[Successfully synchronized with the Romance Simulation Game ‘Midnight’.]

[From now on you are the Saintess, Evanessa Halyn. You must target one of the five male leads and reach their happy ending in order to complete the game.]

As Yewon listened to the messages chiming in her ears, she couldn’t avoid thinking: ‘Not only is this life ruined, it’s headed for a complete disaster.’

Yewon stared into the mirror with a devastated expression on her face. Standing in her reflection was not the Asian girl who had always greeted her, instead, there was a somewhat familiar, western woman who was the spitting image of an illustration that she had last seen on her smartphone screen.

“…Ah.”

The blue irises of the black-haired beauty widened as they lost focus.

Evanessa Halyn was the only saintess of the main religion in the game’s setting, the church of the Creator God Lunium.

Although she was one of several female leads in the popular dating SIM game ‘Midnight’, only a few players ever chose to play her due to her high difficulty setting. So in the main storyline, she was only ever seen as the unfortunate heroine who fell into the role of a trivial extra.

The players stuck her with the nickname ‘Bad Ending Maker’ because no matter which hero she chased after, she would only end up with a bad or sad ending.

There was not a single player in the history of the game who had managed to successfully capture their target with her, so how was Yewon supposed to reach a happy ending with the saintess who had even been called the ‘hard mode bug’?

A sigh leaked out from the corner of Yewon’s mouth.

All of this was due to a single careless word from a friend that had inspired her with the foolish daydream of conquering the saintess’s route.

“I died no matter how hard I tried. Even with a miracle on her side, I don’t think the saintess would ever be able to reach a happy ending?”

Those words ignited a spark inside her. So over the course of the next week, in the spare moments between her part-time work at the library, she became hooked onto the game.

‘Midnight’-a shining example of the dating SIM game genre-was known to set the hearts of young women ablaze. It was jam packed with content as if an entire book had been shredded and thrown in. So, along with its charming illustrations and suspenseful storyline, the quality of the game was unparalleled.

Apart from ‘the hard mode bug’ Evanessa, the solid narratives delivered by its other female leads and the overflowing charm of the male leads actually managed to secure the game 1st place in the app store for several weeks in a row.

The game was set in a romantic fantasy setting. A player could choose from one of four heroines with which to capture one of the five male leads.

However, the problem with this is that Yewon was supposed to be in the middle of her daily work at the library, sorting the returned books and reorganizing a few of the back shelves that rarely saw any visitors.

It happened just as she was about to finish up her work for the day. Taking a short breather, she pulled out her smartphone. Whilst she was telling herself that this would be the last time she would attempt this route, a sharp ringing noise suddenly started to buzz inside her ears.

[…. Miii … Shiii … Tzzz.] *static noises*

Yewon shot upright with a shocked cry and grabbed onto a nearby windowsill for support as she tried to catch her breath. A strange noise was echoing inside her head, sounding similar to a broken radio.

A sudden spike of pain tore through her head, causing her to drop her smartphone. As she bent over to try and pick it back up, her vision started to dim and the phone seemed to fall out of reach as Yewon felt herself being pulled somewhere far away.

Then, when she opened her eyes once more, she was greeted by a message before she even had a moment to gather her wits.

[Successfully synchronized with the Romance Simulation Game ‘Midnight’.]

[From now on you are the Saintess, Evanessa Halyn. You must target one of the five male leads and achieve a happy ending in order to complete the game.]

At first, she thought it was an auditory hallucination caused by her preoccupation with the game. Although the change in her surroundings was very concerning, she was sure that the white ceiling hanging over her just meant that she was in the hospital.

However, the place she woke up in was indeed the very same room that she had been forced to stare at on her smartphone’s screen until she was sick of it, Evanessa’s bedroom.

She tried all the usual methods of waking up from a dream, but they proved useless. Although it was hard for her to believe, she was now certain that this was reality.

‘So I’ve been inserted. Not into a novel, but a dating SIM.’

Yewon, who was still staring at the unfamiliar face in the mirror with glazed-over eyes, heard a knock at the door.

*Knock*

“Saintess Evanessa. The Pope has requested your presence.”

…is this for real?

Yewon’s voice cracked as she replied, “Does it really have to be today?”

The voice that poured from her lacked her usual husky tone; instead, it sounded so sweet and pure that it left her with goosebumps just hearing it. She also sensed that the apostle who had been sent to guide her was still awkwardly waiting by her door.

Yewon – no – Evanessa took a deep breath.

“So where should I be going?”

***

“You’re late,” the pope said as he closed the thick tome that he had been reading. The monocle he was wearing sliding down the bridge of his nose as he turned to her.

Evanessa looked at the pope with a strange expression on her face.

He was one of the main villains of the hodgepodge, European, Middle-Ages, fantasy world that the dating SIM game had been set in.

He was also the root cause of why Evanessa’s naïveté score was a full 10 out of 10 points.

“Your call just came too suddenly.”

