A Road with No End in Sight (8)

"Hey... what about Kagami-san? Where did Kagami-san go?"

"Kagami...? Hmm, I feel like I've heard that name somewhere... I don't remember."

From the smile on Kurusu's face as he answered, it was obvious he was pretending to have forgotten. Alice puffed out her cheeks, looking a little displeased.

As if to calm her down, Parna stepped forward and gave Alice a light pat on the head, then fixed Kurusu with a sharp glare.

"There should have been one Villager who came here before us... We're rare enough to be called hope, aren't we? Don't tell me you've forgotten one of us."

"Haha... I was joking. Don't glare at me like that. Scary, scary. Yes, of course I know. The Villager who came here exactly a year ago... The name was Kagami, if I recall."

"A year ago...? What are you talking about? Kagami disappeared from our side three years ago."

"Come to think of it, I haven't told you yet. Time passes differently on Earth and Earthclear."

"...Huh?"

At those utterly incomprehensible words, Parna looked bewildered and turned to Alice. Alice looked just as astonished and disbelieving as she turned to meet Parna's gaze.

"Time passes three times faster in Earthclear than it does on Earth... We residents of Earth can't afford to wait for the next hope to appear. That said, since your perceived passage of time is the same, I don't think it's really a problem."

"W-wait a second. Does that mean time is passing three times faster in Earthclear even as we're standing here?"

Kurusu answered Parna with a carefree smile. "Yes, that's right."

"That's one of the reasons people from Earthclear suffer bodily collapse when they come out to Earth. We administer drugs to adapt bodies that have grown three times faster to Earth. Oh, don't worry. Even if you live on Earth, you'll age at the same rate we do."

"I don't care about how old we are! ...No, I guess I do. If we want to go back to Earth, what do we do? If our bodies are adjusted to the passage of time here, won't something go wrong when we return?!"

"You can rest easy! I'll take responsibility for adjusting your bodies to Earthclear's passage of time and growth rate again. However... returning you will require another dose of a rare drug. Honestly, after using such a rare drug to summon you here, I can't just let you go back. Even if you do return... you'll have to do work commensurate with it."

Though Kurusu had said they could go back, it was clear he had no intention of letting them. Parna's expression twisted as she moved to confront him and give him a piece of her mind, but for some reason, Alice and Kururu eagerly pushed past her and rushed up to Kurusu—

"I-I mean, if only a year has passed here, Kagami-san is still 24, right? He was only 23 when he left us! I'm 21 now, so... we're only three years apart!"

"I-I used to think a ten-year age gap was fine... But now Kururu-san will approve, right? I'm 16, so a seven-year age gap in marriage is perfectly normal, right?"

"No, I won't."

"Huh...?"

Far from being worried about the difference in how time passed, the two had started talking with happy smiles. Their sudden conversation and questions left Kurusu sweating as he replied, "Well... I don't know."

Seeing the two of them weren't particularly bothered by the difference in how time passed, Parna realized she'd gotten worked up over it for nothing. She let out a weary sigh.

"Well, either way, I'm not going back without that Villager, so I'll hold off on complaining for now... Kuu-chan seems happy, too. Anyway, we got off track... What happened to that guy, Kagami?"

Then Parna tried to return to the main topic. But at her question, Kurusu let out a regretful sigh—

"The bloodstained hope. That's what I called him."

He murmured, his voice laden with emotion.

"The bloodstained hope?"

"Yes. The Earthclear device he was kept in was always stained red with his blood. ...It was a wonder he was even alive."

Without needing him to spell it out, everyone understood what that meant: the price Kagami had paid for reaching Level 999 despite being a Villager.

"I was really looking forward to his arrival. He actually made it here despite having the unfortunate role of Villager. Even if he got here by collecting 10,000 gold... no Villager, a person considered to have no aptitude for evolution, had ever made it here before."

Hearing that, everyone tilted their heads in confusion. It sounded as though Kagami hadn't reached this place through any exceptional feat of his own, but had simply come here by buying an item worth 10,000 gold.

"I had high hopes for him. Even though he was a Villager, an unfortunate existence, the fact that he'd made it here was undeniable. I thought he might have something that could change this unchanging world. But..."

"But what?"

"No... if you're curious about what happened to him, shouldn't you ask someone who actually fought by his side rather than me? I've told them to show you around this facility... and explain the current state of Earth. If you want to know, go ask them. I have other things to do, so I'll be going."

As he spoke, Kurusu snapped his fingers again, and a faintly glowing blue ring appeared beneath his feet. It rose and enveloped his body, and in the next instant, Kurusu had vanished from the spot.

Then everyone remembered how surprised Kurusu had looked when Takako had punched the ground to show them her Skill, and how he'd said he had never known anyone with more than three Skills.

"Does that man... not know Kagami-san's true strength?"