Chapter 267
Chapter 267
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 267
Chapter Title: Epilogue: Short Plays
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#0: Regarding 『The Promise』
Before heading north.
I'd heard the story from Yuna and Yuri. In the deepest part of my mental world, in the black box zone where "that thing" was presumed to be sealed, there was a module called 『The Promise』.
It was a self-destruct switch I'd set up in the past, meant to blow my head off if I ever got completely corrupted.
It was a bit chilling for a moment, but when I thought about it carefully, it wasn't scary at all.
In fact, it was reassuring. If I crossed an irreversible line, wouldn't I turn my blade on the people I love?
Better a clean self-destruct than watching a mad wizard attack Yuna and Yuri. Thousands of times better. I decided to leave 『The Promise』 intact.
Considering how I'd overwhelmed Yuna with computational power, it might not even be something I could dismantle if I wanted to.
But before absorbing it... I wanted to have a conversation.
Once absorbed and merged, 『The Promise』 would revert to black box status. I wouldn't be able to perceive it, let alone communicate.
To be more precise, communication would be something I shouldn't do.
Who chats casually with their own self-destruct device? To cleanly sever your own neck in an emergency, it's safer to cut off communication. So, the only chance for a talk was now.
It knew my vague, lost past. Of course I'd be curious.
I opened the door to my room, where 『The Promise』 was said to reside, and there it was—a boy who looked exactly like me, and Selbia, staring in shock as if she'd just heard the Earth was flat.
『The Promise』 waved at me with a gentle smile. He looked sharp.
"You're here?"
"Yeah, I am. What's up with Selbia? You didn't... say anything weird, did you?"
"I just told her a heartwarming story. That the compass pointing to the direction of her affections had always indicated one person."
"What kind of koan is that? Selbia, you okay? Your face is super red."
Selbia floundered wordlessly, then shot up and hurried over. And then...
"...I love you!"
She blurted out a confession.
"Out of nowhere?!"
"Just... just know that! Got it?!"
"Got it, but there's no context here. Explain a little—she's gone..."
She vanished like the wind. I scratched the back of my head, feeling awkward yet tickled. Unlike with Yuna and Yuri, Selbia's confession had a fresh innocence that felt strangely charming.
Not that I disliked it, of course.
"Take good care of her. She's your childhood friend."
"...Speaking of which, let me ask. What was it like back then? From what Selbia says, past me sounded like a walking Buddha."
"Not that extreme. You just did the natural thing. You became a reliable adult for kids. You stopped bad things. You played and had fun."
As he spoke, 『The Promise』 shared a few tales from the past. Like doing Selbia's laundry at dawn after she drew on the blankets with a map, or carrying her up mountain paths to make flower bracelets and play.
"Later, she went around singing that she'd marry her big brother when she grew up."
"And it actually happened... Still, without the memories, it feels like someone else's story. Guess I should test the hypothesis that 'I' here am just a fabricated personality."
"No. You've always been you—past, present, always."
"Phew..."
I let out a sigh of relief.
What if the 『Promise』 before me was a created module, and the 'me' thinking and talking now was a copy or clone from the original? I'd had those nagging thoughts occasionally.
"Ah."
That's when I realized why Selbia had freaked out and confessed. If past me and current me were the same person, it nullified her shocking double-declaration. She must've been thrilled.
I felt relieved too. Nearly pioneered a weird self-cloning NTR genre there.
Next up.
A question only past me could answer.
"What the hell is this thing lodged in my head? How did I seal it, and what's the plan past me laid out?"
"Can't tell you. Even if I could, it wouldn't mean anything."
"You wanna die? You've seen things go sideways from cryptic bullshit like that plenty of times."
"I want to spoil it so bad. But sometimes, not knowing amps up the performance? Like a two-wheeler you topple if you overthink balance."
However, he added softly after a pause.
"Don't fixate on the name. Don't even think about it."
"...Got the vibe."
I deliberately cut off my train of thought. Following that keyword would let me infer how past me bound "that thing."
As 『The Promise』 said, knowing might just screw up the build. Think of something else. Anything else.
I changed the subject.
"You're managing the scattered Mima fragments?"
"Ah... yeah. Gotta brief you on that. Mind pulling over the whiteboard?"
"You got no hands? No feet?"
"I'm 50% shorter. The long-limbed one should handle the grunt work."
Rrrrk.
