Episode 169
The Empire Hospital, once filled with patients, but now with not a single patient, let alone any doctors or nurses.
- Knock, knock, knock.
Naturally, a clear knocking sound echoed through the hospital room that hadn't heard such a sound in quite some time.
"W-who is it...?"
At that, the maid who had been dozing off inside the room startled awake and asked.
"......."
But there was no answer.
"W-what?"
Because of that, the maid, who had a slightly tense expression, slowly headed toward the door.
- Creak...
"Hmm?"
The maid, who grabbed the worn-out doorknob and slowly opened the hospital room door, began to tilt her head.
She had definitely heard a knocking sound.
But in front of the door, in the hallway, there wasn't a single person, not even an ant.
".....?"
The maid stood there with a dumbfounded expression, scratching her head.
"Haa... Have I gone crazy too from staying in a place like this?"
Then, grumbling, she left the room.
"........"
And for a moment, silence flowed through the room.
- Zzzzt... Zzzzzzt...!
Suddenly, sparks began to fly from the center of the room.
"Haa..."
That was until Frey, who had been wearing a dark expression, revealed himself.
"...Klana."
Frey, who had been fiddling with the pendant hanging around his neck, spoke with a sad smile.
"I never wanted to see you become like that again."
"Chirp! Chirp!"
And at that moment, a single canary that had been quietly crouching by the window with its eyes closed until then rushed into Frey's arms.
Even though it wobbled and staggered considerably, as if it had been a long time since it last moved, it kept its two eyes fixed on Frey.
- Flap...
Thus, the canary successfully landed in Frey's arms after a precarious flight.
But only for a moment, the canary soon tilted its head.
- Shrrrr...
Instead of the warm touch it had expected, the star mana rising from Frey's chest, which it was touching, was painfully stinging the sun mana that constituted its body.
"Chirp~♪ Chirp~♪"
Because of that, the canary gave up on burrowing into his chest, settled on Frey's shoulder, and began to rub its cheek carefully against his face while singing.
"...Klana."
Frey, who was watching such a sight with sad eyes.
"How long are you going to stay like that...?"
He asked with a sorrowful expression, carefully stroking the canary with a hand made of star mana.
- Flap...!
At that, the canary, which had been singing to him until then, finally came to its senses and quickly began to fly somewhere.
- Fwoosh...
Before long, the canary, which had arrived in front of Klana who had been lying on the bed like a corpse, merged directly into her body.
"F-Frey!!"
Not long after that, Klana, who had become considerably thin, bolted up from the bed and began calling out to Frey.
"Is it really Frey? Is it the Frey I know!!"
Frey, who slowly nodded his head at such Klana, then asked with a dark expression.
"What were you doing after turning into a canary?"
At that, Klana answered while stumbling over her words.
"W-when I turn into a canary... I can kill my emotions..."
"......"
"B-but I came back from time to time to handle work. I evacuated all the citizens safely... and completed the delegation regarding imperial authority and the signature for total national mobilization... and um..."
Frey, who was staring at her intently.
"...Haa."
He let out a sigh and walked outside the hospital room.
"F-Frey? Where are you going? Frey!"
Klana, who was following behind Frey while staggering due to the aftereffects of having lain in bed for a long time.
"But, how on earth did you return? W-weren't you erased... or rather, destroyed...?"
Soon, she began to ask questions with an anxious expression.
"Hmm..."
Frey, who had left the hospital room and stepped into the hallway with Klana behind him, chewed his lips while heading somewhere.
"T-that place... you shouldn't go in there..."
Before long, when he stood in front of a door with a warning sticker attached, Klana spoke while breaking into a cold sweat.
- Creak...!
However, Frey ignored her words and threw the door open.
"Who... is it?"
At that, a gloomy voice resonated from inside the room.
"You're in the way, so please leave..."
The owner of that voice was Serena, who was surrounded by all kinds of formulas, magic circles, and various experimental tools, writing something.
"What are you doing?"
Frey asked such Serena a question but.
".........."
Serena was just absorbed in the formula right in front of her eyes.
It was the core formula derived from the pitch-black formulas that had completely covered the furniture, floor, and even the wallpaper.
"Let's see..."
Frey, who sighed and approached right beside her, stared at the formula blankly, tilted his head, and then opened his mouth.
"The second formula in the 8th line is wrong."
"...What?"
"And while using rune character array formulas is efficient, the success rate drops. Especially when it's a one-time-use scroll."
"W-wait a moment..."
"And..."
Frey, who had been analyzing the formula Serena had written, finally, when she looked at him with round eyes.
"You know it well too, right? The fact that time travel is impossible."
"F-Frey...?"
"Nevertheless, you were creating a formula that breaks the world's laws? That's just like you, Serena."
He said while letting out a hollow laugh.
