The Miracle That Never Happened
".....Ngh."
One morning, after the sun had risen and set countless times.
"Ugh, ugh... ngh..."
Rosewin, who had been holed up in her room at the academy, steadily decoding the diary up to that point,
"Ughhh... ugh..."
was sniffling and weeping softly as she read through the latter half of the now fully decoded diary.
Today is the day I go to give Rosewin her final flower.
"Th-this... this was it... this was the moment..."
She had already read through the entire contents while decoding it, but Rosewin trembled violently as she started over from the beginning.
The flower I'm giving her today is a rose. I originally wanted to give her a flower that never wilts, but unfortunately, I couldn't obtain one.
Her brain simply couldn't process the shocking contents after just one read.
This will probably be my last attempt. Tomorrow, I'll lose everything and get captured. I wonder if it'll succeed this time? If it could just work once, just once...
As she read it again, new information caught Rosewin's eye.
I can't quite remember how many flowers I've given Rosewin. I've given her every type of flower in the world, and once, I even gave her an entire flower field as a gift. But why? Why won't she become my ally?
The handwriting here was shaky—not from content she'd vaguely understood before, but proof that Frey's hand had been trembling badly as he wrote it.
According to the Prophecy Book, Rosewin is set to be my one and only ally. The final shred of mercy to ease this hellishly difficult ordeal. Once she awakens as my ally, she's the sole being who won't trigger penalties even if she learns my true identity. The moment she becomes my ally, she turns into my perfect partner and assistant—the one person who truly understands me.
"Assistant... partner..."
Murmuring those now-meaningless words of a relationship that would never come to pass in a soulless voice, Rosewin turned the page with shaking hands.
That's why I always treated her kindly. Even when I hurt everyone else, I was warm to her, always striving to win her favor. She had to accept my flowers to meet the conditions, after all.
"C-conditions..."
But it's strange. Across countless loops, I've given her flowers endlessly, yet she's never become my ally. It's the one thing I've tried everything for and failed at completely.
"N-no way..."
At that passage, a thought suddenly struck Rosewin. Several times when Frey kept offering flowers, she'd accepted them out of sheer annoyance.
So for a while, I gave up on making her my ally. Quite a long time, actually. Until this loop, I was just giving her flowers to make her hate me. For some reason, the more flowers I gave her, the more she loathed me.
Tears welled up in Rosewin's eyes.
Time passed, and this loop arrived. I'd grown enough to end everything, learned everything I needed, and by some miraculous stroke of luck, it all fell into place.
A single tear trickled down.
That's why, in this loop, instead of giving flowers out of duty or habit, I gave them with sincerity. At first, it was selfish—I needed her as an ally to boost the clear rate I'd barely reached after endless regressions. For that reason, I started giving her flowers with genuine feeling after so long.
The tear slid down her cheek, soaking the diary—which had burned once before and been magically restored into a very dry state.
But eventually, I realized—and had to admit it. No matter how exhausted I was from countless regressions, deep down, I wanted a comrade I could open up to. Someone to hear everything I'd done and acknowledge it. And...
"Ah, ah... ahhh..."
...I wanted, just once at the end, to be loved by someone. Anyone.
The tears streaming down Rosewin's cheeks multiplied. They soaked the once-dry diary pages.
But even in this loop, she didn't respond. Thanks to my intelligence finally piecing it together, I figured out the conditions for her ally awakening. I desperately tried everything to win her heart, but as always, she just laughed and chatted happily with Ruby.
They kept flowing long after.
The lingering attachment I'd forgotten about faded away. Why does she hate me so much? Are she and I fated never to connect?
"Just once... if she'd only accepted them sincerely just once..."
The system had activated the moment she thought of Frey as a 'precious being' and grasped the flower, longing to see him again. That's how she realized the awakening condition: accept the flower sincerely.
Why Frey had been especially kind, gentle, and warm only to her.
Why he'd kept confessing endlessly, no matter how many rejections.
She finally understood—it was because, right up to the final moments, he'd desperately wanted a comrade to share everything with.
"I... I..."
But Rosewin had betrayed his hopes to the end. Back then and even now, her heart was filled only with devotion to the hero.
She'd seen Frey merely as a naive, gullible source of money, smitten by her beauty and charm.
"...What have I done?"
Suddenly, memories flashed through Rosewin's mind.
Frey, approaching her as a child, babbling incoherently about falling for her at first sight. Promising her anything she wanted—wealth, fame, everything—if she'd just be his partner.
Her acting friendly toward him while inwardly humming about a new money source.
Smiling as she accepted the various flowers he offered with desperate eyes, then coldly burning, discarding, or stashing them in storage the moment he left the guild.
Years passing, Ruby appearing as the hero, and her days of pledging loyalty to her.
"Rosewin, flowers again tod— Ah."
"...Who's that?"
"A stalker. Ignore him."
Frey arriving with a bouquet, looking embarrassed, only to freeze in shock upon seeing her chatting with Ruby. Ruby flashing her an inexplicable wink.
"Rosewin, please. Just once, please..."
"I said get lost? What would the hero think if she saw this?"
Later, him clinging to her legs, on the verge of tears, begging to date just once.
"Ughk... ughhh..."
And finally, turning away his last visit.
In the final battle, stabbing his side repeatedly with a dagger.
"Uwaaa... ahhh..."
All the things she'd done to Frey—who'd suffered endlessly through eons of torment, chosen oblivion, yet desperately wanted her as a comrade, clinging to that final attachment—kept surfacing in Rosewin's mind.
"He... he was always so good to me... He held onto that attachment because of me... I saw him only as a money source..."
Now she was paying the price for coldly rejecting his final plea for help, right up to the very end.
