SPTTF 01

Chapter 1

An instruction?

Why could I see that?

More importantly……

Are you crazy? How could I possibly say something like that to a child?!

I kept my mouth firmly shut, and the instruction appeared again.

[Stage 3: (Coldly, while shaking off the child’s hand) Who told you to come into my bedroom?]

Damn it…….

I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again, then gently took the child’s hand and removed it.

I couldn’t bring myself to actually shake her hand off.

“……!”

Even that alone caused pain in my chest.

Holding my breath, I somehow managed to put on a cold expression.

“Who told you to come into my bedroom?”

“I-I was just w-worried……. I-I’m sorry. I-I-I did something w-wrong.”

The child lowered her head with a deeply dejected expression.

[Stage 3: (As if annoyed) Get out.]

“Get…… out.”

“……Yes.”

The child trudged out.

Seeing her tiny back and drooping shoulders made my heart hurt even more.

I wanted to run after her and hug her right away.

Click.

The child struggled to open the heavy door before leaving.

I waited until I could no longer hear her footsteps, then jumped out of bed.

“What the hell is going on?!”

I flung open the terrace doors and rushed outside.

A vast, old-fashioned mansion.

The Imperial Palace visible in the distance.

Everything looked familiar.

“I didn’t return to my original world……”

I had definitely sacrificed my life to save my companions.

Exactly as the original story dictated.

If that were the case, I should have been looking at an atmosphere filled with fine dust and buildings packed tightly together……

So why was everything still the same?

Don’t tell me the novel didn’t actually end…….

A chill ran down my spine.

Wow. Just thinking about it gave me goosebumps.

The thought that this cursed, terrible novel hadn’t ended……

That couldn’t be it.

As I fell into the darkness alongside the Demon King, I had clearly seen the words—

—The End—

Then what was that Stage 3 instruction earlier?

“……”

It felt as though an ominous presence were creeping toward me from somewhere.

I shook my head violently, trying to chase away the unpleasant thought.

No! I must have seen something in my sleep. Y-Yeah, that’s it!

The fantasy novel with the ridiculously childish title, <I’ve Become the Hero Who Saves the World>, had reached a perfect ending.

That was a fact, not merely something I had imagined.

“Then what exactly happened?”

I was messing up my hair in frustration when—

“Huh?”

Platinum blonde? My hair was an ordinary dark brown…….

W-Wait.

Hadn’t I experienced something like this before?

Open my eyes in an unfamiliar place → completely different body → me panicking.

Holy crap! It’s exactly the same!

This situation was exactly identical to when I had possessed a character in that damn novel.

“D-Don’t tell me…… I possessed another character again?”

My mind became a complete mess.

It wasn’t like I had some habitual possession constitution.

Was it even possible to possess someone twice?

Besides……

“The original story already ended, so how could I possess someone again? Is this even possible?”

I tossed aside the silky, fine, curly strands of hair and spread my hand wide.

“Undine.”

Drops of water began bubbling up from my palm.

Thank goodness. I can still use spirit magic.

Soon, a tiny head poked out from my palm, as if a ghost were passing through a wall.

—Yaaawn. Adel, why are you waking me up already? I barely got any sleep…… didn’t sleep…… sle…… mo……

Undine had been whining sleepily while yawning widely when her eyes suddenly widened.

Her already enormous eyes became so wide that they practically took up half her face.

—A-Adel isn’t Adel? No, but this mana is definitely Adel’s! Suspicious human! Reveal your identity!

“I’m Adel. I think I possessed someone.”

—Possessed? You mean forbidden soul-transference magic? Do you think I’m going to believe that? You horrible human! What did you do to our Adel?! Give our Adel back!

“Didn’t you say you could recognize me even if I switched bodies with a magical beast? Undine, I’m hurt.”

Undine, who had been flying around angrily, suddenly stopped in midair.

Tears immediately filled her huge eyes.

—A-Adel! It’s Adel! Adel! You’re alive! You’re alive! Waaah! I’m sorry! I’ll never bother you again! Don’t die anymoreee! Waaah!

