Single-Minded Devotion
“Hmm.”
I lay in bed and peered at the message window.
With Ending 3 locked, I had broken through my tenth ending clear. Stage 2 privileges had opened. New items had been added to the challenge coin shop, and an upgrade for the Favorability Scouter had been unlocked as well.
I hadn’t even bought every item already in the coin shop, yet new ones had appeared on the shelves. The Scouter, too, had only been upgraded to Stage 1 so far—yet now it could go all the way to Stage 5. So it really was going to become something like a magic eye eventually.
The problem was that coin income lagged far behind the items I could buy with them. That was also proof of how quickly I was progressing, though.
“Guess I’ll have to start saving coins again.”
I slid a finger across the window and browsed the newly stocked items. Wanting something to buy was the best way to stay motivated, after all.
“Huh?”
The new arrivals all shared two traits. First, they were wearable. Second, they were limited editions. Every last one was gear that either massively boosted stats or granted entirely new skills. A player could never obtain all of them at once; they were rewards unlocked only when specific endings opened. Clear a particular ending, and the item was yours. Collect and equip enough of them, and subsequent playthroughs became faster and easier.
And now I could buy those same items with coins without ever unlocking the endings.
For example:
Ending (6) Reward
A ring that twists the user’s mana wavelength to transform their form. It is Karma’s unique item as the leader of Houndry. Unlike illusion magic, it can even deceive detection magic.
800 Coins
Something like that. An item I’d picked up without thinking had been an eight-hundred-coin prize all along. Originally it was the reward for clearing Ending 6—Lucia’s route. I hadn’t fulfilled the conditions for that ending; I’d ruined it, in fact. Yet somehow the ring had still ended up in my hands. The shop’s message was clear: if you missed a reward, here was your second chance to buy it.
In truth, while I had brushed past ten endings so far, I hadn’t collected every reward. I had been deliberately missing endings in order to understand this world.
Ending (15) Reward
Raises the [Luck] stat by one rank. A traditional royal ring. Allows the wearer to taste the aura of those born with extreme good fortune.
1,500 Coins
Ending 15. Amelia’s true-ending reward. And it cost fifteen hundred coins?
“Expensive.”
No—even so, raising a rank by an entire tier might be worth every coin. It meant an A-Rank could climb all the way to S-Rank. And because shop items could be equipped from the very start of a new playthrough, you would begin at Level 1 already riding that luck stat. With fortune like that, you could botch a few choices and still luck into the ending you wanted.
True-ending rewards were simple, expensive, and brutally powerful. I considered saving up for it—but first I checked the other true-ending prizes.
Ending (5) Reward
A pouch that absorbs and stores magic. A masterpiece born by accident in the magic-tool shop in front of the Academy. It can hold any spell—but only one at a time.
1,500 Coins
This one was Ester’s true-ending reward. And it looked genuinely good. In the game it had probably been a late-game item that let you store an A- or S-Rank spell and then carry it into the early stages of a new run. What really hooked me was the ability to store and use magic that wasn’t even mine. Plus the absorption effect—didn’t that mean I could block an enemy’s spell once? I could even guess why it was Ester’s true-ending prize. In her true ending she must have used this pouch to master mana control: pour one ferocious spell into the bag, drain her body dry, and finally find balance. The answer would be in the ending preview, of course.
There were more useful items than I’d expected. The true-ending rewards especially paid off. I decided to stockpile coins first and reopen the shop later. Right now I had fifty. After blowing everything on ending previews I had been at zero; locking Ending 3 had given me fifty.
A measly fifty. Never mind fifteen hundred—even scraping together eight hundred was going to be hard. I was halfway through a sigh when, out of nowhere—
Suddenly another hundred coins dropped in. Current coins: 150. By now endings locking out of the blue barely surprised me. Not surprising at all—
“And why are you…?”
“Heh. Graduation at last.”
Ester held out the bouquet she had prepared for Laward.
“Congratulations on graduating.”
“Yeah. You too.”
“Somehow it’s all over.”
Ester lifted her gaze toward the old school building.
“Do you remember? What I said over there.”
“I remember. Something about how I should consider it an honor that a woman like you would confess to me.”
“You remember well. That hasn’t changed. Consider it an honor—that you became the lover of a woman like me.”
She rose onto her tiptoes and gave his hair a light pat.
“And that we’re going to keep living together from now on.”
“…I will.”
“No more boring classes. No more pretty walking paths. So many things that feel good to end, and so many that feel sad.”
The words the only thing that doesn’t end is us rose to her tongue, but Ester held them back.
“Before we say goodbye to this school, is there anywhere you’d still like to go?”
“No. Nothing I’m attached to.”
“I see.”
Ester gave a soft laugh and perched on the edge of a desk.
“I’ve never sat on a desk before. We were taught not to.”
“Does it matter now? Tomorrow we won’t even be students.”
“You’re right. It doesn’t matter.”
She curved her lips in a mischievous smile and tugged on Laward’s necktie—then kissed him.
“Ester, what are you—?”
“We’ve lived like such model students. Let’s do one last bad thing. After tomorrow we won’t be able to.”
