Hearing that crazy warrior princess desperately shouting my name, a shiver crept its way up my spine. Ever since I had rescued her from some bandits, she seemed to follow me around like an adorable little puppy would its owner.

She somehow got it in her head that I should be the Queen. I’m just a regular old villager from the Rabbitman Village, not even the daughter of the chief or anything. She’s the one with royal blood, so why is she trying to foist her throne off on me???

“Yoooooour Maaaaaajestyyyyyy!!!” Her voice was rapidly growing in volume and clarity as she approached with all the velocity of a bolt of lighting.

That crazy little girl…… I miss the days when she was just a helpless little princess. I don’t know what got into her, but ever since that day I saved her, she trained like a woman possessed…… She must have the latent blood of past heroes or something, because she rapidly scaled the power rankings. All the way until she became the strongest human in the entire world.

“What are you doing here, Valia?! You were supposed to be leading the army battle over on the border, dozens of kilometers away!”

“I crushed that army lickity split, so that I could hurry over here! No thing and no body could ever stop me from coming to fight by your side, Sagi…… I just didn’t expect you to have already crushed that dirty dark god by the time I got here.” Valia said with her chest puffed out with pride, finally arriving at my side.

“Ugh…… Can you at least not call me ‘Your Majesty?’ You’re the Princess here, the last remaining member of the royal family, so you’re obviously going to be Queen - not me. So stop saying that.” I said with a tired sigh.

“How could that be?!” She said sternly, “You’re the one who freed the citizens, broke the curse on the World Tree, revitalized the land, and now you’ve gone and crushed the Dark God…… You’re our Hero! Of course you should lead us! Everyone agrees with me, you should be the one to take us into the new age. I even talked it over with the elves, humans, beast tribes, and gnomes - we all think you should be the head of the new, united nation. The Empress of the World - Sagi the Great!”

My face paled at the picture Valia was painting with her words. Her brain must have gone crooked somewhere, perhaps due to the back breaking amount of training, thinking I would ever want such a thing. She should know me. She should have known I never wanted to be anything like an Empress! I just wanted to set up a shop somewhere, all quiet-like, and retire in peace. But she’s got the leaders of all the other races on her side for this crazy plan of hers?! Dang it, she must have infected the entire world with her strange dream!

I could see it now, being forced to sit on some stuffy old throne all day, wearing uncomfortable golden robes, having to spend my every second dealing with paperwork and meeting with duplicitous nobles…… it sounded like hell. My own personal hell.

Grabbing my hand, Valia said excitedly, “Come back with me, we’ve got to get you ready for the Grand Victory Parade! The citizens are all waiting for victorious hero to return, so we can celebrate this momentous day!”

My stomach just sunk even further as her excited voice pounded into my ears. I was getting the sinking suspicion that there was no getting away from this no matter where I hid, not with the entire world on her side. So, I checked my potential fate with my ability. Desperately, I looked for some path to peace for myself in this world, but………… there was nothing. It was impossible.

If I stayed here, I would forever be hounded by those who wanted to meet the woman who defeated the Dark God Yog and take advantage of my power and reputation. My ability, however, did show the one path to happiness available to me - granted to me by the gift that Aki left behind. One golden path to the future lay before me, accessible only by crossing through the dimensional rift, and I had to take it.

My long crusade against the Dark God had taught me to be decisive above all else, so I began to act immediately after making my choice - knocking Valia off my arm and gathering power in my legs.

“Sorry, Valia…… Looks like you’ll have to be Queen after all.” I said with a grin, purple energy rippling through my right hand. “My path to happiness lies elsewhere, and I have to grasp it all on my own!”

“What do you mean, Sagi?” Valia asked with confusion visible on her face.

“Time for me to go!” I shouted as I jumped into the air. Pulling my arm back, I used the Space-Time Seed and punched the Dimensional Wall with all my strength.

Valia just stood there, locked in place, as the wall separating this world from another just shattered into pieces. She could only watch helplessly as I threw myself into that yawning void, determined to follow it wherever it might take me.

Before I went all the way through the rift, I dropped a resplendent purple gem into her hands before turning to give her a grin, “Hold on to that Coordinate Gem for me! If you want to see me again, you’d better not lose it. Well, I’m off to my next adventure!”

The last thing I saw before the rift swallowed me was Valia trying, and failing, to hold back tears and waving goodbye as energetically as she could.

“You’d better come back!!!”