🔊 TTS Settings
chapter 3
The next morning.
“One rooster, two roosters, three roosters…”
Lirian was still lost in dreamland.
In her dream, she was busy counting a flock of roosters hopping over fluffy clouds, and a small smile curved her lips.
Drool trickled down from the corner of her mouth.
“Looks tasty… nom nom.”
Lirian licked her lips and continued counting the roosters.
“Four roosters, five roosters, one ugly abyssal fang…”
Suddenly, in the peaceful rooster kingdom, an ugly abyssal fang appeared.
The abyssal fang devoured Lirian’s precious roosters with a roar of “King!”
Flap, flap! The roosters screamed, white feathers flew everywhere, and the fluffy clouds collapsed.
“No…! My roosters!”
Lirian screamed and opened her eyes wide.
“Huh?”
She blinked at the soft sunlight streaming through the curtains.
The room was bathed in gentle pastel colors.
“A dream…?”
She was entranced by the surreal beauty that would never exist in the ruined world. But sensing a presence, she turned her head.
“Isn’t it really quiet since the young masters aren’t here?”
“I can’t get used to it. Lirian seems low on energy too.”
“They’ll be back soon.”
“Let’s go. We’ll be late.”
The small sounds from outside the door were a reminder that this was a house where people lived.
Lirian, staring blankly for a moment, raised her two hands.
The hands of a five-year-old child, not a twenty-five-year-old adult.
She stared at her small, maple-leaf-like hands—
Clap clap!
She smacked her cheeks and bounced out of bed.
Having played all day yesterday, Lirian quickly adjusted to her short, child-sized body.
“This is real.”
She went into the bathroom alone and washed her face thoroughly. Brushed her teeth.
Her face now fresh and dry, she easily climbed over the fence set up to prevent her from wandering off.
“But… what should I do first?”
It was good to be sure this was reality, but she had no idea what to do in this situation.
“Ah!”
Suddenly, a ‘good idea’ flashed through her mind, and her eyes lit up.
“Princess… it’s time to wake up!”
Kaiser opened Lirian’s door with a face full of anticipation.
Exactly five seconds later.
Click. The door of the empty room quietly closed, and a dark blue aura shimmered around Kaiser.
Mana manifestation.
A technique only usable by mages of 9th circle or above, those who had reached at least the Master level.
The man’s face, no longer the gentle father in front of a child but the iron-blooded duke, turned icy.
“Find it. The treasure has disappeared.”
At that moment, Lirian was busy moving about, completely unaware that the entire ducal mansion was in upheaval.
“This isn’t it… neither is this… nor that.”
She was in the mansion’s enormous library, so vast that she couldn’t take it all in at once.
Reading.
A word that had seemed forever out of reach for Lirian.
But now, it was a necessity.
The problem was that even choosing the right book took a long time.
“I can’t give up here!”
Fueled with determination, Lirian scurried toward the bookshelves.
While she wandered around the library with her small body,
“Huh?”
A golden butterfly appeared before her eyes.
Flutter.
It lightly flapped its wings, rising high and slipping into a book.
All that remained was a faint glow inside the book.
“Wow.”
Lirian blinked.
“Something’s definitely suspicious!”
She immediately lifted a nearby wooden ladder and placed it in front of the book.
Having been blessed with god-given physicality since childhood, it was easy for her.
“Ugh.”
Creak creak.
She climbed the ladder.
The moment her hand touched the book, the glow emanating from it disappeared.
“‘The hero conceals their identity’?”
Lirian took out the book, tilting her head.
She picked it because it looked interesting, but the title was strange.
“Isn’t a hero supposed to reveal themselves?”
Jumping off the ladder, Lirian opened the book on the floor.
Having lived through a world on the brink of destruction, she knew.
A hero was a symbol of hope.
Simply by existing, a hero represented the possibility that one day, the darkness could be overcome.
“Like the morning star.”
Rustle.
She turned the pages with a serious expression and began to read.
For about a minute.
Her condition—falling asleep if more than three lines of text appeared—quickly kicked in.
“Hup.”
At five years old, it was hard to hold her head up.
Lirian realized she was about to bury her nose in the book.
She quickly swallowed the drool and straightened her back.
The ‘I’m not sleepy’ technique.
Usually, there would be someone letting out a helpless sigh at this sight.
“Oh, right.”
Illey wasn’t here.
Lirian’s feelers drooped along with her spirits.
Her fatigue made the water stains on the book pages painfully obvious.
Embarrassed, Lirian tried to cover it.
But then—
“Huh?”
She noticed words smudged by water.
[He is a hero of the past. More precisely, a ‘hero from a future that never came.’
He has returned through time.]
Returned through time.
[To change the outcome of this world.]
Blinking blankly, she checked the subheading.
[Prologue. Reincarnation]
Time regression.
Lirian knew she wasn’t particularly smart, but she understood what this meant.
“He went back 20 years!”
The realization led naturally to calculation.
At least 20 years remained before the world’s destruction.
“Abyss in 12 years.”
Before the abyss opened, the world had shown signs of anomalies.
Rifts appeared in space-time, monsters that didn’t belong to this world spilled out… something like that.
“I feel like I was told this before?”
She forgot after three lines.
Anyway!
The world sent various signs, but greedy humans missed the chance while squabbling over land.
“The royal family, the council, the church.”
The mage tower, merchant guild, and so on.
“Hmm.”
A peaceful world for now, free of interference from the higher-ups.
A chance had come to save the world from destruction.
“Should I just behead them all?”
Lirian considered solving it by force.
The conclusion: impossible for now.
Even in the world before its fall, removing one troublemaker often caused even bigger ones to appear.
Like Basensei.
Unless the entire group was wiped out, new obstacles would always emerge.
In her small body, she could handle a few heads, but not an entire faction.
“Then what should I do?”
Lirian grabbed her head in frustration.
Using her brain so much all at once made her feel like steam was rising from it.
“Ugh…”
Right then.
Then, what do you want to do?
A man’s voice asked in her mind.
But Lirian wasn’t surprised.
She opened her striking purple eyes and answered.
“I want to protect.”
Protect whom?
“The people I love.”
Family she had failed to protect before.
Her benefactors.
And…
“The world I’ll live in with them.”
The silver-haired man chuckled.
Saving the world… that’s a big dream.
“Huh?”
Lirian suddenly snapped back to reality.
The golden butterfly that had been perched above her head flapped away.
Blinking, she pouted and banged her head.
“Ouch.”
It wasn’t a dream.
Had she really just seen someone like Illey, or was it a trick of the mind?
Tears welled up.
Lirian sniffed and wiped them away bravely.
“I guess I missed him too much.”
Concluding simply, she clenched her fists.
I’ll try saving the world this time.
“Of course, I can’t do it alone.”
She could behead a few people, but tackling the royal family, council, and church alone would be impossible.
It required massive influence across politics, society, and commerce.
Acknowledging her limits, Lirian jumped up and dashed outside.
Fortunately, she had eternal allies.
Those who would always stand by her—
“Dad! I think I’ve come back through time!”
Her family.
Lirian was no longer alone.
