“Aaaaargh! This pisses offfffff!!!!!!”
“Kik kik.”
Hearing Eleanor’s whining scream echo behind her, Aria’s lips curled into a sly smile.
It seed she took great satisfaction in delivering a little blow to her friend.
As I watched her in silence, sensing my gaze, Aria blushed and quickly turned her head away.
“Th-that… um… I-I’m only like that with Eleanor! I’m pretty nice to everyone else!”
“I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”
“Huh?”
“You bickering with Eleanor—it’s proof that you two are close.”
Though I said it to reassure her, Aria’s face turned even redder.
Teens her age often felt embarrassed to talk about things like friends or friendship, so it seed to be because of that.
“W-we’re not really close or anything. It’s just that… I feel comfortable around her, that’s all.”
Mumbling softly as she held onto her skirt, her deanor seed so cute that I smiled and nodded.
“Got it, my bad.”
“…”
“Is there anywhere you’d like to go? A café or a restaurant?”
“Anywhere’s fine if it’s with you, Professor. But…”
Aria hesitated, but a curious expression spread across her face.
“Are you always this gentle? I an… your original self. You seem a bit different when you’re in that other body.”
Seeing how she was pointing toward the royal palace, she must have ant when I was in Deus’ body.
“Is it really that different?”
“Your aura is the sa! But you seem kinder, like I’ve beco soone special to you.”
Aria’s already flushed face showed no signs of cooling down.
Still, she wasn’t wrong. There were tis when I had spoken to her as Kim Shinwoo even in Deus Verdi’s body.
Back then, I had shared my past, expressed my gratitude for everything she had done as a hero, and brought closure to things.
However, this was the first ti we had t directly, with as Kim Shinwoo.
To be honest…
It wasn’t like , but I did feel a little excited.
“You are indeed soone special.”
“…Pardon?”
“It’s still a bit early for lunch, so let’s head to a café.”
Frozen in surprise, Aria was left standing as I, who had been walking ahead, turned back ], grabbed her by the wrist, and pulled her along.
“Hyaa!”
“There’s not much ti.”
With that, I led Aria straight to a café. Since I was in an artificial body and couldn’t really taste anything, I ordered the cheapest coffee they had. And for Aria, I ordered a slice of cake and so juice.
They were the drinks and desserts she had ntioned she liked the most in [Retry], the original ga.
“How did you know I like these?!”
Still staring at her wrist as she sat at the table, Aria asked in bewildernt.
It was one thing to guess one item correctly, but both? No wonder she was surprised.
“Because in my own way, I know you pretty well.”
“T-that’s amazing.”
Looking hesitant, Aria picked up her fork. And when she put the sweet treat in her mouth, a natural smile spread across her face.
“Mmm! It’s delicious!”
Watching her cheeks puff up from happiness, I couldn’t help but feel happy as well.
Even though I couldn’t taste the coffee, it felt as sweet as if honey had been added.
Is this how a fan feels on eting their idol?
I had seen Aria Rias many tis before through the screen and through Deus’ body.
The protagonist of [Retry] and the girl who had given much hope and guidance.
And now, eting her as Kim Shinwoo made my heart swell with a strange warmth.
Hoping to see her happy, I wanted to do sothing more for her.
I also wanted to applaud her for the destiny she had now left behind.
A radiant path—an endlessly radiant path lay ahead for this girl.
“It’s nothing serious. You can listen while you eat.”
“Eep!”
Aria responded while munching on her cake. She would never have behaved like this when I was Deus, but now, it only seed endearing.
“The gods ca to . They said the one carrying the burden of fate isn’t you anymore—it’s .”
“Cough! Cough, cough!”
Aria grabbed her throat and broke into a coughing fit loud enough to draw the attention of everyone in the café toward us.
“Here, drink this.”
As I handed her drink to her, she sucked on the straw hurriedly before slamming the table.
“R-really?! Are you telling that fate disappeared from just like that? Those beings actually said that?!”
“Yeah, so you don’t have to worry about anything any longer.”
“Ah…”
Her mouth hung open.
A mix of various emotions danced across her face, making it hard for to get a read.
She was probably struggling to process it herself.
On the other hand, I just sipped on my coffee and basked in the sunlight streaming in as it created an air of peace.
I wanted her to understand that she had nothing to feel guilty about.
“P-Professor…”
“Are you trying to apologize again? We already spoke about this. I even said I’d take your destiny in your place.”
“But!”
Feeling the difference between simply substituting responsibilities and completely swapping roles, it seed she believed that she had fully entrusted her burden to .
“Aria.”
Slowly erasing my smile, I spoke to her.
“You are now completely free from your destiny. This isn’t just about us splitting roles; you’ve truly been liberated.”
“…”
Tears welled up in her eyes. No matter how much I tried to reassure her, the knot in her heart wouldn’t untangle easily.
It was because Aria Rias rembered every step of the arduous path she had walked in the first cycle.
“And now, I can finally tell you.”
“Tell what?”
“Your future.”
Sothing that no longer held any relevance—
“What the from the first cycle intended, and… the death you would have t in the second cycle.”
“Oh.”
The trembling stopped imdiately.
She didn’t seem as shocked as when I had spoken about her destiny earlier.
