Disappear From My Life

"Please, spare me."

X pressed himself to the floor in a full prostration, forehead to the boards, every limb splayed in surrender. Scattered across the floor ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in front of him were the shredded remains of a letter — the original sin that had brought this moment down upon his head.

Circe looked down at him, her face twisted with rage.

"Did you honestly think I'd just let that letter slide? Do I look like that much of a drooling idiot to you? What was that? 'I know your true identity is Aerial reborn'? So you were going to play me, is that it?"

"No. That isn't— I never intended—"

"In-ten-ded? I thought it was a trap those demon bastards had dug. But guess what? There's no way in hell those demons would know a damn thing about my past life! So I sat there and thought, nice and slow, about which son of a bitch was the most suspicious! And there was only one!!"

ZZZZZT—!

"GYAAAAH—!"

"And oh, how coincidentally — I asked the comrades who'd gathered there after a hundred years of reincarnation, and they said they'd gotten letters too! They even asked each other if they'd been the ones who sent them! Use your head. If someone actually wrote those letters, at least one person wouldn't have received one!!"

ZZZZZZZT—!!

"GYAAAAH—! GYAAAAAAAH—!!"

"Which means the most likely candidate is exactly one person, doesn't it? I don't know how you found out, but you're either the bastard pulling dirty tricks in a nest of demons, or the bastard who did something to my memories!!"

ZZZZZZZZZT—!!

"S-spare me…"

"So answer me properly!! If you don't explain exactly what happened, I will roast you alive!"

Crackle. Fizzle—

"Gyaaah…"

Only then did the electric torture stop. It was the kind of interrogation that would have knocked any human unconscious, and yet he never lost consciousness. Was that thanks to becoming a demon? Whether that was a blessing or a curse, he couldn't say.

If he kept his mouth shut, the lightning would start again. He forced his lips apart.

"The truth is…"

"For the record — as you've already seen — I see through lies in a heartbeat. Think very carefully before you answer."

"I-I'm aware…"

He had underestimated Circe's obsession with knowledge. Only now did he understand that the reason she clung to him so fiercely was the sealed memories.

If I explain, I'll take another penalty… Wait. Hold on.

A strange inconsistency snagged in his mind.

Back at the mansion, and again just now… I didn't take a penalty.

Given the conditions, that shouldn't have been possible. And yet the impossible had happened. There had to be some other reason.

In Circe's own words, he found a clue.

Messing with memories… Memories?

A hypothesis slammed into place. X acted on it at once. He abandoned the prostration, rose to his feet, and looked down at Circe with his chest thrown out.

"That's right! I wrote them! I knew who you were and I wrote those letters! To take down those demons! I'm not a bad guy!"

"Who the hell do you think you're shouting at!"

ZZZZZT—!!

"GYAAAAH!! I'm sorry!! I did write them!"

Even as he groaned through the pain, the hypothesis locked into certainty.

There's no penalty for things they already know!

If that was true, he could explain everything to Circe. Handled well, she might even become a new ally. The same went for Roxwell, whose memories were sealed as well.

The thought died as quickly as it had formed.

…No. It's just as dangerous. Think about the viewpoint. Don't forget Elysia is watching this.

X forced his pulse down and judged the situation with cold precision. First, he had to get through the present. He hurried back into a seated position and began to explain.

"As you suspected, I wrote the letters. That said, I had no intention of luring any of you into a trap. This was the best method available."

"The best method? Leading people into the middle of a demon nest was the best method?"

"It was the only way for Leon to awaken as a Hero, and for the reincarnated Hero party to find each other. It also kept the casualties to a minimum."

"…Tch. That's true."

Circe clicked her tongue, her face twisted as if she'd bitten into something rotten. X pressed on.

"The original reason I went to that demon mansion was to find out where they planned to attack. Stopping the nobles from taking the Demonification Accelerator was a bonus."

"That's true too."

The more he stuck to the facts, the more Circe's expression soured. The hostility in her eyes slowly bled away.

"But."

Then it spiked again, sharp and sudden.

"How do you know all that?"

Ugh… I was hoping she'd let that one go…

He had desperately wanted to dodge this question. A lie would be caught. The truth would be dismissed as nonsense.

