02. The Wrecker of the Original

"Master, I finished tuning the circuits. How's this? I look like a proper mage now, don't I?"

"Not bad, I guess… Pack your things. We're leaving soon."

"Hehe… Where are we going this time?"

Another loop. The nth.

Three years had passed since I started roaming the continent with Anais, who had ended up as my magic assistant. My guess that an ending was the key to escape had been wrong. I could bring a regression to a close, yes, but the world never let me out. Which also meant that until I found a way to escape, I could regress as many times as I liked.

So I settled on two courses of action. Destroy the original story, and tear this world open at the same time. I had to trigger Narrative Incompatibility on purpose and prove that I was worthless to the plot. As for a method of escape… I would study whatever I could get my hands on. In a word, it was wrecking and learning. Only a matter of time, and both were fields I trusted myself in.

"The desert beyond the southern Sea of Silons. We're going to look into the secret arts of the nomadic tribes."

"Ugh… Isn't that black magic…?"

"Have you ever even met them?"

"No?"

"Then that's racism."

Circling the world and asking questions was nothing difficult, and I could have managed it alone. Even so, I insisted on dragging Anais along, because—

"Master, there's a house floating on the water!"

"First time seeing a ship?"

The point was to write her out of the narrative.

For a stage built to serve a romance-fantasy heroine, this world was far too detailed, and far too vast. Even without seeking them out, there was no shortage of things to do and places to go.

"Master, we came all this way, and now you say we're going back to the central continent?"

"Those swarthy bastards…. They claimed it was a secret art for peering ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into other worlds, and it was nothing but a folk tale. Nothing left to do here. Back to the center."

"I really want to stop riding ships…."

Staggering across the deck in loose clothes, she was a poor match for anyone's idea of a saintess. We were an unimaginable distance from the continent that held the Holy Church she belonged to, and the Empire. Thinking how utterly unlike the previous loops this route was, I felt the strange sense that we had derailed something enormous.

Weren't the Church people coming to look for her?

"Don't you miss the Holy Kingdom?"

"Uuugh… the Holy Kingdom? I do miss the priests, and my sisters… but praying all day was so stuffy… urp."

As far as I knew, that whole household was meant to die protecting her. Unless I had spirited Anais away the moment this loop began.

At least they'll be alive this time.

She took the waterskin I offered and pulled a face.

"But I really don't think ships are something a person can ride."

"Yeah?"

She had never once complained about how we traveled, and yet seasickness had her uniquely beaten.

Transportation. Thinking about it, we couldn't keep going on like this. I had time to spare, but I preferred comfort. A portal required the formula to be laid at the destination beforehand, and flight magic was slow as sin…. I ought to set that as the first goal once we got back.

"…Is there someone you miss, Master?"

"Miss what? The Magic Tower?"

"That… it's nothing."

And so I traveled, and researched magic, through days so full I never noticed the time passing.

"Master! What was that explosion just now?!"

"Cough, cough! I was in the middle of a teleport experiment."

"Teleportation? What does that have to do with an explosion?"

"Existing magic doesn't have the range. Ever heard of an ICBM?"

Now and then, true to a possession story, I made free use of a modern person's authority. It didn't have to be my major. Bring the concept, and magic solved the rest.

"…How does the travel work? I'm not really following."

"You launch a person instead of a shell. I built the propellant out of mana stones, and the specs are just— hey! Don't touch that so—"

"Hmm. If it's only about thi—"

"Did I talk in my sleep or something?"

When had I even picked up the name Yura?

Well. It wasn't bad.

No. It was better than not bad. Ruining the ending was one of the tasks, after all. If it worked like this, I could keep going forever.

Yes. For as long as it took.

"Boss! Do we really have to do it this way?"

"She's right. If you needed information, you could have just asked."

I had told her to tie up the Imperial Princess we'd run into while ransacking ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the imperial library, and yet here was Anais, sharing tea and gossip with her. She was even scolding me, her own partner.

"Just keep quiet for a bit. I'll finish the copies and we'll leave clean."

"Hah…. Anais? I'm relieved that you, at least, seem like someone I can reason with."

"But of course. Unlike a certain cranky shortstack."

"Ohohoho! A mage skilled enough to breach imperial security, stooping to common thievery. Truly beyond all common sense."

"He really is impressive, even if he doesn't look it. Um, Your Highness. How strong is the 10th Circle?"

