# Prologue to Epilogue
"Status window!"
Yu-jin closed and reopened the blue window repeatedly while lost in thought. Alright, I've transmigrated. With a status window. Into another world!
The novel he had been reading until the end was [Northern Duke's Delinquent Sword Genius]. Though he had never wielded a sword or fought anyone in his life, this presumably meant he was now a sword genius by default.
With a status window at his disposal, all that remained was to enjoy his otherworld life with some power-leveling fun.
Yu-jin grinned as he stared at his status window, when a thought suddenly occurred to him.
"Wait, what are these stats based on?"
The numbers listed alongside his name—strength, dexterity, health, intelligence, wisdom, charisma—looked like a character sheet straight out of a classic tabletop RPG.
Below these were various skills, statuses, traits, and characteristics.
He immediately went to the window. From the second floor of the Karamzin family mansion, he could see maids and guards moving about below.
He could see their abilities at a glance too. Their levels, stats, skills, and brief histories.
Just like a game. When that thought struck him, Yu-jin felt goosebumps rising all over his body. Yes, just like a game.
Even in a world with magic, this couldn't be normal. If he wasn't actually inside a game but had fallen into a real world, then a status window was an unnaturally alien ability.
Can one quantify a person's wisdom and intelligence? Their strength and dexterity? Sure, one could make arithmetic approaches through measuring skeletal muscle mass, maximum strength, cognitive tests, and intelligence assessments, but to display this for 'every visible person,' 'instantly without delay,' and 'with perfect accuracy'?
The moment this becomes possible, this world essentially becomes nothing more than a playground. A playground created by 'someone' who gave him this ability.
[D-rank Quest, Academy Enrollment.]
[Having just opened your eyes in this world, you feel a fateful pull. As with most transmigrators who fall into other worlds, you instinctively realize you must enroll in an academy.]
[Objective: Enroll in St. Yansk University.]
[Optional Objective: Join the Knight Faculty.]
[Optional Objective: Join the Magic Faculty.]
[Optional Objective: Join the Theology Faculty.]
[Additional Objective: Pass the university entrance exam through your own abilities.]
[Reward: Tutorial completion and main episode progression.]
And what is this quest thing? Generally, in games, quests are systems designed to make players directly interact with specific narratives and fix the flow of the story.
Simply put, whoever gave him this strange ability clearly has some "purpose" they want to achieve through him.
Usually, if one compares the world to a game, it would be closest to a massive non-linear sandbox game. A vast beach pursuing ultimate freedom.
But quests define the nature of play. Whether to build a sandcastle, play house, or play territory conquest. It sets the genre of the game itself. That's the essence of quests.
So now the status window is essentially telling him to enroll in an 'academy' and show 'some kind of mainstream.' Without any information provided, the only quest given to the player is practically coercion.
If the status window disappears, he'd just be a young nobleman from a count's family—not bad, but still just a transmigrator with no knowledge or abilities in this world.
"Hmmmm..."
Yu-jin stroked his chin while staring at the status window. He spent time scrutinizing the text between the lines, reading skill descriptions, and analyzing his stats.
Soon, he nodded and made his decision.
"Let's go with the Theology Faculty."
The fact that the Theology Faculty was an option meant that a major religion existed, and whoever gave him this ability—likely a divine being—was probably related to his transmigration.
By studying this world's religion and digging into the identity of the divine, he could probably discover that grand "objective" the status window wanted.
Choices come from information. Despite having the setting and skills of a sword genius, choosing the Knight Faculty would be the most foolish choice. When dealing with divine beings, lack of information could be fatal.
If he had to choose between the Magic Faculty and Theology Faculty, the best choice in this situation was Theology. He couldn't gamble away the "main quest" when he didn't know if he had any talent for magic.
Let's go with Theology. Whether god or devil, let's first find out the purpose of whoever gave him this ability, then decide what to do.
Yu-jin enrolled in the university. That was two years ago.
And now, he was frozen as he saw the status window he thought had disappeared reappear.
["Impossible-rank Quest, For the True @!%$.]
[Objective: Eliminate Ivan Petrovich Yeremov.]
[Optional Objective: Accomplish this.]
[Optional Objective: This is your world's last chance,]
[Additional Objective: And your final duty.]
[Additional Objective: Properly commemorate the man who sacrificed everything for all of you.]
[Reward: The freedom of this world lies in your hands.]
[Reward: Become the Hero.]
"Ha."
Yu-jin calmly processed this. This was the voice of a god directly. The will of a god.
