Conquest Complete, So Why Is the Affection Dropping? - Chapter 54
“Shall we go, Shin Joo?”
“…Come to think of it, Admiral, I also have something to say about forms of address.”
“Please speak.”
“Instead of Shin Joo, please call me Joo-ah.”
Kaint looked at me with a slightly puzzled expression. It was such a manly expression – getting upset when called Admiral, yet not questioning at all why he calls me Shin Joo.
“It’s my name. Shin Joo-ah.”
“Lady Joo-ah.”
“You don’t need to add ‘Lady’.”
“…Joo-ah.”
“Yes, Kaint.”
When he called my name, he smiled softly. Seeing that face made my heart flutter somehow.
Under the pale clouds in the increasingly clear light blue sky, colorful paper flowers were floating down.
I thought about how all of that falling into the sea would pollute the marine ecosystem… but then decided it didn’t matter since they probably hadn’t implemented that in the system.
How interesting that in a world where they haven’t implemented environmental settings, there’s no pollution – virtual reality isn’t entirely worse than reality after all.
‘But who’s scattering these paper flowers?’
There was no one up on the masts, yet there were so many paper flowers being scattered. They were thick enough to cover the ground where we were walking.
A loud cheer erupted from behind us. That’s when Kaint stopped walking.
“Kaint?”
“Get down!”
“What? …Whoa!”
Kaint suddenly scooped me up in his arms and quickly moved from the deck into the cabin. The cheering grew louder.
No, that wasn’t cheering anymore.
It had become something sharper and more noisy – screaming.
What I thought was celebration had transformed into cries of horror at some point.
“AHHHHH!”
“Help!”
Red flowers bloomed beyond the window. Every time the floating paper flowers touched the ground, blood sprayed up accompanied by screams. Like small fireworks going off, the figures of people in the distance disappeared one by one.
My body froze up before I could even understand what was happening.
“Hic…”
“Don’t look, Joo-ah.”
Kaint quickly covered my eyes and pulled down the window shade. He sat me down in a chair and removed his ceremonial cape to drape it over my shoulders.
“I’ll go handle the situation. Do not leave this place under any circumstances.”
“K-Kaint. What’s happening out there?”
“Enemies.”
There were no enemy ships in sight. No bombardment either. Yet he says enemies?
“Kaint…”
“You have divine protection. I will definitely return victorious, so don’t worry.”
After comforting me with those inexplicable words, Kaint turned and left the cabin. More screams echoed from beyond the firmly closed door.
Bang. BANG. Along with explosion sounds both large and small, there were sounds of things bursting with wet ‘splat’ noises.
The sound of something soft and mushy hitting the cabin’s outer wall was particularly loud.
‘Were those paper flowers actually bombs?’
But the paper flowers came down from the sky. The enemy couldn’t possibly drop bombs from the sky unless they had wings.
Even Marvis, who was half-demon, rode down on his summoned beast – he didn’t use explosives.
BOOM!
The ship rocked violently with the sound of cannon fire. I gripped the armrest tightly to avoid falling from my chair.
The waves must have been huge as the ship creaked and tilted before finding its balance again. The movement was so extreme that I didn’t even feel seasick.
My heart was pounding severely. Kaint’s shouts, gunfire, people’s screams, and explosive sounds all mixed together chaotically.
A smell so pungent it almost made me retch wafted in, and I covered my nose and mouth.
The fishy smell of the deep sea, the metallic smell of rust, and the stench of blood.
Suddenly, I remembered something Marvis had once said:
‘Because above water, you can’t escape the gaze of the dawn sky. That’s why we live below.’
Above water.
Come to think of it, our ship was on the water. The dock where people gathered to watch the wedding was also built above water.
‘What is in the dawn sky…?’
I had never wandered around at dawn before. My daily routine always started in the morning and ended in the evening. I barely even did anything at night.
Let alone at dawn.
I couldn’t stay still as my stomach churned. I took a deep breath and stood up, holding onto a pillar.
Staggering on the swaying ship, I made my way to the wall and pulled back the shade. Through the round window, I could see the sea dyed red.
“Eek…”
Strangely, it was only after I had already thrown up once that I realized those oddly clumped masses of flesh were human corpses.
What is this? This was supposed to be a dating game. Why are there human corpses?
Above my head, as I trembled in confusion, there came crackling sounds of something breaking.
Come to think of it, if those paper flowers were bombs, couldn’t they break through the cabin ceiling too?
A sudden chill ran down my spine. My body moved before I could even think. Acting on instinct, I rolled to the side just as the ceiling collapsed with a thunderous crash.
“Kyaaah!”
Through the debris of the collapsed ceiling, I could see the blue dawn sky tinged with purple. The paper flowers were no longer falling from the sky.
Instead, a long shadow wrapped in pale golden light fell before my eyes.
“So this is where you were, my lady.”
“Wh-what…”
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you since you didn’t come to see me.”
The sunlight drew sleek lines across his black cloak and black hair. As I looked up, panting, I saw two eyes bluer than either the sky or the sea.
A man with a doll-like, delicate face that seemed completely out of place in this horrible scene filled with the stench of blood.
He tilted his white face toward me and smiled.
“I’ve wanted to meet you, my lady.”
“W-who…”
“I’m your Cedric.”
Just as he made that confession with a shy face like a first love, a translucent status window appeared.
Name: Cedric Age: Unknown Height: 183cm
Master of the dawn sky who leads the world to destruction. Assigned to watch over the beginning and end of the world from the Tower of Valhalla. Kind-hearted, affectionate, and soft-hearted. Something good might happen if you make him cry.
Affection: 99 (MAX)
A man I’d never seen before suddenly appeared with maximum affection.
‘What is this? I don’t know. This is scary…!’
The smell of explosives dispersed through the vibrating stench of blood. Screams that could only be described as pandemonium.
The only reason I was able to maintain my consciousness without vomiting, despite the nauseating swaying of the waves, was the sheer terror of suddenly finding myself in this unimaginable situation.
Since this is a dating game and not a survival game, I, as the player, probably won’t die under normal circumstances. However, my survival doesn’t guarantee the survival of others.
Players and capture targets only die in bad ending routes, but NPCs who only exist in the narrative can die anytime, anywhere.
Especially in a world setting with war heroes like this.
‘I’m going to have nightmares from this. Did they really have to trigger this event during a wedding? Don’t get creative in such weird ways!’
I protested toward my friend the game developer who couldn’t hear me from beyond the airwaves.
“What’s wrong, my lady? Did you hurt your legs?”
The black-haired beauty approached and lowered himself, gently touching my knee.
I shuddered at his touch and pushed him away.
“D-don’t touch me!”
“Hmm. No injuries. Well, I thought as much, since I aimed carefully when dropping them here.”
The black-haired beauty smiled brightly at me. It seems he’s definitely the one responsible for dropping those bombs disguised as paper flowers and turning this place into a wasteland.
What the hell, he’s a madman. He’s like a final boss. If this were an RPG, he’d be the type to appear in a boss room with a warning saying ‘You cannot approach until reaching a certain level’!
As the acrid smoke cleared, a damp and sticky air rolled in. It felt like being abandoned in muddy water. Even though the beautiful man before me wasn’t making any threats, my body was frozen stiff and couldn’t move.
“You seem to be having trouble getting up. Shall I help you?”
