Ryoma sat, surrounded by books and bookshelves. He and his allies were all assembled in Ende’s library.
It seemed the man really had taken it easy on them, because not one of them had turned out to be fatally injured. He’d called up some friends with healing techniques and gotten them all patched up, so they were all in prime condition again.
And now, things were extremely noisy. With a bunch of beautiful women Ryoma knew all together in one room, there was no way things wouldn’t just devolve into chaos.
In the past, he’d been used to having multiple beautiful woman coming on to him and clinging to him, or pushing him away while secretly being happy about his presence. But this time, there were far more than there ever had been before.
A force of fifty of them were gathered together, fighting with each other over Ryoma.
What am I supposed to do? he wondered.
Despite knowing so many beautiful women, Ryoma wasn’t especially good at dealing with them. All he could do was watch the chaos.
Ende arrived, the one who had effectively caused the situation, and the gazes of all present focused on her.
“I hear three is a crowd when it comes to girls, but this is just ridiculous,” Ende commented. “I can’t even enjoy my reading with all this noise.”
“Reading, huh?” he muttered. “So that’s where you were...”
“Well, connecting all these worldviews takes a lot of power, so let’s send them away for a while.”
At Ende’s words, an abrupt silence fell on the library. Ryoma and Ende were the only ones left in the now-unnervingly-quiet space.
“Huh? What happened?” he asked.
“I just returned them to their worlds. Now, let’s have a little talk.”
“Fine,” he said. “What’s the subject?”
“The Divine Vessels War, of course. And how we’re going to win.”
“It should be easy with your power, right?” he asked. She could call all the powerful allies they needed. It was hard to imagine how anyone could stand a chance. He had lost to the Evil God itself, but the god wasn’t a participant, so he probably wouldn’t have to deal with him again.
“No, I think we’re still in a bad position,” said Ende. “Mainly because of you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You could have done more in the fight with the Evil God, couldn’t you? He was trying not to kill your allies. You figured that out halfway, right? So if you’d been willing to sacrifice one or two of them, attacking him along with them, the Evil God might have hesitated. Because he didn’t want to kill them, you know? He might have even done something careless to protect them.”
“There’s no way I could do that!” shouted Ryoma.
“You can,” Ende countered. “You can, and you must. The people you think of as your allies actually have nothing to do with your world. They’re basically characters in a book. You need to realize that it doesn’t matter if they get erased.”
“But...”
“Don’t worry,” Ende told him. “Characters in books never really go away. They’ll always still be there if you turn back to an earlier page. I really need you to start coming to grips with that. If you can’t, then nothing I do will help you.”
“I’m telling you, I can’t do that! I adventured with those people! I can’t sacrifice them!” he shouted.
“Hmm, I thought you’d say that, so I prepared a location for training.” With that, Ende suddenly disappeared.
“Huh?” Ryoma said.
“That’s a training room.” He could hear only Ende’s voice. “You can use it however you like. I’ve transferred a bit of my power to you, so you can summon your allies by reading the books around you.”
“Wait a minute! What am I supposed to do with all this?” he shouted.
“Soon enough, enemies will start appearing from the worlds I’ve prepared. If you defeat them, you can leave, but if you die, you have to start it all over from the beginning. Don’t worry; you’ll get out eventually. Each time you die, you’ll learn a little more. Take as many thousands of times as you need.”
“Hey! Is that it?!” Ryoma shouted. But he was now alone in the world of books and bookshelves.
✦ ✦ ✦
✽✽✽✽✽
“Hmm. I hope he can handle this...” Ende murmured.
She expected Ryoma to come out after about an hour of real time. She didn’t know how many thousands of hours it would feel like to him, but she felt sure that he would be much stronger by then, at least.
“But the real question is whether it’ll be enough to take out Yuichi Sakaki...”
Yuichi Sakaki really was trouble.
He had easily landed a hit on the same Evil God that had given Ryoma such trouble. She wondered, for a moment, what would have happened if they’d properly fought, and decided that Yuichi would have probably won. Mutsuko had been there, after all, and while Mutsuko was watching, there was no way that Yuichi could lose.
“That’s the power of ‘An Unforgiving World That Rewards Only Effort,’ I guess,” Ende murmured. That was her name for Mutsuko’s worldview. Within that worldview, those who put in effort were rewarded, while those who relied on their god-given talent and power were helpless.
Most monsters were effortlessly strong. They had been born or created that way, so they never needed training.
Monsters were useless. They couldn’t beat Yuichi Sakaki.
That was why she had decided that she needed Ryoma to put in some effort. Die, learn, try again. She was hoping he’d grow desperate soon enough.
“Well, setting that aside, I need a more fundamental countermeasure.”
She didn’t know if Ryoma’s effort could put him on par with Yuichi. She just had to try it and see what happened. But while she was doing that, she needed another, more foolproof plan.
What could it be? Ende had an idea.
To separate Yuichi and Mutsuko.
To sever the tie between them.
Once that happened, Mutsuko’s influence over Yuichi would be lost.
And Ende had the power to make that possible.
A change from one worldview to another.
She just had to use that on Yuichi, to tear Yuichi out of Mutsuko’s world.
“The question is, how to fulfill the requirements to activate it...”
And so Ende began applying all her wits to do just that.