Sorry, I Have a Girlfriend

Ignorance is a sin. And a possessor who doesn't know the original work? That's a felony.

An otherworld I couldn't even place. If I wanted a way home—if I wanted to see Yura—I had to do something. Anything.

And so it was, on a day I'd spent doing nothing but grinding away at my studies in the Magic Tower.

A translucent window rose before my eyes. In the instant I thought, What is this?, time and space flipped faster than a blink.

Not an escape. A regression.

Back to the moment I opened my eyes as twenty-year-old Lux Mirabeau, the same as the day I first arrived.

In the mirror there was no hunched neck, no dark circles bruised beneath the eyes. Only a pretty boy with a face a little too young to call a man, and a body far too small.

"Goddamn it. I was right in the middle of the final-stage experiment."

I'd possessed a bastard with neither talent nor backing, and clawed my way through persecution and contempt—and for what. The academy degree, the Magic Tower training course, all of it had vanished. All because a status window that hadn't shown so much as the tip of its nose for nearly nine years had finally decided to appear.

If there was any consolation, this was the first meta clue I'd ever gotten my hands on.

Bad ending. The Demon King. Anais.

Anais—if it was Anais, then surely...

Saintess of the Solar Eclipse. A romance fantasy whose heroine was a knight of the Holy Kingdom and a saintess born with Divine Power. The novel my girlfriend had been reading, before this life.

That discovery was a lifeline.

So this place was inside a romance fantasy? Then maybe—maybe I could go back.

It had called itself a bad ending, hadn't it? If I helped the protagonist reach a happy ending, wouldn't they send me home?

Not knowing the original didn't matter. Failure and death, kindly enough, weren't the end. They were regression.

And so, after burning through years and loop after loop, I succeeded for the first time in killing the Demon King together with Anais.

"Ha, haha... finally..."

Fat snowflakes drifted down through a hole torn in the ceiling. The heart of Pandemonium's throne hall. The Demon King lay frozen there like a whale stranded on a beach.

Thud.

My knees hit the floor on their own.

How much had I suffered, just to bring this vicious novel to an end?

Yura. Are you watching?

That novel you were reading—I absolutely wrecked it. The second I get out, I'm going to curse you into the dirt. If you knew the kind of hell I went through, you'd be itching to drop a five-thousand-word author's note on me.

Actually, it wasn't that hard. You don't have to worry that much. Where are you right now? Do you remember me? Have you been well?

...I'm coming to see you.

"Lux. Are you all right...?"

Right. She was here. Anais's voice dragged me back to reality.

She was covered in the marks of the battle too, though her face looked thoroughly relieved. Not as much as mine, maybe.

"Yeah, yeah. You went through plenty yourself."

She swept the snow from her silver hair with one hand.

"What are you saying.... You did all of it, Lux. I—I was only born with divine power, of all things..."

"What are you talking about? Do you have any idea how broken that ability is?"

Anais sat down beside me.

"You're the one who taught me how to use it properly. You're... amazing."

Looking at her, she really was strange. If she was the heroine of a romance fantasy, shouldn't she have been teaming up with the male leads? Taking down the Demon King with just the two of us had been brutal. Not that I, who didn't know the original, had any way of knowing how it was supposed to go.

"Anyway, today's your day. From here on, do whatever you want. I've done my part."

"What?"

"I'm not taking the credit, so you be the hero."

She must have been more than a little thrown, because all she did was blink. She didn't get it?

"Hey. You're the one who killed the Demon King. Pad those shoulders, stick your chest out, and walk like it."

"...?"

"With this much, the imperial family'll roll out the royal treatment, won't they? No—archdukes, the crown prince, they'll be lining up in front of you. Pick one and live happily ever after. That'd be nice."

She had every reason to find it strange. But it wasn't my problem anymore. I had to go see Yura.

I knew. I might be counting my chickens. Who could say how much time had passed, whether she was still waiting for me... There was nothing I could be sure of. But just the chance to see her again was enough.

So... when was the ending notification supposed to pop?

Restless for no good reason, I folded my arms behind my head and flopped onto my back.

"I..."

Anais couldn't even meet my eyes as she began, shyly.

