Wasn’t This Supposed To Be a Strategy Game?

“Eden, get out of bed! We must pray first thing in the morning.”

Jiwon woke up to the sound of someone calling her. 

The fact that her room’s ceiling still looked nothing like hers made her sigh.

It has been a month already.

‘Damn it. I’m still here today.’

She had hardly gotten out of bed when she saw the glittering early morning stars in the dark blue sky outside her bedroom window.

It was a breathtaking view that could not be viewed from the city.

No, she never gets up this early in the city.

“Hurry!”

Eden saw a woman who had been diligently calling her. The woman with curly red hair and cute freckles was Rita, who had been sharing the same room with her for a month.

“Okay.”

In the wee hours of the morning, Jiwon eventually arose and prepared for her morning prayers. . As she stood in front of the table with sleepy eyes, a face was reflected on the mirror.

She had light skin and waist-length brown hair curled in the back.

A stunning brunette with unusual grayish-brown eyes was looking back at her.

Eden Lilith.

That was the name of the woman in the mirror and the new name given to Jiwon.

‘Wow. Now I’m more familiar with the name Eden than my own.’

Jiwon, no, Eden picked up the papers scattered on the table.

As time went on, she became used to rising up so early for morning prayer, living like a monk by reciting prayers, studying at the temple and even memorizing new people and their names.

She started accepting the situation she’s in right now.

But there was only one thing that she couldn’t quite understand.

“Why is she a hidden character…”

Eden bit her lips and murmured, Rita looked back at Eden.

“Yes? What?”

Eden shook her head.

“…No, it’s nothing. Let’s go to the chapel and pray.”

Just like every morning, as soon as Eden arrived in the chapel, she knelt down and started praying.

Ding-ding.

It seemed as though the sound of the magnificent bell ringing was easing her nerves.

As stillness descended upon the great chapel, Eden opened her eyes slightly and looked around. She saw her roommate Rita, who wakes her up every day, closes her eyes and prays.

‘Sigh…’

Eden sighed inwardly, closed her eyes again like them, and slowly reflected on her situation.

Her ridiculous suffering started because she downloaded a game.

No, maybe it was the selection of a hidden character that was opened unexpectedly that brought her this predicament.

It was an unbelievable story even for her, but Eden was currently trapped in the game. 

In ‘The Last Kingmaker’ where we have to choose a prince and make him an emperor.

‘I even possessed a low-level priestess character!’

It was the part that really irked her.

‘Where has this character been hiding all along!’

Eden bit her lip and gave the two hands that were holding each other more strength. 

Then, when she woke up here and looked in the mirror for the first time, she looked back at the profile window that popped up next to her.

[Eden Lilith lv.1

Intelligence 30

Power 5

Charisma 0

Magic 5

Holy Power 10

Characteristics: Apprentice Priestess of the Pope Haelb』

“……”

It’s crazy, really.

Even looking back on it, it felt like she was being deceived by the stats that were outrageous.

As far as she knows, the highest stat was 99 and the characters she has played thus far have all stats above 50.

The stat of best characters was over 80, so she clearly thought Eden’s stat was outrageous.

The problem was that this character was a ‘hidden character’

‘Crazy, what kind of hidden character will be given these stats?’

It wasn’t long before Eden understood why this game is considered a failure.

“Even so, this is serious…….”

Eden could hear the grunts of the priests next to her as she bit her lip and whispered to herself. As Eden returned to her senses in the face of that look, she hurriedly clenched her fists firmly together and made an earnest expression.

“Please save this world from all evil, defeat vicious monsters and give peace to all the poor people…….”

Following her sincere prayer, the priests in the room changed their expressions and their gazes were drawn away from her.

Eden let out a small sigh, relaxing her stinging hands.

At first, she thought it was a dream, and she even thought she was crazy, but after a month, Eden started accepting it.

This place was definitely ‘in the game’, and there was only one way to escape.

It was to completely clear the game.

It was then.

Ring, ring.

When there was a sound in the sacred and quiet chapel, Eden looked up at the air in amazement.

That’s when she saw the quest window hovering in the air. No matter how many times she looked at it, an unrealistic notification window popped up about once every two days, telling her to clear the game quickly.

