Episode 166 - Ending Credits Screening
"Ugh..."
Hot tears streamed from Kania's eyes as she read the diary.
"K-Kania...?"
The three others watching her were at a loss, confusion etched on their faces.
"What kind of memory could be in there to make her react like this..."
"I don't know what it is, but if it's enough to make Kania like this..."
Irina and Clana finally spoke up, their voices trembling.
"...I need to check it for myself."
Serena, her expression blank and soulless, reached for the diary.
"W-Wait a second...!"
Clana tried to stop her.
"I-Irina. Does that mean if we touch that diary... we'll see the truth?"
She turned to Irina, whose face had gone pale, and began firing questions.
"No chance it's been tampered with? Or a trap? Or some kind of spell...?"
"The magic on that diary pulls out the writer's embedded memories exactly as they are. No chance of tampering."
"...Ah."
Irina's firm answer made Clana stare at the diary in terror.
"If I touch that... Frey's memories... all the truth..."
Serena brushed off Clana's hand.
"And... we'll be able to see him again."
She murmured with desperate longing.
"W-Wait...!"
[Single Player Experience Mode Ended]
"...Huh?"
"K-Kania?"
"Where... is this?"
Moments later, the four girls—including Kania, who was clutching her stomach for some reason—found themselves in a dark space dominated by a massive screen.
[Multi Player Experience Mode Applied]
......
- Fizz...
"...!"
The massive screen lit up, and the four girls flinched, their faces tense with anxiety.
- Frey, you're... a hero.
- Huh?
What emerged from the screen was a conversation between young Frey and his father, Abraham.
"The Star Hero who will defeat the Demon King after a thousand years... is you."
"What... does that mean...?"
The young Frey asked in a trembling voice, and silence followed Abraham's words.
[The day I killed my mother with my own hands, the Prophecy Book awakened, and I became the hero.]
[Countless loops and timelines followed.]
"........."
A heavy silence fell over the girls as they stared at the words.
[With the end of those countless timelines and regressions approaching,]
[I evaluate my actions at key events leading straight to clearance. To judge if this loop truly doesn't need a retry. To determine if what I did was right.]
"Cough... Hack..."
"Mm..."
As the text faded, images of Kania and Frey appeared before the girls.
"...Ugh."
Frey, as always, infusing life force into Kania.
"I need to give her... a bit more..."
But Frey's condition was the worst.
- Crack... Crunch...
"No... if this keeps up, Kania won't make it through the next scenario..."
His heart was freezing over from Aisi's curse.
"...What are you doing right now?"
Frey's fidgeting expression froze in an instant.
"K-Kania..."
"What are you doing to my body?"
Kania glared at him with disgust as his hand slipped inside her top, caressing her bare skin.
[Kania Liberation]
In that moment, the words appeared alongside Kania screaming from the bed.
"What the hell are you doing to me!!"
A brief silence.
"Ugh..."
Frey, clutching his heart and groaning, chose to lie.
"Why... why are you like this? It's not our first time."
"W-What...!"
"...You clung to me every night. You enjoyed it without even knowing."
Kania, completely deceived, filled with revulsion and anger, tears welling in her eyes.
Frey forced a lecherous grin, moving his hand from her back to her chest.
"...Hack!"
But soon, he vomited blood and collapsed onto the bed.
"You thought I wouldn't know?"
Kania looked down at him coldly.
"The poison and curse I've been slowly planting in you. I just activated it a little."
"W-What are you... Aaaagh!!"
"What else? It means I'm no longer your puppet."
She straightened her clothes, glaring at the trembling Frey in agony.
"I'll give you hell for as much as you defiled me."
She whispered, intensifying the pain.
"Brace yourself."
At that point, the footage before the girls ended.
Before they could react, new text appeared.
[Evaluation: Inflicted an indelible wound on Kania.]
[Even if we defeat the Demon King and reach a happy ending, she'll live forever with the memory of being raped by me. The Stone of Purity can mitigate it somewhat, but the trauma of the molestation remains.]
[Solution: Let her torture me as much as she wants. Essential for her to overcome the trauma I caused.]
[To my soul partner who kept me from breaking early on, a happy ending.]
- Whoosh...!
The next moment, before the girls could respond, a new scene appeared.
[Duel with Irina]
"That's my last Fireball. Any last words?"
"Ugh..."
Frey lay battered in the arena, Irina looking down at him coldly.
"You're really... gonna fire that?"
He asked with a pathetic expression.
"If you do... your friend Ariane's sister..."
"...I already got her out."
"What!?"
But Irina, her eyes fierce, cut him off.
"Shut up and eat this."
"...Kehack!!"
She unleashed the Fireball on the broken Frey, finishing him.
[Evaluation: No flaws.]
[I've fought Irina so many times, I led the battle to my defeat effortlessly. We've challenged the Demon King together alone countless times—if I couldn't handle this, regression would be pointless. Thanks to the Death Oath I placed on her, I'm at her mercy. Everything went according to plan.]
[To my reliable fighter, peace instead of war.]
The scene shifted again.
[Oath with Clana]
"You know what day it is, right? Princess?"
"Ugh..."
"The day His Majesty's grace period for the oath ends."
Sleazy-faced Frey and pale-faced Clana appeared before the girls.
"At midnight... you're mine. Legally, whatever I do to you is allowed."
"Ugh..."
"How does it feel? You worked so hard to become emperor, only to end up as my servant wife... no, doll?"
