Why did we go through all this trouble of turning back time?
To change the very premise of the story itself! Instead of a future desired by the Goddess or the Emperor, I needed to shatter their plans right from the start to get the future I want.
The problem is, I can’t choose sides between the Goddess or the Emperor. If I move as the Emperor desires, he’ll eventually take the place of the new god. On the other hand, picking the Goddess’s side would lead to a boring, monotonous world with zero fun.
Plus, the Goddess’s world is worse because I’m not in it! She plans to take back all the power I possess—basically meaning my very existence would be erased from this side.
My soul and memories seem to stay intact, so I think I won’t vanish completely. But what I truly want right now is to achieve a happy ending together with everyone in this world!
The urgency here is far greater. Time has been rushing by like whoosh for me! If time really turned back just as I spun it, that would break my mental state!
But I don’t like time moving without my will, especially when I drift off, then wake up to find time has flown like zoom and I have these jumbled memories stuffed in my head—it’s the worst!
The tricky part is, I’m the only one feeling this weird sensation. Claire, who inherited some powers, and Alice, whose memories are kept by that fake Alice, feel time flowing naturally.
Even when turning back time, I can only rewind the parts I’m sure of as “my memories.” I can’t access the jumbled mess of forced memories. In contrast, Claire, who “properly remembers,” smoothly rewinds time to places I couldn’t—I’ve heard that.
The issue is that, even then, my memories aren’t intact.
“So, where have you been, sis?”
Chillingly, Claire asked me right after.
“You couldn’t find me?”
“Yeah! After turning back time, no matter how hard I looked for you, you seemed to vanish into thin air! Even searching every room, even the whole academy!”
Alice answered my question. She stared intently at me, asking, “Where were you at the time?”
“…”
After vigorously rummaging through my head, I finally answered, “I don’t know.”
Of course, I didn’t have a proper answer.
“I have no recollection of that time.”
It’s true—unlike the fake memories that were created while jumping around, after Claire rewound time, I had no memories at all. It was as if I had never experienced that event! Like cutting a film’s middle section and just sticking the front and back together.
“But… I rewound time several times when we left the orphanage…”
“…Maybe back then, I had ‘memories’.”
I spoke slowly.
“I mentioned that my time feels twitchy. The memories from the orphanage weren’t fabricated. They are experiences I went through myself.”
“And actually, to be strict, those memories were ‘ones I shouldn’t have.’ They should’ve already been canceled and vanished, and even if we ‘went back,’ you should have experienced what happened before.”
Nodding at Alice’s words, I realized something.
That means one thing.
“It’s not that you all are wrong; I must be influenced by the Goddess.”
Unless it meant Claire ‘snatched’ the Goddess’s powers. But I didn’t say that part.
“From the Goddess’s standpoint, I’m a being that should vanish. Not only that, but it would be more favorable for her to give up on the plans so far and start over. I possess some of her powers, yet I oppose her wishes.”
“But if that’s the case, the time we experienced…”
“If this world is forcibly created by the Goddess, then time itself likely flows based on my existence. Whether I exist or not would be crucial for the world. But that doesn’t mean the world itself is an ‘illusion.’ After all, you all exist and feel time together.”
So, when Claire ‘rewinds time’, it forcibly creates nonexistent parts. Naturally, in those jumbled sections, I cease to exist.
It’s illogical, but if there’s disorder in the process of this world forming, things change. In a sense, this world could be similar to what the Fanggriffon wanted.
The Goddess can’t wield her power perfectly.
But it doesn’t mean the existence created by the Goddess—me—holds that power completely either.
Yet the Fanggriffon didn’t fully snatch the Goddess’s power either.
“So, Claire created the world while rewinding time? Filling in the nonexistent parts?”
“I think so.”
I’m not certain. This part wasn’t in the original setting book.
If the Goddess were that kind of being, she wouldn’t appear positively in the original; the game often reacted negatively to trying to define human thoughts like that.
She’d likely be the final boss in the sequel. The Emperor might revive as an ally, or it could turn into a three-way battle. Or maybe the Papal State would exploit the power the Emperor gathered.
Then I realize why the Goddess ‘dropped’ me here.
If she were a being capable of such, she could even bring me here having played through the entire series. There must be a parallel world where I exist as well.
Yet to make me act according to the Goddess’s wishes up to the last moment, I needed to be oblivious to her true intentions.
And in the end, I mess things up with my excitement during the last moment.
What a mistake straight out of a JRPG villain—I can’t help but chuckle!
“So… what should I do? Should I avoid using my abilities?”
“You should use them if necessary.”
Take Lucas, who’s been thinking about defeating me since childhood.
“Hmm? But Lucas didn’t particularly try to do that.”
“…”
But Claire tilted her head and said, “We’ve crossed swords a few times, Lucas definitely had the upper hand. I wasn’t getting completely crushed, but it wasn’t a cakewalk either.”
“…What did Lucas say?”
“He said, ‘Come back when you’re older, kid.’ Of course, he said it playfully, but it was still a bit frustrating.”
So Claire is diligently training. She seems to have become quite close with Bella.
And Lucas wasn’t particularly trying to outshine Claire back then, which is why there seemed to be no reason to rewind time in the Imperial Palace. Repeating what I already knew was enough for my studies.
…What?
That seems unfair!
*
“So, you came to find me?”
“Exactly.”
I told the Sword Saint.
In my previous world, I actually already revealed my abilities to the Sword Saint. Of course, I rewound time after that.
But this time, I planned to act differently. The assistance I needed from the Sword Saint was far greater than that.
“So you need a way to stay awake for as long as possible to prevent the Goddess from overlaying your memories?”
“That’s right.”
Meditation is possible.
But that’s not a fundamental solution. I could extend my waking hours by concentrating and calming my mind, but I couldn’t avoid sleep altogether.
So I need to learn something much more fundamental, so I can stay awake while opposing the Goddess—
“Hey, you brat!”
Bam!
“Ah?!”
But before I could say another word to the Sword Saint, the edge of his hand hit my head hard.
Wait, what?!
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