When Beolgrin died and severed the connection between heaven and earth, Yu-jin's status window had disappeared too. This implied that the power of the status window fundamentally belonged to the gods.
The power to know mortals' abilities as numbers. The power to force mortals' actions and assign "fate." The power to read mortals' emotions and thoughts.
Yes, who but a god could possess such powers? It was only natural.
And now, the god's final command was whispering to Yu-jin through Beolgrin's veil.
"True freedom...?"
As if to answer his question, the status window flickered.
[This world is a playground for 'gods,' and you are the sandbox for our amusement and birth.]
[There was a man who sacrificed himself for the permanent freedom of you mortals.]
[Now, one who stands upon that man's corpse is reconnecting the iron chains around your necks.]
[Break them. Break the chains and rise.]
[Accomplish this. When your strength fails, I shall become your strength.]
[Commemorate my son. Walk the same path, and at the same end, complete his will.]
[You were created solely for this purpose.]
"Oh, you've become quite talkative."
Yu-jin nodded while looking at the status window. This blue window, which normally wouldn't say a word no matter how much he begged for information, was now responding to his every word.
Perhaps sensing Yu-jin's mockery, the light of the status window grew slightly deeper.
[I have endured a thousand years solely for this moment, and you were merely a contingency to prepare for variables.]
[Child who worshipped me and wielded my power. Now serve me as before, and become the torch to spread my will.]
[I shall make you the beacon that will forever illuminate the earth as an ember.]
-Whoosh!
Along with the status window's words, Yu-jin felt a sharp pain on the back of his hand. When he removed his gauntlet, the symbol of this world's religion stood out red as if branded with a hot iron.
It was a stigmata. A sacred mark said to appear on saints directly acknowledged by the gods. And as the pain subsided, countless words began to surge in the skills section of his status window, which had remained unchanged until now.
[Holy Strike Lv.Max]
[Living Being Consecration Lv.Max]
[Sanctification Lv.Max]
[Divine Punishment: War Domain Lv.Max]
[Heresy Designation Lv.Max]
[Soul Awakening Lv.Max]
...
..
.
The divine spells he had only conceptually learned in the Theology Faculty began to be fully "understood" at maximum levels. Massive divine power gathered according to his will, beginning to create spells.
He didn't even need to test them. He instantly realized he could do it. Yu-jin momentarily grabbed his spinning head and shook it in resistance.
Accomplish. Follow. Obey.
The knowledge he had learned in the Theology Faculty, which he had willingly mastered to use divine spells, was embedding itself like blades into his soul. For a transmigrator, a human soul that hadn't yet shed the traces of the previous world, it was a temptation difficult to resist.
It was divinity. Warm love and compassion filling the soul itself heated his spirit, whispering hints of the glory that would unfold in his future.
After all, his basic ability was the status window, created by a god, and if that god had directly chosen and guided him, was resistance even possible?
He was molded into this world solely as a tool to carry out the god's commands...
"Wait...!!"
Yu-jin bit his tongue, spitting blood as he shouted. Even as his ears were deafened and his soul shaken by the resounding heavenly hymns and trumpet sounds, he desperately cried out.
"If you could do it yourself, why don't you?"
[I cannot.]
"Instead of doing this to me, why don't you just whisper directly to my brother?!"
[I cannot.]
"Ah, so you're asking me to handle something even you can't do? That man who tore apart your most excellent man, prepared over a thousand years, in front of everyone?"
[....]
Wiping the blood from his mouth, he shouted.
"At least you're honest. I refuse!"
[Why do you repeatedly make such foolish choices? This is the last chance to break the cycle that has never faltered in this world's history, the eternal cycle that takes hundreds of thousands of lives....]
"Usually when an unknown outer space god offers power and whispers for obedience, most people corrupt and self-destruct."
This is a cliché, you idiot.
Yu-jin laughed while wiping blood as his soul felt like it was being torn apart.
Whether it's the gift of the Immaterium, Cthulhu's gift, or an oracle from Greek-Roman mythology. You're not supposed to accept when a god offers something. Job lost his entire family and was devastated, and Lot lost his wife during the Sodom incident.
Look at the man standing ominously before him, gazing at the sky.
From what he'd experienced traveling with him, that man had reached this point by shattering every cliché he'd encountered head-on.
If there is a god, and if he has made a "mistake," there would be only one.
That in choosing transmigrators to come to this world, he was inspired by "creative works."
