Chapter 3

They were guided to a luxurious room within the royal castle.

Seated there with a dignified bearing was Alderic von Diabalet. Zeke (Hiroto) and Luke took their seats facing the king.

No one else was present. Alderic had cleared the room. Normally, a king and outsiders meeting in a closed room would be impossible. But in this world, it could happen. The same flow occurred in the original work too… though the villain Zeke had not been there.

“Be at ease. I did not invite you here to interrogate you.”

“B-But, Your Majesty…”

“There’s no need to be formal. That guy said it’s fine.”

Even before the king, Zeke’s arrogant attitude remained unchanged. Since he had been freed from the Watchman, I had faintly hoped that the restrictions on his way of speaking might disappear too, but here we were.

Alderic von Diabalet.

A key person who appeared near the end of the game. In the original work, he had the role of explaining the formation of this world to the protagonists. It was an important event where the objective of Elzen, the final boss, became clear.

(His aura is incredible. He’s definitely a powerful character.)

Facing him in person, the pressure he emitted was on an entirely different level. His strong body, visible at a glance, and the intensity felt from the mana contained within him. Combined with his overwhelming charisma, it was enough to make one question whether he was truly a king. It was understandable that Luke would shrink back.

(But… so what? This guy may have known the truth about Lagias. Even while knowing, he kept using Lagias until now.)

In the original work, the truth about Lagias had never been revealed here, nor anywhere in the scenario. Even the fanbook and setting materials had hardly touched on Lagias at all. I did not know what that meant. …But Hiroto had already learned it. This world was built on the sacrifices of Lagias.

“So you are Zeke Lagias. …I can understand why people all over the country make such a fuss about you.”

“Shut up. You only need to answer my questions.”

Silver hair was proof of royalty. As for Alderic, even the color of his eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes, and beard was silver.

If a clumsy person imitated it, it would turn into poor cosplay and kill the mood, but that was not the case with this person. Perhaps it should be called innate dignity. …Disgusting.

“Did you understand the true meaning of the covenant exchanged between Diabalet and Lagias?”

“I did. Every king of Diabalet throughout history, except the first, has.”

—Crack.

The room froze from the mana leaking out, and cracks ran through the windows.

“…And knowing that, you stood by and watched?”

“We were unable to interfere with the covenant that had been exchanged. …I believe the ideology of Lagias at the time was involved.”

—Shatter!

All the windows broke apart in an instant. The raging mana became a storm of cold air, turning the room into a world of extreme cold.

“…………Your ancestor wished for world peace. Was that something that had to be achieved even at the cost of sacrificing Lagias?”

“Lagias wished to become the foundation of a new world. Diabalet never forced it upon him… but in the end, that is what happened.”

Even before killing intent, there was no sign of fear. With a pained expression, Alderic spoke of the relationship between Diabalet and Lagias at the time. There was no malice in it. It was probably his true feelings. From the bottom of his heart, he was justifying Lagias’s sacrifice.

(It couldn’t be helped. That’s what this bastard is saying. That Lagias’s sacrifice couldn’t be helped.)

“I’m glad I bothered to come all the way to the royal capital. I’m truly glad I learned that every king throughout history was trash.”

“I have no words to return. This is Diabalet’s sin.”

Alderic readily admitted his own sin. The fact that he did not noisily make excuses, saying the first king had done it on his own, might have been because of his fortitude as a king. But to Hiroto, it instead looked like he had simply opened himself up and stopped caring.

(…Hold it in. Fool and Noisy—those people—didn’t wish for blood. I can’t trample on their feelings.)

“You should be grateful. The lord of Lagias did not wish for you to be slaughtered, nor for revenge against the country. …Normally, I had planned to display your head in the most conspicuous place in the royal capital, then massacre every last one of your citizens.”

He steadied his disordered mana. Even if he rampaged as he pleased here and now, the dead would not come back to life. Not even sacred arts could overturn death.

“Struggle with everything you have, and repent. We Lagias will always be watching you. Cling miserably to life and keep exposing your shame. …See you, you bastard.”

He could not accept it, and forgiving Diabalet was impossible. …Even so, he had managed to make the king confess their sin from his own mouth. That alone had value.

He quietly rose from his seat. He had no further business here. If he stayed any longer, he might go mad and punch the king’s sharp-featured face.

(I have to report to those two, and to all the past generations of Lagias. That it’s finally over. That they can rest in peace.)

“Wait. We have not finished speaking.”

“Shut up already.”

“You’re going to spout that this world was remade by the Wisher, Diabalet, aren’t you? That Diabalet made a wish to save the world that nearly perished in a war where spirits were used.”

Spirits were collections of mana with wills of their own. By employing them, humans could obtain supernatural power.

What humans desired after gaining power far greater than magic was not world peace, but invasion. Humans of the same kind repeated slaughter to obtain even a little more wealth. As a result, the environment was destroyed, and the mana circulating through the world was depleted.

(…That’s the setting. Diabalet grieved over that and made a wish. —To the spirit of prayer, Oración, asking it to distance spirits from this world.)

