The Asteria Kingdom lies to the east of the continent's center.
In the southern part of that kingdom, within a small room on the right side of the second floor of the Count Palladio estate.
"…Was the mission carried out successfully?"
"Yes, it was."
At the words of the man sitting on the bed, the standing knight bowed his head and replied.
"Just as you commanded, I rescued the orphans from the orphanage in the small village to the east of the kingdom… or rather, from the bio-experiment lab."
"And did you leave the orphanage in good hands?"
"Yes. As you instructed, Lord Alon, I entrusted the orphanage to a girl named Yutia."
"…Did you settle things with the Baron who manages that village?"
"Yes. When I showed him the documents regarding the bio-experiment lab as you directed, he compliantly accepted all our demands. He even offered a token of his… sincerity."
The knight, Evan, spoke as he pulled a leather pouch from his breast pocket and placed it on Alon's nightstand.
"Good."
Alon opened the pouch and gave a satisfied smile at the sight of the gold coins inside.
"Young Master, however… may I ask one thing?"
Evan, who had been silent for a moment, spoke up.
"What is it?"
"…Did you not say that the reason you raided the bio-experiment lab in the House of Baron Alphon was to save that girl, Yutia?"
When Alon nodded for him to continue, Evan went on.
"…She was certainly extraordinary. I've spent a very long time living as a mercenary, but…"
Evan paused as if reflecting, then continued.
"She was so strong that I couldn't understand why a young girl like her was even locked up in that lab in the first place."
"And?"
"…Why did you simply leave her at the orphanage?"
Alon remained silent at the question, which was tinged with confusion.
In truth, Evan's doubt was perfectly rational. If he didn't intend to use a girl like Yutia in some capacity after saving her, the entire act yielded no profit.
However, that was only how the situation looked from Evan's perspective.
From Alon's perspective, things were quite different.
'I've cleared one of the flags for the end of the world. That's more than enough.'
Yutia.
Her real name was Yutia Bloodia.
Ten years from now, she would become the 'Sin of Wrath,' one of the Five Great Sins. She was a monster who would erase two of the five Allied Kingdoms from the continent and cause hundreds of thousands of casualties.
If one were to ask how Alon knew what would happen ten years into the future, it was because he was a 'possessor.'
Specifically, a possessor who knew that this world was the setting of Psychedelia, a dark fantasy RPG where everything would be brutally destroyed in ten years.
"Whew."
Alon clutched his aching head and let out a deep sigh as he recalled when he first woke up two months ago.
'At first, I spent three days agonizing after realizing this was a fantasy world. Then, I spent another ten days agonizing after realizing this was ten years before the main story of Psychedelia began.'
Initially, when Alon thought he had simply been possessed into a fantasy world, he despaired for about three days. But once he started adjusting, the situation wasn't actually that bad.
Being a noble was, surprisingly, quite a good gig.
A noble's daily life was incredibly comfortable.
He woke up when he wanted to wake up.
He slept when he wanted to sleep.
He did what he wanted to do.
He ate what he wanted to eat.
Even though he was the third son of a Count and lacked real power, he was in a position where he could enjoy pleasure without responsibility.
Because of that, he was actually quite happy at first.
For someone who used to work 78 hours a week at a 'shitty firm' for barely above minimum wage, the life of a noble was incredibly lush.
Of course, not being able to use the internet—the greatest achievement of modern civilization—was a fatal blow.
But the noble lifestyle was satisfying enough to compensate for it.
However, that happiness was short-lived.
Alon's mood had darkened rapidly from the moment he realized the name of this continent was Ampelan.
…And from the moment he reminded himself that the name of the noble family he had possessed was the House of Count Palladio.
Ampelan was the exact same name as the continent in Psychedelia, the game he had enjoyed playing in his spare time back when he was a corporate slave.
And the House of Count Palladio was a noble family that appeared briefly in one of the game's quests.
Furthermore, the despair he felt upon realizing it was ten years before the start of the main story…
It was as wretched as the feeling of having his wages withheld for three consecutive months because his shitty boss claimed the company was 'having a hard time.'
In the world of Psychedelia, whether you were a noble or a commoner, every living thing was destined to be ground into dust ten years later.
…Specifically, the Asteria Kingdom, the kingdom his family belonged to, was destined to vanish from the continent the moment the Five Great Sins appeared, regardless of which route the game took.
In other words, it would be destroyed.
The kingdom would vanish.
The nobles would disappear.
The cities would be annihilated.
Simply put, ten years from now, Alon Palladio's life of noble luxury was doomed to end.
Therefore, if Alon wanted to continue his peaceful life as a noble, he had to eliminate all of the Five Great Sins—the future human-deletion machines—in advance.
What he was doing now was part of that plan.
"Well… it's like this."
