The Princess's Confession
I stared blankly at the battle unfolding before my eyes.
It was dazzling enough to hurt.
Sophia’s crimson sword aura cleaved through the sky, while Isolde’s magic rained down from above. Elise, who had joined at just the right moment, unleashed the golden flames she had learned from the head priest, lighting up the heavens.
“…Looks like… everything’s fine.”
Yeah.
The situation couldn’t be better.
We were suppressing Nemesis far more easily than in the original story. Maybe that was only natural. Sophia was much stronger than she had been at this point, and Elise had improved dramatically thanks to the head priest’s teachings. With my orders added on top, Nemesis’s large-scale patterns never even reached our protagonists.
So the reason I was at a loss wasn’t because the fight against Nemesis was going poorly.
If anything, it was going too well.
…And that was the problem.
——Kwa-gwang!
For a moment, it looked like the sun had risen.
A massive fireball had slammed into Nemesis.
It wasn’t a spell from Isolde.
It came from the copper-skinned priest floating in the air.
And his appearance was uncannily similar to mine.
No, not similar. It was me.
Ottilie’s doll was striding across the skies above Erebos as if it were the real thing, displaying even greater prowess than Isolde.
“…We’re screwed.”
What would everyone else think when they saw that?
The reclusive master Leo finally reveals his power.
I could already picture the headline that would appear in next week’s Erebos Weekly, so I pressed my fingers against my temples.
I really should have destroyed it when I was helping with exam prep.
“…How the hell is that supposed to look like a doll? It’s Iron Man, for fuck’s sake…”
I glared resentfully at Ottilie standing atop the gray tower.
“Aah…”
Even so, I didn’t regret hearing her confession.
If anything, it had made the fourth act much easier.
If Ottilie had still been a chimera like in the original, she would have been too busy dealing with them right now.
“You’re quite popular, aren’t you?”
“Daddy!”
Helena added another remark while Void beamed brightly.
“…Well, at this rate, we should be able to handle it without any issues.”
Just then, the faculty of Erebos had also gathered and begun attacking Nemesis.
Even the guards had brought out the fixed artillery from the gates and were firing at Nemesis.
Ku-gu-gu.
With a heavy tremor, Nemesis’s massive body swayed.
Proof that its health was nearly depleted.
“…Time to run.”
It was the same as during the Twin Towers incident.
Since I had no desire to be in the spotlight, I decided to flee.
I already had a place in mind.
“The chapel basement.”
I hadn’t been able to escape earlier because of the Yaksha’s appearance, but if I hid there, no one would find me for a while.
“Void, let’s go.”
I picked up Void and, as a token of thanks, pulled a potato out of my dimensional storage to give to Helena—only for her to explode in fury—then headed toward the western chapel.
The chapel had cold wind blowing through the hole the Yaksha had smashed in the wall, but I didn’t have the luxury to care.
“I’m exhausted, seriously.”
I sat Void down on the altar and was in the middle of a long yawn when I noticed her staring intently at something.
“Void, what’s wrong?”
“Pink! Pink!”
“…Pink?”
Void had learned a new color word.
I turned my head to follow her gaze and immediately understood why.
“You’re late.”
“…”
Someone was already waiting inside the chapel.
Just as Void had said—pale pink hair, blue eyes, and a fan in her hand.
“Hello. It’s been three months.”
First Princess Siris Anastasia Leysander.
The last person in this world I wanted to meet had arrived.
*
An awkward silence hung in the air.
Siris kept her face hidden behind her fan, her eyes fixed solely on me.
“…Hmm.”
I let out a low hum.
Why was Siris here?
Well, it wasn’t that strange. Starting from the fourth act, Siris began actively intervening in the protagonist’s journey.
She was supposed to appear once Nemesis was defeated to congratulate the protagonists. So showing up at the chapel a little earlier wasn’t unusual.
However, the fact that Siris was looking at me with clear interest was definitely a problem.
“…Er…”
Whatever the case, the water was already spilled.
I carefully opened my mouth.
“Would you like some tea?”
“No, I’m fine. I have a cat’s tongue.”
“…Ah.”
I’d only gained one completely useless piece of information: that the princess couldn’t drink anything hot.
I couldn’t just maintain this silence.
“Um… What brings Your Highness to this place?”
When I asked directly, Siris lightly folded her fan.
“I came to confirm a few things.”
“What kind of confirmation?”
“Several things. For example, whether Erebos is safe.”
Siris’s gaze shifted behind me.
More precisely, toward Void, who was clinging to my back.
“I also didn’t expect you to have a child.”
Siris rose from her seat and slowly walked toward me.
Then something strange happened.
“Uuu…”
Void, who had been sitting on the altar, quickly climbed down and hid behind me.
“…Void?”
“Auuu…”
I was quite taken aback.
This was the same Void who had smiled brightly even at the Yaksha and Nemesis while demanding meat. Yet now she was afraid of a single woman.
‘No, it makes sense.’
It was understandable.
Void was a being born from the void—a spirit of nothingness, vulnerable to existence.
Meanwhile, Siris was a regressor. Someone who repeated time.
Seven times—eight, if you counted this life.
