No, wait a second!

That was what I wanted to shout at <Kim Dokja Company>, who were surrounding me with dangerous enthusiasm.

But in this body, I could not produce a proper sound.

“Should I go buy a cage or something first?”

“Think there might be one in the ‘dokkaebi bundle’?”

“Wouldn’t it work if we just asked Bi Yu?”

“Should I buy a leash too?”

“Is Mister a dog or what?”

Dangling from Yu Joonghyuk’s grip, I listened in on the party’s conversation. Even in the midst of that, Yu Joonghyuk was glaring at me with a strange expression.

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

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

The skill still would not listen. Just as fear surged up in me that I might really end up imprisoned somewhere and unable to go anywhere—

“Okay, everyone, enough joking around.”

With a gentle smile, Ms. Yoo Sangah picked me up and stopped the others.

“Huh? We weren’t really going to lock him up?”

Lee Seolhwa, who had already brought over a cart with iron bars, tilted her head as she spoke.

Where on earth had she even gotten that thing. No matter how you looked at it, it seemed meant for locking up lab animals.

Yoo Sangah shook her head as if they were hopeless.

Lee Gilyoung asked,

“That little hyung can’t really understand what we’re saying, right?”

“He can.”

At Yu Joonghyuk’s answer, the others glanced at each other and surrounded me.

“Master, is that really Mister?”

I wanted to answer, but no voice came out.

Maybe sensing something from the way I looked, Shin Yuseung spoke up.

“I don’t think he can talk.”

“How about this then? It seems like he can at least hear what we’re saying, so we can make him answer with his eyes. Every time we ask a question, if what we said is right, blink once, and if it’s wrong, blink twice. Little Mister, you got that?”

It was ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) a good idea.

“Wow, Jihye noona, I didn’t know you could think of stuff like that.”

In the time it took for Lee Gilyoung to squeal as a headlock was instantly applied to him, Yoo Sangah took control of the situation.

“All right, then let’s all calm down and ask, okay? Mister Reader might be confused, so one question per person. Hm, should we start with our Gilyoung?”

Quickly slipping out of the headlock, Lee Gilyoung came up to me. Still looking at me with slightly doubtful eyes, he hesitantly opened his mouth.

“Mister… is it really you?”

The most important question to them.

Am I ‘Kim Dokja’ or not.

The depth of the silence stood in for their curiosity.

I blinked.

“Once… twice… huh? Three times?”

“So is that a yes or a no?”

“Maybe it means he’s both right and wrong?”

At Lee Seolhwa’s words, the chattering party held their breath and turned to look at me.

I blinked in agreement with her words.

“Once! He blinked once!”

“So that means Seolhwa noona is right?”

“So he is Mister Reader and also isn’t Mister Reader……”

After pondering briefly, the party seemed to accept the meaning of those words in their own way.

“What’s that supposed to mean? So he’s not hyung?”

“No, he is Mister.”

“Well, if even this little bit that’s left is Mister, then he’s still Mister.”

“Guys, calm down a bit… We can’t even ask questions like this.”

It felt strange. It was unfamiliar to have people who showed such a range of emotions over a single small reaction of mine.

“Mister Reader’s condition is strange.”

It was then that Lee Seolhwa, who had been watching me, suddenly came closer.

A faint spark was flickering around me.

[Exclusive skill, ‘Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint: Stage 3’ is in an unstable state.]

In that short time, the status of the tale-body had become unstable.

It was only natural.

No matter how much [Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint] it was, crossing world-lines was impossible.

Without someone granting me powerful plausibility, this was an incident that could never happen.

Soon, [Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint] would probably be canceled, and I would be sent back to the 41st round.

“Ah, no. Tale unni. Please save Mister!”

“He’s not dying. He’s probably just going back to his original world.”

“Mister, don’t go back. Stay with us a little longer. Please. You’ve only been here for a little bit.”

“Yuseung.”

Even with Yoo Sangah trying to stop her, Shin Yuseung did not listen.

Looking back at the screen, Shin Yuseung tightly grasped my hand.

“I know that Mister has a place he needs to go back to. I know that those people need Mister too. But, but we also…”

Maybe because her throat was choked up, Shin Yuseung could not bring herself to finish.

But I heard her clearly. Because right now, I was the ‘Demon King of Salvation’, and she was my incarnation.

「We need Mister too.」

I wanted to say something, anything.

If I blinked my eyes violently, would I be able to convey how I felt.

No, maybe it was for the best that blinking was all I could do.

“Yuseung. Calm down and listen to what Mister Reader says. Ms. Seolhwa, how much time is left?”

“Five minutes at most.”

“Yuseung. Is there something you want to ask Mister Reader?”

At those words, everyone took a step back.

Their faces all seemed to be holding a question of their own, but they willingly ceded their chance for Shin Yuseung’s sake.

As if understanding their hearts, Shin Yuseung asked me,

“Mister… why did you come here?”

A question I could not answer.

Yoo Sangah gently pulled the child’s shoulder into her arm. On behalf of the trembling Shin Yuseung, Yoo Sangah kindly rephrased the question.

“Did you maybe want to see us?”

Shin Yuseung, who had lowered her head, looked up at me.

That was probably the real question she had truly wanted to ask.

I looked at the faces of <Kim Dokja Company>.

