Chapter 160: Confession (2)

“…Something to say?”

Carl tilted his head.

Yuria didn’t seem in a state to have a proper conversation.

Even from a short distance away, he could smell the alcohol on her breath, making him wonder just how much she had drunk.

“For now, I think it’d be best if you drank some water to calm do—”

“Forget that. Just follow me!”

Yuria abruptly grabbed Carl’s wrist and pulled him forward without hesitation.

She led him out of the crowded banquet hall and down into the secluded lower garden.

The crescent moon hanging in the sky cast long shadows, making the usual darkness seem deeper.

Several cadets were secretly enjoying trysts in the garden, making it an unlikely place to enter freely, but Yuria marched on with Carl in tow.

“Yuria.”

Splash.

As Carl repeatedly called her name, Yuria dunked her face into the fountain in the middle of the garden.

Then, soaked and dripping, she stood up and faced Carl.

“Is that better?”

“…Uh, well.”

Carl looked at her, visibly perplexed.

Why was she acting like this all of a sudden?

As he frowned at her uncharacteristic behavior, he sensed movement around them and narrowed his eyes.

‘No way.’

Carl sighed inwardly.

‘I didn’t expect this from Yuria.’

For the past six months in Bayern, he had taken great care to avoid romantic entanglements.

He had considered Laysis, the one he had grown closest to, as the most likely possibility.

But there was the barrier of her being a princess, and Carl had subtly kept his distance whenever Laysis showed signs of interest.

So he hadn’t been too concerned—yet he never imagined Yuria would make the first move.

‘What should I do?’

This situation wasn’t something he had prepared for, and it was extremely awkward.

There was a high chance things would become uncomfortable with how Yuria now treated him, and perceptive individuals like Laysis or the other cadets would soon pick up on the strange air between them.

‘I need to talk her down as gently as possible.’

Romantic feelings between men and women were like fleeting flames that bloomed for a season.

No matter how passionate the love, no matter how eternal it seemed.

All it took was a trivial incident or a moment’s mistake for it to die out.

Even more so for Carl, who bore the heart of an assassin—it was something he couldn’t resonate with at all.

“You’ve already guessed why I brought you here, haven’t you?”

Though her face was still flushed like before, Yuria’s gaze was no longer swayed by drunkenness.

Realizing she had made a firm decision and was now expressing her heart, Carl nodded and stood directly in front of her.

“Yes. I have a guess.”

“Thought so. I figured you’d realize. You’re not avoiding me anymore.”

Yuria clenched her fists tightly.

Her heart pounded as if it would burst, her fingers trembled, and her mind was a tangled mess.

The moment had finally come to reveal the words she had kept buried and hidden all this time.

“…Honestly, I didn’t think Yuria would really say it.”

“So you did notice. Well, we’ve spent a lot of time together—how could you not?”

“Does Laysis know?”

“No. I never told her. But it’s possible she’s caught on a bit. She’s very sharp and smart, after all.”

“…”

For a moment, silence hung between them.

Carl carefully chose his words, and Yuria summoned the courage to bring up the confession she had long kept down.

Then, as drifting clouds momentarily veiled the faint moonlight, both of them opened their mouths at the same time.

“That I’m a Player.”

“Sorry, but I’m not ready to date anyo—wait, what did you just say?”

“…That’s what I want to ask. What did you just say?”

Yuria furrowed her brows and asked Carl again.

Dating? What the heck was that about out of nowhere…

“…”

Yuria snapped back to her senses.

Dragging someone out of the banquet, declaring she had something to say, and doing it in a garden where cadets were sneaking off for secret rendezvous?

In an instant, her face turned bright red and she exploded in flustered rage.

“T-That’s not what I meant! What I wanted to say is—!”

Carl didn’t answer and simply repeated her words in his mind.

‘Player.’

A word that didn’t exist in the Central Plains.

In Artenian terms, it could mean something like a participant in a game.

Usually used in contexts like chess or sports.

‘What does it mean?’

But it couldn’t be taken at face value.

If it were that simple, Yuria wouldn’t have dragged him all the way out here to speak in secret.

After pondering for a moment, Carl nodded slowly and let out a short sigh.

“I see. I was convinced you were confessing to me.”

“…I said I wasn’t.”

Yuria answered softly, suppressing the shame and embarrassment.

Having shouted just moments ago, the noise had stirred the surroundings.

So she quickly cast a barrier to prevent their conversation from leaking out.

“I understand that part now. And about you being a Player—I had been suspecting that myself.”

“…What do you mean by that?”

“I’m also a Player.”

“…!!”

Yuria’s eyes widened.

Seeing her reaction, Carl knew his guess had been right.

‘From now on, I’ll have to be careful with my words.’

Just what did it mean to be a Player that she had hidden it so tightly until now?

