The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

"Every time I walk around here, I'm amazed that there can be so many people."

"Maybe that's because you're royalty? I feel the same way whenever I go out into the capital."

While we sat on a bench taking a short break, Alice answered Charlotte's comment.

"It's not strange to feel that way. The population of this country is quite large compared to its size. Plus, with nearly ten million people crowded into this city alone, it's natural you would feel that way."

Also, although people living in Seoul might not realize it, Seoul was a tourist city too. A lot of foreigners visiting Korea would come to Seoul, and there were quite a few people from other cities as well. These days, you can find plenty of posts online about attractions in other cities, but even so, most foreign tourists still flock to Seoul... or so I once heard on the news.

Anyway, at least for the people around me, the idea of "waiting two hours just to ride one amusement ride" seemed to be quite a shock.

"Come to think of it, even if the Empire had a place like this, only the bourgeoisie or nobles would be able to visit. It might be impossible for this many people to gather like this."

"And because of that, the admission fee would probably be a lot more expensive too. With this many people, they can maintain the facilities with the current fees, but if visitors were fewer, they'd have to charge a fortune just to keep things running. Although, nobles could easily afford it..."

The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

Right now, that's Azerna’s biggest problem. The gap between the top and bottom has split so extremely that honestly, it feels like it's about to explode at any moment.

"But I think the two of you will do well."

I said.

"This world went through two world wars. But the next generation of Azerna will be led by you. I'm sure you'll find a much better way."

Besides, honestly, royalty could always step back and quietly withdraw if things got dangerous. That's how most European royalty survived by transitioning into constitutional monarchies. Same with the nobles.

...Well, it's not like that was an easy thing either.

"What are you talking about? You're going to go through it with us too."

"Are you thinking of not returning to Azerna? Even if you spent time here, almost no time would have passed in Azerna, right?"

"......"

I had no rebuttal for that.

Come to think of it, I was a princess too.

Living here, I kept forgetting about that.

"Hey, why are you getting so serious all of a sudden?"

Claire said, waving her hand.

By the way, she was holding cotton candy in her other hand.

Mia was holding a waffle and a churro in each hand, wearing a blissful expression.

Somehow, even though we were all in the same place, it felt like we belonged to different worlds.

"That's true."

Charlotte said as she stretched out on the bench.

"Even if we return, almost no time would have passed, so we can just relax while we're here. It's not something that's easy to decide, though..."

As she said that, Charlotte's eyes drifted toward Mia.

She seemed amazed at how Mia, who had arrived at the same time as her, had adapted so quickly.

"...It's a little strange."

I spoke softly, but all three of them turned to look at me at once — guess they had good hearing.

"Even though I spent so much time in Azerna, it feels like the time I spent here with all of you was even longer. Almost like I’ve always lived this way from the beginning."

"......"

They all stared at me silently for a moment.

"Because this is your home. Even if you thought nothing of living in Azerna, it's not easy to /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ abandon the place where you were born."

Charlotte said.

"Sis, if you want to stay here—"

"I have no intention of doing that."

I cut her off firmly.

"Everything I did in Azerna was so that I could live together with all of you. After working so hard, giving up on that is out of the question."

Exactly. Why do you think I went through all that suffering?

If I had only been thinking about myself, I would have settled somewhere far off from the story long ago. With my abilities, I could have figured out a way to live.

I’m not sure how the goddess would have reacted seeing that, though.

And when I returned to this world, she would have been absolutely delighted.

Honestly, I never understood why people in the comics or anime I watched as a kid always tried to return to their original worlds. Maybe it was because most of what I watched came from Japan?

If you gained powers and accomplished so much in a new world, wouldn't it be ridiculous to just go back? Even if you were forced to emigrate, if you built something in that world, you'd never want to throw it away.

Besides, I was a princess. Sure, there were tons of duties attached, but the bottomless wallet was more than worth it.

"...Did I say something wrong?"

When they all awkwardly averted their gazes from me, I asked, and Claire cleared her throat.

"No, Sis, you didn’t do anything wrong."

"Yeah. Since you want to come back with us, we'll make sure to take you with us when we go."

Following Claire, Alice spoke up.

"You owe a lot of favors here. We'll make sure you pay them back once we're back home. You'd better be ready."

"I-I'll stay in touch a lot too!"

Hmm... well, it's nice of them to say all that.

But I still wasn’t sure why they were suddenly acting like this.

*

To be honest, I was a little uneasy.

As daily life continued, I worried my sense of purpose might blur, and I'd end up choosing to stay here permanently.

When the others all wanted to return, would I be the only one trying to scheme a way for us all to stay?

Of course, I don’t think it would ever come to that, but still — just in case.

After a few more days passed since the last break, Saturday came again.

The light from the Zibo was still faint. It was a bit stronger than when Mia and Charlotte first crossed over, but not enough to trigger another incident like last time.

The streams were going smoothly. Lately, though, it felt like we were playing other games more often than Azerna Chronicles.

Charlotte turned out to be surprisingly timid. Mia too. Watching the two of them play horror games left a strong impression on a lot of people.

Sometimes we barely played games at all, just spent the stream chatting among the five of us. Other times, we tried out random online FPS games recommended by viewers. Maybe because of my real-life shooting experience, my aim was decent, but teaming up with strangers didn't really suit my style.

Anyway, life continued peacefully like that—

And then came the big Saturday.

Today, we decided to start the stream a bit later.

Since we'd bought lottery tickets, we figured we'd watch the lottery broadcast before starting. If we happened to win first place and our reaction got broadcast live, it could get awkward.

The chances were practically zero, but still, better safe than sorry.

Besides, the whole point of a lottery is to buy that feeling of excitement. No harm in hoping a little. And no reason to get too disappointed if it didn’t work out.

We had all picked different numbers.

"What would you do if you won first place, Sis?"

"Do you even know what the odds of that are?"

Charlotte interrupted Claire’s question.

"That’s something you can’t know until you open the ticket. And you said it yourself, Sis — you don't buy a lottery ticket to win, you buy it to dream."

"If you need to buy a dream for only 5,000 won, isn’t that just really sad..."

"Well, it's less about the dream and more about buying that fluttery, excited feeling."

Alice answered Charlotte with a smile.

"Still, it would be nice if we won first place."

Mia said with sparkling eyes.

She was much brighter now than when she first came here, and even more cheerful than before.

Living somewhere where she didn’t have to worry and could just eat delicious food — it made sense.

Among the five of us, Mia definitely looked the most like she had "bought a dream."

Nothing wrong with that.

I glanced at the clock.

There was no need to sit and watch the whole broadcast. The results would show up on the website soon enough.

Until then, we could just kill time watching something else together.

*

"...Oh."

And then, after the announcement time had passed—

The room we shared fell into complete silence.

Uh, so...

"Did... we win? First place?"

Exactly.

Just as Claire mumbled in disbelief next to me.

And not just once — with two tickets bearing the same numbers.

...No, seriously, what kind of insane plot twist is this?