PMEVBO 106

──────【 Alignment 】──────

Aligning the existence data of

‘Lucariel Nebella Sarachephon’

with the standards of this world.

Body: Mismatch

Soul: Match

Subject to alignment: Applicable

If either the body or the soul is mismatched,

it qualifies as an alignment target.

────────────────

…What is going on?

How could my soul be the same as someone else’s, someone who lived in a different world, no less?

Just as I couldn’t understand this, the body that had been judged as mismatched was equally baffling. Up until now, I had believed that I had possessed the body of “Lucariel Nebella Sarachephon,” a character from the 19+ romance novel The Happy End. After all, the appearance reflected in the mirror was exactly as he was described in the original work.

But as if my confusion meant nothing, the alignment process began.

──────【 Alignment 】──────

Aligning the existence data of

‘Lucariel Nebella Sarachephon’

to the standards of this world.

Data being aligned: Physical body

Alignment duration: 1 day

────────────────

The moment I regained consciousness after briefly losing it, I realized the changes in my body. Aquila’s clerical robes, which had been loose just moments ago, were now constricting my body uncomfortably. The shoes, too, had changed to fit perfectly.

Instead of the butterfly-shaped birthmark on my left index finger, there was a single small dot on my little finger. It was a mark I knew all too well.

This is my original body… the one I had when I was Kang Je-in.

Moreover…

“I’d like to greet you, could you please move your foot?”

The voice was familiar too.

I couldn’t confirm it in the mirror, but I already knew that the shell I was currently wearing was my original body, Kang Je-in’s body.

At the same time, it was also the body of the original Lucariel. After all, it was the result of the original Lucariel’s physical form being reconfigured using the Alignment skill.

My soul and body are the same as the original Lucariel’s? …Shit, then what am I?

Did I become the same person as the original Lucariel……?

As that thought crossed my mind, my chest tightened. The sound of my heart pounding thudded in my ears. Just then, the scent of herbs brushed visit our site against my nose. As soon as it did, I calmed down again.

Right……

Let’s get out of here first. I’ll think about it later.

I don’t know what possessed me to make my way out of Riel’s Garden. At that moment, the only thing on my mind was checking the mirror as soon as possible. Since it was my first time acting like a proper priest, my expressions and tone must have been lacking. However, since Atsula wasn’t in his right mind either, I managed to get through it somehow.

As soon as I entered the castle, I headed straight for the empty lounge. I locked the door securely and stood in front of the mirror.

“Hah.”

The body reflected in the mirror was indeed mine. Which meant it was indeed that of Kang Je-in.

I slumped to the floor. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“What is going on here….”

I couldn’t make any sense of this situation. I stared at my reflection in the mirror; my irises were a vivid crimson, like fresh blood.

My eyes used to be just ordinary black…

I rolled up the sleeve of my clerical robe on my right arm and examined it. If this were my body, there should have been a scar on my forearm, the one I got from fighting a sixth grader when I was in third grade. But the skin revealed under the dim candlelight was perfectly smooth.

I reached out a hand toward the mirror and frowned.

…So is this just a body that looks like mine?

Since the souls are the same, maybe that’s why the bodies are the same too…

Ugh, damn it, I don’t get it at all…

I just wish someone would explain it to me clearly. I clutched my forehead and let out a long sigh.

Suddenly, I remembered the lifeline lying dormant in my inventory. The Wisdom skill. Thanks to a recent level-up, its cooldown had been reduced to five days.

…I used the Wisdom skill when I was looking into Chepony Castle.

And as of midnight yesterday, the five-day cooldown had ended.

Before I knew it, I had already opened the Wisdom skill window.

Ask me anything.

Tell me about the relationship between Kang Je-in and Lucariel Nebella Sarachephon.

Honestly, I’m not sure if I’ll answer something like this…

But at this very moment, this was the only thing I could rely on. Just as I [unauthorized copy]filled in the blank, the Wisdom skill activated.

──────【 Wisdom 】──────

Requested Information: [The relationship between ‘Kang Je-in’ and ‘Lucariel Nebella Sarachephon’]

Result:

─────────────────

I unconsciously held my breath as the text began to appear rapidly.

-Identifier ‘Kang Je-in’ is the reincarnation of identifier ‘Lucariel Nebella Sarachephon’.

The very first sentence was shocking.

…A reincarnation?

This is insane. So my past life was the original Lucariel……?

I sat there dumbfounded; I read and reread that sentence. Regardless I was still stuck on the first sentence or not, the Wisdom skill kept generating the next ones.

-The system has determined that Identifier ‘Lucariel Nebella Sarachephon’ is no longer in a state to perform quests.

-Accordingly, the soul of the identifier ‘Kang Je-in,’ who existed in another world, has been summoned.

-The summoned soul has been fused with the soul of the identifier ‘Lucariel Nebella Sarachephon.’

They sure wrote that in a needlessly complicated way. To put it simply: The original Lucariel was supposed to be at the mercy of the system, but for some reason, he refused to carry out the quests. The system didn’t like that, so it decided to summon my soul, the reincarnation of the original Lucariel, and use me instead. And it went and forced this soul fusion or whatever nonsense on me.

“Hah, so they summoned me just to use me as a substitute for my past life…?”

I ran my hand through my hair in frustration.

Ever since I’d been dropped into this world, just the thought of possession made my blood boil. It was so unfair and infuriating that I was going through this just because I’d smacked a book I didn’t like, I felt like I was going crazy. I even wondered what terrible sin I’d committed in my past life to deserve this…

Yeah, well, I get that I must have committed some terrible sin. But it still felt just as unfair.

All that talk about sharing the same soul didn’t really resonate with me. Regardless of the soul or the past life, once you’re split between the past and the present, each person should just live their own life. What reason was there for me to rush over and help just because they beeped at me?

Besides, it wasn’t my past-life self who put me in this situation, it was the system.

-To increase the quest completion efficiency of identifier ‘Kang Je-in,’ the memories of identifier ‘Lucariel Nebella Sarachephon’ have been sealed.

-As a minimal means of conveying information to supplement the sealed memories, the data ‘The Happy End’ has been generated and transmitted.

“What the hell… so this wasn’t even a world inside a book.”

To make matters worse, it turned out the system was the one who created that trashy original work. It went as far as to write a book just to stolen content lure a single person in, that level of dedication was something else.

“Fucking system bastard…”

The curse words just flew out of my mouth. I gritted my teeth and clutched the back of my neck, which had gone stiff from the spike in blood pressure. Come to think of it, the same light had emanated from the original book as from the status window. Could it be that … was the status window disguised as a book?

……It’s mind-boggling.

That was all the information the Wisdom skill had provided. Unlike when I’d been reviewing information on Chepony Castle, the data was sparse, so I could ruminate over it from start to finish to my heart’s content.

However, unresolved questions still overflowed.

For instance, regarding the body from my past life.

If this body reflected in the mirror is Lucariel’s true body, then what was the body I’d been using up until then?

Since the soul of my past life was inside that bastard’s body, I understand why I, after fusing with that soul, had awakened in that body. But then, whose body was that one with the seven butterfly marks, silver hair, and silver eyes?

And why was my past-life self inside someone else’s body in the first place……?

I massage my temples and muttered to myself.

“……Is that the system’s doing too?”

Racking my not-so-smart brain would only make my headache worse. Anyway, it was hard to expect any meaningful results right now. I had no choice but to wait until the cooldown on my Wisdom skill was over.

But something happened.

────【 System Notification 】────

Conditions met!

The memories of ‘Lucariel Nebella Sarachephon’ have been unlocked.

────────────────

Huh?