Chapter 1: Game Over, and Over
A succubus had pounced on me.
A succubus.
In Hanja: Dream Demon.
A demon that drains a man's vitality.
"Oh my, stay still."
A succubus approaches by transforming into her prey's ideal type.
Once caught in a succubus's magic, you dream of spending a night rolling around with her.
That dream is blissful, like entering paradise—but by then, they say, you've already surrendered your life to the demon.
A pig dream costs money; a demon dream costs your life.
You die while dreaming.
You die with a smile on your face.
"Struggling is useless. You're already under my spell."
The demon spoke.
"How about it? You can't move at all, can you?"
She pressed her flushed face close to my ear and whispered.
A closeness no man could resist.
The demon even threw in formal speech, and the destructive power that came from that gap was considerable.
"...Shall I undress you?"
She slowly slid the hand that had been wrapped around my waist down toward the hem of my clothes and asked.
She asked, but it wasn't a voice seeking permission.
It was closer to a plea.
"You filthy demon wench! Get your hands off me!"
I thrashed and resisted, but—
"Ah, that's nice. Keep going."
The hungry succubus was no pushover.
She looked like she was actually enjoying it.
"You think you can do this to me?!"
"Everyone says that. Shall we see just how long you last?"
The succubus smiled faintly and brought her hand to my belt.
"O God, grant me Your blessing and grace."
The principle for repelling a demon is to borrow the power of the opposite side.
I desperately twisted my whole body and prayed.
"I'm sorry to disturb you mid-effort, but it's having no effect whatsoever. Your body is still stiff, you see. Hasn't your heart already been tainted? Perhaps... you're actually looking forward to this?"
"O God, grant me the strength to overcome trials and hardships."
"Give it up. The goddess doesn't answer the prayers of a man whose heart has been stolen by a succubus. Come now, look. It's already...."
Kwang!
Someone kicked the door open and entered.
As if declaring that no further escalation would be tolerated, they sliced clean through the heated atmosphere.
Silver armor engraved with a perfect cross.
A holy knight of the Order.
"Hold on just a little longer! I'll rescue you now!"
Sreuung!
The holy knight unhesitatingly drew his sword.
The motion of using that sword to cleave the succubus's head from her neck was equally clean—like a single continuous movement.
Chwaaak!
The moment her head was severed in an instant, black blood sprayed in every direction.
Her pretty head rolled across the floor.
Even her severed head was beautiful, so it rolled nicely.
"It seems I'm not too late."
The breathless holy knight sheathed his sword, then extended his hand.
Tuk.
I took his hand without much thought—but at that moment.
I realized.
"Ah."
‘Right—the setup was that I couldn't move my body.’
"Were you not...caught in the Charm spell?"
I'd made a mistake.
I'd forgotten about the situation I was in and clasped his hand back, so the holy knight began eyeing me with suspicious eyes.
"I was, but since the succubus is dead, the spell's effects have disappeared...."
"There are candles lit all over the room."
He ignored my words and surveyed the room.
"Would a starving succubus really have had the leisure to light bright red candles and set up a sacrilegious mood?"
Huu—
The holy knight blew out a candle with a puff.
The room grew a shade darker.
The shadows pooling in his deep-set eyes deepened further, casting an eerie shade over his face.
"On top of that, a great sword and armor are strewn carelessly about, are they not? As if tossed aside hastily, like baggage."
His ash-grey eyes swept across the room.
"Did you actually intend to slay it from the start?"
A long, deep sigh punctuated the end of that question.
"Commander."
***
001
"This is unjust!"
I hung dangling from the chapel ceiling, bound in iron chains.
My body even tilted weakly in the direction I shifted my weight.
I felt like a chandelier.
"Bishop, there's no rule that says one must always succeed, is there? I intended to slay it, but it turned out to be an unexpectedly formidable opponent—I simply failed."
I finished my rebuttal and added a good-natured smile.
