CH 1

I think there is a big problem.

I looked blankly at the beautiful blonde smiling before my eyes and thought.

“What’s the matter? Don’t you like the drink?”

“No, it’s not that. I’m just thinking.”

“Thinking?”

She looked at me with her long, pretty eyelashes. Then she put down the fork she was holding with a ‘clang’ sound.

“Is it because… it’s my birthday soon? Are you thinking about what to get me for my present?”

She laughed as if a bud had burst.That bright smile almost made me drop my glass of drink. The people passing by the caffee stopped momentarily and couldn’t take their eyes off of her. How can a person be so lovely?

Her cheeks were rose pink, her blonde hair looked as if they were honey-covered, and she had a clear smile. There were no imperfections. When I see her smiling, peace washes over my heart…

Well, that’s the sentence that explains her in the game. The lovely princess that everyone adores…taken away by the devil.

The ice breaks into pieces in my mouth with a crunching sound.

So now, I am the devil.

Oh, great.

“I thought I had lived my life nicely.”

“Huh? What?”

“It’s nothing. Tina, you’re turning 16 this year right?”

“Yes, you remembered!”

Tina put her checks between her hands as if she were thrilled. I picked up the strawberries on the cake with my fork and put it in my mouth. As I chewed, sweet and fresh strawberry juice filled my mouth. It was a peaceful afternoon.

{In the year when the princess turned 16, a warrior miraculously saved her and defeated the devil.}

That line of game text lingers in my head.

‘The warrior defeated the devil.’

I opened my mouth again after swallowing a strawberry.

“…That’s early.”

There would be no other words to express my situation more properly than this.

***

I joined this game a long time ago.

{Nectar Electric}

It was one of the most popular RPG games. It’s a common story that a warrior defeats the devil and saves the world. In addition to balance, graphics, and boring quests, there were so many errors and bugs that I wondered what kind of person would play these games.

…And I’m that person. I’m a heavy user of {Nectar Electric}. Everyday I would mumble why I’m playing this game, but I still wouldn’t let go. The moment I defeated the last boss, the devil, everything became bright and now I’m in the game. If I had known this would happen, I would’ve played games that had many handsome guy characters in it.

After realizing I’m in this reality, what I worried about the most was ‘who did I possess?’. I thought it would be one of the game characters because I was playing {Nectar Electric}, but I couldn’t tell who it was. Right now, my appearance is silver hair with red eyes, and those factors made me an incredibly beautiful woman. I couldn’t remember to the point where I wondered if a person with such a rare appearance had ever even appeared in the game.

Oh, and why was she in a tremendously large, ugly, and empty castle alone? At first, I thought she was just a supporting character working here, but I quickly shook my head. There’s no way I would give just a mere supporting character such glamorous features.

It was a perfectly reasonable doubt. After a long time of agonizing alone, I found out myself because of words that a young girl said after showing up.

“There… the devil.”

“Me? The devil?”

The child nodded at my question. I barely said a few words, but she was so nervous that she almost fainted. I reached out to comfort her a little, but she hurriedly avoided my hand.

“Sorry, I’m sorry!”

She suddenly began to cry while apologizing.

“You told me not to come out alone, but the people who were guarding the surroundings disappeared… and I was so scared that…”

“No, I mean-”

“I’m sorry. Please forgive me once, devil.”

I couldn’t hide my confusion while listening to the whimpering child’s voice. So you’re saying that this is the body of the devil, right? The final boss I defeated…?

In the game, the devil always wore a mask covering their face. It wasn’t ridiculous because I had never seen the devil’s face since it was always wrapped where no hair could even be seen. But there was something that surprised me more than that.

How can there be such a lovely person?

The child looked so shabby that it was hard to tell that she was even a girl living in this big castle. The color of her frayed dress was faded, but nevertheless, she was so lovely that I wanted to hug her right away.

“Well, could you please not lock me up in the dark again?”

…Although the words that came out of her mouth were very confusing. I carefully squatted in front of the girl and made eye contact.

“What’s your name?”

“What?”

The girl’s eyes showed fear and alertness at my sudden question. I opened my empty palm and smiled as harmless as I could.

“It may seem strange, but I can’t remember it right now. What’s your name?”

“…My name is Tina. Christina Lochastin.”

Christina.

As soon as I heard the name, I looked at the girl’s face again. Her golden eyes are like soft sunlight glowing. I can’t deny that the child in front of me was the princess who was kidnapped by the devil in the game.

…She’s too young.

The child looked up, crying and clutching her belly.

“Devil… I’m hungry.”

The moment I saw her face, my mind stopped.

I have been searching the castle like I was possessed. When I saw those tearful eyes, my first thought was to bring everything people could eat and give them to her. As soon as Tina was given food, she was stuffing her mouth constantly like a hamster.

“Well, you must’ve been very hungry.”

“Yes…”

“Who on earth starved such a young child.”

“The… the devil.”

“…”

I had nothing to say. Tina had so much food in her mouth that her cheeks were puffy, then she looked at me.

“Do… I have to sing to you before I sleep today?”

“What?”

“You always make me do that. Your headache gets so bad that you could only sleep when I sing…”

Tina said while flicking her fingers.

Originally, the reason why the devil kidnapped Princess Christina in the original game was because of her special mana in her voice. When she sings a song, that magic power becomes several times stronger. The most outstanding thing about it was healing magic. Therefore, the devil kidnapped the princess to make her her own.

I think her voice is a little hoarse. I opened my mouth while holding her hand tightly.

“The devil.. No, did I make you sing beside me every night?”

“Yes…”

“Do you want to sleep because your throat hurts or you’re tired?”

“…”

Tina closed her lips without answering for a moment. However, her answer could be inferred just from that reaction. This is crazy, I slapped my forehead with my palm. The child was in front of me so I barely managed to swallow the swear words that almost came out of my mouth. Instead, I hugged Tina. The feeling was very soft and her temperature was warm.

Not just the warrior, but also Tina’s parents who didn’t come to save her were resentful. If I were to lose a cute daughter like her, I would’ve led a whole army here to get her back. However, seeing this child, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. Afterwards, I tried being nice to her, but Tina was still afraid of me. Even though I refused and said it was okay, she still came to my room at night.

“Oh, I’m not very tired today. You gave me a lot of food so I’ll sing! I can sing well!”

“No… hey Tina.”

“I mean my throat doesn’t hurt anymore. I can’t do it for four hours like last time, but maybe an hour or two…”

That’s not what I want. Tina somehow tried to make me feel better, but it only managed to make me feel worse. It’s not her fault.

“Come here, Tina.”

Instead of making her sing, I stretched out and pulled her into my arms. When my hand touched hers, I could feel her stiffen, but she didn’t pull back.

“Tina, I won’t force you to sing anymore.”

“Why?”

“Well… do I sleep well without hearing you sing? It’s not that I don’t like the song, I just don’t like to see you having a hard time.”

“But…”

Tina seemed to be having a hard time understanding my change of attitude overnight. She laid in my arms on my bed, which is extremely big even for an adult. I patted her golden hair slowly with my hand. I then closed my eyes and said,

“Good night, my baby-”

The first lullaby that came into my mind came out of my mouth.

“In the front yard and back garden-”

Tina’s eyes were wide open in surprise when I started singing her a lullaby. Strangely, when her eyes looked this way, she soon became tired and blinked slowly. She said she wasn’t tired earlier, but that must’ve been a lie. I continued to sing with a smile.

“Birds and babies, they’re all sleeping-”

While I patted her head and moved her hair behind her ear, she quickly closed her eyes completely. I watched her for a little longer and then naturally fell asleep.