4.

Even after they made it out of the cave, the problems weren't over.

"Do you know where we are?" Buja asked.

"The southernmost tip of the continent," the princess answered.

"And the Empire is at...?"

"The northernmost tip."

"Aha. So the imperial army, since the Empire fell, is probably hiding somewhere else, right? Somewhere the Allied Forces would never imagine, like, say, the far south?"

It wasn't that she didn't know the way at all. The princess was smart and knew the entire geography of the continent, including the location of the slave auction where she was to be sold. It was just that the journey back sounded incredibly far. Hadn't it taken them several days in the last chapter just to pass through a few castles to get here?

"How long will it take?" There was no point in her telling him the location; Kim Buja wouldn't know where it was. What was important to him was time. He wanted to hear it in a unit he could understand. After a moment of thought, the princess answered calmly.

"About three months, if we avoid the main roads."

"What if I just hand you over to the Allied Forces?"

"What did you say?"

"Ah, sorry. Just thinking out loud." He didn't need to hear the answer to that last part; he could roughly calculate it. The auction was in three or four days. If he went straight to the castle where it was being held, apologized for the disruption, told them to proceed, and handed her over to the Allied Forces, the quest would be cleared just like that.

"Hmm."

To be honest, he had wanted to side with the princess if possible. After all, the Gold Mission had revolved around her from the start, and it felt like the content was guiding him to take her side. No matter how it unfolded, sticking with the princess would lengthen the chapter, and the increased rewards would ultimately benefit him. That's what he had thought, but the reality of the time commitment was daunting. Three months of hiding, camping in the mountains, not being able to wash properly, just wasting time.

It wouldn't matter if only time weren't parallel to reality. But for Kim Buja right now, time was gold. He had entered the Gold Mission for rapid growth, to proceed to the next content, not to dally with the princess and find a new love. Three months. Even if he only earned fifty gold a day, that was five thousand gold he could have earned. The princess's doe-like eyes and the glimpse of skin visible through her loose shirt violently shook his composure, but he asked firmly.

"I'm going to ask you this once, and it'll be the first and last time."

At his serious expression, the princess nodded, her face hardening.

"To be honest, I'm not on anyone's side."

"...I expected as much," she responded.

A month ago, she had thought this was a situation she would have to face someday. But when he left her in the safety of the cave, she had been certain he was on her side. His words upon his return proved otherwise. His playful questions were, to her, a matter of life and death. The face of the woman who had trusted and followed him completely changed to that of the princess of an empire that had once ruled the continent. It was resolve—a resolve to face the end as the princess of the Empire, no matter what came.

"I'm trying to side with you if I can. That's why I came back. Once I decide, I have no intention of turning back, nor can I."

"Okay."

It might be a river of no return for her, but he spoke honestly.

"Tell me what I stand to gain by saving you, by taking your side. What do I get when we return to the Empire, risking everything?"

At his frank words, the princess actually smiled faintly, as if she had been waiting. She answered without hesitation.

"Everything I have."

"...Huh?"

"From my own hand to the imperial throne. Isn't that a prize worth the risk?"

Her words were so confident that he couldn't help but smile back. A small chuckle.

"Alright." For Buja, at least, that answer hit the mark.

* * *

In a way, she was openly telling him to use her. The imperial throne. It was currently vacant, and even if she sat on it, what meaning would a title, shattered by the Alliance, have? The princess's words meant one thing: 'If you can help me raise the Empire again by my side, I will give you myself.' One might see it as just her body, but the value of the princess's existence, as Kim Buja had seen in the video, was more than the survival of the Empire itself. To have her didn't simply mean gaining a peerless beauty; it meant becoming the prince consort of the Empire. And if she didn't take the throne, then that seat would belong to him.

'An emperor.' It was a title impossible in reality. No matter how powerful he became, even if he were the world's number-one ranker, ruling an entire continent was impossible in the real world. That's what made it valuable. A life where he could die at any moment. Dungeon after dungeon. Different dungeons every day, but ultimately a repetitive daily life. To escape that and build a new life here, on this continent, to seek real change…

'It sounds more interesting than handing her over to the Allied Forces for some minor position to hunt down the remaining imperial army.'

The most important thing in a game for Kim Buja was money. But just as important as money was interest. If he had to choose only one, he would choose money, but if he could have both, he would always include interest, even if it meant a slightly smaller payout. It was the same here. The princess had presented him with a process and a reward that he would never regret playing, even if it meant choosing hardcore mode himself.

