FSFSLU 2

Chapter 2

I am Kim Sumin.

Until I was diagnosed with chronic leukemia at the age of eleven, I lived a normal life.

Chemotherapy is really awful. Especially when the whole family grows sick and tired of it too.

For someone like me—who became nothing more than a burden to the entire household after years of battling illness—novels that let me forget reality and completely immerse myself were more precious than anything.

By chance, among the deep-sea backlog of a minor web novel platform, I discovered An Old Tale. I swore to myself countless times that I would see its ending before I died, no matter what.

And at last, just when the hero’s party was about to face the Demon King in the final battle… I was the only reader left.

And that’s how it ended.

“…Ah.”

Staring at the web novel page with the “Next Chapter” button grayed out, I lowered my head.

I understood. If there was only a single reader left even at the climax, anyone would want to drop the serialization.

I tried to accept that and move on.

But I couldn’t.

So I used every method I could to protest to the author—sending emails, posting comments, even private messages.

Of course, I knew. This was all the typical cliché setup for a transmigration story.

And maybe, deep down, I even hoped that cliché would come true for me.

Because there was no end in sight to my long battle with illness. I wanted to escape reality—even if it meant transmigrating into a novel.

If anyone were to be reborn inside this story, I thought it absolutely had to be me.

But… my thoughts changed.

Because I’d been saddled with an absurd assignment from Sunya.

“Become an angel and help Isabel with her second round?”

Saint Isabel.

Practically the only comic relief character in the grimdark fantasy An Old Tale.

Her first appearance was crying after dropping all her savings into a river. She kept causing big and small mishaps afterward.

Even when the hero’s party was storming the Demon King’s castle, Isabel’s mental age was hardly different from a child’s.

And she’s supposed to regress and relive everything?

Hopefully she won’t recklessly try to change the future and ruin everything.

“…Haa.”

It all feels so hopeless, but the water’s already spilled.

I’ve already become an angel.

So now I need to figure out what to do.

At least, I’m satisfied with the body I’ve been given as an angel.

On the outside, it doesn’t look much different from my usual self, but it’s far lighter, and there’s no pain.

What I especially like is being free of the chest pains, anemia, and fatigue that used to overwhelm me every day.

Of course, angels probably don’t get anemia.

This time, I looked around.

Angels are originally conceptual beings. Only when a priest contacts them through prayer do they take on form.

Otherwise, an angel’s consciousness remains within their own unique space.

And my unique space… annoyingly, took the form of a hospital room.

A bed with stainless steel rails, a vital signs monitor beside it, glossy marble tiles.

Just looking at it made me sick.

I was so happy to finally escape the wretched hospital room, yet here I was again.

Still, it’s true that this is the place I’m most familiar with.

But… maybe I can change it?

“Oh?”

At that moment, the space began to stir and reshape itself.

And soon, it settled into a new form.

“This is…”

I couldn’t help but smile.

A playground.

The playground where I used to play with neighborhood friends as a child.

The ground was covered in sand, with swings, a slide, and a seesaw. It all looked pretty convincing.

Yeah, this is way better.

It’s much nicer than a stifling hospital room. A little childish maybe, but it brings back good memories.

Feeling lighter at heart, I suddenly began to worry about Isabel.

Just like me, she must have only recently regressed.

Isn’t she feeling anxious?

Not that I even know how to help her. I don’t seem to have a way out of this space, either.

So… how am I supposed to reach her?

That’s when it happened.

As if in response to my curiosity, a huge glass panel—or maybe a screen?—suddenly appeared in midair.

Through it, I could see the surface world at a glance.

It seemed like a useful feature—except the scene beyond the glass was quite troubling.

It showed Isabel and her surroundings.

And Isabel was… running.

Down the church hallways, with a goofy grin on her face!

“…You’ve got to be kidding me.”

If you regress, shouldn’t you calmly survey your surroundings and start planning carefully?

That’s just common sense.

But apparently, not Isabel’s.

Tap, tap, tap—

Light footsteps echoed.

Isabel was so excited that she was darting back and forth.

I’m back!

Every time she passed a priest—or better yet, an old friend from her monastery days—she burst out in joyous laughter.

They’re alive!

Sunlight streamed in through the windows.

A world filled with light.

A sky without violet cracks, without torrents of demonic energy.

There was no Demon King here—not even resurrected yet.

So everything remained whole and untouched.

I missed this so much!

Zero Prime.

The largest church dedicated to the goddess Sunya, built on a hill in the great city of Sestina.

It was Isabel’s church, and the very one that had been utterly destroyed by the Demon King’s forces in the first round.

Every priest of the main church had visited it at least once—it was a sacred place for them all.

Now Isabel ran breathlessly down its halls, face flushed red.

Whoosh—

Her skirt brushed past as she darted by. Seeing this, Isabel’s friend Rina looked baffled.

So did Father Graham, standing beside her.

“Isabel seems unusually lively today.”

“…She really does.”

I pounded on the floating glass and shouted.

“Isabel! Stop already! Hey!”

But she didn’t hear me. Apparently, I couldn’t communicate with her like this.

I was almost envious of how purely joyful she looked. Hopefully she wouldn’t throw her arms wide and shout “I’ve gone back in time!” at any moment.

Letting her run until she got tired might have been fine—except this was Zero Prime, the continent’s greatest church.

A minefield of sacred relics that must not be broken, important people not to be disturbed, and rules not to be violated.

If Isabel ran wild here, the second round could be ruined from the very start. We didn’t even know what point in time we were at!

I had to stop her before that fool destroyed everything within five minutes of regressing.

But how?

According to the lore of An Old Tale, a guardian angel could influence a priest in three ways.

Delivering a message in dreams, called “Revelation.”
Possessing the priest’s body to directly intervene, called “Descent.”
Or projecting images before their eyes, called “Illusion.”

But Isabel clearly wasn’t about to fall asleep, so Revelation was out.

And Descent was far too risky—at least not while Isabel was still her childish past self. She might not withstand it. I didn’t even know how to do it.

That left Illusion.

But what kind of illusion could stop someone who was so excitedly running around?

I couldn’t show her anything violent or painful. If she realized it was from me, worst case, she might stop trusting me entirely.

Then… maybe words could work.

If I used Illusion to display a message that would spark Isabel’s curiosity.

That might work.

But it couldn’t be something ordinary.

It had to be something magical enough to make her stop and think—without running to others shouting, “There are words floating in the air!”

What kind of sentence would do that?

After much thought, I made my decision.

It might be a gamble.

As the people of Zero Prime exchanged glances—silently wondering who was going to be the one to stop the running nun—

Screeech—

Isabel, dripping with sweat, suddenly skidded to a stop, digging her heels into the floor.

The soles of her shoes squealed against the church tiles, echoing down the hall.

For a moment, silence.

All that could be heard was Isabel’s ragged breathing as confused priests watched.

“A-are you all right?”

One kind priest, though hesitant—worried she might suddenly take off again—approached Isabel carefully.

But then—

Isabel snapped her head around and glared straight at his brow.

“Eek!”

The priest flinched. But it was just a misunderstanding—Isabel wasn’t really seeing him at all.

It’s still there, even when I turn my head?

With that small realization, Isabel felt a tiny thrill of pride and shook her head back and forth several more times.

And still, at the edge of her vision, glowing blue letters floated before her eyes.

[Quest Generated.]

[Stop running and take a deep breath. (0/1)]