「Let’s say that right now, there is a Kim Dokja here.」

Shin Yuseung, Lee Gilyoung, Yoo Sangah, Lee Jihye, Lee Seolhwa, Yu Joonghyuk… and even Han Sooyoung, who was not present here.

I wanted to look at their faces forever. I wanted to remember them.

Slowly, as if taking a photograph, I blinked.

“Ah.”

Tears welled up in Shin Yuseung’s eyes. Lee Gilyoung slowly bowed his head, and Lee Jihye turned her head as if nothing was wrong and muttered something under her breath. With a soft sigh, Lee Seolhwa listened to my heartbeat. Yu Joonghyuk continued to look at me with an unreadable gaze.

With a wry smile, Yoo Sangah spoke.

“Thank you.”

I blinked twice, meaning I did not deserve such words.

Slowly, Yoo Sangah’s face drew closer.

When her breath was close enough to brush my ear, she whispered in a voice only I could hear.

“I know that you’re not the ‘Kim Dokja’ we remember.”

As expected, Ms. Yoo Sangah knew.

“Even so, we think Mister Reader is Mister Reader. No one can deny that.”

Someone who still called me ‘Kim Dokja’ when I did not even know how many percent of me were left.

Slowly, Yoo Sangah’s face drew away. In a very clear voice, she spoke.

“If it’s all right with you, you can stay here.”

For a moment, I thought I had misheard.

“We’ll provide the plausibility. As you know, we’re pretty strong. After all, every one of us here has cleared the ‘final scenario’.”

A stir rose from deep inside my heart.

“Stay here with us. We’ll take care of the 41st round somehow.”

If I really did stay here, what would happen.

If, just as she said, I could resolve the 41st round with their help.

“That’s right, Mister. We can help you! I can possess you! And Gilyoung’s no big help, but he can log in as a constellation and—”

“If Mister wants, I’ll go and fight in your place.”

Their tales were speaking to me.

[Tale, ‘Kim Dokja Company’ begins to tell a story.]

As the story began, the white spaces that supported the sentences could clearly be felt.

The depths of <Kim Dokja Company> that they never showed in front of others.

For the first time, I truly realized what they had lost in order to come this far.

There were many members of <Kim Dokja Company> who were not here.

Even so, they did not blame me.

They simply told me that it was enough if I just stayed on the white spaces they had created.

[Tale, ‘Successor of the Eternal Name’ frowns.]

Why was writing ‘my story’ so important.

Maybe Han Sooyoung had been wrong. Maybe someone like me had no right to write about the 41st round.

Above all, the 41st round was officially a ‘finished’ story. No matter how much I struggled, it was a story whose ending I could not change.

Maybe instead of wasting time on such a futile thing, staying here would be the better choice.

To spend the rest of my life for the sake of those who found comfort just in my existence—

「“Where is his carriage?”」

When I lifted my head, footage was playing on the screen.

「“Find his carriage.”」

The Yu Joonghyuk of the 41st round was speaking.

「“If we want to see the end of the ‘Recycling Center’, we absolutely need him.”」

If I gave up here, what would become of that Yu Joonghyuk’s ending.

“Mister?”

Even while I was here, the Yu Joonghyuk of the 41st round was fighting. He was running toward the end of a doomed story that would ultimately fail.

[Tale, ‘Successor of the Eternal Name’ smirks.]

Looking at that Yu Joonghyuk, I finally understood Kim Dokja.

[Synchronization rate with your sponsoring star greatly increases.]

I understood Kim Dokja, who had not stayed in the 1,863rd round, and his return, when he had ultimately gone back to his own world.

“Mister? Please, stay here with us. You’ll stay, right? Right?”

I met the child’s eyes. But I saw nothing. It was because Shin Yuseung’s small hand was covering my eyes.

“No. Don’t answer.”

The hand that spun pitch-black darkness trembled. Beyond that darkness, I heard Yu Joonghyuk’s voice.

“Listen well, Kim Dokja.”

With a voice in which not even a trace of agitation could be felt, Yu Joonghyuk spoke.

“Whatever story you want, we will also create the ending we want. And you will not be able to stop it.”

Between the child’s fingers, I could see Yu Joonghyuk’s back as he turned away.

They said he had fought Odin.

Most likely, it had been that guy who had watched over the Demon King of Salvation and me from beyond the ‘Void Veil’.

“Mister Reader.”

Tzzzt, with a crackle of sparks, the surroundings shook. The gentle sensations that had wrapped around me grew distant.

[Signal of ‘Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint: Stage 3’ is weakening.]

At last, [Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint] was about to be canceled.

Shin Yuseung burst into tears again, and Lee Gilyoung turned his back. Stepping closer, Lee Jihye tightly grabbed my arm.

Yoo Sangah spoke.

“Thank you for coming.”

Hearing Yoo Sangah’s voice recede, I thought about Kim Dokja.

“We’ll be fine. So you must survive to the very end too, Mister Reader.”

But there was no Kim Dokja, and the only one here was the powerless proxy of the Demon King of Salvation, blinking his eyes.

As the voices of the people echoed, the surroundings swirled.

The world of <Kim Dokja Company> was receding.

I grew certain.

「Kim Dokja must have wanted to go back to his party more than anyone.」

Even so, why had he not come here.

For what reason had he left the people he loved most.

Then, in my fading consciousness, a voice spoke.

【Do you truly wish to know?】

Instinctively, I could tell.

【Even if that truth could destroy you forever?】

I knew the owner of this voice.