Lars Gothberg faces the ultimate bad ending of the last remaining [Dragon Legion] episode.
Of course, at this moment, Lars is completely unaware that this will be the final piece in the ending list, nor that it will grant him the special benefit of returning to ten years ago.
Before he returns to the teleport gate after finishing his mission to see the burning Empire, this is still a memory from the Demon Realm.
“Lars, go back first with the party members.”
The hero, Lishe, croaked in a weak voice.
They had defeated the Demon King, but while escaping the castle, she sustained serious injuries. With a limp, Lars was assisting her as they moved toward the gate.
“How can I leave when you’re like this?”
“It’s taking too long to return. Usually, there’s something wrong with the Empire during times like this. It might already be too late… Ugh.”
The holy sword that Lishe was holding was gradually losing its light. It was a sign that the resonance was fading.
With it, Lishe—and more precisely, the personality of the hero stored within the holy sword—was also becoming blurry in front of his eyes.
“Let’s go back together. Just hang in there a little longer.”
Lars squeezed out his divine power and cast the healing spell. He was also nearing his limits.
“Tsk.”
Lars tore his own clothes to provide emergency treatment. Watching his skilled hands, a part of Lishe felt a bit reassured.
Originally, she had to forcibly send him to inform the Empire of the danger.
The party returning to the Empire without the hero would have faced the summoned Dragon Legion by Empress Acella, ultimately meeting a glorious end in battle.
But why was that?
Was it the cold that made her want to find some sensation?
“…Lars.”
This version of Lishe selfishly grabbed the collar of the healer’s robe, not wanting to send him to the emperor and choosing instead to lean on him a bit more.
“I only have you by my side.”
“What have I done?”
“You’ve done a lot. Many times, dozens of times.”
With that remark, Lars finally felt a sense of discomfort and tilted his head.
Lishe would sometimes have a calm demeanor when wielding the holy sword. Having repeated the cycle of regression, Lars could guess one possibility from her words.
“Lishe, could it be that you…”
“I know this makes me unfit to be a hero, but I actually wanted to give up for a long time. If it weren’t for you, I would have given up long ago.”
“…What do you mean?”
“It’s just weird talk. I must be out of my mind right now. I’m okay now. Let’s go.”
Lars slowly nodded his head. He supported Lishe again and matched his pace with hers.
The two barely managed to reach the gate, which was on the verge of collapsing.
“…Please.”
This time, it had to really be the end.
…But they both knew very well that it probably wouldn’t be.
Lishe had given up.
Hope drives people crazy. Knowing there’s no possibility, it makes one keep trying, ultimately leading to despair.
Where in the world is there such a cruel word?
As they took steps with Lars,
Fwoosh!
What suddenly came into view was the Empire ablaze in flames.
It had already become a complete mess beyond remedy.
“That figures.”
She felt a sense of loss washing over her. Lishe bit her lip, barely holding back her tears.
Turning her head, she could see Lars, whom she expected to be shocked more than anyone else, surprisingly remaining calm.
After all that hard work to finally bring down the Demon King, how could he be so nonchalant knowing it was all for nothing?
Looking back, Lars used to get angry a lot. He couldn’t accept the result of failure and was killed when challenging the emperor.
Now, he merely shot a cold glare at the villainous Empress Acella.
He could even disregard the beckoning gesture saying “come here.”
“Lishe, you did well.”
“…Ah.”
The tears she had barely held back came pouring out.
Thinking it would be the last, Lishe decided to act a bit spoiled.
It was a prison of time with no hope, but if she could be with him again.
She thought she might be able to challenge once more.
In Lars’s embrace, Lishe murmured a word that came to mind in her darkening vision.
“I hated the name Lishe.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Because it was given to me by my parents who abandoned me and whose faces I barely remember. Do you remember? When we were infiltrating before.”
“When we were hiding our identities from the nobles who were colluding with the bandits.”
“Right, the name I used back then. I liked it better. Every time you called me.”
“Chloe?”
“Yeah, Chloe.”
The strength left Lishe—Chloe—who held the holy sword.
“I hope I can be born as Chloe next time.”
That such meaningless words would arise at the end, Chloe felt a twinge of regret in that moment.
“Yeah. I’d like that too.”
Pat pat, Lars gently tapped her back with his hands around her.
Since there was no infiltration mission this time around.
He decided to postpone unraveling that arising question.
The expression of the Chloe he held finally seemed to ease.
…It feels like it’s the first time ending with a smile.
The light from the holy sword extinguished simultaneously as the flames of the Dragon Legion engulfed the two.
*
Having returned to ten years ago, Lars chose his best course of action to erase the bad ending.
He became the attending physician of Princess Acella, working diligently in the Inner Palace and gradually expanding his influence.
As more doctors began to follow him, he had built a power that could not be ignored within the imperial family.
“It’s time to go after Acella.”
His audacious declaration of his goal in front of Hugo and Chloe still had a few things left to prepare to achieve it.
He deemed it necessary to acquire the Storm Stone for her operation. He also needed to raise his medical skills further.
