“Long time no see, Licht.”
A man with demon horns and wings approaches slowly.
His grotesque form, barely concealed by his black armor, makes an entrance.
Dumbfounded ‘That blonde hair and blue eyes…’
If it’s who I think it is, then that must be Kainel, the Hero of Light.
We faced challenges together at Grand Hertz Academy.
Originally, he fled after getting caught by the Magic Hat in the original world.
“..Kainel?”
Just when I thought I was about to be devoured by Pina, his appearance froze her movements.
“Don’t call me that. I don’t deserve it.”
He shook his head as I said his name.
“Just call me Nel.”
The name he preferred, seen in Kainel’s Corruption Route.
Thinking ‘So Kainel without ‘Kai’ becomes Nel.’
He was avoiding the nickname that my childhood friend used.
In the game, he didn’t use light-related techniques due to guilt over Ariel’s death.
That was also why I tried to get the hero couple together.
“Why are you here…?”
Pina Grancia, with black hair, chews her lower lip in dissatisfaction at the unexpected visitor.
She was so close, just a bit more, and my upper body was almost fully revealed.
“Of course! I came to save Licht from another world line.”
“….No.”
Kainel declared confidently.
Were we that close even here?
“What the hell are you talking about? Licht is living just fine here…”
Then, Pina created a cocoon around me with rose vines.
My arms and legs were shackled, unable to move an inch.
“It seems like the time for watching the net has already passed, Your Majesty.”
Kainel put his hand to his forehead, dumbfounded at the scene.
A Empress trying to assault her beloved in the gloomy Imperial Palace.
“What will the citizens think when they find out?”
“..I don’t care.”
Kainel waved around the wanted notice with my montage.
“I treasure Licht more than anything in this world.”
His advice went unheard by the completely insane Pina.
It was a conversation that didn’t connect anymore.
“Then I guess I have to save you!”
Kainel drew the pitch-black Holy Sword.
Immediately, darkness swelled around us.
He planned to use the power that enveloped the world in shadow to separate me and Pina.
“‘Dark Dimen…’”
“Sorry, but that won’t work.”
Kainel tried to stab the Holy Sword into the ground.
But his attempt failed spectacularly.
“If you’re trying to take Licht from me, then you might as well kill me.”
Zing—
Her red eyes started to shine, and everything around began to move slowly.
The tick-tock of the clock quieted down.
“Why do they all want to take Licht away from me…?”
She broke Kainel’s Holy Sword with the rose vines and opened her mouth.
With an indifferent posture as if nothing mattered.
She smiled at me.
“I really hate all of you.”
She had become a being that fit the name of Demon God.
“Oh, I wasn’t talking to you, Licht… you won’t hear this anyway…”
Seeing her like this means that it was really the Pina I knew.
Suddenly regaining her sanity, she walked towards Kainel.
“Kainel, you’ve interrupted the most precious time between Licht and me.”
Why do I still have my consciousness?
Could it be because I gained resistance to divine powers after becoming a Demon King?
Come to think of it, I also wasn’t affected by the Magic Hat’s techniques.
Even if I tried to speak, no words came out.
In this frozen world, all I could think was.
‘How do I persuade Pina? What should I do…?’
Finding a way to convince her.
I can’t beg for my life.
I could end up imprisoned in a dungeon just to stay alive.
In the end, I have to return to the original world and meet Pina, who is waiting for me.
‘But I can’t just leave Pina as a Demon God.’
It’s not enough to say how unfortunate it is.
A dark past where even a slight difference split the future, causing my beloved to die.
‘This rain that keeps pouring…’
How can I make it stop?
In an instant, light began to emerge from the shattered pieces of the Holy Sword.
“Mardol. Let Licht go.”
“…Is this for real? Even in a frozen time…?”
And in the stopped world, Kainel began to move.
“Professor Dennis once told me something.”
As the darkness peeled away from the Holy Sword, it burst into its original brilliance.
“If the speed of light reaches a certain level… it can even reverse time, remember?”
It was a lecture Dennis had given us before.
Kainel’s body gradually began to turn into a light cluster, while Pina attempted to warp space.
“Licht will never be taken from me!!”
“It’s already too late.”
He couldn’t stop the technique using the Holy Sword.
Even while swinging the sword, fragments exploded like firecrackers around us.
Transforming into flashes, he began to slice through the cocoon I was trapped in.
“I originally didn’t want to use techniques related to Ariel…”
Even though Pina kept summoning roses to block him, he was already right in front of me.
“─Shine Strike.”
Boom—!!
With a deafening roar that blew away half the Imperial Palace, the Hero of Light Nel vanished with me.