“Are you an idiot? What would telling me that accomplish? Whatever Elzen wishes for has nothing to do with me.”

“—I see. So you do know after all. This is a flow that has never happened before.”

Alderic’s words made Zeke frown despite himself. Was he trying to draw his interest with suggestive words and behavior? …Ridiculous. Perhaps he should punch him once and silence him.

“Van Freak and the others will also come here soon. After all, this is a world I have experienced countless times already. Though this is the first time Luke Hartmann… no, Fonsell, has acted separately from them.”

“…What are you talking about?”

(Countless times? What is he saying? Has his head gone wrong…? Wait, he just called Luke Fonsell.)

His eyes met Alderic’s. He did not look like he was speaking off the cuff.

—Zeke had a bad feeling. This feeling was similar to when he had fought them after they became Watchmen. Words from the king that had not existed in the game. What did that mean?

While a strange tension filled the air, the people guided by the royal guards entered the room. The protagonists appeared, startled by the room where every window had been broken and parts of the room were frozen.

“Now then, everyone is gathered. The heroes who will save the world.”

Urged by Alderic, Van and the others took their seats. They were clearly shaken, but Hiroto was the same. Inwardly, he was disturbed by a flow that had never existed in the original work.

“Let me tell an old story. The history of the founding of the Kingdom of Diabalet.”

Alderic suddenly began speaking about the beginning of the Kingdom of Diabalet. If a normal person heard that, they would think he was saying something absurd out of nowhere, but the situation was different when the one speaking was the king of one of the continent’s greatest powers. Perhaps because of his personal charisma as well, everyone listened to him.

Alderic’s story was the same as what Hiroto had learned by playing the game.

“In order to end the world war that used spirits, collections of mana, Diabalet made a wish. That wish was realized by the spirit Oración, and the spirits disappeared. This world was born at the end of that wish.”

“…Even if you suddenly tell us that, um… Why is Your Majesty telling us this?”

Alderic did not take offense at Van’s strange polite speech. Both of them reacted just as they had in the original work. The same went for the other characters.

“Van-san. It may not necessarily be a fantasy. The contents left behind as legends mention the existence of mana with consciousness. …Most likely, that being who called himself Pariaach was also a spirit.”

“!? I see, because he’s connected to my father and the others…”

“Sage, your quick understanding is helpful. Van Freak. The goal of your father, Elzen Freak, is Oración, the spirit of prayer. The land where that spirit sleeps is the Gate to the Otherworld.”

Diabalet and Lagias reached Oración. They offered the lives lost in the world war as sacrifices, and what they remade was a world without spirits.

The order of the world was created so that the wish they had granted would not be twisted. That order was the Keys, the Guide, and the Watchman. It was so that no one could approach the Gate to the Otherworld unless they paid the necessary procedures and sacrifices.

“Your Majesty… I understand that the Keys and the others exist as security for the Gate to the Otherworld. But conversely, why did they leave something like a loophole for later generations?”

Ciel, who carried the same Diabalet blood, asked Alderic a question.

“Even Diabalet at the time could not declare that the wish was correct. That is why he created the system of inheritors.”

The inheritors had been prepared as a kind of insurance to return the world to its original state if, as a result of the wish, the world became more unhappy.

“Is Lagias’s brainwashed behavior also for the sake of the world’s order? —I can hardly believe a world built on someone’s sacrifice has any meaning.”

Selen struck the king mercilessly with a perfectly sound argument. …It was a sound argument, but this line had not existed in the original work.

“If Lagias’s position became known to the people, Diabalet would face criticism. Fearing that, Lagias at the time brainwashed his own consciousness with the idea that ‘Lagias must be a tyrant.’ —As a result, it continued to be passed down to later generations of Lagias. That is the true identity of the curse known as the covenant.”

Lagias had been Diabalet’s sworn friend. It could not be allowed for Diabalet, who had lost and sacrificed so much for the world, to be criticized.

If Lagias became the world’s evil, then the existence known as the Watchman should also be accepted by the world. Thus, Lagias chose the path of becoming evil himself.

(…This is something I don’t know. The game never had a story like this.)

“Your Majesty. With all due respect… if you knew that much, why did you not stop Lagias? Why did you not reveal the truth about Lagias to the people? —Surely many lives could have been saved.”

Luke sadly questioned Alderic. He was saying that if the royal family had managed Lagias, there should have been tragedies they could have prevented.

“You are correct. If we kings knew that Lagias, and of course lives destined to die, would be lost, we could have saved them… we should have been able to save them. …But that wish was never granted. This is a world I have seen many times already.”

(This bastard said the same thing again. …!? No way…)

“This world is being repeated. Everything, from how people live to how they die, has been decided.”

—Ah, this again. What exactly should I have hated?

With this, the sacrifices of Fool, Noisy, and the past generations of Lagias would not be rewarded.

The world was repeating. The only ones who correctly understood the meaning of those words were probably Alderic himself and Zeke. The others did not seem to grasp it.