“Well, foremost, take a seat.”

The pope gestured to the seat directly opposite him with a tilt of his chin. Although he was slightly over 60 years old, he appeared to be a young man in his twenties due to the high levels of magic that he had been born with.

In this world, the priests of the Creator God Lunium possessed ‘Magic Power’ instead of ‘Divine Power. This was because Lunium, who along with his role as the God who created the world, was also the god from whom all magical power was drawn from.

Therefore, all those who held large reserves of magical power, yet lacked the necessary talent to become a wizard, were instead recruited to serve as priests of Lunium.

“Let’s just get straight to the point of this meeting. I’m tired, and I want to quickly go back to my room and get some rest.”

The pope’s eternally Stoic expression faltered for the first time.

If this game had now truly become her reality, with the only way to return to her original world was to reach a happy ending, then the one person who represented absolutely everything that Evanessa would need to avoid on her way to the perfect ending was the pope.

‘The first thing to do is to escape the church.’

However, the church would never willingly let go of Evanessa, who was the manifestation of their god Lunium.

“… so today marks the start of your rebellious period. Do you really hate the fact that you’re going to the imperial palace tomorrow that much?

She was going to the imperial palace tomorrow?

Could it be … because of the ‘Lunium’s Day Festival’?

It was out of character for Evanessa, who was basically the zashiki-warashi of the church, to go outdoors for any purpose other than charity work. On top of that, it was very rare for anyone to be allowed to directly enter the royal palace. So if this wasn’t for the Anniversary of the Empire’s Founding, then there was a high probability that this had something to do with the month-long regional holiday celebrated across the empire, the festival of ‘Lunium’s Day’.

On her way here, she had asked the apostle for the date and had been informed that it was the start of May. Since the monster hunt usually started around September, this meant that presently it should be close to the time of the Lunium Day Festival.

Her involvement in this matter came about because of a collaboration between the peaceful reigning emperor and the shrewd pope. Apart from the emperor himself, the rest of the royal family were obligated to leave the palace every weekend during the month-long Lunium’s Day Festival to attend the church’s service. By allowing the saint to enter the palace and conduct the service there, it would allow the entirety of the royal court to participate in the service together.

As Evanessa remained silent, the pope, who came to his own flawed conclusions, released a heavy sigh.

“Didn’t I tell you that this would be the last time.”

“…”

“Didn’t I hand that thing over to you, if you had used it to capture the heart of the crown prince, then everything would already be over and done with. I thought you said that you held feelings for the crown prince.”

If this was the original Evenassa, who had been extremely frightened of the pope’s displeasure, then she would have been forced to choose one of only two replies.

[H-however, if I use that…]

[I’ll try my best….]

Both options had made her feel like she was about to snap, but inside the game, there had been nothing that she could do.

However, now that the game had turned into reality, things were different.

Evanessa smiled sweetly and said, “I’ll think about it.”

“…What?”

“I said that I will think it over and decide myself. Whether to use it or not.”

The pope’s expression went slack with shock. At this sight, the frustration that had been building up inside her ever since she started playing as Evanessa was finally soothed.

“Evanessa!” the pope shouted as he recovered from the shock, his face red and his brows furrowed with rage.

Evanessa wasn’t cowed and simply stood in place.

“Did you just dare to say that you would disobey my orders!”

“Yes. I don’t have any need for things like that drug.”

“What?”

That was because she had no plans, whatsoever, of stringing along with the crown prince.

As she watched the confusion bloom on the pope’s face, the corners of Evanessa’s mouth twitched with suppressed laughter.

“If that’s the case I have nothing more to say. Go with the grace of Lunium.”

She had to get rid of her connection to the church as soon as possible. If she got entangled with the church that was already rotten to the core, it was likely that she would end up in the bad ending, where she would be exploited by her superiors and then discarded.

‘Now I just need to decide who to target.’

Each of the male leads in the game required their own unique ways of being dealt with. Though it would be a different story if she had been playing as the main heroine of ‘Midnight’, Lady Beatrice.

As Evanessa walked down the corridor alone, absorbed in her thoughts, she suddenly came to a halt.

“…Ah.”

Although Evanessa and Yewon were almost complete opposites in every single way, they still had one thing in common. They both had no sense of direction.

Evanessa eventually managed to get some help from a passing high priest and arrived safely back at her own room.

Since the first time she had set eyes on it, she hadn’t received any further system messages.

‘Do I have to trigger a special event just to receive one?’

As she had been ****** into such a precarious situation, it was difficult for her to get to sleep. A million different thoughts were running through her head.

‘Getting synchronized with the game should mean the same thing as having your soul inserted into the character, right?’

‘Then what about the body that I left behind in reality?

‘It would be bad if my dad gets called. He’ll be so worried.’

‘I was supposed to be paying my rent soon, and what will happen to my part-time work at the library? It was my dream job, but now I might have lost the position by the time I get back.’