once. “Aren’t they?! It’s so cute when he’s working so hard to flap them!” Ryuu’s wings were so very cute when they were folded up, but they were equally adorable when they were flapping around.
Wait... What were we talking about? Um, something black... Oh, Ryuu’s wings are black.
Eleanora suddenly grabbed my arm and interrupted my train of thought.
“Anyway! There are three whole carriages here,” she gushed, switching to full-on gossip mode. “I’ve heard that they’re all full of gifts. There’s a veritable mountain of dresses. I also saw a magical instrument used to keep things cold, so there must be some fancy sweets as well.”
“Who are they from?”
“The largest carriage had the royal family’s seal on it.”
So it all must be from the king. There’s three carriages’ worth of stuff? It’s going to be such a pain to bring everything in. But why is he sending gifts? Is it to apologize for letting Alicia escape?
“I’m assuming a messenger will come later with a catalog of everything that was sent here.”
“Would you like to go see what they sent before that arrives?” Eleanora asked eagerly.
“Sure, but you have to take the dresses, Lady Eleanora.”
When Eleanora had left her father’s ducal estate, she had only brought with her a few dresses and some accessories, and she hadn’t purchased anything new since. I wanted to spoil her, so I kept telling her she could buy whatever she wanted, but despite being a bit of a prima donna, she wouldn’t budge on her resolution to not impose on me unduly. This would be a chance to finally get Eleanora a new dress.
“I-I couldn’t,” she demurred. “These are gifts for you, Yumiella. They’re not mine to wear. They’re probably too long for me anyway.”
“I think there will be plenty that will fit you perfectly, Lady Eleanora.”
“Even so, it isn’t right... But I guess if you’re not going to wear them, it would be a shame to let them go to waste...”
The royal family was well aware that I had no interest in dresses, so it was probably fine to consider the dresses as gifts for Eleanora.
Though she was making an effort to seem outwardly reluctant, she couldn’t hide her excitement.
“Let’s go look at them together,” I said, and we headed off to the servants’ entrance at once.
“I’m glad I’ll be getting to spend more time with you, Yumiella,” Eleanora said. “You’ve been so busy ever since you got back. You’re working to raise your level to 90, was it? How far along are you?”
I’d hidden my actual progress from Patrick, but I figured it was fine to tell Eleanora.
“When I checked yesterday, it said 98.”
“What?! Um, Yumiella? It’s going to return to 1 after 99, is it not?”
“It would be 0, not 1, because the number after 99 is 100,” I corrected her.
“Oh my, things are getting...totally crazy!” Eleanora cried, pressing her hand against her mouth in shock, obviously flustered. I’d noticed that her word choices had been getting a bit modern these days.
Oh, right. I haven’t assessed my level since I got back from the dungeon.
I’d been trying to make a habit of checking as soon as I returned, but perhaps it was my innate laziness that caused me to continuously forget. I quickly pulled out the crystal.
“I should be 99 today.”
Ever since my level cap had been unlocked, I had once again started to properly grind, but the speed at which I was leveling up hadn’t changed too much. It was standard for the experience requirements for a level-up to increase as your level did, but that didn’t seem to be the case for me.
The fact that I went from 13 to 98 in the past two weeks was so incredible that I wanted to congratulate myself on my performance. I would soon be a Yumiella who was level 99 again...or at least who appeared to be 99.
Eleanora looked at the crystal and then immediately began running in the opposite direction.
“Sir Patrick! Where are you?! Something terrible is going to happen!”
Eleanora’s overreacting like usual, but it’s not unpleasant. The sound of her voice makes things feel peaceful. I hope today, tomorrow, and every day moving forwards is just as peaceful as this moment.
With that wish in mind, I peeked at the display on the crystal. What appeared were the digits 00.
“Sir Patrick! It’s an emergency!” Eleanora yelled.
“What happened?!” Patrick’s voice rang down the hall. “Did Yumiella do something?!”
“She’s about to complete a cycle! She said she was already at 98 yesterday!”
“How? That’s so fast!”
I stared at the 00 on the crystal.
Huh, so It’s not just 0, but 00. Eleanora’s level was displayed as 01, so I guess I ought to have expected this to be the case. Still, there isn’t anyone who’s level 0, so I might be the first person in the world to see this. I need to show this rare occurrence to everyone else.
I looked up and saw Patrick and Eleanora both standing before me.
“You’re strong, Yumiella,” Patrick said. “I know this. Because your level cap was unlocked, this number isn’t actually a zero. You know that, right?”
“You’re the strongest in the world, Yumiella!” Eleanora chimed in.
What’s up with them? I’ve gotten enough praise for my strength over the course of events the other day, so I’d prefer if they didn’t compliment me in such a forced way. What’s more important right now is the novelty of the display reading “00.”
“Look at this!” I exclaimed, waving the level-assessment crystal at Patrick. “Isn’t this rare?”
“Huh?” Patrick said, looking stumped as he gazed at the 00.
00 really looks cool. Sounds even cooler when you read it as “double zero.”
The two of them seemed utterly bewildered, and I had no idea why they had been in such a panic just moments ago.
“I thought that if your level hit zero, then you would go cra—I mean, be really hurt and upset, but I guess I didn’t need to worry about it,” Patrick explained at last.
“You think that it’s better if my last two digits are closer to 99, don’t you?”
“Well, if you consider the possibility that you might use an assessment instrument in front of someone else, being in the nineties would probably be better, but it would be a pain to level back up from here...”
I see, so it isn’t good to appear weak after all. I guess I have no choice.
I had accomplished my true goal, something I’d been so keen to do that I’d even gone through the trouble of hiding my level from Patrick to see it through.
“It’s fine,” I said, the corners of my mouth twitching upwards. “I’ll just level up again!”
“You...” Patrick sputtered. “Did you do this on purpose...?”
“Oh my, you really are something, Yumiella,” Eleanora said admiringly.
Upon realizing that this had all been part of my plan, Patrick stood there, his eyes wide with shock, but Eleanora simply let out a sigh of exasperation.
“His Majesty has sent us some gifts. You should join us to go look at them, Patrick,” she said firmly, guiding him down the hall.
I lingered behind, savoring my victory. Now it was clear: even if I were to pass 99 and end up at zero again, I could just level grind even more. My level grinding journey was just getting started...
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