"As for performing the act of being caught in Charm magic—absolutely not."
"Daywin."
The monastery's bishop, by contrast, narrowed both eyes and glared at me with displeasure.
"Daywin, are you even aware that you are the Commander of the Holy Knights?"
"Well... all the previous commanders died off, so it was simply my turn."
"You're only ever humble at times like this. A commander of the Holy Knights, caught by something so... low-ranking—you expect me to believe that?"
"Low-ranking? She was clearly top-tier. She was exactly my type, I tell you."
"I'm saying it's impossible for a commander of the Holy Knights to have fallen for a low-ranking demon's low-ranking magic!"
The bishop's cry made the chapel hum and reverberate.
Tch.
There's no escaping this.
"It was a succubus known as the Holy Knight Hunter. She was no ordinary demon."
"Hunter of holy knights or whatever she may be, she is still a low-ranking demon, and that doesn't change."
"Not Holy Hunter—Holy Knight Hunter."
"Daywin! That's not what matters here!"
Doesn't matter...?
The meaning changes quite a bit.
"The undying enemies are converging upon us, and the Commander is like this...."
"There is no more hope."
"What?"
When I spoke with an uncharacteristically grave tone, the bishop asked back with a look of disbelief.
"Those things. There is no longer any way to stop them. No matter how many we kill, they come back to life. Great nations that boasted overwhelming military power have been swept away one by one. We'd have to redraw the maps. If there are any people left alive to draw them, that is."
Unable to find words to refute it, the bishop maintained his silence.
"The Sword Saint, once called humanity's hope, died without fanfare, and even the Allied Nations' elite forces were wiped out entirely. My brothers of the Holy Knights fell before my eyes, and now—fewer than 100 remain."
I slowly shut my eyes, and old memories flickered before me.
A past that could only be freed from through death.
"I will say it once more. There is no more hope."
"No. As long as the goddess watches over us, there is hope."
Well, I knew that's what he'd say.
But to someone who had been an atheist even back in Korea, invoking this other world's goddess did nothing to summon courage I never had.
Korea.
I couldn't even remember the last time I'd thought of it—it had been that long since I'd thought of home.
I'd simply opened my eyes to find myself reborn as the youngest son of an Earl's household.
The language here, the way of life—all of it had already been loaded into my head, somehow, strangely enough.
How convenient reincarnation is, in all kinds of ways, I had thought.
I had lived in this world—this other world—where magic and monsters exist.
And now I had arrived at the world's end.
I had never intended to become a holy knight from the start.
My body simply had an absurdly powerful divine energy—not because I revered some pseudo-goddess.
If my family hadn't been wiped out, I would never have had reason to flee to the Holy Knights Order.
I would have lived comfortably as the 3rd son of an Earl's household.
None of it matters now.
Beouleok!
A door flew open mid-thought.
"Bishop!"
It was the same holy knight who had kicked the door in last time.
If the Knights Order had an official door-opener, it would undoubtedly be that man.
His name was Chris.
"You must evacuate immediately!"
Chris cried out urgently.
"Evacuate?"
"Right now...."
Before Chris could finish speaking—
Kwajijik!
One section of the chapel roof vanished.
As simply as peeling away a single layer of crepe cake.
The stone structure crumbled.
The presence was right behind my back.
Thanks to being suspended from the ceiling, the sound and the vibration reached me all too well.
Or perhaps....
It had been targeting me from the start, and only missed because my body had been tilting.
—Krreuureuk.
Through the torn gap in the roof, a massive claw revealed itself.
Then it shoved its rotting, decomposing face inside, as if showing it off.
The horn that had once grazed the clouds had snapped away limply, and the eyes that had once cleverly contained overflowing magical power had lost their vitality—yet the overwhelming presence remained.
A dragon.
That plague had even resurrected beings of mystery.
The continent's Sword Saint, the Allied Nations' elite forces, the holy knights who had led the way before me.
