Chapter 62
First of all, even when I bought Estelle gifts, it didn’t directly affect her stats.
Of course, there was a tiny bit of change after I gave her You Can Do It Too! Swordsmanship from Zero – Theory Edition and Do You Know Farming? Tips for Beginner Farmers!
But unlike in the game, where stats would instantly increase after giving a gift, in reality Estelle’s stats only improved after she had finished reading the books.
Normally, the stat increase should’ve happened as soon as I bought her the books.
‘At that point, it’s not really my gift raising her stats—it’s Estelle studying that’s doing it.’
And that wasn’t the only odd thing.
In the original game, once you revealed it was your birthday, all the capture targets would show up with a special illustration and congratulate you.
That was supposed to be the end of it.
‘But this time, it was different.’
Welpion had actually made plans to meet during the festival.
Normally, he should’ve just given birthday greetings and left, right then and there.
‘And of course… no illustration this time either. That’s only natural though.’
After all, this was reality.
Anyway, after that whole series of events, I started to think—
‘Maybe the gifts I give don’t directly affect Estelle’s parameters. But what if the capture targets’ gifts do?’
…That was my theory.
And now, very soon—
Estelle was about to receive a gift from Welpion.
If her stats showed any kind of anomaly the moment she got it, then my theory would be proven correct.
However…
‘Wait, where am I right now?’
I had no idea where I was standing.
On the way here, I’d been too busy replaying Estelle’s words in my head to pay attention to our surroundings.
It’s human nature—if someone tells you not to listen, you want to listen more. If they say don’t look, you can’t help but want to see.
And when you don’t even know what it is you’re not supposed to see, it eats at you even more.
Maybe that’s why—
The whole way here, I’d simply followed behind Welpion without question.
I had no clue whether the path had been straight or winding, whether we’d turned right or left, or even what this place was or how the scenery had changed.
I especially had no idea where the small door Welpion opened had led us.
But one thing, at least, was clear.
‘This isn’t the same as the prayer room…’
This place was different from where I’d followed him before.
As soon as I stepped through the little door Welpion opened, we entered a narrow corridor—so hidden I wouldn’t have believed such a place existed inside the temple.
And the walls were covered in paintings.
“Is this your first time seeing it?”
“Yes. I didn’t know a place like this existed.”
“I thought as much. You have to go through some pretty remote passages to reach it.”
The corridor stretched on endlessly, so long that you couldn’t even see the end.
I found myself wondering what could be waiting at the very end of it—
But even more than that, I was curious about the paintings that completely filled these walls.
What stories were hidden inside them?
Maybe Welpion noticed my curiosity.
He smiled faintly and stepped closer to the wall.
“The story I want to tell you both is a very old one. The story of how Lady Havika came to be where she is now.”
He placed a hand on the mural and began to walk slowly, his voice calm and reverent.
“Have you ever heard that, long ago, gods and humans once lived close together?”
“Yes,” Estelle answered immediately.
Meanwhile, I just stared blankly, clearly having no idea what he was talking about.
Welpion glanced between us before asking Estelle again.
“I see. Then do you know the story of Lady Havika?”
“Only that she succeeded the chief god Konos after he stepped down, and took care of the world in his place.”
Her confident tone faltered a bit. She must have known of the goddess, but not the myth surrounding her.
“Then you must not know the story of her before she became the chief god.”
Welpion nodded knowingly, then began.
“When the chief god of the heavens was still Konos, Lady Havika was but a small and gentle deity—the daughter of Hesiore, the goddess of the earth.”
He touched one of the murals.
It depicted a serene-faced woman and a small girl—undoubtedly Hesiore and young Havika.
“She took after her mother in every way. Even at a young age, she could make the land fertile and crops flourish. She loved all mortal beings dearly.
But then, one day—”
Welpion moved to the next mural.
The peaceful tone of the previous painting was gone.
Someone cloaked in black was throwing a dark veil over the little goddess’s head.
“She was abducted by Dis, the god of darkness, while tending the earth as usual.”
“What?”
Following behind Welpion, I gasped aloud.
“In truth, her abduction was the result of a bargain—between Konos, the chief god, and the dark god Dis.”
“A bargain? Don’t tell me…”
“Yes. Konos sold Lady Havika in exchange for consolidating his own power.”
Estelle frowned, her lips tightening in disbelief.
Welpion nodded slightly.
“The moment she was taken, Lady Havika felt an unbearable betrayal. The dark god trampled her, her mother’s pleas for help were ignored by the sky god, and humans—though they had seen her being taken—lied and claimed they hadn’t.”
“Even though they were there when it happened?”
“Indeed.”
Estelle let out a hollow laugh, one that sounded far too much like heartbreak.
As I looked at her expression, I suddenly noticed how eerily similar Estelle’s face was to that of Havika in the mural—
Those hollow eyes, that emptiness.
As if she were ready to let out one final sigh and give up everything.
“It is said that in that moment, Lady Havika made a vow—to escape the darkness that bound her, to ensure the heavens would never again be worshipped, and to turn her back on humankind, just as they had abandoned her.”
As Welpion continued his story, I couldn’t shake an odd feeling of déjà vu.
To be honest, I didn’t remember much about the mythology of Havika from the game.
Which made sense, considering—
‘I skipped everything after the first time…’
I was too busy chasing endings to sit through the same prologue over and over.
If you already knew the gist, it was faster to just skip and move on.
But after skipping it so many times, the memory had become blurry.
Still, it hadn’t mattered much for gameplay, so I’d ignored it.
‘Wait—so this was Havika’s backstory? Really?’
Listening to Welpion, I thought,
‘This is literally the story of Persephone.’
It was way too similar to that European myth.
Persephone, born of Demeter the earth goddess and Zeus the sky god.
Then abducted by Hades, god of the underworld.
‘Except, you know, she didn’t eat three pomegranate seeds—and maybe had a bit more backbone—but otherwise it’s exactly the same.’
Even the murals looked familiar.
At first, I hadn’t noticed, but as I listened, they started to resemble paintings I’d seen somewhere before in my previous life.
‘Well… still, he said he wants to tell us this story.’
There must be a reason for that.
And besides—Estelle looked completely captivated.
Her eyes sparkled as she gazed at the mural, her ears perked attentively toward Welpion’s voice.
‘Cute.’
She was so cute.
‘Ahem… I guess I’ll just quietly listen for now.’
Yeah. Come to think of it, the later parts of this story were a bit different from the version I remembered of Persephone’s myth.
…Though, to be fair, I didn’t remember it all that clearly.