"Hm? Ah. As this princess understands it, a mage's body begins to break down from the 5th Circle onward. And a 10th Circle, of all things… pfft…"

"Wow, then he really is amazing. Boss! Her Highness says you're amazing!"

"Enough. Let's go. I've got it all, so we can read at our leisure back home."

I compressed every copy into a codex the size of my palm, then called her.

"B-Boss…!"

But when I turned, the Imperial Princess's dagger was at her throat.

"You would do well to attempt nothing foolish. Are you from the Magic Tower?"

"Aigoo. What did I tell you."

Anais, who clearly had not expected to be betrayed at all, trembled with the princess holding her from behind.

"P-please spare meee…! Your Highness, I was wrong…!"

She seemed to have completely forgotten that she had been a holy knight.

Comparing her to the previous loops would practically be an insult.

An ending like this was welcome, if anything. Next time, I'd come alone.

"Your Highness. Ever heard of Earth?"

"Earth…? Is that your affiliation?"

"Oh, quick on the uptake. What about Korea? Know anything?"

"…What do you mean by that?"

A face that knew nothing. A magical scan confirmed it. She truly didn't know.

"Tsk. Don't work her too hard. Underestimate her and it'll cost you."

"Booooss!!! Take me with you……!!!"

…That one was a little brutal.

I couldn't drag Anais along for every loop.

"Talk. Do you know about Earth?"

I could hardly bring her into an audience with the Demon King.

"Krrk…. Your shackles cannot be broken."

"Oh. A decent metaphor."

For something calling itself the Demon King, the line carried weight.

"Now drop the bullshit posing and tell me what you know."

"Kraaaagh!!"

But a regressor is scarier than a Demon King. And unlike a knight, a mage can do a great many things. Torture? I could attend to that very kindly, and very skillfully.

"Ghhhhk…."

"Full of life. We can keep this up for a very long time."

"I—I don't know! E-Earth!? A harbor?! I am hearing all of it for the first time, I tell you!"

"Pronounce it properly. You really don't know?"

"Vicious!! You damned mortal wretch!!"

"Yeah? Then we start a basic background check. From the moment you were born until now—everything you've seen, heard, and done, your purpose, your creed, the meaning of your life, whatever—tell me exactly what kind of bastard you are."

"I understand, I understand…!! Please, stop this pain!!"

"Depends on how you do. Now, first…"

The Demon King was less than I had expected. Whether it knew nothing, or was merely a device performing the role of Demon King. All it amounted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to was this: one day it opened its eyes, it hated humanity, and in Pandemonium it waited only for the day it would unleash calamity. That was the end of it.

A remarkably flat villain.

The real question was how to handle this loop's ending. The Demon King was dead, and still no ending alert had come.

I was sunk in that problem, camped in Pandemonium, when the heroine showed up anyway.

"Ahem, ahem! Demon King. You shall receive the sword of Anais, enforcer of the Holy ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Kingdom and Saintess of the Sun."

"…."

But the Demon King wasn't here. What was I supposed to do?

Wait. I had never died by Anais's hand. This could count as its own splendidly gory ending.

"Come, mortal."

I took the blade for her, and only on the verge of death did I remember. If I died, the ending never appeared.

There was time.

Yes.

Far too much of it.

Learning everything about this world was an exceedingly difficult thing. I had tried everything that could be tried, and even when nothing came to mind I flung endings around however I pleased. In all honesty, I was beginning to think it might not be so bad to give up at last and close the story out with some adequate ending.

…No. I couldn't.

Because she was waiting for me.

Or what about a random combination? What if Anais became the Demon King? No—what if she tried being the emperor? What if the Demon King simply reformed?

There was still so much research left unfinished.

I hadn't even… tried all that much yet.

"Don't!!"

My upper body snapped upright as if a defibrillator had struck me. Cold sweat soaked me from my brow all the way down my spine, as if I had just crawled out of a nightmare I had never once dreamed in my life.

"…What was that?"

I was certain I had passed through an ending and regressed. But the memory… would not come.

Had the accumulated errors been the problem? Or had I simply drifted for too long? I had no idea at all.

I was still searching for a way out.

Earth. The Republic of Korea.

Yes. I remembered the language. All of it.

But I…?

Who had I been? My name? My age?

A university student? A working adult? Had I had a family?

The things I longed for.

The things that had mattered to me…

"Oppa… are you awake?"