This Time, I'll Repay the Debt
The Branch Manager looked even more haggard than the last time I'd seen him. His hairline, thankfully, still seemed intact, but his mental health clearly wasn't holding up. One crisis after another kept piling on, leaving him looking dizzy from it all. Still, his office was cleaner than before, so at least the work itself was getting done without much trouble.
He spoke casually.
"To be honest, when I first heard your story, I thought someone was pulling a prank with their report."
"That so."
The Branch Manager laughed heartily, then turned serious as he made his plea.
"Alice, even now is fine—just tell me straight. This is all just everyone trying to fool me, right?"
"Sorry, but no."
I had no idea what answer he was hoping for, but reality was a deeper dumpster fire than any fantasy.
Ah. This place is just a fantasy, isn't it.
The Branch Manager squeezed his eyes shut, let out a long sigh, and clasped his hands in front of his forehead.
"Fine. If that's your story, then it makes sense. I thought you were a victim of the Anomalies… but you were a victim in a completely different sense."
"What are you talking about?"
"I figured you were after revenge on the monsters that appeared because of the Anomalies. But it was something far bigger—and far more dangerous—than I imagined."
His voice dropped low.
"I've never even heard of something that can manipulate time. Can we even fight something like that?"
I answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"It's a monster, so it'll die."
The Branch Manager stared at me with a dubious look.
"Is that really how it works?"
"There's no way it wouldn't die."
I plucked a snack off his desk and popped it into my mouth.
"Mmm. Even Supreme-grade monsters die in the end."
"Th-that doesn't feel completely different to you?"
People fear what they can't comprehend. That was just how it worked.
Miteraos belonged to that category. The power of time was a realm no human in this world could ever reach, no matter how hard they struggled.
I answered in a way that half-agreed with him.
"It is different, yeah."
Monsters used Essence to wield bizarre powers that were hard to understand, but Miteraos's ability was on an entirely different level from the rest of them.
"I've fought it a little, so…"
"Good heavens. You fought something like that and lived?"
I shrugged.
"I lived—and got swept up by time."
The moment I was thrown into the past, everything had gone exactly the way Miteraos wanted. The original owner of this body had been forced to live alone in this world with no one she knew, and no matter how desperately she longed for her own world two hundred years in the future, there was no way she could return under her own power.
It must have been a pretty hopeless situation.
But there was one thing Miteraos had overlooked.
The Essence had answered that woman's desperate wish and summoned me. For someone who already knew most of how this world worked, it was no different from a second playthrough. There was nothing left to fear.
I grinned.
"This time, it's my turn to repay the debt."
"…I suppose you do have a lot piled up."
Honestly, I only had one real grudge.
Because of you, I never got to see the ending.
"I can't forgive it."
That was how it started. But now I carried a sense of responsibility of my own. As a member of this world, it was something I had to do.
"Too many people have died."
How many had I watched die right in front of me?
Some were shredded by Alberoelva's blade-scales. Others were crushed under Disastro's thrashing. Some had their entire bodies pulverized flat by Neveumano's fists. Every last one of them met an end so horrific they were barely recognizable.
And that wasn't even the whole of it. Plenty more had died where I couldn't see them—and plenty more had died long before I ever arrived here.
"…Come to think of it, that monster gave you a warning, didn't it?"
"A warning, huh."
I recalled what Miteraos had said. That there was no way back to the future. That if I kept thrashing around, I would pay the price.
I shrugged.
"Didn't really feel like a warning to me."
The fact that it hadn't shown itself and tried to kill me outright suggested it still needed its strength. The power to turn all of Cartadia into a wasteland and reverse time itself couldn't possibly be infinite.
I reached for another snack, ate it, and carefully laid out my thoughts.
"It's stockpiling power right now."
"Power… is it."
"After toppling Cartadia, fighting me, and then flinging me into the past… it must have burned through a lot."
Monsters were like that. After a fight, they needed a window to rest. Some would even bolt the moment they couldn't finish things in a single turn, just to catch their breath. The Ekriki I'd fought ages ago had done exactly that.
In my judgment, Miteraos was in that state now—drained, quietly biding its time.
"The reason it deliberately scattered Supreme-grade monsters across this land is probably to buy time or something similar."
The Branch Manager nodded.
"I see. Diverting attention, then. Your thinking seems right. There are still three dangerous ones left. We can't pin down their identities for certain, but…"
"That's exactly why I can't forgive it even more."
I clenched my fist.
"It dragged creatures that were just living their own lives into this land just to make them die."
The Branch Manager blinked.
"I never expected you to think that way. I figured you just needed to kill monsters and that was that."
I had feelings too. That comment stung a little.
"…I don't just kill them mindlessly."
"Are you serious?"
His gaze was intense.
I met it steadily for a moment, then looked down.
"I'll admit it a little."
There was a tiny corner of truth in what he'd said.
"But you can't do this kind of work if it isn't fun."
"Aptitude is the most important thing, after all."