At this point, he had primarily used alchemy for medicinal purposes and focused solely on honing his medical skills.
The reason for concentrating more on medicine was simple.
The memory of failing to heal Lishe during the last cycle before regression lingered vividly in his mind.
Lars wanted to raise his surgery rank by at least one more level before the main operation on Acella.
“Chloe, tell me the next location for the medical council dispatch. I need to go on a business trip.”
“Ugh, again?”
“If I do that, it will be natural for you to attend to the princess when I’m on a long business trip. Acella will also get used to me being away for days at a time, so when I disappear for months, she won’t mind, right? It’s shock intensification therapy.”
“Wouldn’t she end up bothering you instead…?”
“Whether it’s alive or burnt, still, with my current skills, the failure rate is too high. I’m off.”
“Eek.”
Along with Tanya and Hugo, Lars donned a crow mask and set off for medical council activities heading south.
“This is the Barony of Volpenbüter. There was a time when a plague wiped out the elderly population. Our medical council has visited once before, but it seems there’s a sign of the plague re-emerging.”
“Okay, let’s start the examination. Medicine is prepared, right?”
“Yes. We brought enough.”
While moving, Lars encountered a band of thieves near the barony. A carriage bearing the imperial crest had become their target.
“If you leave the cargo behind, I’ll spare your lives!”
“You’d better drop your weapons if you want to keep your lives!”
Picking a fight with Tanya was like sticking your head in the mouth of a crocodile.
Once the two thieves were turned into mush, the rest willingly surrendered. They were clearly not professionals.
Having found an opportunity to practice, Lars treated the injuries of the thieves and extracted information. He was able to gain quite a bit of experience.
“We were originally farmers. We couldn’t bear the baron’s taxes…”
The baron of Volpenbüter seemed rather incompetent. He didn’t control disasters like the plague and collected taxes to the point where the livelihoods of his residents were in dire straits.
“A village was completely wiped out a year ago. There are rumors of survivors being abducted.”
“Abduction, you say?”
“I’m not sure, but it might have been the baron who took a young girl…”
Feeling uneasy at that expression, Lars spoke up.
“Should I wipe them out, Teacher?”
“Wait a moment. This isn’t our jurisdiction. There’s no authorization from the princess, so we’ll run into trouble if we intervene. Let’s be wise about this.”
As a medical council, Lars entered the baron’s castle under the pretext of prescribing medicine to prevent the plague.
“Greetings, Baron Volpenbüter.”
“I am Doctor Faust.”
The situation within the castle was worse than expected. Lars focused on treating the seriously ill patients.
Meanwhile, he sent Tanya to infiltrate the castle and search for evidence of the abduction crime.
Tanya acted quickly. Within three days, she discovered that a girl, a survivor from the obliterated village, was being held atop a spire.
Whether it was an attempt to evade responsibility for the massacre of his residents or some other motive, she would provide crucial testimony.
Meeting with the girl at night, Lars couldn’t help but be taken aback as if his mask was going to pop off.
“Lishe?”
“Huh? How do you know my name? Hehe, you’re different from the Empire folks, aren’t you? You’re a doctor, right?”
The warmth of her body, which he still held close in her last moments, was still vivid.
Lars then realized the reason the baron had imprisoned her. He intended to recognize Lishe, who bore the mark of the hero, and sell her to another noble.
Naturally, failing to report to the Empire was an unimaginable crime. It wouldn’t be difficult to punish him if there was evidence.
And the evidence was, of course, the hero herself, providing him ample justification to act.
Regardless of other matters, Lars felt grateful that he was able to find Lishe early.
The day after extricating Lishe, Lars headed straight to confront the baron.
“That you’ve come from the imperial Inner Palace does not give you the right to overstep your bounds. This is an unlawful search. Are you even part of the knights, let alone have the emperor’s decree? If you raise a fuss about this, your position as a healer is going to be rocky.”
The baron was brazenly defiant. He intended to retrieve the hero by putting knights in front of him.
“Oh, is that so?”
Whoosh!
Lars immediately took off his mask. His white hair sparkled in the sunlight.
“Wait? No way….”
Lishe’s eyes widened in shock upon seeing him.
“Baron Volpenbüter, I will speak again under the authority of the princess’s attending physician. You are under arrest for monopolizing, concealing, and leaking the nation’s most critical secrets.”
“Attending physician?! No, wait. This can’t be happening…!”
Realizing the gravity of the situation, the baron attempted to flee, but before he could take more than a couple of steps, Tanya caught him. His escort knights realized the disparity in skill and ceased their resistance.
With the situation resolved, Lars protected Lishe.
“Um, Teacher Gothberg… right?”
“How do you know my name?”
Lishe shrank a bit, tapping her toes on the ground and looking up at Lars playfully.
“I’ve always wanted to meet you. I’ve heard so much about your story.”
“Oh my, how surprising.”
If it were fate, then it was indeed fate.
In the twisted flow of time, the two, the only ones who could trust each other, reunited like this.
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