Chapter 0
“…Haru, please.”
A blade wreathed in snow-white flames was aimed straight at me.
Beyond it, my longtime childhood friend seemed about to say something.
Seventeen years. It had already been seventeen years since I transmigrated into the role of the protagonist’s childhood friend in this damned world—a protagonist saddled with a damned fate.
My past life had grown so hazy that I could barely remember it, and even after transmigrating, I had endured countless twists and turns.
Honestly, it had been a grueling life—enough to make me want to give up and collapse more than once along the way.
But this was a story from a novel, after all. I held on, believing that, at the very end, a happy ending awaited everyone.
And this was the result.
Apparently, that happy ending for everyone did not include one poor girl who had been fated to die anyway.
“It didn’t have to come to this.”
Rex asked, his voice trembling.
The tip of the blade wrapped in snow-white flames trembled as well.
“No.”
I shook my head and spoke calmly.
“It has to be done.”
“…Haru.”
“If it weren’t for that person, I would have died. That person is more precious to me than anything in the world.”
“….”
“This is mine to deal with, and no one else’s. It’s my one and only lingering regret—something only I can resolve.”
…It was a lie.
There was no way I had only one lingering regret.
Right before me stood a lingering regret named Rex, plain as day.
Seventeen years ago, when I deliberately hurled cruel words at my childhood friend that I never meant.
That I was sorry for what I’d said. That I’d had my reasons. That I hadn’t meant any of it.
I wanted to say it to Rex myself.
“Please. I don’t want to cut you down.”
“What a coincidence?”
I asked, shrugging as I pretended to be nonchalant.
“Same here.”
“….”
Rex bit his lip in silence.
“…Come to think of it, are you the First Seat of Rounds now?”
I said, deliberately adopting a cheeky air.
“Interesting. Aren’t you curious which of the two is stronger—the current First Seat of Rounds or the disciple of the former Second Seat?”
“…Are you serious?”
“That’s what everyone in the world thinks.”
Rex muttered, looking as though tears might spill, but I pretended not to care and leveled my blade in Rex’s direction.
You know, Rex?
My true feelings were the same fifteen years ago as they are now.
I don’t want someone like me to hurt you.
That alone is enough for me.
Perhaps that was the sole reason a girl fated to die before turning fifteen had clung stubbornly to life for seventeen years.
──CLANG!!
The white and red blades collided, and the earth itself turned upside down.