I Love You
Once teeming with patients, the imperial hospital was now devoid not just of the sick, but even of doctors and nurses.
Knock knock knock.
A clear knocking sound echoed through a hospital room that hadn't heard such a thing in ages.
"Wh-who is it...?"
The maid who had been dozing inside startled awake and jumped to her feet.
"......"
But there was no reply.
"Wh-what the...?"
Tension flickering across her face, the maid slowly approached the door.
Creak...
"Hm?"
Grasping the worn doorknob and easing the door open, she tilted her head in confusion.
She'd definitely heard the knock. Yet there was no one at the door or in the hallway—not even an ant.
"...?"
Scratching her head in bewilderment, she muttered,
"Haa... Being cooped up here must be messing with my head too."
Grumbling, she stepped out of the room.
"........."
Silence fell over the room once more.
Sizzle... Szzzzzt!
Suddenly, sparks flew from the center of the room.
"Haa..."
And Frey appeared, his expression dark.
"...Clana."
Frey toyed with the pendant around his neck, a sad smile crossing his lips.
"I never wanted to see you like this again."
"Tweet! Tweeet!"
At that moment, a canary that had been quietly huddled by the window with its eyes shut tight until then darted into Frey's arms.
Though it wobbled and staggered—perhaps from lack of practice—its eyes stayed fixed on him.
Poof...
After a precarious flight, the canary successfully nestled into his chest.
But only for a moment. It soon cocked its head.
Shrrrk...
Instead of the warmth it expected, the star mana rising from Frey's chest where they touched stung the solar mana that made up its own body.
"Tweet~♪ Tweee~♪"
Abandoning its attempt to burrow into his chest, the canary perched on his shoulder and cautiously rubbed its cheek against his face, chirping a song.
"...Clana."
Frey watched her with sorrowful eyes.
"How long are you going to keep this up...?"
Gently stroking the canary with a hand made of star mana, he asked with a pained expression.
Fwsh!
Only then did the canary, which had been singing to him, snap out of it and swiftly fly off somewhere.
Sparkle...
It landed before Clana, who had lain motionless on the bed like the dead until that point, and seeped into her body.
"F-Frey!!"
Moments later, a gaunt Clana bolted upright in bed and shouted at him.
"Is that really you, Frey? Are you the Frey I know?!"
Frey slowly nodded to her, then darkened his expression and posed a question.
"What were you doing turned into a canary?"
Clana stammered in response.
"If I'm... a canary, I can suppress my emotions..."
"......"
"St-still, I came back now and then to handle duties. I got all the citizens safely evacuated... signed over imperial authority and declared total national war... and, uh..."
Frey stared at her silently.
"...Haa."
With a sigh, he walked out of the room.
"F-Frey? Where are you going? Frey!"
Clana, unsteady from so long in bed, stumbled after him.
"But how on earth did you come back? Y-you were supposed to have... dissipated..."
Her face anxious, she began firing questions.
"Hmm..."
Opening the room door and stepping into the hallway, Frey chewed his lip and headed somewhere.
"Th-that's... you can't go in there..."
When he stopped before a door plastered with warning stickers, Clana said, sweating coldly.
Creak!
But Frey ignored her and flung the door open.
"Who... are you."
A gloomy voice echoed from inside.
"You're disturbing me. Please leave..."
Its owner was Serena, scribbling away amid equations, magic circles, and various experimental tools.
"What are you doing?"
Frey asked her.
".........."
Serena was utterly absorbed in the core formula derived from the pitch-black equations that covered every piece of furniture, the floor, and even the walls.
"Let me see..."
Sighing, Frey approached right beside her and peered at the formula, tilting his head before speaking.
"The second equation on line eight is wrong."
"...Pardon?"
"And using rune array notation might be efficient, but it lowers success rates. Especially for one-use scrolls."
"W-wait a..."
"And..."
As Frey analyzed the formula she'd written, Serena finally looked up at him, eyes wide.
"...You know it too, right? That time travel is impossible."
"Fr... Frey...?"
"And yet you were crafting a formula to shatter the world's laws? So very you, Serena."
He let out a hollow chuckle.
"But... even a genius like you can't do it."