Myths, folktales, legends, novels, movies, dramas, and even games. Whether it's the "heroes" occasionally mentioned in Theology Faculty classes or the truth about "transmigrators" that the saintess spoke of, they all step into this world following their own "stories."
He doesn't know what the selection criteria are. There might be some divine preference. But his choice was a mistake.
"If there's another chance in the next millennium, I recommend bringing in some proper human specimens instead of those who were obsessed with novels or games!"
[There is no next chance. No more opportunities remain for you mortals. You will remain as livestock waiting to be slaughtered, led by the chains of the cycle.]
Ha, Yu-jin laughed, and a shadow fell over his eyes.
A chilling presence swept over Yu-jin's arm. His extremely elevated stats and various crisis detection passives were frantically alerting him.
This was a sensation like line-of-fire detection. Close to survival instinct. Like prey facing an absolute predator. A mortal soul realizes it cannot defy the being before it.
The god filling his soul emanated anger. Toward the man who had distorted all his purposes and goals.
A blue-eyed Krasilov was looking down at him.
"Yu-jin."
"Yes, brother."
"What do you see?"
"Indeed."
Come to think of it, this man was a monster who had deduced the existence of the status window at first glance. To ask someone to engage in a battle against such a person, now a god, and win? How absurd.
"Tell me."
"It's cursing us. Saying we'll remain as livestock bound to an eternal cycle of chains, waiting for slaughter."
"Tell it I gladly accept."
The man bent down and gripped Yu-jin's arm. With his soul twisting and his body weakened by pain, Yu-jin trembled as he grasped Ivan's firm forearm.
The voice continued.
"If humans have gods, the most valuable future a god could desire is its own suicide. If a god is truly good, truly omnipotent, and truly loves humans. A god's choice should always be to stand aside for its children. No matter how precarious a child's steps toward the future may seem, parents can never live their child's life for them."
[But parents can shield their child from the world's dangers and pave the way for their bright future.]
"Yet still, failure, frustration, and wounds must also be that child's right. Watching them rise again and move forward must also be a form of love. Rather than living as livestock cultivated in a sterile room, one should live a life enduring the process itself for one's own spirit and flesh, even if it means getting hurt and falling."
[Only pain and tribulation that will continue for eons exist in your future.]
"We will live through those eons as we endure that tribulation. The age of myths ends now, and the age of humans will follow. The peace treaty forced by the gods has been broken, and the world will gladly face tomorrow through chaos. Can one disparage the sun and moon as chained livestock merely because they eternally circle the celestial sphere?"
[I was your sun.]
"Then remain as a lighthouse. Let religion remain as virtue, and let its teachings remain as justice, not dogma."
[To those wandering in darkness, to those without the strength to rise on their own, can that truly be called freedom? Can you be confident that the countless lives that will be sacrificed have gained the right to freely choose death?]
"Yes."
Ivan answered the god's last words through Yu-jin.
Thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Progress is always made through pressure between opposing forces. Not everything can be good, not everything can be evil, not everything can be right, and not everything can be wrong.
A world made of a single concept is no different from a cage. A being made of a single idea is no different from a demon.
If a god is truly good, shouldn't it step back and watch without being consumed by the concept of goodness, without dogma?
Now the age of myths ends. The war between concepts ends, and the battle of morality and justice will remain as lessons in old tales.
Tribal gods symbolizing a single concept can no longer reveal their ambitions toward the world. Even if it's the god of humans.
So Ivan, the last of the Seven Dragon Generals on this land, spoke to the symbol of the concept.
"My entire world gladly did so."
The man from a world where superstition and mythology disappeared with the advancement of civilization concluded his words to the final myth.
The god's power leaves Yu-jin's body. As dawn breaks, the stars gradually lose their luster and disappear beneath the sky.
From an empty corner, the morning star reclaimed its place and shed its light upon the world one last time.
The sky regained its lost hope, and the earth lost hope once more.
But the absence of hope is not despair.
Unlike those gods in the sky who act according to concepts, the human heart is not made that way.
Ivan raised Yu-jin's body, slowly surveyed the battlefield, and then.
With a faint smile and a nod, he thought.
Thirty years have passed since the prologue.
It took thirty years to reach the epilogue.
Then weren't those thirty years a story in themselves? Weren't all the stories experienced during those thirty years not a rush toward conclusion, but merely the first part for the next story?
Even if his story ends, as the god said, the world's story will continue for eons.
"Vanka—!!"
Watching Elizabeta running from afar, Ivan spread his arms.
ED. From Prologue to Epilogue.