Chapter 0
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The butterfly effect is a son of a bitch.
Of course, the phenomenon the theory describes isn’t at fault.
It’s only natural that results can change when the conditions change.
But saying such a phenomenon exists is tantamount to saying that even the tiniest choice can completely change a person’s fate.
“My dear.”
So the butterfly effect is a son of a bitch. At least, it is to me.
To put it simply,
There were a few choices I regretted in my life so far.
Choices that led me to end up in this situation.
For instance, there’s one in particular.
I shouldn’t have played that game.
[ Savior Rising ]
Sera for short. An academy game. A fresh, orthodox coming-of-age adventure starring young men and women. The characters reek of otaku culture, but have a familiar, reassuring charm.
It’s a decent game.
If only I hadn’t been possessed and dumped into it.
How does that even make sense? Someone plays a game and gets trapped inside it?
If there were at least some clear reason—like getting possessed after insulting the work and being singled out by its godlike developer, or getting possessed because I was deeply attached to the protagonist—I might understand.
Like always, I played all the way through, saw the ending, nodded to myself with satisfaction that it was fun, and went to bed.
And then the next day, I was possessed. Ta-da.
“My dear. Are you listening?”
I don’t answer.
Maybe the person on the other side hasn’t realized I’m in here.
Yeah. Please, just let that be the case.
“I already know you’re in there. You’d best open the door quietly.”
“...”
“I already asked Lady Ophelia, the dorm supervisor. You don’t have any classes scheduled today, do you?”
“...”
This is some next-level stalking.
Then I’d better think of another way...
“Fine. So you’re planning to ignore me to the very end.”
From beyond the dorm-room door came a sentence laced with a sigh.
“Then I’ll cut my way in.”
What a lunatic.
Before I could even voice that thought, a pitch-black sword that seemed to devour all the light around it stabbed through the door to my private room.
The dormitories at the Imperial Academy Elphante are designed to keep the students inside safe even if a large, enraged monster goes on a rampage.
At the very least, that means it isn’t easy for a human to break one down.
Which means the young lady who cut her way in as if the door were made of cardboard is fucking terrifying.
“...Isn’t this against the school rules?”
“The student council carries out disciplinary procedures for violations of school rules. As it happens, I’m currently serving as student council president.”
In a flat, toneless voice, the other person blithely announced that she intended to abuse her authority.
The black longsword is carefully sheathed. Its scabbard is as black as her outfit.
Though she was dressed in black from head to toe, her exposed face was terrifyingly pale. As if that intense contrast weren’t enough, she had vivid red eyes and snow-white hair that fell to her back.
And holding all those striking features together in perfect harmony was her distinctive ‘aristocratic’ air.
A distinctive appearance that had stayed in my memory.
No, there was no way I could forget it.
“I came because I have something to say. Haven’t you been avoiding me lately?”
“...”
"Roughly... 32 times, was it?"
"...Why are you counting every single time?"
Though I answer curtly, I gather and sort through the information bubbling up in my head.
Elphante Academy’s student council president, Elnore.
Gifted in every respect—brains, beauty, and martial prowess. She’s also the young lady of House Tristan, and one of the academy’s most popular students across all grades.
She was born to shine. No matter how you looked at it, someone like me, an unremarkable freshman, had no reason to cross paths with her.
That is, things should have gone that way.
“...”
In the first place, she’s someone I’d be much better off never getting involved with.
A few more images spill through my mind.
Several illustrations and CGs I’d seen in the ‘original.’
Elnore covered in blood. Elnore swinging a black longsword and piling up mountains of corpses. Elnore, her red eyes gleaming ominously, commanding legions of demons and monsters.
And so on. And so on.
What was certain was that, no matter how you looked at her, she radiated the same impression.
‘A terrifyingly evil person.’
Right, let’s not beat around the bush.
This woman is the ‘final boss’ of the world of Sera. If the protagonist doesn’t stop her, she’ll eventually plunge the entire world into a raging inferno.
Someone who should have only ever brushed past an extra like me without so much as a second glance.
“You know very well why I’ve come all this way.”
But by then, everything was already too late.
The beats of a butterfly’s wings had piled one atop another, bringing about the situation I now faced.
Her red eyes pin me with a cold stare. Her hand tightens around the hilt of the black longsword once more.
The oppressive air around her grows even heavier.
And then her lips part again.
“Tell me, Dowd Campbell.”
She unleashes the ‘storm’ created by the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings.
“Would you marry me?”
“...”
Seriously.
I clutch my head, dizzy from hearing a sentence that still doesn’t feel real, no matter how many times I hear it.
Dowd Campbell.
Heir to a backwater barony so obscure it barely registers. A freshman at the academy. The lowest-tier extra in this world.
That man was now...
being proposed to by a woman who would destroy the world in just a few years.
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