Chapter 204
Chapter 204
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 204
Chapter Title: Fate is Cruel
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The status window spoke in a stiff, businesslike tone.
It wasn't sending emojis like usual, or using its playful manner of speech.
'...Only two people allowed.'
My hand naturally rose to my face. Even blinking my eyes repeatedly didn't change the text.
Whenever this thing said something, things always went sideways.
It had happened when Emperor Locke showed up at the sports festival,
and when Magic Hat attacked, telling me to halt the fight.
Was this really made by the creator of Knight Heart?
Now doubts were creeping in. I turned my gaze away, but the transparent window followed, sending chills down my spine. I let out a sigh into the empty air.
In the end, only Pine and I could step into the temple.
No matter how hard Kainel and Ariel tried, they couldn't enter with us.
"...It's chilly."
"Watch your step, Pine."
Right now, the two of us were descending into the desert underground, separated from the hero couple.
Cold, damp stairs. A place that sent shivers through us, in stark contrast to the dry heat outside.
It even felt like we'd stepped into a refrigerator.
The deepest chamber we finally reached was sealed by a vault-like iron door.
"....?"
Was this here originally? As far as I remembered, you could just walk right in.
Five years before the perspective of Knight Heart.
Like when I'd asked Pine about Tar Dune's Temple, had things changed a lot?
The status window popped up again before my eyes.
An hourglass flipped over several times, as if verifying something.
What kind of entry conditions are these?
I tugged at the corner of my mouth sideways.
It was suspicious that this status window, which had never appeared before, showed up only at Pantos's Temple.
'...Wait, success?'
Staring at the "success" message gave me a strange sense of déjà vu. I'd seen this somewhere before.
The status window must have told me to maintain the coupling to avoid a 'paradox.'
'Was' turned into 'protected'...
Ariel and Kainel had ended up together for real, and so had Dennis and White Magnolia.
I'd only given them a little nudge behind the scenes to help them find love—I hadn't forced anyone who hated each other together.
Click. A lock mechanism turned inside.
"...."
Now I remembered.
These were the conditions for the Saintess route.
Stepping into the space beyond the firmly shut iron door revealed...
"...A mirror?"
It was a room with mirror walls, similar to the booth we'd set up at the summer festival.
Glass that distorted, magnified, and shattered a person's image.
Pine was poking around everywhere like an excited puppy, despite being inside a temple.
There had to be a trial here too, and a manager overseeing it.
"Welcome, travelers!"
There it was. We were still safe from the Hero Cult's pursuit, it seemed.
A red dwarf with a beard made of flames greeted us warmly.
"Pleased to meet you. Descendant of Berg."
"Oh, you know of our ancestor! Name's Gründel!"
An unmoving mountain. The manager depicted as a descendant of one of the Ten Heroes who died in the war. Gründel flashed an awkward smile and puffed out a small flame.
This was the NPC who guided you through the maze.
Right now, we were trapped in this glass room, unable to move freely. I recalled that you entered through the mirrors originally.
"Gründel, we've come to take the trial."
Pantos's trial was ultimately about navigating a maze of tangled emotions to escape.
Saying this would prompt the manager to guard the entry via the large central mirror.
In the massive full-length mirror adorned with gold, Pine and I were reflected in reverse.
"Yeah, I came with Licht to become a hero."
Pine nodded vigorously, clenching her fists as she looked between me and the dwarf.
Her heart sorted out. Unlike before, she showed no fear or hesitation.
"Then, choose which of you two will enter."
A hand blocked us just as we tried to leap into the mirror. The dwarf shook his head with an annoyed expression.
Was something wrong?
"Which of us... enters?"
"All temples' trials are like that, Hero of Conviction."
This was news to me.
I tilted my head at the bizarre claim that every temple's trial worked this way.
"What the temples test are all things related to 'others,' not oneself."
Gründel began circling us as he spoke.
He eyed the sword on Pine's back intently, then narrowed his brow at my helmet.
"You've borrowed power from the God of Will before, haven't you."
"Ah, yes. Tar Dune's Temple... I drank an elixir there."
