Why on earth was there a ‘little Kim Dokja’ here.

「It’s nice since everyone likes him.」

When I turned my head, I saw Lee Jihye whistling. Even her expression was different from the youthful Lee Jihye of the 41st round.

Lee Jihye of <Kim Dokja Company>, who had cleared all the scenarios and finally surpassed even her own sponsoring star to become the ‘Lord of the Great Sea’.

「Do you know how much trouble I went through gathering Mister’s fragments.」

Through [Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint], pieces of her inner thoughts came through to me.

[Your understanding of the relevant person is insufficient.]

I could not hear them in full, but even that was enough to grasp the situation.

「There was a universe besides the 41st round where ‘Kim Dokja fragments’ were scattered.」

And it seemed Lee Jihye had gathered the ‘Kim Dokja fragments’ scattered across that universe.

[Tale, ‘Successor of the Eternal Name’ licks its lips.]

Perhaps this ‘little Kim Dokja’ was a kind of artificial lifeform created by those Kim Dokja fragments gathered together.

Crucially, I could not feel a soul from this ‘little Kim Dokja’. That was why I had been able to possess him.

The child lightly tapping my cheek murmured.

“Did Mister look like this when he was little?”

“Hyung was cute when he was little.”

Shin Yuseung and Lee Gilyoung.

I slowly studied their faces.

I was seeing their faces for the first time in reality, but the familiarity I felt was probably because I had already met the Shin Yuseung of the 41st round.

「“If Mister just says the word, I’ll kill them all.”」

No, maybe I had even met the ‘Shin Yuseung’ in front of me before.

「“Mister is Kim Dokja, you know.”」

This girl had possessed her 41st-round self and saved me multiple times.

I carefully wrapped my hand around the girl’s hand that was squeezing my own. It was only a faint level of grip strength, but even that alone made Shin Yuseung’s face show that she had sensed something.

“Huh.”

Staring blankly at me, Shin Yuseung suddenly tilted her head.

“Mister?”

Lee Seolhwa, who had been watching the situation from afar, approached.

“What’s wrong?”

“Maybe I’m imagining it… but it feels like little Mister just changed somehow.”

At Shin Yuseung’s words, Lee Seolhwa lifted my shirt and pressed a stethoscope against me.

“Mm, let’s see.”

Divine physician Lee Seolhwa.

Judging by her face alone, she looked almost no different from the 41st-round version. If there was a difference, it was in the depth I could feel from her expression.

The Lee Seolhwa of the 41st round had oddly strong experimental tendencies, whereas the Lee Seolhwa of <Kim Dokja Company> had the air of a seeker who had reached enlightenment on all the truths of the universe.

Our eyes met, and a gentle curve appeared in Lee Seolhwa’s gaze.

“The state of the tale is stable.”

The doctor who had steadfastly taken care of the companions even in places where Kim Dokja’s gaze did not reach.

As Kim Dokja himself had said, if not for her, <Kim Dokja Company> would never have made it to the final scenario.

Shin Yuseung urgently grabbed my hand and pressed me.

“Mister. Can you hear me?”

“Yuseung, don’t bully little Mister Reader too much.”

“I—I wasn’t trying to bully him.”

A soft hand stroked my head. Yoo Sangah was looking down at me with her characteristic faint smile.

Facing that smile, I suddenly thought that Kim Dokja’s tale had not been enough to fully describe her.

Maybe it was only natural.

Kim Dokja’s head was crammed full of ‘Ways of Survival’, and all of his standards for judgment existed inside ‘Ways of Survival’.

「An appearance worthy of slapping Yu Joonghyuk’s cheek three times.」

If you applied the standards of that ‘Ways of Survival’, then Yoo Sangah was without a doubt that level of beauty.

And it was not just her looks. A warm heart, and gentle consideration… But haven’t I been rambling about Yoo Sangah for a while now?

[Tale fragment, ‘Kim Dokja Who Respects Yoo Sangah’ continues the story.]

No wonder something felt off.

This must have been the core tale that made up this ‘little Kim Dokja’.

“Doesn’t that look actually really dangerous though?”

Lee Jihye, who had been looking at the display screen, spoke up.

“What if he really dies like that?”

On the screen, Ji Eunyu and Cha Yerin were still struggling to drive the carriage. Swept up in the shocking situation, I had momentarily forgotten the people I was supposed to protect.

It was time to release [Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint] now.

[A temporary error has occurred in the relevant skill.]

[‘Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint: Stage 3’ cannot be canceled.]

Damn it. What is it this time.

My heart grew impatient.

On the screen, I could see enemies attacking the carriage we were riding in. Ji Eunyu and Cha Yerin were strong, but it was a difficult situation for just the two of them.

If I did not go there immediately—

“Should I possess him again?”

At Shin Yuseung’s question, Lee Gilyoung frowned.

“Shin Yuseung. Did you already forget how you got hit by the plausibility backlash last time?”

“……”

“I’d rather just log in as a ‘constellation’ and use ‘Deus Ex Machina’—”

“Don’t be stupid. That place is where outside constellations can’t intervene.”

“Then I’ll just descend directly.”

“Did you not hear ‘no descending allowed’? If you do that—”

“The pitch-black guy descended too.”

“That’s because it was Joonghyuk—”

“Why is it fine for the pitch-black guy but not for me?”

While Yoo Sangah was busy stopping the two kids, this time it was Lee Jihye ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) who looked over at me and asked,

“Little Mister. So. Help them? Or not? I feel like I could just sneak over and use [Instant Kill] once and it’d be done.”

My heart slowly thumped.

I knew she was just saying it. Lee Jihye did not know that I had possessed this ‘little Kim Dokja’.

