"Am I going to die again?"
Duke Crowell's Mansion.
Adam Crowell lay on the luxurious soft bed of the duke's mansion. He was the second son of Duke Crowell. Since childhood, he had been entangled by a strange curse inherited by the family, and his body was insanely weak.
"Damn it. In my previous life I was a corporate slave who worked myself to death. My only longing was for those beautiful girls from these games. Especially Glorious Era. I was stuck for three months and could not achieve the perfect ending. I closed my eyes with that regret. Yet when I opened my eyes I had transmigrated into a sickly boy who could die at any moment?"
He got down from the bed with unsteady steps and swayed violently with every movement.
He had just steadied himself against the cold windowsill when an uncontrollable sweetness surged up in his chest. It made him cough violently.
Cough! Cough cough!
He spread open his palm. Red streaks of blood had already seeped through his fingers. On the windowsill nearby, a few soft cloth handkerchiefs were piled up. They were equally stained with blood and were shocking to the sight.
He supported himself on the windowsill and gasped for breath. His mind was filled with the despair from the original owner's memories.
This broken curse was devouring his body faster and faster. The original owner had been worn down to death.
How long have I been here? I have not even properly basked in the sun of this fantasy world and I am about to repeat the same mistakes?
I have not yet made up for the gaming regrets of my previous life. Am I to be deprived of even the qualification to live in this life?
No! I cannot die! I absolutely cannot die in such a cowardly way!
He supported himself against the headboard and slowly sat up and tried to sort through the chaotic memory fragments in his brain.
The memories were full of futile attempts by the original owner's parents. They spent money to hire priests, made forbidden potions, and broke into the Death Swamp to seek medicine. In the end, the physician diagnosed that he would not last more than six months.
The more he thought about it, the more panicked he became. The feeling of suffocation in his chest surged up and the chill of death crawled up his limbs.
Sigh… is this how my new life ends?
Buzz!
Intense pain forcibly pulled his scattered consciousness back. An ethereal voice sounded directly in the depths of his mind.
---{Detected host's strong obsession with survival**** Regret Completion system is activating for you}----
Adam's spirit lifted.
A system panel appeared out of thin air before his eyes. On the panel, there was only one icon with the name Aria of the Holy City written on it.
He extended his finger and tapped that icon.
The icon immediately displayed the words {Docking...}.
The moment the connection was completed, a warm current flowed from his fingertips into his body. It dispelled the cold in his lungs and finally allowed him to breathe smoothly. Adam took a deep breath.
---{When you complete the corresponding plot, you can obtain basic rewards and lift the curse. During settlement, additional rewards will be provided based on the strength of the heroine.}---
{Accessing script for you... Aria of the Holy City.}
Before his eyes, the content on the screen began to unfold.
---{Script Background: The Last Demon King
Background Introduction:
He was the first living being in the world to possess self-awareness, named Adam. Immortality was not a gift to him, but the most vicious curse. He longed for a thorough, eternal rest.
For this reason, he traveled the continent. Finally, in a remote village, he found a girl who harbored the purest holy power. He knew that she was the hope he had sought for ten thousand years.
He adopted her. Named her Seraphina and gave everything to teach her. He wanted to personally raise her into the greatest hero, a Saintess capable of killing anything in here path. Then... at her most brilliant and glorious moment, he would die under her sword. }---
Adam looked at this text and his breath suddenly stopped.
Was this not one of the games he failed to get the perfect ending for before his sudden death?
That tragic heroine he poured countless efforts into but could never be saved; the Saintess Seraphina!
"You want me... to play this Demon King who want to die?"
{Yes}
{The role you play in the story is him. You will obtain his power. Your mission is to fulfill his unfulfilled wish; guide the Saintess Seraphina and let her end you with her own hands}
As soon as the voice fell, a light blue screen unfolded before him.
On the screen, a dynamic CG played in a loop.
The Imperial City square was covered in dark clouds.
A blonde girl was tied to a stake.