And if she actually believed it, that would be even worse.

If she had information about what was coming, Circe would act against the plot. Now that Leon had joined them, they could not afford to derail any further.

Hell's dilemma…!

Die now, or die later. He was turning that survival calculus over in his mind when Seri appeared.

Ten Thousand Lies…?

In that sliver of an instant, X grasped the new talent in full.

This is it!

The moment he parsed the contents, X cheered inwardly. This talent was the divine move that would break the present deadlock.

In the brief silence that followed, Circe's expression soured further.

"Fine. I'll wait while you cook up an excuse. My electric magic, however, has no intention of waiting — so I'd be careful."

"I-I'll talk!"

X finished his preparations with forced calm, and answered.

"The truth is — I have seen the future!"

"Ha…"

Circe let out a short, incredulous scoff. It was an absurd lie. So preposterous that even if she'd wanted to believe it, she couldn't have.

"You're trying to wriggle out of it like that agai— wait?"

The truth-detection result was not what she expected. The lie detector had judged X's answer as truth.

"Huh…? That can't be right…?"

"Is something the matter? Did my words come up as truth?"

"Hold on. This is an error. Something's gone wrong."

"The Book of Eibon does not lie."

"…You know about that too?"

"Allow me to say it again. I have seen the future, after all."

"This is also… truth. How…? Say it again!"

"I-I have seen the future."

"No. Something's wrong! Again!"

"Repeating it will not turn the truth into a lie!"

"…Tch!"

Circe clicked her tongue and abandoned the interrogation. She didn't want to admit it, but she had no choice except to believe that X had seen the future. She could not afford to waste any more of the Book of Eibon.

Of course, there hadn't been a scrap of truth in anything X had said.

Ten Thousand Lies… the performance is rock-solid!

He had activated it every single time he claimed to have seen the future. That was how he'd fooled Circe's Book of Eibon. Now he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could speak with his chest out and his head high.

"With that, my innocence is proven."

"What innocence! You still got caught trying to steer other people's lives!"

ZZZZZT—!

"Gaaah! S-stop…!"

"I get that your intentions were good. But you hid everything, schemed in secret, and only came clean because you got caught — even if I wanted to trust you, I can't! If you'd just told people from the beginning, none of this would have happened!"

Circe was right. However noble the intent, the fact remained that he had lied to people and used them. No matter how fine the outcome, anyone who'd been deceived or exploited was never going to look on it kindly.

He knew that. It was precisely why X had always tried to avoid lies that crossed the line. He had learned, through bone-deep experience, how easy it was to ruin a person's life with a handful of words.

But that was a rule for ordinary circumstances.

"No, Circe. You are badly mistaken."

"…What?"

"You have already figured everything out."

X sat back down and continued, his voice gone serious.

"The past up to this moment. The future still to come. Who has been manipulating this world and toying with it. How this world was created. What happens at the end of all this fate. You have already uncovered all of it. Every last piece, without exception."

There was no need to activate the talent. It was the truth.

"Do you want to know about the memory seal? Then I'll tell you. The memory seal is the entire truth. Sealed by the damned woman who's been playing with this world."

"The 'damned woman'…?"

"Which is why I cannot tell you. I've already been through hell once. I can't go through it again. I'm the only one who needs to thrash around in this godforsaken world."

"…What is that supposed to mean."

At Circe's clipped demand for an explanation, X ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠merely shrugged.

"I've already died once. There's no need to go through hell a second time, is there?"

"…You?"

X answered with a bitter smile.

"I'm all out of vacation days."

"…"

Circe looked at that answer with a tangled, unreadable expression. X's face was painfully close to the one Leon had worn on his way to hell, before the reincarnation. But X was not Leon.

"…So you're telling me not to unseal the memories carelessly?"

"That's for you to decide. If you learned the whole truth, you would make the same judgment I did."

Of that, he was certain. Anyone who knew the entire plot would understand how important it was to awaken Leon. He was only trying to stop them from possibly veering off course.

"That said, you'd be pretty devastated. There's no need to despair over a future that hasn't even arrived yet… Well. I don't recommend it. The future will be revised little by little anyway."

X decided to bring the conversation to a close.

"So, Circe… no. Lady Aerial."

