Chapter 98
Don't Make Me Say
It!
Translator : PolterGlast
It was painful.
Terribly painful. Eldorado had said that Vejasha didn't intend to kill me, but
I couldn't help but think that was a lie.
I couldn't breathe.
When I thought I shouldn't breathe, I remembered one of my skills. The
description of the ability was 【Might get a little better at holding your breath, maybe】 when it was Lv.1. That skill, which had changed to
Lv.2 in an instant, had the explanation 【Might be able to persevere even when it's tough?】 Why the question mark?
I selected it
forcefully, puffed out my cheeks, and dove in. Turning his back to me was his
undoing, or rather, I never thought I'd actually use this Deep Dive skill, and
in the end, it was still painful! I wanted to complain. It was very painful.
The branch was already
within the range of the magic tool I received from Veda. If I made the bracelet
on my right arm glow, it would be mine. This was it, I had won! That conviction
was my downfall. Snap, Vejasha quietly snapped his fingers. The magic tool
disappeared from my right hand.
"Eh..."
My breathing had
completely returned to normal. Vejasha had probably deactivated his unique
skill, but more importantly, something vital was gone. "...I could just
strip your clothes off, you know." "Clothes?!" "No. That's
not in the plan." My retort was calm.
Ichi and the others
were finding openings and leaping in with an "Oraah!", but a single
finger snap would deflect their trajectory. It wasn't that Ichi and the others
were moving. He was shifting the surrounding space. What a monster.
"...Without this,
you can't do anything anymore, can you? Won't you just give up?"
He had become quite
talkative compared to the beginning. Indeed, that was true. I couldn't do
anything. Even if Ichi and the others tried their best, they could only
distract Vejasha slightly. Yes, I couldn't do anything, but...
"No way."
I chuckled a little.
Turning his back, acting so confident. "When you do that kind of final
boss thing, you get tripped up so easily." By the way, I didn't have any
coolness to begin with, I thought with a laugh. "All I needed was for you
to look away for a second." I smiled. It was all over.
Vejasha frowned. Then
he turned around sharply. Lotus was there. He used the sword at his waist to
stab the thick branch and pull it out.
With a creaking sound,
it bent, broke, and fell. Immediately, Lotus jumped to another branch and, with
his extraordinary athleticism, easily returned to my side. I was envious.
"How...?"
"Well, you can't
cut down the World Tree without a magic tool."
Even if a human held a
mere sword, it wouldn't leave a single scratch on the World Tree.
It wasn't about me,
and I thought there was no need to say anything more, so I decided to keep my
answer to myself.
Lotus was a romance
option in the Cloudy Country. Each character possessed a unique skill. When
Velvect's town was destroyed, he should have originally acquired his unique
skill, but to put it this way, because I messed up the "event," he
never acquired it.
But that was three
years ago. Three years had passed. It was an ability he should have originally
possessed. There was no way Lotus hadn't acquired it in the meantime.
Lotus's unique skill
was the ability to cut anything. It was his unique skill as an individual, not
as a demon. In the game, thanks to this skill, his ATK was unbelievably high.
However, in regular battles, he was strong enough without relying on the skill,
so there was never any need to use it.
Since it was a skill
he was using for almost the first time, Lotus made a fist and opened it,
tilting his head. "...Does it feel weird?" "Well, slightly. The
feedback is kind of gross." Was it the kind of feeling where it just
swoosh went through?
But of course, Veda's
magic tool was necessary. Without that magic tool, we wouldn't have known which
branch to cut. So, my job had actually ended when I showed Lotus which branch
to cut. After that, all I had to do was wait for him to return from wherever he
had been blown off to. Of course, if we could have cut it during that time,
that would have been enough.
Vejasha stood there
dumbfounded.
He dropped the magic
tool he had taken from me out of his hand with a clatter. It was important, and
I had a feeling Veda would shoot beams from his eyes if it was lost, so I
hurriedly picked it up.
"Now then... how
has things changed?"
I couldn't see the
situation on the ground, but had there been a change? My job was done, but I
faced Vejasha, whose consciousness had flown away and was already completely
blank. Of course, he was important too. Making him repeat thirteen years was no
joke, and it meant that even if we weren't conscious, we would be repeating as
well. I absolutely hated the thought of all our encounters disappearing. But
sacrificing Soleil was also something I really hated.