And why was she confessing it to him only now?

“Of course. I had a feeling. You snatched the top theoretical score during the entrance exam—you were aiming for the achievement bonuses too, weren’t you?”

“I had no choice. But I do have a question. How did you become a Player, Miss Yuria?”

“…How I became a Player?”

Seeing Yuria’s confused face, Carl clicked his tongue inwardly.

He had tried to ask the question as delicately as possible, but it seemed it came out wrong.

“There was a new game release, so I just tried it out. Ah, you mean how I ended up in this world? Well, I just…”

Yuria seemed lost in thought for a moment, then nodded and answered.

“I picked the character because I wanted to be a mage, and when I opened my eyes, I was in this body. I was totally shocked. But what character did you choose? I’ve never seen a character named Carlos Leipzig before.”

“I…”

Carl, for the first time in a while, did his best to conceal his agitation.

If what Yuria said was true.

No, even if there was just 1% truth to it.

‘She also came from another world like me?’

Game, character, selection.

And saying she had never seen a character named Carlos Leipzig before.

It felt like things were starting to make sense, and yet they didn’t quite fit together.

The gaps in information were disrupting the process.

“…Ugh.”

Carl furrowed his brows and slightly hunched over.

Yuria, startled, hurried to his side and saw blood trickling from his nose and mouth.

“Carl, why are you…?!”

“My apologies.”

Carl, looking a little pale, wiped away the blood with his hand.

Then he looked at Yuria with a slightly sunken expression.

“I don’t have any memories from before.”

“…You don’t have memories?”

“To be precise, you could say they were lost.”

Brushing the blood from his hand, Carl let out a quiet sigh and continued.

“The body of Carlos Leipzig was originally fated to die. He was supposed to pass away young due to a plague that spread through the Leipzig territory.”

“…No way.”

“Yes. It seems I entered this body after it died. There were faint remnants of the original memories, so getting here wasn’t difficult, but every time I try to recall something in detail, I get this kind of rebound. It feels like a side effect of some kind. Don’t you have anything like that, Yuria?”

“I don’t.”

Yuria shook her head.

She had been able to vividly recall everything from before and after arriving in this body.

After she began learning magic, her memory improved drastically, even allowing her to recall things she had previously forgotten.

“I thought I was alone and kept wondering what to do from now on, so I’m relieved I found you, Yuria.”

“You must’ve had a hard time too.”

Yuria gently wiped away the remaining traces of blood on Carl’s face, her expression calm.

There was compassion and sympathy in the eyes that looked at him.

Seeing that, Carl nodded inwardly, realizing that his bluff had worked perfectly.

‘Then what exactly is this world?’

Carl pondered seriously.

He had clearly opened his eyes in the body of Carlos Leipzig after his life in the Central Plains.

But according to Yuria, she had entered this world by selecting a character in a “game.”

Did that mean the world of Artenia itself was like a model garden someone had constructed?

‘At the very least, it’s not the Central Plains.’

Carl tried to deduce where Yuria had come from.

It wasn’t the Central Plains.

There were no such words as “game” or “character” in the Central Plains.

That meant, apart from the Central Plains and Artenia, there existed a third world altogether.

Carl’s mind became tangled trying to process it.

‘…Well.’

The Central Plains and Artenia.

There were already two worlds.

Adding one more wouldn’t be that strange.

In fact, it would be stranger if there were only one more.

The existence of additional worlds wouldn’t be all that unnatural.

‘Then, it’s safe to assume that there could be more people from another world besides Yuria and me.’

So far, no one had shown signs of it.

So Carl looked up at Yuria, who had been wiping his face, and asked.

“Yuria, have you ever seen another Player besides me?”

“No. Most Players would be searching for Hidden Pieces or concealed ruins and treasures. I checked around those kinds of places, but aside from you and me, there were no signs of movement.”

“So for now, it’s just the two of us.”

“Yeah. But…”

Yuria cautiously pulled her hand back and asked Carl.

“You’re not going to kill me, right?”

“…Excuse me?”

It was an abrupt question.

Carl looked at Yuria, genuinely confused.

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, you know. In these kinds of situations, the cliché is that one tries to monopolize everything by killing the other Player.”

“Is that what you thought?”

“No, I was hoping we could cooperate if possible. That’s why I stayed by your side even though I suspected you might be a Player.”

“I feel the same. Besides, because I’ve lost my memories, there are many gaps in my knowledge. If anything, I’d rather receive help—I can’t monopolize things by threatening or killing anyone.”

“Phew…”

Yuria let out a sigh of relief.

“Honestly, I’d prepared a bunch of countermeasures here. Just in case you tried to kill me, I set things up to respond immediately.”

“…Is that so?”

“Huh?”

At Yuria’s words, Carl twisted his lips into a crooked smile and reached out his hand.

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