“I no longer know how many times it has been. I have enjoyed the same life again and again. Each time, I think, ah, it has begun again.”

“What’s wrong, Your Majesty…?”

Van called out to Alderic in confusion.

“Van Freak. Your father has aimed for Oración many times. And all of you fight many times to stop Elzen Freak. No matter what kind of interference occurs.”

The phrase “many times” felt strange. Van and the others had only recently learned of Elzen’s wrongdoing. Despite that, Alderic spoke as though they had always been enemies until now. Van and the others looked at one another.

“Your memories are not inherited. This appears only in the kings of Diabalet… in other words, it is a curse. —You should have experienced it. The feeling that someone you should be meeting for the first time is an old acquaintance.”

Just as Alderic said, Van and the others did indeed remember something like that. Even though they had exchanged greetings as if meeting for the first time, there had been a strangely nostalgic feeling.

Without sharing much time together, their tactics fit together, and they could even unleash Unison Link. They had not noticed how abnormal that was.

“Even if it is not in your memories, it must be engraved into your souls.”

“Not a single life… Your Majesty has lived again and again?”

Perhaps understanding the meaning of those words, Glanz asked Alderic with a shocked expression.

“Indeed. When I think I have grown old and my life has ended, it begins again from childhood.”

What Alderic wanted to convey gradually spread among Van and the others. Inwardly, they wondered whether such a thing could truly be possible, but the king did not look as though he was lying.

“Hartmann. I will answer your question from earlier. …I too am a child of man. If there are lives I know will be lost, of course I would save them. I cannot justify overlooking that. But I was unable to save them.”

Alderic said it was the same in every world.

When he dispatched the army to protect a provincial city that would collapse from a stampede, a series of unforeseen accidents occurred, and the march did not go smoothly.

When he raised a barrier to prevent a dungeon outbreak, for some reason, the dungeon appeared as though slipping through the barrier.

There were futures that could be changed, but there were also tragedies that could never be prevented. Those who were meant to die always died.

“Apion was attacked by a curse, and Westen and Osten collapsed under a stampede. Samaris disappeared without a trace, residents and all. Everything had already been decided.”

Alderic devoted his heart and blood to saving the people, but he could not change the future. He died again and again, and it began again, only for him to be struck by the same tragedies. Whether he acted against the calamities before his eyes or watched silently, the result did not change. Before the repeating world, Alderic began to break.

“…But Westen still exists now. Samaris is gone, but its residents are alive.”

“Guide, Mistraze. That is correct. The world that had never changed until now, the future that I could not change, changed for the first time.”

The white-haired girl denied it, saying, “I am Atri.” Alderic murmured deeply that this too was another changed future.

“All of you already understand, I am sure… Zeke Lagias. Your existence changed this world for the first time. You saved those who should have died.”

Everyone’s gazes gathered on Zeke. Zeke had a bitter expression on his face.

“The attack on the royal capital originally should not have happened. If the Knight Order’s entrance exam had not been held jointly with the Mage Corps, they would not have been targeted. …Am I wrong? There should have been pieces of trash who died pathetically because of my existence.”

“Indeed. That too was a first. …Even so, the number of lives saved is on an entirely different scale.”

In the world Alderic knew, Wartel, the capital of the Republic of Ignote, had apparently sunk to the bottom of the canals. Yet for some reason, it still existed now. Behind that, the shadow of a corrupt noble flickered.

“The Knight Order regimental commander Stork Lark, the Mage Corps regimental commander Yorn Grin, and the Royal Guard Corps commander Baccus Abriate always died. My daughter Arnica was turned into a Key and lost her life. Hartmann, your father Brink Hartmann was also destined to die.”

“Father was… Everyone whose name came up is still alive now. —In other words, lives Zeke saved.”

Alderic added that there were many others as well.

“This is everything I know. Zeke Lagias, who was always hostile, is now together with the heroes. What that means, whether it will become the end of the endlessly continuing chain of cause and effect, or whether it will repeat again… I do not know.”

The one who knew everything let out a deep breath. Van and the others were confused before far too much information. —Zeke was the same.

“Zeke Lagias. Whatever choice you make, I will respect it. —The choice of the final hero.”

Zeke silently rose from his seat. He said nothing.

Luke chased after Zeke as he left the room. Van and the others followed.

Left alone, Alderic murmured quietly.

“Perhaps there was a world I did not know. Was Zeke Lagias also a Wisher?”

Zeke could use sacred arts, which were said to be usable only by those who carried Diabalet blood. Perhaps that was neither due to talent nor the product of coincidence.

It was publicly known that cardinal-class members of the Maria Church could also use sacred arts, but their true identities were descendants who carried royal blood.

As long as the covenant existed, Diabalet blood mixing into Lagias should have been impossible. —If so, perhaps Alderic’s prediction was not necessarily wrong.

“I have lived too long to learn the answer. —The rest, I shall entrust to them.”

Perhaps Zeke might be able to end this hellish world.