It has already been two days since I arrived at Fenric's estate.
There was no disturbance. On the contrary, Fenric and Hanna did their best to care for and shelter Presibe, to the point of over-caring for her. It was almost embarrassing.
The fatigue and hysteria that had built up like fossils over countless retreats and an unbearably long and exhausting timeline had eased, at least somewhat.
But it's time to act.
Presibe couldn't stay here forever, enjoying this moment of rest comfortably.
Determined, they began collecting every piece of information they could remember and slowly organizing it.
“These extras don't matter...”
The goal was to find the real male protagonist, so that there would be no use for those other characters.
Presippi focused instead on their backgrounds, connections to each other, or individuals associated with Presippi's mother. After all, it seemed impossible for a true male hero to be completely unrelated to them.
But there was a problem.
“I want to know more details...”
Prisippi could remember some broad strokes, but the finer details were frustratingly elusive. For example, there were small pieces of information collected when targeting certain personalities.
But no one could overcome that. They had died and fallen hundreds of times since the celebratory banquet held in Dietrich's honor. No one could survive those sessions in sound mental health. It was a period marked by the complete collapse of reason and years of utter desolation.
Now the system is no longer available as a crutch – Presibe has left the tower entirely.
Worst of all was that even if they met the real male lead, there was no guarantee that casting claims would come up.
The window of vantage may still be showing, but there was no way to get rid of the anxiety.
"Jesus, if I had the Book of Memories or something, I could've checked it. A hero's real name is supposed to be a code, right? If I had doubts about someone, I could at least test them."
Priscip grumbled to themselves.
But the biggest problem was the lack of time to conduct this investigation.
*Precipe in the cage* He had a fixed schedule.
Simply put, there was an end date: “Selection Day.”
For example, if Dietrich is the target, Preseppe will have to pick him that day.
Regardless of character, the user cannot reach 100 positive points before “Selection Day.” This final point can only be achieved by spending the final day with the chosen male character and making the right choices.
Even if the favorability percentage reaches 96, one wrong answer on that day may result in failure to achieve the maximum score and directly lead to a bad ending.
But at this moment Precipe had not yet set the right target, so failure seemed inevitable.
“Now that I think about it, there was probably a lot of useful information in the tutorial stage...”
Prisippi stopped mid-murmur.
[“No one knows what might happen. Maybe something trivial to you, or something you've already forgotten, was so significant to someone else that it left a lasting impression.”]
Fenric's passing remark came to mind.
The game's story can generally be divided into two parts.
The first stable narrative events were those that remained constant regardless of the target. These were the key events that formed the backbone of the story, such as Precipe's past, Dietrich's banquet, or the ice prison sequence.
The second part consists of events associated with each male character.
During these events, Preseppe had no authority. Their actions and words were entirely subject to fixed events and voluntary motives.
But in the gaps between events—as in this regression, the time between Dietrich's banquet and the Ice Prison event—there was a brief window of freedom.
No events occurred during these time intervals, and there was no skip function, forcing Presibe to assume an empty time period.
During these periods, they could move and speak freely, but only with NPCs who had no effect on the game's progress. Interaction with target characters was impossible.
However, even during these intervals, Preseppe had no real impact. For example, even if they killed Ella, who was guilty of the Ice Prison Incident, nothing would change.
When the Ice Prison event starts, Ella will be returned to her original position, fulfill her assigned role, and only then leave the game.
“In the Imperial Palace, I was locked in the tower even during those periods… Forget it.”
The problem lies in the tutorial.
Simply put, the tutorial was a stage meant to familiarize players with Presibe's background, past, and system mechanics.
The goal of the game was to familiarize players with how to play while at the same time explaining the context of the story, and preventing any confusion as they progressed through the game.
The tutorial covered Preseppe's life from the age of ten, when she was still a princess, until the age of fifteen, when she was stripped of her title and exiled.
Unlike the main story, which cannot be skipped, the tutorial moved quickly, focusing on key events in Presippi's life. It is only triggered once – immediately after the player enters the game.
If we consider the number of times Presibe returned to Dietrich's banquet venue, it was probably only a few years ago in terms of timeline. But to Priscipe, it felt like a long time ago, making her memories of it understandably vague.
“Could there really be something I missed in the tutorial, as Duke Fenric said…?”
If the real protagonist has nothing to do with the Imperial Palace and has not appeared yet, the place to plant hints about him is likely in the past – the tutorial.
Prisippi scratched her head in frustration and began writing down the main events on the paper Hannah had given her.
However, her fragmented memories only allowed her to remember the most important events.
“The end of the educational program was… my mother’s execution and exile… so that was when I was fifteen.”
After that, two years passed before Dietrich assumed the throne. However, the developers must have considered this time irrelevant to the story, as it was not even included in the tutorial.
“Before her execution...didn't I meet my mother?”
A faint memory came to her mind – those brief, final moments before her mother was beheaded.
[“Pressipe. Listen carefully to what I say. You should...”]
Her mother's broken voice, as she hugged her tightly, whispering something.
[“…That’s what you are. So…”]
“What was that?”
Prisippi frowned, furrowed her brows, and muttered to herself.
“It seemed important...”
But the rest of her mother's words had completely disappeared from her memory. She couldn't remember whether these words she considered meaningless at the time and forgot them as a result, or whether they…
Another mistake.
However, she couldn't waste her time focusing on her mother's forgotten words. Prisippi sighed and tried to collect more memories.
“And before that...it must have been during my time as princess...”
What happened next?
If there was any truly useful information or important events, they most likely occurred during her days as a princess.
She was not detained during that period, and it was during this period that her background was explored in detail.
But that time was further in the past than her mother's execution.
So, her memories of him became more hazy.
…However, how could she fail to remember something so important?
“…”
As Presippi bit her lips in frustration, the silence was suddenly broken by a polite knock.
“Ms. Presby, may I come in?”
The knock was Fenric's.
Precipi quickly came back to the present, gathering up the paper she had been writing on.
She hadn't done anything wrong, but there was no need to attract unnecessary attention. After all, the language written on the paper wasn't even Korean, it was written in Ateloi, the language of this world.
Since she was moved here, this has been happening. No matter how much she wrote in Korean, the letters seemed to mock her, not allowing her to reveal any secrets of her own.
It was better not to fall into the hands of justice.
“Yes, Your Highness. You may come in—ah!”
The door opened just as she finished answering, and when Prisippi stood up, she accidentally dropped the teacup Hannah had brought her.
"Are you well?"
“Yes, I'm fine. But the carpet is a mess now.”
Bending over, Prisippi began to pick up the broken pieces of the teacup, her face tense with discomfort.
Because of this, she failed to notice the brief glance Fenric cast at the pile of papers neatly stacked on the corner of the table before turning to her again.