Episode 162
".....Ugh."
One morning, as the sun continued its cycle of rising and setting.
"Ugh, ugh..."
Rozwin, who had been continuing to decode the diary in her room at the academy until then.
"Ugh... ugh..."
Was reading the latter half of the diary she had finished decoding, sobbing sorrowfully.
[Year XX, Month XX, Day XX]
[Today is the day I go to give Rozwin the last flower.]
"This... this was when... This was the time..."
Though she had already read all the contents while decoding, Rozwin reads through the content again from the beginning, trembling violently.
[The flower I'm giving her today is a rose. Originally, I wanted to give her a flower that never withers, but unfortunately I couldn't obtain one.]
It was because her brain couldn't fully accept that shocking content with just one reading.
[This will probably be the last attempt. Because the next day, I'll lose everything and be taken away.
Will I be able to succeed this time?
If just once, if I could succeed just once...]
And so, new information enters Rozwin's vision as she reads again.
[I can't remember how many flowers I've given to Rozwin.
I've given every type of flower that exists in the world, and once I even gave her an entire flower garden as a gift.
But, why?
Why doesn't she become my helper?]
Not content she had already understood somewhat, but words written in a considerably shaky handwriting.
Evidence that Frey's hand was trembling significantly when writing this content.
[According to the prophecy, Rozwin is set as my only helper.
The last conscience to lower the incredibly extreme difficulty. A being who, if the helper system awakens, doesn't incur penalties even if she realizes my true identity.
The moment she becomes a helper, she becomes my only understanding person, the best assistant and partner.]
"Assistant... partner..."
Rozwin, who was reciting words containing a relationship that now has no meaning and will never happen, with a soulless voice, turns the page to the next with trembling hands.
[That's why, I always treated only her well.
Even when hurting everyone else, I treated only her warmly, and always tried to please her heart.
Because then she would accept my flower and satisfy the condition.]
"C-condition..."
[But, it's really strange.
Even though I gave her countless flowers in countless iterations... for some reason, she never became my helper.
Having tried all sorts of things, the only thing I couldn't accomplish says it all.]
"Th-that..."
Seeing that part, Rozwin suddenly remembers.
That when Frey kept giving her flowers, there were times she accepted them because it was too annoying otherwise.
[Well, so I gave up on making her a helper for a while.
For quite a long time.
Until this iteration came, I gave her flowers just to be hated by her.
Because for some reason, she hated me terribly the more flowers I gave her.]
Up to there, from Rozwin's eyes who read that far.
[Time passed and passed, and this iteration arrived.
An iteration where I've completed enough growth to end everything, learned everything necessary.
An iteration where everything worked out with miracle-like probability.]
A tear falls.
[That's why, the flowers I used to give out of obligation and habit in the past, I gave with sincerity in this iteration.
Of course, at first it was for a quite selfish reason.
To make her my helper, to increase the clear rate of this iteration reached through countless regressions even a little more.
With that reason, I started giving her flowers with sincerity for the first time in a while.]
The tears she shed run down her cheek, wetting the diary that had been burned once and restored with magic, making it quite dry.
[But, at some point I realized.
And, I had no choice but to admit.
That even though I was tired of everything in countless regressions,
In the end, I wanted a colleague I could open my heart to and talk to.
That I wanted to be acknowledged by someone by confessing everything I had done.
And...]
"Ah, ah... agh..."
[That I wanted to be loved at least once at the end, by anyone.]
The number of tears running down Rozwin's cheek increases.
The tears that made the once dry diary damp.
[But, in this iteration too, she didn't respond in the end.
Thanks to intelligence that had become too high, I barely found out the conditions needed for awakening as a helper.
I desperately tried everything I could to win her heart.
But she, as always, was just happily laughing and chatting with Ruby.]
After that, they continued to fall for a long while.
[Thanks to that, my lingering feelings that had suddenly appeared after forgetting for a while became too faint.
Why on earth does she hate me so much?
Are she and I destined to never connect?]
"If just once... if only she had accepted with sincerity just once..."
Because the system activated the moment she thought she wanted to see Frey again and grabbed the flower thinking of him as a 'precious existence.'
