The very next thing that I knew, there was a thick stream of water pouring on my back.

  It was scalding hot, so I yelped in pain and jumped.

  This caused me to bang my head on a metal protrusion coming out of the wall, which fucking hurt even more, so all of a sudden I was rolling on the floor clutching my skull while bright stars spun in my vision. If I hadn't already been crying my feelings out like a useless baby, this level of physical pain would have certainly brought tears to my eyes. However in this case, the powerful jolt of indiscriminate pain was something akin to receiving a electric shock from a defibriltor.

  The physical pain hurt more than the psychological pain, so for a short micro-second, I was bumped out of that overwhelming sinkhole of despair, crippling emotional trauma, and raw animalistic terror that had completely consumed every st inch of my brain.

  —Ow! Ow! Ow!

  And then precisely after that moment... I noticed something was different.

  ......

  I realized that the blood had disappeared.

  There was no blood on the floor.

  In fact, Kang Jiesu's body was nowhere to be seen.

  I wasn't even in the garden shed anymore.

  Somehow, I was magically back in the undry room, which was where I had been before all of this had started.

  + + +

  I couldn't process it at first.

  I could hear the swooshing sound of hot water spttering on the floor, and the steamy air was den with moisture.

  The faucet was still running.

  In the corner of the room, I could see my wet clothes that I had stripped off in a messy pile.

  There wasn't anything on the drying rack.

  Oddly enough, I distinctly remembered that I had turned off the faucet and id out my uniform to dry before I had left the room. The way things were in front of me, it was almost exactly how I remembered this pce 20 minutes ago in the past. In fact, it was perfectly identical with my memories without a single discrepancy.

  ...The past.

  I slowly came to a standstill.

  I couldn't stop the tears from flowing from my eyes (it was uncontrolble at this point), but I had enough self-awareness to process that I wasn't in that terrifying pce inside the garden shed anymore. This realization in itself helped me calm down. Just seconds ago, my childhood friend was bleeding to death in front me, but I now my fragile mental state seemed to find relief that this was no longer the case.

  —Was this an effect of 「Excalibur」?

  I had no idea how this had happened, but somehow it seemed like I had been thrown 20 minutes into the past.

  + + +

  It took a few more seconds before I put 1 + 1 together, and then wrenching knot suddenly formed in my stomach.

  ...If this was the past, did this mean that Kang Jiesu was going to be stabbed any moment now?

  20 minutes ago, there must have been some kind of mysterious attacker on the loose, and Kang Jiesu was was about to become their victim. While it wasn't a lot of time, there was definitely a chance I could run to the shed in order to warn him. There was even a possibility that I might discover the identity of the perpetrator.

  While I wasn't proud to admit it, my body immediately locked up.

  Rationally speaking, my reaction probably didn't make a lot of sense. The logical part of my brain could clearly see that time-traveling to the past was an opportunity change the future, and a smart person would spring to action in order prevent a negative outcome. If I did absolutely nothing, the same thing would probably happen all over again, and Kang Jiesu would ultimately be lying in a puddle of blood.

  However, I was too scared.

  I couldn't bring myself to move.

  To be honest, the thought of going back inside the garden shed made me feel like I wanted to vomit.

  + + +

  ...I really hated my character.

  In a lot of ways, I was probably the worst person out of everyone I knew.

  As a high school student, I was petty, selfish, and jealous. I held deep grudges over the smallest little things, and I envied every person who had a better situation than my own. When my cssmates had achievements, accomplishments, or talked about their boyfriends, I was never happy for them. My emotions were always spiteful and malignant. In the bottom of my heart, I wanted everyone else to fail. Even if there was no good reason to dislike someone, I automatically hated them if they were too pretty, charming, and bright.

  A person like me wasn't suitable to be a protagonist — a Hero.

  It was more like I had the personality of a vilin, although I didn't really have the stomach to hurt anyone.

  It was one of the reasons why I had asked God to make me a NPC.

  There was no way I could handle the responsibility of saving the world, especially when I could barely even take care of myself.

  The smallest amount of pressure could make me crumble, and even right now I was still sniffing and crying like an ugly mess. My older brother used to make fun of me because I was a crybaby, since he always said I cried about the stupidest things. He would tell me that if I still had the energy to cry, I should dedicate my energy to fixing my situation instead.

  But I think he didn't understand what it was like to be weak.

  + + +

  I closed my eyes for a long moment.

  My legs were shaking, but I tried to calm them down.

  If I imagined I was Hana right now — surely the other me was a lot stronger than a useless girl like Zhang Guiyu.

  Hanamarie Stiria was an amazing person.

  From my perspective, she could do anything.

  I wobbled unsteadily as stood up, clinging to that nonsensical idea. For several seconds, I tried my absolute hardest to compel myself into switching personalities.

  ...

  .........

  To be honest, I didn't feel the slightest bit any different. My stomach still felt like it was about to throw up. My body was still shaking. I was still scared, still trembling, and I was still terrified beyond belief.

  Had "Hana" gone and disappeared? I didn't feel like I was any braver, stronger, or even the slightest bit more confident than I was before.

  I couldn't sense a single trace of the NPC girl inside of me, even though I desperately wanted her to come out.

  For a brief instant, I felt betrayed.

  If Hana had truly abandoned me, all of this was definitely impossible. Zhang Guiyu was too weak. She was useless. She was an unlikable crybaby with a bad personality who couldn't get a single good result without being a parasite. I needed Hana to help me fix everything, and there was no way that I could possibly move a single inch without relying on a cheat NPC from God to overcome my insecurities.

  But then I suddenly realized—

  ...Somehow... I had already gotten up to my feet?

  And I had done it on my power, without relying on my other self...?

  + + +

  The next thing I knew, I was running across the alcove to the garden shed.

  On my way out, I had quickly grabbed the wet apron of my maid uniform in order to (sort of) cover myself, as well as a small wooden bucket that I intended to throw at someone in case I encountered the deadly attacker. It honestly wasn't a very good pn, and as a matter of fact, I didn't have any kind of pn whatsoever.

  Somehow, I had a hunch that if I hesitated for even a moment — I would surely convince myself to shrivel up into a ball. I could see myself sinking into a cloud of total defeatism and mental paralysis while curling up in the fetal position on the floor, afraid to confront a future that might represent the very worst of my innumerable fears.

  Objectively speaking, I really was just an ordinary high school girl. This was a universe with magical powers and level 61 muscle-heads. Countless people in this world were way stronger than simple humans from Earth. Even if I encountered the person who stabbed Kang Jiesu, it was probably very likely that I would be effortlessly crushed like a insect.

  However, I pushed all of those analytical doubts aside.

  I just ran without thinking.

  I ran because my raw unfiltered feelings told me to go this way.

  + + +

  Wielding my wooden bucket like a weapon, I flung the closet door inside of the shed open.

  My heart was beating so hard I thought it was going to tear out of my chest, but—

  No one was there.

  The closet was empty apart from a handful of tools.

  ...

  I ran back outside and circled around the garden shed, but no matter how hard I searched, there wasn't a single sign of Kang Jiesu or the mysterious person who might have stabbed him.

  I even id in waiting, hiding behind a thick evergreen bush with prickly pine needles.

  Thirty minutes... forty minutes passed... but not a single person walked by in the Royal Garden.

  At a certain point, so much time had epsed that my wet clothes had probably dried in the undry room.

  The garden shed was empty.

  And I was the only person here the entire time.

  ?