And the holy knights who had followed behind me.
All swept away by the undead and killed.
Right.
It was simply my turn.
"Huu."
I exhaled a long breath and drew upon my divine energy.
I—
Pakang!
—shattered in an instant the iron chains that had coiled around my body like vines.
Dozens of chain fragments clattered to the ground.
I, who had been suspended from the ceiling, landed alongside the chain pieces raining down like a shower.
"Chris, get my sword."
"I keep telling you to stop leaving it lying around everywhere!"
Buung—!
Chris twisted his whole body and hurled the massive great sword.
He'd brought it along intending to hand it over from the start—so what was that all about.
Chak!
I gripped the great sword in both hands and pointed it toward the roof.
I aimed at the zombie dragon's rotting mug, then wrapped the blade in divine energy.
Uung—
The cold great sword gradually took on a color as warm as sunlight.
"Chris, about the succubus."
"Are you finally admitting it?"
Chris drew his sword at my side.
Far from fleeing with the bishop, he had instead stepped one pace ahead of me.
"As you know, when you fall to a succubus, your body and mind go numb—you flail helplessly and die. You die unable to distinguish dream from reality. No pain. No resentment."
"Yes, and that is precisely why the succubus's magic is the most humiliating to holy knights...."
"It was the most comfortable way to die."
The most comfortable way to die from among the options I could choose at that moment.
If I was destined to die in the end anyway, I at least wanted to decide the manner of my death.
I alone did not want to die miserably.
"I'm sorry for barging in, Commander."
Chris laughed with a slightly mocking tone.
"No need to apologize. I failed anyway. As the Bishop said...."
I raised both arms high.
The great sword, ready to unleash a Sword Energy strike, vibrated and hummed as if about to burst.
"I don't fall for a low-ranking demon's low-ranking magic."
From above, downward.
I swung the great sword.
Kwaaaaang!
A beam of light condensed into intense brilliance slammed into the collapsed roof.
And that was when it happened for the first time.
—!
Absurdly.
A message appeared before my eyes.
[Ending (30/31) Unlocked]
[Paradise]
『Come to think of it, Raword had a mission to save the world—but he had long since forgotten about such things.
He had been given the chance to marry no fewer than 5 beautiful young women.
The world's destruction didn't enter his mind at all.』
Raword? Beautiful young women?
What on earth....
『Raword decided to spend the little time remaining before the end of the world without any regrets.
Some noble sacrifice would surely be made by someone else.
The Holy Knights Order, who were strong against the undead, were probably hard at work.
Better not to bumble in—leave it to the professionals.
Raword held a wedding ceremony with all 5 beautiful women at once and enjoyed the rest of his days steeped in pleasure.
He met his end without regrets.
But the world perished.』
"......."
My heart sank.
The words before me, that name—they bored deep into my mind, leaving me dazed.
I remembered.
5 years ago.
Raword was the protagonist of a game I had played before coming to this world.
The protagonist of a romance simulation game featuring beautiful girls—made by my junior from college, in their club.
A game.
And a romance simulation game at that.
......It wasn't another world.
This godforsaken world had given me the most important information at the very last moment.
After 5 years had passed.
On the eve of its destruction.
The one thing I now knew, above all else, with absolute certainty.
Game over.
Returning to the title screen.
Restarting from the first save point.
I had been nothing more than an extra.
***
"Heueoek!"
I opened my eyes and gasped for breath at the same time.
The feeling of having just escaped from a nightmare.
The strange sensation of hearing my heart beating rapidly, echoing through my head.
Kung!
I must have made quite a loud sound, because someone roughly swung the door open and entered the room.
"What is the matter!"
This was the 3rd time that innocent door had been abused.
But this time, it wasn't Chris—the designated door-opener.
"Young master! Are you all right?"
The family's head steward approached with a look of concern.
Ah.
Those familiar streaks of grey hair.