A girl who was only 18 years old had, perhaps, long accepted the possibility of her death.
“Of course, I won’t say it if you don’t want to know. But the reason I’m telling you is…”
“Because of the you from the first cycle, isn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
The Deus Verdi from Aria Rias’s first tiline—the man who had destroyed her in his desperation to survive.
And the girl who mistook it for love.
“I think you’ve already overco all of it now. So, even if you hear his… no, my truth, you’ll be alright.”
A brief silence fell and a thick tension filled the space as water droplets slid down the glass.
Taking a deep breath, Aria nodded once.
“If you hadn’t killed Luaneth, and if my-no, his plan had succeeded…”
I finally uttered the bitter truth.
“You would have been killed by him.”
“…What?”
Perhaps because it all was so sudden, Aria’s eyes opened wide as she stared at . But there was no denying the truth.
Because.
“In the first cycle, the one who would bring the world to ruin was supposed to be you.”
“Excuse ? N-No, wait. What do you even an by that?”
“There are many complex reasons.”
Ironically enough, from that point onward, players couldn’t make any decisions.
We rely read the script unfolding like a novel and chanically repeated battles that had beco routine.
It was as if the ga was mocking the players, delivering a sense of discomfort as if saying fate couldn’t be changed.
This was one of the reasons [Retry] was called a shitty ga.
“What was King Orpheus like in the first cycle? Was he possessed by the evil ghost? Or had he gone mad?”
“…He was possessed by the evil ghost.”
“Right, that’s the starting point.”
Having saved the kingdom, Aria Rias’ status rose to great prominence.
Because of that, the king’s obsession with protecting his throne eventually caused a disaster.
Like Saul envying David, he attempted to assassinate Aria Rias.
However, no assassin could defeat Aria, the strongest in the kingdom.
Yet, assassins kept coming, and rumors spread throughout the kingdom. Pressure kept mounting from all sides.
And it wasn’t just King Orpheus who saw Aria as a threat—the Clark Republic, the Jerman Kingdom, the Han Empire and the rest of the nations did as well.
The Jerman Kingdom, in particular, had witnessed Aria’s prowess firsthand during a war and was waiting for the perfect opportunity to kill her.
At so point, the young girl who had just graduated beca an enemy of the world.
The people she saved either turned their backs on her or revealed the truth, only to be executed.
Following the death of Princess Eleanor, she was no longer seen as a rebel, but as an unfortunate girl who had tried to unmask Aria.
Simply being skilled with a sword, rely having great strength, ant nothing in the face of unseen, overwhelming power.
Her traveling companions?
They had all been sacrificed in the battle with Dante to save the continent. Their cold corpses were swept away by Luaneth’s magic, and their souls were annihilated.
“And… then what?”
Aria’s lips trembled, and her skin turned pale. Yet her resolve remained.
“The broken you carried out massacres that surpassed even Heralhazard atrocities. The Griffin Kingdom was destroyed, and surrounded by the armies of the various nations hunting you down, you keep on killing.”
“…”
“Finally.”
The reason this story didn’t end there but continued into the second cycle was…
“You regretted it all; you repent. You believe that if you had one more chance, you could do much better. You wish to apologize to those you killed.”
Aria was a bright child, but she was yet to fully mature ntally.
I had seen that many tis before, so I knew it well.
Aria, who had beco soone like a crazed murderer, ironically returned as a hero only at the very end.
“Start again.”
However, nothing changed.
And during the second cycle, there were monts where scripts resembling Aria’s monologues appeared.
She said she would save them.
She said she would not break.
She said she would atone.
However, upon reaching the ending…
“You reach the sa conclusion.”
That was the cruelty of this ga.
It didn’t matter how many hours players spent imrsed in changing the future, the protagonist’s end always played out exactly like the first cycle.
Fate—The na the gods gave to the story seed perfectly fitting.
“And there, you’re given one choice.”
Ironically, in the script players were forced to read during the first cycle, there was one choice presented.
After graduation and upon seeing the assassins co for her, Aria was faced with a coercive choice.
- Would you like to commit suicide? Y/N
Players have no choice but to press it.
Else, the sa ending as the first cycle would unfold.
That was the ending of the regressor who was unable to change anything.
The girl was found as a cold corpse in the dormitory of the academy she had spent five years in, soaking in a pool of her own blood.
Even so, she had saved countless lives and broke the chain of tragedies.
A regressor who committed suicide could no longer regress.
She was a girl who shone brighter than anyone else to save the continent.
Her brilliance saved the world, but the world was not bold enough to contain it.
The ending of [Retry] could be sumd up with one proverb.1
It was nothing short of a shitty ending.
Footnotes
1. The hound is slaughtered once the rabbit is caught.The proverb "兔死狗烹" (tu si gou peng), from Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian, serves as a cautionary reminder about the dangers of loyalty to a ruler. It uses the analogy of hunting dogs being cooked after catching rabbits to highlight how subordinates can be discarded once they are no longer useful.
The proverb underscores that loyalty is a double-edged sword, reminding those in service to be cautious, as their leaders may one day discard them without hesitation. The lesson remains relevant today, emphasizing the need for vigilance and awareness of power dynamics.
***
sko-fi/genesisforsaken
Reviews
All reviews (0)