Still, I'll make one last attempt. Though I probably won't have time to receive that mysterious flower Aris handpicked herself. The rose I prepared in advance is so beautiful I hate to discard it. And a bit of attachment lingers.
"...Ah?"
Rosewin, who had been trembling in horror at the gravity of her actions, suddenly widened her eyes.
"Th-this."
And from then on, her expression changed rapidly.
What happens with the 'small miracle' if she accepts the flower sincerely, and...
She'd missed the final line earlier because tears blurred her vision.
...I'm still a little curious what would happen if, after everything ends, she came to me with the flower. Well, that only happens if she accepts it.
"...The flower."
Spotting that line, Rosewin shot to her feet, muttering shakily.
"The flower... I need to give him the flower."
Staring down at her hands as she muttered,
"The flower... ah."
Her eyes went dead.
The last remaining rose from Frey had withered so completely from the shock of the system awakening that it had shattered into pieces.
"...N-no. It must still be there. It has to be."
Staring blankly at the rose petals scattered in her hands, Rosewin frantically shook her head and reached out.
"It has to be there... at least one, just one has to be left..."
She began rummaging wildly through her desk drawers, searching for the flowers Frey had given her over the years, but
"At least one... ugh."
The first flower she found was
- The first flower the Hero ever gave me ♡
A ruby-colored flower Ruby had given her years ago, preserved meticulously without a single wilted petal.
".......Ah."
Only then did she notice the room filled with flowers.
"...Uwaa."
It was plastered with gifts from Ruby, flowers from Ruby, photos with Ruby.
"Uwaaaaa..."
Not a single gift or flower from Frey remained. She'd sold, burned, or thrown them all away.
"Uwaaaaaaaa!!"
That realization hit her, and Rosewin began wailing madly,
"D-don't look at me...!!!"
trashing the photos of Ruby everywhere, the meticulously preserved ruby flowers, and the memos she'd stuck up praising Ruby.
- The first flower the Hero ever gave me ♡
"...Agh!!"
The expensive protective magic she'd invested in destroyed her hand.
"Ahhhhh..."
She collapsed onto her butt, body shuddering.
"Don't... look at me like that..."
Ruby's once-cheerful expressions in the photos now looked like mocking sneers.
"Ugh... ugh..."
Surrounded by the fallen ruby flowers on the floor, Rosewin's life ebbed away bit by bit.
"...The warehouse."
She staggered to her feet and muttered lowly.
"The guild warehouse... might have artificial flowers stored."
Moments later, a carriage departed from Sunrise Academy.
.
.
.
.
.
"........."
A tear streamed from Rosewin's eyes as she walked the streets with her head bowed.
"R-Rosewin? What brings you he—"
"A-artificial flowers! The ones Frey gave me... they're still in the warehouse, right!?"
"No, we sold them all."
".....What?"
The guild staff had delivered the shocking news just hours earlier.
"They were made of gold and precious gems... You told us to sell them off one by one."
"Wh-when did you...?"
"A few months ago, we cleared them all out. The last one I turned into jewelry."
"Jew... elry..."
Staring blankly at the scattered remnants turned into accessories, Rosewin left the guild empty-handed.
"No flowers... not a single one left... He gave me so many... not even one..."
The flowers at the guild had all been ones from Ruby, preserved with care.
Not a single one of the countless flowers from Frey remained.
"S-sorry... I'm sorry... I was wrong..."
That's why—even though she didn't know how it was possible—Rosewin had come to Isolet's house, mentioned as having recovered Frey's remains.
She couldn't bring herself to enter, just sniffling outside.
"If I'd kept just one... just one flower... maybe a miracle could've happened..."
She'd kicked away the means to that miracle herself—the one that might change everything.
"Uwooo... ugh..."
Kneeling before Isolet's house, weeping for a while, Rosewin suddenly
"...Uwa?"
widened her eyes.
Though I probably won't have time to receive that mysterious flower Aris handpicked herself.
"That flower back then—the flower that never wilts."
She recalled the diary entry.
"Th-that flower was the one he prepared for me."
It was a desperate assumption, but long lost in panic, Rosewin snatched up the unwilting flower with trembling hands.
"If I take this... and find him. If I go to Frey...!"
She staggered up and pounded on the door.
"O-open the door... Isolet. Open up... ugh."
The door swung open.
No one inside—apparently, it hadn't been locked from the start.
"I-I brought the flower. Frey... it's too late... way too late... but still..."
Ignoring that, Rosewin entered Isolet's house.
".....Ngh."
She spotted countless empty bottles scattered around Isolet, slumped at the dining table.
"I-Isolet... Frey. I heard you recovered Frey..."
"...Mm."
Desperately questioning the drunken Isolet—eyes unfocused, sprawled in her chair—
"......Over there."
"Th-thank you..."
Isolet pointed vaguely with glazed eyes, and Rosewin hurried over.
"........Ah."
Finally reaching what Isolet meant by Frey, Rosewin
".........."
stared down with dead eyes.
[Frey Raon Starlight]
There lay a gleaming urn filled with soil, inscribed with Frey's name.
".....What is this?"
"Frey, isn't it?"
Isolet giggled through half-lidded eyes.
"It's definitely Frey. Of course. If that's not Frey, then what is?"
"......."
"The others will come soon too. I told them. At least say hello bef—"
Ignoring Isolet's ramblings, Rosewin
- Carefully planted the flower into the soil-filled urn with dead eyes.
"........"
But no miracle occurred.
"I-I brought the flower... h-heek."
It wasn't Frey himself—just his remains.
"I-I'm sorry... forgive me... ughhh..."
That was when Rosewin completely broke.