The 50,000-Year Button
The reason I deliberately made the Delusion involving Rebecca Ignis cause her to seek me out in every reincarnation, the reason I made sure that in that same Delusion I wouldn't remember her, and the reason I arranged for her to serve me… isn't anything particularly special.
I simply wanted an eternal maid who would devote herself to me forever. That was why I had that particular delusion.
It was a little self-indulgent, I admit.
No, I never expected any of it to actually become reality!
Her childhood. The death of her father. The death of the god who tore open the doors of her heart and saved her, followed by eternal suffering. If she ever learned that all those tragedies were things I had created purely for my own amusement and satisfaction…
How would she react?
Even after learning the whole truth, would she still call me Master and serve me?
Or would she try to take revenge?
For some reason, the former seems unlikely…
It would be best if Rebecca never learns the truth.
In fact, there's almost no chance she ever will. The fact that all of this reality originated from delusions inside my head is something only I and the female version of Ga-eul know. Since she thinks the same way I do, there's no way she would reveal any of it. And I have no intention of committing that kind of suicide either.
Even if Rebecca believes I don't have all my memories, she won't think I'm not her Master, not Aki. After all, I already told her in advance that my memories weren't complete.
Well done, me. Answering that I lost my memories in that urgent situation yesterday! Thanks to that, I've gained myself an obedient dragon!
Hmm… I do feel a bit guilty, though.
She came to help me because she thinks I'm the god who saved her—Aki. She's waiting for the day I regain my memories on my own, return as her savior, and finally give her the answer I couldn't back then.
She waited ten thousand years for that.
Just for reference, during that incredibly long time, none of Aki's reincarnations ever touched Rebecca sexually. Because my maid has to remain a virgin.
After waiting ten thousand years, she must have believed that once I finally regained my memories and gave her that long-awaited answer, we would finally be together.
That's why she reacted with such shock earlier when I suddenly acted like I knew her while confronting Karen Erzsebet.
I really feel terrible about this.
I have to think of it all as my own karma.
Well, on the bright side, a beautiful woman who likes me has appeared. And I like the idea of being with her too. How could I not like a being I created while pouring every ounce of my personal desires into her?
But if that's the case, then there might be a whole bunch of beings like Rebecca showing up…
I won't end up getting my body torn into several pieces by them later, right?
The ceiling looks familiar.
Huh?
I pressed the button yesterday. To keep the male version of Ga-eul from being taken away.
But the fact that I woke up perfectly fine in my own room like this… does that mean I failed?
Why? Was that button not the 50,000-Year Button from my delusion?
"No. It is indeed the 50,000-Year Button. In fact, one could say it succeeded far too well."
!!!
What was that? What just happened?
Something that sounded like my own thoughts, yet also my own voice, echoed inside my head…
"It is your thought, and it is also your voice."
Who are you? What are you doing inside my head?
"Hmmm. So at this point, this seat was still this clumsy and weak?"
T-this point's me?
"Correct. Because this seat is also you."
!!!!
What the hell is going on? Another me?
"It is different from the male Ga-eul. This seat is another you derived from you. You could call it a perfectly copied version of your ego."
Huh? I don't remember ever having a delusion like this…
What on earth is happening?
"Last night—you would call it last night, I suppose. For this seat, it is an incredibly distant past. Anyway, do you remember the button you pressed last night?"
You mean the 50,000-Year Button?
"Yes, yes. That button."
Did I ever imagine that button had a function to copy myself?
"No. That is not one of the button's functions."
Then what is it?
"Do you remember the button's original function?"
The 50,000-Year Button.
It was a delusion I came up with after being inspired by a manga I read before.
In that manga, a single button appears.
The moment you press it, you warp to another location and spend five hundred million years there doing absolutely nothing. Your mind remains perfectly clear, with no hunger or pain.
The protagonist of that manga attains enlightenment about the truths of the world during those five hundred million years.
When I first read it, I only felt pure horror. Five hundred million years with nothing to do and nothing around you? But when I thought about it, attaining enlightenment about the truths of the world sounded kind of cool! With that in mind, I created the 50,000-Year Button as a delusion.
