Wasn’t This Supposed To Be a Strategy Game?

Eden glanced at the translucent window before her, trying not to make it obvious.

Her throat tightened at the staggering probability displayed once again—90% likelihood of becoming a tyrant. Yet, she was determined that Asmun would never become one.

Because she would ensure it.

“… … .”

“What is it?”

As Eden asked angrily, Asmun’s gaze quickly turned downward.

His sharp gaze swept down, landing on Eden’s bandaged left hand. Noticing his focus, Eden instinctively tucked her hand behind her back.

Asmun’s eyes returned to hers.

Eden’s appearance was a mess, drenched head-to-toe in monster blood. While the physician had cleaned her face, her hair and clothes still bore the sticky evidence of her earlier ordeal. The room reeked of blood, but Asmun showed no reaction, taking a slow step closer.

Eden involuntarily backed away, holding her breath as he closed the distance between them.

The flickering torchlight cast shadows across Asmun’s breathtakingly sharp features, but his expression was anything but warm. His eyes gleamed with a leisurely menace as they bore into her.

He leaned slightly forward, his lips parting slowly.

“That’s what I want to ask you.”

“… … .”

“Who are you?”

The icy question hung in the frigid air. Eden realized he was already suspicious of her—exactly as she had anticipated. Though her fainting spell and subsequent stay in the palace weren’t part of her plan, she had known that Asmun would eventually seek her out. She hadn’t expected the setting to be quite this ominous, however.

“I am Eden Liliet, a novice priestess of the Grand Temple.”

“… … .”

Asmun’s gaze remained icily unrelenting, unimpressed by her response. He likely already knew her name—and that such an introduction was far from what he wanted to hear.

Eden had no intention of dragging it out anyway. Eden took a deep breath, met Asmun’s gaze with confidence, and blurted out the words she had been preparing for a month.

“And the one who will make His Highness the Emperor.”

The shocking declaration froze the air in the underground chamber.

Asmun stared at her with faint disbelief before tilting his head slightly, his lips curling into a sardonic smile.

“Are you confessing?”

“…What?”

Eden blinked, startled by the unexpected question.

“Confessing your involvement in today’s pitiful scheme,” he said in a courteous yet chilling tone, his smile sharpening as his eyes grew colder.

“Confessing, are you?”

Eden forced a smile, unwilling to be intimidated.

“Why would I? If I were involved, why would I have saved you?”

At her retort, Asmun’s smile disappeared. His expression made it clear he didn’t agree that she had “saved” him.

Realizing she would need to spell it out, Eden pressed on.

“You were in two kinds of danger today, Your Highness. First, the risk of having your shoulder torn off by that monster. And second…”

She locked eyes with him in a silent battle of wills.

“…The risk of being targeted by the first prince after slaying that monster.”

Asmun’s eyebrow arched. Eden, undeterred, continued.

“And I saved two crises.”

Asmun’s cold eyes darkened as they bore into her.

“First, I prevented the first prince from tarnishing your reputation by having you fail a test of strength. Second, I kept him from earning undeserved praise for slaying the monster in your stead.”

Eden’s lips curled into a satisfied smile, though Asmun’s face remained devoid of humor.

“You’ve likely deduced that the monster’s presence at the banquet was orchestrated by the first prince, to test and humiliate you.”

“…”

“Recently, your success in monster hunts has drawn his suspicion. He’s always found you irksome. The first prince isn’t a particularly intelligent man, but he has a beast-like instinct for recognizing threats.”

Eden recited the analysis of Kyris’s character description from the game’s text.

Dragging a monster into the Founding Day banquet proved Kyris wasn’t particularly clever, but he occasionally displayed dangerous cunning.

With Asmun’s limited political backing, he wasn’t yet a match for Kyris.

“For now, you must avoid exposing your true strength. Caution is essential.”

When Eden finished speaking, Asmun’s expression grew even more severe.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Offering advice,” Eden replied with a straight face.

“A novice priestess with neither holy power nor magic, risking her life to draw a monster’s attention, just to offer me advice?” Asmun smirked faintly, his tone laced with irony. He didn’t believe a word she was saying.

His smile vanished, replaced by a calm, deliberate tone.

“Confess your real intentions, and I may spare your life.”

The quiet intensity in his voice made Eden’s heart skip a beat. He meant it.

She remembered the quest directive.

Surviving truly seemed to be the operative word.

Two life-threatening events in a single day? Ridiculous.

But there was no time for complaints. Eden took a deep breath and retrieved her prepared response.

“Alright, I’ll be honest.”

“…”

“You won’t believe me, but I received a divine revelation.”

As Eden spoke with a solemn expression, Asmun’s eyes grew colder. Undeterred, she pushed forward.

“The revelation commanded me to make Prince Asmun Emperor.”

She felt like a cult leader spinning an absurd story, but she couldn’t exactly tell him the truth—that she was trapped in a game, and his ascension was her only way out.

“I foresaw the events of today’s banquet in a dream. That’s why I was able to prepare. I even knew that monster would react to the scent of blood.”

To emphasize her point, Eden held up her bandaged hand.

It was true that most monsters reacted to blood, but the Tannir’s response was especially precise and quick. And while Asmun was also drenched in blood, it was the aged “Monster’s Blood” from her inventory that had truly drawn the creature’s attention.

Kyris’s rotten blood was no match for the two-hundred-year-old essence she had used. Monsters were particularly sensitive to the scent of their own kind’s blood.

The downside? The stench still clung to her.

Asmun watched her wordlessly before reaching out to grab her left hand, startling her. He pulled her bandaged hand closer, pressing his nose against the blood-soaked fabric.

“…!”

Eden’s heart raced as Asmun’s cold gaze met hers, his face partially buried in her palm.

This wasn’t the time to notice, but—he really is…

Eden swallowed hard.

…unbearably handsome.

“So this stench is your blood?” Asmun asked flatly, his slow, deliberate words making Eden’s stomach twist.

There was no way to explain this overwhelming smell as coming from a human. Lying would only make things worse.

Taking a deep breath, Eden admitted the truth.

“No, I prepared it in advance, knowing what would happen.”

“The monster’s reaction to rotting blood… you knew that from your dream?”

“Of course.”

“And to avoid suspicion, you willingly drove a shard of glass into your own hand?”

Asmun’s tone was calm but relentless, leaving Eden feeling cornered.

“Such trivial injuries are nothing in the service of divine revelation,” she declared boldly, yanking her hand from his grasp.

Asmun let her go without resistance, though his piercing gaze never wavered.

“I will dedicate myself fully to aiding you. Grant me your permission to do so.”