'Is it really about the process, though?' It would be difficult and arduous. It certainly had been up to Chapter 1-1, and it was the same when activating Chapter 1-2. But the moment he came in and found the Gold Ring, he had a glimmer of hope that it might not be. He just had to grow stronger in reality. Until going hardcore became hard, then normal, then easy. In fact, it didn't matter if the process itself was hardcore. Kim Buja enjoyed it, whatever it was. The higher the difficulty, the more he enjoyed it. The desire, the will, the greed to conquer it—that was the driving force that had brought him this far.

With that thought, he gave his definitive answer. A decision made in this moment, one that would not change, and one that would be meaningless even if it did.

"Let's go to the Empire. Whether you die or I die, I'm siding with the Empire."

H made a grand decision. The princess, finally relieved, smiled brightly and hugged him. A sight where the dignity of a princess was nowhere to be found. With a heart as vast as the princess of the Empire that had once ruled the continent, Kim Buja didn't refuse and patted her on the back.

'Maybe because it's a Western setting, but she's very open-minded for a princess.' Didn't they say people's true colors come out when you get close? Unlike the first time he met her in the carriage, her heart opened wide at a single word, and his shoulders felt heavier for some reason. 'She doesn't have to go this far.'

He realized that wasn't the end of it while camping that night.

5.

The princess, who had washed up in a nearby lake and returned wearing a shower gown, sat by the campfire eating the soup and bread Kim Buja had given her and calmly began to tell her story.

"I grew up hidden from everyone's eyes."

It was a story he knew roughly. The video he saw in the first clue, the words of the tortured handmaidens, resurfaced in his mind.

"Except for a few, even the handmaidens couldn't see me, and my personal attendants couldn't leave my side until they died."

'Why?' That was the first thought that had come to him while watching the video.

"Because there were no other children who carried my father's blood."

"Hmm."

And she began the story of the Empire's downfall. It seemed like a completely unrelated tale of her upbringing, but after more than a decade, it had returned as a massive storm.

"The allied nations were one thing, but the Empire wasn't perfect either. No, it became imperfect because of me. My father was the iron prince who conquered the continent, but because his only heir was a woman, the loyal subjects who had protected him and planted the Empire's flag across the continent began to plot, one by one. My father knew it, too."

"He knew and just let it happen?"

"Because they were plots, as you said. It didn't matter if they were discovered. They couldn't be discovered."

He understood to some extent. It was no different from reality. The emperor was fearsome now, but in ten, twenty, thirty years… humans can't defeat time, and in the next generation, the emperor who conquered the continent would no longer exist. His only heir was a woman who was looked down upon across the continent. They could devour the Empire. The clever men who protected the emperor couldn't have been ignorant of that.

"That's probably why he did it. Even though he was sure I would grow up stronger than anyone, he wanted to protect me safely until then."

In the end, the Empire fell before the princess could succeed the emperor and display her clever and brave spirit.

"My father always stood at the forefront of the battlefield and defeated the most enemies. But I can't do that."

Nevertheless, she did not give up. The words coming from her determined expression were not simple hope.

"I will lead the Empire to victory on the battlefield in my own way."

It was will. And it was confidence. The nobility he had first seen, the integrity that seemed unbreakable, was revealed through her expression.

"Please help me. And please stay by my side."

The expression that followed was one of desperation. It was faith and trust. A blind, faith-like emotion from being saved from rock bottom.

"If it weren't for you, I would have been able to do nothing, sold off somewhere, trapped in a shameful life, dreaming of an uncertain future, living only because I couldn't die."

It wasn't simply the sentiment of a girl who had met her first man and fallen for a prince on a white horse. The princess was young, but she was not naive.

"I don't know you. For a month, I thought and thought and was sure I knew you, but after hearing what you said today, I realized I didn't know you at all," she continued.

Buja remained silent and listened.

"But I think I know this one thing. I feel something from you that I felt from my father."

The reason she was entrusting her life to a man she had just met, a man who had fled without the strength to defeat even slave traders, asking him to raise the Empire—it was finally revealed. It was a word that could make a listener laugh in disbelief.

A feeling.

It could be wrong. But she bet her life on it. Just once in her life. Because she felt the same emotion from Kim Buja that she had felt from her father. In the past, before the unbelievable idea of the Empire's downfall became reality, she would not have done so. The thing she was most wary of while growing up and learning was gambling. 'Do not bet on an uncertain future. The best choice is to secure victory safely.' That was the opposite of her father's philosophy, the emperor who ruled the continent. That's why she was becoming bolder now. Because she was abandoning her old way of thinking and taking on a challenge.

The princess rose from her seat and took one step, then two, toward Kim Buja. The precariously tied shower gown was untied by her slender fingers.

"I'm going to bet everything I have. As collateral, I'll give you myself first."

At the unbelievably bold development and the all-too-real story, the barbecue skewer in Kim Buja's hand fell to the ground.

* * *

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