She realized that the awakening condition was 'accepting the flower with sincerity.'
The reason Frey was especially kind, gentle, and warm only to her.
The reason he tried to look good to receive love, and kept confessing even after being rejected again and again.
She realized that it was because he wanted a colleague he could share everything with when the last moment came.
"I, I... I..."
However, Rozwin betrayed his expectations until the end.
Because whether in the past or now, Rozwin was filled only with the heart to serve the hero.
Because she only saw Frey as someone infatuated with her beauty and charm, an innocent and gullible money source.
"...What did I do?"
Suddenly, memories flash through Rozwin's mind.
Frey who came to her when she was very young, saying he fell in love at first sight, speaking incoherently.
He who said he would give whatever she wanted, give her wealth and honor too, please become his partner.
Her who treated him warmly on the surface, but inside sang songs thinking a new money source had come.
Her who accepted various flowers he gave with desperate expressions with a smile, then when he left the guild, burned them with cold expressions, threw them away, or stuffed them in the warehouse.
Time passed and passed like that, Ruby appeared in the world as a hero, and the days devoted to her.
"Rozwin, today too the flowers... ah."
"...Who is that person?"
"A stalker. Don't mind him."
Frey who came with a bouquet with a shy expression, discovered her talking with Ruby, and made a shocked expression.
Looking at such Frey with an incomprehensible smile, Ruby who quietly winks at her.
"Rozwin, I'm begging you. Please, just once..."
"I told you to get lost? What would the Hero think if she saw this sight?"
Later, Frey who even cried and clung to her legs, begging her to date him just once.
"Ugh... ugh..."
And,
Her who turned him away at the door when he came for the last time.
Her who stabbed his side wildly with a dagger in the final battle.
"Ugh... ah..."
What she, whom Frey desperately wanted to make a comrade, for whom he held his last lingering feelings, did to him, keeps floating in Rozwin's head.
"He treated me well... because of me he had his last lingering feelings... and I only saw him as a money source..."
She is now starting to pay the price for coldly refusing Frey who sent rescue requests until the very last moment.
[Still, I will try the last attempt.
Although I probably won't be able to receive the unidentified flower that Alice personally selected due to lack of time.
The rose I prepared in advance is so beautiful, so it's awkward to throw it away.
And, because I still have a little lingering feeling left.]
"...Ah?"
Rozwin, who had been trembling while immersed in the seriousness of what she had done for a while, suddenly opens her eyes wide.
"Th-this is."
And from that moment, her expression starts to change rapidly.
[What the 'small miracle' that occurs when she accepts the flower with sincerity is, and...]
Because she discovered the last words she couldn't check earlier due to tears blocking her vision.
[...and I have a little interest in what happens if she, holding the flower, comes to find me after everything ends.
Well, that too can only happen if she accepts the flower.]
"...Flower."
Rozwin, who got up abruptly from her seat seeing those words, mutters while trembling violently.
"I need to... give the flower."
Rozwin muttering like that and looking down at her palm.
"Flower... ah."
Soon, her eyes became dead.
The rose that Frey gave, which was the only one remaining until then, had dried up so much that it couldn't withstand the shock of the system awakening and was shattered to pieces.
"...N-no. It should be there. It should be there."
Rozwin, who was blankly staring at the scattered rose in her palm, hurriedly shakes her head and reaches out her hand.
"It should, it should be there... at least one, at least one should be there..."
Before long, she started rummaging through the desk drawer looking for the flowers Frey had given so far, but.
"At least one... ugh."
The flower she found not long after was.
- The first flower the Hero gave me ♡
A ruby-colored flower that Ruby first gave her a few years ago.
Because she kept it with care, it hadn't withered at all.
".......Ah."
Only then, the flowers filling the room enter her field of vision.
"...Ugh."
It's all covered with gifts from Ruby, flowers Ruby gave, photos taken with Ruby.
"Ughhhhh..."
The gifts and flowers Frey gave don't remain.
Because she sold them all, burned them, or threw them all away.
"Ahhhhhhh!!"
Thinking such thoughts, Rozwin suddenly starts screaming like crazy.
"Don't, don't look at me...!!!"