Even fighting Neveumano had been genuinely dangerous, but it had been fun in its own way. In the middle of a fight, you had to focus only on that single moment—and I liked that. In the satisfaction and thrill that flooded through me then, I felt alive.
That didn't mean I was purely chasing thrills, of course. Absolutely not.
The Branch Manager spoke again.
"By the way, Alice."
"What."
"You seem a lot gentler somehow."
I tilted my head.
"What do you mean?"
"Your whole atmosphere is completely different from the first time I met you."
I ran a hand over my face at his words.
"That's the sort of thing you can't tell by touching yourself. Other people have to see it."
"Hmm. Is that so."
"It means you've set down some of the weight on your heart, doesn't it?"
Weight on my heart, huh.
I lowered my hand and stared at my palm. Long, pale fingers. I clenched them into a tight fist. Something was changing, just as the Branch Manager said. It didn't feel like the weight of a burden, though.
It was…
"I don't know."
I really didn't.
The Branch Manager narrowed his eyes and studied me for a long moment.
"…"
I frowned back at him with a clear what do you want me to do about it look, and he finally glanced away.
Only then did I get to the point.
"Anyway, I'm going to rest in Antico for just one week, then head to the third region."
"You could rest longer than a week. No one would say a word about it."
I shook my head.
"I can't give Miteraos any more time."
"Is that so. You really are fated never to rest, aren't you."
He sighed.
"You already know this, but don't push yourself alone. What you did this time was far too reckless. Even if you came from the future, you are never alone. There are plenty of people who will help you."
"Got it."
I nodded.
Then I picked up the last remaining snack and popped it into my mouth.
"This is pretty good."
"…You ate them all?"
"What, were they expensive?"
"Ah—no. As long as you enjoyed them, that's what matters. Yes…"
The Branch Manager looked thoroughly dejected. It felt like watching a hungry beast that had just lost its prey right in front of its nose.
If you were saving them, you should've said so…
I couldn't bear to look at his face any longer and stood up.
I'll bring him something tasty as a gift later.
Maybe I should grab something to eat before heading back to the lodging.
Pina was probably still rolling around in bed.
I left the Association and walked the streets. I could feel people's eyes tracking me.
"Hmm…"
I was just wearing ordinary clothes, so I shouldn't have looked particularly like a hunter. Yet people still managed to recognize me. The life of a celebrity was this tiring, apparently.
Honestly, white hair and pink eyes made it impossible not to stand out. Unless I dyed my hair or put in colored contacts, I might as well have been walking around advertising Hello, I'm Alice.
People's stares? I actually liked them.
I squared my shoulders and straightened my back. Getting intimidated and shrinking away in a situation like this was third-rate. Enjoying the attention without caring about the looks—that was what a first-rate veteran did.
Yes. Right now, I was a first-rate attention-seeker.
"You there."
Someone stepped boldly into my path without a shred of fear.
You're blocking a Master Hunter's way…? I didn't quite have the shamelessness to say that out loud yet. I stopped and looked at the person barring my path.
Red hair, and clothes that carried an overall reddish cast. A woman.
Because of Antico's cold weather she was bundled in thick clothes, so I couldn't tell her build, but her slender neck and the ankles above her boots suggested she was on the thin side.
Sharp blue eyes fixed on me with a keen edge. She looked like she was going to be a pain.
"You're Alice?"
Speaking casually and rudely to someone she'd just met, the same way I did—she clearly wasn't an ordinary woman. Which also meant I wasn't an ordinary woman either. More precisely, I wasn't a woman at all…
Then what am I?
"…What, are you not?"
I'd gotten lost in thought and ended up saying nothing.
I answered calmly.
"I am."
"You're pretty skinny. I expected some burly warrior woman…"
She looked a little disappointed.
Why did everyone keep treating me like an orc or some monster-adjacent creature instead of a human?
And that comment was a blatant dismissal of the practical, compressed muscle I'd built hunting monsters.
Would she still say that if I took my clothes off? Not that I planned to.
I asked her with open irritation.
"So who are you supposed to be."
She answered in a sharp, prickly voice.
"I am Nicoletta, a knight of the royal capital. I've heard a great deal about you. The knights who returned from the outpost kept bringing you up. You did major work in Angolo and Lacrima, they said. The part about being from the future is impossible to believe, but I have business with someone like you, so I came all the way here—"
She was talking way too much.
I cut her off.
"Get to the point."
"Ahem. My apologies. So, to get to the main subject, I should start with when I was in the royal capital of Sperita. When I was young in the capital…"
"One-line summary."
I glared at Nicoletta with wide eyes. Unwanted TMI was unforgivable.
Nicoletta blinked, then spoke concisely.
"I want to learn about being a hunter as well."
Cease fire. Friendly unit.
I relaxed the force in my eyes, put on the best smile I could manage, and held out my hand.
"Newbies are always welcome."
Nicoletta stared at me with a look of pure disbelief before shaking my hand.
Lately people kept giving me that expression. It wasn't that I'd changed—everyone was just being extra strict with me. Anyway.