*
Thunder and lightning began in the Empire.
“Caw! My ankles are soaked!”
The rain poured even harder than before.
The sudden change in weather had the people of the Grancia Empire in turmoil.
Such as when I summoned the Mind Sword and brought issues to Pina’s mind.
“Search every nook and cranny! They can’t have gone far!”
“Arrest the traitor who betrayed the Empire!”
Since I had disappeared,
The knights held the wanted notice with a drawing resembling my face.
The name Licht was nowhere to be found.
‘I had already been portrayed as a dead hero.’
The one who saved the Empress’s life.
The only man loved by Pina Grancia, her precious partner, etc….
These were the pieces of information I learned while wandering in this world.
With black cloaks pulled tightly, Kainel and I moved.
The item cast by the Hero of Light’s shadow allowed us to evade the eyes of others.
“Where should we go…?”
“We just need to go forward a bit more.”
But with Pina having become a Demon God, it was uncertain when she might track us down.
Finding a hiding place was our urgent task.
“This place… no way.”
“Yes, it’s [Grancia Empire Confectionery].”
The Grancia Empire Confectionery.
The main store near the academy has turned into a block of ice.
“Technically, it’s the second location. Let’s head inside.”
I recalled a sign that said they opened another branch.
A regular place that Pina and I often visited when she was a princess, now the Empress.
“The thunder sounds quite frightening…”
“Indeed… I wonder what’s happening to the Empress? It’s not yet Licht’s memorial day.”
As if to show off its reputation, despite the pouring rain, the place was bustling with people.
Seeing the crowd, Kainel seemed nervous.
“Is it really fine to go in here? We’ll get caught immediately!”
“To hide a tree, you hide it in the forest; to hide a person…”
I stepped into the store, moving first.
“It’s best to hide someone among people.”
And the Empire Confectionery held memories dear to me.
Pina, who turned away from the past, is unlikely to come here.
As I entered without being spotted, Kainel was peeking around, sitting down.
“Phew… finally feeling alive.”
He relaxed, chomping down on the crab sandwich I ordered beforehand.
“Cast soundproof magic. We’ll get caught.”
“Oh, right.”
Just because he became a Demon King or I a Demon God didn’t mean their personalities had changed.
I had also transformed into the Demon King of Conviction, and so had Pina.
“I almost forgot. Thanks, Licht.”
Still showing his clueless demeanor.
Kainel smiled awkwardly, extending his hand for a handshake.
“…It’s quite hard to see your face again, isn’t it?”
“Thanks for saving me, Nel.”
I held onto his hand and expressed my gratitude.
If it weren’t for Kainel, I would have been tortured in the depths of the Imperial Palace.
‘The Sage must have seen this future too.’
Me shackled on a bed, with the black-haired Pina atop me.
Had I not helped Kainel, this future might have come to fruition.
“Damn… even the Holy Sword is broken now.”
Whether hero or Demon King, she would annihilate all enemies before her.
“I was going to send you back to the original world line, but now I don’t think that’s possible.”
Clang.
Kainel placed the Holy Sword, now just a hilt, on the table.
Originally, it was blood-covered and concealed in darkness as he fell into corruption from being a Demon King.
“Still, you were lucky.”
Ironically, because Pina shattered the Holy Sword, he could use the remaining light to its fullest.
“But, Kainel.”
“Call me Nel.”
I watched Kainel’s embarrassed expression as he slightly drooped his lips.
“…Aren’t you regretting any of this?”
He also lost Ariel.
“……”
The problem was that with my death, the one who could oppose the Demon King of Might was gone.
“Why… are you talking about that now?”
“Because I’ll probably die after lying to you.”
For some reason, I had been under the impression that this world was a game.
Therefore, I couldn’t straightforwardly confess I had come from another world.
“If I had trusted you all more, maybe the future would have changed.”
If I had relied on others more.
This world, where Pina and Kainel fell into corruption as Demon Gods, would not exist.
“…So it’s all your fault?”
“Yeah.”
The Grand Route.
A route where all possibilities converge might exist for this reason.
“Ha.. you really are Licht, aren’t you?”
He squinted his eyes, staring intently at my face.
“Though I’m a different person.”
“Yet you’re so similar. I understand why Mardol is obsessed with you.”
The only difference here was that my helmet had been removed during the year-end exam.
“If I had taken care of Mana Rose…”
“You clueless idiot.”
Kainel sighed heavily after hearing me.
“Even if I regret, the past is the past.”
He remarked, contrasting sharply with Pina.
“At least thanks to you, Licht, I was able to confess my feelings to Ariel.”
“……I guess you really should return to your original world.”