I strode forward. I
gripped Vejasha's hand tightly.
"Vejasha, let's
think together."
"What are
you...?"
"Let's think
about a way for everyone to be happy!"
We cut off a branch,
the end. It couldn't be that simple. Vejasha shook his head. With a stiff
expression, he glared at me. "I don't particularly want to be happy."
"You have the right! You have the chance! You're also my Lotus's best
friend!" "Huh?" Lotus narrowed his eyes. For now, I'd postpone
explaining to Lotus.
"A demon who has
killed so many people doesn't have such a right."
"That was in the
previous timeline, you haven't killed anyone this time!"
"...Why are you
so sure?"
"Because you were
inside the water membrane sphere! People who have killed others can't enter
Kasei!"
At my loudly shouted
words, Vejasha's eyes widened. The night we fought the earth scorpion, Vejasha
and Marc were both inside Kasei. At that time, the water membrane sphere had
been broken due to the battle, so I had thought they had entered from there,
but when I asked Veda the next day, he had clearly said that the repairs had
been completed before nightfall.
So at that time, I
thought, "Ah, I see."
"No one died! It
was wrong to cause trouble... no doubt about it, but no one died, you didn't
kill anyone!"
"Foolish."
Vejasha spat out as if
there was such a problem. That's right, that was exactly it. Even if no one had
died, there were probably injured people, and in another timeline, he had
killed countless people. To say that because time had been rewound, there was
no sin, and that was the end of it, was strange—that was what Vejasha was
explaining to me. I understood, I understood all of that.
"That's usually
what our side would argue, don't make me say it!"
It was like a dream
when Eldorado had said a similar line, but this time it lacked any charm.
"If you think
it's wrong, then that's fine. In that case, let's work hard to make up for the
trouble we caused! You've already done enough, and you're someone who can work
hard, so you can do anything, no, wait, is that a bit harsh?!"
As I spoke, I felt
like it was wrong to force someone to work hard. You really shouldn't tell
someone who is completely exhausted to try harder. I bit my lip tightly,
realizing my thoughtlessness, and looked up at him. Then, unexpectedly, Vejasha
had a blank look on his face and blinked repeatedly. He had a cute expression.
"No, I
wonder..."
He was the one who had
lectured Lotus about the importance of expressions, so he must have been
someone who actually made cute faces. "I wonder, I don't know..." I
said, also becoming unsure, and we both stood there holding hands, looking
blankly.
At that moment, the
ground shook. No, the World Tree itself was shaking. Lotus, who had immediately
come over, lifted me up by my stomach and carried me away. Crack-crack, there
was a sound. The sound of something breaking. "Kyaah!" Ichi and the
others jumped up and looked around with everyone. "Eh... ah, ah!!"
They pointed. Lotus and Vejasha also stared at the scene with wide eyes.
***
The wall of wind was
gradually disappearing. In Kasei, the people's anxiety and commotion grew. I
knew it was the limit. On Socius's shoulder, Pia, with her eyes closed, wagged
her tail languidly.
"El, how are
things on your side right now...!?"
Words I had only meant
to mutter became loud on their own. That's how frantic I was. The
reconstruction of the water membrane sphere was still not finished. Seirou and
the few soldiers of Kasei were holding back the residents, but the bomb of
discontent looked like it would explode at any moment.
At that moment, the
wall of wind suddenly disappeared. It was the moment Shangra had completed all
analysis and negated Veda's wall, but Socius didn't know that. He just felt a
terrifying anxiety strike his chest. Hail Land was invading. He didn't know if
El had finished cutting down the World Tree. But they couldn't just be defeated
without resistance.
"...Don't give up
until the very last moment!"
There were battles
where you didn't fight. But they couldn't escape either. If that was the case,
they wouldn't let Hail Land enter Kasei. It was the same as when they fought
the earth scorpion. Before he knew it, many citizens had gathered around the
surrounding walls, just like Socius. They had no weapons. Instead of mud balls,
they threw anything they could find. Chairs, desks, brooms, dirt, even buckets.
They would buy even a little time.
Even so, they were
slowly approaching. They climbed the walls and tried to break through the
doors. Everyone shouted loudly. There were no words. There was no meaning. They
became a mess, sweating profusely, their throats hoarse. Meaningless words
changed into one form. Would they lose? Would they give up?
