True Ending

Five endings locked all at once.

The bad endings and the so-called True Ending — every last one thoroughly sealed.

Amelia route: total wipeout.

It was a little strange that the princess was the easiest of the five heroines, but it was a resounding success.

I moved Amelia to the library and stood watch outside the building. I planned to pass the time escorting her while checking the message windows lined up one after another.

I took a casual look through Amelia's ending scripts. From 11 through 13 came a cascade of happy endings for Laward and Amelia.

Sweet love stories. Romantic, heart-aching tales. My eyes were doing the reading, yet it felt as if my teeth were rotting.

After checking ending 11, I skimmed roughly through 12, 13, and 14. Other people's love affairs — and stories that could never become reality now. I had no desire to get absorbed in them. I would have a chance to discuss the details someday.

Then I reached ending 15.

Ending 15. The True Ending.

Was the True Ending somehow different?

Even writing the title deliberately in English was one of the elements that piqued my curiosity.

Garden of Palace.

The palace garden.

From the title alone, I had no idea what it was about. Maybe something like that — holding a wedding in the palace garden, that sort of feeling. Dating sim endings generally concluded with marriage, I figured.

Imagining various possibilities, I checked Amelia's True Ending.

"Oh…?"

This was getting a little strange…

It was far too different from the other endings.

Was it all right to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠keep reading this?

Enough.

What was coming next was already plain as day. The nuance hovered right on the edge of crossing the line, just before the act itself. And at the very end, there was even a special CG.

Other endings had CGs as well, but the final ending's CG was different. Linework, color, composition, the detail in the expressions — it was a sincere illustration packed tight with the illustrator's maximum output.

As for the most important part — the explicitness…

I will simply say that it was a full-service illustration gifted to any player who had come all the way to the True Ending.

Also, my junior had never answered whether the game was for adults or not. Now I knew the answer. Why a game made for experience by a university club had poured in this much devotion remained a mystery.

"Hasgard, what are you staring blankly at?"

Just then the protagonist of the CG herself emerged with a book in hand, so I hastily dismissed the message windows. They were only visible to me anyway, but somehow it felt like the right thing to do.

"…I apologize."

And somehow, I felt I ought to apologize as well…

"Hm?"

"I apologize. I saw it…"

"Uuuh…? Saw what, exactly…?"

Amelia rolled her eyes this way and that as she asked again. There was no way I could answer. I mumbled something noncommittal and headed with her toward a teahouse.

"This is the second time I am asking, but are you truly all right?"

"Mm. I am fine. You already saved me, did you not?"

I could not tell whether she was dense or simply optimistic. Walking side by side with that ambiguous expression on her face, silence stretched for a while.

Then—

"Hasgard."

Amelia looked up at me squarely and spoke.

"Yes."

"Thank you."

"You said as much earlier, Your Highness."

"For saving me, and for indulging my stubbornness as well — thank you. Meeting you feels almost like a dream. Today I am fortunate."

Fortunate, she said.

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was not sure that was the sort of thing a person who had just been kidnapped ought to say.

"I hope we can meet again."

"Actually, I plan to visit the Academy often."

"The Academy? The one I attend? Are you coming as an instructor?"

"No."

An Academy instructor? That genre was long past its prime.

"I am simply putting in a little effort because I wish to deliver scholarships to the students. I expect Your Highness will also produce excellent results someday. I heard you declined the scholarship, but I would be glad if you would at least accept the sentiment."

"Ah. I have heard of the sponsor. I thought him an insolent fellow — so that was you."

"Haha… so it seems."

"And yet I am not showing results good enough to warrant such expectations…"

…So she was conscious of it after all. Of the fact that she did not look the part.

"Still… that someone with power like yours would place expectations on me… is rather pleasant to hear."

Amelia smiled bashfully and looked up at me again.

"So we will… keep seeing each other."

It was a smile purer than anything else.

I could no longer look at her purely myself, but—

With a face like that, in the True Ending… mm…

While I was thinking, we arrived at the teahouse. Amelia sat on the terrace as if she were used to it and left the ordering to me. After placing the order with the server, I opened the status window again.

There was still something I had not checked, thanks to Amelia barging in so suddenly.

That insolent-mouthed system had foreshadowed something each time I cleared an ending.

Remaining endings until the Stage 1 privilege.

