Chapter 18: An Outsider to the Troubles

“If you truly have that ability, then leave Her Highness the Princess’s safety to me.”

“Even if I die, I will not let any harm come to Her Highness the Princess.”

The maid walked to Dolores’s side, helped her up, and called out to the retreating Green.

“You must live up to the promise you made to Her Highness, Mr. Green!”

Green paused for a moment before leaving. He had definitely heard the maid’s words.

Dolores, whose legs had gone weak, regained some strength. After propping herself up, she turned to the maid beside her and asked:

“What can we… no, what can I do to help them?”

Dolores looked up at the carnage surrounding her, closed her eyes, then opened them again. Though her face was strained, she forced herself to suppress the intense nausea.

“If my identity as a princess can play a more important role, then please take me to where I am needed.”

If Dolores were not a princess, she might have chosen to devote herself to disaster relief and battle. Without a doubt, she could have helped many people that way.

But if she is a princess, can she use her status to accomplish things others cannot?

Dolores hoped to find the answer in the maid’s words.

“The destruction of the ritual has caused large areas of the royal capital to collapse. The monsters long hidden beneath the kingdom are attacking the citizens again and again.”

“There are City Guards Bureau outposts all across the royal capital, with Royal Guards stationed to keep order. Some of those locations store special weapons and supplies, but they require special permissions to access.”

“The royal palace was attacked by outsiders once before. Most of those stored supplies are meant for emergencies, as well as to display benevolence… but in this special period, they can help many people.”

The maid explained, perhaps embellishing the truth a bit.

The real reason was:

When the king inspected the city, those Royal Guards would don their finest, gleaming full armor and distribute some food to draw citizens’ attention, showing off the strength and kindness of the royal family.

But those guards themselves have neither the right nor the ability to open the storerooms. In theory, those are considered “royal property.”

But Dolores quickly understood what the maid meant, and so she let her lead the way.

Everywhere they passed, the road was marked by tragedy.

Meanwhile, near the Golden Plaza.

The Sculpture of the First Hero still stood in the center of the plaza. Dragonflame ignited the buildings nearby. Not far away, a collapsed section had given way, and a monster climbing out was driving people away.

A girl in an academy robe appeared nearby, at the corner of an alley where she could see the plaza.

She frowned, her expression pale, clearly uncomfortable with the bloody, terrifying scene. Wherever her green eyes fell, it was a vision of horror.

“As I thought, scenes like this are still… too much for me to handle.”

The girl reached up and tied her golden hair back into a ponytail. This green-eyed blonde girl was Albeco.

“I never imagined that those words printed on paper would, in reality, become such a hell on earth.”

“I almost forgot—the whole ‘dragon attack’ scenario was just me borrowing from what I thought were distinctive classics, patching in conspiracies and cults to fill in the logic. Now that these things have come to life in this world, they’re utterly terrifying.”

This was a disaster that no one present could hope to withstand.

After all, this was not Green’s “main plotline.” His storyline should be handling the disaster at the border later.

In terms of design philosophy, Albeco could summarize things much more clearly than Dolores.

The Land Kingdom had to be thrown into turmoil and become overwhelmed. Only then could Green have a stage to display his skills and, through his achievements, draw close to the princess, Dolores.

That was the main reason.

As for the secondary reasons—

Take Hilberu, for example. Here, she left the marks of her transformation. Witnessing suffering, she became determined to walk the path of a saintess.

In the future, when the male lead asks her why she became a saintess, she would reply that it was because of this disaster—one that Green also experienced—that she earned his goodwill and trust.

“When I saw them die before me, begging for comfort in their final moments, and I, because of my lack of knowledge and childishness, could not grant their dying wish… the guilt made me resolve to live by the Saintess Ideals.”

As for the rest—like Nobles’ Private Army dressing as Bandits to rob royal merchants, Imperial Army using the chaos as a pretext to invade, Border Tribute State declaring independence—there was no need to mention more.

No one could stop this disaster—not even Albeco, who knew the plot inside out.

Because its core was a “dragon,” a nearly invincible creature, not some conspiracy that could be thwarted or a fragile, elaborate ritual.

Only when she saw the dragon with her own eyes did Albeco truly realize her own powerlessness.

Though she had worked hard over the six months since she crossed over, by the time she had saved enough to go to university, only two months were left.

She’d skipped two grades but still hadn’t advanced to the Mage Academy or learned any High Magic—the basics she had thoroughly mastered.

It wasn’t that Albeco didn’t want to use her memories to search for artifacts, but first, she had to avoid the routes Green might take to loot them, and second, she couldn’t even use some of the items herself.

Even the “Dragon Summoning Flute,” which was specialized and had lower requirements for the user, would, at her level, likely let the Dragon Soul backlash rupture her lungs directly.

So she didn’t have any good methods and, in the end, still had to rely on her knowledge of the plot to influence Green indirectly by staying near him.

First, because the story basically revolved around him—the opportunities and treasures, too.

Second, because Albeco had something she wasn’t sure was a cheat—she could see the “Quest Board” on Green.

By the names and contents of his quests, she could roughly gather some intelligence.

And most importantly—

Albeco didn’t exist in the original plot, so she never worried about being affected by Green.

She knew all the Strategy Characters recorded in the system, and she wasn’t among them.

It was rather sad, really.

Before Albeco crossed over, she had just attended her best friend’s funeral. She never expected her friend would drown at sea.

She had sincerely wished for her friend to be reborn in another world and wrote that prayer, signing it with the online handle she shared with Wang—”Little Flower Fish”—before burning it before his empty grave.

It was a pity they never found the body, so perhaps his soul did pass on to another world.

But for her, she really couldn’t hold back her tears. Rain, bad luck, a slip, a rollover—and Albeco, standing on the curb, ended up in another world.

Still, at least it was a world of her own writing, whose plot she knew well and where she could make a difference.

Frankly, even if someone transmigrated as the female lead in a game, unless it was into Dolores, it would always be an unbeatable opening.

All the other characters had their unique charms, their own checks and balances to delay corruption, and none of them drew Green’s aggro as sharply as Dolores.

She was the beginner’s guide, the guaranteed starter character.

But those Strategy Characters would still, in the end, earn Green’s resentment or be influenced by the system.

Fortunately, she wouldn’t—she was truly an outsider.

And for this, Albeco was quite satisfied.

She continued to watch the plaza and saw Green appear.

At their first meeting, Albeco had already dropped hints to him.

“He should have understood my hints… right?”

Just as Albeco was thinking this, Green passed the sculpture and headed straight for the palace.

Albeco’s eyes widened, “Did he really not get my hint?!”