TIRS 12: The Most Horrific and Malicious Bug
“Kyaaah!”
I screamed and frantically dodged the flying arrows and throwing stars.
“Why are they coming after me?! I’m not a bug or whatever you think I am!”
Despite my protests, the attacks didn’t stop. One of the palace servants came at me with an axe.
“They’re the ones provoking everyone—so why are they targeting me…?! Aaack!”
“They always go for the weakest target first,” Ancelot explained nonchalantly as he pierced the attacking servant with his white spear. “Unlike monsters, they’re cowardly.”
“And you’re obviously weaker than I am, Princess.”
The palace servant who had been coming at me collapsed to the ground, right toward me.
“Gah!”
“Eek!”
Thanks to Ancelot, who caught me around the waist just in time, I avoided being crushed.
“Hah… Hah…”
Panting heavily, I stared at the fallen man. He was already dead.
It was the first time I had witnessed someone’s death right before my eyes.
It was terrifying enough to bring tears to my eyes, but there was no time to cry.
Another man in imperial knight armor came at us with a sword, and Ancelot blocked it with ease, then drove his spear into the man’s gut.
“I’ll go clean up the ant swarm. Don’t get hurt.”
With that brief parting remark, Ancelot dashed into the crowd of system enforcers, leaving me behind.
My heart pounded violently in my chest as I watched the brutal battle unfold before me.
Ancelot’s spear cut through the enforcers like paper, but there were just too many of them.
Then—my eyes met Roana’s.
“…!”
In that instant, Roana rushed toward me with a dagger. She ran so fast, it reminded me of Hezen using a skill to escape.
Damn it, if only I had a weapon… Or a shield. Anything!
I thought back to when I had created a protective barrier during the confrontation with Ancelot in the western garden. I grabbed the pendant hanging from my neck and clutched it tightly.
But despite my desperate plea, the pendant didn’t respond.
Please…!
I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again—only to find Roana right in front of me, raising her dagger to strike.
“Eeep!”
I rolled to the ground to dodge and grabbed Roana’s ankle as she came into view.
With a thud, she fell and dropped her dagger.
Clatter!
We both looked at the fallen weapon at the same time.
But I was faster.
I grabbed the dagger off the floor before she could.
Roana froze for a split second, then turned and bolted.
“Aaah!”
But she didn’t get far. With a final scream, she collapsed.
Ancelot had thrown a glowing white spear at her back as she fled.
The spear that pierced Roana dissolved into thin air.
As he dusted his hands off casually, Ancelot paused when he saw me standing frozen, staring at Roana’s corpse.
“Ah… this.”
“…”
“If I let her live, she’d just regroup with her allies and come back. Now that she’s seen us, we had to take her out in one strike.”
He looked at me sideways, as if checking my reaction, almost like he was making excuses.
“…I’m not blaming you.”
Roana had clearly tried to kill me. After facing that kind of life-threatening situation, I wasn’t so naïve or sentimental as to ask why my maid had to die.
“That’s a relief.”
Ancelot smiled faintly, as if genuinely relieved by my answer.
“I was worried you’d think I was some psycho who kills people indiscriminately.”
Well… I do think that…
But I didn’t feel the need to correct him aloud.
I let out a shaky breath and tried to straighten my clothes.
While I was a mess from rolling on the ground, Ancelot was still completely composed—even after fighting off all those people.
“What are those people, anyway?”
“System Cleaners. Minions of the system that hunt and kill [bugs].”
“But I’m not a bug!”
“You tried to deviate from the scenario.”
“…!”
Unlike his calm tone, I flinched in shock, recalling the moment I had tried to break free of the system’s control.
The horrifying feeling of my body moving against my will—and the overwhelming relief I felt when I finally broke free.
“This world moves according to a massive scenario created by the system. Anyone who tries to deviate from that script is labeled a bug.”
“…”
Something about his explanation didn’t sit right with me.
I was a living, breathing individual with free will—wasn’t I? And yet, the moment I tried to step outside the bounds of the system, I was marked for elimination?
It felt like my very existence was being denied.
But how does Ancelot even know all of this?