I dragged the whiteboard over, and 『The Promise』 overlaid it with illusion magic, displaying a continental map. He marked the positions and sizes of the scattered fragments.
"You can detect them?"
"Yep. Inside the mental world, I double as module overseer. While you traveled with Selbia, Yuna and Yuri gathered all nearby fragments. Even mobilized wizards. Violet Magic Tower's holding them, so swing by later to gobble 'em up."
Sure enough. About 20% of the fragments were pinned at the Violet Magic Tower.
Elsewhere: one big chunk in the north, one in the capital Crown Hall. The rest were minor.
Schedule fell right into place. Bennett's sister issue was urgent, so north first for the fragment, then Violet Magic Tower to collect more.
After that, hit the capital and tour the country...
"...?"
As I scanned the map's fragment locations, a sense of wrongness hit me, and I pointed it out.
"Hey, the percentages don't add up."
The marked fragments didn't total 100%. Lost permanently in the dispersal? Or—maybe.
Stolen by someone.
"Yeah, that's what I wanted to tell you. 'Signals' cut off from a bunch of fragments, and more are vanishing one by one."
This smelled like trouble. I voiced my raw feelings.
"...Fucking unsettling."
"Might be the final hurdle of the Mima thirty-way split incident. Guess I'll say 'good luck' as farewell—now, absorb me. I'll be holding the big red button inside you."
『The Promise』 extended a tiny hand, and I took it.
Weird... feeling. The mad crow was one thing, but sucking in a being with its own consciousness? Not pleasant.
As if understanding, 『The Promise』 merged first. In an instant.
Blink.
In the split second of closing and opening my eyes, 『The Promise』 fused with me. No time to resist. The technique was chillingly precise and intricate, leaving me dazed.
Chewing it over, it felt like wielding concepts above mere information.
A skill past me possessed.
Yeah. To seal "that thing"—a world-class rampager—in your head, you'd need this level of mastery. Gave me a new goal.
Step back into the realm past me reached.
Sealed "that thing" once; reach it twice, and I could shatter it outright. No clue how to develop such a technique, but...
Effort will get me there eventually. Because it's me.
I left a belated tribute to the empty room's void.
"...You worked hard. Keep it up."
Right on cue, the roly-poly toy on the table toppled to the floor with a thud. It wobbled from the impact.
You're the one who'll suffer. Felt like that's what it replied.
#1: The Yurensuto Family's Abandoned Child A small room with curtains drawn, barely any sunlight filtering in. At the center, a faded dawn-tinted table between a knight and a wizard facing each other. One was small, delicate, girlish. The other tall, sturdy, womanly. Mirror opposites, yet both shared dull gold hair and violet eyes—the mystical hue proving their blood tie. Sisel Yurensuto smiled faintly and spoke.
"Sister, glad to see you're doing well. Found a fiancé too. You two suit each other."
"A-Aah, d-don't say such embarrassing things... Hehe."
Yuna Yurensuto Violetiris giggled, blooming flower effects around her. Sisel hadn't seen her sister's sunflower smile in ages. Must've been at least fifteen years. Jewel Yurensuto had always been prickly, Sisel Yurensuto always cowed by her parents. Yuna was different. Clever from childhood, she'd defied her parents with that wit. Often dragging Sisel out to play. Sister's still so bright. Time flows mercilessly fast, but what endures its rapids shines all the brighter. Sisel felt joy at Yuna's smile, evoking old memories.
"Y-You quit being a knight... How is it? Happy?"
"Yes. Learning life's joys one by one. Wish I'd realized sooner—for your sake, sister, I'm sorry."
"Nnh, no... We were all young then."
"Why didn't I see our parents were wrong..."
The Yurensuto count couple saw Yuna as a thorn. Talented yet lazy, harming family prestige. So they discriminated. Yuna was excluded from family meals, constantly criticized. Sisel, fearing punishment, never defended her. Looking back, pure regret.
"...But we're both better off now. That's what matters."
"Nnh."
"Honestly, I envied you. Leaving the family for freedom. Sometimes resented you. But... in hindsight, shameful. We should resent the shackles, not the free one."
"......"
Sisel had always envied Yuna. The sisters had been separated for ages. Parted in summer, when Yuna turned ten. A gaunt wizard visited the family. She scanned the three sisters, praised Yuna as a once-in-a-century archmage prospect. Recognized, Yuna went to Violet Magic Tower, rose swiftly, claimed its mastery—at twelve. Enough to fill the 'Wall of Glory'—a monumental feat. Due to the prior master's death in a tragic tower accident, but impossible without universal acclaim. Sisel thought so. She never dreamed of the horrific vivisections and mass slaughters behind it. How could she? All buried in oblivion's darkness. So she misspoke unwittingly.
