So This Is His True Identity!?
This was his true identity!?
At my father’s command to submit a report, I contacted him through the secret communicator.
“Oh my, asking a student for a report? Father, you really are too much.”
“Sorcia, you know as well as I do. You understand just how grave the current situation is.”
“Grave, you say? This girl is still young, so I’m afraid I don’t quite follow.”
“That slippery, snake-like way of speaking is exactly like your mother.”
“My, isn’t it that she takes after you, Father?”
“...Yes. I concede defeat. When you first went to that place I thought it strange. So that was your goal? Are you satisfied now that you’ve achieved it?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Father, this girl is still too young to understand.”
“What do you want?”
“Indifference.”
“What?”
“This girl simply wishes to live freely, that’s all.”
“......I told you the current events are critical.”
“That is Father’s business.”
“It is the Serena Union’s business.”
“I don’t see why that should matter to me.”
“Perhaps you desire the classified files sealed within the Sanctuary of Fate?”
“This is for the Union.”
“The Union matters, but Father, my personal life matters too. If I write such a report, my presence here becomes that of a Union spy rather than someone trying to blend in with them.”
“You call that building friendships? Me?”
“Would that be so strange?”
“Do you truly like that boy?”
“Fufufu. Father, this girl’s heart has always been constant.”
“Truly... I understand. If anything happens, contact me at once.”
“Yes~”
Saying so, I reviewed the classified data I had obtained through Lisian, the youngest princess of the demon royal family to which Daisy belonged. It concerned the secret Synapse race.
Once revered as gods, they had possessed technological power that defied imagination. The dimensional gate linking us to the humans had opened because one of the legacies they left behind had reactivated.
With such overwhelming technology, their individual strength had been equally terrifying. A single one of them could erase an entire nation or race from existence.
They were so powerful that nearly every race, including ours, had worshipped them as deities. Yet those same beings had vanished in an instant, leaving not a single trace.
The Serena Union had spent hundreds of years investigating the vanished Synapse, claiming no results. Yet for reasons unknown, the higher-ups had registered Primrose as a Synapse. The one who pushed the decision through was the elven leader—my own father.
No one knew why Father had classified Primrose as a member of that extinct race.
What is that man plotting?
He was the sort who wouldn’t spare a glance even if his own wife died, unless it benefited him. There was no chance he would act without some gain.
If he refuses to explain, then I have no obligation to help him.
With that thought, the moment I spotted the toy, the corners of my mouth lifted. I set the communicator aside and decided to rest for a while.
“Haru.”
I entered the room intending to admire the toy, but Haru was nowhere to be seen. Only the blanket in the center of the floor remained, along with the tufts of fur that Hunya must have left while rolling around to catch his scent. And there was Haru’s school uniform.
I scanned the room, spotted the uniform, and let out a soft “Ufufu.”
“Oh my. Haru works so diligently to help others, yet he’s so careless with his own belongings. That simply won’t do. I suppose I must wash this until it’s spotless. In exchange...”
Since Haru is my toy, I ought to leave my mark on him.
Just as I thought that, the computer suddenly flickered to life. The monitor blurred, flashing on and off repeatedly. Finding it odd, I approached—and the screen went dark. I tried to turn it back on, but nothing happened.
After a moment’s thought, I cast the water-attribute Restore spell that temporarily returns objects to their original state.
“It’s my first time using it on a human machine, but it works beautifully.”
Since I had gone to the trouble, I considered leaving my trace here as well, but the device didn’t appear to be in regular use, so I refrained.
When I looked at the monitor again, a single document file waited. I clicked it open. Letters written in the human language appeared.
Everything is collapsing. This world is returning to a state of nothingness.
“Is this what you desired?”
He gave no answer to my question. He simply stared at me and spoke.
“It was you who summoned me. Since you summoned me, you could not escape fate.”
“You would destroy the world merely because we called you forth?”
“I am the root of ruin. The end of every tale. You summoned the very embodiment of evil. You used my power to stop such a being—yet you find the ending of that story strange?”
“...”
“Did you truly believe you could stop me? Did you imagine you could control the power I granted? That is nothing but your empty delusion. Fate—”
The colossal face gazed down at me.
“—cannot be stopped. Primrose.”
“No. It can be stopped. As one who should not exist, I will remain by your side until the day I stop you. You…”
I looked straight at him.
“The hero of this world who sacrificed everything to slumber beside him—our hope. I will ensure your sacrifice was not in vain.”