She was once the Saintess who killed the Demon King and saved the world. Yet at this moment she was treated as a witch and was to be executed by the very church she protected.
The flames rose.
She raised her head. Those blue eyes that were once as clear as the sky now held only dead, hollow grayness.
Adam felt his chest tightened. It was as if even his right to breathe had been taken away.
This scene!
This was the final ending he could not change even after restarting hundreds of times before his sudden death!
{The time flow ratio between the script world and your current world is 100:1.}
{Go or do not. The choice is yours.}
There was simply no choice.
But this time, Adam's state of mind was completely different.
He raised his left hand. The start button on the virtual screen before him was like a beating heart.
Adam extended his right index finger and tapped the air in front of him.
{Start}
As the voice fell, the black magnificent robes belonging to the Demon King Adam turned into specks of light and wrapped around him.
….
The fluctuation of the tearing space had not yet dissipated when Adam stepped on rotten fallen leaves.
Black Forest. The air was full of the smell of rotting soil. In the third second of becoming the Demon King, he turned off the noisy system in his brain.
Too noisy. And unnecessary.
As the only player with full achievements in Glorious Era, he knew every tree in this damn place better than the devs who created the world.
There was movement deep in the forest.
The whoosh sound of stones breaking through the air mixed with the vicious curses of several boys.
"Smash her to death! This ugly trash monster!"
"Get out of the village! You ugly thing!"
Their voices were childish, yet they were dipped in the most primitive malice.
Adam pushed aside the vines blocking his way.
In the clearing ahead, five children were surrounding a small thin figure curled up on the ground. They wore excited and twisted smiles on their faces as they carried out an execution.
Rocks and mud smashed onto that figure again and again.
In the center was a girl. She looked no more than seven or eight years old. Her long golden hair was matted with blood and mud, sticking to her face. She protected her head with arms as thin as firewood sticks. Every time she was hit, her body trembled violently as if struck by electricity.
Seeing this scene, Adam's breathing stopped for a moment.
He recognized her.
"Seraphina"
In his mind, the opening of the game quickly replayed.
In the plot, after she killed the Demon King with her own hands, she was treated as a polluted weapon by the church she protected. She turned into flying ash in the flames of the holy light purification.
That was the ending he could never accept.
This was the starting point of her tragedy.
According to the original script, he should wait. Wait for the hypocritical old nun to save her and then take her into another hell.
But... Adam's gaze fell on the small back trembling continuously in the mud.
He came here to correct errors.
Then, correction begins from this very moment.
Adam walked out from the shadows of the trees.
He did not make any sound of footsteps.
Instantly!
The insect chirping disappeared.
The wind also stopped.
The entire clearing was dead silent.
The hand of the fat boy in the lead, who was about to throw the next stone, froze in mid-air.
The five children suddenly turned their heads and saw Adam.
A black-haired man wearing ordinary cloth clothes stood there expressionlessly.
He just looked at them.
There was no emotion in that gaze. It was like a human looking at a few ants blocking the way. Indifferent, and impatient.
The fat boy's legs began to go weak and his teeth chattered. He wanted to run, but found he had no strength to move even his toes.
Out of subconscious survival instinct, he threw the stone in his hand at Adam with all his might while letting out a distorted roar:
"M... Monster!"
The stone drew a parabola in the air.
It stopped half a meter from Adam's face. Without any warning, it hovered in the air.
The next second. The stone silently turned into a handful of fine powder and was blown away by a sudden breeze.
"Ah..."
A timid child squeezed half a scream out of his throat. His eyes rolled back and he fell straight down, fainting from fright.
This became the last straw that broke the camel's back.
"AHHHHHHH… A Ghost! It is a man-eating ghost!"
Someone let out a miserable scream. The remaining four children wet their pants and ran frantically toward the village crying for their parents.
Someone fell but did not care about the pain. He crawled forward with both hands and feet as if the Grim Reaper were chasing him from behind.
Adam walked up to the little girl who was still curled up on the ground.