0. Prologue

“Leo! Look over there! It’s Koko-ren!”

As Lena, who was picking wild fruits with me, poked my shoulder and pointed to a squirrel dangling from a tree. That little creature had its paws glued to the trunk, ‘parasitizing’ away.

Koko-ren rolled its big, adorable eyes. Lena clapped her hands excitedly at the sight. They say if you see that mountain beast, good luck will follow…

Minseo was trapped in [ Raising Lena ].

With the indifferent text “Starting [ Raising Lena ]”, he became Leo and was imprisoned in a strange world.

Why did I fall into a place like this?

Minseo chuckled bitterly, while Lena smiled brightly.

*

Clothes thrown aside lay like a carpet in his messy room. Minseo rolled in the collapsed bed before weakly getting up.

Lying down to watch O-Tube was getting boring.

“Should I play a game…?”

Muttering, he tossed aside the dirty pillow and turned on the computer with an unamused expression.

As he stood up, his unkempt hair poked at his eyes. Minseo hadn’t stepped outside for days. Except for occasionally slipping on slippers to buy cigarettes and ramen.

– Let’s take a break from each other and have some time apart.

Chaehwa’s firm voice echoed in his head.

Minseo struggled to shake off that voice and, with familiar movements, opened Steam. A place where thousands of games could be downloaded; his account was already crowded with a ton of games.

A book awkwardly balanced on a hastily vibrating mouse. The cluttered desk was filled with administrative law textbooks for civil service exams.

Annoying.

Minseo piled them all to the side and returned to the computer.

Today, Steam was also having a sale. Some games were marked down to 90%, catching his eye.

In that space where reality faded away, Minseo lined up new games and started scrolling.

– I’m saying this for us. I’ll do something too. Let’s work hard.

He scrolled more vigorously.

It was urgent. He wanted to start any game quickly. He wanted to escape.

He graduated university two years ago.

He had sighed then too, but there was an alternative. It wasn’t the job he dreamed of, but he boasted that he just had to pass the civil service exam. Those were the days when he made excuses to those around him.

Minseo felt ashamed in front of Chaehwa, who believed in him till the end. His willpower couldn’t keep up with his heart. Books felt foreign, and he fiddled with his phone, feeling hunger, which cruelly brought him back to reality.

[ Raising Lena ]

As he hurriedly scrolled, a game caught his mouse. A shabby game that cost only two thousand won and didn’t even bother with a discount.

He liked the cheeky attitude. Clicking in, a pretty female character smiled brightly at him.

Reading the game introduction, it looked like a knockoff of Prince Maker.

The story of raising a girl to marry a prince and create a princess.

Though it hadn’t even started, it was predictable. You raise a child, make her work to earn money, and with that money, educate her diligently.

Shouldn’t he just focus on studying instead?

And then, if possible, it’s a game about marrying her off to a prince and making her a princess. Even if you couldn’t marry her to a prince, there were various endings available.

A daughter who became a farmer and married an ordinary man, a daughter who became a noble lady, a daughter who became a knight…

All his daughters smiled brilliantly at the ending, saying, “Father, I’m happy. Thank you for raising me,” before vanishing with the ending credits.

How heartbreaking was it to see those girls smiling brightly despite being exploited and unable to make any decisions on their own?

Were they really happy?

Lena, that pretty character, shone brightly on the screen, breaking Minseo’s thoughts. Although it looked like a lousy game, remembering the past daughters made him a bit generous, and he clicked the payment button.

Alright. Take my two thousand won!

After waiting for the installation to finish, he executed it immediately.

Graphics filled the screen.

It was surprisingly high quality and astonished him. Afraid he might accidentally turn off this overwhelming intro video, he pulled his hand away from the mouse and went into popcorn mode.

Just this video alone was worth two thousand won ─ as soon as he thought that, the screen was engulfed.

[ Starting Raising Lena. ]

[ Achievement: First Meeting with Lena – Lena feels a strong affection for Leo. ]

“Leo! Are you listening to me?”

“Uh-huh?”

“Leo? Why does your face look like that? You’re messing with me again, aren’t you?”

That was the face he had seen in the game introduction.

A girl in her mid-teens with distinct features, her upper lip plump and appropriately protruding, her eyebrows gently arched. Her softly raised nose was intelligent, although its tip inclined downwards.

While he blankly stared at her face, Lena gazed back at him, her determined eyes filled with unhidden affection.

He struggled to handle that affection and turned his head away.

It was a forest. Flustered, he raised his arms, only to notice his underdeveloped hands following suit. A worn leather pouch filled with unfamiliar fruits hung from his waist, and the rough fabric tickled his skin.

And there was the girl looking at him in confusion…

It took several days to come to terms with this situation. This was a small village called Demos.

It was a cozy village where everyone knew each other, part of the Orun Kingdom and under the domain of Duke Gaidan, paying taxes to him.

His name was Leo.

His mother had passed away early, and he lived with his father, who was a hunter. Fortunately, his father was away hunting, giving him time to assess the situation.

“Leo! Are you home? Want to go pick some mountain fruits?”

For days, Lena had been banging on his door every early morning.

Lena and Leo were childhood friends.

They were so close that their bodies remembered dashing through mountains and fields together in search of food.

Today, still led by Lena’s hand, he climbed the mountainside, trying not to arouse suspicion as he followed her lead.

“I heard from Priest Leslie that, you know~”

Lena chattered away while working. Thanks to her, he was getting a lot of clarity about the situation.

This world was one where if you got hurt, you’d get treated by a priest, where feudal and class systems were strict, where knights and holy knights rode horses, and where some plants moved like animals, and some animals moved like plants.

He had no idea why or how he was sucked into this place. He didn’t even have a way to log out.

The thought that this was a dream and that everything would go back to normal after waking up was something he had already discarded. Reality felt way too intense for that to be the case.

In this vivid reality, he even vaguely forgot he was Minseo.

His parents’ and girlfriend Chaehwa’s faces faded from memory, barely surfacing unless he concentrated. Minseo’s consciousness was being pushed back, and the original Leo was slowly emerging.

Leo stole a glance at Lena. She seemed happy just being with him, her chatter never faltering.

Lena, her existence offered a clue to Minseo’s questions. He had come here to ‘raise’ Lena.

With her hair tied back tightly, she deftly picked mountain fruits.

With soft hands that were not healing from hard work, Lena.

I must make this girl a princess. Isn’t that the escape route to finish this game and return home?