Chapter 115
"How... can this be?"
A mere mass of magic with such tremendous penetrating power that even after destroying the barrier and the separate tower, it wasn't considered to have hit its target. It had been blown away before it could even serve its intended function as a spell. The king stared at it, mouth agape, speechless.
"Kururu!"
With the separate tower destroyed, its upper section collapsed, and Kururu's body was flung into the air along with the rubble. The moment Kagami saw her, he rushed out of the throne room and raced toward her, using the falling debris as footholds.
"K-Kagami-san?"
"Hey, you're awake? I came to save you."
She didn't know what had happened. But she knew he had come to save her. She had heard it clearly, even as her consciousness faded: Kagami's voice.
"I... tried hard too, you know?"
Kururu said this with a faint smile, though her body had only just been freed from the brainwashing and she couldn't muster any strength.
Normally, Kururu's brainwashing should have been complete long ago. But her fierce determination not to let the king erase those memories had delayed its completion.
The brief days she'd spent with Kagami and Alice, and the little she'd come to know during them, had become precious to her.
"Yeah, you did great. Thanks to you, I made it in time."
Kagami said this as he caught Kururu in his arms. Then he gave her his usual smile, as if he hadn't been through any hardship at all.
But even if his expression was unchanged, he couldn't hide how battered he was. He was covered in blood and wounds, yet he still smiled for her like this.
It was too much for Kururu to bear, and tears welled in her eyes.
"I could hear your voice, you know?"
At the same time, she remembered the voice she'd clearly heard as her consciousness gradually faded under the king's brainwashing.
'Rex... Kururu! I'm here to... whisk you both away!'
Quite a while had passed since she'd heard that voice. He must have pushed himself this far for her. Realizing that, Kururu burst into tears in Kagami's arms, letting all her emotions spill out.
"Why are you suddenly crying? You're safe now, so don't cry."
"I'm crying because I'm happy! Why would you do something so reckless? What if you died?!"
"Obviously, because I don't want to regret losing a precious companion, right?"
Hearing him say that so directly, Kururu blinked in surprise, her cheeks flushing.
"By the way, Kururu-tan, I have a favor to ask."
"W-what is it?"
"I managed to get us this far, but... the effect of my Limit Break just wore off."
"Huh?"
"...Hehe."
"No! You can't just go 'hehe'!"
Though she spoke angrily, tears still in her eyes, Kururu was smiling.
He'd made her cry tears of joy, then blush, and now he had her turning pale and panicking.
She felt that there was probably only one person in the world who could draw out so many different emotions in such a short time. Wanting to stay with Kagami forever, Kururu and Kagami kept bickering as they fell, trying somehow to land safely.
"How... can this be possible?"
Meanwhile, as the king watched his daughter fall, cradled in Kagami's arms, he muttered to himself and began to question his own will and convictions. Was he wrong?
'It seems... it is possible after all. That villager has surprised me again.'
"You..."
A voice rang out directly in the king's mind. He looked around to see what had happened and found a demon standing there—someone who hadn't been there a moment ago. But the king knew who he was, because he occupied the same position as the king himself.
'Our way of thinking isn't wrong. Nor is the system itself something we should resist.'
"Then... I still cannot accept that man's words."
'You don't have to accept them. But it is also true that his value is immeasurable.'
Hearing this, the king fell silent. He had already begun to think so himself.
'Wouldn't it be worth taking a chance on him? At least until he fails, I think his wish is worth granting. That's what I thought.'
"...A deal, then. Indeed... there's no harm in betting on his efforts."
The king recalled what Kagami had said. By overturning one of this world's conventions, Kagami could become the warrior they wanted him to be.
And the question of whether Kagami was worth that much had already been answered.
That meant the decision he had to make was already settled in the king's mind.