The bride-seeker Geopold, the Hero King Crothodin, the Inventor King Ello, and others. If these were trivial events, they might have been unknown, but such significant historical moments could easily be solved by thoroughly reading Harden's chronicle.
The voices living in this time-related dimension, not knowing such things, were the ones truly at fault!
"Tsk tsk, how can they be so uninterested in history?"
Roan sighed in disappointment at the ignorance of the ancient sentinels and priests as he pushed forward through the forest.
In fact, there was more to do while passing through this forest than just solving past riddles.
Rustle —
'Golden blossoms, huh? Pretty valuable material. Oh, and there's Vipette grass too.'
Roan busied himself collecting rare materials that only existed in this dimension!
These plants were highly prized in sacred and magic-related spells involving time and space, making them incredibly rare and unavailable for purchase in the outside world.
Some were even required to summon powers like the "Administrator of the Forbidden Archives" or the "Gray Life Shackles."
'With this, if the weekend goes as planned, I should be able to summon the Administrator.'
Roan carefully stored the materials in Harden's magical pouch, bit by bit.
Of course, the voices watching him were shocked.
─ Unbelievable…
─ Darc... I'll remember this…
Although this dimension wasn't accessible to just anyone, the voices were ancient beings who had lived here for millennia.
They had seen their fair share of living people, but none quite like Roan.
Most who entered either got lost in the halls or forests and withered away, or, if by some miracle they found an exit, fled in haste.
But Roan, with the confidence of someone who had been here hundreds of times, walked briskly and even stopped every once in a while to harvest the rare materials.
It seemed as though he was more familiar with this place than the voices themselves.
"Is it over yet?"
─ D'arc... you've made it to the garden…
─ And after gathering all that... you still plan to take the shard of the gods...?
By now, the forest had cleared, and the "Garden of Dawn," as the tower had mentioned, lay before him.
Roan smirked as he lifted the corner of his mouth.
'It looks like I managed to gather a nice haul.'
While that wasn't the primary reason he came here, the age-old lesson of taking advantage of a good opportunity was never truer.
***
The Garden of Dawn wasn't a large space.
However, unlike other places, it was a beautiful, mystical scene illuminated by the silvery light of dawn.
Neatly trimmed hedges stood waist-high, and there were fruit-bearing trees with mysterious fruits.
There were even fountains scattered around.
The garden had only ever been tended by a single beautiful woman since the creation of this dimension.
Josephine, the last priestess of Day.
As the final priestess, she chose to be preserved in this dimension at a young age, closing the door to the outside world herself and separating it from reality.
Together with Gahro, the caretaker of the Sunset Garden, she was one of only two remaining beings with physical form here.
Draped in a silver robe, Josephine smiled warmly to greet the rare visitor.
─ A dangerous... dangerous Darc…
─ Be careful, Josephine…
For some reason, the typically carefree voices sounded unusually cautious, but Roan paid little attention to them.
"Welcome, visitor. If you wish to obtain the shard of the gods..."
However, she didn't get to finish her greeting.
It was because, as soon as the visitor entered this sacred space, he immediately reached out to pluck a fruit from one of the trees!
"Excuse me... visitor, what are you doing...?"
Since this was the first time Josephine had encountered such a situation, she cautiously tried to catch the visitor's attention.
The visitor, who was busily picking fruit, finally turned his head in her direction.
"H-Hik!"
Despite his youthful appearance, his grim expression suggested that he had likely killed a few people in the past.
Though outwardly calm, a deep, dark aura emanated from within him.
'What a dangerous... person!'
Josephine, as one of the managers of this dimension, could partially sense Roan's true nature, though not as clearly as Harden could.
Of course, like they say, a little knowledge can be dangerous, and Josephine, having glimpsed a bit of Roan's inner self, found herself frightened.
Even someone like Roan could scare the last priestess trained since ancient times!
On the other hand, Roan, who already knew about Josephine, kindly spoke.
"Ah, am I not supposed to pick this? It looked ripe, so I thought I would."
In the game, there was no problem with gathering things if one wanted to. Josephine didn't interfere with fully ripened fruit.
With a slightly bewildered expression, Josephine nodded her head.
"It's f-fine. Take as much as you can carry."
She couldn't refuse, sensing that if she did, something terrible might happen.
'What's wrong with her?'
Roan found it odd since he had never seen Josephine so flustered before.
Perhaps, unlike in the game, she was just a bit shy in real life?
'Well, that makes perfect sense.'
After all, she had been living alone with only voices for company for thousands of years – it was only natural that she'd become introverted.
In any case, now that he had her permission, there was nothing to hold him back.
Pluck — Pluck —
Like a seasoned farmer, Roan quickly began harvesting the ripe fruits.
Though the fruits had no special effects, they were famously delicious, some of the finest in the world.
Josephine's comment about taking only what one could carry was a sacred lesson about not being greedy.
However…
'Harden's magic pouch is proving to be very useful in many ways.'
To Roan, who owned a subspace storage item, it was practically the same as telling him to take everything in sight.
He had often felt regret in the past when he didn't have enough inventory space to take all the fruit he wanted.
And so, before long…
"Phew. I thank Lady Day for these divine fruits and will enjoy them well."
Wiping the sweat from his brow after his labor, Roan expressed his gratitude to Josephine.
"..."