The weight of the time Siris had experienced far exceeded what an ordinary person could imagine.
Decades of years, countless deaths and despair, had piled up layer by layer in her soul.
In other words, Void was currently being crushed by the overwhelming “weight of Siris’s soul.”
“…Oh my, am I that frightening?”
“Well… She’s just shy around strangers.”
Seeing Void’s reaction, I was reminded once again of what kind of existence Siris was.
Siris Anastasia Leysander.
The alpha and omega of the game Academy’s Divine Throne.
The center of the world.
If Siris died, the world would reset. Without her, this world could not exist. That was how it was. The system itself had defined it that way.
It was also the reason the final mastermind of the game targeted Siris.
Siris was both a walking Holy Grail and a trigger that could bring about the world’s destruction.
And now that dangerous nuclear button had walked into the chapel, which was practically my home.
“Father.”
Siris spoke.
“I heard you spent your childhood in the Libel region.”
“…That’s correct.”
“Do you know who the head priest of the orphanage there is?”
“I don’t really know much about him.”
I had roughly guessed he was an extraordinary person from Elise’s reaction, but I didn’t know exactly who he was.
“His baptismal name is Ignacio.”
“Ig…nacio.”
“Yes. He’s the former head of the Inquisition and a cardinal who retired from the Church twenty years ago.”
“…”
Head of the Inquisition… and a cardinal.
That was far too grand a title for the bald old man who had been sweeping the floors.
Still, I didn’t feel particularly surprised since I had already suspected something of the sort.
“Ignacio is one of the few priests in Church history called a ‘Saint’ for possessing the most powerful divine power…”
“…I see. But… is that a problem?”
“He has a special ability.”
Siris whispered softly.
“The ability to glimpse fate.”
“Fate… you say.”
“Yes. The power to foresee the future and read a person’s destined fortune. Thanks to that power, he was able to root out countless heretics and protect the Church.”
The head priest had the ability to read fate.
I could easily guess what Siris would say next.
“The Saint who can see fate sent Father Leo to Erebos. Do you think that’s a simple coincidence?”
“…”
Indeed.
The bald head priest had sent me to the academy with unusually firm resolve. At the time, I thought it was just an old man’s nagging, but looking back now, it was highly likely that he had arranged something back then.
“In other words, the fact that he sent you to Erebos means there must be a ‘fate’ that warranted it.”
“…Fate.”
“Do you believe in fate, Father?”
Siris tilted her head slightly.
Because she was covering half her face with the fan, I couldn’t tell what expression she was making.
But I knew what answer Siris was expecting.
If there was anyone in this world who hated the word “fate” the most, it would undoubtedly be Siris.
To Siris, fate was a curse.
Having already repeated her life eight times, it was only natural.
“I… don’t particularly believe in fate.”
“Is that so? What’s the reason?”
“I didn’t come here because of some predetermined fate. I came here of my own will, and I’m living by my own will. I intend to continue doing so.”
That was… how should I put it?
It was like the last shred of pride a possessor could have, just like the regressor Siris.
“…”
Siris fell silent for a moment after hearing my answer.
Maybe I had given a pointless response after all.
Tap.
Just as I thought that, Siris moved her fan away.
A bright smile had appeared on her lips. Not the artificial smile of a princess, but the genuine smile of a delighted girl.
“Father, I have a request.”
“…What is it?”
“Would you hear my confession?”
“…Hmm.”
I looked at the confessional, which had been completely destroyed by the wall fragments the Yaksha had smashed.
“The confessional is in that state.”
“Then please listen with your back turned.”
At Siris’s insistence, I reluctantly turned around. And I braced myself.
A confession. The princess’s confession. So no matter what she said, I told myself I wouldn’t be shaken.
But that resolve was meaningless. The words that came out of Siris’s mouth were shocking.
“I assassinated my father.”
My brain froze at those words.
The princess had killed the king.
In other words, the daughter had killed her father.
Parricide. Or perhaps something even worse.
There had been no such development in the original story. That meant I was the cause.
As I stood speechless in shock, Siris continued calmly.
“Before coming to support Erebos, I injected poison into my father’s body. It’s a slow-acting, extremely potent toxin, so he’ll pass away within a week. The cause of death will be ruled as natural causes due to old age. The royal physicians have already been taken care of. There’s no chance this plot will leak. Unless you, Father, speak of it.”
“…”
“Do you have anything to say?”
She meant I should speak even if I had nothing to say.
I asked carefully.
“…May I ask… the reason?”
“It’s the same reason as yours, Father.”
“…The same… reason?”
Before I knew it, Siris had come right up behind me.
Close enough that I could feel her breath, she continued.
“I also find fate disgusting.”
“…”
“Just like you, Father, I too am forging my own life with my own will.”
At some point, Siris had placed something in my hand.
“So we’re in the same boat now.”
The cool, heavy sensation of metal. I opened my palm.
A fan crafted from platinum, engraved with an intricate lion emblem. It was the very item Siris always carried with her.
I didn’t know what it meant, but it couldn’t be an ordinary object if the princess had given it to me personally.
“Then I’ll see you at the coronation.”
“…”
One thing was certain.
Living comfortably was no longer an option.