Naturally, he couldn't tell Evan the truth.
"The time simply hasn't come yet."
"…The time hasn't come?"
"Yes. Anyway, make sure word of this doesn't leak out. Continue to support the orphanage however they wish. Oh, and one more thing."
Alon pulled a letter from his robe and handed it over.
"Give this letter to her."
"…This letter?"
Alon answered the mercenary knight's curious inquiry.
"Yes."
Strictly speaking, it was a big deal.
What he had written in the letter was a phrase from a mandatory event that always triggered whenever he encountered the Sin of Wrath while playing Psychedelia.
'The anguish of the dark, the void of the light. A single brilliance and its belonging.'
Whenever the player first met the Sin of Wrath, a somewhat suspicious Archbishop NPC from the Holy Kingdom would accompany them. He would utter this phrase, claiming it would calm the Sin of Wrath, but it was never used properly at that point in the game.
The moment the words left his mouth, the Archbishop would be turned into a puddle of blood and vanish.
The Sin of Wrath would then start the battle with an annoyed expression, leaving only a short remark: [You're too late.]
The reason Alon was using these words now was that the current timeline was the 'past' the Sin of Wrath had referred to back then.
And through dozens of playthroughs, he had repeatedly seen a prompt regarding the Archbishop NPC that said: 'An incantation to become a friend of the Aberrant Blood.'
'Of course, it's a bit ridiculous to think that reciting a single incantation would make me friends with a crazy race that makes contracts with Cthulhu-like entities to wield power…
But since they're the type to worship such things, it actually feels somewhat logical.'
The logic of those in the realm of fanaticism was always unpredictable.
Alon watched the mercenary knight bow politely and leave the room. He shrugged his shoulders and thought to himself.
'Well, I've cleared the first landmine I could reach. Is it time for the second?'
####
A few days later.
"It's a letter."
Evan, having reached the orphanage again on Alon's orders, handed her the letter as commanded, though he couldn't hide his discomfort.
It was only natural; the girl before him, Yutia, was bizarre.
Her red eyes, which contrasted sharply with her white hair, held no emotion whatsoever.
Not even a tiny fragment of feeling could be felt.
Perfect apathy.
The girl, who looked as if she perceived every existence in the world as a mere object, reached out and took the letter with the same expression she'd had when Evan first rescued her.
Rustle— rustle—
Yutia began to open the letter in silence.
Evan wore a look of incomprehension as to why she had been locked in such a bio-experiment lab.
Though he hadn't reached the level of a Master, he could manipulate mana, and doing so naturally allowed him to sense the presence of others.
In fact, Evan's talent for mana was quite superior to that of other knights, allowing him to perceive things much more accurately.
That was how he knew.
'No matter how I look at it, this makes no sense.'
The woman before him was not someone who should have been trapped in a mere bio-experiment lab.
And as he thought that, another question surfaced in Evan's mind.
It was a question about the third son of the House of Count Palladio, who had hired him at a tavern a few months ago.
According to what he'd heard while working as a mercenary, the third son was essentially the black sheep of the family—a typical talentless illegitimate child of a noble house.
There were even stories that his timid personality led to him being bullied quite a bit by the first and second sons, who were known as total scoundrels.
So how did such a man know about the bio-experiments the Baron was conducting in such a secret location?
'…I just don't get it.'
Evan was staring ahead with those thoughts when—
"!?"
His expression quickly turned to one of shock.
The reason was that a deep smile had appeared on the lips of Yutia, who until a moment ago had been utterly expressionless.
No, it wasn't just a deep smile.
'Her mana is becoming visible to the naked eye…?!'
She was casually displaying a feat that could only be shown by someone who had reached Mastery in their craft.
And then.
"The person who sent this letter. You said his name was Lord Alon, correct?"
As Yutia spoke, her pupils—slit vertically like a reptile's, a characteristic of the Aberrant Blood—stared intently at Evan from behind the red glow of her eyes.
"!"
Evan's instincts as an Expert screamed a warning at that alone. He showed silent astonishment once more but quickly regained his composure and spoke.
"Yes."
"I wonder why he didn't summon me?"
Yutia's question.
How should I know? Evan thought, but he didn't dare let the words out.
His intuition was telling him.
That he shouldn't.
Instead, Evan recalled the words Alon had casually tossed out and spoke.
"…He said the time hasn't come yet."
"I see."
A short reply.
But as if that answer was the correct one, her lips curled into a long, graceful arc.
She.
Yutia Bloodia—no.
"…I think I understand now."
—The first daughter of the Aberrant Blood, Yutia the Bloody Queen, moved her infinitely enchanting red lips.
"His will."
She clutched the letter—which contained a phrase like a secret promise that only her master would know—tightly to her chest, her lips twisting into a strange, eerie smile.