Chapter 39
There was a memory where even the concept had become blurred.
The villainess quietly furrowed her brow.
-Rather than shining, I wish you'd become a star that illuminates.
A wish she had cherished wholly in her childhood.
But was it because of the harsh life?
The world didn't leave her as just a young child, and the girl had to struggle through an intense daily life.
Just to survive.
In the end, she forgot.
Her pure heart had taken on a murky color before she knew it.
It was the process of becoming an adult.
'To protect the family from the elders... I must always show a venomous appearance.'
She hides her fragile true feelings.
So that others can't look down on her, she puts on an even more vicious shell.
The villainess painting pretense in her heart.
Because of that.
Sometimes she felt a sense of dissonance.
As if she had become a different person.
As if the self she had loved when she was young was being worn away uglily as she aged.
The villainess sometimes regretted the dawn.
'...I actually hated it.'
Forgetting her childhood.
Even though it was an inevitable process of becoming an adult, wasn't she parting with it too early?
There were painful days with such thoughts.
'But that was the best I could do.'
The girl forcibly erased herself.
She changed to survive.
The doll reflected beyond the mirror feels increasingly unfamiliar.
As the aspects of herself she had loved were torn away one by one, the villainess tried to fill that sense of loss with something else.
It was the recognition of others.
'A special person.'
She wanted to become a special person.
A brightly shining star.
The obsession had settled in as a fixation before she knew it.
The girl accepted that she had become an adult, and no longer felt pain in ruminating on her childhood.
She thought she had become numb like that.
"Run out the door right now."
Until these unimaginable words burst from her own mouth.
"I'll try to buy time here... At least you survive and get out."
"Y-Yes...?"
"I won't be able to hold out for long."
It was a simple change of heart.
-Emilia.
-You can forget everything else, but you must remember this one thing as you live.
Of all times, then.
Because a nostalgic voice lingered in her ear.
-Light... is only valuable when there are people to illuminate.
A situation facing death.
A forgotten phrase dyed her mind.
As if a life flashing before her eyes.
"It's okay."
She seemed to have been irritated.
Her own appearance terrified, the ugly trembling was pathetic.
She hated that.
"Because I'm a special person."
Perhaps even this was vanity.
If she survived this threshold of death, she thought she'd show off to that commoner.
Emilia kicked off the ground.
At the same time, she shot her spear with all her might.
Swish-!
The javelin charging at high speed.
The strike flying while drawing a blue line was soon blocked by writhing tentacles.
Then the monster's eyes fixed on the villainess.
<Aah... Uwaah?>
It groaned with its huge mouth open.
Hundreds of eyeballs stuck all over its body stared at one side in unison.
A scene without compare in grotesqueness.
For a moment she was dyed with fear, but she didn't stop.
She exploded mana even more fiercely, scattering killing intent around.
To surely draw the monster's attention.
Snowflakes flying through the air.
Following the pure white afterimages, a cutting wind whirled.
<Ugh, aah...!>
Sharp ice fragments struck the monster.
Perhaps surprised by the sudden prey's resistance, it reacted by swinging its tentacles in all directions.
Soon a roar of anger rang out.
<Wuaaaah!!>
A scream as if tearing eardrums.
Right after the unpleasant noise, the monster extended its tentacles towards Emilia as if annoyed.
It seemed quite angered.
The villainess hurriedly deployed magic.
Crack, crackle-!
The small snowflakes clumped together to form a large shield.
It collided with the rapidly surging tentacles.
Rumble-!
Perhaps because she poured in all her remaining mana.
Though it was a somewhat hastily made defense, it was barely holding up.
Successive impacts struck the shield.
The girl clenched her teeth and exerted force at her fingertips.
"Ugh...!"
It was a terrible test of strength.
A fight mismatched in weight class. But Emilia resisted while utilizing her technique to the extreme.
Crunch, crack-!
The flow of mana was finely adjusted.
The array tightly wove together.
These details condensed the cold air and formed a density comparable to steel.
Control surpassing limits.
"Just a little more...!"
An untimely winter wind gathered.
In the whirling storm, the girl was glaring with only obsession.
Her blue eyes wavering with light.
Boom! Rumble-!
The laboratory resonated each time the tentacles collided.
The intense bursting sound made one feel dejected.
Though she was doing her best, this too was ultimately just buying time.
Cracks gradually formed in the shield.
<Kiaaaaaah!!!>
The monster let out a screech like never before.
Feeling the maintaining power dropping gradually, Emilia muttered softly.
'But at this level... Wasn't it enough?'
The time the girl had bought was a full 21 seconds.
This much should have been enough time for Regia to escape the laboratory and more.
'I tried my best, I think.'
The villainess hadn't liked the protagonist from the start.
A commoner entering with excellent grades, someone with talent that shone brighter than herself.
It was hard to acknowledge that fact.