Yes. It had promised a privilege once five endings were cleared.

This time, by slamming shut all five of Amelia's endings in one go, the total number of endings I had cleared was eight. I had far surpassed the five required for the Stage ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠1 privilege.

As if to confirm that very thought, a message chimed into view.

A coin shop, huh…

Naturally, I had never experienced the coin shop while playing the game. I had barely cleared even one ending, let alone five.

For now, I decided to check.

Wait.

What was that last one?

Had I misread it?

How was I supposed to clear that?

Was I even allowed to…?

Me, and someone that age…?

And even what I had checked was only a fraction. There were eighty challenges in total that could be attempted.

Why go this far for a game made as a hobby…

It was a genuine mystery…

"Hah."

A sigh slipped out before I could stop it.

Anyway, it seemed that each time I cleared one of those challenges, I would receive an appropriate amount of coins, and by collecting them I could buy items from the shop.

But here was the problem.

There were also challenges that were impossible from the start.

The challenge called "Uneducated Archmage" required Laward to take first place in the Magic Department — but Laward had already enrolled in the Sword Department. Dual-majoring like Amelia was possible in theory, but the growth efficiency was poor; I could not raise Laward as a mage at this point. In other words, "Uneducated Archmage" was already a missed challenge. To clear it, there was only a second playthrough. Like so many dating sims, it was forcing multiple runs. In my case, it would be a third run — if a third chance was ever given.

So after filtering out the ones already past or that only Laward could clear, the challenges I could actually attempt numbered roughly fifty. Gathering every last coin available from challenges was impossible. Absolute coin quantity would be insufficient, which meant I had to be even more careful spending them in the shop.

The one silver lining was that clearing endings was also included on the challenge list. Fifty coins per ending cleared. Fifty times eight.

A number officially recognized by the system. What I could buy with four hundred would only be clear once I opened the shop.

"Your milk tea, sir."

I had been mashing the system windows when the server snapped me back to my senses. I took the milk tea the server set down and returned to Amelia. I had asked for plenty of syrup, just the way she liked it.

"Hasgard, if you have no schedule, would you read a book in the seat beside me?"

She spoke without turning her head.

"I appreciate the offer, but I have work to do."

I had shopping to do in the coin shop, after all.

"Then just for a moment — let us talk. Spare me a little time."

Thump—

Amelia set down the book she had been reading and pointed to the chair opposite her. I got the sense she had never been asking for my opinion to begin with.

"Who do you think is behind this?"

The moment I sat, she launched into it. Amelia must have been turning it over in her mind the whole time. She had been pretending to read, but of course it would weigh on her. So I shared with her the information I had gathered so far. Of course I left out the parts about being a regressor, or having become Karma, and told her most of the rest. There was no soft, fluffy intention of easing her fear and anxiety. It was to draw the royal family in.

"Heh…"

When I finished, she suddenly laughed.

"Is that so… better that way, perhaps…"

She nodded with those unreadable words. What was funny, and what was better? Curiosity flared, but—

"Hasgard, the Death God Cult's purpose is likely not simply to kill people."

As if she would not give me time to think, Amelia returned straight to the point.

"In that respect, targeting me is truly suspicious. Well, is it not? If the Death God Cult is truly active, their real purpose is not to kill, but—"

She offered a new perspective.

"—to bring back."

Perhaps a piece I had overlooked until now.

"Had I died today, my brother who dotes on me would have been plunged into grief. The desire to 'bring me back to life' would grow desperate. Desperate enough to sell his soul to a demon."

Amelia took a sip of milk tea and continued.

"In that case, royalty would be bowing its head to the Necromancer. To revive me, the royal family's strongest swordsman would enter the Death God Cult. So, Hasgard — perhaps you should think it over again as well."

Even without her saying so, the thoughts never stopped. To the point of a headache, every memory and experience I had lived through was being reassembled.

"Are you certain that what the Death God Cult targeted was truly the second son of House Hasgard?"

She asked with a serious gaze.

"Their purpose may not have been 'to kill one,' but 'to leave only one alive.'"

Who had been the last one left standing in House Hasgard?

Who had remained alone, yearning for the family that had gone first?

Thumb, index, middle.

Among them, the third, whose thread of life had been the longest.

There was no need to say it.

Daywin Hasgard.