Josephine only looked around the Garden of Dawn with trembling eyes, unable to speak.
The luscious fruits she had carefully tended were now gone, disappearing into that small pouch as if they had vanished into thin air.
"... Please, follow me."
With a slightly chilly tone, Josephine spoke curtly to Roan.
In the game, actions like this didn't affect the NPCs' attitudes, but in reality, it seemed a little different.
Roan followed her, silently clicking his tongue to himself.
'Tsk, seeing her in person, not only is she shy, but her personality is not so great either.'
That was why you needed to meet people face-to-face to truly judge them!
─ Truly a wicked Darc…
─ Don't cry, Josephine…
"I'm not crying," Josephine muttered softly enough that Roan couldn't hear her.
Though she wasn't actually crying, her heart wasn't exactly at peace either…
Soon, Josephine and Roan arrived at the "Fountain of Dawn" located in the center of the garden.
The fountain, carved from silver stone, scattered the light of dawn into thousands of beautiful rays.
"Wow..."
"To take the trial, you must gaze into this fountain."
Josephine spoke somewhat curtly.
By now, Roan had a good grasp of her personality and didn't pay much attention to her, and approached the fountain instead.
The water inside shimmered with a mysterious silver hue.
As Roan gazed at his reflection in the water, he asked Josephine, "Won't you explain the trial to me?"
"... I was just about to. The trial of Lady Day is about the future..."
Her tone was cold and businesslike, reflecting her clear displeasure.
Of course, Roan already knew everything.
He only asked because, in the game, once you reached the fountain, the trial explanation would trigger automatically.
'Yep, her personality is really not great in person. She should at least try and do her job properly.'
'That scoundrel, after taking all the fruit, now he's going to take the shard of the gods too...!'
The more they interacted, the deeper their misunderstandings about each other became.
"Thank you for the explanation. Well then, I'll get started."
Roan gave a casual nod and then placed his hand into the fountain.
Splaash —
The water violently splashed up, but then quickly dispersed into droplets, covering Roan's entire body just like mist.
This was Day's trial to acquire the "Eyes of the Seer."
It involved falling into an illusion of the future.
As the dimension's overseer, Josephine could observe all the illusions Roan would experience.
"Let's see how well he handles this."
Normally, if someone got trapped in the hallucination and couldn't escape, she would intervene and send them back. But this time, she was determined to teach him a good lesson!
Josephine made up her mind to do just that.
***
Even though it was called a future hallucination, it merely showed a bad ending from far ahead in time.
To pass, one had to act appropriately as the character they were embodying in that future scenario.
The reason the "Eyes of the Seer" were called a shard of the gods was because it split from this fountain, so the effect was naturally similar.
The character you embody was randomly selected from those closely related to the one you were currently playing.
For example…
"Huh? That's me?"
In Roan's case, he had become Demona.
The lavish room he found himself in looked like the interior of the Wickron Mansion.
It seemed to be about five years in the future, but how could he not recognize Demona?
Since he had fully embodied the character, Roan's way of speaking had also shifted to resemble Demona's.
'Damn it...'
Roan cursed inwardly.
Of all the characters he could have been stuck with, why Demona?
It was like the saying: "Even if you fall backward, you'll still break your nose."
Demona was one of the most difficult characters he knew.
Especially in this particular timeline.
'It would've been better if it had been Rafia, Riel, or even Sion.'
Though it seemed like all the people coming to mind were girls.
Regardless, now that he had been assigned Demona, he was left with no other choice but to complete the trial in his shoes.
At that moment, someone barged through the door.
"Demona, are you there?"
"!!!!"
Roan was startled.
The person who had entered was unmistakably…
"Roan?"
It was his future self!
".. .Why are you so surprised? I told you I'd be visiting today."
Future Roan showed clear signs of having aged.
Though he still had the same gloomy and dangerous appearance.
'But most importantly!'
As Roan took a closer look at his future self, he was horrified.
'Even in this future, I'm still on good terms with this guy?'
Why?
Right now, he felt like once he graduated, he'd never want to see this guy's face again for the rest of his life…
And from the way future Roan was acting, they seemed to be quite close.
Roan forced himself to smile foolishly, just as Demona would.
"Hehe, right, you did say that."
"Where's your head at these days?"
Future Roan frowned deeply.
"I'm still me~"
"Hmm... yeah."
However, with just that one word, future Roan nodded his head as if he understood and found a seat.
Even though this was undoubtedly a natural version of future Roan, being in Demona's shoes made Roan feel disgusted.
'Tsk, right. This is just a hypothetical scenario, not something that will definitely happen.'
Since this was a scene from a bad ending, everything that was about to happen was something he needed to prevent.
Having barely justified things to himself, Roan sat across from his future self.
Thud —
Future Roan suddenly tossed something onto the table.
"Here."
"???"
Glancing over, Roan saw that it was a gift box, neatly wrapped — at least, as neat as Roan's personality would allow.
"What is this?"
When Roan asked, future Roan frowned slightly, causing present Roan to flinch instinctively.
'Man, what an unpleasant expression...'
Even though it was his own face, he couldn't get used to it.
"What do you think? It's a wedding gift."
"!!!"
Roan's jaw dropped in shock.
A wedding gift?
Did that mean he got married?
Not just anyone, but Demona?
'What kind of crazy guy...?'
This was the start of a horrifyingly bad ending.