With the clock at 11:59, Frey continued smugly.
"Let's see... How about a little practice?"
"N-No...!"
"No? Only seconds left."
Frey began counting slowly.
"Ten seconds... nine... eight..."
"Two... one...!"
"Ah, aaah..."
As Clana despaired, watching Frey's hand reach for her—
"Wait!!"
Someone burst in.
"......What?"
"Stop!"
Frey glared at the intruding hero, Ruby.
"What authority do you have?"
He sneered.
"I'll use the oath!"
"W-What!?"
Frey panicked as Ruby shouted.
"H-Hero...!"
Clana beamed.
"As a recognized hero, I use the oath granted by the imperial family—right here!"
Ruby declared loudly again.
"...Heh."
She flashed a mocking smile visible only to Frey.
[Evaluation: Perfect.]
[It was like a fairy tale. When Ruby appeared, I nearly drew my sword in rage. But seeing Clana's radiant smile, I held back.]
[May she never become a canary because of me again, and live a happy life with ordinary love.]
The text vanished, plunging everything into darkness.
[Deceiving Serena]
"Frey... answer me..."
"Yawn..."
In the blurry, dark scene—unlike the clear ones before—
"Frey!! Answer me!!"
"...What?"
Trembling Serena and yawning Frey were shown.
"You cast the Subjugation Curse on me...?"
"Mm..."
"Fallen for my father's idiotic plan? Is that really it?"
Serena asked incredulously. Frey, surrounded by women, yawned in response.
"Yawn... And if I did?"
"N-No. It can't be... You must be deceiving me..."
Serena stammered uncharacteristically. Frey chuckled.
"Smart as you are, you should've figured it out. All the circumstantial and physical evidence points to me."
"B-But... it's weird. Anyway, it's off— Kyaa!"
As Serena desperately tried to argue—
"Ah, uwaa...?"
Familiar pain engulfed her, eyes widening.
"Impossible... You're activating my curse right now...?"
"You're just a golden goose."
"Huh?"
"A goose laying golden eggs, devising world-conquest schemes."
Frey pulled the surrounding women close.
"I don't love you one bit."
"Ah..."
"You know it too. I have no feelings of love for you."
"........."
"So get lost. I need to have fun with these girls."
Serena watched as Frey kissed a woman on his lap deeply.
".....Goodbye."
With dead eyes, she left his side.
[Evaluation: Did I really succeed?]
[Finally. After countless regressions, the most attempted and final key: 'Deceiving Serena.' I still can't believe it.]
[I meticulously fabricated all evidence, analyzed her Subjugation Curse to force activation, and have the secret ringleaders in my grasp. But that's just the basics. The core is elsewhere.]
[To deceive Serena, I had to hate her. But in countless loops, I couldn't find a way. Why?]
[Because I love her.]
"...Ah?"
Serena broke the long silence with a gasp upon reading that.
[No matter the tricks, schemes, or transcendent intellect battles, Serena always saw through me. Because I loved her. She always read that emotion.]
"F-Frey...?"
Serena, reading the floating text, wore a dazed expression for the first time in her life.
[To give everyone a happy ending, no one could know my identity. So I devised the final resort.]
[Learned Serena's Mind Control through countless regressions to turn my love for her into hate.]
"What the hell does that...!"
[After endless efforts, I succeeded. Turned my love for Serena—and for Kania, Irina, Clana, Perloché, and all my precious ones—into complete 'hate.']
The revelations grew more shocking.
[It was unavoidable. Committing evil while harboring love was too agonizing. Emotional alteration was essential for a perfect loop.]
"Ah......"
[Still, for the final moments, I'll need to revert everything, so I'll remember altering their emotions. I'm already exhausted, wanting eternal rest long ago. But in the end... maybe my heart won't change...]
The record continued before them.
[...Ah.]
Scribbled hastily.
[Big trouble. Just checked affection levels for them... they're rising. Why? If this continues, she'll find out again. No. Can't let all this be for nothing...]
It rushed toward the end.
- ...No choice then. A very sad and wretched end it is.
"......!!!"
Not text, but Frey's voice echoed, startling the four girls.
- A powerful memory erasure spell should wipe even the recollection of tampering with my feelings toward them before it surfaces.
- Less than a year until the final battle anyway.
The voice continued indifferently to their shock.
- Well... regretfully, I have to erase this record.
Frey's sad mutter as he wrote the diary.
- Leaving it would defeat the purpose of erasing memories.
With those words—
- Fade...
The record of Serena's event began vanishing before them.
"N-No...!"
Serena reached out instinctively.
[Evaluation: Success.]
[Of course. Now, not just Serena...]
The four girls read the new record overwriting the erased text.
[...I no longer love anyone else either.]
[I just want to end it all and rest.]
Now they understood the full truth.
[Liberating Perloché from the Pope]
More text and scenes followed for a while.
"Perloché, just give up already..."
"I-I... will never give up."
But no one paid attention anymore.
"........."
They just sat slumped in the dark space, eyes dead.
......
Meanwhile, at that moment—
- Fizzle... Fizz...
"...Huh?"
In Isolet's house, the transparent Frey, watching everyone with a dark expression—
"This is..."
Pulled out the pendant necklace he always carried just in case, his face turning puzzled.
"...The thing that merchant left behind back then."
The 'Easter egg' left by the merchant when making the Deception Robe was, for some reason, glowing.