Chapter 120

‘Branch?’

Ariel suddenly remembered what she’d forgotten. The Crown Prince’s invitation, the magic aptitude test, Devoncia, Skylar, the keepsake, the river, the bracelet.

“But… wasn’t that months ago?”

Flustered, she tapped on the system window.

“What? What’s being deleted? Why?”

Ariel blurted out the questions at the screen, flustered. Not that a phone would ever answer her, of course. She’d have to read and make sense of it on her own.

As she carefully read through the lines that had appeared in the system window, there were three pieces of information in total. First, two endings had been deleted. The ‘Archmage Ending,’ which seemed to be the path where one mastered magic and became a great mage, and the ‘All Friends Ending,’ which apparently ended with everyone as friends.

Even without knowing all the details, she could instinctively sense that the peaceful and safe endings had disappeared.

Even so, the endings that were deleted were just the ordinary ones.

Ariel, who was aiming for the special ending, didn’t feel particularly disappointed. She wasn’t planning to stay in this world anyway, so whether the good endings vanished or not didn’t matter to her. The only thing that truly mattered was the special ending that would send her back to her original world.

No matter how things changed, as long as she raised everyone’s affection levels to at least three hearts within three years, she’d be fine.

The real problem was the second point: all the good endings for the Devoncia route had been deleted. All of them, completely. Now, if she entered his route, it would inevitably end badly. It was as if the system itself was warning her that nothing good would come from getting involved with him.

“Of all things…”

She anxiously bit her nails.

Devoncia’s favorability window was still bugged, so she couldn’t see how many hearts he had. That made it difficult to manage his affection at all, and she had no way to tell what approach to take or how close she should get.

Ariel held up the bracelet on her wrist, letting it catch the moonlight.

Its black band gleamed smoothly. Devoncia had fastened it onto her without asking, insisting it was a gift. The band, cold and solid as if bent from iron, fit her perfectly almost as if it had been made for her. The phone had only rung after the bracelet was clasped around her wrist.

‘So accepting the bracelet was the decision that split the route…’

The branch that had begun with the Crown Prince’s invitation finally ended the moment she put on the bracelet he’d called a gift.

She felt a pang of regret over a choice that was already behind her. The ending had taken a far bigger turn than she’d expected. She couldn’t figure out where things had gone wrong. She had accepted Devoncia’s offer, so why had all of his good endings disappeared? Still, what was done was done. The past couldn’t be changed.

In the end, all that mattered was the special ending.

“It doesn’t matter if the other endings vanish or go off track.”

Murmuring to herself, she let go of her lingering doubts with surprising ease. All she needed to do now was be a little more careful when it came to getting involved with Devoncia. With that settled, she turned her attention back to the remaining explanations in the system window.

The last piece of information she had received was the ‘Favorability Fever Time’ branch reward. It was a prize she’d earned only by accepting the warped storyline and the penalty-level changes to the endings caused by the branching event.

‘But how am I supposed to use this? And what does it actually do?’

Curious, Ariel tapped her finger against the system window.

‘Inventory? Did I ever have something like that?’

Ariel’s eyes scanned the screen. In the upper right corner, a tiny system window appeared.

It was an unfamiliar window, something that hadn’t been there before. Almost as if drawn by instinct, her hand reached toward the newly appeared menu.

“If I press it, it’ll activate right away…”

Ariel’s finger hovered uncertainly over the words, then withdrew. She closed the inventory window and took a deep breath. Wrapping her shawl around her shoulders, she stepped out of the infirmary.

The corridor was lit by soft footlights.

It was mostly quiet, though a few maids could still be heard moving beyond the doors since servants were always on duty here. Ariel walked carefully, quieting her footsteps. Although there was no real need to sneak around, there was no harm in avoiding unnecessary attention either. Thankfully, her fleece slippers muffled any sound.

When she reached the end of the corridor, a knight appeared before her, the one assigned to guard the academy. He stood by the door like a sentinel. Upon seeing Ariel, he dipped his head in a polite nod and asked.

“Where are you headed at this hour, my lady?”

“I was just going for a short walk in the garden.”

“It’s quite late. May I accompany you?”

“It’s all right. I won’t be long.”

“Understood. But please allow me to watch over you from a respectful distance.”

“All right. I’m sorry for troubling you so late.”

“Not at all, my lady. Please enjoy your walk.”

The knight stepped aside and opened the door for her. Even though it was well past midnight, the moonlight made the world outside remarkably bright.

Ariel passed through the open door and stepped onto the dewy grass. She felt the chill of the night air and pulled her shawl tighter around herself. The shrill chorus of crickets filled the garden. Around her, four o’clock trees were in full bloom, their white blossoms looked just like little tufts of cotton.

‘System windows, branching routes, favorability, rewards…’

She took a deep breath, as if trying to untangle the knot of thoughts in her mind. The cold air was so sharp it stung her throat, but the suffocating pressure of the game weighing on her chest seemed to ease, if only a little.