Chapter 37
Head Mod☆) I already sent someone over lol, sorry.
Before Evelyn could even recover from reading Head Mod’s comment, a knock echoed through her room.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Oh my!”
She hadn’t heard a knock even once since the apocalypse.
Evelyn felt even more terrified than when she was being pursued by monsters.
‘H-How did they get all the way here?’
Ophelia Manor had long since been occupied by monsters.
It could reasonably be considered a kind of dungeon.
A maze-like garden, with monsters that could leap out from anywhere at any moment.
But who on earth were these people knocking so calmly on the door?
Evelyn looked outside through the crack in the door, and
her confusion only deepened.
“I’ve come to deliver some good news.”
The first was a dwarf.
A dwarf—the kind said to live gathered in the Antares Mountains—was knocking on her door.
“P-Poor human... Would you open the door?”
There was also a porter with a peculiar way of speaking, and
“Heehee, if you open it right now, I’ll at least spare your life.”
even a plain weird elf.
‘What the hell is this!’
How had all those races gathered in one place?
Evelyn trembled and pretended to be dead without answering, but it wasn’t a good choice.
Crack!
“Eek!”
“Oh, you were inside.”
A man who looked like a knight smashed the doorknob with a monstrous grip and entered.
Was it at least some comfort that he looked the most normal?
He extended a hand and spoke kindly.
“We’ll escort you.”
“Th-that... yes...”
She couldn’t bring herself to say no.
Evelyn had no idea
that this party was the multi-race party famous throughout the Gallery.
Nor did she know that the knight holding her hand was that party’s mad leader.
In any case, under the party’s protection, Evelyn was able to leave the duchy for the first time since the apocalypse.
*
Inside Kelton Royal Castle.
Led by armored knights, soldiers stormed in with spears and swords.
“Kieeek!”
“Kill them all!”
The people who had split away from Adrian were reclaiming the interior of the Kingdom of Kelton.
Their armor and appearance might have been shabby, but after fighting large and small battles every day, they were all exceptionally skilled.
“Grrrk...”
Slash!
With one monster that had dared sit on the throne as the last to fall, the cleanup of the royal castle was complete.
“Did we get it?”
No more monsters appeared, no matter how many spells Lloyd chanted.
That meant the inside of the royal castle had been completely cleared.
The army completed the recapture after three days and nights of fighting, half joyful and half afraid.
Everyone was exhausted enough to collapse where they stood.
They were confident they could fall unconscious the moment they closed their eyes.
And yet they had been able to win because...
Title: It’s Me
Author: Head Mod☆
(Box meme of spicy tuna cans)
(Triangle gimbap meme)
Eat while you work lol
- Lloyd) Oh my!!! Why would you send all this!!! Everything!!!
ㄴ This bastard just doesn’t know the meaning of shame lol
ㄴ Lol, he sounds like he’d never refuse anything.
- Tuna-kyaaa-hoo!
- Head Mod, you know I love you, right?
- What would we have done without Head Mod? lol
- Add one spoonful of Head Mod to this insanely reckless kingdom-founding story and everything gets solved, yep;
- Damn, thanks so fucking much. You’re adorable.
ㄴ He must be grateful enough to swear twice...
ㄴ That’s how grateful he is.
That too was possible because of the protection of the Gallery’s administrator and owner, the Head Mod.
You guys were so strong you couldn’t lose even if you tried.
Just as everyone was sprawled out from fatigue and about to eat tuna cans and warmed triangle gimbap, the entrance became noisy.
“Sir Lloyd!”
A middle-aged knight hurriedly ran inside.
It was Alfred, the knight who had sided with Lloyd when Adrian split apart.
“What is it? Have monsters invaded?”
Startled in turn, Lloyd hurriedly rose and asked, whereupon Alfred grabbed him by the shoulders and shouted.
“She’s here!”
“What? Who... Don’t tell me?”
“Lady Ophelia has just arrived!”
Evelyn Ophelia.
The daughter of the Kingdom of Kelton’s only ducal family, and the woman who would become the next queen of the Kingdom of Kellyerton.
At those words, the soldiers forgot their fatigue and hurriedly got to their feet to look outside.
And almost simultaneously, someone appeared inside the audience chamber.
“That lady is...”
Lloyd stared at the entrance with astonished eyes.
But he couldn’t help squinting.
The warm radiance pouring down behind her as she stood at the entrance kept everyone from opening their eyes properly.
“O-oh... finally...”
“The very one we’d only heard about...”
As the gloomy sky that had hung over them throughout the recapture cleared and sunlight shone into the audience chamber, everyone instinctively realized
that the woman standing at the center was more than worthy of becoming their queen.
She stood there with dignity and composure, without the slightest tremor or sign of shrinking beneath the countless gazes.
And as everyone gazed at her in admiration, Evelyn slowly opened her eyes and thought,
‘S-so embarrassing.’
She had spent years shut in a corner of her room doing nothing but browsing the Gallery.
For someone like Evelyn, the sudden crowd and attention were suffocating and overwhelming.
*
The coronation began immediately.
The knights and soldiers parted to either side, and as Evelyn advanced toward the throne with stiff, clacking steps like a wooden doll, everyone knelt.
“Please lead us!”
“Glory to Kellyerton, our queen!!”
Amid the flood of welcoming greetings, Evelyn calmly thought,
‘I want to go home...’
The suffocating gazes finally made Evelyn squeeze her eyes shut.
But with her eyes closed, she could only hear the whispers around her more clearly.
“The one supposedly closest to the Head Mod...”
