PMEVBO 52

Iser’s hand, which had been reaching toward my cheek, stopped mid-air. Then it fell limply to the ground.

I reflexively caught the hand. The body temperature I felt through the gloves was unnaturally cold.

“…Iser?”

There was no reply. Iser lay motionless, both eyes closed.

I brought his hand to my cheek. The spot where our skin touched didn’t hurt.

No. He said it wouldn’t hurt to touch while the wound was still there.

I forced myself to steady my mind and pressed my ear to Iser’s chest. But I heard nothing.

Iser is dead…?

I couldn’t believe it.

I stared down at Iser’s face. He looked like someone asleep. Though I’d never seen that child’s sleeping face before.

‘I’m sorry. …For liking you.’

Those words kept echoing in my ears.

“Ah…”

The air I inhaled cut my throat like a blade. I couldn’t breathe.

I already knew that Iser liked me.

‘The reason I wanted to live is the same reason I asked you to read the experiment log.’

Long before I heard those words.

Whenever I went to the hideout to see Iser, he was always reading a book. Even when we were together, unless we were eating or talking, there was always a book open in front of him. But his entire focus wasn’t on the words before his eyes, it was on me. I noticed that early on.

Iser, who was curious about what I was doing and thinking, yet hid those feelings deep within the pages of the book he held. I found him adorable, and more than that, pitiful.

For the past five years, Iser had been locked away at the top of the spire, abused by the duke. Even after escaping that place, he’d been stuck in a cramped space, clinging only to me. He simply had nowhere else to turn his heart.

Once he leaves Hayut Castle and experiences the wider world, he’ll meet someone worthy of his affection.

…Back then, that’s just what I thought.

It was after the kidnapping incident that I began to feel my thoughts might have been wrong.

‘If you don’t want to read it, I can’t force you… but I still wish you would, Lucariel.’

When I heard those words on the Babet Plains, I was holding Iser’s hand. So, through our clasped hands, I felt the trembling of that child. He was trembling. He were afraid I might refuse.

There was no guarantee when Iser’s location lock would be deactivated. Even without that, Iser had more than enough reasons to hate staying at the Hayut Castle. The duke who had abused him was there, and because of him, he couldn’t move about freely.

As long as Iser’s location was locked to Hayut Castle, I was his entire world. That’s why I didn’t want to become another reason for him to hate that place. At least until I could resolve the location lock issue, I didn’t want him to be hurt because of me.

That’s why I read the experiment log.

After the kidnapping incident, Iser no longer hid his feelings as tightly as before.

Every time he expressed his feelings to me, I wanted to run away.

‘After all, I’m someone who will return to my original world sooner or later.’

……Because I was afraid to face that affection I couldn’t reciprocate.

Naturally, I never confided such personal circumstances to Iser. Yet, he seemed to sense that I found his feelings burdensome.

He would push me into a corner, only to step back at the crucial moment, as if creating an escape route for me.

After enduring, enduring, and finally barely confessing before dying, his confession took this form.

‘I’m sorry. …For liking you.’

I felt like I was entirely to blame for Iser’s death too.

If only I hadn’t carelessly pressed the level-up button, if only I’d rushed to this child just a little faster… Iser might not have died.

‘..I missed you, Lucariel.’

His last words pierced my heart.

It was then that a new status window appeared.

────【 Skill Draw Ticket 】────

Would you like to use the Skill Draw Ticket (1x)?

Yes/No

──────────────────────

Beyond my tear-blurred vision, the translucent glow of the status window spread.

I had cleared Seriha’s praise quest and stored the Skill Draw Ticket I received as a reward in my inventory. He seemed to be asking if I wanted to use it now.

I stared at the status window for a long time. Suddenly, a thought flashed through my mind.

If nothing else, what if the Discernment Skill comes out again…

…Couldn’t I bring Iser back to life?

A tear that had gathered in my eye fell, momentarily clearing my vision.

Discernment was a skill that manipulated my body to achieve a set goal on my behalf. Though I couldn’t guarantee what might happen during the process, that didn’t matter. No matter the cost, I wanted to revive Iser.

Pressing ‘Yes’ brought up the now-familiar gacha screen.

─────【 Skill Draw 】─────

Choose a number from 1 to 100 and try your luck at the Skill Draw!

Skill Gacha Tickets: 1

⊠ ⊠ 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

.

.

.

81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90

91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100

──────────────────────

Which number should I pick…?

The longer I waited, the harder it seemed to choose. I finally settled on number 3. My hand trembled as if it weren’t my own when I pressed the button.

“Please…”

───────【 3 】───────

⧓ Wisdom ⧓

Congratulations!

You have acquired the skill ‘Wisdom’.

───────────────────

“…Wisdom?”

I despaired briefly at the realization it wasn’t the Discernment skill, but I didn’t let go of hope. I waited for the Wisdom skill to activate. Perhaps Wisdom was the very skill that could fulfill my wish.

──────【 Wisdom 】──────

Ask me anything.

Tell me about ‘???’.

────────────────────

A skill that provides information.

“So if I ask about how to revive Iser…?”

Suddenly, a long-forgotten fact came to mind.

The fact that during auto-cast, I couldn’t fill in the blank myself.

The ‘???’ slot was randomly filled by the system. What were the odds the system would ask ‘How to revive Iser Hayut’ for me? Probably extremely low.

But that doesn’t mean the probability is 0%.

Holding Iser’s hand, I prayed.

“God… please let me save this child…”

When I finished praying and opened my eyes, the empty slot had already been filled.

Tell me about the ‘XXX Hayut Creation Method’.

“‘XXX Hayut Creation Method’…?”

At that moment, a new window opened and text began to generate.

──────【 Wisdom 】──────

Requested Information: [‘XXX Hayut’ Creation Method]

Result:

– The physical body of identifier ‘Iser Hayut’ is in a state of death.

– The soul of identifier ‘Iser Hayut’ is also on the verge of annihilation.

─────────────────

“Iser’s soul… is on the verge of annihilation…?”

In the original story, Isabelle prayed every morning for her deceased family.

‘O God, please gather their souls and grant them rest.’

Even if the body decays and vanishes after death, the soul alone finds eternal rest in God’s embrace. That was the solace the god of this world guaranteed to his followers.

Unlike the world I originally lived in, this world was a place where one could easily sense the presence of God. There was a Pope living a long life by God’s will, divine power existed, and even demons were real.

Then why on earth…

“Why is Iser’s soul vanishing…?”

It was incomprehensible.

If his soul vanished forever, this child would cease to exist anywhere. That felt like my heart was being torn out.

Then, beneath the last sentence of the status window, characters began forming once more.

-However, if the ‘Player’s System’ is temporarily transferred to that physical body, the procedure to reconstruct the damaged body will start.

-During this process, the soul on the verge of annihilation is also reconstructed, and re-assigned to the reconstructed body.

I held my breath for a moment.

“So… if I temporarily transfer this system to Iser…”

Does that mean he’ll come back to life…?

-The reconstructed individual will be redefined as identifier ‘XXX Hayut’ under the system’s judgment.