"Sometimes I thought, what if I'd seized that luck—" "No."
Creeeak. Something jarred. Sisel panicked at the rapidly cooling air, looked up. Empty, void gaze fixed on her. Murky, dark. Blank void, yet paradoxically, Sisel sensed an emotional torrent from the emptiness. Zzt. Yuna's image overlapped. Two. One person, two presences. Sister and not-sister. Existing overlapped. Sudden shift choked Sisel. Air like jelly. Hard to breathe, like crushed by a giant hand.
"...Sister?"
"That wasn't luck. Misfortune. I still regret it. Stupidly following that wizard."
Sisel endured the pressure, face paling. Was that really sister?
"And I still resent them. The Yurensuto count and his wife who sold me off. Think carefully, Sisel. Learn what you can say, what you can't. Understood?"
"......Yes."
At Sisel's strained reply, Yuna Yurensuto Violetiris reverted to the 'sister' in Sisel's memory.
"W-Wanna tour the lab? Lots of fun stuff here."
"......"
Afterward, Sisel never mentioned the Yurensuto family again. But inwardly, questions swirled endlessly. What was that? What apparition just appeared—what happened in the tower? And... sold off? That day sparked Sisel Yurensuto's pursuit of the past.
#2: Betrayal Evil God-chan yawned lazily. The Violet Magic Tower Master and Yuri Lancester had left for the academy to join Mima, leaving her alone in the tower. Someone had to guard the stored Mima fragments. Waiting was boring drudgery. Evil God-chan yawned nonstop, rolled on the bed, played solitaire Go to kill time. Then, a communication orb pinged. From Mima. Tick. Connected. Mima's face appeared, sullen yet playful. -Hey, house-sitting alone? Aww, so cute.
"...Shut up!" -We'll swing by the north. Got business, and a fragment's there. Lonely? Call. I'll sing a lullaby.
"As if I'd get lonely. Quit yapping and get to work, pervperv."
Mima chuckled and cut off. Post-Evil God-chan incident, Mima treated her leniently. More like affectionately, really.
"...Idiot."
Previously hyper-vigilant of her origins as "that thing's" fragment and inherent malice, yet ultimately succumbed to human emotions. Softie. Idiot. If you're gonna guard, do it to the end. Setting up 『Gingo-a』 as control? Soft. Like leaving an open ethics textbook: "Follow this."
Should've been crueler, thorough. Shattered self-consciousness, lopped limbs, kneaded the brain harmless. Reason she didn't? Obvious. Didn't want to erase "Evil God-chan" the personality. Even born of evil, hoped for her "happy ending."
Idiot. Evil God-chan rubbed her uncomfortably stuffy chest, muttering quietly.
"...Meaningless to intercept that northern letter now."
Not a soliloquy. A man in deep hood behind her picked up naturally.
"Nah, freed up the house thanks to you. Planned to snag the northern fragment covertly, but this is better. Chance to swallow Yuna and Yuri's painstaking fragment haul whole."
"Don't get cocky. Saw the tower master layer defense spells everywhere."
"Warning me? Trying to be cute? Getting cuter by the day."
"...Shut it."
The man chuckled, then swept back his hood with a pale, veiny hand. Revealing jet-black hair and ominous red eyes. Familiar face, different expression. Eyes flickered with irrepressible malice, lips curled in a sneer mocking the world. Black wizards gathered his fragments to sabotage Mima, birthed him—but he gained self-consciousness, uncontrollable.
"Alright, leave a surprise gift for the fake."
Another mad wizard convinced he was real.
"So... Evil God-chan, where are the fragments stored?"
#Extra: The One Who Lost Her Face She opened her eyes.
"Ooh, you're awake."
"...Kim Ruru, don't get too close. It's dangerous."
"What's a river-floater gonna do? Worried about great trees too?"
"You're the one not worried enough!"
A tsundere girl with crimson hair clicking her tongue, and a lively one with bouncing red locks. The crimson girl felt oddly familiar.
"Hey, who are you? How'd you end up floating down?"
To the lively girl's question, the nameless, faceless her replied with confusion and bewilderment.
"...Who am I?"
Amnesia.