“The harvest festival prize was incorrectly awarded due to my mistake. I apologize to everyone. It would be best to present it here. I will award this to the rightful person, Rudis.”

Near the very end of winter, Kaires handed over the autumn harvest festival prize. Rudis looked at Kaires with a bewildered expression.

“Thank you.”

So the business he had to attend to was getting this ready. Kaires can be cute sometimes. Rudis smiled softly and finally received the harvest festival prize she had longed for so much.

In this touching moment, Rudis soon came to her senses.

Earlier, people said they had no food ingredients…!

“Oh, the general store closed, right? First, I’ll handle the urgent food ingredients…!”

Before she could finish speaking, suddenly her vision brightened dramatically. A familiar system window appeared before her eyes.

[Quest Complete!

Quest Name: True Self]

The ancient characters that had looked like broken letters gradually aligned like unfolding blinds, transforming into recognizable forms.

[Quest Description: Complete the game by winning the harvest festival.]

Complete the… game? What is this? …An ending?

For a moment, her breath caught in her throat. She had wondered if there would be an end, but to face it like this. Rudis was flustered. Suddenly an ending.

Could she be leaving this place? Even though it was inside a game, for Rudis who wanted to stay here for life, this was like a bolt from the blue.

[Year 1 Prize 1/1, Year 2 Prize 1/1, Year 3 Prize 1/1, Year 4 Prize 1/1]

If she had known this would happen, she never would have collected harvest festival prizes for life.

Her head felt dizzy. Past days flashed by like a revolving lantern. Anxiety swept over her, feeling like the time she had carefully built up day by day was slipping through her fingers. Rudis bit her lips tightly.

At that moment, countless system windows appeared simultaneously.

From journals to descriptions of numerous items, quests she had completed. All kinds of system windows appeared endlessly, tinting her vision blue.

Her vision darkened from the thousands of overlapping system windows. Completely dark. Then text slowly rose above it. Like credits rolling after a movie ends, countless words swept past Rudis’s eyes.

Most harvested crop – Grapes

Quest completion 99.9%

Person helped most – Ralph

Affinity achievement 43%

Most traded shop – General store

Most intimate NPC – Sandra

Highest profit crop – Pineapple

Hidden quests completed – 52

Highest affinity increase person – Noah

Farm renovation count – 8 times

Guidebook completion – 92%

Overall rating – SS

Ah… No. The dream she didn’t want to wake from was ending.

She felt a sharp headache. Voices of people swirled like a whirlwind in her ears and the world spun round and round. A dreamlike sensation of her body floating. Even in the midst of this, a faint light was flickering in the distance.

[Reward: System Neutralization]

A new system window appeared before her eyes. And far away, a pure white light was calling to her. Showing her the path she must take, Rudis moved her steps like she was entranced.

“Get a grip. Rudis! Rudis!”

What caught Rudis from the distant edge of consciousness was Kaires’s voice. A low, firm voice. The sharp resonance that pierced her ears pulled Rudis back. And it wasn’t just him. Xenon, Noah, and Iska. Countless people were calling her.

“She’s awake!”

“Rudis!”

“Lady Rudis!”

Rudis’s eyelids lifted heavily. Through her blurry vision, she saw a face with tears welling up. It was Noah. Divine power was wrapping around her like flowing fabric. Before she could even feel his pale fingertips trembling, Noah embraced her tightly.

Rudis, suddenly embraced, blinked her eyes. Then she looked around.

Kaires looked like he might collapse at any moment. The fingertips that had been gripping her firmly were cold like ice. Xenon was the same. On Xenon’s face, which always wore a sly expression, there was no trace of composure.

Cold sweat pressing down on his face, a gaze silently staring at her. Iska was clutching the necklace around his neck tightly like a talisman. Like having just that would ensure he wouldn’t lose Rudis.

Everything had changed. All of it.

The sun had already set. But that wasn’t all. The subtly different air. The familiar background sound that had always been there was gone, and she had the strange sensation of hearing even the small sound of wind brushing against the window vividly. Yet at the same time, everything was the same as usual.

It wasn’t the end.

Rudis felt relieved. Only then did she look at those surrounding her. Sandra, Ralph, Hamerd, Shasha, and the villagers. Everyone was looking at her with worried faces.

“You’ve had such a hard time mentally, haven’t you? I should have been there for you… I’m sorry.”

The first to approach was Hamerd. She embraced her with sturdy arms while breathing roughly.

“From now on, I’ve made sure Meilin can’t even come near you, so don’t worry.”

Sandra also approached from the side and took her hand. Then the villagers apologized to her one by one.

“We’re really sorry. We were too foolish.”

“Even if we didn’t know everything Meilin said was lies, we went crazy along with her.”

Such a suddenly changed attitude. Maybe it was pretense. But it didn’t matter anymore. Rudis nodded and slowly tried to get up.

Wobble.

She quickly lost her balance. Hamerd hurriedly supported her. However, he too had no strength in his hands. Suddenly she thought that Hamerd and the other villagers hadn’t eaten for quite some time. Rudis warmly wrapped Hamerd’s hands.

“Thank you. But more than that, the food…”

“No. I don’t want to shamelessly burden you. There must be a way…”

“Isn’t that Thomas over there?”

Someone said. At the end of that gaze stood a man. It was Thomas approaching while scratching his head.

“What? Where did you go?! Why did you suddenly close the general store?”

At people’s clamoring, Thomas’s gaze turned somewhere. He looked clearly anxious.

“I just closed it for a moment.”

He mumbled and opened the general store door to enter. Then people all rushed to follow him at once.

And the place became quiet. Rudis slowly looked at Xenon. Then she asked in a whisper.

“Xenon did that, right?”

“What.”

“Closing the store.”

Xenon’s face slightly contorted. Without denying or affirming, he just stared into space. Seeing that, Rudis smiled gently.

“You did well.”

“What?”

“You did it for me. I said you did well.”

Xenon looked at Rudis with a bewildered face. Rudis chuckled at his reaction and took Kaires’s hand beside her. The cold hand subtly warmed following her warmth.

“Thank you for standing up for me.”

Saying that, she also smiled toward Iska and Noah. Along with words apologizing for startling them.

“Let’s go home now.”

* * *

Rudis returned home. A day of being surrounded by villagers and swept up in chaos. And four men still worrying about her and making a fuss.

“Shall I bring you some more water?”

“How are you feeling?”

“If you feel like you need to lie down, tell me right away.”

“I’ll escort you to your bed.”

At Iska’s words, Xenon clicked his tongue and frowned. Noah was quietly examining her fingertips while letting a bit more divine power flow. Kaires silently watched Rudis while staying by her side.

“I’m fine.”

Rudis smiled gently while looking at the four people. Actually, she wanted to be alone right now. Because she wanted to slowly reflect on this day.

“Wait, I’d like to be alone for a moment.”

The four people’s reactions were varied. Xenon slightly raised his eyebrows and looked at Rudis with suspicion, while Iska drooped his ears with a disappointed expression. Noah briefly closed his mouth then nodded. Kaires looked at Rudis for a moment then quietly left the room.

The room became quiet.

By the way, the reward was ‘System Neutralization’? What could this be?

Rudis tried to call up the system window familiarly. However, nothing appeared.

“…What?”

Wait. System neutralization, could it be…?

Rudis’s heart sank. She tried to call it up again but there was no response. She tried several times, but nothing appeared in the air.

Only then did Rudis realize.