He asked if we'd passed the God of Will's trial before.
When I confirmed, the corner of his mouth drooped.
"Pantos's trial is the same."
At that moment, Gründel's footsteps halted abruptly. He reached into the full-length mirror ahead and pulled something out—the dwarf man.
So you could enter the mirror world after all.
"If there's something to gain, there must be something to lose."
"Isn't that... the Elixir Series..?"
In his hand was an elixir.
Similar to the one I'd drunk in the valley cave, but a different type.
"That's right. But this one's effect is a bit unique. The Elixir of Oblivion—it erases the drinker's memories."
"......!!"
A gray liquid sloshed inside the vial.
Gründel thrust the unpleasant, viscous elixir toward Pine and me—it felt more slimy than sticky.
"Cut the nonsense. Give us a holy sword or something instead..."
I ground my teeth and yelled at him.
I figured this NPC, who normally just let you in, pulling this stunt meant it was a trap.
Drink a memory-loss elixir here, before she even became the Nameless Saintess?
It sounded like disaster waiting to happen—I nearly drew my sword.
"Hey, calm down, Hero of Conviction. Doesn't the Hero of Affection already have a holy sword?"
"....What?"
But he straightened his flickering flames and sighed deeply. Then Gründel reached for the sword strapped to Pine's back.
"...See? That's why there's not much we can do here in our temple."
A glass shard embedded instantly in the dwarf's palm. It meant only the owner could touch it.
When had this happened? Wait, thinking back...
'Infinity was defeated by Pine, not Ariel.'
I recalled the halved card pile. If Ariel had handled it, it'd be ash.
From the start, she'd wielded a holy sword as a hero.
She hadn't fallen for Magic Hat's illusions during the attack, nor the head's.
"Pine, when did you get that sword?"
"...Since I was little."
No matter how many times I asked, I never learned how she'd obtained the holy sword.
A gleaming glass sword. No wonder the hilt looked oddly familiar.
Pine said she simply couldn't remember—just that it had been by her side since some point in her childhood.
"Only by drinking this elixir does the trial space appear inside that mirror."
"Isn't there... another way?"
"No. The trial turns the drinker's emotions into a maze—you have to escape it."
This wasn't in the original game.
Damn it. No matter how hard I racked my brain, no alternatives came to mind. Fine, if this was how it had to be, I'd drink it myself and get stronger to face the Demon King...
"Licht. Can't I just be the one to drink it..?"
"Absolutely not!"
I shouted desperately. Pine tucked her tail downward, looking frightened.
The gray elixir already in her hands threw me into confusion.
"Why not..? You'll come save me like always, right?"
"...."
I couldn't answer easily.
If she lost her memories here, she'd revert to the Nameless Saintess I once knew.
She'd vanish into that blank staff paper of pure white.
My fist clenched in my grip.
'I can't make her unhappy.'
I snatched the elixir from Pine's hand in a hurry.
I'd crushed on her back when she was the Saintess, but I couldn't drag her into misfortune for my own selfish desires.
"I'll drink it. That's the right thing to do."
I should have noticed from the moment we entered Pantos's Temple.
Seeing the status window check for the 'Saintess Route' meant something like this was prepared—I should have braced myself.
I wouldn't play the developer's game anymore.
"Then you'll lose your memories, Licht. No. Don't do it."
"...I don't mind."
I was a lying wolf to her.
A bad man deceiving the girl in the red cape with lies.
"My memories? I'd gladly sacrifice them for you."
"Why go that far, Licht..?"
Look at her now. That innocent Pine—I was a fool terrified of her learning the truth.
'What pure love Black Knight bullshit...'
The metallic tang coating my mouth kept blocking my words.
Even if I told her the truth here, would she understand?
Would she think I was crazy?
If I said I'd fallen for my future unhappy self and come to this world?
Would she hate me?
"...."
But piling up lies had its limits too.
Emotions were something you didn't hide from each other, after all.
"Before that, there's something I need to tell you, Pine. Or rather..."
I should have been honest from the beginning.
"...Saintess."