What now.

"I, I just.... I don't know. What this feeling is..."

Ah. That?

She doesn't know? That's called a sense of accomplishment, rookie...

"A dream? A past life? I don't really understand it, but it feels as if I've only just recognized someone I've been waiting for, all this time..."

...No way.

"Someone who always protected me, who always led me... Isn't a person like that exactly the one I mustn't let slip away...?"

Oh, for—damn it.

I shot up from where I lay.

"Hey, don't get the wrong idea. Sorry to put it like this, but you and I were strictly business... No. I did it so you'd turn out all right. I never had the slightest intention of hitting on you, got it?"

"What...?"

"Why are you doing this? You're putting me on the spot. We worked great together. Let's part on good terms, yeah? I never even looked at you as a woman in the first—"

I thought I heard a crack.

...Shit.

That was a molar breaking.

"No, hey. Look at me. Barely five-foot-three, a face like some kept pretty-boy, glasses, your classic magical nerd. Me and a tall, once-in-a-lifetime beauty like you? We don't even match on the outside, I'm telling you."

"...I don't care."

Now she was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tearing up on top of everything.

Should I have seen this coming? No. I just had to leave. The moment the ending notification appeared, that would be the end of it. If I'd wanted to let her down gently, I would've needed to have been through something like this before.

"Hey. Are you even in the same league as me?"

In the end, even I couldn't believe the words that burst out of me. Still, in its own way... it held together.

"You think you can stand next to me with nothing but inborn divine power? You, my equal—when I'm the one who broke through the 7th Circle, the supposed limit of being human?"

"Wh—what...?"

I didn't think of myself as sweet, but I apparently wasn't cut out to be a complete bastard either. My gut twisted the whole time I was talking. I felt guilty toward Yura, and this was another cruelty I had no business inflicting on the person in front of me. Look at that pitiful face.

So please, just hurry up and give me the ending notification...!

"You... forget it. I'm heading out first. I'll leave a portal open back to the imperial capital, so use it whenever you want."

I didn't know what expression I was wearing, but it didn't feel like one I ought to show her. I turned my back and started out of the throne hall, then stopped for a moment at the door.

"I... I'm sorry."

In that instant—

BOOM!!

A high-pressure shockwave slammed into my back. The physical force wasn't that strong, and yet, somehow, it was powerful enough to vaporize the mana inside my body.

"Wh—what?!"

When I looked back, everything was exactly as it had been, save for the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠snow-dust whipped up by the blast. The Demon King's massive corpse. Anais, smiling at me.

...Anais, smiling through her tears.

"...Let me go."

"What?"

"I can't... let you go like this."

Could divine power really wear an aura this oppressive? And in her eyes, something like a red gleam seemed to be gathering.

"Ha. You have got to be kidding me."

I woke my core and filled in the mana that had burned away. That didn't mean I meant to fight. She couldn't die at my hands instead of the Demon King's. How long, and through what, had I built this ending?

Damn it...

And yet, right in the middle of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that hair-trigger moment, the instant I had longed for finally arrived.

Finally. The ending notification.

Couldn't it have come just a little earlier? I took the words in and let out a sigh of relief.

...It hadn't been me counting my chickens.

The premise itself—that an ending meant escape—had been wrong from the start.

"Fuck..."

I'd smashed my head against this thing until I even killed the Demon King, and now it wanted me to live with her?

"It's you... Lux."

Anais was coming toward me at a calm, measured pace, steeped in a murderous aura.

"With your mouth, you looked after me... but your eyes were always sad... and empty."

She looked as if she had more she wanted to say.

"Am I not allowed to be the one who fills you? Are you going to keep staring, with those hollow eyes, at some place I can't even name?"

But I didn't have time to listen. Everything had gone completely sideways.

Yeah. What would you know. It's a shame it turned out like this.

I kindled the mana condensed at my fingertips.

"Are you going to point that at me...?"

"No."

Confirm the story? Live out the rest of Lux's life?

I don't want that. I don't want to abandon Yura.

"I'm really sorry. I'll set things right again, so don't panic."

The place I aimed the explosion spell was my own temple.