Those familiar deep-set laugh lines.
A familiar ceiling came into view.
The warmth seeping in through the window and the smell of old books reached me.
As if a whiff of a perfume long ago had drifted past, my nose pulled up old memories of its own accord.
My mind gradually settled as a result.
My room.
My house.
The past—peaceful to the point of being tedious.
"...I'm fine."
So this is what it means to restart from the first save point.
I had returned to 5 years ago—to the time when I first arrived in this world.
Before the world fell.
Before I became a holy knight.
Before my family was annihilated.
Well, then. Let me think.
About this world.
And about that game.
The message window had said an 'ending' had been unlocked.
That the world had perished when Ending 30 unlocked.
Endings.
Out of 31 endings, there was only 1 in which the protagonist saves the world.
The protagonist Raword rejects all the heroines and sets out on the path to stop the apocalypse.
It was a hidden ending that only triggered when you flipped the ultimate goal of a typical romance game—romance itself—on its head.
At the same time, it was an ending where you had to make 5 women cry.
"Ha—haha! I see. So that means it was... unrequited love. It's fine, it's fine. Don't worry about it! I'm really... I'm fine!"
"Why are you saying this all of a sudden? Weren't you feeling the same way as me? You—you found another girl, didn't you? Am I... just in your way?"
"How presumptuous. You probably thought rejecting me here would make me take even more interest in you. A fine strategy—but not the right answer. Ha.... I'll give you one more chance."
"Funny. Even hearing that, I still think I want to have you. Or for you to have me. Yes, funny. Every word, every action, every expression, every gesture I showed in front of you—I regret all of it. It hadn't crossed my mind until now, but suddenly I think it. I should have been a little prettier."
"...Why? Then who do you think would suit you? Is there a girl prettier and kinder than me? Or is it just that I.... No. Never mind. I'll just try harder. Okay?"
I recalled the scene where the heroines' illustrations appeared one by one.
They had been pitiable. Wistful.
They had worn expressions as if their world was crumbling—when all he had done was say goodbye.
And yet it was the only ending where the world didn't actually crumble.
As I followed the thread of thought about the endings, I realized something.
What I needed to do was simple and straightforward.
I had to recreate the hidden ending.
I had to interfere before the protagonist ended up with a heroine.
I would challenge the protagonist.
I would destroy the harem.
As a frontier paladin, I had never had an opportunity to meet the protagonist and his companions, who were centered around the academy.
Furthermore, before becoming a holy knight, I hadn't even stepped outside the house.
Far from adventuring in a new world, I had kept the door locked.
Even just breathing in my room, I could eat and drink fine liquor and cuisine to my heart's content—attendants who were my hands and feet were always by my side, and no matter how much I spent, the money never ran out.
There was no reason to go on an adventure anywhere.
Adventure? Better to get insurance.
Safety first.
I had been foolish enough to think that lavish life would last forever.
Now, I had the experience of having reached the very end of the world.
I had a chance to correct my mistakes.
In the first place, rather than me becoming a holy knight, it would be better for the protagonist Raword to save this godforsaken world—this world that would soon perish....
"Wait."
A holy knight?
All I need to do is stop the protagonist and the heroines from falling in love.
I... know of a position where love becomes a sin.
I know it very well.
I just need to make the protagonist a holy knight.
If the protagonist becomes a devout holy knight, he will naturally forsake all the heroines.
Because holy knights must preserve their purity.
"That's it."
That's all there is to it.
Making Raword a holy knight.
The more I thought about it, the more an anger buried deep inside surged up unbidden.
Holy knights had to preserve their purity.
They had to guard their 'first time' until the very end.
And I had been exactly that kind of holy knight.
While someone was out there holding hands with women and living it up in a harem trying to stop the apocalypse—
Pleasure? A harem?
You rotten bastard....
Now you'll get a taste of it too.
I'll make sure you die old and alone, celibate for the rest of your life.