"Ah....."
"I've tried countless times already."
The moment he finished speaking,
"Freyyyy!!!"
Serena lunged at him.
"No, don't go. Frey, please!!"
"...Serena."
"Just stay by my side a little longer!! I'll find a way to keep you in this world! Just...!"
Gazing at the desperately pleading Serena, Frey murmured,
"...This still isn't the happy ending I wanted."
He quietly clenched his fist.
"I just dreamed of a world where everyone who forgot me could live in peace in this unfair place..."
"Frey! Give me that necklace! I need to analyze it...!"
"...A world where everyone forgot me... isn't peaceful either."
Pale-faced Clana stood behind him, while Serena—having realized something—began pleading with all her might. Alternating glances between them, he
"Hoo."
let out a short sigh and slowly opened his mouth.
"I have something to ask y—"
"...What do I need to do? Frey?"
But before he could finish, Serena replied to him.
"I'll give you my lifespan—no, my soul."
"......."
"Or I could bear your fate. So..."
"...Haa."
Frey stared at her in disbelief.
"I-I don't know what it is, but... me too! I'll do it too!"
Clana, who had been standing there dazed, chimed in urgently. He quietly bowed his head.
"...Thank you, girls."
After keeping his head lowered for a long while, Frey
"Thanks for letting me confirm it again."
muttered briefly and removed the necklace.
"Frey........"
"Wh-where'd he go? Frey?"
After silently watching the two girls for a moment, Frey
"...System."
quietly summoned the system.
[Clana's Affection: 100]
[Serena's Affection: <Immeasurable>]
"...Hm."
He peered intently into the system window.
"Good..."
Not the left screen of the Main Heroine Affection System, which showed 'how much the heroines loved themselves.'
But the right side, showing 'how much he loved the heroines.'
From the moment he'd bought this system a little earlier, he'd only looked at the right screen.
How the heroines felt about him wasn't important to him.
What mattered was how he felt about the heroines.
"...It's working properly."
After borrowing a body from another timeline, he'd been seeking out the heroines to restore his love for them.
"I'm relieved."
No matter how powerful the memory erasure magic or perfect the mind control, the love etched into his soul remained indelible.
"Really... relieved..."
That was why, after halting the countdown in panic upon discovering the Demon God intruding just before deletion, and watching the heroines suffer from the truth while the world he'd so desperately wanted them to be happy in lost its light before his eyes,
he'd resolved to reawaken his love for the five heroines.
[You have become a Co-Judge. Target to Judge > 《Five Main Heroines》]
Only then could he maintain his reason when the time came to judge the 'main heroines' as per the enigmatic message before him.
"If it stays like this... even the next loop will be safe."
And he could prepare for the next loop that was sure to come.
From the moment he'd confirmed intervention from a future timeline, he'd easily noticed—despite being a trial-recreated existence with overwhelming stats—that this loop wasn't the end.
That somehow, a next loop would exist.
That was why he was hastily restoring his love for the heroines.
So that if he went to the next loop, he wouldn't hate them again and repeat the same mistake.
And so that this time, he could give them a true happy ending.
"But..."
Even for him, who had realized nearly everything,
"How did the Retry even activate? All my system abilities should have been wiped."
a few questions lingered.
"And... did future me really forget everything? The clueless actions, not buying the essential hidden affection system..."
Mysteries he couldn't comprehend.
"It was just like me in the early days of regression."
Pondering deeply for a while, Frey
"Well, I'll know once I see the end. How the 'Retry' was triggered."
muttered as he quietly left the room.
"...Then, time to meet Perloché last."
Meanwhile, at that moment.
"Please..."
In the cathedral of the Sun God Church, long bereft of human footsteps and blanketed in snow and ice.
"I beg you, please..."
Perloché knelt on the icy cold floor inside.
"Retry? Regression? Whatever you called that ability last time... give it to me..."
Tears streaming down her face.
"I'll bear everything. No one else can receive it anyway—it's linked to you—and if you don't give it to anyone, this world perishes, right? And..."
She prayed fervently.
"...I can't shatter his soul any more."
Gazing at the half-ruined statue of the Sun God before her.