Artur slapped his hand against his forehead and looked up to the heavens in despair. “Wow, really? Well, I did get the feeling that was the case. All the cute girls in the world get snatched up so fast. Please grant me an encounter too, oh gods.”
Aoto and Shihono smiled awkwardly at the priest who was praying to them with practiced motions.
“He’s such a flirt!” Aoto said. “He couldn’t even maintain his serious priest mode for ten seconds.”
“Well, that’s Art. All right, I’ll pray for him to meet someone nice too!”
“Yeah, I hope he does too. It has to be someone absolutely perfect for him, so he won’t make eyes at you anymore.”
“Aha ha ha! You don’t have to worry about that. We literally live in different worlds. He isn’t being serious anyway.”
“But he’s attractive, high-ranking, and a good guy! I don’t think I can win against him even if we’re in different worlds, so I don’t want him to hit on you...”
“Huh? But you’re the coolest in my eyes, Aoto.”
“Shihono...”
The romantic mood was interrupted by an upbeat voice. “Thank you, Lord Endo and Lady Kobayashi! I hear it’s because of you that I met Miss Liese and Ceci. Thank you very much!”
Aoto and Shihono looked back at the screen to see a nervous Fabian. Next to him was a calm-looking Cecilie.
“I thank you for allowing me to meet Fabian, and I also thank you on behalf of all of Lieselotte’s younger sisters,” Cecilie said. “I’ll protect Fabian for the rest of my life, so don’t worry about him. You can rest easy and wait for your next reunion with Lieselotte and the others.”
“Cecilie, if you plan on becoming a full-fledged knight, you should be more careful with your wording,” came Lieselotte’s tired-sounding voice.
The young girl merely shrugged and said nothing as she left the frame, pulling Fabian by the hand.
“Cecilie! That was rude to Lady Shihono and Lord Endo!”
Shihono shook her head at Lieselotte’s scolding. “They’re like a pair of adorable dolls! So powerful! Just seeing them is a sight for sore eyes, so it wasn’t rude at all!”
“I feel like they’re powerful in more ways than one,” Aoto said. “I mean, the boy’s got incredible firepower, and the girl’s a Riefenstahl princess. I know looks can be deceiving, but this is going overboard.”
“Hmm, but Fabby-boo isn’t the aggressive type, and Cechy-tan doesn’t care about anything except him. They probably wouldn’t go out of their way to accomplish military feats. I think Fiene and Bal are stronger in the straightforward sense.”
“Oh, you’ve got a point. Wait, what the heck?” Aoto’s eyes widened. “He came too?”
The man on the screen was wearing a cat-shaped mask. “Why was I called here? I don’t care about some gods from another world.” It was the masked mage Karlchen—in other words, Leon.
“You were called because the two of them were worried about you,” Lirenna said, off-screen. “Also, they’re your comrades-in-arms who defeated the Witch of Yore with you!”
Even with half of his face covered by the mask, it was clear Leon was annoyed.
“Oh. Well, thanks for incapacitating the Witch of Yore, then. Is that what I’m supposed to say? Honestly, the whole thing was a huge letdown, so I’d rather complain...and I’m not really hoping to meet you again. I’m an adult already, so I’ll do what I want. Oh, but do continue to look after the students, including the ones who just graduated.”
Leon sighed and walked off.
“Well...it does seem like I got to reunite with the love of my life because you asked for me. That’s the one thing I’ll be grateful for. Thank you.”
“Huh?” Shihono asked. “He reunited with the love of his life?! What?! I’m so curious!”
“The game didn’t have anything like that, right?! C’mon, Leon, don’t just drop that bombshell and leave! If you feel the slightest bit grateful to us, explain yourself!”
Technically, they couldn’t be sure Leon had said those words, since he’d moved off-screen and the voice was barely audible. However, the man did not return. Instead, the next person to appear was Marquis Bruno Riefenstahl.
“Thank you, Lord Endo and Lady Kobayashi. As the head of House Riefenstahl, protectors of this nation, and above all, as Lieselotte’s father, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. And I must apologize for being a worthless father. I was so eager to take up post as general and marquis—the path I aspired to, that my brother was supposed to take—that I neglected my family. Because of that, Lieselotte suffered...” Bruno lowered his head deeply.