Undine grabbed onto my hair and began shedding tears.

“Once you’ve cried enough, explain what happened. What’s going on?”

Undine tilted her head, then rubbed her eyes dry.

—Hmm? Explain what? Do you not remember?

“No, I remember. I died with the Demon King, didn’t I?”

—What happened after that?

“I don’t know. I was dead.”

Undine’s eyes trembled.

Yet somehow, she managed to hold back her tears and continued.

—You were sucked underground together with the Demon King. We naturally thought you would come back out…… but no matter how long we waited, you didn’t come out. Then suddenly, the mana we could sense from you disappeared.

“And then?”

—We believed you were still alive. Our spirit contracts with you were still intact. So we waited for you…… but then the King told us that you were already dead.

“Ah……”

—The reason the contracts remained intact was because your soul was still alive…… Apparently, it was a special case. Humans are different from spirits, so without a physical body, it is essentially the same as being dead.

Undine burst into tears again.

—Do you know how we felt? Do you know how we felt watching you choose death alongside the Demon King?! Why did you do it? Why did you die?!

Because that was the ending of the original story.

I had no choice but to act according to the original story.

That was the only way I could return to my original world.

Or at least, that was what I thought.

—Adel, did you really hate us and find us so bothersome that you were willing to die? You didn’t, right? That’s not what you meant, right? We must have heard you wrong, right?

Undine seemed to have taken my final words—

“It was awful being with you, so let’s never meet again.”

—to heart all this time.

“Don’t misunderstand. I wasn’t talking to you.”

—Then who were you talking to? The Demon King?

No.

The damn bastard who wrote this novel.

The bastard who dragged me, while I was living a perfectly normal life, into a trash novel.

The bastard who inflicted pain on me whenever I refused to follow his instructions.

Even if I hurled every curse I knew at him, it still wouldn’t be enough.

“There’s just some crazy bastard……. But is that all you have to tell me?”

—What do you mean?

“Was there anything else? Did some major anomaly happen? Some huge incident…… Something that could make it seem like the world was going to end.”

—Hmm? What are you talking about? Why would the world end?

Because this is inside the novel, and the original story already ended!

I swallowed the words that had risen all the way to my throat and smiled at her instead.

Undine’s face flushed slightly.

—But…… Adel. I think you should look in the mirror.

“Why?”

—I-It’s just……

Steam began puffing from the top of Undine’s head, like water bubbling as it boiled.

It was the unique way water spirits expressed the feeling of being smitten.

Only then did I get a strange feeling.

Undine had never reacted like that before, except when I was defeating magical beasts.

“Undine, find me a mirror.”

—Okay! Over there!

The person reflected in the mirror was completely different from me when I had been a hero.

She had a small face, fair skin, and a sharply defined nose.

Her lips were smooth and full, drawing the eye.

Above all, her abundant, long platinum-blonde hair and dark blue eyes made her look like a porcelain doll painstakingly crafted by a master artisan.

Her figure was slender and delicate, with a waist that could practically fit in one hand.

She was completely different from my previous 178-centimeter-tall, muscular body.

How can a person look like this? There isn’t a single ugly feature anywhere.

Even her fingernails were pretty.

They were a little long, though.

Just as I was admiring my hands, the damn phenomenon I thought I would never see again appeared before my eyes.

[Ding!]

[Even after Part One ends, the story continues! And thus begins Part Two! Welcome to <I’ve Become the Saintess Who Saves the World>!

You are Adrian Ibrante, a supporting character.

The basic rules are the same as in Part One, but several additional rules have been added. I will inform you of the details later.

Well then, you who have perfectly completed Part One, <I’ve Become the Hero Who Saves the World>! Shall we work hard and run all the way until the day Part Two, <I’ve Become the Saintess Who Saves the World>, reaches its conclusion?]

My thoughts had been correct.

<I’ve Become the Hero Who Saves the World> really had ended.

But the problem was……

Did this cursed trash author actually write a Part Two?!

I collapsed onto my knees.

“I’ve been had.”