“They say the Queen was the first person to exchange goods with the Head Mod and speak to him informally?”
“They say that even when she abandoned her domain and fled after the defeat, she stayed steadfastly behind and held her position to the very end.”
Rumors filled with all sorts of misunderstandings.
Exchanging goods had merely involved her grabbing the Head Mod when he was on the verge of starving to death and selling him a bed.
Far from remaining steadfastly in place, she had hidden in her room and lived as though she were dead,
and the person closest to the Head Mod was...
‘Ahem, that part is true.’
Everything except the first part was terribly exaggerated.
Besides, the coronation had been exposed to the Gallery in its entirety because a knight named Lloyd had gone overboard.
He had managed the feat of plastering an entire page of Featured Posts with the coronation.
- Human kingdom founding, Season 402124
- But this person is the Fallen Noble Lady?
ㄴ Seriously, it doesn’t match at all.
ㄴ I thought she’d just be cute, but in person she’s unexpectedly nobility incarnate ㄷㄷ;
- She’s cute, but there’s an aloof grandeur that makes her hard to approach ㅇㅇ...
ㄴ This is totally gap moe.
ㄴ I seriously want to pet her like crazy.
- So she used emoticons and chatted brightly with the Head Mod while having that kind of aura?
ㄴ Ha, I really wasn’t going to say something like this...
ㄴ ?
ㄴ Since I wasn’t going to, I won’t.
ㄴ This guy is completely insane.
The Gallery in particular was like that.
She missed the days when she could casually browse the Gallery.
But what was this now?
Her snow-white cheeks began to redden little by little.
She hadn’t wanted this much excessive attention.
That was when she happened to find an indecent chat post.
- Head Mod☆) I was a Fallen Noble Lady, but when I opened my eyes, I was the queen of a kingdom?!
ㄴ Why is this bastard suddenly acting like this?
ㄴ Die.
ㄴ (Queen meme looking disgusted)
ㄴ When did the Queen emote come out lol
- Head Mod☆) Upvote if you think the Queen’s subtly reddening cheeks are cute lol
ㄴ Upvote.
ㄴ Oh, it really is?
ㄴ No, how does he even catch things like this lol
ㄴ The Red-Cheeked Queen is undeniable... yep.
ㄴ Can I draw fan art filled with my respect for Her Majesty?
ㄴ Oh.
ㄴ Draw it and bring it right now.
“Y-you, Head Mod...”
The culprit who had turned her into a queen.
Watching him type as if he found the situation amusing made Evelyn sulky.
Besides, becoming queen wasn’t all comfortable and easy.
Right after the coronation ended, the knights approached as though they had been waiting and began reporting the situation.
“Your Majesty, I’m sorry to bother you right after the coronation, but there are still monster remnants...”
“Your Majesty, our remaining food supplies are currently...”
“Your Majesty! We hear that the monsters in the Eastern Forest are gathering and preparing to attack...!”
Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Majesty.
Her mind went blank, and she felt as though her soul were leaving her body with her mouth slightly agape.
Then a notification rang in the Gallery.
Head Mod☆: Congrats congrats on becoming queen
Head Mod☆: Also, I have something to say about the investment, so are you free right now?
The object of such mixed feelings—someone who was both unbearably irritating and deeply appreciated—had appeared as casually as ever.
And after all that, all he had to say was congratulations on becoming queen?
Congratulations-congratulations on becoming queen?
Evelyn: Kyaaaak!
Head Mod☆: ???
Evelyn: Haaak!!!
Head Mod☆:
Evelyn:
ㅗ＼ㅍ /ㅗ
ㅗ＼ㅁ /ㅗ
ㅗ＼ㅍ /ㅗ
ㅗ＼ㅁ /ㅗ
Evelyn finally let go of the last thread of her reason.
*
Beyond the rift, in a literally unknown space.
A hand shot up among the withered, desiccated corpses that had lost all vitality.
“Gasp!”
Blond hair with not a trace of luster left.
A haggard appearance.
No one would have thought he was Crown Prince Frederick from before.
“Head Mod, you bastard! You Adrian bastards who deserve divine punishment! I will! I swear I’ll have my revenge!!”
Frederick clawed his way out through the corpses of the assassins he had hired, his eyes filled with venom.
He breathed roughly and looked around.
The world beyond the rift was dyed entirely purple.
This place was truly strange.
“This is the outside...”
A strange tower stretched high into the sky.
Or perhaps it was a castle built in a familiar style.
The world looked as though all of these things had been lumped together and crumpled.
Frederick nearly lost himself in the bizarre sight.
“I-I have to survive first.”
Madness had a way of becoming tame when faced with even greater madness.
Holding his breath, Frederick tried to hide himself beyond a nearby building.
That would have worked, if not for the silhouette of someone staring intently at him.
“Oh my, a living person?”
“A person...?”
Frederick turned his head in a daze.
And there, in the center of the ruins, was a person.
“So there are people here after all? You there! Help me!”
Frederick shouted toward that something.
There was no way it could be a monster.
The cleanly dressed figure didn’t match a single characteristic of a monster’s appearance.
It slowly approached Frederick.
“Yes, come on, get me out of here!”
Just as Frederick struggled to grab its hand!
Crunch!
“Keurgh...?”
Frederick was split into Fre and Drick.
It happened in the blink of an eye, too quickly to believe it could have been done with such delicate hands.
As Frederick blinked through the pain, it whispered with smiling eyes,
“I’ll enjoy my meal.”
Its presence grew even more intense.
“Head Mod? I remember that.”
Then it stared intently at the rift and smiled as though looking forward to what was coming.