[【!】Main quest: The person chosen by the player is the 3rd Prince Asmun Dekland. Propose an alliance with him and survive.”

[【!】Main quest: Raise your stamina to 20.

Eden was reminded of her quests. Asmun Deckland is the third prince she had chosen, so of course visiting him and proposing an alliance was an inevitable development.

But the creepy phrase ‘survive’ that was added after those words…

“……”

Eden recalled the characteristics of Asmun again.

90% chance of becoming a tyrant.

In other words, the first quest in this game is to propose an alliance to the future tyrant as a character such as this apprentice priest and survive safely.

The moment she saw the first quest, Eden had an intuition.

‘It won’t be easy to go back.’

Of course, since it was a game with a clear rate of 0% in the first place, it was natural she would think so.

Eden, rather than being confused about how she could enter the game, stopped wasting time and immediately started making plans.

‘Playing nine times must be a gift.’

Fortunately, thanks to her previous experience playing, Eden knew to some extent the background of this world and what would happen in the future. Thanks to that, she was able to estimate the perfect opportunity to meet Asmun.

This was the Empire Hesmoro, where monsters ran wild every year and they suffered heavy damage, and under the command of the Imperial Family, the priests of the temple, the mages of the magic tower, and excellent knights were tasked to protect the empire, but because the monsters kept getting stronger. It gave her a headache.

‘Although there are 3 princes, the crown prince has not yet been appointed.’

Of course, this setting is this way to give tension to the game.

Also, in the setting where there is a state religion and they believed in God Hamune, this large temple where she was located is the largest and most influential temple in the empire, it was located in the center of the capital.

Therefore, it was located close to the Imperial Palace.

Eden remembered the quests given to her.

Raising her strength and convincing her to visit Asmun.

‘It’s a crazy difficulty from the first quest. As expected of a failed game.’

First of all, it was difficult to meet the prince of the empire as an apprentice priestess character. Moreover, even if they meet, it would be almost impossible to convince the cold Asmun with this character.

But she still had to do it. Because she can’t live forever locked up in this temple, praying every dawn to the non-existent Hamune.

Besides, if she didn’t clear this game somehow, there were two endings.

Either the empire was destroyed by the Archmage Hagelti, or she suffered forever because of the tyrant Asmun.

‘Come to your senses.’

A cold sweat ran down Eden’s back remembering the quest.

Ding-

Ding-

Just in time, when the loud and magnificent bell rang to announce the time, Rita, who had finished praying, approached Eden and whispered.

“Eden, it’s over. let’s go eat.”

“Yes.”

Eden continued to think while eating breakfast with Rita.

As a result of gathering information for a month, Eden was able to roughly figure out what happened.

“Rita, did you say the Founding Day is in three days?”

“Yes. I already answered this for the tenth time.”

“Thank you.”

Eden, who replied to Rita, ate the potato soup, and her eyes sparkled.

Empire Founding Day.

Eden remembered this day exactly. 

Because it was the day a banquet will be held at the Imperial Palace. 

And on that day, Asmun suffers a small humiliation due to the scheme of the 1st prince.

She couldn’t help but remember. It’s because she was the one who humiliated him seven times during the seven plays.

‘I couldn’t help it either. The first quest is to test Asmun.’

It was bothering her, but Eden tried to rationalize it and fell into thoughts again.

That was the episode at the beginning of the game play, so now is the time before the game starts.

This was the only information she tried hard to gather, and Eden was making a plan based on information.

It was a plan to imprint her existence on Asmun and complete the first quest to convince him.

‘I’ll probably die if I fail. And now I’m a weak apprentice priestess.’

The back of Eden’s neck became cold at the terrible thought.

‘What if I die here?’

Maybe that was the only way to go back to her world. 

However, there were too many variables to believe in such probability and die. 

Most of all, she didn’t want to see herself unable to clear even with such an amazing opportunity.

Eden was aware that the desire to compete in the game was much more intense now than when she played the game on a cell phone or computer, as she entered the game herself and became a part of this world.

So, she had to clear it. Without dying or running away.