“...?”

    When Roswyn first entered the debug room, she discovered a small monitor.

    “W-what is this...”

    The monitor was blinking in the middle of the room. After a moment of staring at it, she slowly turned her head.

    “...”

    The room was quite messy, which was overwhelming for someone with severe OCD.

    “I-I want to get out...”

    The sight made Roswyn’s skin crawl, and she began to shiver as she made her way to the exit of the room.

    - Clank, clank...

    “W-what...?”

    However, an unexpected problem arose.

    “Why won’t it open...?”

    The door she had entered through was locked tight.

    - Bang, bang, bang...!!!

    “Is anyone out there!!”

    Trapped in the dark, dirty room, Roswyn started to cry out in a trembling voice.

    “Help me!! There’s someone still inside...”

    But then she suddenly stopped and hung her head low.

    “...No, never mind.”

    Tears began to fall from her eyes.

    “It’s useless...”

    At the beginning of the Fourth Ordeal, Roswyn had delivered the flower to the corrupted Frey.

    She had to perform that act to activate the “Ending Credits.”

    That was it.

    Her duty was complete.

    After delivering the flower, she had planned to find a quiet place where no one knew her and end her life.

    If only she hadn’t been transferred to this strange place.

    “...”

    Having lost all will to live, Roswyn sat quietly in the dark room, hugging her knees.

    She hoped for a ghost, a monster, or even an intruder to appear and end her life before she starved to death.

    “...?”

    But then something happened that shattered her apathy.

    “W-what...?”

    Roswyn, who had been keeping her head down, suddenly looked up in shock as one of the “Helper System” functions, the auto-observation, appeared before her eyes.

    “...”

    Her eyes widened in disbelief at the scene that unfolded before her.

    Replaying all events of the Fourth Ordeal...

    “This is.....”

    She saw countless images of Frey and Ruby.

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    A few days later.

    “I need to... I need to record this.....”

    Roswyn was frantically scribbling down notes on the scattered papers on the desk.

    “Every important scene... I can’t miss any of it...”

    In front of her, the secrets of the zeroth cycle involving Frey and Ruby were unraveling.

    Even though she had glimpsed the events of the Zeroth cycle when she was wandering in the dark before entering this room, the information now unfolding before her was all critical.

    “...Come to think of it.”

    As she continued to document everything they had experienced, Roswyn suddenly looked up with a blank expression.

    “Frey’s heart... it was pierced.”

    She remembered that Frey had sacrificed himself for Ruby, and his soul was crumbling as a result.

    “Could it be...”

    Realizing she had momentarily forgotten this fact, Roswyn hurriedly shifted the system screen back to Frey.

    “...”

    She saw Frey lying unconscious while on the boat inbound for the Empire.

    His soul was slowly deteriorating.

    “No...”

    What felt like only a few hours had already turned into several days.

    What was happening?

    “I-I can’t stay here doing nothing.”

    Panicked, Roswyn dropped the pen she had been holding and looked around frantically.

    “I need to get out of here somehow.”

    She got up and rushed to the exit.

    - Bang, bang, bang...!!!

    “Open the door!!”

    Desperation filled her voice as she pounded on the door.

    “Let me out!!”

    But the door that had trapped her in this space refused to budge.

    “Please... please open the door...”

    After banging on the door for what felt like an eternity, Roswyn slumped down, exhausted, and saw Glare being attacked by sea monsters on the monitor.

    That was when the blood-covered Eye appeared behind Roswyn.

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    “Gah, hack...”

    Roswyn flailed desperately with a terrified expression as the Eye choked her.

    “Ugh...”

    As her vision blurred, a familiar yet distant memory surfaced.

    “Useless girl...”

    “F-Father...”

    In the memory, her father was choking her just like the Eye was now.

    “I’m sorry... I did wrong...”

    She was flailing in the air just like she was now.

    “How hard is it to catch the Hero’s eye? You useless thing.”

    “Gah, ack...”

    “Instead of seducing the hero, you’re hanging around with some girl!?”

    “T-that’s because... there’s a reason...”

    Clutching her father’s arm with fading strength, Roswyn’s father only tightened his grip, whispering coldly.

    “Go ahead, make an excuse.”

    “I’m sorry... always... Ruby was always by his side...”

    “So?”

    “I thought if I got close to her... I’d get an opportunity... Khaack...”

    Listening to her dying voice, her father squeezed harder with a stern glare.

    “You let some girl take the hero away from you. Pathetic.”

    “F-Father...”

    “Useless thing.”

    “Please... spare me...”

    Her tears dripped onto his arm, making his expression even more disgusted.

    “Our family’s destiny is to support the Hero...”

    “Kh, kgh...”

    “A thousand years of waiting!! The only reason our family is respected as a Duke!”

    Then, he shouted angrily.

    “And you act like that. What happens to our family?”

    “Ugh...”

    “If you can’t even be the Hero’s wife or concubine... what will the world think of us!!”

    “...”

    Hearing his rant, Roswyn asked in a dying voice.

    “...Was I just a tool?”

    “What?”

    “Born to support the Hero... just a tool...?”

    It was the first time the unloved girl defied her father.

    “...Of course.”

    Without hesitation, her father drove the nail deeper into her heart.

    “And it looks like this tool is broken.”

    He coldly whispered as Roswyn, losing strength, started to go limp.

    “Just die here.”

    “...Ah.”

    “I’ll adopt a smarter, prettier girl as my daughter.”

    “...”

    Losing the will to live, Roswyn let go of his arm.

    “Blame your incompetence for being born...”

    “...Screw you.”

    “What?”

    As her vision blurred, a heavy sound echoed.

    - Thud...!

    She fell to the floor, gasping for breath.

    “Kh... kgh...”

    Clutching her neck, she weakly breathed in.

    - Thud...!

    “...!”

    Before her, her father collapsed weakly.

    “...What?”

    Watching in a daze, she looked up.

    “Just in time.”

    “W-what power...!”

    “R-Run!!”

    Far away, Frey fought the family’s servants, and a familiar girl wiped the blood off her hand and looked at her.

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    “Isn’t that right?”

    “...Ms. Ruby?”

    In her memory, the Ruby of the zeroth cycle looked at Roswyn, who was gasping for breath, with a bitter /genesisforsaken