His next motion wasn’t visible on-screen, but he was probably wiping tears from his eyes.
He then stuck out his chest. “The way things are, I doubt I’ll be able to spare time for my grandchildren! I intend to gradually pass my official duties on to my successors. From now on, I swear to protect Lieselotte and the rest of my precious family. Please be witnesses to my vow.”
Lieselotte panicked. “Wh— Grandchildren?! F-Father, it’s much too soon!”
“It would be rather inconvenient for me if you stepped down from both posts, but if that’s your reasoning, I can’t blame you.” Siegwald chuckled.
Aoto and Shihono couldn’t see the married couple’s expressions, but they easily recognized their voices. They laughed cheerfully, as did Bruno.
As Bruno walked off-screen, Lieselotte’s disapproving voice came closer. “Good grief, father...”
Siegwald walked gallantly into the frame, wearing a tuxedo and unable to stop smiling at his wife’s adorableness. Lieselotte appeared at almost the same time, accompanying him in the same wedding dress she’d worn at the ceremony which had been held in this very church. Her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment, and Siegwald regarded her with loving eyes.
The crown prince turned to face the camera. “Since I was able to chat with you directly at the tea party the other day, I’ll make my message brief. Thank you so much, you two, for meeting us, kindly watching over us, guiding us to this point, and coming to our wedding. Let us meet again sometime, my friends.” He smiled radiantly and then stepped aside, letting his wife take the center of the screen.
Lieselotte adjusted the hem of her dress, and, having regained her composure, straightened her back and smiled softly. “Now then, I have the honor of the last message. You’ve read my diary, so I’m sure you already know everything I would like to say. Thus, I shall be brief as well. We have you to thank for that wonderful day, and I was thrilled you were able to see us in our finest hour. Really, thank you so much. I look forward to seeing you again.” She lowered her head deeply, then twirled on the spot, showing off the wedding dress that Shihono had gazed intently at while saying, “I could look at this for hours.”
When the dress’s hem settled, Lieselotte looked sweetly in one direction, signaling to Siegwald to come back. He was followed by Lirenna, Fiene, Baldur, Artur, Fabian, Cecilie, and Bruno, who stood behind them.
“Leon’s missing,” Aoto said. “Did he already leave?”
“Maybe,” Shihono said. “That’d be a very ‘Professor Leon’ thing to do.”
Everyone on-screen lowered their heads. It was like a curtain call, and the two realized the transmission was coming to an end. Even though they’d been told it was a one-way connection, they felt the need to express their own feelings as well.
“Thanks from us too, everyone!” Shihono said. “Let’s meet again!”
“Thanks, and yeah, let’s meet again!” Aoto said.
At that exact moment, Siegwald nodded as if he’d heard them.
Shihono could no longer hold back her tears. “Ugh, I’m gonna miss them...”
“Yeah, no matter the circumstances, it’s gonna be lonely without them.” Aoto wrapped his arm around her shoulder to comfort her, but he himself was looking up at the ceiling, desperately trying not to spill his own tears.
The screen went dark and the game’s credits roll began to play.
Aoto was the first to notice something was off. “Huh? Wait, what? Sh-Shihono! The screen! Look at the screen!”
“What? I’ve seen this a million times. It’s the normal credits ro— Wait, no, it’s not!”
Shihono had watched the closing credits of Love Me Magically! so many times, she had them memorized. The names and job titles of the people involved in the game’s development scrolled from the bottom of the screen to the top, and normally, the sequence would have reached the final “Thank You” by now.
Gods from Another World
The Hero Who Saved the World with His Play-by-Play and the Sage Who Protected Everything with Her Color Commentary
Kind Providers of Expert Advice
Key Achievers of the Happy End to End All Happy Ends
Our Dear Friends
Job titles they’d never seen before slowly scrolled across the screen as if they’d always been there. And finally...
The Play-by-Play Caster Endo and the Color Commentator Kobayashi
Names that couldn’t possibly be taken seriously had been recorded in the official history books of a certain country in a certain world. Upon seeing them, the Play-by-Play Caster Endo and the Color Commentator Kobayashi burst into emotional tears and laughter simultaneously.