She starts tearing apart the photos of Ruby posted all around, the ruby-colored flowers neatly preserved, and the notes praising Ruby she had posted.
- Riiip!!
"...Ack!!"
Then, the protection magic she spent a lot of money to make destroys her hand.
"Aghhhhh..."
Thanks to that, Rozwin who fell on her bottom on the floor trembles.
"Don't... don't look at me like that..."
Because she realized that Ruby's expression in the photo that looked bright until just a few days ago was actually an expression full of mockery.
"Ugh... ugh..."
Like that, Rozwin who was losing vitality while surrounded by the ruby-colored flowers on the floor.
"...Warehouse."
She gets up staggering and mutters in a low voice.
"The guild warehouse... artificial flowers might be stored there."
A while later, a carriage left Sunrise Academy.
.
"........."
Tears flow down from Rozwin's eyes as she walks down the street with her head down.
"R-Rozwin? What brings you here..."
"Ar-artificial flowers! The artificial flowers Frey gifted me... are they still stored in the warehouse!?"
"No, we sold them all?"
".....What?"
Because she heard shocking words from the information guild staff member she visited a few hours ago.
"They were made of gold and expensive jewels... You told us to store them and sell them one by one."
"W-when did you sell them...?"
"We disposed of them all a few months ago. I made the last remaining one into my accessory."
"Ac...cessory..."
Rozwin, who was blankly staring at the artificial flower that had been scattered and made into an accessory as she said, eventually had no choice but to leave the guild empty-handed.
"There's... not a single flower left... He gave me so many flowers... but not even one..."
The flowers in the guild were all flowers Ruby gave, neatly preserved.
Not a single flower Frey gave remained.
"I'm, I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I did wrong..."
That's why.
Rozwin came all the way to Isollet's house, who had mentioned accepting Frey, though she doesn't know how it's possible.
She couldn't enter the house and just kept sobbing.
"If just one... if I had accepted just one... a miracle could have happened..."
Because she herself had kicked away the means to create a miracle that might change everything.
"Ugh... ugh..."
Like that, Rozwin who was crying for a while on her knees in front of Isollet's house.
"...Ugh?"
Soon opens her eyes wide.
[Although I probably won't be able to receive the unidentified flower that Alice personally selected due to lack of time.]
"...That flower I received back then, the flower that doesn't wither."
She starts recalling the content she saw in the diary earlier.
"That, that flower was a flower prepared to give to me."
It was a quite forced assumption, but Rozwin who had been in panic for a long time, picks up the flower that doesn't wither with her trembling hand.
"If, if I take this... and go to him. If I go to Frey...!"
And she gets up staggering and starts knocking on the front door.
"Pl-please open the door... Isollet. Open the door... agh."
Then, the front door opened.
Seeing no one inside, it seems the door was open from the beginning.
"I, I brought a flower. Frey... it's too late but... it's become too late but... still..."
Not caring about that fact at all, Rozwin who entered Isollet's house.
".....Ugh."
Discovered that many alcohol bottles were rolling around Isollet who was sitting at the table.
"I-Isollet... Frey. I heard you accepted Frey..."
"...Mm."
Rozwin who urgently asked the question to Isollet who was drunk, opening unfocused eyes and sprawled on the chair.
"......There, over there."
"Th-thank..."
When Isollet points somewhere with blurry eyes, Rozwin quickly moves her steps.
"........Ah."
And Rozwin who eventually arrived in front of Frey that Isollet mentioned.
".........."
Looked down with dead eyes.
[Frey Raon Starlight]
There was a sheath filled with sparkling soil with Frey's name written on it.
".....What is this?"
"Isn't it Frey."
When Rozwin asked a question, Isollet speaks while giggling with unfocused eyes.
"It's definitely Frey. Of course. If that's not Frey, what is Frey?"
"......."
"The other children will come soon too. I told them. You can say hello in advance..."
Leaving Isollet who was talking incoherently behind.
- Swipe...
With dead eyes, Rozwin carefully plants the flower in the sheath filled with soil.
"........"
But no miracle happened.
"I, I brought the flower... hick."
Because it wasn't Frey, but traces of Frey.
"I, wrong... sorry... ugh..."
It was from that point that Rozwin completely broke down.