Perhaps it was jealousy.
Still.
In the end, she had won.
Though she had fled and wasn't here, she herself remained alone, shining until the end.
A star floating loftily.
She chewed over a meaningless mental victory.
"Because I'm a special person."
As she was putting strength into her shield once more like that.
"Lady!"
Boom-!
A fireball flying from somewhere struck the monster's face.
The tentacles hesitated at the unexpected surprise attack.
"Ugh...!"
Emilia barely restored her shield.
When she turned her head to look, there was a pink-haired girl.
"You...?"
"Lady!!"
Green eyes wavering.
The villainess who discovered the protagonist cried out in shock.
"Commoner?! Why are you still here!"
"How could I leave Lady alone!"
"I clearly told you to run away, you fool...!"
Though she opened her mouth as if to rebuke, she soon realized it wasn't the situation for that.
Because tentacles were flying from right above.
Rumble-!
A heavy impact landed.
As she was adjusting her disturbed mana, she saw Regia kneeling right beside her.
She placed both hands on the ground.
She spread mana on the floor as if drawing a picture.
The girl shouted.
"I'll summon Efri! I'm sure I can buy enough time for both of us to escape!"
"Weren't you unable to use summoning magic when scared...?!"
"That's why! I'll keep trying until it works!"
"Are you crazy?!"
"There's no other way!!"
It was a dangerous strategy.
Because summoning magic consumed a large amount of mana just by attempting it, Regia could collapse from mana exhaustion first if not careful.
To gamble like this in a situation where even the shield could break at any moment.
But.
For the current situation, it was also the most promising hope to try.
If she succeeded in summoning the wyvern, it could open a path with its characteristic overwhelming force.
In short, it was an all-or-nothing situation.
"This is really driving me crazy...!"
Emilia furrowed her brow.
There were no other options.
The villainess finally nodded, deciding to believe in the protagonist's potential.
Blue mana rippled in all directions.
"The shield will last 1 minute at most! You must succeed within that time...!"
Snowflakes spreading in all directions.
In such a scene, the two were facing the monster.
***
Meanwhile.
Slit eyes melted in darkness.
What shone beyond the thick shadow curtain was the sight of children engaged in a fierce struggle.
I was watching all the scenes.
"Hmm."
I who had been quietly letting out a sigh soon muttered a word.
It was a reaction soaked in surprise.
"Unexpected."
The blue-haired girl.
My eyes were fixed on the villainess enduring the monster's attacks.
"I didn't expect at all... That she would choose sacrifice there."
Originally it was a stage for Regia.
I had thought to accumulate experience points while facing a terrifying enemy, and draw out the signs of awakening.
In a word, a growth event.
I even pretended to be dead on purpose to create an extreme situation.
I had even planted safety devices in case of possible injuries, so I thought I could just quietly watch now.
"It completely missed the intention."
The development flowed in an unexpected direction.
At its center stood Emilia Beniti, the villainous young lady who had terribly tormented Regia in the original work.
She stepped forward, volunteering as bait.
-Run out the door right now.
Honestly, I hadn't had any expectations.
Even if there were hidden circumstances, she was still a villain who pushed the protagonist to the edge of a cliff for now.
I thought there would be a set fate.
Therefore.
Though I had intended to pass her as long as she didn't stab Regia in the back.
In reality, Emilia showed even more potential than that.
-I'll try to buy time here... At least you survive and get out.
I remember the pupils that shone brilliantly for a moment.
Eyes sparkling like stars. Pitiful in the face of death, but simultaneously unyielding enough to not break.
A resolution that made one's skin crawl.
This time it wasn't just vanity.
It was nobility breaking a set fate and advancing towards a new path.
I had faced her 1943 times in my previous life, but this life was the only one showing such a dramatic reformation.
She seemed to be saying proudly.
-Because I'm a special person.
That she was a being that could change.
Don't arbitrarily define her future, existence, character.
"You've proven it."
I had to acknowledge it.
The vain one who had craved praise in a world where only she lived had now learned to care for others and be together.
She was no longer alone in the stars.
"I praise you, this time it will be of use."
A vague smile flowed across my lips.
Shaking off the lingering aftereffects, I focused again on the scene unfolding before my eyes.
"Well... It seems the boss strategy isn't going well though."
Before I knew it, 10 minutes had passed since the battle started.
The children who seemed to be barely holding on at first now appeared to have completely lost hope.
The two people's gamble had failed.
Regia, who had tried summoning forcefully several times, finally lost consciousness, perhaps from mana exhaustion.
Emilia was sitting blankly.
The unconscious protagonist was cradled in the villainess's arms.
"I wonder if they've given up."
In fact, it was natural for those two to lose.
Even if the summoning had succeeded, the result would probably have been the same.
From the start, this stage was an event where defeat was inevitable unless cheats were used.
