I slowly made my way up the stairs.
Everyone watching froze. I didn't think it was so physical force or the goddess's power at work.
We were vastly outnumbered.
There were knights who had followed the Emperor. I couldn’t guarantee I could defeat them if we fought right now.
The only reason I was able to defeat countless knights from the Holy Nation before was because I had all sorts of weapons, ammunition, and enhanced armor, which used advanced technology from a world that didn’t even exist in the reality I ca from.
The weapon I held now was a small, empty handgun. I had extra rounds, but I hadn’t bothered to reload.
The Emperor had collapsed after being shot. Lucas, too, had fallen to a bullet. No one could understand how an ordinary teenage girl managed to pull off such results.
The Sword Saint was on our side, watching us with clear interest. But despite the slightly relaxed deanor, everyone knew that if soone tried to harm , the Sword Saint would act imdiately.
Bella and Damien stood frozen, watching .
It wasn’t my intention, but… I guess it didn’t matter.
Since I was able to take down Lucas, with the help of my companions, I could probably do the sa to Bella or Damien.
“What do you want?” the Emperor asked, blood flowing from his chest. He seed genuinely curious.
“A happy ending,” I answered.
“With the goddess’s power?”
“No.”
It was true that I had co here thanks to the goddess. Should I be thankful for that? Honestly, I couldn’t say for sure just yet.
I had t characters I loved, gone on the adventures I had always dread of, and built personalities for them along the way. And through all of that, I’d grown close enough to those characters to risk my life for them, sothing I hadn’t thought possible before. That had been what the goddess wanted for all along.
But at the sa ti, I had lost my own life. In this world, no one truly knew who I was. There were only the characters I had built: Sylvia, Sylvia Black, Sylvia Fangryphon, Sylvia Grace. The I created through them.
That was a little disappointing. It wasn’t like I was unhappy with my life, but I had worked hard to get by, spending ti on the things I loved and trying to live as fully as I could.
This wasn’t so grand tale of returning to my world to et my loved ones in a perfect happy ending. I had long abandoned that hope. I didn’t even know what had happened to the version of in the world I had co from.
The goddess’s power was useful. It allowed to protect my friends—no, that sounded too arrogant.
The truth was, that power was the only thing that allowed to stand by my friends. Yes, that felt more accurate.
But if that power ever put those friends at risk, I wouldn’t need it.
“The greatest threat must be eliminated, without a doubt.”
I spoke as I moved toward the device.
Up until now, I hadn’t felt like this was the right thing to do, but at this mont, I was moving entirely on my own strength.
“Order or chaos, it doesn’t matter. I just want to live in the world I want to live in.”
As I stood before the machine, muttering to myself, the Emperor let out a laugh that sounded like air escaping.
“That’s truly sothing Fangryphon would say.”
I didn’t respond.
“Claire.”
When I called her na, Claire’s shoulders shook.
I felt a pang of guilt as I saw her looking up at with trembling eyes.
I had forced her to see things no one should. And not just once, but countless tis.
Who had rewound ti more tis, her or ?
Well, there was no need to count that anymore.
“Sis.”
Claire, who had co up beside , spoke.
“How many tis have you lived through this?”
“Once.”
That was the one thing I could answer.
I had lived only one life. It was just that in that one life, I had experienced so much.
“What… what’s happening? What’s going on?”
Charlotte, who had been standing there in a daze, asked urgently.
There was no movent from the machine, and it was just Claire and I standing there, but Charlotte must have sensed that we were about to do sothing.
“Don’t worry. You’ll know soon enough.”
I looked at Claire.
“Alright. Then, we just do it like we did before.”
Ah, but…
“Actually, saying ‘again’ might not be quite right. I’m not ‘rewinding’ ti.”
I reached out for the device.
Just reaching out didn’t activate it.
But when Claire reached out—
A soft blue glow emanated.
“…If we go back, I’m going to ask you everything, Sis.”
“I’ll answer.”
I nodded, and Claire lowered her head, her shoulders trembling. I placed my hand on her shoulder.
We’d truly gone through a long journey.
“Then, let’s wait.”
The Sword Saint spoke in a relaxed voice.
“I do hope I’ll get a proper explanation, Sister.”
Leo, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke. His voice was filled with the most anger I had ever heard from him.
It wasn’t just about not knowing sothing. Leo had always been the kind of character who was too nice for his own good.
He was probably angry because his friends had been taking risks without him knowing. And now, I was his “sister.”
Then, suddenly, Claire let out a small chuckle. A clear laugh.
I understood. Honestly, I almost laughed too.
“I hope you don’t regret saying that.”
“...What?”
It had been a long ti since I’d used informal speech. Leo, looking bewildered, asked, but I didn’t feel the need to answer.
“I have a lot I want to say, but we’ll have ti for that later.”
Alice spoke. I smiled at her. Her expression imdiately turned to one of confusion.
The only one not flustered was Claire, who had rembered my smile from our childhood.
“Alright, what do we say?”
“How about ‘continue’?”
Claire asked.
“Continue?”
Honestly, I didn’t think ‘again!’ was a particularly great line, but ‘continue’ felt even stranger. It sounded like sothing you’d hear at the end of an ani episode. “To be continued next week…”
“Yeah, that’s it. You said ‘happy ending,’ but there’s no way this story ends here.”
I suppose so.
I kept thinking of it as a ga, so I kept thinking about an “ending,” but that’s not it.
We were just crossing the line between fifteen and sixteen. I didn’t live my entire life in this world, but I lived a full fifteen years here. And yet, the story wouldn’t end here.
Whether or not we had the goddess’s power.
“Alright, let’s do it.”
In a way, it was a fitting line, considering we were anticipating a sequel.
When I agreed, Claire smiled brightly. Her face was still pale, and her eyes were teary, but...
She hadn’t been badly hurt this ti.
That’s all that mattered.
“Then, let’s shout together on three.”
“Okay.”
We locked eyes and counted.
And then—
“Continue!”
Hm, but honestly, saying it out loud felt a little...
*
—One more thing wasn’t a problem anymore.
“...Ah.”
The space, which had been filled with silence, suddenly erupted into noise. It felt like we had just stumbled back into the middle of so event.
To be precise, it was just us who had co back.
Even if everyone there had been real, those who weren’t directly affected by the relics couldn’t possibly rember things properly, just like most people in that world. This was especially true for Alice, who had been influenced by the fake Alice, Claire, who resonated with the relic’s power, and the country that used bodies created by the goddess herself.
But then—
“Huh?”
The first person to speak was Mia.
Her expression twisted slightly, as if she had just realized sothing.
Was it because she was sensitive to magic, and had noticed so subtle difference?
As I thought about this, one realization hit .
“Sis!”
Claire scread. I also heard Alice shouting, “Sylvia!” from the other side.
My vision began to blur to the side.
Oh, right. It ca back to .
I had gone around so much that I hadn’t rembered it right away.
I had a hole in my side, didn’t I?
Seems like I’d reached my limit.
Claire hurriedly grabbed and laid down on the ground. The sounds of fighting intensified, and my consciousness slowly began to fade—
Then, I heard a loud crash.
And the sound of glass shattering.
It didn’t seem like sothing had broken through the wall or the door. The sound ca from above.
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