But despite Muu Gi’s desire to join the battlefield, his unimpressive combat skills had been a huge hindrance. He’d happened to run into a boy who’d just started to understand the power of light just enough to open a tiny hole in the sanctuary’s barrier, another boy tagging along with him, and the three of them had fought to the death. This fierce battle ended with Muu Gi’s defeat at the hands of the inexperienced humans.
And in this virtual world, there was nothing Muu Gi could do, as he was already within range. Could he recognize the old man walking toward him with his sandals stepping firmly on the ground? Could he recognize the clacking sound? Could he recognize the trails, deep red as the sky? Could he recognize his own body, which hadn’t merely been cut into pieces but turned to dust? And above all else...
“Hey, we meet again. By the way, it seems that you took good care of my wife and her old man.”
Could he recognize the anger in Sazaki’s voice as the Blademaster finished everything in an instant?
Although this old man usually had a nonchalant expression that suggested he was detached from feelings of friendship or love, his words and actions were often the complete opposite. That went double when it came to the cause of Lara’s death, even though it was only in a made-up scenario. Lara also knew that, so she watched silently without any snarky retort.
Then came the sound of a mirror cracking.
Once again, an assumption about the past had been conveniently altered. In order to get rid of his imperfect humanoid form, Muu Gi had been given special enhancement by the Great Demon King, and he now took the form of a mighty dragon. He was flying with large, bat-like wings. His powerful limbs collapsed firmly onto the ground. His robust tail, that could even destroy castle walls, roiled. And then...
“Whoaaargh!”
His shouting head went flying from his body. Red trails covered him. He was slow. Far too slow. His slowness could not be overemphasized. He dared to appear within the Blademaster’s reach, shouting? Why would he not assume that this was plenty of time to kill him? The newly appeared Muu Gi’s body was chopped to pieces, and he vanished again.
It was impossible for anyone to stand before Sazaki unless they had complete immunity to physical attacks, or they were a transcendent being with a conceptual authority that allowed them to always make the first move. Many such exceptional beings had existed during the great war, so the Hero’s party, who had defeated them all, was still regarded with awe and veneration.
“Hic. Hey, Ferd, you got any booze?” Sazaki went back to his usual drunkard self.
“Of course not.”
“Should have brought another ten bottles.” He sadly shook his almost-empty bottle of alcohol, all the while speculating why he wasn’t present in this simulation.
The next moment, the ground shook fiercely.
“Hmm? But I didn’t do anything.” Ferd remembered this shaking; it was the same as the one he’d felt in his young days after he’d somehow defeated Muu Gi, invaded the sanctuary, and woke the dragons up.
“The flow of events has been mostly fixed now, so things are probably being pulled in the original direction. That means there’s only a little bit left to solve.” Lara believed that the distorted calculations about the great war’s events had started going back to normal.
“What’s going on?! What is this red sky?!” Immediately after that, over one hundred mighty dragons came flying out of the earth and were shocked at the sight before them. The sky was a deep red, and the divine power had clearly declined in the world. The dragons could tell from the low amounts of divinity they felt that this was an abnormal situation.
“Now then, off to the next one,” Lara prompted.
“Okay,” Sazaki replied listlessly once again. He’d eliminated the causes of his comrades’ deaths one after the other while assuming that the cause of his own death was something trivial.
The next mirror didn’t display anything spectacular; it was neither a sanctuary nor a military base. If one had to describe it, it would be a small town where despair was particularly intense during the early stages of the war, unlike everywhere else they’d been within the mirror.
“I think...it was this way...” Ferd searched through his memories as he entered a back alley in this small town.
No matter how you looked at it, it was clear that the people here were hanging their heads in the face of impending death, so no one had the time to help others. So no one paid any attention, even when someone collapsed in a back alley. Even if, for example, it was a young man with a bottle of alcohol rolling down next to him.
“Hic. Hey, pass me that bottle of booze.” The young man, who was lying on his back in the alley and had a clear look of death about him, made that request to Ferd’s group.
Seeing the scene, Sazaki leaned against the wall and shook his practically empty bottle of alcohol.
“You need to get medical treatment and something to eat first,” Ferd told the young man.
“Medical treatment...huh? I don’t think that’s possible.”
“Did something happen?”
“I got stabbed by a bewitched sword, and my vitality won’t return. It’s like I’m cursed or something. Even high priests can’t lift the curse, so I’ll probably die soon. On top of that, I killed a buddy I’ve known for twelve years, so my motivation’s at zero.”
As Sazaki listened to the apathetic young man, he recalled memories of eighty years ago while looking nowhere in particular. Memories of the man who had been his friend and rival; the two of them had run around in fields together, jumped into rivers together, and swung around tree branches together. And when he’d fallen to the dark path, Sazaki had been left with no choice but to kill him. The young man lying down here had very recently experienced the exact same thing, and he was about to end his troubled life.
“I hear you, but I can’t just stay silent and watch someone die. So I guess I’ll give it my all.”
“Old man, you don’t know how to mind your own business, do you?”
“I used to be told that often.”
If only it hadn’t been for the strange boy back then who’d said he’d give it his all and poured light and vitality into the young man until he collapsed.
“Anyway, I’ll give it a go.” Just like he’d done seventy years ago, Ferd sent his light to the young man.
No one had paid any attention to a young man who’d suffered defeat after defeat in every war front, had barely any food, and lay dying in some random street. All the more so since they hadn’t known he would later accomplish himself as the Lightspeed Blademaster.
Another mirror cracked.
The young Sazaki, who would have died in the virtual world without anyone noticing, also disappeared.
“I only died in this simulation, right?” Although Sazaki had been angry about Lara’s death in another simulation, he shrugged like nothing had happened.
“Hmph.” Lara, who had been quiet up to that point, merely snorted.
“Well then...looks like this is the last one.” Ferd ignored the couple’s messing around and squinted at the scene reflected in what was surely going to be the last mirror. He could unmistakably see his hometown, but this mirror was different from the previous ones; it shone black, as if to reject them.
“What’s going on, Lara?” Stein asked.
“There’s a high chance it’s quarantined. It’s probably too much for Ferd to handle,” Lara quickly replied. She forcibly undid the mirror’s quarantine and stepped inside.
“This feels...so nostalgic...” As Ferd stepped foot into his hometown—which was not burning—memories of eighty long years ago came rushing back, and he got a faraway look in his eyes.
It was just a farming village you’d find anywhere before the great war. Golem carriages were nowhere close to being a thing yet, so it was far from any trade networks, lacked distribution of goods, and was quite impoverished. The villagers went to bed early on cold nights and worked in the fields from early in the morning. This went on and on forever, and it wouldn’t change for the next generation either.
“May I ask you a question?” Ferd approached a middle-aged woman.
“Yes?”
“I’m a friend of Isaac’s. Are he and his family doing well?” He spoke his father’s name for the first time in forever.
“Yes, they’re doing quite well.”
“That’s good to hear. I think his youngest son was called Fe...”
“Little Ferd is doing just fine too.”
“Oh, I’m truly glad to hear that.” So I’m here too...