"But... no matter how much of a genius you are, you can't do that."
"Ah....."
"I've already tried it countless times."
The moment those words ended.
"Frey!!!"
Serena threw herself at Frey.
"No, don't go. Frey, please!!"
"...Serena."
"Just a little, just stay by my side a little longer!! I'll find a way to keep you in this world! Just a little...!"
Before long, Frey, who was looking at Serena who was begging earnestly.
"...As expected, this isn't the happy ending I wanted."
He clenched his fist quietly and began to mutter.
"I just... dreamed of a world where everyone who forgot me could live peacefully in this unreasonable world..."
"Frey! Please give me that necklace! I need to analyze it...!"
"...This isn't a world where everyone forgot me, nor is it a peaceful world."
Thus, he alternated between looking at Klana, who was standing behind with a pale expression, and Serena, who had realized something and began begging with all her might.
"Huu."
He let out a short sigh and slowly opened his mouth.
"I have something to ask you..."
"...What should I do? Frey?"
But before he could even finish speaking, Serena answered Frey.
"I'll give you my lifespan, no... I'll give you my soul."
"......."
"No, no, I can also bear your fate. So..."
"...Ha."
Frey, who was looking at such Serena with an absurd expression.
"W-well, I don't know what it is, but... I'll do it too! I'll do it too!"
When Klana, who had been standing behind with a dazed expression, spoke urgently, he quietly lowered his head.
"...Thank you, girls."
Frey, who had kept his head lowered like that for a while.
"For letting me confirm again."
He murmured briefly and then took off the necklace.
"Frey........"
"W-where did he go? Frey?"
And Frey, who had been quietly watching the two girls for a moment.
"...System."
He quietly summoned the system.
[Klana's Affection: 100]
[Serena's Affection:
"...Hmm."
And he began to examine the system window intently.
"Good..."
Not the 'numerical value of how much the heroines love himself' floating on the left screen of the 'Main Heroine Affection System'.
[Affection toward Cania: 100]
[Affection toward Irina: 100]
[Affection toward Klana: 100]
[Affection toward Serena: 100]
[Affection toward Perloche: ???]
But the 'numerical value of how much he loves the heroines' floating on the right side of the screen.
Originally, from the moment he purchased this system just a while ago, he had been looking only at the right screen.
Because how the heroines thought of him was not important to him.
Only how he thought of the heroines was important.
"...I'm properly coming back."
That was because, after borrowing the body of himself from another timeline, he had been going around finding the heroines and restoring his love for them.
"Thank goodness."
No matter how powerful memory deletion magic was used, no matter how perfect mind control was used, the love engraved in the soul could not be erased and remained.
"Really... thank goodness..."
That was why, after discovering the demon god who intruded just before deletion and stopping the count in confusion, he, who had been watching with his own eyes the heroines suffering from the truth and the world he had so wanted to become happy losing its light.
Ultimately, he decided to reawaken his love for the five heroines.
[You have become a Joint Judge.
Subjects to judge > 《Five Main Heroines》]
That way, when the event of 'judging the main heroines' occurred as stated in the mysterious phrase floating before him, he would be able to maintain his reason.
"If things continue like this... it'll be safe even if I go to the next round."
Also, he would be able to prepare for the next round that would surely come.
From the moment he confirmed that his future self had intervened, although he was a being reconstituted through trials, he had overwhelming stats, so he could easily notice.
That this round was not the end.
That somehow, another round would exist.
That was why he was urgently restoring his love for the heroines.
So that if he went to the next round, he wouldn't make the same mistake again by coming to hate them.
And so that next time, he could finally give them a true happy ending.
"But..."
However, even to him who had realized almost everything.
"How was a retry established? My system abilities should have all been erased?"
A few questions still remained.
"And, did the me of the future round really forget everything? The absent-minded behavior, and not purchasing the affection system that hides essential hidden elements..."
Questions that were absolutely impossible to understand.
"It's like I'm in the very early stages of regression, isn't it?"
Thus, Frey, who had been thinking and thinking for a while.
"First, I'll know when I see the end. How exactly the 'retry' was activated."
He murmured as he quietly left the hospital room.
"...Then, it's time to meet Perloche last."
.
Meanwhile, at that time.
"Please..."
The Sun God Church's cathedral, covered in snow and ice, where people's footsteps had ceased long ago.
"Please, I beg you..."
Inside that cathedral, Perloche, who had been kneeling on the floor as cold as a sheet of ice.
"Retry? Regression? Anyway, please give me that ability you mentioned last time..."
While shedding tears.
"I'll shoulder everything. Anyway, I'm the only one who can receive something since I'm connected to you, and if you don't give it to anyone, this world will be destroyed, right? And..."
She was praying earnestly.
"...I can no longer break his soul."
While looking at the shattered statue of the Sun God standing before her.