"…What."

"Forget every conversation we had in this room. The gaps in your memory, the things about the future — forget all of it, and live a new life with Lord Protego and your comrades. When the occasional bad thing happens, handle it together with them."

"…"

"In Aerial's memories, there is no X. Even if there is, I'm just one of the thousands — the tens of thousands — of people out there. Not worth remembering. If we happen to cross paths, think oh, a familiar face, and walk on by."

"…Why should I do that?"

"Because that is the only way I can fight that damned woman and win. So I will be so bold as to say this."

This was the heart of it.

"Circe. Please disappear from my life."

Go back to your role.

"Never act like you know me again."

That's the only way everyone survives.

X and Circe could not meet anymore. Circe could not be allowed to deviate from the original plot. There could be no more variables he couldn't control. To stop the doom, it had to be this way.

Was that too harsh? No. Even stronger wouldn't have been enough.

Elysia watched the world from a higher dimension and revised it at will. To oppose that power, he had to conceal his own information with absolute thoroughness. He harbored no ill will toward Circe — but the moment the viewpoint attached itself to her, she could no longer be an ally.

The same went for Roxwell, for every member of the reincarnated Hero party, for the key villains and the important supporting players. The only ones in this world who could interfere with the author were extras of no importance whatsoever.

To put it in a cruel summary: the doom of this world had to be stopped by the likes of extras. That was reality.

If I've said this much, she should understand.

The atmosphere had turned a little argumentative, but he didn't particularly care. The reincarnated Hero party were adults, mentally speaking. Treating someone like a child — Lola alone was enough for that.

"…"

Circe's silence ran deep and long. Looking at her face, she seemed half on the verge of tears and half burning with indignation. She had never, in her entire life, been rejected this hard. She had never even heard of someone rejecting her by declaring themselves worthless. Not even Leon had ever shown her anything like this.

She wanted to argue. Instead, her own intelligence and wisdom — which had already understood, and already accepted it — only irritated her. So Circe clenched her teeth and forced the words out.

"I under…stand. I'll… disappear from… your life…"

That was enough. X closed his eyes and nodded.

Circe held down the injustice that wanted to burst out of her and stood. She had said it, so she had to follow through. She managed to get to her feet and walked toward the door.

The moment she opened it, she and X would be strangers. They had been strangers from the start — but from now on they would be something even less. Two people who would thoroughly, deliberately ignore each other.

That's all we ever were anyway.

She hardened her heart and reached for the door. And just as her hand closed on it—

"Hey, commoner! I don't get this! Tell me— wait, huh?"

The door flew open, and a blonde little girl appeared. The kid who always tagged along with X — Circe could barely even remember her name.

It was Lola, wasn't it?

The instant Lola opened the door and found Circe standing there, she shrank back, bristling with wariness.

"Th-this is definitely where the commoner lives, right…? Why…?"

…She was definitely there.

When Circe had put the eavesdropping magic on X, she remembered the two of them planning an operation together. She remembered that Lola had gone to the demon mansion with him as well.

While she was staring blankly at the girl, X answered from behind her.

"Young lady. They told the dorm students to wait in their own rooms because of today's incident. If we get caught, that professor will beat me to death."

"Hey! Then why is this person here!"

"She just stepped in to talk for a moment. She's about to leave, so please make way."

"Why have you been treating me so badly lately? I'll have you know I'm a noble. I'm the daughter of Count Lemercier's house!"

"I'm saying this for your sake, young lady."

Lola grudgingly shuffled aside. Hunched up like a small animal, bristling with suspicion — it was almost comical. At that unspoken get out already in the girl's eyes, Circe moved.

Circe stepped out through the door. Lola stepped in. The moment she was inside X's room, Lola shut the door behind her.

Then she launched into a long, loud stream of complaints, plenty audible from the hallway. They sounded close. Quite close.

Circe stood outside the door and listened to that voice for a long while. And then, suddenly, she understood.

Lola was permitted in X's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠life.

She herself had been rejected — completely.

And she had no idea why.

"Why?"

X had made a single mistake. Perhaps because he had laid his heart bare, he had underestimated her. The Sage's obsession with knowledge was beyond anything he could have imagined.

And now, that obsession had taken on a new form.