The button's appearance is just an ordinary button.
It looks like one of those plain, representative buttons you see used in communities with captions like, "Press this button and you'll get a million won, but one random person on Earth will die. Will you still press it?"
However, the moment you press this button, the person's mind warps into a training room.
And for fifty thousand years, without feeling hunger or pain, they train in that space.
Five hundred million years felt too absurdly long, so I changed my delusion to fifty thousand years. Though fifty thousand years is still far beyond what a human could endure.
However, training alone in an empty space to become stronger seemed problematic, so I added a setting that allows the creation of enemies.
You can set enemies to any level you want, and every created being will rush to kill the user.
When the user dies, all enemies disappear and the user revives in perfect condition.
And once the full fifty thousand years pass, the user returns to the exact moment they first pressed the button—carrying all the mental growth gained from the training in their original body.
A cosmic horror training ground where you abandon everything and suffer for fifty thousand years in pursuit of nothing but strength!
Last night, while checking the items in my inventory to become stronger, I found the 50,000-Year Button. So I pressed it.
Because at this rate, I was too weak.
At this rate, I couldn't defeat the beings from my delusions.
At this rate, I couldn't protect the male version of Ga-eul!
I steeled myself to train for fifty thousand years and pressed the button. I was even prepared not to meet another 'me' during those fifty thousand years, but…
Why did I wake up on my bed instead of in the training room? Why? Did the button not work?
"The button's power worked perfectly."
It worked?
Then why am I perfectly fine here, and who are you?
"This seat endured fifty thousand years inside the 50,000-Year Button. Through that training, this seat was able to reach the pinnacle of power."
Then shouldn't I be you? Why are there two egos now? And what is this 'this seat' business?
"The problem is that this seat's mind was not truly whole."
Huh?
"Locked away in that extreme training ground for fifty thousand years, thinking only of Ga-eul. Do you think my mind could have stayed sane?"
Ah… yeah. It probably did get a little weird. Even for me.
"Indeed. This seat missed the other Ga-eul too much. During training, I missed him so badly that I even created a version of him as an enemy once."
No, seriously, what's with that way of speaking? Why do you keep calling yourself 'this seat'?
"However, the Ga-eul created inside the 50,000-Year Button tried to kill me. Even when this seat restrained him, he constantly tried to bite me. He was not the Ga-eul I knew."
Th-that's pretty bleak… Did being trapped and training for so long mess with your mind and change the way you talk?
"Finally, after fifty thousand years, this seat could meet Ga-eul again. This seat could meet his true companion!"
So why did it turn out like this?
"The problem is that if this seat meets Ga-eul right now, this seat might lose control and go berserk. I might violate him so intensely that I accidentally kill him through sheer passion, or even if not, I might do something that earns his hatred."
!!
I see. If you haven't met the male version of Ga-eul for fifty thousand years, the moment you do, you might lose all reason.
"However, if this seat erased my own memories and returned to the time before pressing the button, the purpose of enduring those fifty thousand years of training would vanish. Therefore, this seat split my mind in two. One part retains the original mind, and the other had its memories reverted to the time before pressing the button."
Then… am I the version with memories from before pressing the button?
"If this seat were to use this body, there is no telling what this seat might do. But if it is you, who still possesses purity, you should be able to properly make Ga-eul ours. This seat trusts you."
Th-that's… So after suffering for fifty thousand years, you're just going to hand this body over to me?
"For the sake of making Ga-eul ours, this seat can do anything. If this seat steps forward, it might ruin the relationship with Ga-eul. However, if an enemy appears that you cannot handle, this seat will take over the body. Whether it is Rebecca or Bathory, it does not matter."
After finally meeting Ga-eul after fifty thousand years, you're entrusting it to me…
"This Heavenly Demon, Kim Ga-eul, shall crush all enemies. Everything is for the love of Ga-eul."
……Huh? Heavenly Demon all of a sudden?
"It seems Rebecca and Ga-eul have finished preparing breakfast outside. Even Gyeoul has returned home. This seat will simply sleep inside you and cheer you on. Now, everything is in your hands."
Hey! Wait a second!