[EP5. Midterm Exam]
-Abandoned Laboratory, Monsters That Can't Laugh-
Boss monster, the monster that can't laugh.
This guy was set to be impossible to catch in the early stages.
It's easier to think of it as a typical forced failure event that appears occasionally in many games.
"It was close to being a stepping stone towards the next episode."
In the original work, Regia is defeated too.
The monster binds the protagonist with its tentacles and drags her to an unknown place.
Kidnapping the player.
The episode that follows is.
[EP6. Bergen Belzen]
-Lost Girl, Monsters That Can't Cry-
Originally both episodes were parts showing the viciousness of the black magician group called 'Baob'.
But this time it was going to be a little different.
"It seems about time I should step in."
Black magicians tormenting the protagonist's group is a sufficiently cliché development, right?
So, sometimes it might be good to go the opposite way.
I smiled lecherously.
"Huhu."
Shadows gathering around.
I took steps towards the outside scenery.
***
"...So it ends up like this after all."
Emilia muttered blankly.
She was kneeling on the floor, waiting for death slowly approaching.
The shield above her head was full of cracks.
"How empty."
A voice reciting calmly.
The unconscious protagonist lay in the villainess's arms.
Emilia needlessly stroked the pink hair.
The warm body temperature touching her fingertips felt especially thin. Because it made her feel alive.
It seemed she wouldn't be able to be detached from the ending soon to come.
Thump thump thump thump-!
Though she was pretending to be composed, she couldn't deceive even her pounding heartbeat.
Her heart beat rapidly as if about to burst.
'...I'm scared after all.'
Though it was a result she had chosen herself, tears kept flowing.
She bit her lip tightly.
Rumble-! Boom-!
The cracks in the shield gradually grew larger.
Tentacles visible through the split gaps. They were full of will to tear apart their prey at any moment.
Emilia smiled faintly.
'I didn't know I'd die like this.'
It was only regret.
The days she had struggled desperately to survive brushed by.
Life was this empty.
'I'm sorry, Rusca.'
Though she had wanted to be by his side as his only family, in the end she was meeting her end first.
If he remained alone, the family elders wouldn't leave him be.
She had been an insufficient sister in many ways.
Hot tears fell down her cheeks.
<Kiaaaaaah!!>
Crash-!!
The shield finally shattered.
The monster's form was revealed through the ice fragments. It was smiling with its hideous mouth open.
The tentacles writhed entangled grotesquely.
God is truly cruel.
Truth, revenge, happiness, success, love... She hadn't achieved any of them.
To take her breath at the most miserable moment.
"It's regrettable."
She still hadn't uncovered the truth about her parents' deaths.
She hadn't taken revenge on the detestable family elders.
Rusca who had a fiancée. She wouldn't even see her brother's wedding.
She hadn't achieved her dream of becoming the empire's best ice magician.
"Love that I had only seen in books... I wanted to experience it someday too."
She only recited bitter lamentations.
The villainess carefully laid down the protagonist's body she had been holding in her arms.
Then she stood up alone.
"...I guess I should have lived a little more kindly."
It was the reminiscence of a death row inmate facing execution.
In the girl's hand was a blue spear. It was ice carved with her last strength.
Perhaps because the output was lacking, it had a crude form.
Of course, that was enough.
The girl moved her trembling arm and aimed the spear tip at the monster.
If it was a future to be shattered swept away by fate anyway.
She intended to fight to the end in this damned tragedy.
"Haa, haa..."
As she was catching her tired breath, suddenly dozens of tentacles flew quickly.
Huge whips fell towards her head.
Emilia gently closed her eyelids.
'...I hope it doesn't hurt too much.'
While holding such a vague wish.
The rushing ending brushed by like a play. Just before the tentacles pounced on the girls.
Right then.
Slash-!
A clean cutting sound stimulating the ears.
When she opened her eyes to that, fragments of tentacles floating in the air came into view.
They all looked sliced into small pieces.
"...?"
As she was staring at the surreal scene in a daze, a familiar voice was heard.
Black shadows scattered before her eyes.
"My, my... This is truly a moment of crisis."
A shadow suddenly standing behind her.
As if making an affectionate gesture, it had placed its chin on the girl's shoulder.
Deep golden hair flickered in her vision.
"Lady."
What she saw when she turned her head was none other than the snake.
The boy, who had appeared from who knows where, was leaning on the villainess with a lecherous smile.
A wicked whisper dyed her earlobe.
It was a breath that made one feel dazed just from hearing it.
"Do you need power?"
The snake flicking its tongue.
Emilia stared at the slit eyes while frozen.
Through the slightly parted gap, white pupils she had never seen before were looking at her.
A sticky sense of discomfort brushed her neck.
"I think I can help you."
The corners of his eyes smiling brightly.
Were shining more dangerously than any tragedy.