Even so, it was hard for me to shake off the temptation of those words.

「If only I could receive the help of <Kim Dokja Company>.」

I pictured, one by one, the faces of Ji Eunyu and Cha Yerin, Killer King Cha Sungwoo, Uncle Dansoo and Gyeong Sein.

If only I could receive the help of <Kim Dokja Company>, I might be able to guarantee the party’s safety.

We would no longer have to tackle the scenarios with death always in mind.

I slowly moved my hand.

I was going to speak to Lee Jihye. To ask her to help, to ask her to keep my party from dying—But at that moment, a small spark flickered in my head.

「“Why did you want to become a writer?”」

Over the face of the dying Han Sooyoung, distorted sentences floated up.

「If I receive the help of Kim Dokja Company here, then who se sto ry is that?」

As I drew breath again and again, blinking my eyes with difficulty, Lee Jihye turned her head back to the screen.

「“I’ll drive. Please take care of the carriage behind us.”」

「“Ms. Yerin, you said you were a minor.”」

「“That’s true, but I really wanted to try driving at least once.”」

With a roar, the carriage on the screen accelerated.

The party silently watched the accelerating carriage.

「“Then I’ll leave it to you for a bit. Ms. Yerin, have you ever played a car game?”」

「“I’ve never played one, but I’ll think of it like I have.”」

「“Good. Every game has rules, so let’s follow them. I’ll take care of the carriages following us, so Ms. Yerin, you—”」

Just as there had been a time when constellations watched their stories, just as Kim Dokja had read Yu Joonghyuk’s story, <Kim Dokja Company> silently watched our story.

“That person there kind of looks like Sangah unni.”

Shin Yuseung made a comment.

“He’s pretty good. Not as good as us though.”

Lee Gilyoung, who seemed to be properly entering puberty now, also chimed in. The party smiled faintly.

In the meantime, Ji Eunyu blocked the attacks of the other carriages and overturned two that had come charging in from both sides.

Yoo Sangah nodded.

“They fight well.”

“We used to fight like that too. Do you remember? Back then—”

The carriage ran. It was not Apollo’s golden chariot, nor Surya’s train. Even so, I knew what kind of story the party was seeing through that carriage.

「I miss it.」

Hearing a sentence whose owner I could not identify, I somehow felt my chest tighten.

<Kim Dokja Company> was here.

Even after their story had ended, they remained here, missing the story. Reading the story of me and my party, they had been thinking of one person for a very long time.

「I want to see you.」

Just how much time had they spent reminiscing about those years, until the name of one person finally became their life.

Looking up at those faces, for the first time I lost confidence in what I was trying to do.

「I had planned to change the ending of the 41st round.」

If I were to change a fixed world-line, what would happen to them.

If the ending of the 41st round changed, could the <Kim Dokja Company> that had been born from that ending remain safe.

Would the plausibility of this world permit their longing.

“Kim Dokja!”

At the booming voice filled with spirit, the party all turned their heads at once.

There stood Yu Joonghyuk.

“Kim Dokja!”

With a grave expression, Yu Joonghyuk went around looking everywhere, shouting Kim Dokja’s name.

Watching him, Lee Jihye asked,

“Master, you said he fought Odin, right? Did he maybe get hit in the head wrong?”

In the end, Yoo Sangah, unable to just watch, approached Yu Joonghyuk.

“Mr. Joonghyuk. What’s wrong?”

Yu Joonghyuk glared at Yoo Sangah for a moment, then once again swept his bewildered gaze through the surrounding air.

Like that, for about ten seconds.

“Kim Dokja was here.”

“Pardon?”

“No. Kim Dokja came.”

“What do you mean?”

Yu Joonghyuk spoke as if frustrated.

“It means that ‘Kim Dokja’ is here right now.”

“Sorry? But Mister Reader is—”

Right there, Yoo Sangah’s gaze shifted toward me.

Yoo Sangah’s pupils slowly widened.

Yu Joonghyuk spotted me almost at the same time.

I had never known [Vermilion Bird Footwork] was that fast. When I came back to my senses, I was dangling in midair, my ankle caught in Yu Joonghyuk’s hand.

“Hey, Master! You can’t just pick him up like that!”

“What is this.”

“That’s the Mister fragment I gathered. Handle it carefully! It could break!”

Yu Joonghyuk’s fierce eyes glared at me.

In my head, I imagined canceling [Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint] over and over.

Yu Joonghyuk spoke.

“Kim Dokja.”

“Master. I’m telling you, that’s not Mister. The real Mister is in there right now—”

Yu Joonghyuk looked at the screen Lee Jihye pointed to.

On it, there was the sight of me bouncing up inside the rattling carriage, sprawled out like a squid.

With bewildered eyes, Yu Joonghyuk looked back and forth between the me on the screen and me.

“Wait a second. That Mister… he’s unconscious right now, isn’t he?”

That was when Shin Yuseung opened her mouth.

“The skill Mister uses whenever he passes out.”

“No way—”

The party’s gazes gathered one by one on me.

Yu Joonghyuk, Yoo Sangah, Shin Yuseung, Lee Gilyoung, Lee Seolhwa, and even Lee Jihye.

Gathered together, the party looked around at one another with tense eyes.

“Mr. Joonghyuk. Are you sure? You felt Mister Reader’s presence?”

“There’s that unique, disgusting feeling he has.”

“What feeling, pitch-black guy, as if you know anything.”

“Do you feel it even now, here?”

Yu Joonghyuk, gripping me in his rough hand, glared at me once more.

And a moment later, Yu Joonghyuk’s head moved ever so slightly.

In the next instant, a strange silence swept over the surroundings.

After checking each other’s faces, the party all nodded at the same time.

“Let’s lock him up.”