I opened my mouth to ask, but hesitated.
Then he spoke first.
“Want some help?”
“Help? With what?”
I blinked, confused by the vague offer.
He grinned.
“Escaping the scenario.”
“You already erased the system windows, and the cleaners are all dead. Isn’t it over now?”
Instead of answering, Ancelot gave me a cryptic smile.
Then—
Ping!
<Princess Louibel of the Azester Empire>
Attributes: Lover, Terminal (Remaining lifespan: Unknown)
That wretched pink window appeared above my head again.
“Why is it back…?!”
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t erased—just temporarily paralyzed.”
“…”
I bit down on my lower lip, glaring up at the floating text.
The damn “Lover” status was still active, and the “Terminal” tag hadn’t gone away either. My remaining lifespan was still listed as “Unknown.”
I need to get this engagement annulled.
Cold sweat slid down my back.
If I can just prove Hezen is infertile, I can break it off…
“It won’t be easy.”
As if reading my mind, Ancelot interjected.
“That bastard’s probably trying to stop the annulment at all costs, since it’ll trigger a Bad Ending penalty for him. He might even try to kill you before the annulment is finalized to complete his Awakening.”
“He’d kill me…?”
“And if you try to deviate from the script again, the system will send more cleaners after you.”
“…”
“Once a player marks you as their target, there’s no escape. Either he gets his Awakening through your sacrifice, or…”
“Either way, I die.”
I shouted, furious.
Until recently, life as Louibel Azester had been peaceful.
But in the past few weeks, I’d been betrayed by my fiancé—no, betrayed by this entire world—marked with a terminal illness, and now I was being hunted by “cleaners.”
Why do I have to die like this?!
It felt so unfair.
“That’s why I said I’d help you.”
“And who even are you?”
I finally asked what I’d been dying to know.
The man with no window over his head, as if he’d broken free of the system.
Not a player. Not aided by some mysterious pendant like I was. Yet somehow, he could see Hezen’s system window.
The man who nullified the system’s power and disrupted the scenario itself.
“Well, if I borrow their words…”
Ancelot tilted his head as if considering, then let out a dry chuckle and introduced himself.
“I’m the most horrific and malicious bug.”
Under a brilliant chandelier, a tall, handsome man raised a glass of champagne.
He was the [System Administrator] overseeing the Azester Imperial Palace and the capital city of Brillanta.
He commanded the [System Cleaners] in the area, ensuring that the world operated smoothly under system law.
“Hm.”
Letting out a faint, irritated noise, the man swept a lock of hair from his forehead.
Just moments ago, the signal from his connected cleaners had been cut off.
Which meant—they were all dead.
“Filthy little vermin… crawling all the way into the palace.”
He hadn’t even gotten a chance to identify who had taken them out.
“Who could it be?”
He muttered lazily and scanned the grand banquet hall.
Foreign dignitaries, nobles of Azester, even members of the imperial family including Empress Christine Joanna Azester.
Everyone had a familiar blue name window floating above their heads, showing their name and status.
No one stood out.
But the vile little bug who had trespassed into his territory could very well be blending in among them right now, sipping wine with an innocent face.
And this player is especially useless.
The administrator clicked his tongue at the thought of Hezen, who couldn’t even complete a simple Awakening scenario.
Then his eyes landed on Louibel, the only one with a pink name window above her head.
The powerless Third Princess of the Azester Empire—marked as the player’s Awakening Sacrifice.
Beside her stood Prince Ancelot of the Kingdom of Luenhart.
Perhaps the two had gone out for some air.
He hadn’t heard of any prior relationship between them, so maybe they’d grown close during his visit.
They certainly looked good standing together…
But the administrator’s gaze sharpened.
It was not a pleasing sight.
The Awakening Sacrifice standing beside a man who wasn’t the player.
That pathetic player might lose his sacrifice too, at this rate.
Recalling Hezen’s incompetence, who couldn’t even complete a tutorial-level scenario, he let out a long, annoyed sigh.
“I guess I’ll have to step in and assist the Awakening myself.”
The man muttered in a tired voice, handing his empty champagne glass to a passing servant.