Protect the city.
A single soldier
crossed the wall. A woman screamed and collapsed. A man with a large chair slammed
it into the soldier from behind. He repeated it, exhausted, until he collapsed,
thinking he couldn't go on. It was the limit. --Sorry to keep you waiting!!
A man's voice echoed.
The thin water
membrane sphere that covered Kasei changed its thickness and swelled. The
hanging lanterns swayed. The Hail Land soldiers who had been climbing the walls
were easily blown away. The reconstruction was complete. The water membrane
sphere had changed to repel everything with malice towards Kasei.
Before I knew it, I
was crying again. My face was wet with tears. When I wiped my eyes with my
fist, Pia, who had slightly opened her eyes, licked Socius's cheek. It felt
rough.
--The land has been
protected. You guys can relax, even those Hail Land bastards can't touch Kasei
anymore!
It was the voice of
the main tower. If the land had been protected, then El had somehow managed...
hadn't she?
All I could do was
imagine. Along with the resounding cheers, the residents of Kasei hugged each
other and rejoiced. It was then.
Something fluttered
down.
One fell from the sky.
Two. Three, four, and more.
It wasn't just Socius
who noticed. "What is it?" a child looked up at the sky, and the
adults did the same. Flower petals. I didn't know who had muttered it. But a
voice was heard quietly.
"It's raining...
flower petals..."
***
The cut branch creaked
and groaned, and the ground rumbled. I was still being held by Lotus, staring
blankly. At that moment, with surprising speed, a new branch was born from the
broken one. It climbed rapidly into the sky, going straight up.
"Eh, eh,
ah..."
I suddenly remembered
my conversation with Veda.
--If you can cut it
cleanly and well, it will sprout again from where you cut it. The World Tree
and we coexist.
The branch that Lotus
had cut was probably the right one. Having lost its shackles, the World Tree
would grow endlessly and bloom.
It rained. No, it was
different. Flower petals. A great flood of flower petals was attacking us. The
rumbling didn't stop. The form had changed so suddenly that the World Tree's
main body couldn't keep up. The place we were supposed to be standing tilted,
became high, became low. Lotus pulled me, and Ichi and the others grabbed
Lotus, stretching their bodies to grab onto another branch. I thought we had
somehow endured the shaking, but Vejasha was different. He easily slipped and
his body floated in the air.
He reached out to us.
"Vejasha...!!"
It's alright. He has
skills. It's alright. Even if he falls, he has a flying skill. So, definitely.
That's what I thought,
but suddenly, Vejasha lost all strength in his outstretched arm, as if he had
given up on everything. It was a gesture of complete resignation. He intended
to die like that. Vejasha's goal was to end the repetition. If so, his goal had
been achieved. After all, the very form of the World Tree that had been
repeating had changed.
Before I could shout
"No!", Lotus was the first to move. He caught the arm of the slipping
Vejasha and gripped it tightly. Vejasha was suspended, supported by only one of
Lotus's arms.
"Please, let
go."
It was a pleading
voice. But Lotus answered clearly, "I refuse."
"You only have to
fall once."
In the Cloudy Country,
when they caught a demon, they would throw them off a cliff. Because they didn't
know what kind of skills they possessed, they would kill them before their
abilities could bloom. Vejasha had fallen once too. But because he had more
talent than others, he used his skill and managed to escape.
Lotus had been
repeating his regret all along. He probably thought he had just stood by and
watched him die. I knew he regretted it.
I could only imagine
what kind of emotions existed between them, and no matter how I thought about
it, something was missing. So, I didn't know what the two of them were thinking
at that moment.
Vejasha bit his lip as
if trembling, and his face looked like he was about to cry slightly. Supported
by Lotus, hanging limply, he tried to choose his words, then stopped, repeating
the process. "...I've encountered you several times in the repetitions,
but..." His words finally came out, and he seemed unsure how to handle
them. "...I've never had my arm pulled like this."
Lotus blinked blankly.
He raised his eyebrows, thought for a moment, and replied, "Ah."
"Looks like I
didn't have the arm to pull you up back then."
Many flowers
scattered, spilled, rode the wind, and flew far away.
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