“Aaaah, as expected of Haru.”
My whole body tingled. A rush of ecstasy surged through me.
“Haru really isn’t an ordinary being, just as I suspected.”
I had guessed that the entity from before—Cineurius—was Haru, and I had been right. An existence capable of endangering an entire world. If it had been sealed alongside that being, their power must be on the same level.
It had failed in the past, but I am different. If I can control this existence, then I…
“It would truly… be magnificent. So Haru, please, please…”
I took the shirt Haru had been wearing and cast a cleaning spell that removed every impurity without leaving a single speck. Then, so that only my essence would remain, I gargled with water infused with my magic, spat it onto the fabric, and finally ran my tongue across it to leave a secret mark. I dried it with a gust of wind.
Haru knows nothing. He will slowly sink deeper into my power. One day, just like Hunya, he will find my scent completely natural. He will understand exactly whose possession he is.
I glanced at my hand, briefly considering adding the red crystal as well, but decided against it. He already consumes that every day.
Little by little, Haru is becoming more like me.
The gloomy feeling vanished in an instant. I smiled.
“Please become my toy.”
Hehe.
Daisy was walking down the corridor when Sorcia passed by with an unusually bright, cheerful expression. Why does she look like that? she wondered, continuing on until she noticed Haru’s door standing ajar.
“.....”
It was only a tiny spark of curiosity. With that thought, I pushed the door open and called out.
“Hey… I’m just taking a quick look!”
Haru wasn’t inside. I stepped in carefully and noticed the computer was still on.
What’s this?
As I approached, I somehow sensed magical power coming from the monitor.
“Magical power from a human machine?”
I peered at the screen and saw a folder labeled [Primrose]. Without thinking, I clicked it open. Inside was a document titled Please Forget Us.
I opened the file.
Everything has ended. In the end, the doom of this world has arrived. Watching it unfold, I spoke.
“I am the terminus of all creation. Ruin itself. The one who brings forth the world’s end. Since you summoned me, was this not the future you prepared for? Or did you cling to the foolish hope that things would simply continue? How pathetic.”
“You’re right. We… we were fools. We believed we could control you and use that power to drive them away. But you are a monster beyond control—even if every being in our world and every other world combined their strength. You are a true catastrophe.”
“A realization that comes far too late.”
“Yes. It is already too late, but… there will be no second chance.”
“Second chance?”
“I will use the souls of the countless people who trusted and followed me, along with the life force of this dying world, as a sacrifice to seal away all of your memories.”
“You believe that is possible?”
“Under normal circumstances, even sacrificing this world would not be enough. But you remember your promise, don’t you? The single modest wish you said you would grant—the one that was not born of arrogance.”
“Very well. I shall grant it. But you know this seal is trivial and will eventually break, yes?”
“I do not know when that day will come. But to prevent it, I will remain by your side. Even after eons pass. Even if an existence such as mine is forgotten forever, I will stay beside you. By your side, I will protect everyone’s hope.”
“Foolish creature. The cycle must continue.”
“The cycle of destruction may be paused for a time… No. It must be stopped forever.”
“Fine. It is a promise, so I shall watch your little game for now.”
Saint of Hope, Primrose
The moment the words ended, the magical power vanished. The computer shut down and the monitor shattered at the same time.
“I knew Haru was a frightening existence, but… I never imagined it was this bad.”
On top of that, the Primrose we knew was actually the saint of a world that had been sacrificed to Haru. She was “the only seal capable of preventing destruction.”
Now I understood why Primrose possessed such overwhelming magical power, why she used magic that defied common sense, and why her magic was so pure.
All the puzzle pieces finally fit together.
The reason Primrose had suddenly appeared was probably her instinct to protect the seal. And the dream we all had the first day we met her—could that have been a warning to us? But the destroyed other world…
Could the world that was destroyed have been—
“Not the Synapse… right?”
The classified document I had learned about through the youngest princess, Lisian. The beings everyone had called gods. The race that had vanished in a single moment—the Synapse. Their name had been filtered out, hidden behind blanks.
“It couldn’t be… that filtered name.”
That was what I told myself, yet somehow I couldn’t picture Primrose as that existence.
“But if I want to keep Haru’s memory seal from breaking… what should I do?”
The moment the thought crossed my mind, I heard the door open. Haru, who had been out, stepped inside. I panicked and tried to slip out of the room before he could see me. In my haste, my foot caught on the threshold and I lost my balance.
“Kyaaak!”