She did not release his necktie.
“Well, strictly speaking, we could still do it tomorrow. There just won’t be tonight’s excitement.”
One hand on Laward’s necktie. The other on her own.
Snap—
I closed the script window.
“Crazy…”
If I kept watching, I was going to be finished in more ways than one. There would be no tomorrow. How much longer was I supposed to walk this tightrope…?
“Ahem…”
I checked only as far as the event CG and shut it at once. Nice view, sure, but Ending 5 was especially cringeworthy. Let me correct the record here: my coin total was now 200. The remaining 50 plus 150 for three endings. Every one of Ester’s endings had closed this time, and one of Rebecca’s had locked as well. As always, I had no idea why.
Endings remaining until Stage 3 privileges: 2.
Three endings toppling at once had brought me that much closer to the next privilege again. Was it really all right to keep receiving them this often? I still hadn’t fully used the ones I’d already earned.
For the record, Rebecca’s locked ending had looked suspicious enough that I checked the preview. Her favorability had plummeted; the route was gone. Why she now found Laward less appealing remained a mystery.
“…Hello.”
While I was turning that over, Ester suddenly appeared. This was the real Ester—the one who had neither become Laward’s lover nor promised him a future.
“A whole week has already passed. I thought you’d come today.”
Huh. Something felt different about her today.
“Thank you for waiting a full week. I’ve made my decision.”
Ah. Now I understood what had changed.
“Ester.”
“Yes?”
For some reason, Ester no longer stammered.
“Did something happen?”
“No. Nothing in particular.”
“Is that so.”
“Yes.”
“So what exactly have you decided?”
“I’m going to the Sisterhood.”
She spoke each word clearly, eyes resolute.
“If I study recovery magic further, I think I’ll finally grasp mana control. I can’t practice with other spells, but with recovery magic I can use it as much as I want.”
One week. Only seven days had passed, yet her eyes looked as if seven years had gone by. Her face seemed to have matured overnight. Right. It wasn’t just her speech that had changed. It was finally over. That was why the endings had locked—true ending and all.
Only then did I notice how haggard she looked compared to usual. Ester’s nickname: Living Disaster. Water under fire. A flood had poured over a burning heart. The fire was out, but everything was a wreck.
“…Good decision.”
“It’s thanks to you. I’ll keep doing my best after I go.”
“Have you finished packing?”
“Packing? I was going to start once I told you. So I haven’t actually—”
“You told Commander Blash you still had things to settle at the Academy.”
“Ah… yes. I did say that.”
Ester slowly nodded, then smiled—just the faintest curve of her lips.
“Yes. It’s finished. The settling.”
It lasted only a second, but she definitely smiled.
“I’m done.”
“Good. Get ready to leave. I’ll give you the letter of recommendation Commander Blash left with me.”
“Yes. Thank you for everything until now. Truly.”
“You simply had outstanding talent.”
“It was talent I never would have noticed without you, Patron. I’m a little worried about leaving Senior Rebecca, but… I trust you’ll look after her well. Then I’ll be going.”
Ester bowed and turned away.
“Ah—wait.”
“Yes?”
“There’s something I want to impress on you.”
“What is it?”
“While you study at the Sisterhood, they’ll almost certainly ask you to become a Saintess. You’re more than capable of rising to that seat, so they will pressure you without fail.”
“A Saintess…?”
The way she repeated the word, her expression darkened somehow.
“I see. Of course… you would want me to become a Saintess as well, Patron—”
“Never even consider it.”
“…What?”
Why the surprise? Wasn’t it obvious? Whether Saintess or Holy Knight, you had to kill your own human nature. Having done that absurd thing myself, I wanted to stop her if I possibly could. Laward could become a Holy Knight—he’d played around spectacularly in his past life—but the heroines were different. They didn’t need to go through that.
“If anyone even mentions the word Saintess, run.”
“Run…?”
“Yes. Get as far away as you can.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“Which part of that sounded like a joke?”
“Uh…?”
Ester froze, blank-faced.
“W-why shouldn’t I become a Saintess? Wouldn’t that be good for you, Patron? Becoming a Saintess is an honor, isn’t it?”
“I’d like to ask the opposite. Why should you become one? Ester, I want you to do glorious things—but I do not want you to throw away your life as a woman.”
“Th-that’s… what do you…”
Judging by her reaction, she had been wrestling with the idea herself. She must have been startled that I’d seen straight through it. An oddly proud feeling rose in me.
“Patron… are you saying you want me to keep living as a woman?”
“Of course.”
Look at what becoming a Holy Knight did to me. Look at the state I’m in right now.
“If only for my sake, I hope you will.”
“Ah… ahh…”
She covered her face with both hands—everything but her eyes. Her ears looked red too; she was clearly not at her best today.
“Then… I won’t…”
“Mm. Good decision.”
“But don’t get the wrong idea. I didn’t want to become a Saintess either. I-it’s not like I’m refusing just because you want me to… o-or anything…”
Hmm. What was this? Why had her long-dead tsundere self suddenly come back to life?